Changes and a softened heart

I don't remember if I told you, but this past week was changes. I am staying in Emboscada but I have a new companion. His name is Elder Bustillos from Ecuador. He came with me to Paraguay so we have know each other for a long time. He is a good friend of mine. We get a long super well. I love hearing about Ecuador. It sounds like a very interesting place. I would love to visit there. I dont know if you knew, but they use the American Dollar there! so there is no money changing. We will have to see if the opportunity presents itself to travel there.

But this week really has been a good week. Familia Fleitas has a date for their wedçding the 27th of November and their Baptisim the 28th. They are super excited and super prepared. They love the Gospel and have felt the effects of the atonement in their lives. They are super prepared to take this step.

Nicanor and Reina are progressing well. We only go to Nueva Colombia once a week. But they too look like they will be baptized here pretty soon. They are praying to know when they should be baptized so we will we this next week what they say.

But this week we have been focusing a lot on contacting and we have gotten a range of rejections and invitations. It's always nice when someone accepts you into their home. We found a family called Familia Martinez. I'm not sure they will progress. They are "Catholic" but don't do much. But you never know we will see.

It always hurts when someone rejects you. This week we were talking with a lady in the park. She grilled us hard for like 15 minutes just saying that we were wasting our time and how there isn't a true church and if there was a true church young men wouldn't preach it. We tried all our tactics (I.E. asking questions, talking about the bible etc.)  but she wouldn't have any of it. She was just hard core. So after getting grilled for 15 minutes there was nothing we could do so we just testified. It was extremely powerful. I'm sure the  spirit was with us. After she apologized to us but she didn't want us to visit with her. I'm not sure if we won the battle but at least we changed her mind about us. After testifying she said she gained a lot of respect for us. So I think we did good.

Looking forward to working with my new companion and best friend!!  Also, Pictures to come next week :)

Elder Jared

The good news

Man this has been such a great week for me. I've just been super super happy this week. It's because of a series of things happened this week. Haha everything has just added up to being a great week for me!

So first thing first. You remember Nicanor and Reina right? They are a family that lives in Nueva Colombia that has been attending for the last month or so. Well I believe that I told you that Nueva Colombia is not in our mission, But Emboscada is the closest church for them. We have been working with President McMullin to get permision to enter to teach them. So for the past few weeks, President McMullin and the other mission president have been talking and this Tuesday they decided that we could enter to tech them! But we don't have permission to start tracting quite yet. But President McMullin is working on changing the boundries to include Nueva Colombia and an other district called Loma Grande. it might take a few more weeks but I'm super excited! It's always fun entering a new area! So exciting! So that made me really happy :)

In other good news, I don't know if I've told you about Familia Fleitas.. They are a part member family (2 kids are recent converts) Ceferino and Maria (The parents) would be baptized but there has been a huge confusion as to whether Ceferino is married to another woman or not. Honestly I don't understand but it has been a huge huge mess. They always go to church and really want to get baptized but can't because they aren't married. But supposedly by this Wednesday they will know for sure if Ceferino has to get divorced first, but its 90% probable that he doesn't! He just has to get married! They are supper supper excited for this. They have been waiting for nearly a year to get baptized. I am so excited for them! But we will see next week!!

So yea. Its been a really great week. :) We should have some baptisims coming up pretty soon now that we can teach Reina and Nicanor!

With all my love,
Elder Jared

Safe and sound

Hey everyone. I suppose your wondering why I am writing in a Tuesday instead of a Monday. It's really a long story so I'll summarize. But yesterday we had to go to Asuncion to pick up some stuff for the house and there is only one road that goes from Emboscada to Asuncion. We got to Asuncion just fine, did everything that we needed to do and were planning to go to a cyber in Limpio. But there was a strike and a protest and some people basically shut down the road. So we were stuck in Asuncion in a hot and sweaty bus for two hours. The worst part is we were next to a truck that was loading cows. Man it stunk so bad. But finally after two hours of waiting in the same spot we decided to walk. So we walked and walked for a long time until the road was oppened again. But at that time it was late and we had to go home and work. So we called our mission president and he said that we could do it today. I'm so lucky but I dont have that much time.

But there wasn't much progression this week. We found some people that are willing to listen to us but I'm not sure if they are willing to act. But we will see.

It looks like we are going to have a good November. We have investigators with dates but haven't been attending but say that they want to go. so that's good news.

I have to go now! President doesn't want us to loose too much time today so it had to be quick. 1 hour is all.

I'm safe and sound and happy!

Elder Jared

For the family

(This week Brandon sent a letter to the family only) -- but he did send the following pictures with this explanation:
For Pday, my district leader (Elder Damacen) plays rugby so he taught us how to tackle (safely) into matresses. It was really fun haha so that will explain a lot of the pictures this week.

Conference Weekend!

Man what a great weekend this was. So much excitement with the new apostles! We were all really really excited to see who was going to be the next Apostles. Man so amazing. I predicted Elder Rasband as an Apostle but the other two were wild cards, but their testimonies were so strong. So full of love for us and our Lord Jesus Christ. I received the confirmation that they were called to be the new apostles.

I really loved all the talks this weekend. So full of Wisdom and Guidance.I learned so much about to apply to myself and my investigators and Converts. I left my notebook at home so I'll just give a brief thought about the talks that really spoke to me.

I really loved Elder Utchdor'fs talk about simplicity. I really feel that as humans we just make things to complicated. It's a good thing to take a step back and look to see how we can Simplify things and make things better.

I loved Elder Nelson's story. It truely is heart breaking to see a family have three little ones die, but they died to see a Prophet of the Lord live. Such an amazing story.

I loved How Elder Oaks explained the atonement so clearly. It was clearer than the air we breath and if you ask me, The atonement is more needed that the air we breath...

I loved Elder Durrant's Challenge. I hope that you will take time each week to "Ponderize" a scripture. Or this week I am doing my missionary scripture which is 1 Nephi 13:37. I have it in English, Spanish and Portuguese to help me learn. I am really looking forward to this 20 year challenge :) I hope you guys keep me update on this challenge for you guys.

I love conference so much, as missionaries we call it a 3 day pday because its a time to recharge the Spiritual batteries and learn to apply the words of the prophets in our lives and the lives of those that we teach.

The week was pretty good. We got a lot of investigators to the conference. 6 actually!! and we had 10 of our 23 recent converts go! Most of the converts are in-active right now so 10 was a lot! I struggle with these converts because it makes me so sad that the don't remember the importance of the sacrament. We didn't find anyone new to teach this week it was a week of rejections. but that means that this week can only get better!

I don't know if I have talked about Reina and Nicanor... They live in Nueva Colombia (still talking with President about going there, there are a lot more hoops to jump through than we thought) Nicanor was scheduled to work this Sunday but he said that he couldn't go because he wanted to go to conference! And he went! haha they are progressing so much even though we really can't meet with them. They are reading and praying and of course attending!! It is so fantastic!!


Love you all

Elder Jared

Back behind the grill

Sorry fam, but we dont have to much time today. so this will be a a quick letter. But I did take the time to read all the letters. I hope you understand that I cant respond to all of them this week. We have had a crazy Pday and we only have an hour to do everything that we need.

We were able to see the Blood moon last night. It was really cool. Im not sure if its rare or something but it seems like a big deal. but I did take some pictures that I will have to send next week (due to time).

Know I know what you are thinking, Why was this Pday hectic? well to make things short, We decided to do an asado (Barbeque) with the other Elders, We all Pitched in like two bucks and It was enough to buy a lot of meat and Chorizo. Haha we were stuffed.... But it was fun for me to get behind the grill again. Its been a long long time since Ive been able to do that. I miss it. Haha But this week has been a great week for me. We did a lot of contacting and we have found some new people to teach. One we found yesterday. It was a small family sitting on the porch enjoying a little bit of a cooler afternoon and they invited us in. The name is Familia rios. And the moms husband died od cancer about 7 years ago. SoIn these seven years she has been struggling to find answers to her questions I.E Why would God let this happen to me? or Will I see him again? she had asked lots of Ministers and Preachers but she hasnt found anything that really satisfied her. Her son had resoved to Blame Adam and Eve. Because If they hadnt fallen, His dad wouldnt have died. So naturally we shared the Plan of Salvation. ANd It answered all of her questions and changed the miond of the Son. Everything was so so perfect untill they told us that they didnt live there. They lived in a nother city. It was hard because its a family... SO hard to let it go, but the other Elders will get a family so thats good for them.

We werent able to go to Nueava Colombia this week because the ZLs wanted to have divisions and set plans... so we are planning another time. We will see.

Well I gotta go, I love you all!!

Elder Jared

The Spring Heat

Well, today is the first day of the Paraguayan spring and what do we get? The sun. It has been Blazing hot the past few days. The members are telling us that its like 40 degrees out. Man its hard to walk in
the sun, but people always offer us water. So its easy to contact.  This week was another great week. Found a new family to teach and they were very very open to us and our message. SO that always makes a missionary happy. Finding a family that is willing to listen to the Gospel.

The Family that we found is actually 2 older Parents an an young adult. The Parents are named Christine and Rodolfo, and the young man who is about 20 is named Javier. We found them in an area that we
rarely go to. Just because there hasn't been a lot of people progressing in that area and it is far from where we usually work. So it was great to find them. They were convinced that God put us in
their path in their time of need. I'm convinced too. They readily accepted the Book of Mormon and were really prepared to receive the Gospel.

We also started teaching a new family. its a family of three and the wife is inactive and her husband and daughter aren't members. They actually live in a different city called Nueva Colombia (New Colombia)
which is not in our mission. But there isn't a church in Nueva Colombia and our branch president went and picked them up to come here in Emboscada. Also, we got permission to go to Nueva Colombia sometime in this upcoming week to see if there is anyone ready to hear the Gospel. WE are the closest missionaries to the city so we are planning to go see how it is. But back to the family. They also are ready to receive the blessings of the Gospel. We taught them after church and they accepted a baptismal date for the 24th. It will give them a lot of time to prepare and receive answers. The daughter named Reina (Queen) is really timid. She doesn't speak a lot. so we will see how that goes.

We weren't able to meet with Marta this week. So we are still waiting to see if she will progress.

So three good weeks in a row.. I am on a roll!! haha So this week is gonna be a good one!!

Siempre suyo or forever yours
Elder Jared