1/18/2011

How's is it going family?
Sounds like everything is really good, ha good to hear that basketball is still the center of the home. I would like to brag about scoring a goal this last week against some natives.... no big deal. Is Braiden feeling better? Dad I completely feel you on the 15 hour days of church stuff, it draining! I have never been so tired in my life but I'm always given spurts of energy when I need them. This last week we found a man that let us in and we taught him the first lesson and it was great, I didn't do too much talking that lesson but in the closing prayer, my companion said and I lost it and couldn't understand for a while so I got a little tired and fell asleep during the prayer! ha and when I heard amen in the distance I guess I sat up a little fast but I don't think they noticed... hopefully. Mom I love the food surprisingly, everything except the sausage, one of the members fed us this sausage and I couldn't get it down so I pointed off in the other direction and said when does the next colectivo come by there and stuck it in a napkin and in my pocket while they looked away, ya smooth I know. Our missionary food is so bad wish I could make flop-overs but they don't have tortillas. Ii will keep looking for them but I can't find them, they also don't have peanut butter. When I get a better feel for the diet I will tell you some of the stuff that would be useful. Thank you. I just don't want you to send anything cause it is so expensive... or you could pull the money out of my account to send it. It's so cool that everyone is finally going I felt like no one was ever going to follow me into the mission field.
This last week was very fast! Time is flying and I have only been here for about 3 weeks. but this last week we found a very promising family of 3 that was so interested and we are going back to teach the rest of lesson 1 we never got to finish. My companion is so good at teaching to the level of Paraguayans so people can understand. I catch myself using words like Atonement and priesthood and I have to explain myself. I'm learning a lot. Also Friday we decided to go work in a town about 2 hours away from our pension. We were walking and about 30 minutes from any civilization and we saw a shack and as we walked by, there was a handicapped woman in a wheelchair and the wheelchair said Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on it. The nearest thing for like 30 minutes was a 3 legged cow. It's amazing how the church is everywhere. I heard that they will probably be opening China up to missionaries and that most American missionaries will be called there? Oh ya and parents ha if I tell you things that are very scary dangerous or something that, don't call the mission cause they will get ticked at me for telling. I say that cause this week on the way home from that town it was getting dark and a drunk man was peeing in the road and as we passed he said stop and tried to grab us. He was way drunk so we were able to avoid him and take off, he tried to catch us but couldn't keep up, but the weirdest feeling came over me when I saw him, it wasn't really fear ether. I knew I would be alright type feeling... and heck even if I do die here I'm all good in the life after.
This last week there is this girl named Gisel, who is 15 years old that we have a baptismal date with her, and we were going over to teach her the plan of salvation and when we got there she was sick, really sick and she asked for a blessing. My comp turned to me and asked me if I wanted to do the sealing. I did the sealing for the girl's blessing for my first time in Spanish. I messed it up but got through it. It was such a spiritual moment, my comp gave the best blessing from what I understood but I know that she will follow through with her baptism. She asked to say the closing prayer! She got well enough to go to church this last Sunday. She's awesome! gotta go, the church is true and so far the biggest thing I have learned is to follow the feelings you have whether they be your thoughts or the spirit as long as you're doing what's right you can't go wrong! The church is true. Love you, Elder Shaw