3/15/2011

Dear familia,
Ya I get to write back this week its next week that I won't write until Thursday. This week was a week of patience and success at the same time. Sounds like everything is going well back at home. It is exciting that Tiffany and Tyler will get to find out what they are having. Tell grandpa and grandma hi for me. I feel like I have not seen them in a long time. Caleb! way to go on the basketball team with making the A team! dominate! What position are you playing? When is your first game? I still can't believe Jordan is coming to Paraguay! I asked around and my companion told me that the North Mission just got a President change so I don't know if the call he received will be the same President he is going to have the whole time. I sure Jordan's President will be a crazy or Russian or a native Paraguayan! I did find out that it is completely free to write to missionaries in the North mission and the letter arrives in like a week so I can write him.
But this last week was very very hot and we didn't have much success until Saturday but Saturday was one of the best days I have had in Paraguay! Saturday we did divisions with president Toralez and we visited a family trying to go apostate and had a really amazing lesson and at the end the husband said he wants to return to the church but they still need a little bit longer. We found out that their daughter is not baptized and said that they want her baptized so we are going to be working with her. Saturday night me and my companion were walking in a place called Buena Vista and felt that we should visit a house of an older investigator and found out that there is a member in the house. We stopped by and found that the old investigator whose name is Roke He had returned from Asuncion back to Ecarnacion in February. When he left we he was 2 weeks out from baptism and when he came back we have him planned for the 2 of April to be baptized. He is a stud and about the only person in Paraguay that place basketball (we invited him to play with us p-day but turns out he has kidney stone and couldn't play).

Last Saturday at like 8 o'clock we passed by an investigators house named Edgar Marcelo, we had not be able to get a hold of him the entire week and wanted to try one last time before Sunday. When we clapped the house he was there, he invited us in and brought out his Book of Mormon and sat us down and said sorry I haven't been here I went on a work trip with my brother but I took my book and read every night. One night my brother asked me what it was and I told him and he wants to come and learn! It was so cool, we taught him about keeping the Sabbath day and attending church and he promised to come to church. At the end of the lesson we had a kneeling prayer together and the spirit was so strong! Unfortunately the next day he didn't come to church but he is still amazing! We have to pass by and see what happened tomorrow.

At church we only had 25 people and no investigators... I don't know what happened. Everybdy is getting so close and ready for baptism with testimonies but they won't come to church! Only the branch president has a car in our rama and he can't leave to go pick people up.

This last week I have been working on gratitude. Every single week I pick a different attribute of Christ and work on it through the week. This last week was gratitude and I realized that although we didn't have one investigator in church but we had 25 bomb awesome member show up! I think what the lord is doing is putting all this success in front of us and then making us show gratitude before we will have any baptisms with them. We need to be grateful for what we have and not what we think we should of had. Also I'm still trying to dominate charity. This attribute is really hard. I think showing love to people that are close to me is really difficult for me, such as someone like my companion. He is bomb awesome and is leaving next week and I'm grateful for him even though we are not the same people! I'm going to work on that too.
I have one funny story Thursday we walked out to Predera Alta which is 2 hours away and during the middle of the day, it was so hot, I have never sweated so much and burned so badly! We stopped under some shade in the middle of nowhere to rest and it really was on a road with nothing in sight and a moto drove by with 2 guys. One jumped off while the moto was still going and ran in to the bushes next to us and did his business I guess. I don't know why he couldn't do it elsewhere. But when he was done he went to get back on the moto and his friend took off as he was climbing on a left him! He stopped look at us shrugged and walked off in to the sun after his friend on the moto. Then 15 seconds later another moto came by and I swear on everything I own that is was Micheal Jackson on this moto. I saw him good as he passed and I know it was him. He stopped picked up the man and took off. I'm not sure if I was delusional from the heat or what but it was weird!!

All is good and I hope everything there is going great! the book of Mormon is completely true and the church is even truer! I love to hear from you.

Elder Shaw