August 24, 2011 part 1

What’s up! Wow Tiffany is a mom, that is awesome! And Nicole and Devin are in town. Sorry Caleb i think i wrote last time thinking that you were in high school but now you’re top dog in middle school. What classes are you taking? This letter might be a little short cause my fingers hurt from being so cold. Here it is Alaska but even though it feels cold enough in Paraguay the snow doesn’t fall. I’m a little sick and cant talk well but this last week was a week of great success and the other way. We found a lot of great new people to teach and we are super excited to work with them. There is a minus active woman we found with 5 kids of the baptizing age! They all want to go to church. But the family that was going to get baptized this Saturday, she just found out that she doesn’t have legal papers so they have to get them which takes 3 months so they can’t get married which is a bummer. I have a story that actually brings me to tears because i was apart of it. roberto y nilsa, the couple that was going to get married, they came to church with a couple member called felipe y bernarda. They were their example and we always used them in lessons asking them and how has the gospel blessed your lives so that our investigators heard it from their friends. This last week we got a call at 5 in the morning from her asking us for money but couldn’t tell us why. We then called her back later that day to figure out if everything was all right and she said yes. Then Friday we called to ask if we could come over Saturday and she said yep come. Then Saturday president called us and said that bernarda the wife had taken off with one kid and all the money and left felipe at home with the rest. felipe came to church with our investigators. Later when we talked to him he started crying and was saying how he feels so bad for being a bad example for his friends that are investigating the church and he had talked to them telling them that they’ll be happy every thing will go well in their family. He completely forgot himself and his own problems that his wife had left him and worried about them and animated them for there marriage. He is going through a really hard time but still continues to fight for our investigators. This guy is a stud. You probably didn’t understand that or the situation completely but really this guy is amazing how he can completely forget himself and serve other. We still have two weeks left till the change. I’m not looking forward to it. I really would like to stay how we are. This area is amazing and i am learning a lot right now. I’m learning mostly about forgetting myself and trying to help and love my comp. I think he struggles a little with thinking about his home, which is hard on him, but he’s a great person. I never knew how to show the love i had for others before my mission and still am far from were i should be but its a lesson I’m learning. 
We struggled a little bit with getting people to church. I think it is for the rain, seeing as how Paraguayans are like a creature from the movie *bugs life* or *ants* that run from the raindrops because it will kill them. It’s really funny.
Oh and bad news the cd player you sent me broke.... doesn’t spin anymore. We are without tunes (motab)
love you thanks for the letters, they are always fun to read! Elder Shaw