4-9-2012

Happy Easter!!
Sounds like a awesome traditional Easter back home!, I always loved the huge chocolate Easter bunny when eating them with peanut butter! Speaking of peanut butter i will now be able to buy that in the store that is in my new area. It is huge this super store. In Pilar we had to buy our food out of despensas that was smaller then the scripture room. Yes i got a change.  I am no longer in Pilar. The new city that i am in is called Ita. I don’t know if president thinks i smell bad or if he trusts me being far away, but i am still not in Asuncion. I have been in every zone outside of Asuncion, which is very very weird. Ita is very beautiful. It is probably the richest area i have been in yet and more like a city. It is kind of like Encarnacion, my first area. It is really green and there are lots of trees everywhere. There are lots of busses and cars here with the rich people. The Catholic Church is very strong here compared to Pilar where almost everybody was Evangelical. I am again in a branch. I have only been in one ward in my whole mission. It has an existence of about 50 people but give us 3 months and it will be at 70!!!!!!!! My new comp`s name is Elder Merrill. He is from Utah, Longan i think. We are going to work very hard so he can stay focused and not get truncky cause he only has 5 more weeks in his mission.... ha ya. We really have to help this zone cause they struggle here and don’t baptize very much. We are trying to think of some things that we can do to help them out! This last week elder Merrill and I work aful!!!! and i have never had so many lessons in one week and so many new investigadores in one week. We almost had 60 lessons and 45 new investigadores.. But get this, the sad part is out of the many people that committed to go to church not one investigador went. My comp was telling me that this has been his hardest area to get people in church. But next week i know we will have a few news in church.  Elder merrill  and I get along very well. To describe him perfectly just think Gunner C. short, funny, outgoing, likes the same kind of music. Ha there are alot of very ignorant Catholics here that he likes to make fun of in the contacts, its very funny but we have to be careful not to burn bridges. 
Easter here is about 400 times bigger then there in the states cause every body has ``God on there lips`` :) so they try, but it is called the holy week here and Friday is a national holiday being the death of Christ. THERE WAS SO MUCH CHIPA!!! i don’t know if you remember the salty yellow biscuit looking thing Devin made for us in Pittsburgh that one time. It’s kind of like that but not so salty and with funny Paraguayan cheese.  The TVs only shows movies of Christ all week long! It was very easy to get in to a house to preach because the people accepted anything about Christ that is why we had some many new investigadores. Probably the biggest struggle here is going to be working with the members (i am all about working completely with the members) and the branch is spilt in two areas and there are 4 elders here and almost all the members live in the other area so we are going to have to be creative. We don’t have any baptisms in the near future but in a little yes or yes we will have some! I have found a new favorite chapter for now in the Book of Mormon. I have defiantly read over it before but for some reason in my personal study the other day the chapter really hit me hard. It is about Christ and his life and suffering for us and the charity that he had. It is very powerful scripture if you let it be. I love Christ and the lessons that he has taught me on my mission.  I know that he is molding me today so that tomorrow i can be a better person and better father. Its cool to see the changes in missionaries as you see them have more and more time in the mission. I am just very grateful that i lack a lot of time i love you all and family but I’m not ready to go home. Neither is my comp. I wont let him go so easy. He will be leaving out the door running! 
I know that Christ lives and that his hands are in everything. EVERYTHING is for our benefit even though we cant see it sometimes. I think as a missionary it made me see the good in alot of things. Yes dad. I am a diehard fan of soccer. I love it now. I want to play all the time. Sorry for never sending to many pictures. I am taking more then I send. But i can still take more. Ill do that. Its more the journal that has struggled.
elder shaw