Mbaetiko!
This week was one of the craziest weeks I’ve had so far in Paraguay. I spent Monday and the majority of Tuesday in downtown Encarnacion with some other Elders because of transfers and people having to take a bus all the way to downtown and Elders needing companions and things such as that. It was kind of weird but a ton of fun, missionary life in downtown is way different than it is in Ita Paso. On Tuesday evening I met my new companion, Elder Dorotheo! He was born in the Philippines but moved to California when he was 5. We have had a lot of funny interactions with members and investigators this week because he has them guess where he is from. His Spanish is really good, so a lot of people think he is from Chile or Peru. But he looks South East Asian enough that a lot of people think he is from Korea. When he eventually tells them that he is Filipino, they say, “The Philippines? Where is that?” It’s actually a great conversation starter and a good way to talk to people on the street.
This week was also very successful. Our first night together, we got home at around 8, and instead of just eating dinner and unpacking, we decided to visit Juan Carlos and his family before we had to be in the house. In that lesson we taught his mother and invited her to be baptized, and she accepted! It was crazy to see her transformation when I first met her, where she was slightly cold and hesitant about the church. Now seeing the influence it has had on her son, she is ready to make the changes in her life to accept the gospel. We also set a date for Juan Carlos’s sister and her friend, which was also super cool. We also met a new family while we were out looking for some members. They said that they had met with the missionaries before, but due to the pandemic the missionaries had stopped coming. They let us come and teach them a lesson, and we taught them the restoration. After we finished teaching, we asked her what she should do if she came to find the truthfulness of what we taught her. She said, “Well, I would need to follow Christ, obey the commandments, and be baptized.” Right then and there we extended the invitation for her to be baptized, and she accepted! It was super cool. When we clapped at that door we thought it would be just another street contact, not an invitation to be baptized. The Lord is always willing to guide your paths, you just have to let him.
Seeing so many instances of people willing to accept the invitation to be baptized made me think of the scripture Moroni 10:32, which says:
Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.
When we are baptized, we are covenanting with the Lord that we will deny ourselves of all ungodliness, and take upon us the name of Christ. It’s very humbling for me to see people willing to make a change in their life and want to follow Christ. It’s not easy to do, but through the atonement of Christ all things are possible. I hope each of you can think of ways to deny yourselves of ungodliness and come unto Christ so that you can be perfected in him.
Jajo tapata!
