March 25, 2013

hey mom!

well sounds like things are pretty good! that´s cool that karen and rhett are coming, i imagine their kids are super big now too so that´ll be a shock the next time i see them. i´m sure all the adults will be the same, but the kids are gonna be completely new people! i´m pumped for lyce too, i´m sure she´s probably huge by now too haha. that is a cool experience from chip. we actually had a visit from a general authority this week too which i will share a little more about later :) and tell karissa that she has to do every senior thing she can, cause she´ll never get to do it again. i look back and realize i could have had so much more fun as a senior. tell her just to absorb it all or else she´ll regret it. but does that mean he´s leaving before school is even out? that´s super weird. and that´s cool you guys got to go speak at the developmental center. i´ve been there a few times, and it is a cool place. definitely not the same sacrament meeting, but i always enjoyed it :)

so like i was saying this week we had a visit from a general authority, elder kevin r duncan came, i think he´s a 70? and like the area president or something like that? but we had a super cool meeting with him. we had to be there at about 8 30 in the morning and we didn´t leave til about 4, but i really liked it. he took some time at the beginning with just the district and zone leaders and talked about really "owning" your district and making sure you really know everyone. he shared some cool stats too, something like every 1 in 20 converts said that they had a spiritual experience with the book of mormon before getting baptized, and 90% of them stayed active. it made me think of my converts and it´s pretty true. the ones that have stayed the most active had that experience or one with the prophet. course i do have one that´s part of the other 10%, but he was just stressing the importance of the book of mormon and how it assures that they stay active. then he talked with everyone, and even though it was a meeting of like 7 hours it went by super fast. he shared things like teaching the blessings instead of the things we have to do, trying to create the perfect lesson, and then gave us three new "laws," that one, we can´t knock doors, and two, we can´t ask for references, and three, we can´t baptize, or we can´t perform the baptism. they sounded a little crazy, but he explained and it made a lot of sense. it made me realize how many things i still have to work on haha. i know i´ve grown and learned a lot, but i´ve still got a long ways to go :)

we were also blessed to have a baptism on saturday, and it was super cool. we combined with the other zone so we had 10 that night, and it was awesome. there were tons of people there and everyone loved it. so we´ve been teaching marilyn, but her parents have been kinda against it all. she said she was sad cause she feels her family doesn´t support her in anything, so my comp really wanted that her parents went to the baptism. so he talked to her mother once, and she just straight up said she doesn´t like our religion, but that she would go. so sure enough her and her husband went, and ended up really liking it. they really liked the words that were shared, the hymns that were sung, and thanked us a lot because we helped out their daughter so much. so we´re pretty pumped for that cause we think that we´ll finally be able to talk with them and maybe help the whole family get baptized! marilyn just loved it too, she just kept saying how good she felt and how she couldn´t describe it and it was just awesome. she´s super loved in the ward too, so she´s super solid :)

we had a super good day yesterday too. it was ward conference so a ton of people came, even a lot of less actives with a few investigators. it was a good meeting, and we talked with a few members after and they said how much they liked it cause there was just a different feeling during the whole block and they liked it. it was true though, everyone was just happy, and we went and saw a few of the people that came and they seem pretty positive too. but then we had a kind of weird experience. so a less active guy came, and he was saying how he wants to change his life and come back to the church, and he asked us to give him a blessing. so we did that, and it was a super good blessing, he started crying after and it was awesome. but then he wanted us to come and bless his house in the afternoon. so we went, and he just really wanted us to bless his house so we just did it. i was the one that did it, and for whatever reason, right as i started praying i just started sweating profusely. it was weird though cause it really wasn´t hot at all, but i didn´t think anything of it. right as i stopped praying though, i stopped sweating too, it was weird. we had 2 deacons with us too, and we started talking about it, and they said they both started sweating and the same thing happened, and that they felt like something was pushing them super hard from behind. i really don´t know what it was, but i´m leaning towards whatever evil spirit was there was mad that we were praying, and maybe a similar thing happened like the thing that happened to joseph smith when he prayed the first time and he said he felt something, a being from the unseen world, and so the spirit was mad, but we prayed and now the house is good. we´re going back in a few days so we´ll see how it turns out :)

but that´s about how my week went. we´re super pumped cause we had a baptism, and we should have more this weekend. we´re working hard, things are pretty good. thanks again for everything, i hope you have an awesome week!

much love,

elder paskett

March 19, 2013

hey mom!

no pretty sure they don´t celebrate that one, i didn´t even realize it was st patrick´s day until the day after when another elder mentioned it. i have a green bag though so i would have been safe anyway :) and yeah just a few weeks ago we started a little english class, it´s alright i guess. i´m definitely not a school teacher so i don´t know what to do or what to talk about, but it´s fun. there´s a few that come cause they really do want to learn and even speak ok, but then a few that come just cause other people go or cause i´m white haha. but we do get a few non-members coming so who knows, something might come from it :) and i did hear about the pope, and i guess one might think that everyone would take up a new desire to be catholic, but it didn´t really happen. i guess the rumor was was that he was gonna be black cause that was some prophecy, so when everyone saw he was white they probably just didn´t care haha, who knows? and yes actually this package did get here, and it was great! i fell in love with the watch haha. and getting new shirts made me realize that mine are actually not very white at all haha. and i listened to the tape, and i was gonna mention about taylor, it was funny listening to him :) and then the other biggest surprise was isaac! he doesn´t sound like a little kid anymore! haha i may have laughed just a little bit, it was awesome! :)

well, i´ve been thinking about what to write this week, cause it was a little interesting, and i don´t know if i´m exactly proud of it haha, not that it´s anything bad, more just a little embarrassing. but i guess i´ll give it to you...:)

so, on saturday there was a baptism in the zone, and we decided to take marilyn, this girl that we had contacted and is super positive. so anyway we went and it was really cool. she loved it, and even cried a little bit. she kinda has a hard family life and is worried that no one will come from her family to her baptism to support her, so she´s a little sad, but really likes everything and is progressing well. so that was saturday in the morning, and that afternoon she came to our english class, but here´s where it gets interesting. so she got up and walked out, and then a few minutes my comp did the same, i didn´t really think anything of it cause there were other members in the church, but a few minutes later i decided i should go look for him, and so i left and found them two in this classroom talking. i told them that more or less they couldn´t do that, and my comp got kinda mad and i guess she felt super bad about it, she was just like i´m sorry i didn´t know i just had to tell him something, so we went back to the class and finished and everything, but after she was still bummed, so we went to talk to her, and my comp basically started the little chat with the question "elder paskett, what would you do if marilyn felt something for me?" i was just like i can´t answer that, and i think she should explain what´s going on first. so she was just like "ok look, elder paskett, i feel something for you, yeah?" and it just completely caught me off guard. i had no idea what to do or say. it was pretty awkward. she assured us that she´s getting baptized really because she wants to and feels that it´s right, and that this feeling came after, but it came. long story short she ended up just leaving before i could say anything, and when we went to get her for church the next morning it was even more awkward, and during church even more. i don´t know what to do. i tried talking with my ZL but he didn´t really have much advice for me either. it seems like it´s just a really fine line i´ve got to walk on now. needless to say we´re trying to make sure the members help us out even more, and she´s already made some really good friends in the ward, so we´ll see how it goes. i´m really not worried about me, i know i won´t do anything, but i´m more worried for her, cause she has progressed a ton and knows it´s true, so i don´t want her just to leave it. but yeah, i guess you can all decide when you see the picture of her baptism :)

and as you have probably noticed, we changed pday to today cause we wanted to go to the temple, and sad to say it, but this is the first time i´ve gone to the temple since the mtc! partly cause we couldn´t go when i was in david or in blas, so i have a little bit of an excuse, but it was kinda scary cause i didn´t hardly remember anything! plus it was in spanish so it was even more tough! but it went well. the temple here is pretty small, but super cool. i had forgotten a lot of things so it was good to go through again :)

the weather is slowly starting to change here, it´s rained probably twice in the last week, so that should mean the rainy season is coming up. i´m not really excited about that though. i think i´ve been pretty lucky in my mission cause i haven´t seen a lot of rain. in my first area it almost never rained, in david it did rain a little bit, but maybe only 3 or 4 times a week, and in blas it only rained at night so it was great. my last area rained just a little, and other than the last 2 times it´s rained it hasn´t for 2 months at least, so i consider myself fortunate :) i´m both excited and scared of the snow, cause i´m ready for some cold, but i think it might kill me haha.

well, i think that more or less sums this week up. we´re working hard, and i feel like we´ve got some really good investigators. we´ll be having a baptism this weekend so that´s always exciting. thanks again for the package, it was great, but super expensive! :) anyway i hope you have a great week, cuídense much, ¡hasta luego!

much love,

elder paskett

March 11, 2013

hey mom!

about the food, i know i get enough to eat cause i may be gaining a little weight haha. it`s cause we eat rice and chicken every day, almost without fail, so i put on weight. it`s dumb though, my comp eats like a pig and he stays skinny, then i try not to eat as much and i still get fat haha, oh well. i like the food now, or at least more than i did at the start. honestly i don`t know what i`m gonna eat when i get back home cause i won`t have rice or chicken haha. with daylight savings, we don`t do that here, we just stay the same. so does that mean you`re 2 hours behind me now? or one? lyce did send me an email about her blog, so i`ll check that out every once in awhile. it sounds like things could be worse at least. personally i`m excited. i know i don`t have to deal with them but it`ll be cool haha. dad mentioned my leaving date, to be completely honest, i keep coming back to october 24th. i still haven`t taken the decision yet, hermana ward said i still have a little time, so i`m still not sure and i`ll think about it some more, but honestly i`m leaning towards that right now.

well, this was a fairly interesting week down here. it started off well, we had a ton of investigators, almost too many that we didn`t know what to do with them, but about wednesday it all kinda went down hill. we went to visit one of our fechas, and we always teach her in a members house, so we went to the member`s house and she went over to get our investigator. she came back a few minutes later and apparently her boyfriend was over and when the member asked if she wanted to come talk to us, the boyfriend just was like "for what?" and i guess didn`t let her go. she`s been a little off and on with her boyfriend, like she likes the message and everything, but wants to move in with her boyfriend and doesn`t want to like leave him, so that was depressing. i thought she was pretty positive and was gonna get baptized, but at least in the near future no. then later that night we went to 2 other fechas, and that was a terrible visit too. the mom just flat out said that she doesn`t want to get baptized anymore and wouldn`t tell us why, and the dad just seemed to take it as a joke and won`t take it fullheartedly, so those 2 both fell too. that night i was just depressed. like i feel like we`re working so hard and doing all that we possibly can, but nothing is going right. ironically i shared this idea from a parable, in mark 4:26-29, and along with Jesus the Christ, it basically just talks about how the "missionary" can plant the seed, give it water, sunshine, take out weeds, do everything, but ultimately the growth of the seed is out of his control. he can leave to other business and do other work, and it can still grow, because it`s God that really makes the seed sprout. so i guess i just need to listen to my own teaching and what i read and trust in that God will do His part now that i`ve done mine, but it`s still tough. honestly sometimes i feel like i`ve worked super hard in my mission, i`ve been obedient, i`ve done what i`m supposed to, but i haven`t seen many fruits. maybe that`s just what i`ve been called to do, but it`s hard. i want to see fruits. and when people i`ve come to love tell me that they more or less don`t want these blessings, it hurts. but i`m trying to trust in God, i`ve done what i can.

so thursday after this rather depressing wednesday, we did have a cool experience. so we had a lot of free time cause a lot of people dropped us, and i decided we should start a little working closer to the church, so we went contacting for a little bit, and we ended up finding this 18 year old girl named marilyn. we had a super good lesson, and left behind a restoration pamphlet, and left. so on friday we had divisions, and we had a good day. i went to the other area and it was good. so i came back on saturday, and my comp told me about their day yesterday, and they went back to marilyn`s house, and the night before she had read the pamphlet and answered all the questions and did everything, and she prayed after and said she just felt something that was like "woooooo" or something like that haha. it makes a lot more sense saying it haha, but basically that was just her way of saying she felt the Spirit and knew it was true. she`s an awesome girl. it`s tough though cause she has a family that doesn`t really support her, and she often feels alone, so we`re gonna work with a few youth in the ward to get her involved in activites and stuff, so it should be good.

later that day i taught my first english class, and it was interesting haha. i`m not a teacher, and i didn`t know what to do, but it was fun. this member brought a ton of her non member friends and it was a fun class. they said they liked it, and that they were gonna bring another friend next time, so we`re gonna continue and i think we might see something from it. now i don`t know if they just go just cause i`m a "gringo" but oh well haha.

well i think that more or less sums it up for this week. it was a little slow and depressing and we lost a lot of really positive people, but we`ll keep plugging along. glad to hear as always that things are going well at home. the weather sounds nice too. down here the rainy season is starting to creep in, so i`m not too excited about that, but we`ll see how it goes :) hope you have a great week, and we`ll talk soon!

much love,

elder paskett

March 4, 2013

hey mom!

well speaking of the weather, the weather has been just awesome around here! this week was like heaven! it was cloudy almost all week, and pretty breezy too, and it´s rained a little bit too, but so lightly that you can barely tell, so it gets nice and cool. it´s been a nice alternative to a blazing sun so i´ve been content :) yeah i´ve really had no problems with my eyes so far, just this one thing. i got some drops and it´s fine now, and i´ll try to be a little more careful, but i´m not really worried. i´m sure i´m not changing them as often as i should, but i do have a ton left so i could probably start switching them a little more now. i´m on my last bottle of solution though so maybe i´ll have to buy some of that soon, but that shouldn´t be a problem. and honestly i don´t remember if i brought my retainer, but i guess if it´s not at home i must have but then lost it. maybe i´ll just need to search my bags a little more deeply, so i guess we´ll see.

as far as things are going with my comp, it´s so much better than last change. it´s harder to actually be working like we´re supposed to, but it´s more gratifying and i feel better. i´m just tired all the time though and i´m not really sure why. i mean we´re working and everything, but i´m just always exhausted for some reason. even when i wake up in the morning i´m just dead. but things are good. this week we tried to really work with the members and less actives, and so we did a little bit of running around trying to make it everywhere and getting to places on time, but it was good. we´ve actually got a lot of people to teach right now so it´s good. it´s a little hard cause our area is so big and we have to take buses to get to our investigators and then buses to come back then walk to our dinner 30 minutes away, so it´s tough, but what can ya do? we´re getting all kinds of references so i´m not complaining :)

one cool little thing happened this week that i wanted to share. so we were in a lesson and everything and we were talking about baptism right? so i was looking for this scripture to share, and as i was flipping around trying to find it when i came across these 2 verses, i read them but they weren´t exactly what i was looking for so i just continued searching when found what i was looking for. i shared it, and she kinda sat there thinking for a little, then asked this question, and whaddya know, those 2 verses i had just read answered it perfectly! it was kinda cool i thought. it ended up being a super good lesson. she´s just awesome cause she asks questions cause she actually wants to know, not just to test our knowledge or something, like sometimes people ask questions and you just know it has no purpose, but she really does want to know, and it´s fun teaching her cause she actually listens. we´re working to also get them married, and they want to so it´s just a matter of getting all the paperwork, which means more running around, but it´s worth it :)

the toughest thing about having so many people to teach that are positive is when they don´t come to church. i always sit in the doors waiting and waiting, and it´s such a bummer when no one comes. we would pass by for them, but they live far away so we have to depend on the members that live by them to take them. one guy did finally come yesterday though about 15 minutes late, and so that was good. he´s been an investigator for over a year now, and he hasn´t gone to church for months now, but we finally got him to go yesterday. we´ve had some pretty straightforward lessons with him, cause they´ve heard it all, but just can´t quite accept it. what he always says to us when we ask him to do something like go to church or read the scriptures is "Dios primero," and if finally just got to me and i didn´t want to hear it again haha. he´s someone that can take things as they are, so that´s just what i did. afterwards my comp was like "wow you got kinda mad in there" haha, but it´s not that i got mad, it´s just that he needed to hear it that way. and he came to church the next day so it seems like it worked? :)

really this was a pretty quiet week. we worked super hard, and i´m tired, but i feel good. i was gonna ask you something though. i know this is a very broad question, but what are some fun ward activities we could do? or like what are some fun activities that you´ve done at home? cause we got put in charge of planning one, but i don´t want it to be the same old thing. i mentioned sock wars, but i don´t think they really understood it and said it was too dangerous haha, but whatever. so maybe if you could think about that and let me know that would be great :) also, seeing as rice is such a popular thing down here, what was that thing i would always eat when you guys had haystacks? like rice and milk and cinnamon sugar or something? i´ve been sharing a few new things with my cook and i thought that would be easy enough to make so i may try it with them :) but i think that about sums it up. it was a good week, lots of hard work, so i´m happy :) thanks for everything again, you guys are awesome! hope you have an awesome week!

much love,

elder paskett