April 15, 2013

hey mom!

i`m glad to hear that maybe it was a hectic but exciting week. i`m pretty pumped for the jazz. i know i can`t really follow it like i would like to, but there`s a few elders here that are big lakers fans, so we go at it a little to see who`s gonna pull out haha. who woulda thought that the jazz and the lakers would ever be fighting for 8th place? haha so hopefully the jazz can pull it out! and tell lyce she just needs to hurry up and have these babies! i imagine she`s just huge by now! that`s good news on grandpa too, i`m happy everything is going well. i don`t have a lot of time right now, but i think at least when i`m done i`ll do better about emailing all the cousins, cause i`d like to know what`s going on.

well, we had a bit of an interesting week down here. i don`t know if i mentioned it, but when i got here the area was basically dead. they had no investigators and there hasn`t been a baptism here since january. add on top of that that for some reason my comp barely knows the area, and it`s a little tough. it`s almost like we`re opening an area. to be completely honest contacting or knocking on doors just isn`t a lot of fun, so we`ve been working with a lot of old investigators. like when i found out i was coming here a few elders that had been here before told me about a few people that they wanted me to visit. on thursday i think it was we had a good day. an elder that was here about 6 or 7 months ago came with his comp, who just happened to be elder clarke, and he showed us around and showed us where some good investigators were. so that was good, we actually have a lot of people right now, and ended the week with 4 baptismal dates, so it`s good. and it was just fun to hang out with elder clarke for a day. it`s always fun to talk about af and things that have gone on lately. i`m really hoping that we can be comps someday, i think even in my first change i mentioned it to president, and then this last tuesday we had a meeting with president and i told him again, so who knows, but i`m hoping haha. it`d just be fun cause i really think we would do a good job. we obviously had our little disagreements in the mtc when we were comps, but we did good at dealing with them, and i think that was part of the reason i really enjoyed the mtc. i think that`s one of the hardest things in the mission now, just having good communication with your comp. it seems to me that like 99% of the problems that happen would be fine if you just like talked about it, and so i`ve been trying to do better at that.

like i said i`ve already had a few problems with my comp, but i`m doing better at just talking with him and getting things resolved. we did have a little interaction though. so it was saturday, and we were supposed to meet up with the sisters to do a baptismal interview for them (my first one by the way! :) so we got there late and we were just waiting, when my comp decided he was hungry and wanted to buy something. i told him no cause i didn`t want the sisters to get there and we weren`t there, but he got mad and just left me anyway. i followed him, he bought his stuff, and on the way back i asked why he did that, and basically after a little discussion he gave me a pretty good slug in the shoulder. i didn`t do anything, but finally the sisters got there and we left and did the interview and it was fine. it was late then so we just ate dinner and went home, and then i had to talk to my comp. so i go in, and he was on his bed, so i sit down and we just started talking about what had happened earlier. it actually went pretty well. like i tried to go in with a calm mind, i shared this scripture, cause he`s kinda mad at me cause i want to be obedient but he`s had some lazy comps so he feels like it`s ok to not be, so i shared this scripture in D&C about how when we receive a blessing it`s because we obeyed the law on which the blessing is based, and so to me that also means that behind every law or commandment is a blessing, so i want to be obedient cause i know i get blessings, cause i can`t do this work without them. he took it all really well, and said he actually felt really bad for hitting me and it just bugged him the rest of the day. he expressed a desire for me to help him, since he is pretty new and i`m pretty old haha, so it was good. not to say he just changed over night and is exactly obedient, but it`s a step in the right direction. plus with all the people we have to teach we have to make sure we`re on the same page to help them the most we can.

there was also a first this week. on saturday at like 10 at night, the 3rd hour teacher called us and asked if we could give the lesson tomorrow. we said yes, but of course we didn`t have a manual, so we basically couldn`t prepare anything. but on sunday during the second hour i tried to read as much as i could, and it was a lesson on being faithful in the midst of trials and tests, and all in all i think it ended up going pretty well. it`s a subject i feel like i relate to, cause i can`t really say i had any huge trials before the mission, but it seems like my whole mission has been a trial, and i`ve had to do my best to stay faithful. so it was good cause i was able to share some good experiences, and i thought it was fine. i just say it was a first because no one has invited me to teach or talk without any time in advance. i would have thought that happened more, but it hasn`t haha. church is a lot different here. we just meet in a rented out like warehouse, and this area is a pretty poor one, and seeing how big it is, not a lot of people come to church. well i guess a decent amount does, but for the size of the area not really. there`s some really cool members here, and the bishop is really big on missionary work and wants to help us, so i`m really hopeful for this change.

well, i think that more or less sums up my week. we`re working hard, and should see some success so i`m pumped. it`s a big area, and super hilly, so i`m excited to lose some weight too haha. i hope everything goes well with lyce this week, as well with grandpa. and i hope everyone else has just an awesome week!

much love,

elder paskett

April 8, 2013

hey mom!

sounds like you guys had an awesome week! i would say a lot more exciting than mine! it made me trunky to hear that so many were there to watch conference! i guess it´s the same session down here, but it´s not really the same experience. and then to hear that there´s only 8 weeks of school too is crazy! i didn´t even realize it was that close! time really has flown by way fast! and speaking of time, officially i still haven´t decided, but i´m getting closer and closer to coming home on october 24th. i still haven´t told president, i think we have interviews next month so i´ll tell him then, but i´m really leaning to october right now. i don´t know, i would like to come home with elder clarke, but also be his comp, and it´s more likely that that would happen if i go home a change early. so i don´t know, i´ll still think about it, but that´s kinda where i´m at right now.

so yes i was able to watch conference this time, and it was really good! again it´s not really the same experience as it is at home, what with the food and candy and all, i´m actually a little tight on money right now cause i´ve had to pay for a few big things, so i wasn´t able to buy a bunch of junk food, so it just wasn´t the same haha. but i liked it. elder holland´s talk was awesome, as always right? i just like how straightforward he is, and he just has a power in his voice that´s just awesome. i also really enjoyed the priesthood session. one of the things that stood out to me the most was during president eyering´s talk. it really had nothing to do with what he was saying, but the thought just occured to me that it was interesting how this time last year i was just starting my mission in colón, and how i was super trunky and everything was super hard and i didn´t really like it, and how it seemed that every talk was especially for me in that moment. they talked a lot about family and missionary work and things like that, and it helped me out a ton. but how this year my needs have changed, i´ve got to worry about the missionaries in my district and my comp and i can focus on investigators more, and so as my needs have changed, it seemed the themes of the talks changed too. it made me think that God is aware of me, and aware of my challenges and problems in each moment, and offers me advice or counsel in each moment i need it, and it´s always different. i felt like this conference had a lot to do with what was happening right now in my life. it was really good :)

and so yes, i did have changes as well, and i am now in a place called san vicente. it´s really close to where i started my mission in buena vista, it´s like the area right next to it, but i´m in a different zone. it looks a lot like it though. this place is super hilly though! it´s crazy! it´s also super big. we have to walk a lot and take a lot of buses. it´s kind of a dead area, well not really dead, but the missionaries that were here last change didn´t do anything. one of them is my comp...his name is elder castillo, and he´s officially from costa rica, but his mom i think is from panama, and all of his family lives in this place called bocas del toro, so his family is like right here. it´s kind of a problem. we´ve already had a few tough times and we´ve only been together for 4 days. so seeing as how is family is right here in the country, it´s really easy for them to call eachother. so we come home on like friday, and there´s a few missed calls from someone, and it turns out to be from his house. so he just sits and talks to them, and finds out that his dad had an accident, and with his mom already being sick, he just got super trunky. he just went and layed on his bed, and was like crying and saying he wanted to go home cause it´s too hard and all this stuff. i tried to give him some advice and stuff, but honestly i think he was just trying to make a scene, cause after he goes and tells the ENTIRE world that he wants to go home, and he just always talks about negative things like that with everyone. it´s tough. as it has been with almost all of my comps, he has very little regard for the rules, and it´s hard. i just want someone that follows the rules. i want a comp to get up with me at 6 30 and go running or something, a comp that will study with me when we´re supposed to, a comp that will actually help me teach. so we´ve got a lot to work on this change, we basically have to start over with the area cause they had no investigators, which means we may have a few slow days to begin with, but i´m still hopeful. we have met a few people and they came to the conference yesterday and they liked it a lot, so they have some promise.

this change i was also given all the sisters in the zone in my district, and i don´t know how to work with sisters haha. last change i only had one other companionship of elders, and now i have 2 sets of sisters, but i don´t know how to really help them. i can´t do divisions with them now, cause they just put that rule cause it looks like a "double date," so i can only talk to them through the phone every once in awhile. maybe trev or dad or anyone else has some working with sisters advice? who knows, maybe this will help me to work with my future wife some day? :)

well that about wraps it up. it was an interesting week, but not a lot happened. conference was good, this new change seems a little hard, but i still think it´ll be good. hope you all have a good week, that you have lots of fun, that everything goes well too! we´ll talk to you next week!

much love,

elder paskett

April 1, 2013

hey mom!

easter down here is a lot different than it is in utah at least. since everyone here is super christian everyone celebrates "semana santa." so like holy friday and all that stuff. it actually turned into a ghostown around here, there was no on in the streets at all! i`m guessing everyone just took the week to go traveling and whatnot. almost every business place was closed, and they even suspended the sale of alcohol from like thursday to sunday or something like that. i remember last year in colòn the same thing happened, everyone just left and there was nothing to do. that`s about how it was here. we were blessed enough to have some more baptisms so we still had things to do, but i imagine that if we wouldn`t have had them we wouldn`t have done a lot. all in all it was a pretty quiet week, but at least we had that :) church was actually normal. i would have thought that they would have done something special, but they didn`t i guess. a couple just got sealed in the temple so they had cake, but that was about it haha.

as far as marilyn`s parents go, not a lot has happened actually. we went by a few days later and marilyn told us that like the day before her mom was feeling sick and said that she felt like these were her last days, and now that she saw her daughter get baptized she`s content. it`s weird though cause she never really wants to talk to us. she`s nice and all and says hi and chats, but never wants to sit down and talk to us, she always just says she`s busy or something. the same thing with the dad. but i think since marilyn has such a strong testimony she`ll be able to talk to them. they definitely won`t progress as fast as she did, but little by little :)

i definitely agree with dad on that missions are meant specifically for each missionary. to be honest i wasn`t the most excited when i got panamà, for a lot of things like the heat and the food and the language and whatnot, but now i feel like this is my mission and i wouldn`t trade it for any other one. yeah it`s hard, but i love it. i still haven`t come to love the heat, but everything else yeah haha. i know there`s things here that i wouldn`t have been able to learn in other places. actually i was just talking about this with a family this week. they`re actually really cool. we met them last change with my last comp, and at first it was only the mom that went, but the husband and their two girls no. the husband always said he just didn`t feel worthy cause of things he`s done, so he didn`t want to go, but she always wanted to be sealed to him in the temple. so we worked with them for awhile, and the daughters started going, and finally the husband too, and now they`re super active and the husband just got ordained a priest and has a calling with the young men, and the mom is going to the temple to do baptisms for the first time. just yesterday i was talking with him at church, and he was just saying how much he loves it. how when the block ends he doesn`t even want to leave cause he likes learning and he feels important and he just really likes it. they`re super cool. but back to the missions are tailored topic haha, we were talking about trials and stuff with them, and how sometimes God doesn`t really give us exactly what we want, but he does give us what we need. she shared a story with us about how that happened once, and it was just really cool. i know this mission was and is for me, and i`m super grateful for all the things i`ve learned :)

conference i will be able to watch, but in a different area...i got told this morning i have changes, and i`m pretty bummed. i really really like this area, and with all the success we`ve had it`s gonna make it super hard to leave. i`ve made some really good friends here, so i don`t want to go. i don`t think i`ve ever not wanted to leave an area this bad. but oh well, who knows what the Lord has in store for me? time sure has flown by though, i didn`t even realize that it was six months ago since the last one! that`s crazy! honestly i keep getting closer and closer to choosing october 24th as my go home date, which would mean i have less than 7 months left! super nuts!

soccer is pretty big down here. they`re playing right now for the qualifiers for the world cup, and i guess the team this year is one of the best. everyone has the jerseys and everything and it`s just a big deal. i don`t know if they`ve never made it before or something, but it`s important i guess haha.

well to be completely honest this was a super quiet week, not a lot happened. and i imagine this week will be more of the same, with changes and conference and everything. i never really liked conference before to be honest, and i`ve only seen it once on the mission, but i love it now, so i`m pumped :) i`ll be sure to remember grandpa, i hope everything goes well! and good luck to lyce too, it`s gonna be awesome! i hope everyone has an awesome week, and we`ll talk soon!

much love,

elder paskett