June 24, 2013

hey mom!

thanks for all the byu help! i`ve kinda forgot a few things after 2 years haha, so thanks. your formal education info and income is in the essay section at the bottom. i honestly haven`t really prayed about going to byu though. i guess that would be something pretty necessary. i`ve still got some time though so i`ll be thinking about that now. my ecclesiastical endorsement was kinda funny though. during last interviews i told hermana ward i needed that and she was like oh ok we`ll just do that right now. so she just pulled it up, checked everything and wrote it all up without asking me one question haha. she wrote how i was just a good missionary and had even gone to and survived blas haha, so hopefully the little blas thing helps :) i have thought about the U, just cause i have always kinda leaned to medical things, but i`m still so undecided. it`s a tough decision. but i`ll think about it a little more now. bummer news about the NBA. i hate both those teams, but i think i hate the heat more. oh well though, pretty soon the jazz are just gonna tear it up! :)

well so i`ll let you in on betty a little bit. she is really just so awesome and so prepared. so like i said she`s only here during the week, but leaves on saturday to her real house. so she`s not here to go to church. she told us she would though, so it was fine but we didn`t know if she really went. but we went by on wednesday and talked to her, and she actually did go to church, all by herself, and loved it! she said everyone was so nice to her and helped her a ton and the sister missionaries helped her a ton and gave her a book of mormon and it was just perfect. when we went by she had a ton of questions and was already reading the book of mormon and everything. it`s amazing. there`s this talk trev sent me at the beginning of my mission that i still have, and it talks a little bit about how if someone knows that you`re a servant of God, they`re gonna trust and believe in everything you say, cause they know it comes from God, and that`s how i feel with betty. she just accepts everything we tell her, so instead of like teaching, we just share, she listens, asks a few questions, but instead of trying to like convince, we`re just holding a few little meetings until her baptism. while we were talking she was just like "don`t worry guys, i`m gonna get baptized." she`s so awesome! so i`m super pumped. 

with ernan though, i thought he was super positive, but we went by the other day and he just wasn`t quite as positive. it`s like something happened between our visits. we did go by once but he said he was busy and we would have to come back another day, and so when we did he just didn`t seem as positive. so we`ll see if anything comes out if it.

the bad news is though, i have changes again! another one changer! i don`t even know what to think. but i`m super worried now about betty and other investigators. like i know we can leave notes and stuff, but i thought i was staying so we`re not as prepared as we should be. i don`t know what to do. i was planning on going to the baptism of betty but now if they send me super far i won`t be able to go. now i won`t be able to finish teaching her, and i may not be able to go to the baptism. that`s what gets me the worst. i don`t know. who knows what`s going on and what`s gonna happen, but changes are on wednesday so i guess we`ll see.

this week was fairly quiet though. we did get to see this conference yesterday, like the world wide leadership training thing i think, and it was cool. it kinda macheted the leaders around here though haha. but it was good cause hopefully it instills some fire into them, cause it talked about how God is hastening the work of salvation, so we need to work better. just how like the members need to work more with the missionaries, and the ward mission leader needs to work so that missionaries never need to contact, and it`s so true, if that would happen, there would be so many baptisms that no one would even know what to do. so hopefully this gets put into practice.

other than that i think that`s about it. not too much is going on. just changes are the big news. me and my comp are both leaving, so who knows. i`m assuming this should be my last area since i only have 3 changes left, crazy huh? but yeah i guess the next time we talk i`ll be in a new and hopefully my last area! have a great week!

much love,

elder paskett

June 17, 2013

hey mom!

 

wow that`s super nuts and awesome with trev! trev`s a good guy. i know we kinda hated each other before his mission, or maybe it was only kinda one sided on my part...haha but i`ve always looked up to him. he`s definitely a good example, so congrats! he deserves it :) and yeah i got pretty sick, and for some reason i still had it almost all this week. monday and tuesday it kinda was going away, but it came back and even today i`m coughing a little bit and just don`t feel normal. i think it`s cause i`m just not sleeping at all anymore. i don`t know what`s wrong with me. my comp says almost nightly i talk in my sleep, that one time it even seemed like i was like mad and my tone of voice was just like negative haha, he says i talk in both english and spanish, but i don`t know. i don`t know if i`m just stressed out or something, but for a good 3 or 4 weeks i just haven`t been sleeping. it`s hard cause then i`m wasted during the day, and when i get home i`m tired and want to go to bed, but just don`t sleep well at all. i don`t know, i guess we`ll see how it goes :) as far as money goes, i recently bought a little yoga kit, just like a mat, and a pair of somewhat cheap shoes, so i`m pretty sure that my account is empty now, but i would say that if you put money in, i would just do it like my last month so i`m not tempted to buy anything dumb. i just need a few soccer jerseys, maybe a few bags for you guys too, and maybe a few other things, but for right now it`s no big deal :) and congrats on your new calling! you`ll do good :) that`s something that i`m still not very good at, teaching big groups. give me 2 or 3 or 4 and i`ll be ok, but a big class is hard for me. i just feel like i can`t be as personal and see what the needs are of each person. but you`ll do good i know :)

 

well, we had a pretty decent week. i hope i didn`t tell you this story, but it`s about a lady called betty. so one day we decided to leave with a recent convert to visit some neighbors and see if we couldn`t find anything. nothing was really happening though, so we stopped at this one house to buy some ice cream, cause that`s how things are around here, every few houses someone sells ice cream or ice or things called "duros," and what they are are just bags filled with like kool aid or some sugary liquid, but it`s frozen. just like a popsicle i guess. they`re good. anyway, we stopped to get some ice cream, and ended up talking with this lady, betty, for a little. she`s a little old lady that is in that house to kinda care for her grandson cause his mom is working and stuff, so she comes to help. so we start talking with her and ask if we could share something with her, and she said yes. so we sat down, chatted for a little bit, and it was good i guess, just like an average contact, so we put another appointment and that was that. we`ve gone back twice now, and she is super awesome. she`s one of those that the Lord has prepared, and it`s cool. she shared a story once that she`s always been catholic, but just never felt anything, and one day she was super sick and it was right after her son had just died too, so she was just like depressed, and she said one day she was just in her bed and just said like she thought it was a punishment from God and she was like ok now i just turn it all over to you God, and i`ll do what you want me to do. so she went to a few other churches for a few years but just never felt like it was the thing God wanted. but we come, and she said she feels really good with what we`ve taught her, and really wants to keep learning more and go to church and everything. it was super spiritual though. she`s all crying and it was just awesome. the only bad thing is that she`s only here in my area during the week, cause she lives somewhere else and so she`s there from saturday to monday, so she`ll never go to church with us, and officially it won`t be our baptism, but i`ll still say she was mine :) she`s just a sweet little old lady, so i really hope she gets baptized. we don`t know if she went to church yesterday, so we`ll talk to her later this week to see.

 

another cool guy, whose name is ernan, he was also a contact one day, and it was a very typical contact, not positive, but not negative either, so we put another appointment and we came back a few days later. we start talking with him for a little bit, and we asked him how his day was and everything, and he was just like well honestly not very good, it was a pretty tough day, cause i just got back from the funeral of my dad, so it`s tough. we were just like oh that`s terrible and talked to him about his dad for a little, and then tried to talk about the plan of salvation. it went super well. we start talking, and we would do a few questions here and there, and he would respond, but mostly just sat there, quiet, listening. he just looked like he was absorbing it and loved it. we just reassured him that it`s possible to see him again, and it was just awesome. we ended and everything, and asked if we could end with a prayer. he was like yeah that`s fine, could we do it inside? we`re like yeah for sure, so we go in, and he calls his whole family, his wife and 3 girls, and we talk for a little bit, then pray, and leave. i thought it was just cool. just how he was listening and wanted to pray with his family, and so i have high hopes for him and his family now :)

 

a cool little interesting news bit, the other day i saw a comercial for beer down here, and it said that one 12 ounce can of beer costs 44 cents, which is crazy since a normal 12 ounce can of soda around here is 65. beer down here is like free! it`s crazy! it`s no wonder everyone is just drunk all the time haha, i think it may even be cheaper that just pure water! i don`t know how they do it! but yeah, weird :)

 

and i think that about wraps it up. still a little sick this week, but we found a few new people to teach and everything so we should have a good last week of the change. changes are the 26th, and i think my comp should leave cause he already has 4 changes here, so he should leave and i should stay, but i guess we``ll see. as far as the new president goes, i don`t know anything. i know he`s from like new jersey, and i`ve seen his picture like once, but that`s about it. i`m sure he`s a good guy though so it should be good. thanks for everything, i`m glad that everyone is well, congrats to trev again, and to karissa for her big new job :) and lyce and chip with they`re getting bigger babies, i`m happy :) so i hope this week is great as well!

 

much love,

 

elder paskett

June 10, 2013

hey mom!

well this week was a pretty quiet week i would say. sounds like you guys were pretty chill too.  that`s weird what they did with karissa and her job. it doesn`t really make a lot of sense. it`s true though that if she gets let go she`ll be kinda stuck, and who knows, she might have to go back to being a sweeper! :) i`m sorry though, i still don`t think you guys understand this heat haha. at least you guys can just sit in the house and be ok, you`re not just sweating even sitting around doing nothing. i`m used to it a little, but it`s still super hot and i`m always sweating. i imagine a good utah summer will feel just great :) if you go to the blog like half way down or so there`s a picture of me with two other guys, then of someone else, then me again, that someone else is my companion. he`s a little crazy guatemalan, but he`s cool.

so this week, what happened this week? i think it was like thursday morning we got a phone call from someone saying that they`re neighbors that just got baptized had a reference for us. they said that the wife was talking to their neighbor the other day and the neighbor was sick, so the wife mentioned how we give blessings and talked about that a little and the neighbor said she would like that. so we went over that day in the afternoon and gave her a blessing. it was pretty cool. she was super nice to us afterward and said she wants to go to church and wants us to come back, so we`ll see how it all turns out, but i think there might be something there. 

we had another visit from elder amado yesterday too. he came for stake conference and it was really cool. i just love the way he speaks. i`m sure dad knows. he`s kind of an intimidating guy cause you just know that when he sees you he can read your soul and can give some good machetes, but it`s super cool. he answered one of my life long questions of when the spirit enters into the baby. without explaining it all, he talked a little bit about how we`re born of water, or the liquid inside the womb that represents water, and of blood, and then the spirit, saying the spirit enters our body when we`re born. now that confuses me about abortions and what happens there, but at least following what he says, that`s what happens haha. he also said something really cool to the effect of it`s marvelous to cry with those that cry, console at those that stand in need of comfort, cause sometimes we just need someone to listen to us, to cry with us when we`re crying, and maybe we don`t even know why we`re crying, if only just because we`re filled with love and compassion and mercy, and that`s how you show those things. i don`t know, i just really liked that. just overall it was a super good talk, i hope he becomes an apostle or something, i don`t know how well his english is, but he`s fun to listen to.

the shadow of this week came from this somewhat nasty cold i`ve had. i don`t know how i got it, but just one night i didn`t sleep very well and when i woke up my nose was all stuffed and i was coughing and all that jazz. it lasted like that for about 2 days, and then on sunday morning it got a little worse. my stomach was just killing me, maybe for  hunger, but i ate breakfast so i don`t know why, and then i got a fever, and so i was just wiped. luckily president and hermana ward were there for the stake conference so i talked to her and she gave me some tylenol that were just like miracle pills. i felt a ton better after, even though i know the sickness was still there. but then last night i did sleep pretty well, and right now my throat is bugging me a little, but that`s about it. president gave his goodbye yesterday to our stake cause he`s leaving on like the 3 of july or something like that. we`re gonna try to see if we can take a family to the temple with him before he leaves, but we`ll see how it goes i guess.

and, i think that more or less sums it up. a pretty quiet week. we`re lacking a little on people to teach right now. we do have a few but just not too many, and no one is really progressing, but we`re hanging in there and still think we can have success this change. and i hope everyone has a great week, good luck to trev, i know he`ll do good :) and i`ll talk to ya next week!

much love,

elder paskett

June 3, 2013

hey mom!

 

yeah it worked just fine, and it sounds like it was an exciting week so i´m happy! congrats to karissa for graduating! i hope she went to the little party thing after, if there even was one. it´s pretty stupid, we just went to boondocks, nothing too exciting, but it´s something you´ll never get to do again, so you gotta take advantage of it while you can. not that i want to go back to highschool, but looking back i realize i could have had so much more fun haha, worked a little harder too, i guess that´s always the bad thing. in the moment you never really appreciate what you have, and then you look back and have regrets, you just gotta learn the way to get over that! speaking of yellowstone, last pday we went to this place called Cerro Azul, and it reminded me a lot of yellowstone. the animals no, but the scenery and everything yes. there are a surprising amount of pine trees here, and driving through all these pine trees made me think of yellowstone. dad would love the scenery down here. i honestly havent seen too many animals, and despite the fact there´s a lot of garbage here, its really a beautiful country. i´ll be sure to think of trev too, but i know he´ll do fine. he´s always been the smartest one in the family, so i´m not worried. not to say that it wont be hard, but i´m sure he´ll do great :)

 

things are pretty good down here too. it was a fairly quiet week, but we were blessed to have a few baptisms yesterday, so that´s always exciting. i did get kinda bummed out a few times this week though. so there´s this one family, familia hernandez, that has known the missionaries for like 7 years, have gone to church who knows how many times, the mom went to the temple open house, they know like everything, but just haven´t been baptized. we talked to the mom on like thursday i think, and we talked a little bit about that.  it was tough cause she basically said it was all true and she knew it, and she shared this dream that even though she didnt know it had to do a lot with the temple, but said she doesn´t dare for some reason. she said her mom is super catholic and she was talking to her about the church and stuff, and her mom said something along the lines of how there can only be one true church, and she seems to just be hung up on that. i know she´s got her answer and knows it all, but just is afraid to take the step. they´re super cool though and would be such a solid family, so we really want to work with them. they´ve never gone to the temple as a family, and so we want to take them and invite president ward too and i think that would be the thing to do it. the funny thing, or interesting i guess is that she said her husband will have like a month of vacations coming up here pretty quick, so i think this might be the time. we´re gonna work hard with them, and i think that would just be the best thing ever to see them get baptized!

 

we did divisions once this week too, and so i went  to the other area to see how things are going. we went to see a few people, and they´ve been teaching this lady, hermana esperanza for a little bit now, and we went to see her that day. she´s an older lady, and had talked with missionaries years ago, and it was just a super good lesson. she was super nice, gave us some (unintentionally, i think) burned popcorn, and some juice, and was just friendly and it was cool. they had left 3 nephi 11 to read, and so we talked about that a little. it went super well, and i know the Spirit was there testifying of what we were teaching, and we invited her to be baptized, and in my heart i knew she was gonna say yes, but for some reason she just didn´t. that´s always tough, when i know the Spirit is there and it´s super strong, and i know they´re feeling it too, but they don´t accept it. and even though she´s not my investigator, i worry about her and hope that some day she will get baptized, and i think she will.

 

umm trying to think...it was a fairly quiet week. we worked hard, had a good week. i´m excited to be here. me and my comp are doing super well, no problems there. i think he might end up being one of my favorite comps. the area is good. we´re actually  lacking a little bit on new investigators, but we´ll do some searching this week, so i´m not too worried. and yeah we just had a few baptisms so we´re happy. this is president wards last change as mission president, he goes home like july 2 or 3 or something, and he said that ever since he got here his dream has been to have like 180 baptisms in one month, so he´s trying to pump the mission up to do that as his going away present, and so we´ll see if we can´t help out a little more :) but i think that´s about it. not too much to say, but again i´m glad everyone and everything is good. good luck to trev and karissa with their tests, and to the babies with chip and lyce too. and i hope the yellowstone trip is enjoyable too :) have a great week!

 

much love,

 

elder paskett