I don´t have much more time to write today because I just got done writing to a bunch of insistent relatives. :) But thank you Grandma, Dad, Mom, Sarah, and the Blair Family for writing to me this week. I love you all.
We had a really good week this week. First of all, our air conditioning is HEAVENLY. I´m actually using a blanket again! I can sleep so much more soundly and feel well-rested in the morning. It´s awesome. We had one glitch with the system, though, on Tuesday night. We´d just gone to sleep when all of a sudden a stream of water came pouring out of the air conditioning. We quickly shut it off and got all our stuff off of the floor, and wondered what had just happened. We tried to turn it on again later, only to have the same thing happen. Not knowing what to do, we just turned it off altogether. It was a VERY HOT night, as luck would have it. I was sweating so badly. I ended up angrily stalking out to the kitchen and grabbing my frozen water bottles to cool me off. I was so cranky. It didn´t help that we had to get up extra early the next morning to go to a zone conference. I was so tired and irritable at the meeting. But that same day the repairman fixed the problem and we´ve slept great ever since (the problem was that the system was a little tilted, so the water was overflowing in one corner instead of draining out the back like it´s supposed to).
The zone conference was all about goal-keeping--how we´ve been having a problem of getting all hyped up after training meetings and such only to go strong one week and then go back to old habits. To keep us going strong, our zone leaders came up with a plan to have us review our conference notes every week, make three individual goals and three companion goals, and then report our progress with them to our district leaders. It´s helped us a lot so far. It was a really inspired idea. We also got to have interviews with Pte. Madariaga, which is always a joy. I always wish we could stay in his office longer.
One of the goals that Hna. deVries and I put this week was to have a more positive attitude. That´s something I´ve had as a goal almost my whole mission. It´s kind of hard sometimes. We´ve been especially irritated with our branch lately, and we´ve been having a bad tendency of saying things like, "Oh that would NEVER happen in Utah!" But we realized that the grass is always greener on the other side, and that actually all wards have problems, and that we really need to learn patience. We´ve been working on only saying positive things. Sometimes that´s a REAL challenge. We decided you can say nice things sarcastically, but no real negative comments. If nothing else, it makes us laugh a lot as we try to figure out a nice way to comment on a bad situation. Laughter really is the best medicine. :)
The Lord is so perfectly wonderful. What better way to help me see the world in a better light than by sticking me in a situation where everything looks grey? It´s not hard at all to be positive if everything´s sunshine and daisies. A true test of character--a true training experience--is having to work on being happy when it´s very hard to do so. I really really hope that I come out of this with a perfectly cheerful attitude about everything, with no more frowns and no more criticisms and no more grudges. I don´t like it when other people are sour, so why should I be? It´s so much happier to be smiley and positive.
The reason we were so irritated with the branch this week had to do with Cleto´s baptism. But I won´t tell you why. Just know that we had a baptism and Cleto loved it and it all turned out to be really beautiful. At our district meeting on Tuesday, our district leader (aware that we were going to have a baptism) helped us to plan out how we could make it a really reverent experience. We put a great deal of effort into the plans. I wrote out a program, Hna. deVries provided music to play before and after the service, we had a Moment of Reverence while Cleto got changed (instead of singing hymns out of tune like we´ve done at every other baptism I´ve seen in Paraguay)... It made it all really lovely. It was a lot more reverent and spiritual with everything so well planned. I gave the first talk about baptism and introduced Cleto to those who were in attendance, since he´s very shy and doesn´t really have many friends in the ward. Cleto was smiling so big at the end of it. He said he felt at peace, and he was much more animated at church the next day. It made me happy.
Even happier, though, was when I saw my mission´s dream come true this week! In teaching Rubén this week, we discovered that he is actually "feasting upon the words of Christ!" He´s read to 1 Nephi 11 so far, and he re-reads every chapter so that he can understand it better, then asks us dozens of questions. He learned to use the scripture guide and the footnotes without any suggestion from us, and he actually applies what he reads to his own life! I´ve ALWAYS dreamed of having an investigator treasure the Book of Mormon, and he really does! We read the part where Nephi´s family rejoices over the brass plates and realizes that they´re of great worth to his posterity, and he held the Book of Mormon to his chest and said, "It´s just like with me. I´m finding joy in the scriptures and they´re going to help me and my children so much." He is so calidad. I don´t know what´s going to happen at Changes at the end of this month, but I wouldn´t be sad at all if I got to stay and see his baptism. He´s one of the greatest investigators I´ve ever known, and I know he could be a really great Priesthood holder and leader someday.
Well, I don´t have any more time. Sorry. I think this may be the shortest letter I´ve sent so far. It wasn´t a super eventful week, but it was really a good one. I´m happy. :)
Thank you all for everything, especially your letters. I look forward to them every week.
I LOVE YOU!!
---Hna. Springer
Hey, I´ve only got one picture for this week--us at Cleto´s baptism! Yay for baptisms!!
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