It's another beautiful, overcast day in Paraguay. The marching band is doing their thing right outside the ciber, I'm stuffed full from a yummy milanesa sandwich, and I am thoroughly enjoying a calm, plan-less P-Day. How are things in the States? Hopefully good, too.
I'm glad to hear that you all had a great Mother's Day. It was a really nice time for us here, too. Their Mother's Day was on Tuesday, and Independence Day was on Monday, so those first few days of the week we were able to talk to a ton of people who normally wouldn't be home. Everyone was enjoying time with their families and just sitting back to chat with strangers. Perfect contacting ground for us missionaries. We doubled our normal number of new investigators.
One of those new investigators is an adorable young mother named Leida. She, like an astonishing number of people we've been meeting lately, has investigated lots of churches in the past and is excited to learn more about ours. She listens so well, and while she like all other Paraguayan women loves to talk, she loves to talk about spiritual, eternal things rather than just chit-chat. Her four little kids are ADORABLE. She married a blonde Brazilian, so they've all got gorgeous bronze skin, hazel eyes, and lighter hair. I love them all already.
Bernardina is doing well, too, though she still has tons of conflicts that prevent her from coming to church. She loves our visits, though. She's gaining little by little a greater appreciation for what we have to share. She's always had a Book of Mormon at home (a little tattered, with some pages missing), but when we explained to her what it was, she looked down at it in her hands with new reverence. "I've had this all this time and never knew what it was!" she said. "Now I want to read it. I might find answers here." We're going to give her a new Book of Mormon today, in which Hna. Goimarac marked some of her favorite scriptures. Bernardina is amazing. Her whole family is. Her kids all excitedly come running when we show up. Kids are the best--so accepting and excited to learn.
Juan Angel's family is the same way. They all squeeze into their little sitting room to listen to us. They came to church again yesterday! They were able to make it to the last half of Gospel Principles, and we had a great discussion on Heavenly Father. Church was extraordinary yesterday, thanks to a power outage that lasted from 7:00am to 3:00pm. It affected the whole city, which made walking the streets a lot more tranquilo than usual, what with everyone's stereos being silent. Usually music blares all around you. Yesterday it actually felt like a Sabbath Day in Concepcion. Anyways, in church it meant that there was no organ and no microphone. We all had to be extra quiet to listen to the talks, and it created a new sense of reverence.
We're going to have Juan Angel's family over for FHE today, along with some other investigators and a recent-convert family. I'm excited for them. I really think they're going to get baptized in June. Even if not, it's so amazing to be part of the teaching process. Maybe I won't have tons of baptisms under my belt, but hopefully I'm still on Satan's watch list, as an enemy who causes havoc for him every day by enlightening the people and loosening his grip just that much. Every visit we do, even if someone won't let us talk, at least we almost always pass with a prayer, showing people what prayer can be. Everything we do opens people's minds to the idea of religion--even just seeing us on the street will make them wonder.
Anyways, FHE is fun. Hna. Goimarac is especially creative. She still isn't showing any signs of winding down from the MTC. I hope she never does. Last week we taught a lesson with some little kids by writing ideas from the lesson on little pieces of paper, putting paperclips on each one, and having them "fish" for the papers using a magnet on a pole (we used our broken plunger handle and some floss for a fishing pole). It kept the kids entertained throughout the whole lesson.
In the middle of the week we taught a "Pearl of Great Price" object lesson. We bought some little candies and a big pack of cookies. We gave one kid the candies, then had him leave the room so we could hide the cookies where he would never be able to find it. When he came looking and started to get desperate, I asked him to give me a candy in exchange for a hint. The way I gave the hints, he ended up having to give me all of the candies in his hand. When he was finally left with nothing, I told him where the real prize was, but unless he'd given me everything he never would have found the big prize. The concept was being willing to let go of the little, less-important things to allow God to grant us the greatest blessings.
The best activity we've found for FHE in Paraguay is "Bingo." We just made Bingo boards for tonight using words from Alma 32. That's another great game that keeps all ages entertained.
Along with FHEs, Hna. Goimarac and I are preparing a fireside for next Sunday. Our goal is to not leave a dry eye in the room by the end of it. We want it to be the most spiritual experience this branch has had in a long time. The plans are still underway, but we hope to have several members bear their testimonies of their conversions, how the gospel has helped them, and how the members have shown their love through it all. We want everyone to remember to share the gospel with others and stay strong in their own conversion. We're making it clear to the members that this event means a lot to us by passing out hand-made invitations and giving them all specific assignments to assure that they'll show up. I'll let you know how it goes.
There's not much going on besides that. Sorry I don't have any fun photos to send this time around. Hopefully we'll do something interesting before it's time to e-mail again. :) I'm still trying not to think about the fact that this is my eighth-to-last e-mail home.
Thank you Blairs, Bro. Dorny, Grandma Springer, Goompa, Dad, Mom, Sarah, Ashley, Amanda, and Laurel for your e-mails this week! And thank you Palo Verde Primary for the package! (The Primary sent me a beautiful, hard-cover Book of Mormon to give away to somebody, after having earned the money to send it to me by bringing their scriptures to church every week. Adorable, right?) I promise to give it to someone who will really appreciate it, and I'll write you all about the experience.
Hna. Goimarac has invited all of you to check out her blog to read her take on our time together. :) The address is faithinjerusalem.blogspot.com. Read all about it!
I love you all. Be strong. Choose the right. Pray always and be believing. Thank you for everything you do.
---Hna. Springer
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