Week #19

Hola Familia!

 

Elder Milton is officially a citizen of Paraguay! After waiting in the migrations office for 5 hours! It was a long wait but now i am legal! :) For this I appologize for how late I am and also for the briefness for I dont have much time!

 

This week started out with the news that Elder S, would be leaving! He got transferred to an area called Santa Rosa, which is 6 hours away! Also Elder O. left me and also his companion!  So the beinning of this week starrted with some emotional goodbyes! Elder S. and Elder O. really touched the hearts of the ward! I was proud, they deserved it and they wrked hard so it was a heroes farewell!

 My new companion is Elder G. from Mexico! So we get along really well! He is a seasoned worker and has been out for a year and a half. I am helping him with his English and of course He is helping me with my spainish! He is a mechanic! He is so smart! It is super cool! But he is a hard worker, this is exactly what I need to whip me into shape and to teach me how to wrk smart!

 

So this week consisted me introducing and helping Elder G. feel comfortable in his new area and the people! We walked alot of course! The thing that I am mostly focused on is the responsibility has fallen on me to guide the missionaries in this ward! Also To draw some new boundries for the misson areas in Salado! SO the Lord is going to have to help me a lot! I feel a little inadequate but who the Lord calls, he qualifies!

 

For some reason my computer isnt reading my card today :( these computers are terrible! But I will send more next week of this week! Thank you for support and prayers! YOur in my prayers and i love you all very much!

 

Love,

Elder Milton

Week 18 - Letter Home Dated Feb 8, 2014

Dear Familia,

How is everyone doing?  I hope this letter finds everyone in good spirits.  I want to apologize about the delay for this letter.  As you can see, I don't really go to the office that often.  In fact, I didn't even have the chance to go to the office to drop off this letter.  I sent it with one of the Elders  that was living with me but is changing areas.  So he had to go to the office and I asked him to drop off this letter.

Speaking of changes, I found out that I would be staying in Salado for another 6 weeks.  Also, I would be completing my training with Elder S. For those who don't know, when a new missionary arrives in the field, that have "in-field training" that lasts for 12 weeks.  To finish my training with Elder S. Will not only help me to be a good missionary, but also he has helped me a ton with Spanish.  And I like to think he has received some help from me with his English.  Also, I found out the new Elder that is transferring in is from Ecuador.  So, I will be rooming with 3 latinos, all of who will help me immensely with Spanish, but also I will be teaching them English, so I am excited!

My Spanish. . .  Thinking about these last 6 weeks, I like to think that it has improved!  That is what everyone tells me!  Also, I feel that I have improved my understanding and my pronunciation a ton!  A couple weeks ago, I started writing in a little notebook kind of like a journal, but in Spanish.  It's not great, but I feel it's helping.  I am blessed with the understanding that I have.  Thanks to your prayers and faith in me!  Thank you so much!

Well, I will end it here.  Thank you for the time you take to read up about me.  Hopefully by the time you guys receive this letter, I will have sent pictures.  I love you guys and you are all in my prayers!  I will write again soon!

Love,

Elder Milton

Week #18 - Pictures

Elder O. and I, Team Arizona! 

Elder S., Elder O. and I playing football (americano)! 

The New River!

Our district in the river!

Week #18

Hola Familia!

First things first, These pictures are awesome! I love them all! I definitely need to vistit all these places one day! I am extremely jealous but I am also really glad to see that Mom and Megan got to spend time together! I really do cherish my memories in New York! It was an amazing experience and I got to spend it with my mom :) 

From what I read it sounded really busy! A LOT of driving and a few things that were bumps in the road. But all in all I am really pleased to read that you enjoyed it! Thank you for your pictures :)  The Temple looks amazing! I love it! I have been going kind of temple crazy lately! In our house we have a stack of ensigns and liahonas so i have been cutting out pictures of every temple I see! Also I will be going to the temple next month so I am very excited! 

Good job Megan with her talk! And also sewing is a great skill to know! Please tell Kali to keep practicing! :) 

This week was pretty interesting! Mostly due to the fact of all the rain we recieved! It was crazy! But so cool! The streets turned into rivers! I was surprised not see people taking out boats to travel! It was a lot of rain. But with this rain came a fresh feeling! It felt really good. But the down side was our work was really hindered. Elder S. and I tried to work but there was just no way anybody was going to listen to us! So we spent a lot of time in our house this week. Which I feel terrible about. Well good news is I finished Jesus The Christ! After 4 months! It is an amazing book and now that I have read it in English I am going to read it in Spanish. It is really well written so this might take me a little longer than 4 months! 

After the rain calmed down, we went back to work! To start out with service! My favorite! This sister needed some irrigation trenches dug so we put the shovel to work! It was tough. This ground had boulders. So we spent most of the time digging out these rocks with our bare hands! Luckily some of the ward members came and helped and now it is all ready! 

Cat. is doing good! She still is in a cast and she rested this week from work! Which was good so we could visit her! Problem is everytime we tried to set up something she had an excuse! Elder S. and I have determined and heard from her sister that her daughter is puttin doubts in her mind. 

Which is really frustrating because she doenst accept us to help her resolve these doubts. So this week we didnt have a chance to visit her and she didnt attend church. So I am a little sad!

Transfers! Well I have no idea if I am leaving or if I am staying! And I feel like it really could be either way. There is little to no chance that Elder S. and I are staying together so that makes me sad. Elder S. has been a really good trainer and what I have like to call him a good Pai. Which is father in portuguese haha. So if I leave I will be sad! I really like this ward and this area! I will find outtomorrow! So you will not know until next week! Wish me luck :)

Well that is the sum of this boring week! Thank you for your note and the pictures I love them! I love you all and I will write you next week :)

Love,

Elder Milton 

Week #17 - Pictures

A giant hamburger called a Guasu! It was really good and We split it 8 ways!

They have Caterpillar apparel everywhere! I told JC that one day I will buy Caterpillar shoes. But they are SUPER expensive so he decided to give me a Caterpillar hat instead! Also Moroni is included in this picture :)

Ch. and his mission call! He leaves for Uruguay Montevideo Oeste April 24

Cleaning the pila (font) with Elder O.

Elder O. and Ib.

Week #17

Hola Familia!

Kody is baptized! Holy moly, this is crazy! What a stud! I am so proud of him! Also I am glad to see that some family came to support him. We were blessed to live near so much family when I was baptized. I will forever be grateful for the support of the family! Especially now seeing many families not supportive of baptism! 

Congrats to Mike and Kevin for their new callings! They better do a good job! The missionries count on them! Needless to say our ward missonaries and ward mission leader are inactive. It makes it a little bit difficult to work with the ward without them! So Please work with the missionaries is my only request haha. 

This week was good! We had the opportunity to work with many of the inactives that came to conference this last weekend. Some of them are in what we call apostasia. For example one of the sisters that we were teaching revealed to us that she wants to build a church on her property. And also that the priesthood authority is given to all who are obedient. So needless to say Elder S. and I have a lot of work to do to help these members out! It is sad because many of these inactives are inactive because of some of the members of the ward and other ward drama. So we need to figure out how to help them know the gospel in its fulness again and also how to resolve this ward drama. 

This week I had to chances of Service! Both included cutting lawns with ol reliable Moroni. Good news I didnt get any NEW blisters. Bad news some of my old ones reopened but that is okay! They make good memories! 

A little more bad news. Thursday Elder S. and I went to teach Cat, her daughter however decided not to listen to us though. But Cat was really receptive! We taught her about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. We invited her to read the Book of Mormon and to pray to see if it was true! The closing pray she asked God without us telling her to! It was really powerful! Well we left and felt really good and about 10 minutes later we recieved a call from her saying that she slipped and broke her arm in the bathroom! So Elder S. and I practically ran back to her house and waited with her until her friend picked her up to take her to the hospital. She was really sad and also her ribs were hurting her because she fell on her side! Well of course we checked on her the next day and she had a cast and the doctor ordered her to rest for 15 days. So I have no idea when the baptism will be! But the good news is she recognizes that this was the devils doing! And her testimony is that much stronger! 

Also Friday was the baptism of an Investigator for Elder O.! His name is Ib and he is super smart! Right now he is going to college to major in English! So him and I talk in English all the time, he is super cool! Well before the baptism Elder O. and his companion(the disobedient one) they came to our house to eat lunch. After lunch the disobedient elder decided to take a little nap. Well Elder O. had a little patience with him and let him sleep. But he needed to go to the chapel to clean the font! So he woke him up and asked him to get ready so they could head out. Well Elder Disobedient had a headache and wasnt going to be able to go. After he said that I could tell that Elder O. was a little upset! So before he could say anything I volunteered to go! I got permission from Elder S. and off we went! 

On our way to the chapel I was holding a triple combination that we were planning on giving to Ib for his baptism. Elder O. passed this house whose gate was open(nothing out of the usual) when all of a sudden this dog came booking out! I should really say this wolf came booking out and was heading straight towards us! This wolf was ANGRY. He was definitely trained as a guard dog! Well Elder O. started screaming Elder Milton! Elder Milton! and he jumped and his behind me! Meanwhile I had the good ol Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and The Pearl of Great Price ready to backhand this dog! The dog was 3 feet away when finally the owner came out and yelled at the dog. It immediately listened and headed back into the house! Thank goodness! I was safe Elder O. was safe and I didnt have to use the power of the Triple Combination! I will never forget the courage of Elder O. to jump and hide behind me. It was hilarious. 

Well that is the sum of my week! I hope you enjoy! Thank you for taking the time to read up and check on me! I am still alive! I love you guys and I hope you all have a wonderful week! :)

Love,

Elder Milton

Week #16 - Pictures

Here are some pictures to catch you up on Elder Milton's most recent happenings.  Now that he has the ability to send pictures, he will send some each week to let us catch up with him and what has been going on in Paraguay.

Cleaning the font preparing for a baptism.

The baptism day of M. who was baptized by her son, C.  Elder Milton and Elder S. are also pictured.

Last weeks service project was digging a well!

Elder Milton pointing to his mission on the map of Paraguay.

The 1 hour bus ride to Stake Conference.

P-Day today, playing soccer with Elder S. and some friends.

Week #16

Hola Familia!

I have some good news to report! Number One I am feeling a lot lot better! Number Two I have recieved the package! So please enjoy these picks that I have attatched with some of the events that you guys have missed!

Congradulations to Megan for being accepted into Girls state and also for the FBLA state officer interview! Although she will not be running for office she still passed the interview which is a huge accomplishment regardless! Also I am so excited for Kodys baptism this week! He is such a stallion! Im glad to hear that there will be family to see it too! Speaking of baptism I have a strange request...if you could please send me a picture of my baptism! The best one there is! I feel that I will be able to show some people and show them how special it is! Thank you in advance! 

I am so jealous of your trip next week! I have always wanted to go and see the sights of Washington D.C. and the surrounding areas! So please Enjoy and take lots of pictures!

This week was a hard working week! Which is exactly what I needed! After being sick I was a little bit lazy and I needed to be whipped back into shape! As you know this weekend was Stake conferece. So Elder S. and I really focussed on our less actives and inactives. This week we visited all our area and taught all the less actives we know! This was really good because I still need to learn the layout of our area. Some places we visit more and I am a little more familiar with but there are some that I dont have any clue! 

So with the disobedient Elder, the president has decided that Elder O. and his companion live in a house next door to our zone leaders. The idea behind this, is that they will be able to do divisions and splits more easily. They are really working hard with this disobedient Elder. Well the president also suggested that Elder O. and his companion do a divison with Elder S. and I. Elder S. volunteered for the division with the disobedient Elder, so I had the honor of working with Elder O! I love this guy! He has become one of my closest friends here and is a huge example to me! So Wednesday we tackled our area and had a great time at the same time! He is really progressing with his English and I couldnt be more proud of them! Also he was extremely grateful to have a day of work! So he kept thanking me and hugging me haha. Then on Friday we had a service project which consisted of digging a well! The problem is that there was only one shovel and Elder S. was not feeling too good so I willing took upon myself this job! I love service! Elder S. calls me an adicto which is addict in spanish. He says if service was a drug I would be addicted to it! So I found it a pretty nice compliment! 

Saturday was the first part of the stake conference! Our ward paid for a bus to pick up the members for the adult session and also for thesunday session. Our Stake center is in a city called Luque which is about an hour away so this was really needed! Well Elder S. and I didnt attend the first part of the conference saturday because we learned that Cat. was going to be working past the pick up time for the bus. So we both decided that it would be better to teach her instead of going to the conference! Which it turned out very much worth it. She informed us of a problem that she has been having, this problem will most likely postpone her baptism again! Which is sad, but she really wants to be baptized so we just have to be patient! 

Sunday was amazing! The Bus was full of members for the stake conference! It really made me so happy to see everyone talking and just a huge family on this bus! Also a few families that we had taught this week came so it was really good to see them! When we arrived to the stake center we were a little late. Which we werent the only ones but this place was FULL. The entire cultural hall was full, the stage was full, and we had to big classrooms with TVs that were full also! So instead of paying attention to the conference Elder S. and I helped people find chairs and places to sit for pretty much the whole conference! It was for the members anyway so I was not too bummed about not listening, I was just so happy to see such a turn out! almost 1000 people came! It was awesome!

Well I hope you all had a good week! Thank you for your prayers for my health and for my struggle with the language! They are truly helping and I am so grateful for them! I love you all and I will be writing more next week :)

Love, 

Elder Milton

Week #15

Hola Familia!

I am happy to hear that Megan did well in her interview! She has definitely been in my prayers! I will make sure to tell her congrats in my letter to her! 

The cultural celebration and the dedication sound way neat! Its a bummer that Kody couldnt go but there are a few more temples he will be able to see!

Cat and Nat are doing good! We postponed the baptism one week because this week is stake conference and Cat really wants to go! So thats a good enough reason to postpone for me! Nat still has her doubts, but Elder S. and I are still working with her to resolve them!

This week its been really rainy! I guess fall started this week and all the kids are back in school! Thats so weird! A couple nights it has actually been cold! People keep telling me that it gets really cold so Im just waiting to see! Not a ton of work was done this week Elder S. and I spent the majority of our time looking for a new house! Our contract in this one ends at the end of March! We Friday we finally found one! Today we went and looked at it and Its a pretty set deal! So in the near future we will be moving!

 

Speaking of moving my other companions have moved out! We helped them move out on Saturday. Presidente really pushed them to move right away. He didnt want the disobedient missionary to have a bad affect on me! That was really nice of him to think of me, but there was no way I was going to let him change my work ethic!

Well sorry for the shortness of this letter! Really nothing happened! I got really sick on Sunday and I wasnt able to attend church, I went to the office and got drugs from the mission nurse so hopefully very soon I will feel better! Thank you guys for your prayers! As always you are in mine! I love you and I miss you! I will write you next week!

Love,

Elder Milton

P.S.

I have one picture that my friend JC sent me! I dont know why he only sent me this one but I hope you enjoy it!