Week #45 - Pictures

Machetes with Elder S!

The new district! 

From Left to right: Elder W, Elder S, Elder R, Elder S, Elder S and Elder Milton in our Zone Conference!

We started to go home after a rainy day, almost dry...and then it rained harder than it did all day so I got the most soaked at the end of the day

Week #45

Dear Family!

Well I didnt get the letter again this week but that is how it goes with the computers here in San Pedro! They really need to update a few things haha. I think I am using Windows Explorer 1 or the first edition! But that is okay I cant complain because I still get to write with email which is better than nothing haha :)

This was an awesome week! We started our week with a little traveling to our zone conference which required us to leave at10:30 at night to Santani which is 3 hours away. We had to leave at that time because the next bus leaves at 8 in the morning and our zone conference started at that time so there was no way around it! So the zone leaders were so nice enough to hide the key to the chapel so when we got there we could sleep in the chapel! So that was a first, a sleep over with 6 missionaries in the church! I would wake up the next morning to a camera flash because it was a once in a life time experience haha.

The zone conference was really good! We learned alot from our zone leaders and also President McM came so it was super good! We would also take advantage of the trip and have another division so Elder S went stayed in Santani and I came back to San Pedro with Elder H from Utah! He would stay in our area for two days doing some divisions with some other missionaries but the Thursday he was with me it was pouring rain, POURING. It was pretty bad that some of the missionaries in my zone called me asking me if they had to go out and work today. I told them that they didn't have to do anything but I promised them that if they went out and worked that they would find an investigator of Gold as they say in the mission. So Elder H and I left in the rain without anything because at this time we didn't know it was going to rain, and we got soaked! From head to toe. 

When we were walking down the street(the only ones) we passed by this house and this family was under their roof and we waved to them and they looked at us really funny! It made me laugh and then I felt that we should go back to talk to them to explain our circumstances. We would end up talking to them and teaching them about the Restoration and wanted us to come back another day to talk more! So we didn't have a problem with that and we had found our golden investigators the Acosta family as I had promised!

The next day I was on another division with Elder S from from Brazil and as we were walking when we passed by this house and a lady saw us and begged us to come in to teach her! Her excitement really triggered our alarms because nobody does this so she had to be on drugs or drunk! But we carefully went into her house and she  sat us down with her Family and asked us to teach her! She has family that are members and she had always wanted to learn from the Missionaries! But this was the first time she has seen us pass by her house! So we taught them and they loved it! I also taught some of the Kids English and we ended a realy good lesson! They are named the L Family.  Another huge blessing!

This week M, J, and A were a little difficult! We taught them with one of their friends that was there when we passed by and listened to us with them but really put a lot doubts in their minds so that was really frustrating. We would pass by again later in the week and teach the Word of Wisdom. Sister M doesn't want to give up smoking because she will get fat so it was difficult to challenge her to live the Word Of Wisdom but she said she would try!

When Sunday came we were super pleased and embarrassed to see The L family and the A family as the first families to come to church right on the dot at 9 o clock! Before the members! They all came and loved it so we are really hopeful for them to progress! The C family didn't come but we will visit them today to see what happened! But the two families that we had found came to church and it was so great! A huge blessing from the Lord!

Elder S is doing good! I am giving him more and more opportunities to talk and he is really learning quick! I assigned him a talk on Sunday so he gave an excellent talk! The people love him for how humble he is even though he cant talk! He is doing great and becoming a great missionary! He used a machete for the first time this week and had a blast! It was fun to teach him how to use a machete!

Well I am doing excellent as you can read and I feel that I worked hard this week! I will continue to do so and work for this unity! :) I was so blessed this week. Thank you for your prayers and your love! I love you all so much and pray for you all the time! I will write more soon! 

Love,
Elder Milton

Letter Home Dated August 18, 2014

Dearest Family,

HEY!  Well, you might have noticed that I was able to send this letter through the pouch mail.  This week, I will have a meeting with the President and his assistants.  They came up to Santa Rosa and I also had my interview, so I had to take advantage and send this letter out with them back to the office.

Well, anyways.  How is everyone doing?  I recently read today in my e-mail that school is in full swing.  That's pretty awesome.  I am still pretty surprised that we have a new dog!  I hope that he is well taken care of!

Elder Milton is doing great!  San Pedro has a lot of work and it keeps my busy.  Also, a lot of traveling.  By the end of this month, I will have over 24 hours of travel time.  But all in all, it is going really well.

My District is doing good also!  I feel that I have gained their trust and I feel confident to lead them, and most importantly, motivate them.  One companionship lives an hour and a half away so we have our District Meetings a little different than normal.  On Monday's, we work and teach in the morning until lunch.  After lunch, we officially start our "P-day".  Then at 6:00 p.m. we have our District Meeting.  So these guys sacrifice a good part of their "P-day" traveling for the District Meeting. They are great and work to, and they never complain.  But I have felt so blessed and inspired with my District.  Most of the time, I don't know why I say things or what to say.  But it always goes good in my District Meetings and they are learning a lot!  I guess the promise in Doctrine and Covenants 84:85 is fulfilled with me everyday!  I work for that!

Well, as I continue to serve my mission, the more gratitude I have for the things we have at home.  Namely a home centered in the principles in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Because of that, I have been blessed with knowledge and understanding.

Thank you all for your love and support!  I love you all dearly and I pray for you all the time!  I know that this is the lord's work and I will continue working my hardest.  I will write more soon!  CHAU!!

Love always,
Elder Milton

P.S. it is almost Christmas!  I can't believe it!!

Week #44 - Pictures

Last picture with Elder GC!

My son! Elder S from Utah!

With Elder GE (From Thatcher!!!) in the Migrations office!

Week #44

Dear Family!

I am so glad to receive your email this week! Haha last week I knew that my email wasn't really functioning and I received all the emails I missed from last week today! 

Well I am touched to hear this Missionary's testimony! That is super spiritual that he went out and trusted that the Lord would help him know when he got there...and of course the Lord came through :) You will have to tell him hi for me and tell him thank you for serving a mission! The ward needs him!

Well Elder R and I didn't find out what was going to happen with the changes this week until Tuesday...and we found out that he would be leaving to go to Luque really close to my old area and really a completely different mission. And my Zone leader Elder L informed me that I would be a ¨father¨! Or I guess I should say I would be training a new missionary! So that really took me back! At this time I had no Idea who it would be and that it would be a little surprise on Wednesday in offices after Training for the new Trainers! Well This was Tuesday and we had to leave at 10:30 at night to get to Luque (where we would have the changes) at 4 in the morning! And the changes didn't start until 7. So that was a fun trip! My district had a lot of changes! Elder R, Elder P, and Elder V all left! I was a little sad! 

So we got to the Luque chapel and waited for 3 hours talking. Well finally came all the changes and I got to see Elder G! I was so happy! But sadly the President took him out of Salado for his last change so he was pretty sad. But I was sad too because I think this will be the last time I see Elder G, he goes home in October and our areas are so far apart! So it was like  a goodbye! He told me he was going to name his first son Marco Daniel Gonzalez Cossio, so I thought that it had a good sound to it! I was touched and it was hard to say goodbye!

Well after all the changes, the assistants took the trainers to Asuncion to the office so we could have our little Trainer training and get our new companions! Also Elder O was training! So it was great to see him and to have our ¨sons¨at the same time haha.  The training was super good! It talked about how important we are to these new missionaries...it kind of put the pressure on haha...but it was really good. I was so amazed how fast the time went! All the new missionaries walked in and it seemed like yesterday I was there! They sat down and we listened to the mission rules together, and then started the fun part. President made a Slide show with the pictures that we sent in our mission packet and paired the companions. So he would read Elder O from Columbia will be training in Del Maestro....Elder S from Utah! ...   With a little dramatic pause haha. Well, I was second to last. Elder Milton from Arizona will be training in San Pedro...:Elder S from Utah! So we went up front and I gave him a huge hug and we listened to some more from the President. Elder S is awesome, and, well..... American.... so he has to learn Spanish! So we will be working really hard with that but he is a goofball haha and he knows it! We are going to get a long great! He does everything I do and follows me EVERYWHERE, even to the bathroom the first day hahahaha. 

Well we got back at like 8 at night and we immediately left to go talk to some random people in the street so we can lose his fear to talk to people and practice some Spanish! He was really nervous at first but he is doing better! The next day we worked and I got a call from the office saying that I had to return to Asuncion to go to the Migrations office again...so we went and I found Elder G E there (From Thatcher)!!!! It was such a coincidence that the south mission sent him there the same day haha so that was super cool! We would finish up and get back to our house at 4 o clock Saturday morning...it was ridiculous, but my companion has a lot of patience!

Okay J, M, and A are doing awesome! We taught a really spiritual lesson about the Plan of Salvation and they understood perfectly and had great questions! We also went with our Group leader and his wife who helped a ton! Sunday only M and A came...I don't know what happened with J but I will find out today! But Hermana M told me to keep trying to help him...that he really looks up to me! So I wont be giving up on him! But church was good and we had the most people attend since I have been here 35! Elder S blessed the sacrament for the first time in Spanish, and after he was done he went to stand back up and knocked all the bread on the floor! This kid is such a goofball! But he knows it and we have a good laugh so we are going to work super hard this week and help him out the best way I can :) to be a better missionary than I am! 

Well thank you so much for your love and prayers! I am doing well and the mission is treating me well! I love it! I pray for you guys all the time and I love you! I will write more next week :)

Love

Elder Milton 

Letter Home Dated August 11, 2014

Dearest family!

How are you guys doing?  I hope this letter finds you all in good spirits and in good health.  Also, I hope this letter gets to you fast.  As you might notice, I sent this letter through the international mail.  Well, that is because I live 7 hours away from the office and I don't think I will be be getting by the office any time soon!  However, the good news is there is a postoffice or should I say posthouse in my area.  So I will be sending weekly letters.  So please enjoy!

With this letter also comes the first time from San Pedro.  San Pedro is a town really old!  I reminds me a little of an old western town in a few parts.  There are horse buggies and everything!  The people are extremely nice and super friendly.  Probably the biggest change for me -- except the environment -- is that everybody speaks Guarani first and then Spanish.  So I am trying to learn Guarani. But its difficult so I mostly ask and study with the people we teach.

So I little bit about my new companion.  His name is Elder R. and he is from Lima, Peru.  He almost has one year in the mission so he is a little older than me.  But as district leader, I remain as the senior companion.  He really wants to learn English so I am helping him out.  We have English days on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and Spanish days on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday with a "free-day" on Sunday.  So whatever day it is depends on what we talk.  This was a promise that came from an area seventy named Elder Cevallo. And I am a living testimony that it really works!

So English days are more difficult for me because I have to think what it is in English and talk really slow.  But I am excited to help Elder R. learn.  So our companionship is off on the right track!

District San Pedro has three areas:  San Pedro "A", San Pedro "B", and Santa Rosa  The district is extremely young.  The majority only have 4 months in the mission!  So in my district classes I focus on the basic-basics.  Santa Rosa is about an hour and a half away, so to make the best of our time, they come every Monday so we can have our P-day together and our district meeting at night so we don't waste too much time traveling.  But my district is awesome and hard-working.  I am honored to be able to be apart of it!

Well, this is the briefing of the situation of San Pedro.  I will be writing much more.  Thank you for you love and prayers.  I can feel them all the way in Paraguay!  I love and pray for you all by name!  I hope you have a good week, and I will be back soon!

Love always,
Elder Milton

Week #43 - Pictures

Service with J. 

This is called a Marijuana Machete, I guess this is what they use to harvest Marijuana in the mountains in Paraguay!

This week was this guys birthday! His name is G...

(and anyone that knows Spanish will tell you that means FAT. haha) 

So we baked him a cake!

Week #42

Hola Familia! 

This week was another busy week of work! Elder R and I were determined to finish this change with a bang! We found a few families that could have some potential! I will relate a story about one of them!

The family is named Bz! As Elder R and I were walking one day we decided to contact this house that we always pass by! The Sister was more than willing to let us in to cool off because it was really hot outside! So we asked if we could share our message with her while we were cooling off haha. Well she agreed and invited her sister to join us. So we taught them about the Restoration because we found out they were pretty Catholic and we felt pretty bold today haha. Well as we taught them, they had a lot of good questions and understood the significance that The church Jesus Christ founded has been restored! They asked some good questions about baptism, and how we need to be baptized and also about the Virgin if we believed in her and Catholic things like that. But we taught in a way really simple and clear! So we are excited to return and teach them later this week! 

Also J and his family are doing good! This week we tried to set a baptismal date with them and they were really adamant at first...that we shouldn't play with God and that people need to be prepared to be baptized! We we listened to their comments and because of that we discovered that their biggest fear is to fail or to fall into temptation after Baptism! It really showed us the power of listening! So we comforted them and told them that we were here to help them prepare to be baptized, and then we agreed with them to set the goal of September 27! So we will continue to help them! They didn't attend Church on Sunday because it was pouring rain and Hermana was worried about all the clothes that she set out to dry but now were soaked! So that part was sad, but they are understanding really good the doctrine! 

The district is doing good! They are all waiting for my call to let them know about the changes we will have! Which I still don't know...which is odd! But I more than likely will have a new companion next week because Elder R has been here for 9 months! So Next week I will let you all know the juicy details :)

Well I love you all so much! I hope you all had a good productive week and that this week is the same! I pray for you always and I am so grateful for the love and support that I have :) I will write you next week! Chau!

Love,

Elder Milton 

8-5-14 - Letter from Pres. McM

Dear Parents,

   It is with great pleasure that we inform you that your son, Elder Marco Le Roy Milton, has recently been called to serve as a District Leader in our mission.  He has worked very hard and has developed an excellent facility with his missionary responsibilities.  We are very proud of him for his faithful and diligent service.  He has been a great asset to the Lord’s work in Paraguay. 

   As a new leader in the mission, your son will be expected to lead from the front,by setting and achieving his own high goals, as well as assisting other missionaries in doing the same.  We believe he is very prepared and capable of handling the task.  Please continue strengthening him through your prayers and encouraging letters.

   We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for sending this great young man to our mission.  He is blessing so many lives through his diligence, testimony, and loving spirit.  Thank you for preparing him so well.  We love your son dearly and send our love and warmest regards to you.

Kindest regards,

Pres. McM

Paraguay Asuncion North Mission President

Week #41

Hey Family!

September really came by fast! These pictures really made me think about that! Kody with the American Flag in Cub Scouts and Megan with her Senior Pictures. Holy Moly. Also that Football has started that is so crazy! But I am glad that everyone is doing excellent besides the Mosquito bites! They are my worst enemy here in Paraguay haha. 

This week was a good week! I worked really hard trying help the people in San Pedro progress. This unity has been in a standstill for 10 months and the members are slowly leaving, so I really focused on some of the less actives and members this week to try to help them out and strengthen their testimonies! On Saturday I did my traveling across the street with a division with an Elder in my district named Elder P. We are in the same unity and same town so it wasn't too much travelling haha. But we had a really spiritual experience with a sister named DF. She has been inactive for 7 years due to the hypocrisy in the unity. This was the first time I had met her since she lives in the other area. She began telling me about her story and why she doesn't go to church and this and that. She told me about her son named G that works and lives in Argentina. Well after figuring out why she doesn't want to go to church a question came to my mind so I asked her, If she thinks her son G wants her to go to church? She immediately started to cry saying that her son always asks her why she doesn't go to church anymore and that he always had motivated her when he lived here in Paraguay. She really opened up to us talking about son and how great of a man he is and that he way more than a son but a best friend also. I left her with an invitation to pray and ask God if she should go to church on Sunday and she told me she would do it. So Sunday morning came around and she came and paid her tithing! It was amazing! I was so happy to see her! I can't imagine how happy the Lord was that she entered into His House again after so much time! 

Another huge blessing this week was with J. and his family! His Mom is named M. and his sister is named A! We started the week off good by helping them cut their lawn and pulling their weeds! They were so impressed that we didn't accept their money! As the week progressed we invited them to church but Hermana M. washes clothes for her job and all of her clients pick up on Sunday! She washes by hand so works all day Saturday and the on Sunday morning to finish in time! So she wanted to go to church but she didn't have any real time! But we prayed for her that she could have the means and desire to go! And on Sunday morning she was the first one to show up at the church house! I would soon discover that she woke up at 4 in the morning to finish her washing to get to church on time at 9. It was so inspiring! She came with A and some of her nieces! But J didn't come because he was sick...so I called him and motivated him to come! So he made it for part of the Gospel Principles class and the sacrament meeting! It was amazing! We talked to them afterwards and they really felt welcomed! Hermana M is really smart with the scriptures and feels that this is the true church of God! So we will continue to work with them and pray that they continue to receive this testimony! 

So a week full of blessings which I am grateful for! I am excited to watch J and his Family progress! I feel that are truly prepared to receive the Gospel! Also next week we will see what happens with the changes we will have! I am pretty sure I will be staying but I think Elder R. will be leaving! He has been here for 9 months! So we will see what happens next week! I love you guys and I pray for you always!

Love,

Elder Milton 

P.S. The computer is really slow today so no pictures :( but next week I will send some!