Well sounds like a crazy storm hit Bountiful?? As for the weather in Paraguay, well God answered my prayers and it cooled down for a few days this week. It was so nice. I cant fully describe how good it feels to sleep without sweating the whole night. Well as far as my week goes...
It was a pretty good week. Elder Richins and I went out and worked hard, and we did our best to get the branch involved and get some members to leave with us. The work is so much better when you have a solid member in the lesson. It went pretty well for us. We had some good lessons, I only had to eat liver this week, and that sums up to be a pretty good week. I must admit though, I am not a big fan of liver. But you eat what you are given and do your best to smile while you are doing it.
So Wednesday we did an exchange and I was with Elder Barker in my area. We were able to get Javier (one of the counselors in the branch presidency) to come leave with us. He came and visited a inactive guy we have been visiting. Hermano Lopez. He went through the temple, had a son go on a mission, but his family has just fallen away because he has some problems with the branch. So anyway. We shared a scripture with him, and then Javier hit him with a powerful invitation back to church. Lots of it was in Guaraní, but it was awesome. When we were leaving, those 2 hugged and there were some tears in Hermano Lopez´s eyes. My smile couldnt have been bigger this Sunday when Hermano Lopez and his wife walked through the gate into the church. Later that night we went to visit a cousin of Elder Shirks converts. One of his converts, Rocio is her name, came with us to make the visit. The cousin wanted to know what the church was about, so I let Rocio explain. She explained the Book of Mormon in pretty good detail, a lot more than I would have, but it was awesome. When she was done I bore my testimony and invited Catelina to be baptized and she accepted without hesitation. It was really awesome. I have a big testimony of having members coming to make visits with us. Hopefully we can reactivate some of the 1300 members here so that the missionaries will have more people to make visits with in the future.
Friday I felt prompted to contact a house with a lady outside cooking or something. Lately I have just been asking everyone if they know any members so we can find all the less actives, and they usually point out a few houses. So I did that, she pointed out a few houses and then I asked if we could share with her. As we started sharing I felt the influence of the Spirit so strong. It guided the entire lesson. It was the most smooth lesson I think I have ever had. It was awesome. At the end she had the usual Paraguayo doubt of already being baptized. I felt prompted to handle it in a different way than we usually do, and she accepted a baptismal invitation. It was a really good experience for me.
Saturday we ran into Hermano Borjas on the street. I wish you could meet this man, cause he is flat out hilarious. He is a pretty old guy and he will never stop talking so you have to be careful or he will take all of your time. But anyway, we have been bugging him a little bit about going through the temple. So when we ran into him he was carrying a bag from the distribution center. He had a huge smile on his face when he saw us. He asked me, in broken english I might add (I really love this guy he is hilarious) ¨Do you know what this is?¨ I told him, temple clothes! He said yes, it is temple clothes. It was awesome. It was one of the happier moments of my entire life. I am not even very close to him, but it made me so happy to see someone so happy about going to the temple. I am so happy for him.
Well this week was a pretty good one for me. I hope it was good for you too Mother, family, and friends. I realized my love for sharing my testimony of Joseph Smith. My heart burned so strong every time I did so this week. I love being a missionary. I am far from perfect. I have lots to work on. But that is the beauty of this life. Thanks for the love and support. Especially you Mom. I love you so much. You are the best mom in the world.
Love, Elder Naegle
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