Week of 5/16/16

¿como estas? Estoy bien y agradecido por escribir y escuchar de ustedes!

Thanks for all the pictures and emails you have sent, I got the letter from you guys for Abby's graduation. I was thinking if we made one for my graduation, could you send me a picture if you can find it? Thanks for the updates of the family, it's good to hear you are busy and it's crazy that Abby is graduating this week! In the pictures she looks a lot taller, and lots of scholarships to choose from haha. 

Another week in the field, not too much new, we had 1 investigator come to church, and the only problem with him has been that we can`t have too many lessons with him because he is always working during the week, and doesn`t have much time. We have asked him if he likes church and he said yes, but we`ll have to see what else we an do to help him progress.

We have been working with another Christian family that are willing to listen to our message. We went to visit them the other night, and the husband was a little drunk, so we planned another day, and he gave us a hug and kissed us too haha. 

Not much else new, we are helping another couple get married and baptized, but we need to have permission of the parents for the girl, because she is only 16, but they already live together and everything. A lot of work to do, and a lot of walking, but I have gotten used to that. The Guarani I sent with the picture means "Happy Mothers Day Mom" I`m going to write more phrases in Guarani from now on hehehe.... Hope you have a great week and can`t wait to hear from you!

Rohayhu,

Elder Spiro

With his sisters' high school graduation announcement.  It got to him in less than a week, which is a miracle.

Out one year!!!

Hola Mama! 

How are you? I`m doing great and it was so awesome talking to you and the family! Sorry that the internet got cut off at the end, but I`m glad you guys were able to see me on the computer and talk. It was a good week, and it made it all better to talk to you all. I hope you had a good mothers day and the family made you some good food :) It's crazy that Abby had her last concert, and she will be graduating in a week! I can`t believe how fast the time has gone by.

I wanted to answer Dad`s question about what I have learned so far in a year in the mission a little more in detail because I wasn`t able to remember the words in English when you asked me. Like I said, a lot about patience, mainly learning that things will happen in God`s timetable and not when I want it to happen or anyone else, and because of that it is important as a missionary to be diligent in finding the people that are prepared to hear and accept our message, because we can`t force anyone to accept what we say, or to listen, or read, etc. I`ve also learned that a lot of the times I get frustrated when people don`t want to accept is because as a missionary we develop a love for all the people we serve, and after I have learned to understand the love that Heavenly Father has for us, it makes me want to share this message with everyone, and its tough when they don`t want it. But the blessings I know people can receive not only through baptism but through the temple or keeping the commandments, makes me always have a hope for everyone, if not now, for their futures.

I also got the call from the district leader while writing this that I will be staying in the area another transfer with my same companion, so we`ll see what more work we can do. Thanks again for your email and all the pictures Mom, and I hope you guys have a good week, and can`t wait to hear from you all soon! Thank you for your examples and I always keep you in my prayers!

Rohayhu Mucho!!!!

Elder Spiro

His former companions, both Elders Lopez from Guatamala. I love this picture, they all look so happy.  I hope Alex keeps in contact with these sweet elders that become his brothers.

One year celebration pancakes!

Burning a dress shirt at the one year mark.

I wish I knew what this said, it's in Guarani and Google didn't even have the words, haha

4 days away from Hump Day!

Hola Mama,

Gracias por su carta and all the pictures, I got the package you guys sent so no worries, all the food that you sent will be eaten quickly haha, and I really enjoyed the journal entries from Grandpa. I was reading a lot and it's crazy how different the mission is now, I read in one of his journal entries that he had to search for places to sleep each night because they had opened up a new area and there were no members or anything. And all that work he had to do taking care of the missionaries when he was President! It makes me feel bad for my mission president haha. It was really interesting to see he had the same kind of feelings that I had when he started his mission, he had never read the Book of Mormon all the way through before his mission, and I hadn`t either. It's weird to see in those times, there were no lesson plans or anything like we have now. Thanks so much for all the stuff you sent, the foot insoles are very helpful.

It was a good week, the cold weather passed over Paraguay this week, so the nights and mornings were super cold, but I enjoy it a lot more than the heat to be honest. We also had 3 investigators come to church, and we are planning a baptism this Saturday, so prayers would really help! The 3 kids want to be baptized, but their dad had an argument with someone I think in the church and he doesn`t want anything to do with the church now.  We also had 2 new investigators come to church, and they are both interested in learning more, so we have been blessed with more people to visit.

We will be going to the temple tomorrow, so I am really excited for that too, and I will take some more pictures outside the temple so no worries [I will send more than this week]. They haven`t told us the date when we can call our families, but I think it will be this upcoming week, so tell me what day and time would be best for you all. Any day of the week is fine with me, just not Sunday or Monday. Thanks again for the email and the package! No worries about the P90x either, I have other exercises to do and I mainly just stretch in the mornings anyways. Can`t wait to hear from you! 

Te Amo!

Elder Spiro

The package we sent for his "hump day"-it was filled although this looks like we sent an empty box :)

Week of 4/25/16

Como estas Mama?! I am doing good, we had a good week, not much new, just working hard and trying to find new people to teach! We haven`t had the chance to work with Paris much this week, because she lives alone and we need a male to go with us to the lesson that is 18 or older, and a lot of the members work, so we are pretty limited with help. But Brother Aguayo visited her the other day and invited her to church again, but she didn`t show up yesterday, so we are going to pass by to see what happened. We had 4 investigators come to church! A member had invited a friend of hers last week, and she brought her grandma and her little sister this week! We are going to visit them this week to get to know them a little more, but it seems that they like the church, I am very thankful of the members that help in the missionary work!

We also went to visit some people on Sunday with a member and he showed us some people he knows, we visited a less active family. The parents are only members but they have 3 kids that can be baptized! We want to reactivate the family and help them to enter the temple! We are also helping a different family that has been sealed in the temple to return and attend church again, we have been blessed with new people to teach and work with, and I am very thankful for it.

I`m glad to hear everything is good at home, I can`t believe Abby is going to graduate soon, I remember when I used to walk with her to school when I was in 3rd grade haha. Thanks again for the email Mom and the pictures, hope you have another good week with work and the family. Thanks again for everything Mom, can`t wait to hear from you soon! 

Te Amo,

Elder Spiro 

Alex's district and zone leaders

Week of 4/18/16

Gracias por su carta y estoy feliz a saber que todo esta bien con ustedes. This week was much better, it has still been really hot outside, but I always make sure to wear sunscreen haha, and drink a lot of water. Something that helps us when we are contacting a house is asking for water, a lot of the times the people just say "another day" when we show up to a new house, but when we ask for water, they´ll come to the door/gate haha. We did unfortunately have a family tell us that they are going to stay in their church, and they didn´t need us to come back anymore, but I know we have planted a seed for future missionaries to come and teach them!

We didn´t have any investigators that we had invited show up to church but a member brought 2 friends from her school that were interested in learning more about the church. And on Sunday, we went with Brother Aguayo to contact some references that their family had given us, and we had a lesson last night with a lady named Paris. She is going through some problems right now and she is searching for a church to help her. She had gone to the Catholic church but she had attended the Mormon church when she was younger so she wanted to learn more. We talked about the Restoration and I felt the spirit really strong, and at the end of the lesson she turned to me and said she knows God has sent us to help her and she wants to attend church this Sunday too! I had tears in my eyes at the end of the lesson, I have a testimony of how the spirit can testify to the people we teach, letting them know it is the truth.

Not much else new, we will be going to the temple as a mission on May 3rd, so I´m really excited for that. The Aguayo family hasn´t gone through the temple yet because they have to wait 1 year to be sealed as a family, and they are planning to invite us, so that will be super awesome too. Thanks for the packages you sent, I´m sure the food will be gone within the week haha. Hope you have a good week Mom, thanks again for the updates and pictures too! Can´t wait to hear from you soon, I keep you all always in my prayers!

Te Amo Mama!

Tu hijo,

Elder Spiro

FHE with one of the members

A sign the elders found at the church haha

Week of 4/11/16

Hola Mama,

Sorry, but I don`t have any new pictures this week, lame I know. To answer some of your questions, my week has been good, we worked hard and it was super warm all week, but rained on Saturday and Sunday, and here, the people usually don`t do anything when it rains so we only had about 30 people in church. Our investigators didn`t come either, but I`m not sad, I know that we will always have successful weeks and other ones when we don`t have much success, that's just part of the mission. I felt a lot better on Sunday after taking the sacrament and listening to the testimonies of the members. Fast and testimony meeting is always my favorite Sunday. My companion is from Guatemala, and its funny because I had another companion named Elder Lopez from Guatemala too. He is really cool, we get along well and he has the same sense of humor as me, so we don`t have any problems. I have learned a lot from him about the Book of Mormon, because he has read it a lot of times, so that helps.

Not much else exciting happened this week, just a lot of walking haha, but we have been working with the Aguayo family that just got baptized. Brother Aguayo received the priesthood on Sunday and they are planning to go to the temple this Saturday, they already have names of their ancestors that they want to do temple work for. We also started to teach another family that at first was a reference from other members, but after they didn`t really want to talk the first few times we showed up, but one night we came and asked if we could just share a 5 min message with them, and they listened, and the next time we came by we talked with the whole family and the dad had a ton of questions, it was pretty awesome.

Thanks for the package Mom, don`t worry about sending shoes or anything big for now, I bought some here recently and are working good, and thanks for your spiritual thoughts and ward updates. Thanks for the pictures of Grandpa, it is cool to see how different looking the missionaries were back then, I`m going to try and take a picture like one of his haha.  For now I`m doing good, I keep you in my prayers every day, and can`t wait to hear from you!

Te Amo Mama!

Elder Spiro

Conference Weekend

Hola Mamaaaaaaaa,

Mi semana fue super buena, yo disfrute la conferencia mucho, and I hope you did too! To be honest, the general conferences here in the mission are better than Christmas, I just love hearing all the talks and getting the most out of every word. I noticed they talked a lot about families in this conference, and a lot about the duties of a priesthood holder. To answer your question, our zone all goes to the stake center to watch the conference, and there is a room for the English speakers, who want to listen there, so basically, all of the American missionaries haha. I really like the talk that focused on the needs of the refugees too, to show that it is a very big issue, and we can do our part in the smallest of ways that will help largely. 

We found a new family that we are teaching, they had talked to the missionaries before but only their kids got baptized. We are helping the dad drop a few addictions, and also we are helping the mom to support him more in this big change in his life. They are a very nice family, we had a family home evening with them and also it was the birthday of one of their daughters. We have also been working with Celzo, but the only problem is that he needs to attend church, and we think his parents aren`t giving him permission. But we are going to keep working hard, and using what we learned from the conference. I forgot to tell you I didn`t get transferred from the area, and my companion didn`t either, so all is good.

Thanks for your email Mom, hope you have a good week with the family and I`m glad to hear Camille enjoys her art class. Thanks for all of the pictures of the family and of grandpa you sent, and I keep you in my prayers every day too! Can`t wait to hear from you!

Te Amo!

Elder Spiro 

Church in Posta Leiva

Watching conference with the other missionaries at the stake center

Taking the bus to watch conference