The Rolla Holla! Monday, 25th of January, 2010

McWalker in the King’s Court

We were surprised to see a little set back this week in the results we’d been hoping for. Sunday we had 8 investigators and 8 members (including us), for a total of 16 people in the meeting. We have been striving to focus on the men and families that we are teaching but have been struggling to get them to church. Right now we have 3 families with baptismal dates and 2 of them have attended church. The future looks bright for San Pedro and we are doing all we can to establish the church upon a strong foundation.

I don’t know if I mentionmed this, but In my interview with President Wade last week, he told me that he KNEW it was time for San Pedro to be opened and that he wouldn’t be surprised if there were very established and influential people prepared to receive our message. So, we focused a lot on contacting and teaching people of influence this week, having faith that the Lord has prepared them to receive the gospel. For example, we had an appointment for Friday morning with the Governor and waited 3 hours to speak with him. At the end he sent out the General Secretary who directed us to the Head of the Department of Social Action. He was a really good guy and had worked with the church receiving donations of wheelchairs and medicines. We talked about our purpose and presented the message, inviting him to read and to pray to know that it is true. He said he would. The only difficulty is that he lives about 15 KM from San Pedro.

We spoke with leaders in the City Center House of Culture, and they will now be providing us the location and inscriptions for our weekly English Class. Last week we had 9 students and it keeps growing. Now we’ll have a class room with a chalk board and air conditioning, so that’ll help. We also were able to speak with leaders in the Agriculture department, in the Radio, and of various Soccer Clubs here. It has been interesting and has felt like a lot of seed planting, but we are sure we’ll see the results soon.

As we work with those people, we are also seeing the power and necessity of learning Guarani to win the hearts even of the most educated, well-established people. It’s been fun and we’ve been learning some jokes in Guarani that make the people roar. The people here in San Pedro are incredible and I love them! They are taking good care of me while I am here far away from all of you and from the rest of the world. We hardly see other missionaries, and so are learning to develop a good relationship between us two as companions.

Elder Walker is an excellent missionary. President Wade also told us he wanted us to have District Meetings just as if there were 10 of us in the meeting. So we have been having district meetings on Tuesday, and we kind of laugh at ourselves as we sing, pray, recite our purpose and the monthly scripture for the mission, and have a legit, formal class. It has been amazing, though, because we have felt clearly the inspiration from Heavenly Father regarding how we can improve. I am excited and loving the work! There is a lot of it here in San Pedro. I can’t wait to get back out there and have another go at it this week!

Elder McCarty


Pics

007 Teaching the English class. The idea was to get the smart, ambitious people that want to learn english, but lots of young girls just keep showing up. Not sure why...lol. But were hoping the change to a more neutral location will help. Without a chalk board I was writing on white paper and taping it up to teach basic english


004 We run everywhere to get all the work done that there is to do. Sunday morning we went out and woke some people up to get them to church and had to RUN back to prepare for Sacrament meeting and welcome the rest.

003 Being gangsters with good ol` Elder Vail on the bus. I miss the guy and he is STILL in the office. He should be getting out soon though.

002 Looking surprised and crazy for some reason, with a monkey in the background.

001 NOt sure if I’ve sent this before. Just chilling outside a house for sale. Maybe I’ll buy it for my summer vacation home (since summer there is winter here, lol).

The Rolla Holla! Monday, January 18, 2010

On our Own

Don’t worry, the hand is healed and I am happily typing. We found an air conditioned cyber cafe with semi-new computers and they even bring you ice cream (if you ask for it). The only down side is the loud, somewhat distracting regatone music, but I’m over it :-).

Life is great in San Pedro. We worked our hearts out this week and had some great success. We set some goals and posted them on the wall along with the way we are going to achieve them. It was incredible to see the way Heavenly Father blessed us as we strived to do what we felt was his will. By the time Saturday came we had 4 different families committed to prepare for a baptismal date along with various other people. Of those people, 10 came to Sacrament Meeting on Sunday, where I conducted, my companion and I blessed the sacrement, played and directed the hymns, and the speakers? You guessed it, Elder McCarty and Elder Walker.

Doing things ourselves has sort of been a theme in our time here. There are no member to help with the work, to make us food, or to trust with our clothes, so we are housemakers, chefs, fully-responsable investigator finders and expert clothes washers in buckets with soap and clothes lines. Lots of fun in San Pedro. I’m also attaching the pictures of the house before and after we did all of our work on it. I should have taken some pictures inside but forgot to. Next week.

We had interviews and zone conference this week. In our interview, President invited me to read the missionary chapters of the book of mormon and take them as my work manual while I’m here in San Pedro, specifically to see “how those missionaries did things”. You should read them with me (I still have to find which they are, but lots in Alma, Mosiah, and I read this morning in Helaman 5). When you find the chapters, I’d love to hear which they are and your insights on how they did things to achieve such miraculous results!

I also felt the spirit deeply the day before we came out here as President knelt with us to pray and pleaded that we be blessed to establish the church, rapidly, here in San Pedro. He expressed to us that he KNEW this was the time for San Pedro to open and that we were the missionaries to do it. All we have to do is work hard and have faith that people have been prepared here for us! We set a plan this week to focus on the people of influence here in San Pedro (of course, never denying the gospel to anybody willing to accept it). President especially focused on the story of Ammon and his work with the king. I know that Heavenly Father has prepared people here that will become strong pillars of the church in San Pedro. Thank you all for everything! Love you!

Elder McCarty


Pics

IMG_0015 Here is our Apartment/Chapel before we did any work on it.

DSC05409 Here we are painting away the first few days we got there. You’ll see the final result. It actually didn’t turn out half bad.

011 In the plaza in downtown San Pedro. No idea who this guy is but he looks good in my hat.

013 Also in the Plaza, here is the sign for the city. It says, Capital of Cordiality under the name, and then, enjoy our hospitality. Turns out its true. Oh and if you look close, in the bottom right corner are the flyers we put up all over the town the first week we got here, and we even had one member who came the first Sunday because she saw one of them.

007 My companion and I outside of our newly painted chapel (on the left is the door to our apartment, which will be separated from the chapel).

The Rolla Holla! Monday, January 11, 2010

I feel a certain inexplicable anger and frustration as I type. It might be because it literally hurt and this sticky, Paraguayan keyboard isn’t making it very esay. You see, last night I was sleeping right next to me best friend Tokyo (thats the brand of my fan, which saves my life every night by letting me get at least a little sleep), and I had put off installing the front cover because I didn’t have the right bolt. Well as I stretched out this morning, my hand went right into the blades and got horribly mangled. Now it is painful to type, and I’m having a hard time getting a lot of the buttons. I’ve got it well bandaged and hopefully it will be healed by next week.

Well, despite the pain and frustration, I am stoked out of my mind to be out here in my new area. I though I had told you all this, but maybe not. Changes came in and President assigned me to open San Pedro for the first time in history to missionary work. I’m here in a dusty old internet shop with my Argentine companion, enjoying a pday FAR far away from Asunción where I have spent my entire misson.

The people out here are incredible. I think I can count the number of times we’ve been rejected on one mangled hand. They all want to know what we are all about and what is the Book of Mormon and who was Joseph Smith. Of course, their curiosity is fuel for our excitement to teach and testify with convincing power.

Over New Years, President sent the Assistant and I out here to find a house and get everything ready. While we were here, we we taught the family that owns the building we are renting. We got here Thursday at midnight, but in church yesterday, we we were still blessed to have 7 investigators, including the faimly we had taught on the first trip out. The family is incredible. The man is general manager of a large cattle ranch and is incredibly humble and obedient to whatever we say. He recognized something in us and the family has set the goal to be baptized on January 21st.

Well, we almost killed ourselves working Friday and Saturday, painting and repairing the house in every spair moment. I forget my camera so pictures will have to come later. I know God has a great work prepared for San Pedro and I feel so lucky to be an instrument in His hands.
I love you all and thank you for your support!
Elder McCarty

The Rolla Holla! Saturday, January 02, 2010

The Great Adventure to San Pedro

The change is in. Drum roll…..dubah-dubah-dubah…ching: San Pedro! (in case you missed the title :-). About 3 hours away in a speeding vehicle from Asunción. A place where missionaries from God’s only complete and restored church have literally NEVER before been. Wow! I can’t explain how excited I am. Excited…and somehow anxiously nervous at the same time. The responsibility of being these people’s ONLY contact and experience with the church is humbling. A big part of the nervousness comes from knowing just HOW much is possible. From our 3 day preparatory visit this week, I have seen how humble these people are and how WHITE the field is, ready to be harvested.

Most have never seen Americans, let alone missionaries in their lives. Many think we are representatives from the bank or from the President of Paraguay. The message of the restoration and that Jesus Christ came to visit the people of the American continent is, to them, both incredible, and inspiring. A big change from the attitude I’ve seen so many times each and every day of my mission: “Oh no, it’s the mormons again.” I suppose now my task will be less of overcoming obstacles in people’s current, incorrect conception of who we are and what we do and more CREATING understanding and INVITING powerfully to come unto Christ. How exciting.

The interesting part is that the population is relatively well-established and well-educated. In fact, those that have been most receptive so far to the message have been those that are towards the top tiers of San Pedrano society. Apart from teaching and getting to know the people of this city of 36,000 inhabitants, we were able to find a building that will serve as both our apartment and our chapel (after a few slight modifications and repairs), to get to know some of the smaller satellite towns round about, and even enjoyed a little fishing early this morning (still my P-day, until it changes to Monday the 11th next week), all before coming back to Asunción at about 4 pm this afternoon. It was an incredible adventure!

More than anything, right now, my desire is to remain humble and recognize my dependance on God. My biggest task is to STEP out of the way so that He can do His work through my hands. I am thrilled to have the opportunity. Thank you for your prayers in my behalf. They have a greater affect than ANY of us know. Keep ‘em coming, I’ll be needing them. I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Elder McCarty

IMG_1005.JPG One night we set a goal (among other, more important ones) to take cool pics to remember Paraguay and our missions. Here was one of them…maybe we didn’t achieve the goal.

IMG_0990.JPG Another attempt at the goal, sitting on a wall, thinking we’re cool.

IMG_0074.JPG Here we are at a cool dock on the side of the river. There was a nice breeze and a beautiful view. We ate breakfast here and someday might do baptizms there as well
IMG_0061.JPG We fished all morning (spent too much time fiddling with the line and trying to find the “perfect place”) and this was all I ever caught :-)

IMG_0043.JPG Here we are at the side of a beautiful lake where we tried to fish (among like 3 other locations, since my companion was very impatient). He also fell in almost up to his waste


IMG_0038.JPG We got tons of food to eat in our hotel on New Year’s eve, but were so tired, we fell asleep before we could finish most of it. Of course, we woke up to all of the exploding fireworks at midnight, and then promptly fell back to sleep.