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).
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