This great was great and i have a couple of things i what to write about.....
Play boy bunny at the baptism, Finshing the book of mormon, and the Bible
First playboy bunny
this week in my ward we had a baptism!!! it was great i think it was the first baptism i have been to since my own 11years ago. now before you get all crazy it wasnt my first baptism it was just a baptism of a little 8 year old girl still amazing spiritual and very important but not mine. me and elder mckeon have been working with her family for the past months to get the dad ready to give his son the preisthood and baptize his daughter adn this week he got to do both!! it was so amazing to see his progreesion and the difference the gospel made in his life in just two months i have just i strong testimony that if we just humbile yourself and give yourself to the lord we willmake us more then we could of ever been be ourselves all we have to do is believe and then give ourselves to him through keeping the commandments and much prayer. anyway back to the playboy bunny. the baptism was thursday night and everyone was in their best clothes that werent sunday clothes and one of the daughters of brother Ramirazes ( the man who baptised his daughter) came in a very clean very nice look yellow shirt that in the bottom right corner of the shirt on the front side had the logo of the playboy company which is the bunny thing and if you dont already know what it looks like DONT look it up ill sent the picture of the baptism next time. i just thought it was so funny because her i am giving a spiritual thought at this girls baptism about the holy ghost and her sister right next to her is wearing a playboy bunny shirt. But wow when i saw her enter the water and be baptised i know with out a doubt because the spirit testified to me and i know that Baptism is a real ordenece and that that baptism is my purpose out here. sure i want to help people in every why i can but the best thing i can do for them is help them make covenants or keep covenants because once the are doing that God will do the rest.
I finished the Book of mormon for the frist time on my mission in english this week. i love that book it has changed my life and i now that it is true that it is the word of god and that josé smith only translated it through the power of God. once i finished it i wanted to restrat right then but inside i have started reading it in spanish and my gaol is to have that done in like 4 months or less and then reread agian and agian becasue the thing about the spcriptures is no matter how many times you read it the spirit will always testifive that it is true and you will learn something new that applies to your life that is a promise and not from me but from God 2Nephi 32:3. im running out of time so ill skip a little hear and talked about the bible.
if you really understand the bible you know that from the beginning of time God has called prophets to lead and guide his people and each time god blessed the people and then with time the people rejected and killed the prophets and this continues till Jesus Christ came and set up his church in its prefect form but then as we now Tthe people reject Jesus and his apsotels so once again the poeple didnt have the power and authority of god to run his church and for thousnads and thousands of yyears that power was not on the earth but has we know from the bible God is the same yesterday today and forever so today like he did from the beginning he has called a prophet to lead and guide his people and he started with Joseph Smith and restorted his church once nore on the earth.
i explained all of this to a man the other day and he accpted all of it until i got to joseph Smith and he said i quote ¨ Thats not true it doesnt say anything about jose smith in the bible thats not true it cant be true, he is not in the bible!!¨ well duh he is not in the bible he lived almost 2 thousand years after the bible was finished of course he´s not in there at least not in name i know that there is a prophesise about josé smith in Isaiah. i just dont understand some people cant wrap their head around the fact that there are prophets today God never changes he call prophets in the old times he calls them now and his name is Thomas S Monson. well i have to go this is a wierd spot to end but ill finish later.
Paraguay is great im doing very veyr god my spanish is so so but better and i love my mission and the Lord Jesus Christ. He is knocking at the door please dont shut him out that him help you let him heal you. i love you all very very muvh i wish i had more time to write personal letters but o well stay strong and mom keep fighting the good fight you are amazing and if for some reason you forget reread that letter i wrote you for your birthday becasue it is so true every bit of it.
Love ELder Hafen
November 21, 2011
in six days i will have been out for five months WHAT is happening where is my mission going i dont understand way does tmie go faster when you´re having fun. the mission has been great is great and will always by great. this week i had my first zone confernece it was great about 56 elders and two sisters and wow it was amazing great spirit and i learn awsome things about how to better my live personal and build my testimony as well as work better with the members of the ward. i have gained a testimony of work with the members it is so hard to great people to come to church one because people are such lazy and forget that church is a blessing not a sacrifice it is a chance to renew your baptism convent and feel the spirit in oder to have it for the rest of teh week and two way would you go to a place were you dont know anyone. the church in my area has 450 members but only but 70 go if we are lucky the past three weeks have been better slow only about 40ish or so last week we had 29 no good no good (it rained that day and when it rains in paragauy everybody stops and does nothing) these week we have weeks with members in order to try and build friendships between the investagator and some of the members also so we have tried to bring back so inactive families which in my mind is as good as investagatores. for example this week we had a family come to church that hasnt been to church in years and it was like a pary everyone was so hapy to see them again and just welcomed them in like they were a good lost friend(which i guess they were) the church is true did you know that? if not, i testitif that it is and it is worth looking in to.
any way what happend this week hmm this morning a man called us over and wanted us to pray for him and touch his wound so that he would be healed. a little weird but we taught him how to pray so he could pray on his own and than we prayed together and ask god to heal his wound according to that man´s faith and left a blessing on his home. what the outcome was or is i dont know but i felt that maybe we helped him grow a little closer to god. this week one of our old investigatores asked why we pray to Nephi and not god? this i dint understand becasue not two seconds ago we just prayed to God in the name of Jesus christ sometimes i feel like people dont use their ears but hey who am i to judge.
me and elder mckeon are great having fun and doing the work both at the same time becasue really the work of god is fun its joy its great and i dont even have a baptisum yet i cant even image how happy i´ll be whne i get to see MY first baptizum and watch has a person changes their life and stars their journey towards the tempol the tempol being the goal for everythig i do i want to do through the tempol with my converts.
i wish you all the best thanksgiving ever how exciting to have family and big get togethers eat a lot of good food for me and give everyone a huge hug.
so if this was every where and didnt make much since but good luck mom with finlas and eliza get off gmail you´re in class!!! jk love you
ELder Hafen
Thanksgiving
Happy late thanksgiving
I guess the food wasnt very good this thanksgiving becasue out of everyone i heard from no one mention food at all but i guess with a new baby two puppies there wasnt much time to eat. i m so happy that you are and a great weekend. sorry i dont send more pictures but to tell you the truth i like never take pictures mostly becasue one we can only take pictures on monday or at bautisms and two i feel really weird dressed as a missionary and just standing taking a picture.
THis week i learned how awful satan is i remeber one time thinking ¨poor satan he just doesnt understand¨ Now how ever i realize how unmerciful and absoulutly evil he really his. I have tought families this week where they were so far trap sown in the worldly things that they couldnt see the light of christ anymore they asked us how much we get paid to be missionaries and we told them nothing that it was all service and all totally worth it. and they could just not get there head around they fact that we dont get paid to be here that we actually paid to be here to preach the word of GOd and help his children. there where others who feel like the church is selfish and cruel becasue they spend all this money on building big beauitful buildings well people are starving in the streets. we tried to explain that they church spends millions of millions of dollars on program that are free that teach people how to help them self or job skills and like the first repsonse units for huge natural destruccions the church has huge program all people have to do is be humblie and go to this program to accept that they need to change. but he didnt believe us and said that if the church really wanted to help him they would give him money to feed his family at this point i said if you really want the money to feed your family maybe you should stop smoking and drinking and use that money to feed your family. i dont think he liked that much he just wasnt ready to change.
this sunday we had two investagators at church one of which willbe my first bautism she is 18 her name is andriana and she will be bautised before christmas that way elder Mckeon and i can have a bautism together. and we had two menos activo families come to two aswell both just the mom´s and their kids because the Fathers are drunks and have lost all faith. it hurts me so bad to see these poor mothers sitting alone with out their husbands but we are working with them and with time and faith i know that we can get these brothers to come back to the light.
the mission has opend my eyes to a whole new world and has helpped my realize how amazing my family is and how lucking i was to be first born in a country that takes education serisously and to have a family that knows how to love.
I love the mission and i have seen the gospel change lives: give hope to the hopeless strenght the weak and build up the broken. that is what the gospel is it is hope , hope for a better world. there´s a scripture that talks about that i believe it is Moroni 7 40 something to something. welp love you all very much keep my updatede with test scores and swim meets and CF and school and did Alvie have something that i need to worry about so confused any whoo love you
Elder Hafen
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