Tyler's Companion Elder Richards ~ Adios Elder Richards :(

Alright so I'll start with whats up here in Paraguay, my comp Elder Richards got special changed, now I have Elder Stokes from Syracuse Utah. He is a great Elder and we´ll get lots done. It's kinda funny the way its worked out. I have 3 months in Paraguay and 4 companions. Funny how that works haha. It seems like every special change I need to be involved in. President just really likes to talk with me I guess haha. We are getting a lot done here. Our goal for baptisms this month is 6 people. We really think we can get it. I'm excited to see what we can do here. We hope to get Junior's mom baptized. We have our semi crazy investigator that has a fecha for the 7th so we are hoping to make our own white Christmas. We have a bunch of other investigators who aren't quite as close to being baptized, but we will see what we can do.

We still haven't celebrated Thanksgiving. We are doing that today, and right after... up go the Christmas lights wohoo. I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!!!! I'm glad you guys got to go celebrate with Grandma Brown. We really are lucky with the family we have. I'm glad you guys got to go over to Gma Ts house too. Grandma T was super happy that you guys came. And as far as the diet, you just need to come to Paraguay. I've been here three months and I've lost 10 kilos (about 25 pounds.) I think it's more than that, but yeah.

I'd never thought of the mission that way, when you talked about how missionaries play the role of saviors to the people they teach because they provide a way for them to return to our Father in Heaven. It makes me think of one of Elder Holland's MTC talks. He posed the question, "Why does the mission have to be hard, why can't the investigators line up at our doors and the only real danger is getting hypothermia cause you cant get dry?" He then answered the question saying, "This is what has spoken peace to me, it can't be easy because it wasn´t easy for the Savior, and if it was hard for him, how dare I ask that it be easy." There is more than a little truth in that statement, how can I ask that the work of saving a soul be easy when he suffered so much for that soul. How can I say I will not drink a drop of that bitter cup, it isn´t easy for us because it wasn´t easy for him. Make sure Heather knows that before she goes into the MTC Wednesday, she needs to know that it won't be easy, but she also needs to know that it will be worth it.

You used the word frightful to describe the weather, haha. That's a chuchi word haha. I'm sorry that the weather is bad there. I hope it gets better for you. Well that's really about all I have. Thanks for helping me in all the ways you do, and know that I love you and miss you and look forward to talking to you soon.

Love Elder Brown

Questions:

1. What kind of Christmas decorations do people have there or are they up yet?
Pretty much the same as home, Christmas lights, yep

2. Have you used your boots much? Does it rain much?
I have. It does sometimes. Usually about once a week.

3. How many lessons a week do you usually teach?
Around 30 including menos activos.

4. How is your Spanish coming?
It's going really good now, all a sudden I started understanding everyone really well.