Wow family I can’t believe it’s already Thanksgiving again.. my second one on the mission. It’s kind of a bummer Thanksgiving doesn’t exist down here so I’ll be missing out on another turkey dinner… but oh well. Sounds like you guys had a great party again with the group of people. Looks like everyone is great! Tyler Workman looks like the robber guy on spider man ha-ha and Matt Burt is right behind them. Someone needs to do some work on those guys when they are sleeping or something ha-ha.
We had another great week on Wednesday President Agazzani came out to Ciudad Del Este to have a conference with us, it was just with our zone and it went way good. We learned a lot of great things to be able to apply in the mission. It’s kind of sad though cause he came out with even more rules to put in the mission. Things that don’t bug me at all having to obey but just knowing how bad the missionaries are not taking advantage of their time here on the mission. Our mission is the strictest mission in South America by far. I love having the rules cause one thing I have come to love on my mission is loving the word commandment. So it’s not a big deal to me but it’s just so sad when a mission president has to keep coming out with more rules cause you know there are some boneheaded missionaries out there.
This week was pretty fun because for about a month now my companion and I have been planning an open house and a tour of the church for the whole community and Saturday it finally happened. We didn’t have the turn out that we were hoping but there was this awesome member that brought a sweet family there and we were able to get to know them and we will be visiting them tomorrow: They were stoked to accept Books of Mormon so pray for them this week.
Just a few lines up I talked about loving the word commandment. I have been able to just see the miracles of the commandments on my mission. One thing I love about Paraguay is that there are some members in every ward that are just sealed in the gospel, its engraved in their lives and they eat drink and sleep the church. This is the testimony that I have gained on my mission. I love replacing the word commandment for blessing. The ten blessings. Like it says in the scriptures we have our freedom to choose, but we also have the freedom to choose the eternal life or captivity and power of the devil. There are only two choices. The bible teaches us that we can only serve two masters, we will hold to the one and despise the other but we cannot serve both. How true that principle is. One thing that I have just gained a huge love for and even as it shares in my patriarchal blessing is that I would have a love for the scriptures. I mentioned before that I have had the opportunity to finish the Book of Mormon a few times on my mission and also I’m about to finish the New Testament for the 2nd time. I love the way that the Savior teaches. I love the way that he taught his disciples to teach. And even as a principle 2 thousand years ago, today the same principle is that the spirit is the teacher. Doctrina y convenios talks about that in seccion 50: 12-22. If it’s not by the spirit, it’s not from me. I remember the fall year at SLCC we were in the locker room with the baseball team getting ready after a workout and I was talking to another player about how I had to get my wisdom teeth out for my mission and another player overheard and made a comment that I would be wasting my life and ruin my baseball career going on the mission. It caught me off guard and I was offended cause he proceeded to say many horrible things about the church and anti-Mormon things about Joseph Smith right in front of the other players and a couple of them joined in. My childish attitude before the mission I started to... ¨Defend¨ my beliefs but in the worst way by arguing and fighting back with my words, in the conversation they were using vulgar words, I was just waiting for one of the return missionaries to come out of the shower to come help me. Luckily one of them came out and he had heard the whole conversation and he came around the corner and just said... you know what I’ve learned in my life guys.. that you will never know of or about anything unless you search it out and find out for yourselves. Then he said, I can pull out the scriptures right now and prove to you that this church is true and show you evidence but you guys will never believe until you find out for yourselves. All those guys went quiet and for the next 20 minutes there was not one word said from anyone. I was amazed. The spirit entered. I finished getting ready and walked out to class and as I was leaving this return missionary came up to me and explained to me a lesson I will never forget and that I have seen on my mission. When there is contention, bad words said… things of that sort that drive the spirit away, just stop talking and invite them to talk about these things another time in a different environment. He said the spirit will guide you, but if it’s not there, they won’t hear one word you say. I can truly testify of that from what I have seen on my mission. We have to be so careful family… so careful to not harm the spirit because it gets offended very easily. I love the things that I have seen on my mission. From what that player told me that day that my mission would be a waste of time and would ruin my baseball career.. I can tell you right now how truly wrong he was. This is where God wants me to be. Here… and he has shown me that many times already. I love my Savior and his atonement. I love that we can turn to our Heavenly Father for answers. Have a great week family! You are all awesome and Happy Thanksgiving!
Love Elder Hager
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