El oro en Azotea

Hola,

Well it was a good week! We had two divisions this week. We went to San Pedro and did some baptismal interviews and on the way back I decided to clap this super huge two story house and they let us in. It was probably the nicest house I have ever gotten into my whole mission. We taught a little bit about the Restoration and they want the missionaries from there to keep visiting them. So that was pretty cool. The little group there is growing a lot and the Elders are working really hard so it was cool to see. It is a lot like the situation in Ita Paso and we talked about how sometimes we feel like pastors of a little church. haha especially since we live right behind the church. It really is amazing how much I have grown to love the people here and how responsible I feel for their livelihood and progression. I know that love doesn´t come from me.

And although we love Itá Paso, we decided to go visit another area called Azotea that I have wanted to visit for a long time, but it is really far and there isn´t a lot of time. So on Saturday we finally were able to go out there and we struck gold. First we met Hermano Gonzalez and his family. He was the branch President before, but the branch got closed down and we aren´t sure exactly how it all happened, but he went inactive with just about everyone from this neighborhood cause they would have had to go to church way far away and it is a pretty poor place. But we started to just talk to him and listen to him and hear about his life and then he asked us why we had come. We said that we came to get to know him and listen to him and then Elder Sanchez said that we needed his help. He looked really thoughtful and then he said "I give you my word that I will go to church tomorrow with my family." And they went! He sat in a church building for the first time in 7+ years. His two sons are 11 and 9 and haven´t been baptized yet so we are going to start teaching them as well. Hermano Alfonso and the district president were there when he walked in and they both went over and gave him a huge hug. Afterwards we talked with Hno. Alfonzo and he started crying when he talked about how he had done his best to visit that man for 10 years and he finally came. It was way cool to see and we are way excited. In this area there are at least 3 other part-member families that we are going to work with.

One of the members we found over there came out and said "tanto tiempo!" and was so happy to see missionaries again. She is like 70+ years old and has read her scriptures and prayed every day even though she has been unable to go to church. We asked her if she was going to a different church nearby and she said "never!" and bore her testimony to us. The only problem is that we couldn´t organize a way for her to come to church and she wanted to try to walk all the way there, but we told her we were going to find a way for her to go the next week. It was so humbling to see someone so excited to see the missionaries and so willing to try to go to church. We can really see how these people have a huge desire and hunger to feel the Spirit and be a part of the church again. We had a similar situation with a woman who is 8 and a half months pregnant and who also wanted to go to church so bad. We are going to try to see if Hno. Gonzalez will be able to take them in his van next week. But I am more excited than ever to work and build the church in the neighborhoods around Itá Paso. Every house in Ita Paso has been clapped probably  times in the last few months so its time to check out some other options.

Life is good. Today we went and visited some Jesuit ruins in a place called Trinidad. They were way awesome. I sent a lot of pictures to dropbox. I wore my Team Nigeria shirt with wrestling season coming up and cause I promised Coach bishop I would send some. haha I´m a white guy wearing a Team Nigeria shirt in Paraguay. hahaha

Con amor, Elder Hawk

Ready to Wrestle