Well it has been a very busy week, with a lot of traveling. On Monday we went to Pilar which is like 6 hours away and we had to take two different buses in the middle of the night. In the second bus there were no seats lefts, so we stood. haha. But it was cool cause we were with like 4 other missionaries and we had a good time. Then we all slept in one tiny apartment and I met Elder Acevedo´s new son! haha His name is Elder Johnson and he is way awesome. We had our zone meeting 2.0 which turned out really well, but not quite as awesome as the first one. But after I did divisions with Elder Johnson, and they were some of the best that I have ever had. He is a brand new missionary that plays piano like a boss. Pilar has a reputation of being a rough area, so instead of clapping all of the houses close to the street, I started searching for houses hidden behind other houses and such. We found some way cool people who were way excited to talk to us and had some really spiritual lessons. We found one kid who speaks way good English and he defiantly wouldn´t have talked to us if we didn´t also speak English, but he was way interested and went to church this week! At the end and throughout the splits I had a good talk with Elder Johnson and just let him know that he was doing awesome and that he needs to just be himself and use his many talents. He left very excited and I felt like I was able to inspire him. He is going to be an awesome missionary and he gave me a lot of hope for the future of our mission. I love helping other missionaries. It is very rewarding and I left Pilar way excited.
Then we had a long bus ride to Encarnación. We got home late and then on Friday had our combined zone meeting with President LaPierre and the assistants. We talked a lot about the first vision and the Spirit was really strong when we practiced it in small groups. We also talked about not following into a routine and doing things in different ways to help the Spirit. It was cool to hear everyone´s ideas. We gave a training on having a vision and plan for your area instead of just going out and working. We had Elder Johnson play the top hand of a simple hymn and talked about how that is how it sounds when we just go out and work without a plan and without a vision. Then we talked about the specifics of a plan and toward the end I talked about how the Alfonzo family got sealed and how that is the vision for our mission--making families eternal. Then I felt impressed to share about Jace, which I had not planned. I talked about how that experience created a vision for our family of being together with him forever. I said that focusing on that vision and striving to achieve it is what has helped me to progress and has kept us together as a family. Then we said that if we have that vision and plan, than our areas will be like this. And Elder Johnson started playing this beautiful combination of Jesus once of humble birth and I stand all amazed with a few other songs. It was so amazing! The Spirit was way strong. Elder Johnson was way excited to be able to play again and pretty emotional too.
Then we headed back to the area and had a lesson with Lilian and Ivan. I am pretty sad about them because they are way awesome and believe what we say, but are just not willing to put aside other things to go to church and do the other commitments. She was talking about having an eternal family and how when we taught that, she just felt whole. I told her that it wouldn´t be possible to have that if they didn´t do what was necessary. I don´t think they understood, because they didn´t come to church again. I just want these people to be happy, but I can´t force them to do it. It just is hard to love people so much and see them not progress. I just have to have hope that one day they will have the faith necessary. But right now is not their time. I´m telling myself to have hope, but it is getting a bit difficult. I still need to figure things out. It´s easy to say that its all just gravy, but I need to truly believe it. Something that is going to take some time to figure out.
But all in all it was a pretty good week. I am excited for this week cause we are going to be able to focus more in our area! Thank you all so much! Les amo!
Con amor, Elder Hawk
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