Elder Acor: 4/3/23 & 4/10/23

 

4/3/23

Peacekeeper

¡Hola mi familia y a mis amigos!

Wow, this week was just a little crazy, everyone! I have traveled a lot this week so that was fun! Worked with members a lot and we also had the amazing opportunity to listen to a living prophet during a conference!

I started off super crazy by traveling eight hours to Asunción to pick up my new comp. It is always so fun to go to Asunción because I get to see so many missionaries who I have not seen for a long time. Tuesday we got to do the training of all of the new missionaries and it was so weird being on the other side being a trainer. Introducing the mission to a completely new missionary. It is a very unique experience and I have already loved it so much this week and I can not wait to keep teaching and helping my comp with the things of the mission. We then had to travel back to Encarnación which is another eight hours so that was fun to talk and get to know my new comp.

The next couple days were just a little crazy. I have learned that having to plan everything and be responsible for a lot of things can sometimes be pretty difficult. It was a solid week though. Lots of Spanish to teach and lots of patience in all things. We passed by a lot of members in our branch to get to know them better and also help my comp build his confidence talking with people. I have also been very impressed with myself. Not having someone that can understand the people has been a good challenge for me. I have been having to focus a lot to make sure that I am listening and understanding everything that is being said. It is actually crazy how far I have come with my Spanish and I can not help but smile and think that I truly did something as difficult as learning a different language. This week we also had a fun opportunity to clean the chapel which is always fun to do service. After this activity we got to go teach a lesson to a part member family where the husband is not a member and his name is Felipe. I honestly did not know what we were going to teach them so I just asked if they had any questions. He asked me that before we talked about eternal families and he asked me what that meant. What a huge blessing I was able to explain that and then teach the plan of salvation. The spirit was so strong. I invited him to be baptized but he said he still was not sure so we pray that he can read The Book of Mormon and pray about it and that Felipe can know that these things are true.

 As many of you know we had General Conference this last Saturday and Sunday and man oh man was it good. I mean literally every time we have General Conference it is good but we can always apply all of the teachings into our lives. I love so many of the talks and I even had the chance to listen to some in Spanish. I could actually understand it and it was a cool experience. I would say my favorite talk or theme was with President Nielson. I mean how can it not be that he is the living prophet. We can all be peacekeepers and help others see that being a disciple of Christ means being a peacekeeper. Something else that he said is that we need to speak kind words to peoples face and even when they are not listening and that is the manner we should talk and live. I love this and I am accepting this invitation wholeheartedly because I know that as I talk good about others I can be a happier person.

That is it for this week. I had such an amazing time and I am so happy for the opportunity I have to be a missionary. I am thankful for your support and for your prayers! Love you all so much! Have an amazing week!

!Adiós!

Love, Elder Acor

4/10/23

The Comfort Zone

Cooper Acor <cooper.acor@missionary.org>

¡Hola mi familia y a mis amigos!

Another week in the mission. Another week to grow, learn, and experience challenges. This week was a good one to see my growth as a missionary and with my Spanish abilities.

This whole week was something they call here the Semana Santa, which just means Holy Week because it is the week of Easter. Everyone here is Catholic so many of the traditions come from the church and so everyone has the things that they do. Wednesday we had the opportunity to participate in one of these traditions. So here in Paraguay everyone eats something called Chipa. It is basically corn flour with cheese and then you back it. Honestly it is so good. We went to a members house and they taught us how to make Chipa from scratch and we made so much. Thursday we worked a lot with members. Passed by a bunch and gave them a nice Easter message. We passed by one house of a recent convert and his uncle was there and he was very drunk. It was good though because he very aggressively wanted us to eat his BBQ that he had made. It was pretty yummy.

Friday was a pretty long day. Basically everyone was together to remember the crucifiction of Christ. This means that everyone was with their families and that no one wanted to talk with us. We walked around for a good bit before we could actually have lessons with people. We got to talk with a member towards the end of the day and he gave some great advice on what we could do as missionaries to find and help more people. Then we left his house and there was just a guy standing there. He called us over and he had been drinking a lot. He asked us to pray for him which is a very normal thing for people to ask for us. While I was saying the prayer he literally collapsed to the ground. He then got up slowed and kept asking what happened and I just told him that we said a prayer because that is exactly what happened. He then told me that he was walking down that road to go to a girl's house and drink more but now he did not want to. All we wanted to do was go home and rest. We walked to his house together and while we were walking there he was honestly super with it. He was still a little tipsy but even he was surprised how with it he was. When we got to his house we planned another time to pass by and see how he is and teach him a bit so hopefully he remembers.

The rest of the week was fairly slow with the work. It seems we pass by the houses we need to and either our friends are not there or they do not want to talk. Then we pass by a member's house and talk to them for a while, then we do the same routine. That is pretty much what happened the rest of the week so we are looking for ways to find and help people progress more.

Thought that I would just end off this email with some thoughts and just things that have been on my mind. As the title of my email says I feel like I am in a The Comfort Zone. This does not necessarily mean that everything has been easy or that I have everything under control. I think what it means for me right now is that we do the same things everyday. We visit the same friends, members, and houses. We share in a similar way every time and we contact people in the same way. What I am seeing now is how that does not work. We are having slower days because I am not pushing myself to try new things. If it works to pass by people and we can fill time and teach then it works, but is it effective? Are the people we are finding progressing, do they understand fully what we are teaching? I would say no to these questions sometimes. What I want to do is get out of the habits I have in the mission. Get rid of the things I am used to doing and start pushing myself to do new things, try new things, say new things. I know that once I push myself out of my comfort zone is when I will see miracles but until then I will be exactly where I am right now.

Thank you so much for reading this email. Love you all so much and I hope that you all have a fantastic week!

¡Adiós!

Love, Elder Acor