Another week in Paraguay

Hola! Qué tal? Hope everyone is doing well. Quick little short message. I have realized the greatest gift we have, and the greatest gift that we can receive is the Restored Gospel. El Evangelio Restaurado! haha. A poco español por ustedes. but it doesn´t matter the amount of gifts we have or recieve, the greatest gift God has given us. Is the gospel, and the opportunity to live together as a family forever! Those sealing blessings the gospel brings to us.! Just brings so much joy to my heart and ahhh! It is amazing! I hope everyone is striving to live worthy of the blessings that the Gospel brings, so we can live together forever! As pappap always says, I say to all in our family and extended family, ¨no empty chairs..¨ Let us live worthy, and rejoice in the blessing that the gospel brings into our lives! Because it is incredible. I am lucky becauuse it is the greatest gift that i can give to someone! 

Okay so some stuff that happened this week! I did another intercambio with one of the zone leaders again. He is heading home in 2 weeks. haha. But it is always a good experience to spend 24 hours with them and learn from them. The experience they have. Something he told me that i realized i need, is to enjoy every second of the mission. He was getting kind of sad cause he was like you don´t know how fast it goes. He said he wasn´t ready to go home yet. So i am trying to enjoy every second i am here. Also i learned to recognize the Lords hands more in his work. There were just people we kept running into that day, who are ready, who i had the privilege of sharing my testimony. He was like, Elder i learned something from you. I told him he couldn´t learn from me i am so new. The greenie and rookie. haha. But he loved how sincere my testimony was. When i shared it with others. Sao another invitation, i know it is a bit difficult in utah, but any chance you have the opporutnity to share your testimony or the message about our church do it. Everyone needs it. I feel so bad for the people that reject us, and say i am catholic, i don´t need any other church. ugh Crush, i want to help you! haha But any chance you have to share your testimony! Haga lo! Por favor. 

Like i said i am not allergic to watermelon!" I think i have eaten more watermelon in the past 2 days then i have in my whole life. I sit on my bed at night with half of a watermelon and eat the whole thing. They cost 8 mil. Which is like 2 dollars. haha. I eat mucho! 

We have some good investigadores that are progressing right now. Yesterday we were talking to one of them, they are so good cause they always have questions. And he was like, ya, my brother and cousin told me that they wanted to get baptized. I couldn´t help but hold back my smile. We have 4 people with a baptismal date! I am praying each works out and should have more with a baptismal date this week. They are like all scheduled for 7 of january. That is the last saturday of this change. And my comp and i are guessing at the end of the change i am getting shipped out to another area. That is wwhat we think! I am am praying that those work out. But those should be good! I will keep ya updated of course. Yesterday we taught this guy from brazil, he gave my comp and i each a half of a sandia, watermelon. He was way nice and talked with the missionaries about 2 yrs ago. Almost got baptized. So we will see what happens there too. 

O and there is this guy and his family we are teaching, i don´t know but he reminds me of steve martin the actor in 3 amigos and father of the bride. Ha He just looks like him. haha It is kind of funny whenever i see him. i think of those movies when i see him. 

Shout out and loving

Con Amor

Elder Ban Luwen haha 

Another letter!

"If Christ had my opportunities, what would He do?"

That question i put into the subject bar i want everyone to ponder this christmas season. If you think about it, how do you face opportunities given. Would you serve, or would you hesitate to say hello. Sometimes all we need to do is smile and wave. This Christmas season we need to have a focus on being more Christ like. When the oportunities arrise to serve, will you step up to the call and do as the Savior would do, serve with a cheerful heart, willingly and full of Caridad. This is something i want everyone to ponder and think about this Christmas season. If Christ had my opportunities what would he do? Be more Christlike, have caridad! Love and serve everyone around you! 

okay, so a little recap. This week we have little mini naturual disaster here in coronel oviedo. And all it was was a rain storm. A tormenta is what it is called in spanish. So wednesday we were at our branch presidients house, going over a list of inactive members to see if they still lived in the area and see if we could even find the houses. Alot don´t have like addresses in stuff. So we were doing that and some big black cloudds started rolling in. We new we had to hurry. The wind started picking up really bad, like really windy. Mini hurricane or something. The dust in the street is really bad. So we left the house, to get back to the apartment and you can´t even look forward cause the dust and wind is so bad. But i see ahead of me and the street is soaked and i just see this downpour of rain coming right at us. And then it hits us. Within like 10 seconds my whole body was completely soaked. Iike i had just taken a shower or something. Okay long stoory short we get back and changed and go around to make sure members and everyone we knew were okay cause the wind and rain... It was bad. AS a result 3 or 4 houses fell from the wind. Like totally collapsed, i think 1 person died.. Another was rushed to the hospital. And many trees got blown over. It was crazy and we were walking through it. haha But ya it wasy crazy. My comp said that is what the summer rainstorms are like. So i am sure there are more to come. Cause it only last ed like 20 minutes but it was really bad. 

One more quick thing before shoutouts. Okay two. So we have a baptism scheduled for the 24th! She is the pregnant mom. She is having her baby this week! Were excited. Her whole family is member but her. but she is committed and will get baptized the 24th. She has a strong testimony. Okay and friday night, we ate with one of the members that always helps with us when we teach. He served us steak and these big sausagelinks! Wow i felt like i was eating at tucanoes or something. That was how good the steak was. Tasted like tucanioes! haha

Serve others this Christmas season! I will keep you updated on how when i can call ya. They are supposed to send me a report. And i am supposed to get one of the packages tomorrow. So that will be good! Thanks for the love and support! You guys are the best! Love you all. Enjoy the pics! haha. The stories, love work hard in all that you do! Siempre Consolen con el Señor! 

Les Amo Mucho!

Con Amor

Elder Van