Before and After

So, I was able to have a division this week with Elder O, a great elder from Colombia (shout out to Grayland). Anyway, there was a funny moment in the morning as we were getting ready for the day. I was checking out a few of the videos he had and got to one that made me a wreck. 

About a month before the mission I came across a video, I think it was just on Facebook or something, but it was a video of a kid rapping about the mission he was excited to head out on and then it cut to this same kid two years later as he recapped what a mission was really like and how excited he was to apply the things he fought so hard to learn in the mission. It's a really great video and maybe mom you remember it, but I remember watching that video 2 years ago as a young kid who had just gotten his mission call and HOW MUCH I CONNECTED with that kid. How excited I was to head out and share the gospel, sacrificing to go do hard things but share the love I have for the Lord. And then watching that part when he's already back and thinking "I wonder if I'll have some of those same experiences and how will the mission really be?"  Well lo and behold, 2 years later, and after my own mission that video popped up again on a little music player here in Paraguay and I watched in wonder.......now I no longer connected with that excited young kid, but this time I connected with the experiences and trials he spoke about 2 years later. I now understood what it meant to look up at the sky and think "it can NOT be raining again." I now know what it is to give up sleep so others can find rest, shed tears so they can cry less, and to give up two years of being with my family so that OTHER families can  be together forever. It turned me into an emotional mess right there with Elder O as I watched this video and CAN NOT BELIEVE THAT TWO YEARS HAVE GONE BY but also that I too, have conquered a few fears and that yes, I too have seen miracles. 

This gospel has stopped being something that is attached to me, something I "believe" --but has grounded its way first into my bones and now knowledge, truth, and light has weaved it's way into my soul..... It brings tears to my eyes in this tiny little computer shop here in Paraguay to think that in a few days, a leader called of God will take a tag off my chest.  But believe me when I say that this tag is engraven on my heart and the Gospel of Jesus Christ is now the basic building block of all that I am and guides me to who I want to be. 

It was a tender mercy to find that video again in my last week on the mission. 

In other news, that awesome family B got kinda scared I think. I always get so freaked out writing you guys about investigators because anything can happen. Well they came to church this last week and turns out this same week there was an ex branch president that everyone really respects, who passed away from a heart attack. That Sunday, his wife got up to the pulpit and in an emotional frenzy screamed "LOOK AT ME, EVERYONE LOOK AT ME, ALL THE YOUTH LOOK AT ME IN MY EYES..........NO NO LOOK AT ME......YOU ARE ALL POTENTIAL GODS. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?  POTENTIAL GODS..." annndddd from there they have been a little hard to find. 

But other good news, is that we have P  who will be getting baptized too this next week. That's another huge blessing for having learned Guarani. He doesn't speak ANY Spanish but his daughter who got baptized with Elder N has helped a lot and now he too is really ready. 

Last AWESOME STORY. So we are sitting outside the chapel on Sunday waiting for the priesthood meeting to start third hour and I see an old guy that looks SUPER familiar. So I go up and ask him....what's your name? And he says A....AND IT ALL CLICKED. 

MY LAST DAY IN PASO YOBAI WE FOUND THIS OLD GUY AND STARTED TEACHING HIM, WHEN I LEFT, ELDER CRISTALDO KEPT TEACHING HIM AND HE GOT BAPTIZED. I WAS ABLE TO DO HIS INTERVIEW FOR BAPTISM--IT WAS MY FIRST ONE. HE WAS REALLY GOOD BOYS WITH LUIS ALBERTO AS THEY WERE LEARNING ABOUT THE PRIESTHOOD TOGETHER. ANYWAYS, ANGEL DISAPPEARS. HE MOVES SUPER FAR AWAY NEARER TO CAAGUAZU AND FOR THE LAST YEAR NO ONE KNOWS ANYTHING ABOUT A, AND I JUST THINK HES INACTIVE. NOPE, THIS DUDE LIVES 40 KM AWAY BUT COMES TO CHURCH ONCE A MONTH IN CAAGAZU RAMA 3. Why does he do it? 1) BECAUSE HE KNOWS IT'S THE TRUTH 2) HE WANTS TO BE CLEAN OF SIN, IS WHAT HE SAID.  Such an incredible find my last week too, to know that A is doing well.  I'll just show you pictures in person next week.

Love you all, till the end, reap for the field is white.

Elder Parker J Yocum
Caaguazú 3.1