So It's Really Cold Up There... ???

Dear Family,

I feel like I just wrote you yesterday.  Wow time passes really fast.  I have found that the harder I work the faster and faster time seams to pass.  Before you can do anything the day is already over and your dead tired and ready for that bed.  Dead tired but content.  And that's what God really wants of us.  He wants us to be dead tired but content. Or in other words he wants us to be at peace. 


To be at peace we have to have two things in our lives, and we have to be doing them better all the time.  Those two things are both related to faith and require much faith to do them.  They are Obedience and Knowledge.  We receive the peace in this world when we are the very most obedient to the knowledge that we have of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  In so doing show our faith in God.


So many times we hear the question ¿Why are their so many bad things in the world? ¿Where is the peace? ¿If God loves us so why is everyone fighting all the time? The answer and solution to these and all the other questions that we face in this life all come back to the question ¿Am I being obedient to the knowledge that God has given me about the gospel?  If so, and if all of us could complete with our personal duty to God relating to this subject, then we would all come to find the peace in this life and the life to come, World peace, Eternal Peace.


That is the reason that it is so important to search for a testimony about every aspect of the gospel around us so that we can then act according to that God given Knowledge.

Sounds like your using your summer vacation good. Keep it up!

Elder McShinsky

Happy Thanksgiving

Dear Family,

This week has been a good one.  It was the first week of Elder Singson here in Paraguay.  And truth is that every day I'm a little more amazed.  He has come to the mission ready to work and that's exactly what we're doing.  His Spanish is great and I'm excited to keep working a full.
 
Today we had a Thanksgiving Dinner and Turkey Bowl activity (Yes we actually found a real football to play with.)  It was really great.  We spent 20 minutes expressing what we we are thankful for.  (With thankful pills) It was a really great expiriencia to see the testimonies of the elders in our district as they shared what has affected their lives, and really how thankful all of us were for our families.  The family is the most basic part of the plan of God and is the part that helps us more then any other part to follow the rest of God's plan.  Happy Thanksgiving! 

Elder McShinsky

Ya And I'm Making Myself Apple Pear Pie

Dear Family,

Wow, that's great that everyone is working so hard on dancing!  Keep up all the hard work.  What position did Mike make in Amateur Latin?  And who else made the final?  That's great that Casey is getting
ready for a mission.  Now I can start praying really hard for him to come here so that I can train him... :)

Happy Birthday Annie! (But you not allowed to grow up until I get back!)  Here in Paraguay we just had changes.  Because of that I'm writing today.  Yesterday, I went to Asuncion to pick up my new companion fresh from the MTC.  He's Elder Singson from Lindon, Utah.  He´s a great missionary and is ready and excited to serve the Lord.  Here in Paraguay we feel the Lord's blessings everyday.  I hope and pray that you feel them raining down on you as well!

Elder McShinsky

Raining Today, Snowing Tomorrow

Dear Family,

Wow, it's great to hear about how everything is going in the dance world, and that the dance floor is going in good.  Does it have mirrors yet as well?  For me it's kind of funny to hear about all the little things that your all doing over time as you move into the house.  It's also kinda funny as well when I realize that sometimes I'm doing the same kind of stuff because our apartment is a new one in the mission, and there's a lot of stuff that we´re doing to try to make it better and better all the time.

Today as a district we went to ITAIPU, the worlds largest hydro electric dam.  A member works there and he got us set up with a special tour that is reserved only for graduating engineers.  The normal tour only goes around in a bus, but ours we got off the bus and visited all of the parts inside.  All the way to the point in which we went about a meter from one of the huge spinning turbines!  (I thought I'd tell you all that so that I could make Dawn jealous...) 


My camera died, so I'll send you pictures next week.

Oh no, I didn´t recognize Lily :( She´s so much bigger!


Right now we're working with an investigator named Luis, The other night we taught him all about the Plan of Salvation.  It was great to see him open his eyes and start to truly understand the plan of our Heavenly Father, and what love that Father has for him.  That is so important in our lives.  We need to always be trying to expand our vision, in everything that pertains to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  If we do, we will find treasures, even hidden treasures.  Our mind will be enlightend, and we will find the strength to live the gospel.

With love,

Elder McShinsky

I LOVE CHEAP FRUIT!!! We bought a bunch today...

Dear Family,

Happy Halloween!
 
Ask them what part of Argentina, my companion wants to know, ... and I do too.

This week we started working really hard with the old investigators here in Presidente Franco, and it is really amazing to me how when we pass by their house, how willing they are to listen to us again.  How so many times they had stopped investigating the church because they simply didn't understand something.  We are going to their houses and just clearing up the details that they don't understand and they are willing and ready to start coming back to church again and progressing hast bautismo.

Sorry I don't have a lot of time, I spent it all sending pictures...


Love ya'll!

Elder McShinsky