Elder McShinsky is EXCITED for confrence!!!!

Dear Family

Apparently our house is a little difficult... The stake patriarch came today, and took 7 and a half  hours to install a air conditioning unit... Wow so we spent our entire p day inside, working on the house... 

Sound like ya´ll had a good time competing....

This week we have been working hard to get to know the whole ward, and try and find new people to teach as well. We are hoping to find a bunch this week. Please pray for us, so that we can find more people who are ready to enter in to the lords kingdom through Baptism. Outside of that we just had a bunch of normal everyday adventures.... 

Thank you for all your hard work!

Elder McShinsky

Is it Cold Yet?

Dear Family,

Please have fun on my part during the family reunion.  Yes the weather this week has been a little bit colder.  I've whipped out my coat and we´re out working hard. 

¡¡¡¡Happy Birthday Mom!!!!

O.K. this week has gone by way too fast!  So I'll just write you next week instead.... Just kidding.  But this week really has gone by incredibly fast.  We started the week out with a mission capacitation.  And then worked all week long.  And in the end you get really tired missionary, but a happy one. 

Wish the best of luck to you all!

Elder McShinky

Memorial Day Letter

Dear Family,

About the tablecloth.  It was made 9 month's ago especially for Mom in Barrio Sajonia by Hermana Leon.  She as well as I send all our love to you.  I was going to bring it home with me, but the opportunity came around so I sent it last week instead.  And yes it is hand made.  The little electronic thing-a-majig is actually a battery charger (like camera and phone batteries.)  Just make sure that the two little metal things are touching the batteries input slots (the little light will turn on).  Then plug into the wall. (P.S. Be sure not to electrocute yourself) It's great for travel.

Well this week was just great!  We had a great surprise.  Felix one of our investigators decided all of the sudden that he finally wanted to be baptized, and that he wanted to do it if possible before Leo (A member of the ward) left to serve his mission in Uruguay.  So he got baptized Tuesday, and then on Saturday the Hna. Jorgelina got baptized as well!  It was great to have both their confirmations on Sunday as well as another farewell to a sister missionary on her way to Peru to serve the Lord.  Or in other words this week in the ward = Lots of excitement.  Two missionaries leaving and two different baptismal services plus all the other normal ward activities.  Wow, what fun to be part of the true church of God.  His kingdom here on earth again.  On top of that we did divisions two times this week, and worked our hearts out!  We're real excited to really get into it again this week as well.  We feel invigorated and Da Gusto!  We feel truly blessed, and we are really trying our best to help out our Zone.

Elder McShinsky

The Lord Loves You

Dear Family,

The Lord loves you.

It's Raining... How fun! That means that we get to run around all day today and get persecuted for the Lord in the rain!  What a blessing!  Generally people feel bad for us when it rains as well so more of them let us into their houses to teach them, so that's just great!

Have fun with the cub scouts!

That's great that your having a Family Reunion, seeing as it's filming in the silent film era, you should put my picture on the wall.  I won't say a word the whole time, I promise!

Congratulations Casey!!! Work hard out there, the Lord needs you to! 

Sorry, I don"t have any more time today, but keep in mind that the Lord loves you!

Elder McShinsky

Birds are Singing!

Dear Family,

Life's good.

Please play a little baseball in my behalf as well.  I should have brought my mit with me... but oh well, it's all good.  Don't really need it anyway.  I think it's wonderful that your moving all those boxes now!.... (That way I don't have to do it later...) No, we move stuff around down here as well.  It's a bunch of fun.  The truth is that right now we are looking for a new house as well.  President Arnold doesn't want any of the elders to live in a house with 4 missionaries anymore.  Too many distractions.  So we're on the lookout.  Finding a new house is kinda a rough deal...

Speaking of dance, that reminds, me this week we found out that a member of our ward, who lived in Utah for a while, has her friend visiting her for this week.  She's from Lindon, and you won't believe it, but she's good friends with the Palmer Family (Logan). they're even in the same ward.  Her name is Martha Dorner.  We talked about that for a little while.  She goes back home in about a week.  I'm going to try and send a little package home with her.  But I thought that you would think that that was just great.  It's a small world.
This week we've been working really hard, and in the midst of all that the Lord has really blessed us, and reminded us that it is by His grace that we accomplish anything.  And this week we're real excited to keep it up!

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!  It was yesterday for us down here... As well as Independence Day, and the day that the Aaronic Priesthood was restored to the earth. What an exciting day!

Love Ya´ll
Elder McShinsky

Elder McShinsky Called

This is part of the skype conversation going on while he was bearing his testimony.  We were very glad to hear from him and are excited for when he gets home!

What a Beautiful Day!

Dear Family,

O.K. The most important thing first Skype.  40 min of fun on Saturday at 5:00 in the afternoon MY TIME.

Ya sorry for not writing on monday, we had changes.  Now I'm here in Ybate Asuncion with Elder Nielson.  I received the call from President Callen 3 days ago to come here and work with Elder Nielson as the Zone Leaders here in Asuncion Zona 2.  I'm really excited to be here.  In our zone is Barrio Republicano, where I was a year ago, and in this stake is also Barrio Sajonia.  So i"ll get to see everyone again around here. 

Now taking a step back to Presidente Franco.  This last week we finally had the Wedding and Baptism of Dany and Nancy!  (Sorry I forgot my camera so I'll send you pictures next week)  But they really showed their faith in getting baptized, and they are progressing a ton!  They are fantastic!  Sorry I basically have no more time, talk to you on Saturday.

Love you!!!

Elder McShinsky

Happy Easter

Dear Family,

Happy Birthday Mike!  Have a good one.

 
Happy Easter (I ate a chocolate bunny too, just to let you know.)  We had a lot of fun down here as well as a lot of rain. It rained all day and we happened to be out 10 kilometers in the mud!  Church shoes are NOT built to walk in the mud.  But we still had a lot of fun.  The dirt here is a clayish red color and when it rains it converts to a super heavy sticky mud, that the buses don't even try to enter for the next 2 days (Yes it is that bad.) But that doesn't stop the missionaries.

We walked about a mile and a half in it.  And really a lot of times that is exactly how our life is we see a reward at the end of the road.  And we realize that the pain to get to that reward is worth crossing the mud.  And that without crossing the mud we can never get there for ourselves. (And yes it was worth crossing the mud!) 

Wow I can't wait to see the house.  It sounds like you're all working hard to make it a really nice place.  And that's exactly what God wants.  I was reading the other day in a Liahona and a professor from Harvard said that the definition of vulgar is to do inferior things in a inferior way.  I'll let you think about that.  But when we are truly converted to the gospel we want to avoid vulgarness and idleness in any way.  He said to stay in dirty cloths when the situation does not require it is vulgar.  To speak in a way that does not express personal refinement is to be vulgar.  We should always be improving ourselves and our surrounding as the circumstances permit.

Dani and Nancy are Fantastic!  Pray for them!

Elder McShinsky

Snow Snow Go Away...Come Again Another Day!

Dear Family,

Well its starting to get colder here.  And I don't like it.  I'd rather have it hot, so that I work later at night easier.  This weekend we just changed our clocks and that means that here in Paraguay that it gets darker sooner.  :(  I like being able to talk to more people in the sunlight... But it's all good.  We'll be working up a storm anyway. 

Down here in Paraguay right now there's a giant Denge threat.  Denge is a sickness kinda like yellow fever or malaria, well its actually more just like the knock off brand of those, or their secret evil twin.  So a lot of people are getting sick right now.  There's no more room in all the hospitals, and we get to have fun putting on EXTRA bugspray!  YAY!  With the help of the lord we're all good and going!  But please keep the people of Paraguay in your prayers as well.  They need it..

Love you.
Elder McShinsky


P.S. President Monson's Talk in the priesthood session was amazing! Read it! Then Read it AGAIN!! :)

Six Miles of Blessings This Conference Weekend!

Dear Family,

Sorry about that last week.  We spent our P-Day traveling and organizing things in the District.  And we thought we could have time between all that to teach a couple of lessens during P-Day as well, but it turned out that it didn't work out so well.  So on top of that we have been living off of my emergency ramen noodle soup for the past week because of lack of time... But its all good now! !!!!SORRY!!!!

Congratulations Jessica!  One new Nice for me!!!! :)  Wow what a great day a day to welcome into this world one more child of God, and the opportunity to look for Gods help in raising that child!

WOW--------------------------------WOW-------------------------------------WOW
--WOW-------------------------WOWWOW-------------------------------WOW
----WOW---------------------WOW----------WOW---------------------WOW
------WOW-----------------WOW--------------WOW-----------------WOW
--------WOW------------WOW-------------------WOW-------------WOW
----------WOW--------WOW-----------------------WOW---------WOW
------------WOW----WOW----------------------------WOW----WOW
--------------WOW WOW-------------------------------WOWWOW
-------------------WOW----------------------------------------WOW

WOW General Conference is AMAZING!!!

All of the talks were fantastic.  I loved the talk by President Uchtdorf Sunday morning.  We had an investigator there that had just that problem.  Stuck in the road to Damascus.  He knows everything and has been waiting forever to make the choice to let his faith guide him, but as the talk went on and on you could gradually see him and his wife becoming more and more unified in purpose.  Fantastic!  He'll get baptized pretty soon.  The talks touched topic after topic of just exactly what we needed as well as what our investigators needed.  Those men are truly inspired of God to dictate his word.  We watched it in the stake center.  I didn't get to see the Priesthood Session cuz they played it really late at night and here in Ciudad Del Este In the night there are no buses, so there was no possible way to get home afterwards.  But they filmed it and we are going to get to watch it this weekend!

Ya we're real excited to have another pair of missionaries here with us!  Yes, I am still the District Leader.  We have a great District here full of willing missionaries and faithfull members as well.

Please send picture of batting cage...

This week we found an incredible family here in Presidente Franco.  We were walking down the street towards the church when a man cutting the lawn nearby quietly called out to us.  At first I didn't hear him, but my compañion did, but we didn't understand him.  He called out to us again, but still as we approached I didn't understand what he said.  And upon arrival he spoke to me a third time and we began to talk.  

It reminded me of the Nephites in the Book of Mormon who when Christ came to the Americas spoke to the people not just once but three times until they adjusted their ears to hear him.  As we spoke he invited us to his house to share with his family.  We went the next day and found him waiting there with his wife and three year old child.  As we began to talk we found that they had been in contact with the missionaries years before in another city, but were never quite prepared to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We talked of their lives and of their preparation to join with God.  Now they are faithfully preparing to get married and baptized later this month.  They are amazing!  God loves his children.

Elder McShinsky

I love Paraguay

Dear Family,

Yay New Little ones to play with when I get home!!!!!!!  I wish all the luck of the world to Jessica this week and pray for God's help.  Whoo Hoo I'm real excited! 

Dawn, I didn´t get to go the the last wedding you had... Hope you take me with you to see this one... :) (P.S. I'd love to see it in Hawaii as well...) Love ya!

Small hint about the batting cage.  It's got a bunch of holes in it, so it might be a good idea to check it and fix up the holes so that you don't have to fix up a window later when random balls decide to attack.  

O.k. Now about the little Paraguayan  Missionary Down here.  O.k. The story is that since I got here in Presidente Franco my goal has been to split our overly large area, so that we can work even harder in this ward.  Well this week we received a call from Presidente Callan that he wants to send us 2 more missionaries to work with us!  So for the past week we have been searching like crazy for a house for them.  In the end we found one right next to us and today we have to move all the desks, beds and all that stuff in.  So we're working hard on that today.  We received the new missionaries yesterday and last night they slept in our house.  With their arrival me and my compañon got split and now I'm with Elder Palma De Mexico (Estado Veracruz)  He's great and we're really excited to get to work in our area.  And the other elder, you know him, is Elder Hewett.  (He´s the one you met in REI the week before I went into the MTC)  Along with that we're all working hard here in Franco.

Elder McShinsky

LOVE YOU

Dear Family

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!! (Please Send Pictures...)(Lots of Pictures!)

That's wonderful that your going to be studying the Family a proclamation to the world as a family. Just happens that this Sunday I talked in church about that same subject. As part of that talk I shared a story to introduce the subject. and maybe it you'll like as well. 

Once upon a time, there was a very rich man who had a very strong desire to find a painting that represented Peace.  Unsatisfied with what he found he decided to hold an art contest to find the painting that truly represented Peace.  Artists from all over sent in their painting.  And finally arrived the day of the contest.  One by one the paintings where shown followed by ooo´s anh ahh´s.  But finally the arrived at the last two paintings. 

The judge uncovered the first as the crowed hushed in silence.  A perfectly calm lake in the reflecting the last rays of dimming sunset.  Surrounded by lushes green rolling hills with a flock of sheep grazing without a single fear.  Everyone thought that this would be the winner.  The the crowed let forth gasps of surprise as the last painting was uncovered. 

¿Could this be Peace? 

A torrential waterfall with bursts of water flying forth as to defy gravity.  A gray sky waiting just moments to explode into rain, wind, thunder and lightning.  Along the side of a precarious cliff clung a tree as if desperate to survive and as almost to temp the terrifying strength of the falling water a thin branch stretched out towards the cascading water.  And it was just at that point that a nest had been build almost oblivious of it's dangerous position.  And within that nest a small bird with it wings half open at to protect the little ones within. 

This is the painting that won.  True peace is found within the loving protection of the home, and under the heavenly wings of our Eternal Father.

Elder McShinsky

BYU Nationals Week 2011!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dear Family,

Tell Bob that if I could dance Jr. Smooth I'd be in the program too.... :)

Whoo Hoo New car!!! Please don't break it before I get home (That means don´t let Dawn use it...) (Love you Dawn!) Please Send picture.

Wow I'm really excited to see this new dance room. Sounds like your getting it all spoofed up. Getting it ready for THE DANCER (Thats Me...) Ya know Dad doing the construction, mom saying that it looks nice, Brothers breaking in the floor, so that it will be ready for THE DANCER... (Me)... :) I'm really excited to se it.

That's GREAT that everyone is getting ready to go on missions. Let me know where they're all going!

...Shoes... ... Shoes... Well they don't seem to last to long around here. It's because of the roads, they are made of Empedradal, which is like cobblestone but really really bad done cobblestone. It's all jagged and tears into you shoes like crazy. My old ones are officially dead. (I had them repaired 7 times!!!)

This week we found this great family real close to our church building! There's about 30 people that live in the house and 7 of the are already members, and they are really excited to come back to church again. As well as prepare the rest of the family to be baptized in the church as well. The Lord truly blesses us with miracles everyday. He loves us and wants the very best for each and everyone of us!

Elder McShinsky

P.s.

 !DANCE!

Grace, Study it.. :)

Dear Family,

Keep Dancing.  Tip: Stop thinking how you see yourself dancing, and start thinking about how everyone else sees your dancing.

Keep up the good work on the math rich.  study it a lot.  it will help you a lot in the future.  Plan on going as far as you can in your math studies in high school.  Especially A.P. Classes.  Don't let yourself think you can do it later.  Say yes to every oportunity to get the highest education possible. (Especially when it's gratis...).

 

Rich, a challenge, just for you.  Try and take the most advanced classes you can and get a 4.0 in every one of them.  Dedicate yourself to it.  You'll never regret it.  Looking back, I should have done just that.  It will bless you life and open more opportunities then you can imagine.  Even if it seems silly right now, trust me and just do it. You will not regret it in the long run.

Baseball... :) It doesn't exist here... :( I wanna play tooo..... (But they do play a whole lot of soccer)

This week Elder Arnold is here in our misiòn to do a capacitaciòn.  It's amazing how truly inspired our leaders are.  If we could only remember and apply every word we here from them, we would truly be applying God's council in our lives.  For that reason we have the liahona to remind us of our duty to obey their words, we should really be studying a little bit of the modern word of God everyday along with our studies of the Book of Mormon.

Let the grace of God bless you!\

Elder McShinsky

Dancing Season Is Heating Up!

I've decided to keep this unedited just so you can see the grammar and spelling. He's basically going to come back only knowing Spanish and we all thought the letter was all the more funny because of all the errors.

Dear Family,

Compañion, he´s great, from columbia and speaks spanish a little different then the paraguayos, but we still love him... He´s 22 years old. Of course i speek spanish all the time, I´m in paraguay... :)

Well about our friends here, Angel still don´t got no house... Bishop´s working on it. And our family just moved, so they didn´t come to church this week, Not good, But it´s all good cuz their right back on track and kicking.  Paul Winkelman, I was thinking about him the other day, How´s he doing? And hows brent doing? And how about the rest of the clan, How they all doing??

Snowing.... .... ... I wonder what that looks like :) Here, its HOT, But i´m really excited, cuz We just go an air conditioning today!!!!!! Basicly when i got here in this area there really wasn´t anything here, But,.... Now theres a whole lot more tools for the missionarys to use now :) (Plates, utencils, cooking bowls, Microwave, Table cloths, Blender, Airconditioning, Beds, Matresses) Ya all that stuff ! We didn´t have too many things before, But we did have a Grill cheese sandwich maker! It´s amazing what you can do with one of those.... :) It makes a pretty good cake...

Good job Scouter!

Elder McShinsky

Happy Valentine's Day xoxoxoxoxo

Dear Family,

Thanks for the love, I bought some chocolates for mom, and ate then in her behalf... :)

No he still doesn't have a house, but now he does have teeth... :)

How bout that, I talked in church too! But my talk was about Repentance.

Good job at the comp! And who beat them?

Today we went to Itaipu again, and it never ceases to amaze me how big the place is and really how much power there is in the naturaleza that god has given us.

And for the past 3 days its been raining a lot!!! And we got wet...

Love you all,
Elder McShinsky

O.K. I Repent, I´ll Start Telling Stories Too

Dear Family,

More Then Preaching??? But thats all we do... :)

O.k. Stories,

First, Elder Singson just left to another area in Asuncion, and Elder Noreña is here with me in Presidente Franco. He's From Columbia. Next, the picture's, Are of angel. He's 71, from Venisuela, and just got baptized a little while ago. Angel was found way out in the middle of nowhere really far from the church, and super Drunk. We taught him and he has been coming to church ever since, but what's so great about the pictures is that I'm finally cutting his beard. The Bishop told us that for him to keep progressing he needed to improve his personal image. Part of which was to cut his beard....

Well he didn't like that one little bit, and it took us 3 months of teaching him to help him understand the importance of following our leaders council. Even if we don't understand why. And yes it was a major acomplishment to finally get it cut. :) P.S. He also got kicked out of his appartment, and for about a week he has been living in our water tower. Kinda like a Little Mormon Hermit, but he'll be out of there in a jiffy.

Next, it rains a lot here, and I seem to have some sort of bad luck with the whole umbrella thing... Today I had to buy a new umbrella because my other one broke in a big storm we had the other day. This is the 6th umbrella I've had to buy in the last 6 months. That's not a good thing. This time I bought a nice one, so I hope it lasts me at least for the rest of my time here. If not, well then I give up on umbrellas!

Happy Birthday ELLA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pleas pray for Cristian y Blanca. We would love for them to get baptized this next week. Thank you!

Love,

Elder McShinsky

The Lord Needs Willing Families!

Dear family,

Sorry for not writing last week.  I had some problems with the internet here and my letter couldn't get sent.  About transfers, not yet.  They are next week, and we still don't know who's getting transferred. 


¿So you think you can dance Mike?


Sounds like you all had fun dancing at Provo. That's great that we have such great blessings in the gospel so that we can communicate one with another so easily.  Say hi to mita`ikuera from Uncle Elder McShinsky.  And that's the truth, we have been given so many blessings from God that we can't even number them in any way shape or form.  God gives them to us so liberally that we cant help but recognize them and feel so humble.  Like the hymn says, "Count your many blessings and see what God has done."


Here in the mission I feel like there couldn't be more blessing waiting for us, that wow I'm drowning in blessings.  Then God just keeps giving us more and more.  I truly believe if we would all just throw our pride out the window, and see what God has done for us, then we would all grow in a grand desire to serve and to the biggest blessing we can for someone else.

Love you all, And Keep the Faith.

Elder McShinsky

Another No Titled Letter :)

Dear Family,

I don't know how to express my gratitude towards all those who have made an impact in my life. There are so many aspects to our lives that when someone touches them. We have to much to thank them for. In this life there are people who do live their own lives, and there are people who touch others lives.

We could ask ourselves who won the last 4 world series or the last 7 super-bowls or any other great accomplishment, and see how fast we answer the question. Then we could ask ourselves to name 5 people who have influenced our lives. Then to me it becomes clear that in this life it suddenly becomes much more important to make an influence in someones life rather then simply gain recognition from the world.

Among the thousands of little acts that I count and dear and precious to me. The experience that are held the closest to my heart are the worthy examples of my family. Of those examples, my Uncle Joe's has taught more than I can express, and the only way to properly express it would be with a simple Thank You. I say it now, and I hope to tell him again one day those two words that so beautifully express our love and gratitude. Thank you for the example you have left to all of us.

Elder McShinsky

James Letter

Dear Family,


I feel like to many things happen all at once, but that there is always so much more to do!  (Maybe I should make a list of it all some time....)  But that is how we work for the Lord.  We work and work and work until we don't even notice that we're working so hard.  And that's all the Lord asks of us.  Hard work and obediencia.  He wants us to learn how to make our lives full of progression and learning making everything better, always.  That is one of the things so wonderful about the gospel of Jesus Christ.  As we become more and more converted to His gospel, the more and more we learn how to face our problems in a positive uplifting way.  On the other hand, when we forget these lessons, that is when we see the world as a horribly messed up place where we are the victim of everything.  Perhaps when we feel we are the victim, that would be a good time to stop, take a pause, and reconvert ourselves to the gospel.
Sorry, don't have a lot of time today.  Love you all.
Elder McShinsky

First one of the year

Dear Family,

First, no I didn't change compañeros.  It's just when their are changes in the mission we all have our P-day on Thursday instead of Monday.
 
Your pictures look great!  You should keeep taking them and sending them to me :)  I really like the one of the beach with the sun.

Welcome to the New Year!  2011, wow it came so fast.  With my companion we we're thinking about all our goals for this coming year.  And that's one of the great things about New Years.  That we can start fresh and make new goals for out time that god has given us. God is so wonderful that he's given us the opportunity to be here on the earth to use our agency and to apply everything that he teaches us.  


I know that that is the truth, and that He loves me so much that He teaches me all these things.  And maybe that will be one of the questions He asks of us when we present ourselves before him in that great and last day.  How have we been using our time and how did we have our time planned to be full of the good uplifting things that bring us closer to the outstretched arms of god.

Elder McShinsky