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!

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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