One...more...time...

Haha something I thought you would enjoy. Every time we have an investigator who is telling the same stories over and over, we start saying this in English... one more time... and we try and make each other laugh... maybe I am a bad missionary, but I have already heard this story 7 times!! Haha I am glad I can write you all once again, although I am sorry you have to read my letters! Let me know how I can improve!!

1. Once again with prayer... I had another great opportunity with prayer this week. I am so amazed that we have this blessing in our lives!! A thought I had yesterday is that it doesn’t matter if it is a 3 year old repeating the words of his father, or a general authority, heavenly father is going to listen. There is a phrase in Jesus the Christ that says... "God without prayer is still god, but people without prayer can’t enter the kingdom of god." that was pretty powerful for me!

2. Elder Dominguez, one of the zone leaders, gave a talk yesterday in sacrament meeting. He talked about how we all have things that we need to drop; these things are addictions, or fears, etc. HE said that if we don’t drop these things, we can’t advance in this life. We can’t become better. It might be obvious, and it was more powerful in Spanish, but it really hit me. I am a missionary, serving the lord and talking with people about how they can come closer to god, but am I working my hardest to become a better person? PMG says in chapter one that one of the signs that we are successful missionaries is that we are becoming like Christ. That is something that I think I am doing, but I need to do more!! I have a new goal! I am going to apply one of the principles of chapter six of pmg, about the attributes of charts, to my life every week! I am going to start this next Thursday, if you want to do it too, we can grow closer to charts together!

3. This week, we had a goal to have 6 baptisms. Haha it is crazy I know, but we had this goal. Surprisingly, it was pretty realistic. We were set on all of these people, but mostly because we wanted to have baptisms this transfer... one day, the zone leaders talked to us about this goal. I learned a lot from them. They asked us how we knew that these people were prepared, and we answered our best, but realized that they really weren’t prepared. I read about zeniff this week in the book of Mormon. He was zealous to obtain land, and because of it, his descendants ended up in bondage. I also remembered the verse in 4 Nephi about the false churches, and how they gave ordinances to people who were not worthy. I almost did that. I almost caused these people to make a covenant that they couldn’t keep, that is scary to think, but it is the truth!! We repented, and changed our plans. Now, we are focusing on those who are ready for this Saturday, and working with those who aren’t for the next weeks. That is the way it should be. I believe in following the counsel of our leaders, and am really grateful for my leaders!

4. It is really hot in Paraguay right now... I am dying!! Haha and all of the Paraguayans just say, "Wait until December and January, then you will die." haha it will be wired to have sun on Christmas!!

5. You all need to read the letter that dad sent me! Haha I was overwhelmed with the gratitude he has! We are blessed to be in this family, and to have our parents! I am glad to have our family. We are a family in the church, which means that we have the chance to live forever together!! I am really glad that I have that knowledge! We talked about families in our gospel principles class, and the roles of different people! I know that mom and dad are doing their job, but bear, porter, Hannah, me, Nat, and boskie, maybe we can step it up! Our parents are really smart, and have the reason in all of the arguments! I wish I would have acknowledged that more before my mission! Sorry mom and dad! I will be better after my mission!! I promise!!

6. I found out something great this week! My companion knows the song, "prayer of the children" and we sing it together now!! Haha it is a blast! He is really awesome! I have learned a lot from him these 5 weeks, and am looking forward to this next week too!

7. The lord has so many blessings for all of us! We can receive these blessing when we are obedient!! I love you all, please read your scriptures every day, please pray, please work on becoming better! We all have work to do!

I love you! Given um heaven, Elder Chelson

p.s. pray for Francesca-she needs to get married, and raquelita-she need permission to be baptized!!

pp.s. BYU!!!

Oh, and... Halloween is not a thing here... or day of the dead... haha that was a sad notice for me... oh well, I can give people a treat with the gospel!! Love you all!