Big Changes

Hey friends and fam! I hope you all are having a great summer back in AZ-Cali-Utah or whever you are! Well, its been another great week here in the mission-a mission that is about to have some big changes! President McMullin leaves next Friday. Wow. I couldn´t believe it when we were planning the next two weeks as an office staff and he said, "And next Friday, President Evans comes". Elder Crofts and I looked to each other and said, "I´m gonna cry." haha He has helped me so much, I´m going to miss President McMullin! But, I am also excited to experience another mission president. I know President Evans was called of God and will be an awesome replacement!!

Right now, as a mission we are reading the 4 gospels: Matthew Mark Luke and John. I love reading about Christ´s life because of the power and authority he has. One of my favorite stories (really there are a lot though) is when Christ heals the paralytic. His friends bring him to Jesus, lower him down into the house with faith that Christ can heal him. Jesus recognized their faith and said to the paralytic, "Man, thy sins are forgiven thee." The pharisees get angry with Jesus, saying nobody but God can forgive sins.

 22 But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answering said unto them, What reason ye in your hearts?

23 Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Rise up and walk?

 24 But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, (he said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house.

When I read this story,it just hits me how so hard that Christ is the Son of Man AND God.  He is our Savior.  If we put our trust in Him, He will help us in our lives.  He suffered for our sins, so now we have the opportunity to receive forgiveness and return to live with our Father in Heaven and our Families forever.  I will forever be in debt to Christ, my Savior.

We are still working with the Familia "P" family. "S" and her sobrina are really really loving it. They are always marking up the Book of Mormon and really trying to learn. She has a baptismal date in July, we are hoping she comes to church soon. Her husband is a super awesome guy, is always with us in the lessons but is not as "convinced" as he says. He loves listening and singing the hymns but he is not looking to make a change just yet. But it is ok, because I have learned that it doesn´t matter if he gets baptized now or in 5 years from now, if I am here or if I´m not. What matters is this is the Lord´s work and He needs my help, maybe right now it is only to plant the seed with "A", or be a friend. Either way, we need to be doing our best each and every day to help Him in his work.


Today was a historic day really.  President McMullin and Bryant (his son)came and played 5:30 am soccer with us.  And it really ended in a story book ending for President.  Around 6:30 he yells, "Next goal wins!"  Well, after 2 min, the ball goes to and someone throws it in and President McMullin heads it in to win the game.  It was bound to happen, really wan't possible to top it off haha.  But the best part... we got to be part of this FIRST ever self (with an iPhone too).  Picture is attached.  Its pretty great! haha Then we went TGI fridays with Bryant for lunch and that didn't disappoint.

Another thing that happened this week, buying beds. We got new beds and mattresses for some missionaries this week, luckily that was my big project. And the best part is that I bargained in 3 free "air flow memory foam" pillows. So now, I got a brand new pillow and the assistants are pretty happy as well haha. We were so happy we made them take a picture of us.

Shoutout to my sis Chloe for getting her full on the floor in gymnastics. It looks so good. #goldmedalstatus and another shoutout to my bro cutter for being a baller. and to clay for being a dope dare devil and to lucy for being super awesome and and keeping my dog alive until I get back(you can do it Roxy)

Hasta luego

Elder Zaugg

Happy Father's Day Dad!

Hey freinds and fam! Its been a great and busy week. We are quickly coming to the end of June, and with that, the end of President McMullin´s time here in Paraguay. And you know what that means, the office is bussssssssssy. Yep, we are getting everything ready for President Evans to come in. President McMullin is awesome. I really am going to miss him. He has truly set an example to me in the 1 year I have known him. He is such a busy man. Being a mission president is not easy work, I only have a small glimpse of what he does but man, he is such a hard worker. And most importantly, he always fits time into his super super busy schedule to spend time with his family. I)t definitely makes me think, "I will always make time for my family when I have my own."

But then again, I learned from the best! My dad is awesome, he always did the same! He was at almost every soccer game. And if he was ever not at one of them, it was because he was at Cutter´s soccer game, or at Chloe´s gymnastics meet, or at Lucy´s soccer game, or coaching Clayton´s soccer/baseball game. My dad is solid as a rock (except for his knee...he hurt that thing again today). I love him so much! I´m so grateful for all the time and effort he put into my life growing up, for all he taught me-through lectures and even more through actions. He taught me the gospel in a way I will never forget it, and never doubt it. He taught me how to treat my future wife and kids, and how to love them. And that is the best attribute I think anyone can learn from their father! And he taught me so much more! I was watching a Father´s day video the church put out this week(I can´t stinking find it right now) But one of the guys said something on the lines of this, "When I see my Heavenly Father, I feel like I will already know him, because of my dad". 

I love you so much dad!!

It is so special for me to know that one day, I will share the name to my kids as we all do to our Heavenly Father. I invite all you men out there to strive to be the best you can be so you can hold that name with honor and pride. 

Here is a quote I like a lot (It is also in the link attached):

"Of all the titles of respect and honor and admiration that are given to deity, He asked us to address Him as Father."

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-01-002-earthly-father-heavenly-father?lang=eng

Happy Father´s Day Everyone!

Elder Zaugg

SEMANA 50

No group email today but I got a few questions answered thought I would journal........

Who is your new Companion?

Elder Nyberg left like May 20th or something. He was a stud! Elder Hunsaker is my new companion, since Elder Nyberg left.  He is from AZ too, he went to skyline! He's super cool! He is the secretary.  He goes home in a few months.   I have really liked all of my companions.  They have all been different from each other but good!

What does the Secretary do?

He runs presidents schedule and deals with missionaries and VISAS and stuff like that. 

 Have you been teaching this past week?

These past 2 weeks have been super busy, haven't really been able to teach too many people. With President leaving he's fixing everything in the mission, which means buying a lot which is my job and just a bunch of stuff to do! haha the families we were teaching stopped progressing about 2 and a half weeks ago unfortunately...

What kind of things need fixed?

Well about half the mission is getting new beds, none of the houses have the proper cooking supplies (pots and pans etc) then we have an audit at the end of the month and so that will be stressful getting ready for its crazy what ya learn on the mission. never thought id have an audit! 

Transfers

There is a whole new world to transfers. Never would have known it until I got into the office. I though transfers were tough on normal missionaries in terms of sleep. In 3 nights I got 8 hours of sleep but it was a super great time with the other office elders and APs! We got a new assistant! Elder Crofts. He is a super cool guy from Idaho and is a stud. But we are super sad to see Elder Ramirez go. I love that cool mexicano. No puedo creerlo. - everyone in the office now says that all the time bc of how many times he would say that every day. But, hes gone on to Limpio as a zone leader to finish his mission in July. No puedo creerlo. Time flies! So, Tuesday morning started at 3AM with one missionary getting into Paraguay, the only American that arrived this chagne. Luckily, I didnt have to go to the airport for that arrival-that was the assistants and President`s job. Oh..wait. At 3is President comes into our room and turns on the lights and wakes us up! He introduced E. Vogel to us. Ill be honest, when I woke up a couple hours later, I had completely forgotten about that. Then E. Parada asked me about it... "That wasn`t a dream? Oh." haha. Turns out, Elder Ramirez tells us what happened. The APs slept in. They woke up late, around 330, quickly got dressed and drove to the airport. But, when they got their, the airport was empty! Nobody was their but the workers so they came back confused...Turns out, when they left, the American was already in our house sound asleep in our room....hahahaha. President had already brought him here. That was super super funny. 

Tuesday night. We got about an hour and a half of sleep...I think. But, that night is when we took the picture you see below. Yes. it says, "The office has not had a crash for 1 day." But dont worry, it is now 5 days....You see, here in the office, there are a lot of crashes with the van. Not sure why, but there are. My slate is free and will stay that way, sì o sì. Unfortunately, Elder Parada was learning to drive stick, like I did, and got in a fight with a collectivo. Not really, the colectivo just hit him and then drove away, but don`t worry, it was just an orange paint scratch on the back light. Too bad, but hey, we lived to see another day. 

Wednesday morning was crazy. Changes. At 5am, we started changes and it was just non-stop all day long with everything going on. Really, its been that way all week but its been enjoyable. Only 7 missionaries finished their missions this week, next chagne will be 25. That will be way hectic...

The church came out with new bible videos!!!! Narrated by children. They are hilarious. But it is awesome to see how pure and righteous the thoughts of children are. There is a verse in the Book of Mormon, Mosiah 3:19 that says:

 19 For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child,submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

In this life, we have to ignore the yearnings of the natural man, and accept the will of God in our life. His will is that we follow His son, Jesus Christ and keep His commandments. From the very first minute Jesus was born, He has showed us how we should live: examples of patience, love, kindness, humility, obedience. "He's special, so it was a special day." His birth marks the beginning of His life, his dedication so that one day, we might be able to live with our Heavenly Father again. Hope you all like the video, there`s more videos at 

https://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/collection/childrens-bible-videos

Elder Zaugg