It´s been real cold these last couple of days. It's 10 degrees Centigrade (50 Farenheit) right now, I don´t know what that is in Farenheit, but it´s really cold here with the wind and humididty.
We had zone conference on Thursday, from 8 in the morning to 2 or 3 in the afternoon. It was hard to pay attention, but I understood more than I thought I would.
We had one person come to church with us, Patricia, a girl from a less active family who´s about 11. We went on a division on saturday, I went with carlos the ward mission leader. It was only for about an hour, so I survived. Church on sunday was good, I understood some of it, it's just harder to stay focused when people are speaking Spanish.
During studies I am almost always led to study something in the scriptures or Preach My Gospel that helps me with something I needed help with, or helps me realize something that I needed, but I didn´t know I needed.
There should be some changes in our district this week, 2 of the 6 of us in juan de salazar and salado are headed home this week, we´ll see how that goes.
The yogurt here is really good, I don´t know why. It comes in bags, like just about everything else in the stores here. I also tried pink pomelo soda, it just tastes like normal grapefruit soda, the fact that it's pink doesn´t really make a difference.
Elder Bowles
Mom- I haven´t been reimbursed for baggage fees yet, and I haven't gotten my suitcase back quite yet either. I´ve still got a change left for sure in Salado, so I´ll ask the mission president in my next letter to him. I got the letters through Dear Elder a few weeks back from Mark and Daniel, I get mail either when we go to the office for zone conference or for changes or when the carpeta comes to district meeting or when someone else goes to the ofice in our district and brings us our mail at district meeting. That´s exciting that you are redoing the house.
Dad- we play soccer with whichever missionaries in our zone go to the capilla en limpio each week. when its hot it does not cool off at night. No, Miriam didn´t make it to church, she said it was too cold and she couldn´t put pants on becasue her leg was burned by a moto, and so she didn´t go. That´s super exciting that Braxton leaves in a week, hopefully he enjoys the MTC for as long as possible. Missionaries play a larger role just because the church is younger here. The leaders sometimes ask us about how to do certain things they are unsure of, which I was real surprised by, and the missionaries who are lejos basically run church every week from what I´ve heard. I dont know if they have a fifteen names program in the states, but this ward has had the same names on that list for 2 years, so we´ve been trying to get them to change that. I haven´t met an Elder Shaw or Elder Thompson yet.
Julia- One came to church. It's either super really hot or freezing cold. Something you could do to be more tolerant of annoying people is remember that you really do have it good being born in the states and with awesome parents, and that those kids are doing the best they know how to get by without that, and that some people are just weird. As long as you´re trying don´t worry about statistics until after the test. Then you know how the class will go. That story is super funny about Luke as reverence child.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Monday, August 20, 2012
Week 15 - Salado - Speaking in Church, Playing Futbol, Racing Collectivos, Non Spicy Pizza, Eating a Turkey
Well, I spoke in church on Sunday. Both Hamilton and I were supposed to talk for 5 minutes, and I talked for 7 minutes. I never thought I was going to have gone over my assigned time. Everyone said it was good. I hope it really was and they weren´t just being polite, and it didn´t seem that long at all. I still can´t really understand the other stuff in sacrament meeting that well, but I think I'm understanding a little better.
We had an investigator who we had given up on on Friday, and then we walked into the chapel, and there he was, it was awesome. He had always said he would come to church, and seemed super excited for it, but that´s how everyone basically is here. We´ve been working with Miriam, who is really awesome. Elder Hamilton told her that he knew she was ready, and then she agreed to be baptized, and we set a date for that, and it was super awesome. Then she didn´t go to church on Sunday, so we´re gonna have to come up with a new date because everyone needs to go to church 3 times and have been taught everything before they´re baptized. Juan Carlos, the newest member of our ward has been in and out of the hospital for a week or so, we went by yesterday though, and he was fine.
For preparation day today, we went to lucque. I think thats how its spelled I really don´t know, and we played some futbol. That was real fun.
I haven´t had any problems with my feet, they are just super gross and sweaty at the end of every day. It is super hot here. It may be the hottest place in the world.
A collectivo we were on almost hit another one this week. Then it raced to pick up more people than the other one. They should have collectivos en the U.S.
We went to a Italian pizza place today, and they asked how picante we wanted the pizza, and Hamilton said picante y té, and it still wasn´t that spicy. The people here dont´t know what spicy means.
We contacted an old lady this week, and before we could say anything she just started yelling at us to leave really loud over and over again.
Carlos´s turkey has been super annoying. None of his family really likes his turkey either, so we ate it yesterday. It was super good. They cooked with a whole bunch of garlic all over it. Best turkey I´ve ever had.
I saw a trash can today. First time that´s happened in my month of being here, pretty crazy.
Elder Bowles
dad-I think that the church labeled as Evangelical is our church. I think its just wrong on google maps. You could try the find a chapel thing on lds.org. That´s how it is on our map of the area. We live almost right next to a school with ´concepcion´ somewhere in the title. A lot of people here work as security guards. There are so many of those here, even in like grocery stores and stuff. My poop is normal.
julia- tranquilo, escrituras son buenas en español. hay algunos partes en las escrituras donde teniendo dos idiomas me ayuda mucho porque los oraciones son escritos differentes, y si no estoy seguro que significa, a veces el otro idioma resolva la problema. la ultima vez que yo andé en auto fue cuando llegué en el aueropuerto acá en paraguay. espero que vas a tener un buena año en la escuela. tenemos que usar nuestro ropa de proseletismo, pero cuando estamos jugando fútbol, no tenemos que hacerlo. We don´t need bug zappers, we´re just awesome at killing mosquitos. They might become an endangered species by the time I have to leave here.
mom- probably practice about an 45 min a week. depending on the week, and depending on how often we are at the church and what we do on p-day it really depends on the week wether i practice or not. i can play 2ish songs in the simplified book. That´s super awesome that elder holland replied back. He´s pretty awesome. He may be my favorite apostle just cuz he says stuff just how it is. California doesn´t even compare to here, but yeah if someone from somewhere cold came here, they would just get of the plane and die or something. It had just started to rain on our way here, which felt super good. that´s super funny about Matthew Medrano. I bet you´re happy that the wedding went good and that its over now.
kami- hope you had a good time at cross country campaaaaaaaaaaaaa
hailey- after everything you should write me something. or else.
We had an investigator who we had given up on on Friday, and then we walked into the chapel, and there he was, it was awesome. He had always said he would come to church, and seemed super excited for it, but that´s how everyone basically is here. We´ve been working with Miriam, who is really awesome. Elder Hamilton told her that he knew she was ready, and then she agreed to be baptized, and we set a date for that, and it was super awesome. Then she didn´t go to church on Sunday, so we´re gonna have to come up with a new date because everyone needs to go to church 3 times and have been taught everything before they´re baptized. Juan Carlos, the newest member of our ward has been in and out of the hospital for a week or so, we went by yesterday though, and he was fine.
For preparation day today, we went to lucque. I think thats how its spelled I really don´t know, and we played some futbol. That was real fun.
I haven´t had any problems with my feet, they are just super gross and sweaty at the end of every day. It is super hot here. It may be the hottest place in the world.
A collectivo we were on almost hit another one this week. Then it raced to pick up more people than the other one. They should have collectivos en the U.S.
We went to a Italian pizza place today, and they asked how picante we wanted the pizza, and Hamilton said picante y té, and it still wasn´t that spicy. The people here dont´t know what spicy means.
We contacted an old lady this week, and before we could say anything she just started yelling at us to leave really loud over and over again.
Carlos´s turkey has been super annoying. None of his family really likes his turkey either, so we ate it yesterday. It was super good. They cooked with a whole bunch of garlic all over it. Best turkey I´ve ever had.
I saw a trash can today. First time that´s happened in my month of being here, pretty crazy.
Elder Bowles
dad-I think that the church labeled as Evangelical is our church. I think its just wrong on google maps. You could try the find a chapel thing on lds.org. That´s how it is on our map of the area. We live almost right next to a school with ´concepcion´ somewhere in the title. A lot of people here work as security guards. There are so many of those here, even in like grocery stores and stuff. My poop is normal.
julia- tranquilo, escrituras son buenas en español. hay algunos partes en las escrituras donde teniendo dos idiomas me ayuda mucho porque los oraciones son escritos differentes, y si no estoy seguro que significa, a veces el otro idioma resolva la problema. la ultima vez que yo andé en auto fue cuando llegué en el aueropuerto acá en paraguay. espero que vas a tener un buena año en la escuela. tenemos que usar nuestro ropa de proseletismo, pero cuando estamos jugando fútbol, no tenemos que hacerlo. We don´t need bug zappers, we´re just awesome at killing mosquitos. They might become an endangered species by the time I have to leave here.
mom- probably practice about an 45 min a week. depending on the week, and depending on how often we are at the church and what we do on p-day it really depends on the week wether i practice or not. i can play 2ish songs in the simplified book. That´s super awesome that elder holland replied back. He´s pretty awesome. He may be my favorite apostle just cuz he says stuff just how it is. California doesn´t even compare to here, but yeah if someone from somewhere cold came here, they would just get of the plane and die or something. It had just started to rain on our way here, which felt super good. that´s super funny about Matthew Medrano. I bet you´re happy that the wedding went good and that its over now.
kami- hope you had a good time at cross country campaaaaaaaaaaaaa
hailey- after everything you should write me something. or else.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Week 14 - Salado - 10 Investigators, Gone Fishing, Talking in Circles, Yummy Soda
I said in my last letter we had 10 new investigators. That´s just people who let us in, we teach a lesson to, and they tell us we can come back, and say they´re gonna go to church. Last week 3 of them went to church, which is pretty rare.
Hailey and jeff´s wedding sounds nice.
It´s getting super hot here. and its still ´winter´ so that´s not good at all. I can carry on conversations sometimes. It just depends on the person. and if they want me to understand them. I can understand pretty much everyone who isn´t a native paraguayan. which isn´t very many people. There are more people that aren´t from around here than you´d think. There are a lot of people with German ancestry and Japanese ancestry as well, and there´s quite a few Brazilians too, because they move here to be rich.
I ordered a Guarani nametag today, they say it´ll come in about 2-3 months, so that´s gonna be awesome. There´s not too many people that get Guarani nametags on their mission.
A couple days ago we saw a lady washing her porch and I asked if we oculd help, but she said we couldn´t because she was Catolica, then we said that didn´t matter we would help anyone, but she just kept saying she was Catholic. Oh, well and every so often we ask someone if we can help them wash their clothes or help them build their house, but they´ll say theyre almost done. Then we say, bueno, then can we share a message with you, and they´ll say, no, soy occupado, and then we´ll say that that's why we wanted to help you, but then they´ll say that they´re almost done, and we´ll just go in circles, saying those same things over again its pretty fun. We talk to people on our way to appointments, they´re usually just chillin in their yard infront of their house. We walk, so we see a lot of people in between appointments.
idk if i´ve lost weight, we don´t have a scale. I got the letters from the pouch thing thanks a bunch. We have zone meeting tomorrow, so i´ll get to see what that´s like.
Fishing wasn´t that great, we went with the Gonzalez family, and used bamboo poles with pan and meat as bait. We didn´t catch anything, but it was nice just sitting next to the river Salado.
Piano takes a while to learn, I haven´t played for church yet.
There´s this super good soda here called guarana. I don´t know how they make it but it´s really good. I remember hearing that the meat was bland here, but i really like it. What they make with the stuff they have here is amazing. They have pringles here.
Elder Bowles
Mom- peke is the foot worm parasite. Carlos had had it like fifty times is what he said, so he´s had plenty of practice getting it out. I saw him sanitize the stuff he used, don´t worry. It was right next to my toenail, so he told me what to do so I wouldn´t get an ingrown toenail. I got diarhea a day or so ago, we´ll see how that goes. The boots are awesome, I am super glad I have them, especially when it rains and the roads turn into streams. I dont like the shoes so much but that might be because the boots are so comfy. No, I haven´t been robbed yet. Elder Hamilton says he doesn´t beleive that Elder Willes was robbed, because his last area he was in is where Elder Willes is now. We didn´t go to the temple because our arrival was delayed and things got messed up. idk which, pouch or email, because email is faster, but it is nice getting things in the pouch too. I got the one from dad on july 15th later than i got some other ones from him as well. idk if it takes time to view the fotos you send, I have them load while I read the letter and they´re done by then. It takes a little to upload fotos to send, but I type more while they upload.
Julia-thats too bad that you have to start school again, have fun, that´s cool about the elementary music thing, most missionaries here are American. I think theres about 200 missionaries here and about 30ish are native Spanish speakers here, but they don´t speak spanish here, they speak joparra. which isnt a mix of spanish and guarani, its a mix of castellano and guarani. but castellano is basically spanish, theres only like one or two differences, so that's cool, I'll just sound fancy when I say I know like 5 languages when I get back. Good luck on the ACT.
Kami-it sounds like you had a great time at girls camp, so that´s awesome. Have fun at cross country camp if your not already there. Drink lots a water and push yourself hard, and eat even when you're tired and it sounds gross. That´s my words of running wisdom.
Dad-everyone is usually super nice to us. Missionaries play a way bigger role in church here than back home, because the church is so young hrere. Every once in a while people try to insult us in English. it´s super funny because they don´t ever get them right. We usually have cereal or eggs for breakfast, sometimes french toast, with the fake sugar stuff for syrup.
Hailey and jeff´s wedding sounds nice.
It´s getting super hot here. and its still ´winter´ so that´s not good at all. I can carry on conversations sometimes. It just depends on the person. and if they want me to understand them. I can understand pretty much everyone who isn´t a native paraguayan. which isn´t very many people. There are more people that aren´t from around here than you´d think. There are a lot of people with German ancestry and Japanese ancestry as well, and there´s quite a few Brazilians too, because they move here to be rich.
I ordered a Guarani nametag today, they say it´ll come in about 2-3 months, so that´s gonna be awesome. There´s not too many people that get Guarani nametags on their mission.
A couple days ago we saw a lady washing her porch and I asked if we oculd help, but she said we couldn´t because she was Catolica, then we said that didn´t matter we would help anyone, but she just kept saying she was Catholic. Oh, well and every so often we ask someone if we can help them wash their clothes or help them build their house, but they´ll say theyre almost done. Then we say, bueno, then can we share a message with you, and they´ll say, no, soy occupado, and then we´ll say that that's why we wanted to help you, but then they´ll say that they´re almost done, and we´ll just go in circles, saying those same things over again its pretty fun. We talk to people on our way to appointments, they´re usually just chillin in their yard infront of their house. We walk, so we see a lot of people in between appointments.
idk if i´ve lost weight, we don´t have a scale. I got the letters from the pouch thing thanks a bunch. We have zone meeting tomorrow, so i´ll get to see what that´s like.
Fishing wasn´t that great, we went with the Gonzalez family, and used bamboo poles with pan and meat as bait. We didn´t catch anything, but it was nice just sitting next to the river Salado.
Piano takes a while to learn, I haven´t played for church yet.
There´s this super good soda here called guarana. I don´t know how they make it but it´s really good. I remember hearing that the meat was bland here, but i really like it. What they make with the stuff they have here is amazing. They have pringles here.
Elder Bowles
Mom- peke is the foot worm parasite. Carlos had had it like fifty times is what he said, so he´s had plenty of practice getting it out. I saw him sanitize the stuff he used, don´t worry. It was right next to my toenail, so he told me what to do so I wouldn´t get an ingrown toenail. I got diarhea a day or so ago, we´ll see how that goes. The boots are awesome, I am super glad I have them, especially when it rains and the roads turn into streams. I dont like the shoes so much but that might be because the boots are so comfy. No, I haven´t been robbed yet. Elder Hamilton says he doesn´t beleive that Elder Willes was robbed, because his last area he was in is where Elder Willes is now. We didn´t go to the temple because our arrival was delayed and things got messed up. idk which, pouch or email, because email is faster, but it is nice getting things in the pouch too. I got the one from dad on july 15th later than i got some other ones from him as well. idk if it takes time to view the fotos you send, I have them load while I read the letter and they´re done by then. It takes a little to upload fotos to send, but I type more while they upload.
Julia-thats too bad that you have to start school again, have fun, that´s cool about the elementary music thing, most missionaries here are American. I think theres about 200 missionaries here and about 30ish are native Spanish speakers here, but they don´t speak spanish here, they speak joparra. which isnt a mix of spanish and guarani, its a mix of castellano and guarani. but castellano is basically spanish, theres only like one or two differences, so that's cool, I'll just sound fancy when I say I know like 5 languages when I get back. Good luck on the ACT.
Kami-it sounds like you had a great time at girls camp, so that´s awesome. Have fun at cross country camp if your not already there. Drink lots a water and push yourself hard, and eat even when you're tired and it sounds gross. That´s my words of running wisdom.
Dad-everyone is usually super nice to us. Missionaries play a way bigger role in church here than back home, because the church is so young hrere. Every once in a while people try to insult us in English. it´s super funny because they don´t ever get them right. We usually have cereal or eggs for breakfast, sometimes french toast, with the fake sugar stuff for syrup.
Elder Bowles and Elder Hamilton fishing with bamboo fishing poles
Palm trees growing naturally on the road side.
Monday, August 6, 2012
Week 13 - Salado - 10 people to teach, Eating Pig Head, Moto Accidents, Removing a Pike, No Street Address
This last week was great, we found 10 new people to teach, and 3 of them actually went to church. That´s the hardest part, a lot of the people that we teach say they would be thrilled to go to church, but they never actually do. They were 3 sisters, Maria, Susana and something else, I didn´t meet the 3rd one until she came to church with them. They live pretty much as far away from the chapel as possible while still being in our area. We we've had anywhere from 70 to 90 people come to our chapel for church.
I ate some pig head yesterday, it was pretty much just a bunch of fat with some meat mixed in. I heard that some people really like pig brains. We don´t ever eat dinners at member´s homes, we have lunch citas, and lunch is usually the biggest meal for everyone here, then they sleep for about an hour after that. My favorite thing to eat is still probably giso, depending on the giso.
The Spanish is coming along, not super fast, but it´s coming. I can understand the people we talk with a lot way more than when I first meet someone. Except for some people who speak super fast and use Guarani as well. One day this week when we were walking down the street this guy yelled at us from his truck in English and asked us what our favorite foods were and what we liked to do. It was cool hearing English from someone besides other missionaries. Hamilton said he had probably just taken a English class and that was all he knew how to say. There are a lot of people who know only a couple phrases and try to hold a conversacion in English with us.
I also don´t know how much I weigh in kilos, and they don´t understand pounds. Fernando, a kid in the ward asked us if we had any English books he could borrow, and Hamilton gave him his english-spanish missionary phrases book, and it was awesome hearing somebody else struggle with a language.
Everyone here has a motocycle, and one of the members said that 90 people die in moto accidents everyday here in Paraguay. I would never have believed that before, but I sure do now that i´ve been here for a couple weeks.
I got peke this week, not sure how, but Carlos the ward mission leader took it out for me with a needle and some fingernail clippers, it was pretty much just like removing a splinter, not too bad at all.
I´ve seen two cow skulls in the last two days, they weren´t super old either. and they were both smack in the middle of the road.
That doesn´t sound fun with the 100+ weather, I don´t know what it´s been here since they use centigrados, but i am pretty nervous for summer with how it feels sometimes now. Two of our investigators were planned to get married on the 11th, so that was gonna be cool, especially since Hailey´s getting married the day before, but it´s not gonna happen that soon, their names are Lourdes and Angel. Angel is inactive since he was a kid.
Dad- we don´t have a physical address. we live on the Desvio Salado, which is the same road as the church, we just live farther away from Limpio than the church. we also live right next to a school, there´s a dispensa between.
Mom- they do not have a pianist here, I actually had just asked my companion if there was a simplified hymn book anywhere and he had one but he didn´t know how to play the piano. Then I got your email, and practiced some that afternoon. The Salado really needs a piano to sing to as well. If I don´t start playing the piano for them, I might go tone deaf. That is all.
Julia- The word for moustache is bigota. I'm not sure how many youth there are in the ward, they have partido (competitive event - usually soccer) nights Monday and Tuesdays, but more than have of the kids that come aren't members.
There are some pictures from the first week, I´ll have even better ones next week. I´m wearing my glasses in these cuz it was the first couple of days and I didn´t unpack yet.
I ate some pig head yesterday, it was pretty much just a bunch of fat with some meat mixed in. I heard that some people really like pig brains. We don´t ever eat dinners at member´s homes, we have lunch citas, and lunch is usually the biggest meal for everyone here, then they sleep for about an hour after that. My favorite thing to eat is still probably giso, depending on the giso.
The Spanish is coming along, not super fast, but it´s coming. I can understand the people we talk with a lot way more than when I first meet someone. Except for some people who speak super fast and use Guarani as well. One day this week when we were walking down the street this guy yelled at us from his truck in English and asked us what our favorite foods were and what we liked to do. It was cool hearing English from someone besides other missionaries. Hamilton said he had probably just taken a English class and that was all he knew how to say. There are a lot of people who know only a couple phrases and try to hold a conversacion in English with us.
I also don´t know how much I weigh in kilos, and they don´t understand pounds. Fernando, a kid in the ward asked us if we had any English books he could borrow, and Hamilton gave him his english-spanish missionary phrases book, and it was awesome hearing somebody else struggle with a language.
Everyone here has a motocycle, and one of the members said that 90 people die in moto accidents everyday here in Paraguay. I would never have believed that before, but I sure do now that i´ve been here for a couple weeks.
I got peke this week, not sure how, but Carlos the ward mission leader took it out for me with a needle and some fingernail clippers, it was pretty much just like removing a splinter, not too bad at all.
I´ve seen two cow skulls in the last two days, they weren´t super old either. and they were both smack in the middle of the road.
That doesn´t sound fun with the 100+ weather, I don´t know what it´s been here since they use centigrados, but i am pretty nervous for summer with how it feels sometimes now. Two of our investigators were planned to get married on the 11th, so that was gonna be cool, especially since Hailey´s getting married the day before, but it´s not gonna happen that soon, their names are Lourdes and Angel. Angel is inactive since he was a kid.
Dad- we don´t have a physical address. we live on the Desvio Salado, which is the same road as the church, we just live farther away from Limpio than the church. we also live right next to a school, there´s a dispensa between.
Mom- they do not have a pianist here, I actually had just asked my companion if there was a simplified hymn book anywhere and he had one but he didn´t know how to play the piano. Then I got your email, and practiced some that afternoon. The Salado really needs a piano to sing to as well. If I don´t start playing the piano for them, I might go tone deaf. That is all.
Julia- The word for moustache is bigota. I'm not sure how many youth there are in the ward, they have partido (competitive event - usually soccer) nights Monday and Tuesdays, but more than have of the kids that come aren't members.
There are some pictures from the first week, I´ll have even better ones next week. I´m wearing my glasses in these cuz it was the first couple of days and I didn´t unpack yet.
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