Week 20 - Salado - Softball Sized Hail, PP's Mom Says Yes, Nose Whistle, Cutting the Cheese

But for good news, we found PP´s mom, who said she had no problem with her daughter getting baptized, but that she would have more time in October, because that´s when she´s gonna be quitting her job as a nurse. They work super long hours here in Paraguay as nurses, and really are often gone for almost a week or so because they sleep at the hospital.

 

Yesterday in church there was this kid in front of us who had a whistle up his nose and was whistling it in just one of his nostrils and holding the other one shut. It was super funny and made it even harder to pay attention to the talks that were in Spanish. There are so many distractions no matter where we are. We always talk to people outside, and the houses are usually pretty close together, and theres always music, kids, motos going by, and a lot of other things too.

 

Yesterday I ate this weird purple sausage thing. It was weird, I didn´t ask what it was until I was done eating it, and then Carlos said what it was. I´m still not really sure what it was, and I´m still not really sure if I liked it.

 

We took a juja trail and saw this guy picking fruit, and we talked to him and then he told us to make juice out of it. I tried it, and was ok, but it had a really bad aftertaste that either tasted like garlic or wood, I couldn´t decide which. He told us to go by his house, which was right next to a grasería, which is where they make fat. I hadn´t heard of one of those before.

 

Juan Carlos got the priesthood (the authority to perform ordinances at church and the power to act in the name of God) yesterday and is doing his papers to go on a mission, he´s super awesome in the church.

 

A whole lot of everything happened this week, we helped some people move juja out of their yards that had been blown there by the storm, and found a lot of people,

Elder Ivan Bowles

 

Kami- a week ago on preparation day we were at LT, the super in Limpio, and we were buying some meat, and we saw this lady cutting the cheese as her job. I don´t know what I´d do if I had to cut the cheese all day as my job, I just don´t think I could do it. My advice for the cross country meet is don´t be nervous for reals

Dad-usually about 65-70 people come to church each week, but this week there was 86. We had like 6 investigators pretty strongly commited to come, but none of them came. That´s one thing that´s hard in Paraguay is that people probably lie more than they actually tell the truth, but a lot of the members that we´ve visited but hadn´t gone to church for a while came, so that was awesome. One thing that I´ve really been thinking about is how in 1 Nephi somewhere it says that by small means great things are brought about, and I´ve really been noticing that lately. Like it says in the book Preach My Gospel, no effort is wasted. We found someone the other day who had already read the whole Book of Mormon that he got years ago, and just now got work off, and is planning on going to church, and the misionary that gave him the book of mormon won´t ever know.

Mom- it is super hard to find time to practice the piano, because we´re super busy, but I do when I can. That is too bad to hear about Lancelot.

Julia- there are probably about 20 two story buildings in all of my area, but definitely are more in Limpio and Asuncion.  We end up teaching more women, just because they are home more often, but it really is better to find the men because sometimes the women won´t even really talk to us because their maridos aren't home or don´t like the missionaries. Really it´s just easier to teach people who want to be taught. If they want to understand they will, if they´re old and super Catholic they will deny anything and everything until they die. But that doesn´t stop us from trying.

Week 19 - Salado - Baptism this Week, Mishimi Guarani, Getting Married

Well, S. didn´t end up getting baptized, Elder Hamilton was in the font with her and then she started crying (she has a fear of the water) and left the font and didn´t come back after that. Her 8 year old sister did, no problem at all, she just went in there and did it. So we´ll see what happens this week with S. I tried to attach a picture of the baptism, the taller one is S, and the shorter one is M., the 8 year old, that I baptized. and the rest of their family. We found Hector, a guy who went to the church for about a year somewhere else, but never was baptized, and he´s super awesome.

There was stake conference yesterday, we heard from the prophet and Elder Anderson on the screen. It was really nice,  Elder Anderson spoke in Spanish, I didn´t know he spoke Spanish, he mentioned in his talk that he also speaks French.  The bishop rented a collectivo to take the ward 40 minutes to Luque for it, everyone really loved it. There were soo many people there. They said there was about 5000.

It´s started to get real hot, which is making me a little nervous, because it´s not even summer yet.
My share of the teaching is still slowly getting larger, I still wish it was growing faster. Whenever I really feel like I´m starting to understand, they start talking in Guarani to a member that we brought to the lesson, and I feel like I´m back to day 1 of the mission, except I never had any training in Guarani before I came. For some reason after I can´t understand in Spanish they ask me if I know guarani, and I say mishimi, which is Guarani for barely any at all, and they always think that´s real funny. I really do like Salado though, it´s super pretty, the people are nice, and for the most part they´re pretty honest. I wouldn´t rather be anywhere else besides here in Salado, Paraguay.


Elder Bowles
I´m not sure if I´ll remember how to say my name right after 2 years, because (here in Paraguay) if I say it the right way they just don´t have a clue at how to say it.

I guess the airline that broke my suitcase is bankrupt now, so they´re gonna try to have someone else fix  the suitcase, so that´s a real bummer.

Mom-my next transfer is in 3 weeks and a couple days. I´m pretty sure I´m stayin in Salado, so that´s gonna be great. We went to Luque, which is probably about like the Paraguayan version of downtown Chico, except Latino and cramped up, and I didn´t like it at all in the city, but it wasn´t even really a city. I don´t know what I´d do if I get sent somewhere in the centro of Asunción at some point.

Dad-PP still hasn´t gotten permiso from her mom, she says her mom  hasn´t come back from work for a couple weeks now. I don´t know if that´s really all that true, but we´ll see what happens. I got the Dear Elder you sent and wanted I know you wanted me to tell you when I got it.

Dad-no, he wasn´t the last speaker (after part of the chapel roof almost fell on Alfredo). After Alfredo was done, Hermano Conti, who used to be in the Paraguayan army, got up and told everyone they should be reverent.

The 2nd Counselor in the Stake Presidency let slip that Elder Bednar (one of the 12 Apostles) is coming in October to Paraguay to do some training for the stake leaders, so we´ll see if we get to hear from him.

We cleaned before the cleaning lady came, but she wanted to clean everything again. It was kinda annoying, because it was super clean before she came.

Singing in Spanish is interesting, because they haven´t had a piano for a while, so everyone´s off-key during the hymns.  I haven´t played in Sacrament yet.

The bishop just told us to put the (volleyball) court straight on the lawn behind the church.

Right now we have 5 investigadores that have more than 1 lesson that we´re focusing on, but  that really doesn´t mean that much at all until they go to church. A lot of people like hearing the palabra de dios (word of God) , but don´t want to make any commitments at all. 3rd Nephi is really awesome. Chapter 18 is great for teaching dia de reposo (Sabbath Day), because it has blessings, Christ, what to do and punishment all wrapped up into 1.

Julia- I have seen quite a few people on drugs here. I haven´t gotten a real good feel for it yet, but I can tell you that as far as drugs go that it´s not all that much better here.

Hailey- Thank you so much for the letter. I am glad you are doing fine. I don´t have a chance at understanding Guarani a this point, unless its the the hau´pe for whats up or the haku for its real hot out. I also know how to say firefly, its mwa-mwa. which really doesn´t help me that much, it's just fun to say. The people here barely ever get married, and when they do, it turns out bad because the guy isn´t that great and the woman can´t get a divorce. I really am glad that you found a good guy as Jeff  and are happily married forever.

. Elder Hamilton, Elder Bowles, S. and M. and their family

Week 18 - Salado - Cleaning our Apartment, More Peke, Clean Clothes!, Unforgetable Talk

Today we had to clean our apartment. It took 4 and a half hours for us to finish, so that was annoying. I guess they send the lady around to all the houses, and she just happened to come on a Monday.  

I went on a division with a member this week, and it was for 4ish hours. It didn´t go all that great but it could have been worse. Nobody we wanted to see during that time was there, except for an inactive member that didn´t really seem to want to talk to us but did anyway.

The bad news is that PP´s mom wasn´t around to give her permision to be baptized, she´s a nurse and apparently doesn´t come home that often at all. We´re gonna try again for this coming Saturday, along with another girl who didn´t get baptized either because she´d afraid of water or because her parents forgot.

My companion had a bigger peke on his other foot, Carlos took it our for him. There were a whole bunch of eggs too. Carlos pulled out a clump a little smaller that a Q-tip tip. He thinks it´s from his socks cuz we´ve been a little short on clean clothes this week. That´s one thing that I´m surprised by how great it is to get clean clothes when you haven´t had them for a bit.

There was a random lady we contacted today who let us in before we said basically anything and gave us the best orange juice I´d ever had. She had made it and it didn´t have a huge amount of pulp. She was super nice and said she had talked to the missionaries before, but whenever we tried to talk to her about anything besides her dog or her kids, she would just talk about how she was Catholic.

We made a paraguayan pizza. It was good, the only real difference is that they don´t really have pepperoni here at all, and the crust was thick and hard. The pineapples are tiny in the stores here, I tried guayava fruit, I think its called guava in the states, it was really good. Then I found out that you're not supposed to eat the seeds, or it messees you up in the bathroom later. It did.

They have fireflies here, it´s pretty awesome at night. 

The other day when Argentina and Paraguay were playing it was basically impossible to find people to talk too.

Yesterday Alfredo gave a really unforgettable talk. during his talk, Elder Hamilton got up and turned off the air conditioning, and after that there was this loud dripping noise in the ceiling. Right after alfredo finished giving his testimony, the tile above him broke in half and water poured down right where he just was a half second before and there was a good 2 or 3 gallons of water, if not more that poured down then the Bishopric (local church leaders) moved back to a different bench, someone got a bucket for the leak, and the meeting went on it was pretty crazy.

Elder Bowles

Julia-we do have a cellphone, I was kinda dissapointed when I found that out. Everyone here has cellphones. There are some sister missionaries in our mission, I don't know about seniors (retired missionary couples)
Kami- I probably should have, but I did leave a word of wisdom (no drinking or smoking) pamphlet on some guys shoes while he was passed out on a path we were walking on yesterday.
Dad-  The most unusual thing I´ve eaten is still pig head. We go to ward council when they have it. They aren´t super consistent with that. I sure do definitely feel the Spirit more here, and I´m happy when I´m working hard and am not wet from a combination of rain and/or sweat.
Mom- we have hermana lescano, a member of our branch do our laundry. it usually takes 2 or 3 days, and it costs 120 mil a month for both of us together - which equals out to about 30 dollars for her to do all our laundry by hand for one month, but with the money transfer from dollars to Guarani it works out better than it sounds. She lives farther away than most things in our area though, so it´s hard to get over there to get our laundry and deliver clothes to her sometimes. I did withdraw some money for recuerdos, that will be enough for many months, how much do i have left?

Week 17 - Salado - Delay from my brain to my mouth, Getting Yelled at, Removing Peke, Happy People, $2 Haircut

I went on a division with a member this week for a couple hours, and it actually wasn´t a disaster. It definitely could have gone smoother, but we got the stuff done that we needed too, so I was just fine with that. I didn´t really understand what was going on, but everything seemed to work out. I´ve begun to understand a lot more this past week, but the stuff I want to say just takes a while to get from my brain and out my mouth. I´ve tried chipa a couple times, and everyone else seems to like it, including the missionaries, but to me it just seems like really dry dense cornbread. Hamilton said it should grow on me, and I sure hope it does, because there´s tons of it here.

The other day we were contacting someone, and all the sudden this drunk guy popped out of nowhere and started yelling at me in Jopara, but mostly Guarani. I was more than a little surprised, the only thing I got from it was that he really, really liked his yogurt and that he thought i should try some. 

Church was good yesterday, the Elders quorum pres talked a whole bunch about home teaching, which is what this ward really needs.

My comp got peke (foot parasite), and he had me take it out for him. He knew I hadn´t ever taken peke out before, so we´ll see what happens.

We found someone this last week who we left with a restoration pamphlet, and when she came back she had actually read the whole thing, and when we asked if she had any questions she immediately asked how she could get a Book of Mormon. It was pretty awesome. There are a lot of people here in Paraguay who don´t understand that easily.  It is either because of my Spanish, or since Spanish is their second language too, or because they are really stuck in their way of thinking, so it´s really nice when somebody just compeletely understands me the first time.


Elder Ivan Bowles

Dad-lejos means far, most of the missionaries in the Paraguay North Misión are either in or within 2ish hours of Asunción or are 8-10 hours away from the office. I don´t know that much Guarani at all. Almost everyone here knows Spanish and Guarani.  Elder Hamilton says he can understand it after about a year in the mission, but he can´t really speak pure Guarani. Before I just wanted to be able to understand people, and now I just want to be able to speak without a huge delay from my brain to my mouth. It´s true that the simple answers to all the questions at church really are what help us the most. We usually have about 15 good lessons each week., total with new people that we taught when we first met them, and our investigadors that are progressing. I have a hard time in lessons, but if they speak Spanish, and the lesson isn´t too crazy, I always have my things that I have practiced and know how to say, and I can say those. If things don´t go as planned, I have a hard time. Things barely ever go as planned.

Mom- my area is the Salado Ward in I think its the Luque North Stake. I´ve heard rumors that if the church here grows a little more they might form a new stake, which would be awesome. The people here really are happy with what they have. Almost everyone I´ve talked to has built their own house. They do live way simpler lives with a lot less money, but they really don´t know that much different. They know that there are people that have way more than them, but they haven´t really experienced it, and as long as they have food, health, and tererre or mate, they seem just fine with their lives. Some poeple have made houses out of brick, some out of plywood, and some out of tarps. They all help each other out a lot, but they´re always adding on to their houses too.

Julia-right now we have about 3 people who we teach real frequently and will most likely get baptized, and the rest are people that we find and teach the first lesson or something else that they need first. P.P. is 11 and is good to go to get baptized this Saturday if its ok with her mom. People here have a different school system, most schools are Catholic schools, and the closest thing to high school is called collegio, which messes me up sometimes because it sounds like college. We just find a peliqueria to cut our hair, I got one last week, it was 10 mil, which is a little more than 2 dollars in the states.

Kami- that´s awesome that Mrs. Lauten is your teacher. How far do you usually run each day?