LAST WEEK - Awesome Families, Bore Testimony, Tired of Typing, One Person Owns a Car

Well this week was pretty dang good, we teaching tons of families, and they're all awesome.

This week was fast and testimony meeting and they asked me to bear my testimony, there was a member that we visited once who's  retired from the paraguayan army, and he cried when I told him I was ending my mission, so that was unexpected.

We've found a lot of cool people this week, the branch here is progressing really well.  Members are moving into the branch, and coming back, so that's been great.

Tonight (Monday) we work from 6-9, as normal, and then tomorrow there's district meeting at 10, and then we go and teach and talk to people some more. Then we take the trip to the terminal Wednesday, and then I got tired of typing so I attached the rest, you can google translate or something. (the entire document of his schedule for the last week there was in Spanish)

We have some great appointments set up, most people get to church by walking or taking short bus rides, right now in the ward there is only one person that owns a car.

I'm wearing a jacket right now.

Looking forward to seeing you all on Thursday.

-Elder Bowles 

People (2) Ivan Bowles Recent photos Show details Ad Discover Card Know Where You Stand. Get your FICO® Credit Score on your monthly statement. For Free.*

Compose: LAST WEEK - Awesome Families, Bore Testimony, Tired of Typing, One Person Owns a Car

Page 1 of 1

Queridos Elderes y Hermanas,

En unos días van a salir de la misión y regresar a sus casas. Hemos planeado varias actividades con

ustedes durante el día miércoles. Vamos a almorzar juntos, participar en una sesión en el templo,

compartir testimonios en una reunión especial, y terminar las entrevistas con aquellos que no han sido

entrevistados. Al mismo tiempo vamos a recibir nuevos misioneros, entonces esta semana va a ser una

semana de mucha actividad. Para ayudarnos a todos a cumplir con nuestras responsabilidades y sentir el

Espíritu entre nosotros, le pido hacer lo siguiente:

1. Llegar a tiempo.

2. Seguir las instrucciones que recibieron en cuanto a sus viajes a casa (cantidad de maletas, peso

de maletas, documentos, etc).

3. Si tienen ropa en buena condición que quieren donar a la misión para el uso de futuros

misioneros, tráigannosla.

4. Mientras estén en la oficina, manténganla bien organizada y limpia.

5. Prepararse bien con corte de pelo, zapatos lustrados, camisa planchada, etcétera. ( Como

cuando entraron en el CCM)

6. Para el templo: Camisa blanca con manga larga, pantalones y medias blancas, corbata blanca, y

la ropa ceremonial si la tiene (Si no, el templo se la va a proveer). Tenemos que llegar al templo

a las 16:00 horas. La misión va a organizar el transporte.

7. En todo sean buenos ejemplos de misioneros maduros. Les pido que en todos sus tratos y

conversaciones con los otros misioneros, los obreros del templo, los empleados del restaurante

y del aeropuerto; que seamos verdaderos ejemplos de un discípulo de Cristo.

¡Nos vemos! Les quiero mucho,

Presidente Agazzani

1 of 1

Ultima Semana - Mensaje a los fieles.docx

1 of 1

Displaying Ultima Semana - Mensaje a los fieles.docx.

Week 107 - Really cold there, Another Baptism, 2nd to last letter

This week it got really cold here in Lambaré, and it´s rained a lot as well.

This last saturday was HN´s baptism, and I was so glad that I didn´t have to go into the baptismal font, because it looked really cold and the heater was broken. HN is 25, and he WAS evangelical. The next day it rained really hard in the morning, and everyone was really cold in the chapel on the metal chairs.

Besides the cold this week was great, everyone really likes us here in San Isidro and are really nice. I always am surprised at how cold it can get here because i always thought of south america of always being hot. luckily it´ll be warm in california.

Here the sacrament room has air conditioning, but the heater is broken, and that´s what we need.

 

In this area we have found more people through the members, San Isidro is awesome.

 

Here they say aptos cuando alguien es un experto, por ejemplo, el es muy apto con la computadora.

 

Right now we have a lot of people that we are teaching. this area could be my favorite area.

My fingers are coldk, and so that´s why I sepell d some things wron.g

 

-Elder Bowles

Week 106 - Way More People to Talk to, Wouldn't video tape self, Feel Gods Love

This week was pretty dang good, we've been talking to tons of people, and there are still way more people that we need to talk to. Everyone here loves the missionaryies it's great.

 

This last week we had a ward talent show and it was pretty fun, a lot of people went and it was great.

 

The winter isn't coming yet, so that's been kinda nice, now that I've gotten used to the hottish weather.

This week we have HN scheduled for this saturday, and he's super ready, he just doesn't know it. we are with members more than we are alone, it's great.

 

Here in Paraguay all the chapels have baptismal fonts. I didn't ask the branch president why yet.

 

They do have good candy here, but all the really good candy is more expensive.

I don't think I would video tape myself, I think I probably would have just written the answers. (I had recently been to a wedding shower where the prospective groom video taped himself and the prospective bride tried to guess his answers which we watched at the shower).

 

My favorite teaching technique is the spirit. I feel the spirit whenever the investigators pray.

 

I have almost been bitten by a lot of dogs, but none have gotten me yet.

Being a missionary is great because I get to show people how much God loves them and what they can do to feel it even more in their lives

-Elder Bowles

Week 105 - Summary of Mother's Day Phone Call

This final phone call was different from the others in a few ways.  Usually Ivan calls from a cyber and has headphones and it is pretty private. This time he used the branch presidents computer (no headphones) in the chapel at church with several other missionaries photo bombing in the background.  Usually the picture and sound quality is pretty good, but this time we had problems hearing and Ivan was quite pixeled (or fuzzball according to Kami).  However, we could see the big smile on his face.

He was scheduled to call on Monday and when I got onto my computer for something else, I saw that he was online for his Skype.  I tried calling him (thinking we had mixed up dates).  He sent me a message back that his companion was using his account but that he could call after he was done.

He stated that Kami looks a lot different now.  He asked about her first date which she said was super fun.

He heard that everyone has an iPhone in the United States and asked if that was true.  We told him that was true but that we wouldn't be providing him one when he gets back.

They had a baptism today in the chapel. MA got baptized and she is 14 y/o and the granddaughter of a member. The last person they baptized was an 87 y/o.

Ivan asked a lot more questions about us this time.  Previously we would pelt him with questions.

The tie he was wearing cost him $3 in Paraguay and it is one of his favorite ties.

His suitcase is still usable. The handle is the only think broken.

When a sister missionary asked him how long he had been out, he told her that in 6 days he would have 2 years in the mission.  He said the sister he told that to will be confused when he doesn't go home because he still has 3 weeks left.

They live with 4 guys in their apartment and since one is from Mexico, they speak Spanish at home.  The other two are from the United States (Idaho and Utah). They live in an apartment with air conditioning and a stove.  They don't have a lawn.  They have a black cat that wanders in and out of their apartment.

There is a family who lives really far from the chapel who they visited yesterday and invited them to Stake Conference and they came.

He was talking about the investigators who are breaking the law of chastity he says smiling.  He said that marriage is cheaper ($80) than divorce (a lot more).  People view themselves as stuck together when they get married (again more smiling from Ivan).  Barely anyone gets married before they live together.  He also stated that once they have kids together then they are stuck together (he said laughing and smiling). When asked what the average Paraguayan earns a month he whips out a calculator and proceeds to to the math during our phone call.  Turns out that the average Paraguayan earns $440 per month.  I don't know what it is about people breaking the law of chastity that makes him smile so much.  I was imagining him talking to investigators about living together and the need to get married (probably lots of smiling for the subject).

Most people work in Asuncion.  When he was in another area, it took them 2 hours to get to work and 2 hours to get home.

He has been on the bus in Paraguay when it hit another car and another time when the bus hit a dog.  The collectivo tried to speed up to avoid the dog but it didn't work and then they felt a speed bump.  Ivan said that on some of the buses he can't stand up all the way. It is not uncommon to hang out of the bus while it drives.  He said he doesn't like it because you have to watch out for street signs.

He said that when he met Spud's cousin (Elder Chelson) he showed him a family calendar that had pictures of Spud.

This area is one of his favorites.  Everything is new, everyone is new (to him) and everyone wants to learn.  He also really liked Villarica (out in the country).

Dave invited Ivan to be his speaking companion for the next three months (June, July, and August).

His mission president is a jokester.  He says random things about transfers and then it doesn't happen.  He asks if you are ready to train or open new areas and then you don't get transferred.  Ivan writes his mission president every week (it is required).

The branch president made an appearance and he looked like an American missionary.  He is a blonde haired Paraguayan with white skin.

He is really happy and glad that he got the area that he is currently in.  His other area was really small

His favorite companion is either Elder B (current companion) or another companion (he can't decide). What was funny about that was that Elder B was sitting right next to him as he was stating this.

They have 50 members each week.  There are lots of less actives who are coming back to church.  When asked if it was because of the missionaries he stated that he would like to think so...

In the chapel they use the CD's with the hymns on them to sing during Sacrament meeting.  He has only been in one ward where someone knew how to play the piano.

Only 3.5 weeks until we see him in person!

Thanks for reading,

Laurie

Week 104 - Peace with the Missionaries, Rats on the Roof, No Accent

This week was awesome, the mom of a member here got baptized and is super happy!, she´s 87, everyone we´ve been talking to is super nice, we just don´t talk to the mean people, it´s really easy here since everyone is one of the two extremes. This next week one of the granddaughters of a member here is super excited to get baptized too, she´s had to wait for a while because she´s had to move around a lot.

 

Yesterday we were walking in the street and some guy called us over and showed us his house and told us that he always felt peace when the missionaries came to his house before and we explained why and now he´s preparing to receive the Holy Ghost, this week was great.

 

I really do like the big city, especially as a missionary, I honestly never thought that I would.

 

Here the drainage system is clogged with garbage, so it´s really bad when it rains.

 

We have rats on our roof, so that´s been interesting, we´ll see what happens.

SI o si my comp is half peruvian half american.

I will call next monday at 12.30 paraguay time. I´m going to try to use Skype

 

We are teaching a lot and the few members there are are great, this last week we had only 4 other lessons and alll the other lessons the members were there with us, so that´s awesoeme.

 

I had basically told president Agazzani I wanted to be a normal missionary and here I am as senior companion, so that´s awesome.

 

The branch has had 50 people both Sundays that I´ve been here. It the san isidro branch in the fernando de la mora sur stake. The area is full of apartments and houses that people are renting, so when someone finds a better place they just move.

 

We´re a bout to have branch council this wednesday, I´m sure it will be completely different than your ward council in just about everyway possible.

 

I don´t have an accent but someone asked me if I was from chile or from mexico because they couldn´t tell (it was dark, they couldn´t see I was white.)

 

what´s facetime?

 

This week some blind guy gave me some juice and told me to drink it so I did, and then he didn´t believe that I drank it. what else could i do, he´s blind.

 

-Elder Bowles

 

Week 103 - Transferred, Ivan is an Angel, Working with Members, Spicy Food

Well, we got transfers, and I´m now in San Isidro, a neighborhood in Lambaré, which is just barely south of Asunción, and this place is packed full of people. We've got big streets, small streets, and alley ways, and walkways just wide enough for one person to walk through.  I´m in the big city now, but in the residential area, it´s a blast, because everything is just fast, and great.

And everyone here is either super nice or not nice at all, there´s really no one that´s in between. 

My new companion is Elder Black, and he lived most of his life in Los Angeles, California, and he´s a great missionary, he´s been out for about 8 months, we´re having a blast already. My companion now is just the best, he´s humble, a great teacher, and yeah. I got here and we´re finding and teaching like crazy.  Elder Black and his last companion have been working hard, and we´re still finding tons of people, it´s great.  A lot of the people here call us angels, so that's a nice self esteem booster...

The members here are awesome too, they always find us in the street and tell us that they want us to meet their friends. And we do. the only hard thing is that people move a lot here, so members are always leaving and coming and investigators as well.

There´s a Mexican missionary who lives with us that always makes us spicy food, so that´s fun. 

The senior missionaries come and clean the ward list and take out all the inactive members that don´t live there any more, since the ward secretaries here have a hard time. They also visit some of the people they find. 

I guess she´s training 2 because that´s what God wanted, because there are plenty of sisters in the mission now. 

RN is probably so mature because his mom is single and he works and goes to school, he told us that his dad died 3 years ago. RN is sooooooooooo committed to baptism,  He is sooo excited to get baptized huh. 

Elder Bowles

Week 102 - People leave for Easter, 3 Nephi 11, Possible Stellar Companions, Getting Revelation

This week was great! RN is probably the most mature 16 year old who I've met, he went to church and had tons of questions.  This week we found a family that´s way nice, they give us food and everything. it´s only kinda different because the wife is 42, and the guy is 73, but they´re happy, so i guess that works. 

This week I ate chipa, sopa, chipa guazú, cow tongue, milanesa de pollo, pig, sausage, rice with paraguayan cheese, potato salad, a desert called crema.  

We found some more old people two days ago that said they wouldn't get baptized even if God told them to... fun stuff. Hey everyone needs the gospel just not all of them know or want to know that they need it. Recently the senior missionaries came to our area, and we showed them around, and AO came to church again, so that was awesome.

Being district leader is fine, it was more fun at first when everything is new, it´s just nice being a normal missionary sometimes. 

The weather is still cool, Easter made everyone leave our area to visit family, so it was a little harder. really the investigators just have to want to do it.  We can explain how, why  and everything but sometimes they just are afraid of getting an answer like SO. 

I really liked Uchtorfs talk about how not to sleep through the restauración.

This week was the semana santa, most the stores were closed from Thursday to Sunday, and everyone makes a lot of food, the Catholics don´t cook anything Friday, they just eat all the leftover chipa. 

Next Easter if I´m there we´re for sure going to hunt for eggs no matter what, even if we feel silly doing it. 

There´s a sister in the district that´s training 2 new missionaries at the same time, one's from Utah and the other is from some place in central america.

If I could experience any event in the scriptures it would be 3 nefi 11. Where Christ appears to the Nephites.

https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/3-ne/11?lang=eng

What about you?

If I could have anyone as my mission companion, I would probably pick either Ammon or Saint Paul (that´s his name now for me) because they are just bosses. 

To learn about revelation, watch the doctrine and covenant movies about revelation, and read the section in Doctrine & Covenants about Oliver Cowdery. There´s also a talk from Elder Oaks that says that we should not try to force revelation or else we might start getting revelation from sources other than God. Really, there are lots of choices that God just leaves up to us, and if we need more assurance we can just ask him to see if he approves of it. and if he doesn't tell us no or yes, it usually doesn't matter that much at all. 

-Elder Bowles

Week 101 - Chillier, Never Lost, Still Remembers Math

This week was a longer one, but it was worth it, Our friend SO went to church again, a member had offered to take him and was a little bit late, and so he had started walking and had almost made it to the church before the member found him. SO says that he only ever finished elementary school, but to me he seems way smarter than the other people here who finished high school. Weird how that works. 

It´s starting to get a little chillier here, I had to break out the coat, so that´s always a nice change at first. AN, a member here in Tayuasape will be leaving next week to go on a mission to Londrina, Brasil, so that´s always exciting.

We find out about transfers a week from tomorrow. I think it would be nice to get a new area because I´ve talked to almost everyone here, but I also would like to be here for SO´s baptism.

We are still teaching RN and his neighbor, and RN´s mom invited his aunt to come too, so that´s awesome, but RN still hasn´t gone to church! He says he really wants to get baptized, but we´ll see what happens. 

I will never get lost in San Lorenzo, I´ve been everywhere there is to go here, Kennedy, San Lorenzo, Tayuasapé, and Reducto, for interviews. If you ask me that question a little bit more than a week from now, the answer will most likely be yes. 

The buses are normal, I got in a normal car the other day and that was really weird for me.

In this ward there hasn´t been any sacrament bread occurances, except for when a recent convert that helped with the sacrament wasn´t instructed well, and started to break the bread before sacrament meeting. 

We had one lesson yesterday when a guy told us that he thought that all the churches were good, and then told us he would never change his religion, and another one that told us he prays asking god not to ask him to change his religion.

We put $100 in Ivan's account for his b'day and he spent it down to within $2.  I was impressed and asked him about it.....this was his response:  $100 times 4.3 is 430,000 guaranies, and there´s a 25,000 guarani transaction fee.  I still remember a little bit of math.

-Elder Bowles

Week 100 - General Conference, Hairless Dogs, Young People's Time

This week was exhausting, and I don´t even know why. It´s been super hot, and humid, supposedly winter is coming, I still haven´t decided if it even exists here.

General Conference was this week, and it was great, one of the people we taught once went for the Sunday afternoon session, his name is S*rg**, and he´s about 60ish, he´s super awesome. I honestly didn´t think anyone was going to go, becasue they had to take a bus into San Lorenzo to see the conference, but then we got of the bus and saw him on the corner walking towards the stake center, and he was early and everything. I saw all the sessions, the first four in English on the little TV in San Lorenzo, and then the last one in Spanish on the big screen with S*rg**.

All I heard was that there was an earthquake in Chile. I didn´t feel anything, there are basically no natural disasters here in Paraguay besides rain and hail.

 

For my birthday some people made me a cake, and I got gifts of jerkey and peanut butter from other missionaries.

 

Here there´s a disease passing through that makes all the dogs´ hair fall out, so that´s been interesting. 

 

Yeah Monday May12 sounds good (for our Mother's Day phone call), chances are I´ll be in a new area, but Í will keep you informed if anything changes.

 

I really liked the preisthood session, but I´d half to look at my notes to tell you which one was my favorite, they had one that seemed more directed to women than to us, you should go read it, by Elder Oaks. To see this talk to go:  https://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch/2014/04?lang=eng&vid=3436246697001&cid=3

 

We didn´t eat armadillo, the person that was going to get it is in Argentina right now. 

 

The grapefruits are yellow, and are sour, and really good. I almost know how to cook milanesa, which is basically just the paraguayan version of breaded chicken.

 

Yes, more contacting than through the members.

 

RN is doing fine, it´s just always hard with young people because a lot of time their schedule depends on their parents schedule. Now his neighbor comes over whenever he hears that we´re at RN's house.

 

-Elder Bowles

Week 99 - Rain, New Food, Thanks for b'day wishes, Grapefruit, Flooding

I almost just started writing in spanish..

This week was pretty good, the rain made it not so fun to be a missionary this week, but things ended up just fine, we talked to a huge family this week, the sister told us to go by at a certain time and wasn´t even there, but everyone there received us real well.   We learned a bunch and it was a great way to end a wet day.

the brother of a recent convert is going to try to get armadillo for us to eat tomorrow, so we´ll see how that goes.

 

Jesus suffered for us only becasue he wanted to forgive our sins, and sometimes humans are just hard hearted people.  I really like what it says in the prayer in Matthew 6 where Jesus asks God to forgive us according to hwo we forgive others).

 

One of my questions for general conference (a biannual meeting where all church members meet via satelite) is going to be why it´s so hard sometimes for people to just act in good ways on the truth and knowledge they have (gospel).

 

We´ve got 3 deacons, a couple teachers, and 3 priests.  This member is awesome for Paraguay for fellowshipping new members, just getting the new members is the trick.

New food of the week was Patté de Higado, which is a cream that they use for bread that is basically ground up liver, but it really just tastes like tuna. It´s really good.

Nothing really super exciting happened this week, we talked to lots of people and we taught quite a few.

I got a huge bag of paraguayan grapefruits (his favorite fruit) for my birthday (probabably about 40)
I want a turkey so bad right now...

The flooding is really fun when we don´t have any need to cross it, because it cleans stuff up and carries the trash away.  The stream came past my knees.

THANKS FOR ALL THE BIRTHDAY WISHES

Elder Bowles

 

Week 98 - Rain, Mashed Potatos, Change whole way of Life

 

Ivan's house in Paraguay



This week it rained way too much, if I had to guess I would say it rained about 10 inches on Tuesday if not more.  We kinda had to cross a river that appeared out of nowhere to get back to our house. They stopped the buses, and peoples houses flooded and everything, here there is absolutely no need for sprinklers. It is a cool day today.

We went to visit one of our investigators who´s about 16ish.  He basically told us that he wasn´t super interested but that his friend that we had talked to last week really wanted to talk to us becasue he wanted to get baptized, and we went and talked to him and his mom said that he should just go and get some godparents so that he could get baptized already, it was pretty funny.  He´s a super awesome person, it is really nice when people just understand exactly what they need to do to acheive happiness.

Someone made me mashed potatoes for the first time here in Paraguay and they were good, but just not nearly as good as the Thanksgiving potoatoes we would have back home, 

Everyone loves the word of wisdom lesson (no smoking, doing drugs, or drinking of alcohol) but a lot of times they just don´t have enough faith in themselves and in Jesus.

 

A lot of people here have mandioca, mammon, naranja, muchos limones, and that´s about it.

 

Our sacrament meeting is last, so either they get here at 8, and stay, or they get there anytime in between for what they can and then stay for the sacrament.

 

Right now we are teaching AA and JN, a family, RN, a 16 year old, CS, who breaks all 5 points of the word of wisdom, and a bunch of other people in the grab bag. AA just needs her mother in laws 7 day funeral to end and then she´ll be at church.  RN just needs to complete with going to church 3 times, and CS just needs to change all his whole way of life.

 

-Elder Bowles

 

Week 97 - Addictions, Ask for blessings, Likes Yardwork, Rodent rides on Shoulder

This week was super hot, and supposedly summer is ending. We´ll see.

I´m here in Tayuasapé with Elder P still, so that´s fine.

This week we had stake conference here in San Lorenzo, and there was a lot of people. there, it seemed like way more than last time.

This last week or so we´ve been talking to lots of people with addictions, and I don´t know why, just how it´s been happening recently, so we´ll see how much they let us help them.

Yesterday we taught a family how to pray and we explained how we can ask for blessings and the mom got super excited and said she was going to pray that more people come into her store to buy stuff.  It was really funny, just because of how excited she was.

Funny thing that happened this week President Agazzani came up to me and my companion before stake conference and asked if he could share a joke with my companion, and he just called him Elder Panzón, which basically means elder bigbelly. It was funny, here in South America it is not rude at all to comment on someone´s weight, while in the states people avoid the subject alot.

I am not wearing green, I forgot all about Saint Patricks Day, and here they don´t make a big deal about el día de San Patricio.

 

My long sleeve shirts are way whiter than my short sleeve shirts, and our laundry lady right now actually knows how to make things whiter instead of yellower, so that´s been nice. I haven´t bought any more white shirts, but I´ve found a couple from missionaries who have gone home.

 

This week we pruned trees for a family because according to them they´re ¨too short and can´t reach¨ so that was fun. I´ve started to like yardwork more since I´ve been in Paraguay, and I really don´t know why.

 

We get some refferrals from members, we are spending a lot of time finding still.

 

On sunday at church this lady came in and she had a huge rodent on her shoulder.  It looked like monkey but it had the head of a rodent, I hadn´t ever seen anything like it before, and it was just tied to a rope she was holding. I kinda want one now.

 

-Elder Bowles

 

Week 96 - Stellar Investigator, Burger King is fancy, Sisters Going Home

Here´s a picture of me with President Aggazani and his wife from last Friday.

 

This week was great, one of the people that we had visited once when we got there to visit her again she said right away that she was going to be at church the next day, and she was there. During gospel principles she shared about how the Book of Mormon came to be, and everything, and a bunch of stuff we hadn´t even mentioned yet.  Then we found out she had read the first 15ish pages already, so that was awesome.

We´ve got transfers this Wednesday, we find out tomorrow what happens, I think I´m going to get switched to a new area, but I´d be fine either way.

This week someone had something that seemed really important to tell me in Guaraní and I could only understand bits and pieces of what they were trying to tell me, so that was a really interesting conversation since they only knew a couple of words in Spanish. We´re going to go back with a paraguayan that knows both Spanish and Guaraní.

 

If they don´t speak fancy spanish they speak Guaraní, and one of the fancy people came to church.

 

It is hot and wet here. Its warm but not too demasiado hot.  They don´t have frozen yogurt here, I went to Burger King for the first time here, it´s basically the same as in the states, just more expensive.  It´s a ´fancy´ place here in Paraguay because its from the United States

 

The only time I ever wished I served in the mission office is when it´s really hot, because they get to be inside until 4:30 pm each day, besides that, no.  They have missionaries that take care of supplies, money, President Agazzani´s secretary, and new member registration.

 

Everything is good in the district. Two sisters who are both together in a threesome go home this week.

We went to the temple last April, I think we´re going to go again pretty soon again. 

-Elder Bowles

Week 95 - Give us Juice, Blessing Food, Mattresses, Finding and Flossing

This week was an interesting week, and we met a lot of interesting people. We´ve talked to various people this week who speak really fancy Spanish, and its really nice, because they understand everything before we´re even done teaching it (and they give us juice).  They're really awesome.  We´ll see if they coordinate their time to make room for God. We¨ve also found several people that barely speak Spanish, so that´s been nice too, because they´re humble and very nice.

 

We eat with nonmembers on occasion.  If they are Catholic, they always bless the food.  If they aren't Catholic, sometimes they ask if we want to bless the food, and of course we say yes.

 

All houses have beds, but the mattress are often just foam mattresses.

 

We should get one more chance to go to the temple.

 

This week we spent a lot more time finding than teaching, that´s just how it´s kinda been in this area.

 

The despensas often have ice cream, but the place in our area that sells the best ice cream is where their freezer is half broken, so the ice cream is always kinda melty.

 

I brush my teeth every day, I floss them often, and use mouth wash sometimes.

 

I made a half batch of fudge, because chocolate and marshmallows are more expensive here.

 

-Elder Bowles

Week 94 - Big Ice Creams, No shirt, Chapel Tours, Favorite Topics to Teach, Making Fudge

This week was pretty good, we talked to a lot of people, and a lot of people let us in that had super fancy houses, so that was a nice surprise, and they are really interested as well.

It has been really hot lately, my companion eats 1or two big ice creams every day, I honestly don´t know how he does it. 

Someone that we´ve been working with for a while came to church, his name is Juan, and the primary bore their testimonies after their temple trip, and it looked like it really touched him, and then afterwards he told us that his favorite part was the testimonies.

 

This week we took a taxi and the driver just didn´t have a shirt on, that was a first for me.

We invite people to tour the chapel sometimes, the ward has a ward night on thursdays, and that´s great becasue the sisters are usually cooking something and everyone has their activity.  We show them the chapel and the members and everything.

 

Here they say "Hindy Cabeyu nde sa" in Guaraní, which means it´s hard when the horse´s eye lights up (or when it´s mad), and they say it when they´re in really bad situations.

 

Most of my companions have really liked doing service.

 

My house is small but nice.

 

I think it would be nice being just a home teacher or primary teacher or something when I come home.  When I´m older being the cleaning coordinator or something.

 

It would be awesome to just have a job to be able to get ready for college, I really don't care what kind.

 

I really like teaching about the day of rest and about prayer, I´ve taught it so much, they´re easy to teach, and it´s really important, and the word of wisdom is just easy and obvious.

 

I made some chocolate fudge, and it turned out surprisingly good, they only had pink marshmellows at the store, but it turned super good, the chocolate chips melted (in the package he received), but that was fine becasue I was going to melt them anyways for the fudge, besidest that nothing really melted.

 

Have a good week.

 

-Elder Bowles 

Week 93 - Emergency Drill, Another Baptism, Shifty Tortillas, Different Accents

Today we had an emergency drill, they sent us all a phone call, and we had to get to the chapel as fast as we could with our emergency bags, so that was fun.

This week was pretty dang good, GA was baptized, and is super happy, she brought her nephews and everything she was so excited.  This week was harder until the weekend, because a lot of people rejected us.  GA fell and sprained her ankle, and a member that didn´t sleep a wink and had a migraine went to take her to church in her car so that she wouldn´t have to walk with her 2 year-old kid and her 2 other nephews.

DO came to church, and said that his landlord didn´t want us talking to him, so we´ll be meeting with him in the chapel.  He´s a super awesome guy.

Someone gave us some shifty tortillas this week, and my companion went to the bathroom soooo much on Saturday, so that was a drag, but it´s one of those things that you´ve just got to do. Yes, the companion has to wait outside the bathroom, so that´s why we avoid going to the bathroom too often.

I haven´t seen any spiders, but we did find a scorpion in the house.

 

Our district meetings are in Spanish. For me all the South Americans sound almost the same, the Central Americans have more of the culture of the United States.  The Peruvians don´t ever finish their sentences, and the Argentinians just speak like they have marbles in their mouth and with really weird accentuations, and everyone here in Paraguay makes fun of the Argentinian accent. Bolivians speak like the Peruvians, but they actually finish their sentences.

 

We have transfers in about 3 weeks, as of now I am still with Elder P in Tayuasapé.  I am pretty sure I will get another area and companion this next change (3 weeks from now) but there´s work for us to do here in Tayuasapé first.

 

One of our neighbors likes us, and the other one doesn´t really talk to us.

 

I eat from the stores on the street, but the people that sell stuff on buses I rarely ever buy from them. When someone gives us food, I always eat it, there´s a scripture in the New Testament and the end of marcos lucas mateo o juan that says that the disciples will be able to eat harmful things and not be hurt, but I try not to try that scripture too much.

 

I met some guy that works as a nurse here and he works from 6 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon, which would be an awesome schedule.

 

-Elder Bowles

Week 92 - Dang Funny, Dead Grass, Ugly Ties, Local Gardens, English Scriptures

This week went pretty great, GA went to church, and her two year old kid ran around the whole time, it was pretty dang funny, and he went and danced and sang next to the person directing the music. 

It´s been pretty hot this week, now we need some rain down here, all the grass is dying on the sides of the roads, I don´t think I´ve seen dead grass since I got to Paraguay.  Here there hasn´t been as much rain as normal, but here there´s so much water everywhere that it doesn´t really matter, one family that we visit quite often has a well with a bucket, and it´s only about 15 feet deep and there´s the water there at the bottom, Everyone is outside when it´s hot, so that makes it nice for us. This week someone told us that he didn´t beleive in Jesus ¨right now.¨  I think it was just becasue he didn´t want to talk to us, but whatever, we were looking for a reference from hermana Ida, and we clapped a house and the one next to it opened up and said that they were tired but they wanted to talk to us, and the whole family was there, and asked if it would be ok if they went to church, and wanted to know when it started, so that was awesome. 

I actually really liked one of the ties (the Elder's  Quorum sent ugly ties to the missionaries), because it has brown, grey and blue stripes so I can wear it with any of my pants. One of them had a nice tear in it though, I wore that one yesterday and tied it so that it was hidden by the collar.

 

People here have gardens sometimes, and grow lemons, oranges, mandioca, and then the people with really big ones grow other stuff.

 

Of course I´ll remember how to drive when I get back.

 

We have a gospel pricniples teacher here in tTayuasape, so that´s nice.

 

We had GA and AA at church this week.

 

In all my time in paraguay i´ve seen a couple burger kings and mcdonanlds and one pizza hut.

 

I´ve opened my english scriptures twice this year, I like the spanish scripture study guide a lot more than the english one.

 

A lot of the members here have cars and motorcycles, so they just come when and where we need them, it´s super nice.

 

I´ll be heading back to the states the 4th or 5th of June.  I think I´m gonna have 2 more roomies before I leave.It´s weird though becasue I have gotten so used to living in Paraguay. It´s super great down here, everyone is nice, the land is beautiful, and i´m in a good cause, it can´t get much better than that.

 

-Elder Bowles

 

 

Week 91 - Carpentry, Sitting Down, Received Package from Ward

This week was pretty good, we´ve been helping a lady out that really loves the church, she has an obnoxious kid, when we were talking to her he put a bag of garbage on a stick and started spinning around, it was pretty funny.  He´s 2 years old but I swear he´s wider than I am (like Ivan is so wide).

It´s been pretty hot down here, I know it reached 40 degrees Celsius, what that is in Farenheit?  I don´t know. (it is 104 degrees and they have at least 90% humidity).

This week we spiced things up and we helped an investigator in his carpentry shop.  It was pretty fun, he gave us a huge presentation about how to sand the wood.  Then he was super impressed with how fast we ´learned´ to sand.

We also were talking to one of our investigators, and we were about to teach him the word of wisdom (no smoking or drinking alcohol), and we asked how he was doing with smoking and he said that he stopped a week ago, and we asked him why, and he said he just felt like it needed to be done, so that was awesome.

Someone is planning on giving us cow heart and kidneys, so we´ll see how that goes.

 

It´s way easier to stay focused when I´m the one teaching than when I´m the one listening.  Now in the mission I have a really hard time with zone conferences because I´m not used to sitting down for so long.

 

Advice to college students....First of all you should try to get sufficient sleep, I always go to bed at 10 thirty. Good luck with that.

 

People here get arrested the most when they bug the cops. There´s a neighborhood in my area where the cops wouldn´t even go into before because it was so dangerous, but sounds like things have changed.

 

The best thing that happened was we were really bummed that an investigator didn´t come to church and then we talked to him in the afternoon, and he said that he did, but that he went in San Lorenzo instead of Tayuasape becasue he happened to be over there (and it was true).

Right now we have the lady with the kid who has a date for February 15th, and another one, W*ld*m*r for the 22nd.here. The wards aren´t really super coordinated, so the converts don´t get callings (a job in the congregation) super fast, It´s kinda frustrating , and it´s something we´re working on. A lot of times they give them ward missionary or make them primary teachers.

 

Recently I have been studying about Ammon and Aaron and all them, and it´s really true, anyone who listens with their heart believes and receives all the blessings.

 

I´m still with my same companion, he´s got a little bit of a temper, so that´s kinda fun sometimes.

 

I got a package from the ward, I think it was from the high priests if I read it right, because all of the high preists had their testimonies all fancier than the rest. (the package was from the WHOLE congregation).

 

-Elder Bowles

Week 90 - Fancy People, Slummin' it, Bladder Size, Family Comes to Church

This week was pretty good, a family that we had been teaching came to church this week, and the dad at least wants to go every week. I´m super happy, my favorite part of the week was when the family came to church.

We´re teaching lots of fancy people, they really like it when I compliment their house, and so that makes it surprisingly easy to talk to them, the absolutely fanciest house in my area is about the size of PB´s House, and the smallest house is smaller than my bedroom, and everyone likes compliments, so that´s been fun this week.  The house  is a member´s house, there isn´t a door to the bathroom, because it´s just a bathroom. I´ve only heard of one case when someone´s toilet was robbed. the toilet you saw is out of order, I used the one that´s behind the tarp, with a seat resting on some bricks.

I decided I really like greasy, fatty noodles.

 

The fish head soup was good. I´m pretty sure they just boiled the fish in the soup to cook it.  It´s good though because they put a bunch of salt in it.

 

My shoes are holing (I hope he means holding and not getting more holes) up pretty good.

 

The house  picture I sent is on the poorer side (for this area).  It would be about normal, just a little old for my other areas.

 

I do like hearing about the ward  and everything and extended family.   

 

Exchanges are fun just because it changes things up for a day.

 

Here it´s raining about every other day, and everything is green

 

We live right next to a slum, and so it´s kinda loud at night sometimes.  

 

I´ve been drinking sooo much water, about 4 to 6 liters everyday, I swear my bladder has doubled in size, that´s the fun news for this week.

 

-Elder Bowles

Week 89 - Fast Worm Aflame, Not from around here

A local home

 

Fish Head Soup

This week was pretty good, we found a bunch of families to teach, which was awesome, because it was exactly what we specifically prayed for this week, and one of them is planning on going to church this Sunday, Sí o Sí. They´re super catholic, but hey, who´s not catholic here in Paraguay. They invited us in, we taught them, and they gave us lunch one day and we taught them again. I guess something was done right., most the time when things like that happen I feel like I didn´t do anything at all.

We had an unusual surprise during a lesson this week, we visited one of our investigators that breaks the word of wisdom in almost all ways possible, and in the middle of it a culebra (either a really big fast worm, or a small fat snake, pick whichever you like) came out and he told us to wait there and not let it escape, and then he burned it with gasoline that he got out of his motorcycle. I didn´t see that one coming.

We also ate fish head soup this week (see picture above).

AA went to church, when we visit her she always tells God about how she wants to go to church and get baptized, she has 1 kid, and is living with someone she isn´t married to. We found out that she´s only 17. so that complicates things a bit.

 

This week I liked 1 nefi 20 when it talks about how ridiculous graven images are, such a scripture that a South American missionary would like.

 

When I was Family Home Evening Dad at BYU, I don´t really remember the activities we did. I remember we played spoons once.

It´s really hard for me to think about there being a drought there when it rains every other day here, it´s wierd how different different parts of the world are.

 

This week someone asked me if I was Paraguayan, so that was awesome, even though in my opinion it´s kind of apparent that I´m not from around here. I just tried to hold a conversation in Guaraní and then the people get super surprised that I actually know some of their language, it´s super funny.

 

I have a few notes from the kids at church, I did read the article last week, it was really interesting, Here a lot of people don´t like commiting to do things, so we´ll see if it can be applied to them in their minds.

 

No, we just clapped (they don't knock, they clap) a random house to get in before it rained and they let us in, but it was kinda uncomfortable and funny at the same time.

 

Yep, they both came to church, and said the rest of the family is gonna come back too!

 

Here it depends on the situation, usually it takes a while for people to decide to get married, but when they get taught, and they realize the church has an awesome contract that makes weddings cheaper there than anywhere else, it usually happens.

 

We ride the bus just to get to other areas, unless we are in a hurry, then we use them for our incredibly small area.

 

The music in the ward is good for now, becasue Elder Rhodes is here and he knows how to play the piano.

 

Exchanges are fun, I just do them with the zone leaders, because everyone else in the district are sisters, and yes, the sister´s areas are more tame.

 

-Elder Bowles

Week 88 - Communication is a Solution, Buying a Machette, Enjoy Life!

This week was pretty dang good, We´ve had a inactve member who doesn´t really like the bishop, so I set up an appointment with me and my companion and the bishop to go and do some visits... and then she went to church and brought her daughter in law as well.  It seems like everything's better now, and her daughter in law really liked church as well. Communication is the solution to everything, and the bishop has a car, so that meant less walking!

This week was an awesome week, someone called *m*l** went to church, and loved it, and wants to get baptized, she just needs to get married first. This week I met a Buddhist, so that was pretty crazy, he´s Japanese.

This week it has been a bit cooler, we saw it was about to rain, and so we contacted him to get under the roof, and the whole time while it was raining he kept raising his eyebrows at my companion, and when ever he heard thunder he made funny noises, it was interesting...

I had seen people do the cigarette drink before, and I´d never heard of it not working, so we tried it out. we just broke the cigarettes and poured it in the water.

Basically the people here are the smartest people I´ve taught in all my mission, and they actually know of other ways to find answers to their questions besides prayer, so that´s why it´s a little harder.

The members here are well enough off, the area in general is well off.

 

I can buy machetes at hardware stores, there are about 4 in my area, or some despensas, or anywhere in the city.

 

Just decide to enjoy life, and then you will. it´s as easy as that.

 

-Elder Bowles

 

Week 87 - Fancy Area, Cow Mower, Book Of Mormon Shortage

This week was O.K. after new years not too many people really wanted to talk to us, they were tired, or drunk, or busy, but there were still some interested people that we were able to find.

 

This is the fanciest area that I´ve had so far in my mission, and the people aren´t quite as open to the message as the people were in my other areas, but the lessons are more complicated, and they really have good questions and concerns, so that´s a new change for me, which is nice in some ways and a little challenging as well. I´ve really been able to think about how it is that people are interested in finding out the truth, a lot of people just say that they are just fine with what they have, and that theyré content, so they aren´t super interested in learning more about how they can receive blessings from God. And that´s just what they need, so it´s been a fun month or so.

I haven´t tried the quail eggs, I´ve been sticking with the chicken eggs for now, but I´ve been passing by the quail eggs for quite a while now, so we´ll see when I get to it. 

 

The grass in front of our house is pretty long, and I didn´t feel like cutting it, so when the cows were coming by I opened the gate, and let them in, and they chewed it right down, so that was surprisingly easy, I´m about to do that every time it gets long.

 

Here everyone eats everyone´s food, our investigators invite us to eat, drunk guys invite us to eat.  I try to avoid those meals a little more than the others.  It´s completely normal.

 

He doesn´t do anything super special when he teaches, it´s just a nice change having a companion who is focused and isn´t completely new to the mission.

R*dr*g* didn´t make it to church, his dad doesn´t want us talking to him, so that made it hard.

 

Right now with all the missionaries there is a shortage of Books of Mormons, and each companionship only gets 14 books of mormon each month.

 

You should buy a machete and use it (on some bushes Dave is removing in the back property), just so that it´s more fun.

 

I am ok at making Paraguayan tortillas.

 

Elder Bowles