Week 38 - Kennedy - Up coming Baptisms, Rejections, Monkey, Flooded House

This week was great, we had 2 people in church on Sunday, and D. is going to get baptized this Saturday! Also, W. is still on track for the next Saturday. He´s 20 years old and already married, a miracle here in Paraguay, because people almost never get married by themselves.

Also, we´ve been able to find quite a few people to teach this week. We talked to just about as many people as normal, but most the people who rejected us rejected us hard, but it was worth it, because there was even more people who let us in than usual. I´ve heard that this is supposed to be a dificult area, but it´s Paraguay, all the areas are awesome here.

I saw a monkey this last week for the second time, it was chained to a post in someone´s yard, I´d always thought it would be cool to have a monkey as a pet, but he just didn´t seem super kid friendly to me. Maybe it just depends on the monkey. I still need to see a wild one.

Also, in church, there´s someone who knows how to play the piano, so that´s awesome.

One other thing I´ve noticed is that every person that I´ve heard of that has really been touched by the gospel didn´t really follow it until at least their second time hearing about it.

We also had another rainstorm, and we didn´t have water or lights when we woke up, and water started coming in our back door, so that was exciting.

Elder Bowles

Dad-Tell Brett that if he doesn´t go to Paraguay Asunción North, he needs to send his call back and ask for a new one.

 

I was on a division with the district leader when Elder Johnson contacted the reference, and we came back the other day and she said we had to come back later when her man wasn´t there. And she wouldn´t even go inside to ask him, she just assumed he didn´t like the missionaries. The women here don´t ever give their maridos chances to be nice, it´s kinda sad. She needs to at least talk to him, because they´re not married.

 

Really one thing that I´ve noticed lately is that if you have faith that God will give you success, he will help you. Also Alma 26:27 is great, a nice quote from Ammon about missionary work and life in general.

 

Julia- I have no idea how big the stake is. The zone has 20 something missionaries in it though, my last stake had about 10 wards/branches. The people don´t accept service here really all that much, they just laugh at you when you offer and then let you in their house. For me, I like studying the scriptures, paying attention to where I am (chapters) in the Book of Mormon or the Bible, so that I can remember exactly where all the stories are so I can find them when I need them. You could also tell Dad to rob you a Preach my Gospel, because it has a whole chapter on effective study and other cool chapters as well. 

 

Kami- That sounds fun kidnapping people.The Hermana Madariaga sends candy to us for our birthdays, and members here have already asked me when my birthday is, so if I´m here for it I think they´re gonna do something for me (his birthday is April 1st, if anyone here wants to do something).

 

Mom- Elder Peralta, who got here 4 weeks ago, from Peru, is 18. A crowded MTC is no fun. Super long lunch lines, and it is hard to find computers to write your family. More missionaries are going to have to be trainers more than once here because of the influx of missionaries.

Week 37 - Kennedy - Glad for Rejections, 4 Dead Dogs, Ward Helps Out with Referrals, Deep into Summer

This week was great, we found some new people, everyone here is super nice, but they're even less sincere than the people in Salado. Sometimes when someone rejects us, I'm just glad that at least they were sincere.

The couple we were working with didn't go to church, but they read everything we give them, and the guy has drinking problems, but really wants to change, so we're still working with them for now.

Since the ward is bigger, I don't know everyone by name yet, like I did in my last one, still working on that. We have a lot of members that like helping the missionaries out, so that helps a ton.

The teachers of the classes here do a way better job as well. Nothing super crazy happened this week, but it was a good one. I don't know if I told everyone my first week in my mission that I saw 3 dead dogs in one week. Here I saw 4 dead dogs in 1 day. I just assumed they were dogs at least, I couldn't really tell.

Also, they have juice from powder here, instead of concentrate, and it actually tastes surprisingly realistic.

Elder Bowles

Dad- We got a referral yesterday from a member to a family that apparently said that they wanted to talk to us about their salvation. So I'm excited about that, we're visiting them tomorrow. It is weird being in a larger ward, they have way more people with callings, and for now our ward mission leader at least pretends like we wants to fulfil his calling, and he's active, so that's a plus. We do email in San Lorenzo. There are a sooo many less or inactive members here, which is both good and bad, since they're great if they start going back to church, because they help grow the ward super fast since they already know stuff, but just frustrating if they don't.  That is awesome that you did good on the gmat, when would you start the program?

Mom- On Christmas we tried to visit people but it failed, so we went to a members house and had a nice dinner with them.

Kami- Did you get free jamba juice? That makes it all worth it. I almost said good thing it's summer so you didn't miss class but then I remembered it's winter there.

Julia-the weather is hotter here, but maybe its just because it's deeper into summer now, I don't know. I see drunk guys pretty much every week. Have fun at camp.

Week 36 - Kennedy - Two couples, Spanish Boost, Water Stops, Slimey Beef, Tricky as a Horse

Ivan with the Bishop (from his last area) and his family

This last week started off great. We found two couples that both said that they really wanted to go to church and get baptized, and really were just awesome. But none of them came to church. That´s the hardest thing about the mission here, is that they hardly ever tell the truth, so it hard to tell who is sincere. But, they all had somewhat better reasons than a lot of the other people we´ve taught, so that´s good.

I went on a division with a missionary that came about 3 months after me, and it boosted my confidence about my Spanish a little bit. I have to admit I really enjoyed it. He had no shame about his Spanish either, which is gonna help him learn faster, and it made it a really fun day.

I was talking to a member of the ward, and he said he has a friend that went on a mission to Chile, and came back with a gringo accent, it was a super funny story.

Also on the division we taught somebody that got married that Friday, it was a great day, they were living together, and they got married so that they could be baptized that night as well And he was the son of the guy that came to fix our bathroom in my last area, so that was kinda fun.

When I take showers here the water stops in the middle every once in a while, and I just kinda have to wait and hope it comes back on. It has every time so far, but I´m pretty sure that won´t happen every time.

I´ve eaten marinera, which is a really good, almost slimy breaded beef thing. I saw someone cook it yesterday, so now I just need to know how to make the batter.

This last week I learned a new Guaraní phrase- Hendú Cabejudesá- which means "dificil como el caballo" or as "tricky as the horse" and they use it when something sad happens or when you want to say ´that´s just too bad´ I´ve been using it, and everyone think it´s super funny that I know it.  Hopefully that´s what it really means.

Elder Bowles

Here´s a picture of the bishop in my last area and his family, since I didn´t have any new ones. It was a super windy day.

Mom-He said that the same missionary bought a pink suit, so if Justin bought a pink suit, then we would know. I think it´s real WARM here compared to California as well. My shirts end up super nasty by the end of the day. I agree, most people don´t use the Atonement to it´s fullest, a lot of times the people just try to hide from everything when they make a mistake, when really they are just making things harder for themselves.

Dad-Once you spend enough time with someone, you just kinda get used to it, no matter who they are. Johnson likes to work, he just takes a while to make decisions sometimes, which was kinda hard at first when I first got here. But now he´s gotten better, and I basically know the area, so we´re going just fine. We live just south of the military cuartel La Victoria (I don´t know what exactly a cuartel is, or if that word works in english as well, but that´s where we live). When we got here, we had a bunch of people that weren't really progressing, so we´ve been contacting a bit.  

Julia- I usually eat hamburgers or hot dogs when we are in charge of our own food, because here in this mission during the summer we stay out of the house until nine thirty or ten, instead of 9 or 9 thirty.  Then we have to be in bed by 10 thirty, so there´s really not all that much time to make something fancy. We have citas for almuerzo every day of the week, so I don´t have to worry about lunch. I usually have oatmeal or yogurt and bananas for breakfast. I haven't noticed a change in teaching yet, but they have been talking about it.

Week 35 - Kennedy - New Area & Companion, Better Food, 3 Kings Day, Magically Becoming a Better Missionary

Well, here I am in my new area, it´s called Kennedy B, but everyone here calls it Tajy (its prounounced Tai-jew, with the y as one of the Guarani nasally noises). It´s in San Lorenzo. It seems a lot smaller than my previous area, and is a lot closer to the city. But there are so many more people that go to church. 130ish instead of 60ish. It´s great.

My new comp is Elder Johnson. He´s from somewhere in Idaho, I don´t remember where. He likes and talks about Star Wars a lot. We´ll see how things go.

This area is where Elder Willes (Ivan's Missionary Training Center companion) just came from and was also a past area of Elder Hamilton (first companion in Paraguay), so that´s kinda fun.

They also make way better food here as well, don´t know why that is. Maybe it´s just because I haven´t had too much chicken here yet.  I have started to get kind of sick of eating chicken.

One of the members here told me that none of the missionaries leave the area without learning a lot of Guaraní from her, so that should be fun.

Yesterday was the Día del los Magos, where the kids put their shoes out and the 3 kings from Jesus´s birth come and fill their shoes with stuff and leave presents for them, a lot of the kids had new toys, kinda fun.

It´s also great getting a new area already basically knowing spanish, because now all I have to do is focus on getting to know the people and the area, and nobody has in their mind that I´m new.

There are two other missonaries in our ward, Elder Brasher adn Elder Peralta, from Peru, who arrived in Paraguay this week. he said that while he was still in Peru a missionary ate a cat, and he said it was super funny, it made me think of Justin a little

Elder Bowles

Aerial view of their church building:

http://www.lds.org/rcmaps/#lat=-25.401211&lng=-57.482719&z=18&m=google.hybrid&layers=selected&q=wards%3Akennedy&x=find&find=ward%3A249238

 

Mom- I got a package from the Bartons this last week, with candy and gum and crystal light, a super nice note/christmas card and a toothbrush, it was an awesome surprise, if you could tell them thank you for me that would be great.

 

Julia-I basically just write something that happened during the week to the mission president, sometimes good, sometimes bad. That´s really all. He reads like 200ish letters from missionaries every week, so I try to keep it short. You asked a lot of questions this time. Only Bednar and Elder Zaballos have come to talk to us. We talk about boring stuff during district meeting, usually we read out of Preach My Gospel or something and then the district leader imparts his grand wisdom upon us and then we all magically become better missionaries. I look forward to eating, to finding new investigadores and seeing investigators in church.

 

Dad-Kennedy B /Tajy in Kennedy Ward in San Lorenzo Stake. Those are quite a few changes in the ward/stake.