Week 42 - Kennedy - Awesome guy, New Mission in Argentina, Favorite Part is Investigators Coming to Church

 

A medium sized storm coming in

This week was awesome! We found an awesome guy on Saturday, we found his mom contacting, and she said to come back to talk to her son. We did, and then he came to church the next day. He almost got baptized already, but something happened. We´re not sure what yet though, because he doesn´t speak all that much Spanish, and we´ve only gone over there once. His name is M**r*c**, and he´s fifty something. He said he´s been reading the Book of Mormon for the last 6 months or so, so that´s real awesome.

Some crazy things are happening in the missions down here because of all the new misisonaries, they´re making a new mission in Argentina, which is gonna steal some of Southern Paraguay, and then the Paraguay Asuncion Mission is going to steal Caacupe, San Lorenzo, and La Paloma from our mission. So I may end up in the south mission if I´m still here in July, since I´m in San Lorenzo. We´ll see what happens

Elder Bowles

I´m gonna send the email about our new mission president and the mission changes as well, Pres McMuffin (it is actually McMullin) or something like that, some old guy from Utah. Google translate should help you read it, sometimes it makes funny mistakes.

I also attached a picture that I took when I was bored waiting for a collectivo near our house.

Dad- The spider wasnt that big, I just zoomed in on it. My Guarani is still very basic. We always write letters from cybers. We have somebody especially assigned to teach the gospel principles class, it´s super awesome, because we don´t ever have to teach it. We do attend ward council, do the missionaries there?

My favorite part of the week is when just one person out of all the people that said they would come to church actually come. That´s super awesome that there are sister missionaries there now.
Julia- They do anything on exchanges, with the members, or visiting whoever, who may or may not be there. You should get a Preach my Gospel to really impress them, and study it. It would be awesome if the youth here did exchanges with us every week like they do there.

Mom- Here everyone has babies super young, so I can imagine that, because I´ve seen a lot of 15-year-olds pregnant.

My interaction with little kids is when their parents send them out to lie to us to tell us they´re not there. And we can always here them say ´tell them we´re not here," and then the kid comes out and says that they´re not here. It´s kinda sad that the parents make their kids lie, just so they don´t have to reject or talk to us. But also, the kids of the members here talk to us alot. As missionaries we´re not supposed to have kids on our laps. If you go to poor parts the kids always speak Guaraní.

 

While waiting for the collectivo near their home

 

 

Ivan's new home after his transfer

 

 

House across the street (which is what their house used to look like)

 

 

Week 41 - Kennedy - Less Worked Areas, Better Food, Wildlife Photographer, More Trainers, Music

This week was a great week, it rained a bit, and was super hot afterwards because of the humidity. We found a lot of new people to teach, so that made it great, including a family of 6, so we´ll see how that goes. I decided that we were going to work where we know the other missionaries hadn´t worked for a long time, and it seems to be working.

 I´m still with Elder Johnson, so we´ll see how this change/transfer goes. This change/transfer is only going to be 4 weeks long, intstead of 6. They´re changing it up because of the new missionaries coming in, so that makes it a little better.

I was reflecting this last week, and realized that the food here is way better than in Salado. in Salado at half the lunch appointments we had they gave us this oily, bony fatty meat soup, and if I drank or ate anything cold for and hour before or after, I got diahrea every time. Here everyone is rich (comparatively). and we get awesome food.

I attached some pictures of the paraguayan wildlife. They´re some pretty good pictures, I might just have to go into photography. The last one´s my favorite.

Elder Bowles

Dad-I am still with Elder Johnson, so this´ll be another interesting change. Luckily it´s 2 weeks shorter, because they changed things up because of the 18 year olds. theres 20 something new missionaries coming in. they said that in the next couple changes there will be 60ish new trainers, which means more than half the mission will be either training or being trained at some point in the next several months.

 

People use what they have to go to church. some people come just like they do in the states, and some come in shorts and flip flops, because that´s all they´ve ever had. and some whear a mix of the two.

 

On a mission, if your comp is great, you learn a lot if you´re paying attention. If he´s not so great, you learn a lot because you have to.

 

Mom-I said a prayer. Your welcome. Enjoy the temple, I think I get to see the temple outside of a collectivo for the first time in April. A lot of the letters are shorter this week, I feel like. maybe it´s because they were all on the phone.

 

Julia-there are anywhere from 0 to 16 kids in the families that I have met. Everyone here is brutally honest. I really like it, because you´re never left wondering what somebody thinks about you. If I don´t have the spirit, I pray until I do.

 

Kami- If I want I can pay 80,000 guaraní($20ish) for a speaker and 20,000ish guaraní ($5ish) for a pen drive and have the mission give me the music they have, but I just haven´t felt like it yet. I get to listen to all kinds of worldy music as I walk the streets, so I don´t really need it. There´s a weird Korean song that´s been popular for waaay too long here. It´s annoying.

 

Week 40 - Kennedy - Cement on his arms, Leaks in their roof, Patriarch plays soccer

This week was great. On Saturday, when we had planned W's baptism, there were 5 other little girls that got baptized that same day, their whole family recently started going to church again. We had planned the baptism at 6:00, and President Madariaga and his wife showed up with some extra baptizmal clothes(one of the good problems of the day) and W. showed up about a half hour late because his boss at work made him work 3 hours later than he usually does. He still had cement on his arms when he went into the font, it was super great. That was my highlight of the week, the whole week didn't go that well until Saturday happened.

There was a bigger storm last night, it rained super hard. There's about 6 or 7 leaks in our roof, so that's kinda fun, luckily most of them are in the kitchen area where we don't really keep anything.

The stake patriarch lives in our area, and he went to visit a family with us that we had found that only really speaks Guarani.  When we got there, he saw the 17 year-old son, and said, "Hey, I already know him." in Spanish.  I asked how, and he said that he plays soccer with him at the field infront of his house (he's about 70 years-old).  I saw him playing later this week as we walked by, and he's surprisingly good. Him and a bunch of young guys (16 to 20 years-old) were playing.

We'll find out tonight if Elder Johnson and I stay together here in Kennedy B.

Elder Bowles

Julia-no. We can't see the stars that well here because we are too close to Asuncion, and there are too many lights. It was the same in Salado as well.

Before one of the most distracting things as a missionary was when we were in lessons and someone would just flop out their stuff and start breast feeding. But it's happened so many times now that it's just kind of normal. Now after that pretty much nothing can distract me.

Dad-That's super awesome that there are 4 baptisms there. Make sure the ward works good and takes care of them. That is really what matters most. Anyone can feel the spirit and get baptized. Here the ward just doesn't work as good because almost everyone are converts.

The siesta starts after lunch (1 o clock), and lasts anywhere from 2 to 3.5 hours. so we make sure to schedule people for that time, and see if they follow through after they agree to that time.

Mom- I read that scripture (most of Doctrine and Covenants 76) this morning already, and I really enjoyed it. really we just need to focus on what is important, and it makes everything else easier. I haven't gotten any packages lately, I will find out if I have one either this week if Johnson leaves and we go to the office, or at zone conference this month (when we go to the office). Or if the office elders decide to be nice and call to let me know. I would like one more pair of those brown pants that I have, if that place still has them.. They're super nice because they don't look as dirty as fast, and if I ever poop my pants it will be less embarrassing. Contacts would be nice. and of course, American candy. syrup too, I'm almost out. Those are the things that come to mind right away.

Kami- I got to baptize D. Do you study in bed or at the table? Studying at the table really does help, as well as having questions or things that are going on in life in your mind as you read. Trials do make you stronger, my comp right now doesn't like to talk, and takes a long time to make decisions, and becasue of that I've had to compensate by talking alot and making decisions faster than before. Trials are the reason for this life. That's just how it is. If you don't learn from them, or try to stay the same, than you don't benefit or take advantage of this life at all.

Week 39 - Kennedy, 2 More Baptisms, Bigfoot, Favorite Part is Right NOW.

This week was great, On Friday Hermano Britez asked if the baptism of D. could be at aboutt 1 in the afternoon, so it was. Not as many people showed up, since that was in the middle of the siesta, but it was still awesome. The dad recently made some big changes in his life and started going to chruch again. I really do like being a missionary.

This week as well our ward also made some plans to get more to church, if they follow through it´s gonna be awesome here.

It´s been super hot a couple days this week, I really want it to rain at least a little bit, since the hotter it is, the longer people sleep in after lunch, which makes being a missionary a little tricky.

W. is all good to go to be baptized this Saturday as well, he´s so prepared, we went to teach him the law of tithing, and he already knew what it was and basically called everyone fools who doesn´t want to pay their tithing, so that made things easy.

I don´t know if I´ve mentioned this before, but here a lot of people beleive in something called the Pombero, who basically sounds like Bigfoot, but he throws things at people during the night time, and the only way to get him to go away is to give him beer and cigarettes, and then he becomes your friend and guards your house from robbers. Kinda funny, but a lot of people really beleive that he exists, especially the farther towards the parts with less houses. That´s all

Elder Bowles

Mom-I do keep a journal, and I usually write in it about once a week, sometimes a little more often. Basically just when I remember and have time. How old is Grandpa now?

 

Dad-The more I speak in Spanish the easier it is. I don´t have that much trouble at all now. Every once in a while I don´t know a word. Some words I haven´t known recently have been gargarear (to gargle) and lanzar (to launch) words that I just didn´t ever hear before and I might not ever hear again.

 

My comp goes home in September, I don´t know how long he´s been out.

 

I think a huge reason that Paraguayans are more receptive is because almost all of them believe in God. (I´ve only ran into 2 people so far in 6 months that admitted to not beleiving in Jesus, only 1 who didn´t believe in God) So that gets rid of one huge step that missionaries face in the states. And they are used to people coming by and sharing about god, so when we come and they see we have something special they either love it, because it´s true, or hate it because they´re lazy. More choose the second.

 

Everyone here says they´re allergic to change in weather. It´s super funny.

Kami- Someone in our ward has a sore on her leg that is about the size of a golf ball, and comes back about every six month if it goes away at all. Everyone here says they´re allergic to change in weather. It´s super funny.

 

Julia- I was just reading through the emails and realized I didn´t get one from Julia, and then one popped up in the inbox, so that was handy. How many missionaries are assigned to our stake in Chico?

My favorite part of my mission is right now. I´m gonna see if I can do my part to always keep it that way.