Week 64 - Villarrica - Long Journey to New Area of City & Jungle, Spicy Soup, Testimony Now, Sitting Down

Click on this link to see Ivan's new mission boundaries.  We was near Luque (just right of the red square) and now he is in Villarrica (middle of Paraguay).

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=gmail&attid=0.1&thid=13f9b7008b0a4252&mt=application/pdf&url=https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui%3D2%26ik%3D34924753d1%26view%3Datt%26th%3D13f9b7008b0a4252%26attid%3D0.1%26disp%3Dsafe%26realattid%3Df_hillkcxk0%26zw&sig=AHIEtbTMyQyT6Lks7xfp0bXRhNtfUUfF-g



Well, here I am in my new area, it´s super great here. I feel like I started my mission over again. New area, new companion, new rules. I´m here in Villarrica, a city outside of Asunción. I grabbed a taxi in my old area, and arrived in ´la Terminal´ at 7am in the morning, and then I grabbed a double decker colectivo at 8:40am with a group of other missionaries for 3 hours, and we arrived in Coronel Oviedo.  Then my new companion and I took another colectivo for a little less than an hour to arrive in Villarrica.

It is just awesome here. there aren't very many people at church (49 today was more people than normal), but the people here are very nice and for the most part sincere.

There´s also another ´branch´ in my area (its called Paso YoBai) about 2.5 hours from Villarrica, where we live, in a dinky little town. The branch president there called us and told us that he had some people for us to teach (and baptize), who had ´only´ been going to church for about 5 months. So we went and taught them, and it´s even prettier over there, which I didn´t know was possible.

 

My new comp is going to end his mission in a little more than 2 weeks, so I have to learn the area quickly. His name is Elder R**d, and he´s from Utah, so we´ll see what happens. My companion has been out 1 year and 11 months in the mission, or as he always tells people 'more than a year and a half.' My companion is good, and he likes to work. 

 

There´s a Bolivian family in our ward, and they made us some soup, and it was actually spicy, which was super nice, because Paraguayans don´t know what the word spicy means.

 

In this new area, I now I have hot water! The only thing is, we can´t use the heater and the hot water in the shower at the same time, or the circuit gets overloaded.

Here they have ice for 500 guaraní (less than 10 american cents) on every house corner.  It warmed up yesterday, so I´m enjoying life again.
 

Our house is 3 blocks from the chapel in Villarrica, and more than 2 hours in colectivo from the other chapel. The city part of our area is more city-like, but there is a whole part of my area that is just jungle. My area is all of the ´departamento Guairá and the departamento Villarrica which is super huge and southeast of asunción. 

Don´t make me jealous with those big numbers (Dave had told him 150 people came to our last church dinner), I haven´t even heard of a ward in Parguay that has more than 130 people in church on Sundays.
 

When I left on my mission I had a testimony, but I didn´t have a testimony confirmed by the Spirit. I knew that the church is true because the Bible says that Jesus has a church, and all the other churches either contradict themselves or the scriptures. After being thrown accross the world I gained the confirmation by the Spirit that I know even more that my testimony is true.
 

I lived in Felt hall at BYU (al lado de fox hall) fox hall (where Kami stayed for EFY last week) was in my ward at BYU. 

No. I don´t like speaking in front of groups standing up. Sitting down is just way easier and more comfortable, if its on the ground or on a chair it doesn´t matter. I wish I could go to the temple whenever I want, that would be just awesome.

Julia, My companion has blonde hair and straight teeth.  I don't know if he likes blood sausage.  He´s OCD.  I´m gonna make it a fun two weeks.  He is senor companion.  I haven't been playing the piano, but my companion is the only other person who plays piano and he´s gonna leave in two weeks, so we´ll see. You go and start those mission papers!

I´ll send a couple pictures next week, just remind me to do it, I don´t have my card adapter today.

-Elder Bowles

Week 63 - Not tempted to Drink, Dang Cold!, Speaking Guarani?, Needs Reeses, Bacon!, Clean Stove

 

Ivan cleaning the stove

 

Ivan keeping warm by the heater (that broke 2 days later)

 

 

 

 

This week was a great one. Another family we started to work with returned to church, and brought some friends, so that´s awesome.  The sad news is that now that we have some people that are for sure getting baptized President told me that I´m going to a different area on Wednesday. I´ll find out where tomorrow. It´ll be really nice to have an area where I haven´t talked to anybody at all.

 

Yesterday Elder Aguilar and I arrived at a house were were going to visit, and they were all in front drunk and one of them tried to make him drink some beer.  It was super funny, because he held it up to my companion´s face and told him to drink it. I would have helped my companion, but there was no way the drunk guy was going to succeed, and he didn´t.

 

The weather is pretty dang cold here. I don´t know if it´s actually really cold, or if the hot paraguayan summer just makes it feel super cold, or if it´s just because we are outside almost all day. Here the weather is cold and our floor heater broke, and so we just have our air conditioning that kinda heats up the room, I´ve been wearing long underwear under my pants during the day, hopefully this Paraguayan weather hasn´t made me such a wimp that I die of cold when I go to utah to study. The first winter I swear wasn´t this cold. they say it was 1 degree celsius this morning (I think thats in the 30´s farenheit) and it´s super humid here too.

I started talking to all the old people here in Guaraní as much as I can, because they really enjoy it, and it makes their day when I just say hi in Guaraní. Then they start talking to me in Guaraní and I don´t understand a thing unless they say it´s cold or I´m sick because I understand that.

 

If the area that I was in was big, I would not mind at all staying there for 2 years.

 

My comp has the same size family as us.

 

When I got to this zone, there was only 2 or 3 missionaries that weren´t Americans, and now more than half are Latin missionaries. My district is 3 companionships, and I and Elder Secrist are the only Americans. The funny thing is that almost all the Latin missionaries are junior companions, so we bring that up sometimes to make them mad.

 

There are a lot more Latin misisonaries now. I´d say that chances are slim for Americans to go to south america on a mission, so that´s too bad. Recently I´ve been envying people who go to the states in their missions because the wards there actually funcion as they should, and all the members know what they need to do to keep the ward working.

 

The first thing out of almost everyone´s mouth when we talk to them is that they´re Catholic, but almost nobody goes unless they live within 2 blocks of the Catholic chapel, so most of the time it´s a lot easier to get them to church because they don´t go to theirs.

 

I thought that they would claim priesthood authority from Peter, but for the first time yesterday in all my mission somebody actually brought that up, and it actually surprised me.

 

I don´t think that I´ll be able to give blood when I get back, at least for a little while.

 

Right now we´re teaching the wife of a drug addict, M*b*l, the daugther in law of a recently activated member, *st*ll*, and a mix of other investigators and less active members.

 

My idea of stuff I ´need´ has changed while I´ve been here, I would like just some reeses peanut butter cups and butterfingers, maybe some skittles.They just don´t have good candy here in Paraguay. I will do some more thinking this week about what I want.

 

My idea of beauty is green grass and palm trees, and preferably trees that have fruit on them, so i can eat.

This last week I found some bacon in the store for the first time, it was kinda expensive, but I bought it anyway and made BLT´s all week for breakfast.

 

Our stove is a little, cheap gas one. I cleaned it (foto), and now the flames are about 4 inches high when we turn it on, so that´s probably not good.

 

I was physically prepared for the mission when I flew to Utah, but the MTC screwed me over, and then I wasn´t physically prepared when I flew to Paraguay.

 

 

-Elder Bowles

 

Week 62 - Kennedy - Premissionary, Shower Explosion, Unfunny Jokes, Enjoys the Gospel

This week was great. We had zone conference, and we were able to apply basically all of it, and it really is helping. Our ward really has started to do their visits and everything, and that is helping the ward a lot. When I first got here there was only 7 active families in my area, and now there´s 12, so we have a lot more support now.

 

We recently started doing a lot of visits with someone in our ward that´s getting ready for the mission, and now he goes every week, and all his friends started going to church again, and the young men in the church  Sunday doubled and it wasn't just a one week thing, so that´s awesome.

 

Also, the showers here don't have water heater tanks or anything, they just have something that heats up the water real fast as it goes through the pipes. Last week I was showering and it exploded. If I wasn't awake before, I was after that. So now we are showering with cold water while we try to get it fixed. I've never had such an exciting shower experience before in my life. We haven´t really had all that much time to fix it, and none of the Paraguayans that I know have hot water to shower, so  I decided I´d just try it out for a couple weeks before I change it, it´s not that cold of weather right now, so it´s not too bad.

 

One thing that I don´t enjoy as a missionary is when you don´t think a joke is funny they think that you didn´t understand their Spanish, when really it was just a super lame joke. Sometimes I say lame things to see if people will think that it´s funny, and it almost always works.

 

They do have a different sense of humor., but some have been influenced so much by the united states, that they´re super funny. When people ask about my family and what you (Hailey) do to work, I just say that you work with drug addicts, because I really don´t know.

 

I think my encampment interview was with President Ogden.  If I remember right, and they gave me a mini Book of Mormon, and then we left because the camp was about to get burnt down. And then I lost the Book of Mormon. That´s all I remember.

No none of the references from the ward were all that great at all, but at least it gave me something to do.  Right now we´re teaching L**s, who's just a little special,  Mabel, who accepted a baptismal date the first time we met with her, but has lots of influences from lots of other churches, and Robert, an atheist, one of the 10 atheists that I have found in my whole mission.

 

I have seen 1 deer. My belt broke, but that´s about all. I think  I already said that Elder Hamilton got a huge hole in his pants?

 

Right now there are no missionaries that are serving missions from my ward here, but there are 3 young men preparing, and 1 young woman preparing. The young man that lives on our side of the ward usually spends a day with us every week.

 

 I think my greatest blessing of my mission is I learned how to enjoy the gospel.

 

When I look for it I do always feel god´s love for me.

I really do enjoy being a missionary and just being able to focus on helping other people every day.

-Elder Bowles

Week 61 - Kennedy - Ward Feels Sorry, Forgot Independence Day, Spanish Speakers from Spain, Nurse Advice

This week was a tougher week. Transfers were last week and I'm still here in Kennedy. The ward seems to feel sorry for me and are giving me way more references than before, and helping out even more. If nothing else that's one good thing about being in an area for almost 7 months, is that the members all know me trust me, and help me. We'll see what happens.

 

We met the new Mission President this week. He came and did a special conference thing for the missionaries that were changing missions. He seems nice, we'll see. The president seems fine, but the first impression never means anything.

 

On Thursday some guy wished me happy Independence Day, and I told him that I thought Paraguay's independence day already happened. I completely forgot about the 4th of July. Kinda embarrassing, Never in my life thought I would forget that.

 

This week I tried Mbeyu, it's like mexican tortillas, but a little thicker, and a little moister. They are super good.

 

Also, I talked to someone from Spain this week, and they talked to me in tu and vosotros, it was kinda weird.  The only time I've heard someone actually speak Spanish from Spain, that wasn't just making fun of how people from Spain speak Spanish.

 

Mom-that is good to hear that you are recovering well.

 

Yes, I watched the district before the MTC, in the MTC, and in the misison field.

 

We have a mission nurse that we just call to see what we should do when we're sick. I didn't go anywhere. She just told me to eat cough drops and spray saltwater up my nose.

 

He told us he was a cop. Our Bishop is a cop too, but I heard him telling someone the other day that if he wasn't bishop he wouldn't be active, so I don't know if it's a good thing if he's bishop or not.

 

I visited that family once with the missionaries I think. Their son is or was your hometeaching companion right?. I'm the reason he's getting baptized, just so you know.

 

Basically if someone opens the Book of Mormon more than once that means that they're for sure going to get baptized. Any one that is going to progress always prays the first or second lesson. If they speak Castellano, then they can read. We spend about half the time teaching and half the time contacting. I've been contacting where all the rich people live and nobody there wants to know nothing.

 

Almost nobody that hasn't been a member a long time can read well. All the investigators struggle to understand what they read. Español is easy to read and pronounce well, and everyone here can do it, but understanding it is something different.

 

We have zone conference this wednesday.

 

Kami, A dog came to attack me once and I scared it off by opening my umbrella, it was pretty funny. Yeah, I email Justin (his cousin on a mission in Peru) sometimes.

 

Julia, You just have to pray to know if you should do things-read the part about Oliver Cowdery in Doctine and Covenants. Also, what we tell investigators a lot is that it is easier to rocognize answers to prayers if we ask yes or no questions, and it's way true.    My favorite scripture that I read this week is in Moses in the Pearl of Great Price, when Enoch asks why God cries. Just read it, I really liked it. My feet never stink. I got both of your letters.

 

Elder Bowles

Week 60 - Kennedy - Feeling Better, Cool Cop, Yelled Talk

This week was a good one, the sun came out a couple days ago and we got a lot of good work in, and found several people.

With the change to the other mission I still don´t know anything, the president´s name is Agazzani. and I found that out from the nurse when I was sick. I had had diahrea and a cold before, but that was the first time I have had a fever in Paraguay.We´ll see what happens. I´m physically better now, and working hard! I was just happy it was raining when I was sick, because it made me feel like I wasn´t missing out on too much.

in the funerals they pray to the virgin mary and all kinds of stuff so that their prayers "help the person to get to heaven" and if they don´t then they´re scared that they won´t make it.

 

We´re working with a pretty cool cop right now. He´s actually pretty smart, so that´s always a nice refresher.

 

I do not know why they´re so afraid of the rain, I do know that a lot of people have small houses, and if they want to let us into their house, they let us into the only room they have-their bedroom.  I know that I wouldn´t invite someone I didn´t know into my bedroom.

 

All the citrus fruits ended about a month ago.(mandarin, orange, pomelo).

 

I spoke several weeks ago in church, the microphone wasn´t working so I just yelled at everyone. it was kinda fun.

 

When we ate the cow foot, my companion "accidentally let the dog get it" and didn´t have to eat it. It was pretty obvious though.

 

Some less active members came to church that we visited, so that´s always fun.

 

I see rabbits several times a week.

 

I have studied several topics for several hours. it´s easy when you´re a missionary.

 

I think that it´s great that the not so good kids are going to church. Here, if they´re not so good they just stop going to church.(super wide gap).

 

elder bowles