Week 77 - Eavesdropper wants lessons, Send a Maple Donut, Antismoking Drink, Drunk Investigator, Gospel is about Happiness

There are aboutt 30 of the hymns in Guaraní.  The hymnbook in spanish has 210ish hymns in it, and a couple that are only in Spanish, and don´t exist in English. 

Well, this week has been full of surprises, we went to Paso Yobai, and we were visiting someone to see if they were ready for baptism and they were drunk, so that didn´t work out. He said he was drinking because he wasn´t baptized yet, so I guess that means he has desires to follow God, who knows.  Then we went by someone named C*rm*l*, and I guess he had been going to church for a while and so he was able to get baptized, and he´s even happier than before now, and he seemed happy before, and so now he´s suuper happy. If I haven´t learned anything else on the mission, I´ve learned that the gospel isn´t just about praying and reading long scriptures, it´s about being happy.

We also are working with FO, we took him over to F*d*l´s house for a lesson, and we prepared the paraguayan ¨remedio¨ (medicine) to help him stop smoking, which included throwing a pack of cigarettes in a blender and adding water and having him drink it. We´ll see if it works, supposedly everyone who´s ever tried it has stopped smoking. But F*de*l thought it was sooo funny, and his laugh was super contagious.
 

We were reading the Book of Mormon with a member and his brother, and some really angry looking man was doing some stuff in the yard and just sat down to listen, and when we were done he told us he wants us to share what we were sharing with his whole family, because he really likes what we are doing. It is really easy to share this gospel, because it is God´s gospel.

Mom- If I remember right I should be fine, but I´ll double check and let you know next week. I was thinking that if you havene´t sent the package yet if you could try throwing a couple of maple donuts in there and we´ll see how they come out over here, because I really want one.

I´ve written Justin (his cousin) a couple of times, and he´s written me a couple of times. I get guarani and spanish mixed up sometimes, and then he asks me what stuff means. (it is funny to me that just don't write to each other in English)

We taught 22 lessons this week we had one person in church here in Villarrica and 1 in Paso Yobai. There´s less and less investigators in church each week because they are all embracing the gospel. So that´s awesome. I think that I have just been able to figure out how to get people to ask me good questions, and then they are always interested in what we have to say, if they ask me questions. but really its´ just God helping us out.
 

The branch is going to get him a calling real soon, President Galeano said he´s going to be his second counselor once he´s ready.  F*d*l is going to get a calling as the ward greeter, and he´s going to be the best ward greeter ever!

Luckily here in Villarrica it doesen´t seem like it´s going to get as hot, but I´ll see where they throw me for the summer, changes are next week but I really just want to stay here.

We do have an elders quorum, but each week it´s 4 missionaries, Hermano Líder (the elders quorum president), Hermano Miguel, and Hermano Fidel. The other men are always helping out in other places during the meetings. but this branch is growing.

We hit a great landmark this week we officially have 1 deacon, 1 teacher, and 1 preist.Tthe ward secretary is also the young men´s president. There is a primary.

One thing that made me laugh was we had a visit, and the person we wanted to visit wasn´t there, so Juan Ramon his little brother with 9 years ran to get him and yelled ¨I want Ever to get baptized´ it was great.

Julia, My week was great this week. I paid 15,000 ($3) guaraníes for a bus, I helped a one legged man get a chicken out of his pigpen, I was a witness for a baptism, I made a pizza in the microwave, and I gave a talk in church. My tie is yellow, my shoes are brown (they were black before). I have tacos sometimes when I make them for myself because no one here knows what they are.No, I don´t really know Jeff (their brother in law) at all, but when I was with him he was pretty cool. Yes, I went on a date or two in college, I just said maybe when you asked me before.

-Elder Bowles

Week 76 - Just Big Rats, Supermarket Shopping, P-day Synopsis, Cops don't stop Investigator

I couldn´t write yesterday because the internet got cut while I was trying to write, but really quick here are a few of the things that happened this week: C*rl*s and his daughter were both baptized, and are super happy now.

It´s gotten super hot now, and rained a little bit yesterday and it felt really good because it cooled things off. I cleaned all the dust of the fans and now they work twice as good.  My companion seems like he´s really enjoying the mission.

 

I got the other popcorn package, and I enjoyed it as well, they really don´t have popcorn here in Paraguay, so that was super nice.

 

Pomegranates sound so good right now. I´ve only seen one pomagranate tree in all of Paraguay.

 

There are so many birds here, and they all sing in the morning, it is nice, but it makes it hard to sleep past 6 o clock. They don´t have squirrels here, just big rats.

 

I think we could go fishing on preparation day, there´s not too many rivers super close to Villarrica. On p-days we study, drop of laundry, write families, buy food, sometimes clean the apartment, take naps, and just do nothing, because it´s our only chance to just sit around.

 

Having all the differenct companions (he has had 7 so far) just have shown me that everyone has special needs, and that some peoples special needs make more sense than others. 

 

Sometimes I have problems just walking on over wet muddy roads.

 

The bus didn´t come because it was going to get stuck if it did.

 

The corruption ranking for Paraguay seems very accurate, it only surprised me a little bit that only 26 countries were below it.

 

I shop in Herrero (ironworker) super market. there´s sprite, cocacola, colgate, aquafresh, head and shoulders shampoo, crunch bars, kiwi shoeshine, and quite a few more american brands, but things from the states are always more expensive, so the only thing that I buy from the states is toothpaste.

 

well, they said we´ll get the hard copy from general conference sooner this time, acoorinding to the apostol, usually takes a couple months.

 

I am inspired to speak words that aren´t my own almost every day.

 

We have our recovering drug addict that has recently stopped smoking even tobacco cigarrettes and is progressing towards baptism. His highlight this week was when he walked past the cops and they didn´t even stop him.  He just seems way happier than when we found him, he came with us to teach someone with us, and he already refers to himself as ´un mormon´ even though he´s not baptized yet.

 

-Elder Bowles

Week 75 -Villarica - Misses Last Bus, Safest Area, Mosquitos, Horses, Hitch Hiking

This week was great, as usual. On Saturday we had a little bit of an adventure, the bus we needed to take to get back to Villarrica got cancelled, because it rained a bunch and the bus couldn´t go through.(the only bus) so we basically just went home with other means (we paid some guy 10,000- just over $2 American) guarani to take us halfway, and then some family who had talked with missionaries before gave us a ride almost the rest of the way, until we got a couple other rides with other people. It really is amazing how well God has taken care of me since I´ve been on the mission.

At night, I hear drunk people and music quite a bit, but the only thing that wakes me up sometimes is all the horses going by with their metal shoes on the pavement. I have no problems sleeping.

 

There are a lot of mosquitos here in Villarrica, especially since it´s warming up.

 

This is probably the safest area in all of Paraguay, there are street lights in the whole area, and I basically hitchiked without any problems.

 

I just want reeses cups and butterfingers and skittles. I don´t really ´need´ anything.

 

C*rl*s had to work, but we were able to get the interviews in, so now he just needs to get to the river with his daughter to get baptized.

 

Presidente Agazzani is just great, I had an interview with him, but his letters he writes to us always seem to have hidden meanings in them, it makes me kinda nervous sometimes. Our mission president is super funny, he always cracks jokes. He´s only 40something, and he really does have a lot more energy than President Madariaga.

 

There´s one member who takes a bus for about an hour to get to church Everyone who lives in Paso Yobai used to take the two hour ride every Sunday.

 

There´s not too much to do on P-days, look at carpinchos (large rodent), that´s about it.

 

Elder Bowles

Week 74 - Being Chaste, Idea of Serving a Mission, Teaching Old People, Friendly Members

Well, we had general conference this week, I watched it in Spanish.  I really liked how Dallin H Oaks taught the first two commandments, it is what almost every single person here in Paraguay needs to apply, probably almost everyone in the whole world. (For a video of his talk click on the following link.  He gives lots on interesting statistics on % of people living together, age at marriage, % of babies born into single parent homes.... https://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch/2013/10?lang=eng&vid=2724154478001&cid=5   I also really liked how they emphasized staying chaste, because those two things are things the whole world desperatly needs to hear. And I hope they did. I know that the messages were inspired, and that if we apply them, we will be blessed enourmously.

Fidel went to the conference and he said it was ´pure spirtual nourishment´ and for me, it really was.

It´s not that they cancel things here (like the primary program), the church just isn´t as organized here in Paraguay, and not everything gets done sometimes.

 

Before college, I always knew that I should serve a mission, but I feared the idea of serving one, so I just kinda avoided the idea.  Then when the time came I tackled the idea, and I knew it was the right thing, so I did it. and I am still learning how good of an idea it was - every day. If someone understands the gospel, and has a testimony, and is able, they will go on a mission. I was more focused on the mission during college, because I graduated from high school and it was time to face my future. I probably should have made that shift before.

We are going to try again with C*rl*s this saturday, pray that everythign goes well.

I also know that my English is getting progressivly worse.  It was kinda funny, because the Spanish had a delay,since the translators say everything after the speakers and at first I thought that the speakers were saying Amen while they were walking away from the pulpit, but that was just my mistake. 

 

I don´t know why, but I´ve been finding a lot more old people to teach here in Villarrica, they just seem to be the most open to listening sometmes, which is completely opposite to how it was in Asunción.

 

For a while now I have been hearing squeaking sounds when we are walking around or teaching people, I recently found out that they are bats all of them, there are tons of bats here.

 

General conference is just nice in the mission becasue it´s something different than normal, that´s what makes it so great. We watched general conference in the chapel in Villarrica, they have cable there, and I guess Villarrica gets BYU tv, so that´s cool. All in Spanish. I liked the talk by President Monson about home teaching.

 

We taught 22 lessons this week. 

 

My shoes were filthy, but I cleaned them. It has rained at least once a week for about 4ish weeks.

 

I haven´t met anyone who´s seen snow. 

There are quite a few Paraguayans who are as tall as me, I imagine they have seen people as tall as my companion, but I hadn´t thought about it before.

 

My favorite fruit is mandarina.

 

It depends on the investigator if they stay the full three hours of church.

 

The members here are the most friendly I've met.

 

Elder Bowles