Week 86 - Christmas: Let in Everywhere and Given Food

This week was different. every house that let us in just wanted to give us food instead of listening to us, since they had made a lot of chipa and sopa and cooked a lot of meat, so that was a good problem. There was tons of fireworks and firecrackers all over the streets on and before Christmas, so that made it an exciting day. Everyone was home, but a lot of them were doing things that didn´t make us super excited to talk to them, lots of loud music which made it hard to focus on anything for more than a little bit.

We spent Christmas with the Paraguayans, and  ate a lot, and got to know a lot of nice people that hopefully will accept the gospel. At every house that let us in they gave us food, even if they didn´t know us, so that was awesome. The mission had a sports day, so that was fun.

My companion speaks very well for only having been here since August, he´s a great teacher, and we're having an awesome time together. 

Right now we´re working with a guy named J**n, who when we told him that baptism was a way of making a promise with god, he just said, maybe I´ll wait till I´m a little older, when I won´t want to go and party anyways, so that it´ll be easier. We also met some people who when we mentioned baptism they asked if they could do it, and then they found out that they had to go to church and keep commandments, and then they weren´t as excited, it was kinda sad. We are also working with a kid named R*dr*g* who when we asked him how he was he said bad, because he was thinking alot aboiut his salvacion and how he could acheive it.

Here it frosted once this winter and the bushes almost died.

Here they sell quail eggs like crazy in the supermarket.

-Elder Bowles

Week 85 - Sharpie Tie, Dance Club, Grapefruit Juice, City Living, More Talkative in Spanish, Surprise Singers

Ivan called us bright and early at 6:30am (11:30am HIS time) on Monday.  When he found out it was 6:30am here his only response was “that’s nice.”  Ivan asked if everyone is just waking up right now.  I tell him that we WOKE everyone up.  He just laughs. He was very concerned about who was here.  He could hear Julia but not see her and was asking about Kami (who was still sleeping).  Having Hailey and Jeff (also sleeping) to talk too was a bonus.

Ivan was wearing a yellow tie which we commented on.  He flipped it over and written in black sharpie was  Elder Hamilton, who was his trainer when he first arrived to Paraguay.  Apparently, Elder Hamilton sent the tie intermission mail to Ivan when he went home.

Ivan has a new companion Elder Patton from Elko, Nevada.  This is third companion from the set of newbies who came out in July.  Julia was in Elko yesterday during the drive here. New missionaries are just coming in like crazy.  Everyone is just going for it. The areas are getting smaller because they have to divide them into more areas.   There is enough work, of course.

His area is Tajuasape (pronounced TA-GEE-WAH-SA-PAY).  Dave said we couldn’t find him on the map.  He said we could find his place if we looked on google earth for Popeye’s, a dance club.  He’s been there on his P-day (joking). They have loud music (obviously).

He will have the opportunity to hear Jeffrey R. Holland (the apostle, not his brother in law) speak in person in the spring. I asked him to talk to Elder Holland and tell him that his sister is married to Jeffrey R. Holland.   He simply stated that there probably wouldn’t be time for him to do that.

On P-day today, they will buy food, take a 9 minute bus ride home, clean the house, and then burn the trash, take a nap and drink some juice – grapefruit juice, of course.  Grapefruit juice comes in a box, as a powder or sometimes he buys the fruit. He was also getting his hair cut today.  He said they can’t be bald or have a buzz cut.

He comments that this is the first time he seen Hailey since she has been married.  He says she looks the same just a bit more tired (she did just get up after all).

Dave asked how the city (where he lives now) is different from the country (where he was).  He said that the country had a slower pace, people were more open and they give him more food.  They speak Guarani in the country.  He spoke some Guarani  for us. 

Ivan is a district leader (which he never told us). When queried why, he said he was still a missionary that he just went to an additional 2 meetings a week and he does interviews.  He was called in October apparently. His district has 4 sister missionaries and 4 elders.  He says that sisters are awesome.  The sisters teach the women.  He listens to the sisters and gives emotional support when they call and then it is done. He helps them if they ask and it is easy to do.  There is not too much you can do when you are in your area and they are in their own area.

We were telling him that the missionaries in our ward now have iPads.  He was very surprised and said he would not like that because missionaries are poor and don’t have stuff to rob.  He said then he feels they would get robbed.

There are 4 young women is his ward right now.  He doesn’t know how many come because he doesn’t keep track of them.

Ivan became very talkative when Jeff started talking to him in Spanish.  Then he told us that he was talkative/outgoing person in Spanish but not in English.  They have 1-6 baptisms a month.  He has only had one companion who only spoke Spanish.  He tries to only speak Spanish with the English companions as well, but sometimes they want to speak in English so they do.  He talks  to people every day in Spanish and you just have to talk a lot and so now I just talk a lot in Spanish.

For service they cut old people’s grass with machette’s.  You squat down and go at it. You go at it like you are cutting off someone’s head right near the ground. When they use an electric lawn mower, the cow bones get stuck in the blades. There are cows everywhere here.  People keep them on the empty lot on the corner during the day and then bring them in at night in a shed/stable.  If you leave something out at night, it is free game. The cows get in front of the buses and it’s annoying when you are running late. 

He said it is pretty safe there.  He hasn’t been robbed. You just don’t’ get robbed, that’s all.  Some sisters were on a bus where everyone on the bus got robbed, but they left the sisters alone. The sisters are assigned to all the safe places. Sometimes the robbers think the missionaries are students.  One missionary was about to get robbed and the Elder told them they were missionaries of the LORD and then they just left them alone. Ivan only has a cheap phone, backpack, scriptures.  I guess they might want a Bible, he states.

Here it got down to 9 degrees Celcius is the low for the winter.  40 degrees has been the high in the summer. The rain just causes the humidity to increase.

Ivan was surprised in church last Sunday when the Bishop announced the missionaries would give a musical number.  They went up there and sang Noche De Luce hymn #127 in the Spanish hymnbook. One missionary played the piano and the other 3 sang. Everybody said they liked it.

He hasn’t lost or gained weight.  He is the same.  He eats at members house everyday of the week.  He told us what he usually eats, but everything he listed was in Spanish.  He claims there is no English equivalent.  They eat a lot of fried food.  He says it is super good. When they have food here they eat unhealthy food.  They eat rice with extra grease and he loves it.

He received a letter from the primary and it was really nice.  It was sent in the mail and it was from all the primary kids.  It was pretty fun.

He was holding the camera during the entire conversation.  We had a good view of his nose.

Investigators have invited the for Christmas to eat something. They received a gift of sweet bread last year.

He told us all that he loved us.

To make things better, we heard the song “White Christmas” that night on Pandora which reminds us of Ivan because he would sing all the low parts with his bass voice.

Week 84 - Getting Lost, Sitting Next to Strangers, Christmas Attitudes, Built an Oven, Package

This week was pretty dang good, we are teaching a couple new families, I´ve still been seeing a lot of people from Kennedy, and it´s super hot.

We got lost in our small area ( I don´t know how) and we ran into some lady that showed us how to get to go where we wanted to go, and then asked if the church was still there and if the meetings always happened, and said she had gone before and wanted to go back! So that was crazy, then I didnt´feel bad at all about getting lost.

I gave a talk this last week on the Holy Ghost, so that was fun, it only had to be 7 minutes, so that was nice, I had about an hour to prepare it.

I try not to hitchhike, I´ve only done it about 5 times, but it is always exciting when we do.

I will call between 11 and 11,30 this coming Monday (Paraguay time), which is the time when I usually email, I´m planning on skyping, if that´s all right.

I sweat from the moment we leave our house until I come back at night, unless we get extremely lucky and some rich person lets us into their airconditioning, or it rains, but then we get wet anyways.

When I was in Villarrica I really liked talking to people in the park, because you just sit down next to them and start talking (that´s completelly normal here, it´d be a little weird in the states.)

Usually the attitudes change a lot during Christmas, there´s more loud music, a lot more drunk people and big groups, but there are always people who just want to find the truth. I have seen the gift of patience a lot in this area (in me and others) here in Asunción Satan has a good grasp on the society and the people in general, but luckily we have God and Jesus and everything good on our side to change that.

I only learned one spanish word this week- fratacho - trowel. I helped some guy make an oven out of dirt and cow poop and bricks, so that was fun. I would have to say that´s one of my favorite ways to serve people.

I went and did baptismal interviews for the sister missionaries and I interviewed someone who was 13 with a kid, but she´s changed her life and wants to follow God. Then I interviewed someone who was 14 without a baby and it was really interesting seeing the difference of their lives and everything. oh, and here in paraguay there´s a 23 year old grandma-figure it out.

The Spirit teaches me all the time as I teach or read scriptures that I´ve read hundreds of times.

I got the package a week ago, and I decided I was going to wait until Christmas to open it. I made it until the next morning, and then I just had to open it. I already used the screwdriver to fix a leak in our gas stove almost the very next day, so that was nice, and I am enjoying the taco seasoning scented shirt while it lasts...and the taco seasoning

Week 83 - Very hot, Poop Moths, Feeling Healthy, Trash

This week was pretty good, it's getting really hot, here its almost 40 degrees celsius (104 F) and its super humid.

I actually tried a new food this week, the paraguayan coconut that has a yellow fruit outside of it. It was just ok.

Yesterday there wasn't very many people at all in the area because all of them were in Caacupe to make their promises to the virgin over there, so that made the day interesting. 

I can't even imagine having snow here, the people here are verry interesting, sometimes too interesting, but different is just fine.

I got to go through my old area, Kennedy, becasue I did some interviews, so that was kinda fun.

The big moths that poop on people are out again, so that's fun. This area is more cityish than all my other areas, but at least the people are smarter, so that at least makes my work easier.

Elder D**z (his companion) is learning Spanish pretty fast.

My shirts arent yellowish brown, they're reddish brown, I tried to bleach one, but then all the really dirty spots stick out more because some of the shirt is really white and the rest is super dirty, so yeah.

We have investigators pray on the 1st or 2nd visit.

*lv** said he was going to go to the church in a different ward this week because his cousin is a member! so that's awesome.

I'm completely healthy, yes the mosquitos are out, but I always have bug spray in my backpack. Don't worry, our house was moldy, but we bleached it and its all gone now.
People here use drugs and substances a lot more than they do in the states. Luckily that's why I'm here.

Days like this make me appreciate Elder Oak's talk about not having other gods (http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/10/no-other-gods), because that is always what starts people down the wrong path.

Here I am completely used to having trash on the street. It is normal to me now, it's going to be weird going to the states again where everything is clean.

The garbage all goes to the lake Ypacarai, which is a really polluted lake, because that's where most of the creeks and rivers go.

-Elder Bowles

Week 82 - Flooding Roads, Floating Garbage, Forgot Thanksgiving

This week was pretty awesome, *lv**, someone we´ve been teaching came to church with his two sons, and it seems like they all enjoyed it. They´re just awesome people just that *lv** has health problems, and that impedes him.

This week there was tons of rain, and it came very suddenly as well. Where I am right now, there are lots of people and the roads flood more than I´ve ever seen them before, there was one road that we had to walk about 4 blocks to find a way accross. Here sometimes the streets turn into rivers, no big deal. When it started to rain we were talking to some people that weren´t really interested in talking about God, but then it started to pour so they let us in, and so that was great.  I got help from the rain without even getting wet! Then we talked to some other guy afterwards who gave us free food, so that was awesome. One interesting thing that people do here is when it rains really hard some people throw their trash in the streets so that they don´t have to deal with it, because it gets washed away. I hadn´t ever seen that before.

This week people started asking us a bunch of questions about the Virgin María, because the 8th of December is coming up, which is her day here in Paraguay.

I completely forgot about Thanksgiving, to be honest. We were walking down the street and then Elder D**z just mentioned it was Thanksgiving and that´s when I realized it as well. I never would have thought that I would forget about a holiday that is so great back in the States. Oh, well Turkey is kinda expensive here anyways since the eggs don´t hatch down here hardly at all. You just wait until next year, and then you all won't have anything left to eat because I´ll have to eat 3 Thanksgiving´s worth in one sitting.

Last year we did have a Christmas Celebration, we´ll see what we do this year. Christmas is celebrated worldwide, so I´m sure we´ll do something.  I don´t think I´ll decorate for Christmas we´ll see if we are still in the same house or not, because this house has some issues.

We have a ward mission leader who has actually served a mission and is active, so it´s super awesome.

Lately we´ve been cutting grass for service.

We eat about 3 times a week with the members here, we´re working with a drug addict, so that´s fun.

We use rolls for the sacrament bread.

 Elder D**z is more outgoing and talks more, so that justs makes it more exciting because even if he is new to Paraguay he makes entertaining mistakes. 

At the bi-mission meeting, it was just nice to see the missionaries I had met and worked next to.

-Elder Bowles