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.