Week 90 - Fancy People, Slummin' it, Bladder Size, Family Comes to Church

This week was pretty good, a family that we had been teaching came to church this week, and the dad at least wants to go every week. I´m super happy, my favorite part of the week was when the family came to church.

We´re teaching lots of fancy people, they really like it when I compliment their house, and so that makes it surprisingly easy to talk to them, the absolutely fanciest house in my area is about the size of PB´s House, and the smallest house is smaller than my bedroom, and everyone likes compliments, so that´s been fun this week.  The house  is a member´s house, there isn´t a door to the bathroom, because it´s just a bathroom. I´ve only heard of one case when someone´s toilet was robbed. the toilet you saw is out of order, I used the one that´s behind the tarp, with a seat resting on some bricks.

I decided I really like greasy, fatty noodles.

 

The fish head soup was good. I´m pretty sure they just boiled the fish in the soup to cook it.  It´s good though because they put a bunch of salt in it.

 

My shoes are holing (I hope he means holding and not getting more holes) up pretty good.

 

The house  picture I sent is on the poorer side (for this area).  It would be about normal, just a little old for my other areas.

 

I do like hearing about the ward  and everything and extended family.   

 

Exchanges are fun just because it changes things up for a day.

 

Here it´s raining about every other day, and everything is green

 

We live right next to a slum, and so it´s kinda loud at night sometimes.  

 

I´ve been drinking sooo much water, about 4 to 6 liters everyday, I swear my bladder has doubled in size, that´s the fun news for this week.

 

-Elder Bowles

Week 89 - Fast Worm Aflame, Not from around here

A local home

 

Fish Head Soup

This week was pretty good, we found a bunch of families to teach, which was awesome, because it was exactly what we specifically prayed for this week, and one of them is planning on going to church this Sunday, Sí o Sí. They´re super catholic, but hey, who´s not catholic here in Paraguay. They invited us in, we taught them, and they gave us lunch one day and we taught them again. I guess something was done right., most the time when things like that happen I feel like I didn´t do anything at all.

We had an unusual surprise during a lesson this week, we visited one of our investigators that breaks the word of wisdom in almost all ways possible, and in the middle of it a culebra (either a really big fast worm, or a small fat snake, pick whichever you like) came out and he told us to wait there and not let it escape, and then he burned it with gasoline that he got out of his motorcycle. I didn´t see that one coming.

We also ate fish head soup this week (see picture above).

AA went to church, when we visit her she always tells God about how she wants to go to church and get baptized, she has 1 kid, and is living with someone she isn´t married to. We found out that she´s only 17. so that complicates things a bit.

 

This week I liked 1 nefi 20 when it talks about how ridiculous graven images are, such a scripture that a South American missionary would like.

 

When I was Family Home Evening Dad at BYU, I don´t really remember the activities we did. I remember we played spoons once.

It´s really hard for me to think about there being a drought there when it rains every other day here, it´s wierd how different different parts of the world are.

 

This week someone asked me if I was Paraguayan, so that was awesome, even though in my opinion it´s kind of apparent that I´m not from around here. I just tried to hold a conversation in Guaraní and then the people get super surprised that I actually know some of their language, it´s super funny.

 

I have a few notes from the kids at church, I did read the article last week, it was really interesting, Here a lot of people don´t like commiting to do things, so we´ll see if it can be applied to them in their minds.

 

No, we just clapped (they don't knock, they clap) a random house to get in before it rained and they let us in, but it was kinda uncomfortable and funny at the same time.

 

Yep, they both came to church, and said the rest of the family is gonna come back too!

 

Here it depends on the situation, usually it takes a while for people to decide to get married, but when they get taught, and they realize the church has an awesome contract that makes weddings cheaper there than anywhere else, it usually happens.

 

We ride the bus just to get to other areas, unless we are in a hurry, then we use them for our incredibly small area.

 

The music in the ward is good for now, becasue Elder Rhodes is here and he knows how to play the piano.

 

Exchanges are fun, I just do them with the zone leaders, because everyone else in the district are sisters, and yes, the sister´s areas are more tame.

 

-Elder Bowles

Week 88 - Communication is a Solution, Buying a Machette, Enjoy Life!

This week was pretty dang good, We´ve had a inactve member who doesn´t really like the bishop, so I set up an appointment with me and my companion and the bishop to go and do some visits... and then she went to church and brought her daughter in law as well.  It seems like everything's better now, and her daughter in law really liked church as well. Communication is the solution to everything, and the bishop has a car, so that meant less walking!

This week was an awesome week, someone called *m*l** went to church, and loved it, and wants to get baptized, she just needs to get married first. This week I met a Buddhist, so that was pretty crazy, he´s Japanese.

This week it has been a bit cooler, we saw it was about to rain, and so we contacted him to get under the roof, and the whole time while it was raining he kept raising his eyebrows at my companion, and when ever he heard thunder he made funny noises, it was interesting...

I had seen people do the cigarette drink before, and I´d never heard of it not working, so we tried it out. we just broke the cigarettes and poured it in the water.

Basically the people here are the smartest people I´ve taught in all my mission, and they actually know of other ways to find answers to their questions besides prayer, so that´s why it´s a little harder.

The members here are well enough off, the area in general is well off.

 

I can buy machetes at hardware stores, there are about 4 in my area, or some despensas, or anywhere in the city.

 

Just decide to enjoy life, and then you will. it´s as easy as that.

 

-Elder Bowles

 

Week 87 - Fancy Area, Cow Mower, Book Of Mormon Shortage

This week was O.K. after new years not too many people really wanted to talk to us, they were tired, or drunk, or busy, but there were still some interested people that we were able to find.

 

This is the fanciest area that I´ve had so far in my mission, and the people aren´t quite as open to the message as the people were in my other areas, but the lessons are more complicated, and they really have good questions and concerns, so that´s a new change for me, which is nice in some ways and a little challenging as well. I´ve really been able to think about how it is that people are interested in finding out the truth, a lot of people just say that they are just fine with what they have, and that theyré content, so they aren´t super interested in learning more about how they can receive blessings from God. And that´s just what they need, so it´s been a fun month or so.

I haven´t tried the quail eggs, I´ve been sticking with the chicken eggs for now, but I´ve been passing by the quail eggs for quite a while now, so we´ll see when I get to it. 

 

The grass in front of our house is pretty long, and I didn´t feel like cutting it, so when the cows were coming by I opened the gate, and let them in, and they chewed it right down, so that was surprisingly easy, I´m about to do that every time it gets long.

 

Here everyone eats everyone´s food, our investigators invite us to eat, drunk guys invite us to eat.  I try to avoid those meals a little more than the others.  It´s completely normal.

 

He doesn´t do anything super special when he teaches, it´s just a nice change having a companion who is focused and isn´t completely new to the mission.

R*dr*g* didn´t make it to church, his dad doesn´t want us talking to him, so that made it hard.

 

Right now with all the missionaries there is a shortage of Books of Mormons, and each companionship only gets 14 books of mormon each month.

 

You should buy a machete and use it (on some bushes Dave is removing in the back property), just so that it´s more fun.

 

I am ok at making Paraguayan tortillas.

 

Elder Bowles