January 27, 2014
¡¡¡Hola!!!
So guess what? I made it through my first six weeks in
Paraguay, which means transfers are this week. Training is 12 weeks so
I´m actually at my half way point! Woohoo!! Which means, I have six more weeks
of training. I don´t think either I or Hermana Casey are getting transferred
this week because of training and there aren´t a lot of hermanas coming this
transfer apparently. Probably because it was around Christmas time.
But you never know Hermana Casey had 2 trainers. My area is a
barrio called Pinozá it´s next to Herrera which is the barrio where the mission
home is.
So something you see in Paraguay that you don´t see in
America. Babies...on motorcycles. One of our investigadores gets on
the back of her brother´s motorcycle holding her new born baby! AHH!! Basically
it´s like whatever here. Everyone is so tranquilo paz.
Last Monday we had our District activity. It was fun.
We went to Pizza Hut (Yes they have Pizza Hut even here). We did that and found
a little place to rent bikes so we rode bikes around for a bit and that was fun
and different. Most missionaries just ride bikes normally I guess, so
that was weird to think about. This week also we had the Reunion for the
new missionaries. Basically it´s to see how we are adjusting, and for the
trainers to get advice. Also we had to take a test.
One thing exciting that happened was my companion took a
drunk guys alcohol. There is this bum that just sits in the street close
to the church and one day we walked by and he spoke to us and said he wanted to
change. Hermana Casey stopped and asked him if really wanted to and he
said yes but he couldn´t and so she said, "You can, but you have to come
to church and give me your alcohol¨" And then he said, "No I can´t my
body needs it and I don´t have clothes¨". The guy that lived close by
(everyone just chills outside in front of their houses) offered to let him
borrow clothes and give him water and then after much coaxing he surrendered
the alcohol and we gave him three of our pamphlets. Needless to say he didn´t
come to church, but it was pretty funny that the neighbors got involved in it
and I thought it was really awesome for that man to offer his help. The
people of Paraguay are very giving and kind.
We had divisions this week too so it was fun to be with a
different Hermana for the day. Hermana Whitmire is from Utah and she has ten
months in the mission and her Spanish is so good! She speaks so fast!
The biggest thing I learned this week was that the Lord
answers our prayers, sometimes though, it´s in the strangest ways. Last
week we fasted that we could have more faith and success in our area. We
were working with an old investigator and we really thought she was going to
get baptized. The zone leaders called and asked us to do a zone fast.
We complained a little because we had just fasted the day before, but
they said that if you want to have baptism on Saturday you will fast.
Well our investigator didn´t come to church last week and we were bummed
and confused because we had been obidiente, but we were positive and thought
that maybe it was so that the other missionaries in our zone would have
baptisms. But...Saturday rolled around and we had a baptism! The strangest
thing happened this week. We found one of the members in the ward, his
baptismal date in the church just disappeared, and he had the priesthood and was
endowed and everything. There was much searching done and he didn´t even
exist in the records anywhere. He was baptized in Bolivia so who knows
what happened, but he was just a good example to me because throughout this
whole process he was humble and patient, and it was an awesome thing to be a part
of. I gave a talk on the Holy Ghost and all of the members told me
afterward how fast I was learning and how good it was, and I didn´t even write
it out or anything!!
I love how the Lord is always keeping me on my toes, week to
week I never know what he is going to throw at me, but it´s exciting and I love
the challenges and the things that I´m learning about myself.
Have a wonderful week!
Hermana Lindsay
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