Rohayhu!

February 24, 2014

This week we got caught in the rain and when it rains here the streets flood.  Well it stormed and we ended up going home a half an hour early because our area basically turned into a river and it was impossible to work.  We were soaked to the bone by the time we got home.  

I also fell this week.  Actually it´s the second time I have fallen here.  The roads are all uneven, so I´m not surprised, but I´m not really hurt. I only bled a little bit... but I´m not sure what happened because I have a perfect slice on my leg so I must have fallen on something.  Hermana Casey fell a couple of weeks ago, hers was worse than my first fall and then I bled more with the next fall so now she´s worried her next fall is going to be bigger and worse. 

Heavenly Father always answers prayers, even silly ones.  Hermana Casey was hungry, but she didn´t want to buy food, so she told me that she was praying that someone was going to invite us in and feed us. It´s super common in the campo, but not in our area.  Anyways, we stopped to see if this family was home that we´ve met with a couple of times.  Usually they are really busy and never home, but today they were and they invited us in.  They were having a party, dinner thing later that night and they invited us (their house is super chuchi), but it started at 9, which is when we have to be back in our apartment.  They told us to ask permission, but there was going to be karaoke and lots of alcohol... which was maybe not the best environment for a missionary.  I turned to Hermana Casey and said, "Well your prayer was almost answered." and that’s when they brought out sandwiches, and crackers, and dulce de leche and jam!  Basically faith and pray work, so use them!  Even if it doesn´t seem like the most important thing in the world.  Heavenly Father loves you and he´s waiting to answer your prayers!

I don´t really have much to report. We have a few investigators, that are doing awesome, but there´s always a catch.  If this work was easy though, it wouldn´t be of God.  Like Elder Holland has said, "Salvation is not a cheap experience; it has to be hard for us because it was hard for Him."  Our Savior suffered so much for each and every one of us, a million times what we could possibly ever imagine so of course this life is going to be a hard sometimes, but we never have to suffer it alone.  Christ knows exactly our pains and our sorrows and He has His arms out stretched waiting to meet us, but we have to make the effort to come to Him.  

Have a wonderful week.

Rohayhu!

Hermana Lindsay

Happy Dia de los Enamorados

February 17, 2014

¡Hola!

Oh wow, where to begin. Today was an interesting day.  So, during our last zone conference we went over the mission´s emergency plan and we have to have an emergency kit with clothes, food (for a week), 4 liters of water, and chlorine, and a couple of other random things all in a bag so if we get a call that says, "Váyanse ahora" (Go Now) for whatever reason we have to grab our bags and meet at the church where we have district meetings every week, but we aren´t allowed to take any colectivos (city buses).  We were told last night that we better be ready because we are going to do a practice.  We were supposed to have a district activity today, but we got the call this morning, during our last hour of study and Centro is where we have our meeting, which took us about 1 hour and 20 minutes to walk there.  At first we were both a little upset, we did not want to walk and we had so many other things we wanted to do, but it ended up being kind of fun. We got to see a different part of the city than we usually do.  We passed by all these shops and it kind of reminded me of Pikes Place...but more crowed.  Anyways, I realized that when you approach things positively and with a prayerful attitude, nothing is really that unbearable and there is always something that could make it worse.  

For Valentine´s Day Hermana Casey and I found a pandaría with cupcakes that had pink sprinkles and so we bought them.  They weren´t the best, but they had dulce de leche in the middle and that was fun.  We also made valentine´s to take to our investigadores and the family that feeds us lunch every Friday, so that was fun and I think they thought it was fun too.  They don´t really celebrate holidays here like they do in the states, they just recognize it is all. In Spanish it´s called el Día de los Enamorados. 

I´m recognizing the importance of going to church more and more and keeping the Sabbath day holy.  Moroni 6 says that church is where we go to pray and fast and be spiritually uplifted together and to partake of the sacrament, which is so important! Every week I can renew my covenants with the Lord and start clean, because I am far from perfect.  I feel like there is always something I need to do to be better, also it´s a commandment of God and when we are obedient he blesses us, but it´s hard to help others see that.  I just want the people we teach just to come to church so they can receive ALL of the blessings God has in store for them.  

I was reading today in Helaman and Nephi and Lehi vow that they are going to preach of the gospel for the rest of their days and I hope I´m like that.  I may not be a "missionary" forever, but I hope I always put God´s will first and help those around me to recognize that they truly are His children and He loves them so much!  

Always remember that our Heavenly Father loves you! 

That´s all from me this week but I hope you all have a great week.  I can´t believe February is already more than half way over. 

Rohayhu (I love you in Guarani, ro-high-who) 

Hermana Lindsay

Oh I forgot, my bag totally fell apart, but I bought a new one today so life is good! Just thought you might like to know that! I guess practicality pays off more than cuteness. 

Lizards in our Apartment

February 10, 2014

¡Hola!

This was a really good week actually. But first, ¡Felices cumpleaños! For Dad and Joey on Friday.  I hope they have a great day!! Especially pass the word on to Joey, because I don´t have his email because he´s never emailed me.... But ya! 

So sometimes I forget I´m in Paraguay and then I remember that everything is in Spanish and sometimes we come home and there are Lizards in our apartment.  We just leave them be. One, because they are so danged fast and two because we hope they eat the bugs, but they like to hide so we hardly ever see them.  

Also I really like mandioca.  It´s like a root and they boil it here and I really like it.  Last Monday we had a Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening) with our "new" convert, Jaime and he brought empanadas made from mandioca that his neighbor made.  They were basically, like, the most delicious thing ever!! Either that, or I´m just really accustomed to the food here.  

I gave a talk yesterday! It was on the restoration, which wasn´t too hard, because it´s vocabulary that I use when I teach, but I didn´t write anything out. I just went in with a sticky note with scriptures, so I´m pretty proud of that aspect.  I relied heavily on the scriptures though, because I really wanted them to understand and feel the spirit.  As for Guaraní, I know only words and phrases no màs. It´s hard to learn two languages at once, but they don´t really speak it a whole lot here in the city. 

We found this awesome guy this week.  He was just a contact, but we taught him on Friday and invited him to church and he came!  We are having another Noche de Hogar with Jaime tonight and he said he would come to that too! We are really excited about it and I was really proud of the fellowshipping of the ward.  After the meeting we thought we would have to take him around to meet everyone, but everyone came up to him.  That´s how it should be always, if we see someone new in our meetings go introduce yourself and make friends!!  Because the missionaries leave but the members stay.  

We have another investigador of oro (gold) too. Her name is Patricia.  She is very spiritual.  Our last meeting she told us she hadn´t read, but was like, "Let´s read now, because I have questions." And then as she read she, was like, "Wow, here´s the answer right here, I should have read," And basically proceeded to teach us.  She is awesome, the only problem that she has is coming to church.  She wants to, but she takes medicine to sleep and it lasts 12 hours so she has a hard time getting up in the morning.  We stopped by her house and called her and everything, but  nothing so hopefully we can help her see the importance of getting to church.  

That´s really it for me this week, I´m just learning to be patient I guess.  I know as long as I work hard and love the people the language will come.  Presidente Agazzani told me in his last letter  that if I really want to learn I can´t speak to me companion in English, “Nunca”, he even emphasized that part in English too,  “Never”, so I´m going to try that this week. 

Love you soo much I appreciate your prayers!! 

Hermana Lindsay

Support From Home Means Everything

February 3, 2014

¡Hola!

I´m glad the sun finally came out there, that´s happy.  Sometimes I wish the sun wouldn´t come out here. Actually, some days it gets really rainy and cloudy and the air cool downs a bit.  I like those days, but it never seems to last long and then the sun comes out again. 

I don´t really have much to talk about this week.  We´ve found a lot of awesome people, but it seems like they either don´t actually live there or they are about to move. The important thing is that they found the restored gospel whether or not I get to work with them.  

We made a contact the other day and this lady had this parrot named Poncho. And yes he talked, but I didn´t know what else I could get him to say besides "hola".  But he was pretty cool. 

We found Miguel again this week, he´s the "neighborhood drunk" or at least that´s how he introduces himself.  This week he was close to the church and we could see the branch president´s car.  So we told him that the pastor, of sorts, would be able to help him.  He wanted the help, but he didn´t want to go into the church because he didn´t have shoes, so we brought presidente out to him instead.  We saw him again Saturday night, but then Sunday rolled around and he mysteriously disappeared. At least we gave him the option to change.

I´m not sure if the bugs are leaving me alone yet, but I don´t have as many bites as I did when I first got here, maybe it´s just I´m better at remembering to put on bug spray too.  

Pizza Hut was good. It basically tastes the same, although they have this option to have cheese filled crust, but the cheese is different it´s more like a liquid than a solid, but it´s good.  They put corn on their pizza and that´s a little weird. 

This week was a little discouraging Spanish wise.  I feel a little stuck, like I´m not progressing. I´m definitely not fluent, because I still only understand about 75% of the conversations, so I’m not exactly sure what to do about that that. Have patience and faith I guess. Presidente Agazzani promised that if we read the Book of Mormon in the first 3 months we would be fluent so I´m holding on to that promise and right now I´m in the middle of Alma and I have until March so I´m think I´m doing pretty good.  I know far more Spanish then I ever did French, or least I can speak far more Spanish, so in that way I guess I´m doing pretty good. 

But I know the Lord always answers prayers.  Especially, I´m learning, after we put in our effort and have the right attitude, because sometimes I expect things to just be given to me because I´m being obedient or because it´s a righteous desire, but then I´m humbled constantly.  Putting all of your faith in God is the only way. 

This is definitely the hardest thing I´ve ever done, but it makes it all worth it knowing I have your support from home.  I really do love being here though, even if it is hard. I want nothing more than to become an instrument in the Lord´s hand.  

Hope everyone has a good week!! You are all in my prayers too! 

Hermana Lindsay