A Callus is Better Than a Worm In Your Foot

Hola,

Easter week was super quiet.  About half a million people left Asunción to travel to the interior for the Semana Santa.  Basically everything was closed all weekend. The worst day to work was Viernes Santo. The streets were dead! It was actually a little eery. To celebrate, our ward had an activity where we learned to make chipa (they eat a lot of chipa here during this week, it´s a tradition) and it was a huge success! We had several investigators come and everything.

Last week we had to go to the doctor.  Hermana Casey thought she had Pike, which is like a worm in your foot. Turns out it´s just a really nasty callus.  That´s much better than a worm in your foot! 

I got sick with a cold last week, so that wasn´t super fun.  It was terrible and it just made it uncomfortable to work, but I´m much better now. It rained a lot this week too and we experienced the craziest storm.  It was actually kind of scary.  We took refuge for part of it at an investigators house, but the biggest part was in the night, it thundered and lightening all night long!  Our walls don´t really block out sound either so it sounded like it was right in our apartment.  It made me think of the second coming and how scary that will be right before Christ comes again.  Hermana Casey said that one place she wanted to be during the storm was in the temple.  The temple really is a place of refuge and it´s so important to always have an up to date recommend for when the "storms" do come in our lives. 

I´m starting to recognize how I´m becoming an instrument in the Lord´s hands.  We had two investigators come to church yesterday, both of whom said we showed up at their door at low points in their life and helped them through that. We had no idea, but the best part is the Lord knows.  He knows his children perfectly and he is going to send help and love to get you through those hard times.  Luz is the name of the lady and she is so cute. We´ve only ever had one lesson with her, but she cried in that lesson at the end while she was praying.  And the spirit touched her heart again in Relief Society.  The teacher asked her to read a paragraph on Joseph Smith and she started to tear up again.  The Lord really does prepare people to receive this gospel and through the spirit their hearts will be touched and they will fill closer to our Father in Heaven than ever! I´m so blessed to watch that happen.  

I bought a new camera, it´s nice and I´m going to be super careful with it.  It´s nicer than my last one so I guess it´s a blessing in disguise, but I am sad about all of the pictures I lost, but I´ll get them from other people after my mission so I´m not too worried about it.  We had a really good Noche de Hogar with one of our favorite families in the ward because we knew one of us was leaving because of transfers.  Hermana Sanchez made us Beju! It´s super good, but I´m not sure exactly what´s in it, cheese and flour, I think, but it´s super good, or I´m just used to the food here, I don´t know. 

Then there was transfers!!!! I´m still in Pinozá (So I imagine I will get to Skype again for mother’s day), but my new companion is Hermana Weeks. Yes, another North American, but I´m glad because we are going to work super hard together.  She’s been out for 11 weeks. She´s from St. George, Utah.  We´ve been together all of like 4 or 5 days and she is already whipping my Spanish into shape so that´s good, Hermana Casey and I got pretty lazy with that so it´s good to have someone correct my errors.  

So basically this week, I´ve just been introducing Hermana Weeks to the area and the people.  We have some people we are really excited about and I know they are going to progress! One of our investigators, Luz, is definitely going to get baptized.  She has a lot of questions, but they are more for understanding and she feels the spirit super strong in church, so we are excited for that in the next couple of weeks.  

Also we get to go to the temple tomorrow! POR FIN!!! I´m excited.  It´s been so long, but I really appreciate having the ability to go to the temple frequently now.  The temple really is where I feel at home and it´s so important to go regularly.  

Other than that I don´t really have much else to say, but I know that´s through serving others we find true happiness in this life! President Gordan B. Hinckley said, "Do you want to be happy? Forget yourself and get lost in this great cause. Lend your efforts to helping people... stand higher, lift those with feeble knees, hold up the arms of those that hang down. Live the gospel of Jesus Christ."  The gospel of Jesus Christ is service and I know that service is what brings true joy in this life.  I know that gospel blesses families and it´s through the authority of Jesus Christ that we can be sealed to our families for all time and all eternity in His temple.  There really is no other way to put it.  If we want to be happy we need to serve others and share our testimonies! 

All is well with me! 

Rohayhu! 

Hermana Lindsay

Easter Week

April 14, 2014

¡Hola!

So this week was maybe not the most successful week number wise, but we learned a lot.  Mostly I´m learning that my idea of how things should be done is usually not the way the Lord wants them done. I have to remind myself of that a lot, but I know the Lord has plans for the people of Paraguay, I´ve just got to give up my ways and let the Lord do what needs to be done through me. Easier said than done, but that´s what the Atonement is for right?

This week is the Semana Santa. The Catholics here celebrate, basically all week long.  It´s kind of cool actually. They were selling cool braided reed things in the streets for Palm Sunday.  A lady told us yesterday that a Priest blesses them and then they keep them in their home all week.  They are kind of cool, but they look like a lot of work.  Wednesday everyone stops working and goes traveling.  I´m thinking it´s kind of like our equivalent of Thanksgiving weekend.  It´s really cool how Christ centered this week really is here. It´s actually easy to teach people because their faith in Christ here is already established.

I´ve seen some pretty awesome thunderstorms this week.  The lightening gets so close.  We had a lighting strike super close to our apartment the other night and it woke us both up.  It also cooled down a lot yesterday... we were actually really cold and this morning too, all the cool air got trapped into our room, but it´s better now that the sun came out again.  I decided I´m kind of wimp when it comes to the cold.  

This week I´m was thinking about obedience and agency. It´s frustrating to accept others agency sometimes. In Preach my Gospel it says that God gives us commandments for our benefit so that we can be happy and if we are obedient we show Heavenly Father that we love him and Jesus Christ. Obedience always brings blessings, no matter how small the rule or commandment may be because God says, "I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise."  I know that´s true!  I think of Elder Hales´ talk from conference and basically, when we choose to be disobedient we love Satan more than we love God.  Harsh words but true.  As a missionary it´s easy to see rules and be obedient, but I think the real challenge is being obedient in life outside of the mission. 

Anyways that´s all from me! 

Rohayhu!

Hermana Lindsay

Slight fear of dogs now

April 7, 2014

¡¡Hola!!

Ahh!! Wasn´t General Conference awesome!  I loved every second of it.  The North Americans in my zone all got to watch it in English, but it had some technical difficulties so we had to watch the first two talks in Spanish. We were really bummed we didn´t get to hear Elder Holland´s voice.  He is so powerful when he talks and it just isn´t the same with a translator. Anyways, I´m sad it´s over but I´m glad I get six more months to work on becoming more like the savior and being more grateful like in Elder Uchtdorf´s talk.  I´m so grateful to be serving a mission in Paraguay, even with all of the hard things that get thrown my way, but really it´s the load that gives us the spiritual traction we need to press forward, like Elder Bednar taught us.  One of my favorite talks was by Elder Ballard about missionary work and Preach My Gospel.  It´s true, Preach My Gospel is for everyone to study and use.  It has been a huge testimony builder for me, and so I want to share a quote from it that I like about missionary work,  

"What does the Atonement have to do with missionary work? Any time we experience the blessings of the Atonement in our lives, we cannot help but have a concern for the welfare of others... A great indicator of one´s personal conversion is the desire to share the gospel with others." - President Howard W. Hunter.

I know that´s true. If we are truly converted we are going to naturally want to share the joy of the gospel with those we love and President Monson says that should be everyone!! 

I don´t really have a lot else to say, expect we had a district activity Monday which was pretty fun.  We went around and took pictures, (speaking of that I´m hoping I didn´t lose my camera, I had it at conference yesterday and now I can´t find it, but we are going to check the church today for it), and then got ice cream at Amandau (which is Guarani for Hail). Oh ya, and I have a slight fear of dogs now, mostly just the little barking ones that belong to people, we´ve had two come after us.  Luckily my bag is pretty heavy and I´m ready to knock them to the moon if they even think about biting me!  

Also, I´m not sure if I just give really long boring prayers or my companion was just tired, because she totally fell asleep one day.  I ended the prayer and waited for her to say amen and she never did.  We laughed pretty hard about that. 

Anyways hope everyone has a great week, 

Rohayhu!

Hermana Lindsay