Time is Flying By

¡¡¡Hola!!!

Oh goodness, time seems to be flying by! I can´t even handle it, it´s already two weeks into August.  Our zone is working really hard to find families this month.  We are all really excited and we are setting goals to get our numbers up.  I have so much faith that this month is just going to be filled with miracles.

I just got back from cleaning the temple! I love the temple!  As missionaries we don´t get to go very often, but I enjoy the rare occasions when we get to go clean the temple.  This was my second time.  The opportunity is all random, so I guess you could say I´m pretty lucky. 

I celebrated my hump day (half-way) the right way with lomitos arabes. They are meat, and vegetables with a garlic sauce and then they put it in like a tortilla/pita bread type thing and grill it.  They are basically the most delicious things ever.  They are only a night time food here though, there are little places basically on every corner to buy a hamburger or a lomita after 7 o´clock. 

We had two investigators come to church yesterday.  The first was one we´ve been working with for quite awhile.  She´s been to church one time before this, but every time we passed by after that she never answered the door.  Well yesterday we passed by and she didn´t answer, so we decided to go look for someone else, they didn´t answer either so we went to look for Idalicy again.  When we got to her gate, she was outside with her little boy and we were like, ok let´s go, but apparently her sister had just left and had taken the keys with her (they lock their gates so you have to have keys to get in or out).   My companion was determined and so she just walked over to the gate and lifted it off  its hinges to let her out.  Needless to say she came to church and she enjoyed it.

Our other investigator is so cute.  Her name is Gabriela and she is 13.  She has lots of family that are members so she´s got a good support group. She wants to get baptized right away but her mom wants her to wait a bit until she knows more.  So we gave her a list of everything she needs to learn beforehand.  She is awesome; she is already doing her Personal Progress. Her parents are pretty well off and basically their house is like a little zoo.  They have turtle, a dog named Espike, a hamster named ComoVos (Like you), a lorikeet named Tweetie, AND a deer!! named Bambi.  I´ve never seen a deer here, but they have one so that´s kind of cool.

We went to do some service this week.  We went and painted the bars of a window for a woman.  I had about half of it painted and my companion looked over at me with her section less than half finished and told me I was painting really fast.... I guess all those years out at MTI painting sets were good for something, but it was fun to do some service for her.  She is one of my favorite ladies here, she hasn´t been to church in a long time, but she will get there! 

This last Saturday was Kid Day here in Paraguay!  It´s a big deal here.  There are bouncy houses everywhere.  People give their kids presents and they eat cake.  Um, why don´t we have that in the States?!?!  But it was fun wishing all the kids Feliz día.  They also celebrated the anniversary of their flag so there was lots of partying going on during the weekend. 

I did get my package mom, by the way.  Thank you!! The first thing I did was make myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  It was sooo good! The Paraguans don´t understand that joy. 

Anyways I love you all so much and hope everything is going well at home! You are always in my prayers!

Rohayhu!

Hermana Amy Lindsay

Half Way!

August 4, 2014

¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I can´t even believe that I´m already at my half way mark!  It´s so crazy.  I only have nine more months left and it´s all going to be downhill from now.  It´s really bitter sweet.  I´m sad because I just love my mission and Paraguay (especially when you´re just walking down the street and see something like a monkey tied up to someone´s fence....), but I´m excited because it means that I´m completing my mission to the Lord.  That´s what President always says anyways. 

Speaking of President we had interviews this past week!! I love interviews.  President is just awesome and he always has lots of good advice, but he likes to keep us on our toes.  I think transfers are probably one of his most favorite things, because he throws teasers and stuff at us to keep us guessing.  He kept talking about all the changes that were going to happen by the end of the year and so the four of us, (my companion and the hermanas that live next door) spent a good time speculating at what he could possible change up. Ha, mission life is weird sometimes, but I just love every minute of it.  

We´ve been working a lot with our new ward missionaries.  They are all so excited to come out with us, it´s really refreshing.  Many of them are planning on serving missions one day, so it´s good for them to get a taste of what it´s like.  We´ve also been really focusing on the family this past week and I think we´ve been finding a few that could progress, they just need to come to church! 

We found one part member family this week.  Actually their story is really sad. This lady is a member of the church and she got married to get baptized, but she and her husband had a falling out and her life kind of went downhill after that.  She has a bit of a drinking problem, which is sad.  She is living with this other guy and he decided he wanted to help her and he saw her baptism photos and came to the church looking for help and normally the church is closed, but he came during our District meeting and we wrote down their information and stopped by their house.  I want to help her get back on her feet so bad! It´s a testament that God knows his children and puts people where they need to be so that we can help one another.  She was so happy to see us, as drunk as she was, and we shared a little with her and she sang, "I am a Child of God" with lots of gusto.  She has a sad story, but she hasn´t made some of the best decisions either.  But that´s why Jesus Christ came, to atone for us, so that we can be clean again because really truly, we can be!!

I was reading a talk from the April 2011 conference the other day and Elder Paul V. Johnson gave a talk on overcoming trials.  He tells a story of a little boy with cancer and as the doctor is telling the family about the procedures he added that many people ask him if they will be the same after it is all over and he replies, "No, you won´t be the same.  You will be so much stronger.  You will be awesome!",  as it is with all trials that we have in this life and all the difficult things we have to go through.  The best part is we have the Lord´s promise that He will help us and that really truly we can be perfect one day like our Savior. We will be awesome!!

Love you all so much!! Thanks for the letters and prayers and the examples that you are for me!

Have a good week!!

Rohayhu!!

Hermana Amy Lindsay

My Gandolf stick to protect me from dogs!

Pray Always

July 28, 2014

My week was pretty busy . As a zone we made a goal that we want each companionship to baptize a family in the month of August, so we´ve be working really hard to find families that we can teach.  It´s a lot easier to just teach people one on one, but I know that this is the work of the Lord and the family is so important to Him.  He wants us to be together forever, for the eternities.  I´m blessed to have that knowledge and reality in my life and I want to share that with others, that´s really why we are.  We don´t just go on missions to learn a new language or to visit other countries, but really to bless other people’s lives.  We leave our families for a year and a half so that other´s can live with their family forever.  I know that´s the Lord´s goal too and we are finding some really cool families that we are going to start working with so I´m pretty excited about that.

We´ve been working a lot more with the members here lately too.  Yesterday they just called a bunch of ward missionaries so we are really excited to start with working with them and I think they are all really excited too.  Honestly the members our awesome here, they are all so willing to help us, they just don´t really know how, so it requires a little more work on our part but it´s so worth it. 

It´s been getting kind of cold here lately too.  This is going to sound crazy, but I love the hot summer here better than the cold.  It´s harder to escape the cold here because the houses are actually built to retain cool air and keep out the hot, so we use lots of heaters and layers, but it comes and goes so that´s nice.  I might eat my words when it gets to be hot again, but we´ll see. 

I don´t really have much else to report, but I do want to share my testimony that I know that God answers prayers.  He is listening and he will always answer.  It may not be when or in the way we want, but he will always, always answer. I love the scripture in Alma 37:37 that says, "Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea,when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day."  Really that´s an awesome promise, so don´t forget your morning and evening prayers!! Because when we don´t pray, then we don´t have that promise, because it´s really the devil that teaches us not to pray.  God wants to pray always! (2 Nephi 32, 8 & 9)  So always have a prayer in your heart and you will have a good week!!

Rohayhu!!

Hermana Amy Lindsay

World Cup = Slow Week

July 7, 2014

¡¡¡Hola!!!

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July.  It was definitely weird thinking about it that day,  although we did have a drunk guy wish us Felicidades on "our day."  I´m surprised he knew, but he talked a lot about American celebrities so I think he´s a little bit of fan and he told me I look like Sidney Crawford.  For lunch that day Hermana K________ and I made Hotdogs, we figured that was pretty American.  That night there were all sorts of people celebrating something for Saint John,  I´m not sure what, but it was fun because we could picture everyone celebrating in the states.  We really are blessed to live in a free country.  I really do believe that the founding fathers were inspired of God to write the constitution.  I am definitely proud of where I come from!!

Other than that, this week was pretty slow.  Everyone is watching the World Soccer Cup so no one really wants to talk much to us and as it gets colder no one really wants to come outside to answer.  I don´t blame them.  The cold here is just humid and awful.  You can just feel it inside you, and it´s hard to get away from it.  Luckily winter here is like a roller coaster, we will have a couple days of heat and a couple of cold after it rains, but I´m always happy when it´s hot. 

As for the work, it is going well, although Satan is working pretty hard against us.  We have met several people we thought were just of gold, but when we go back they have talked to someone or something has happened and they are just as hard as a rock.  The best thing we can do is share our testimonies and let the Spirit do the rest and the spirit really does.  It´s cool sometimes to see the change in people´s faces as we testify of the things that we now to be true, and really they can know too, they just have to have the faith to pray and ask our loving Father in Heaven.  He is always ready and willing to answer our prayers, but He won´t if we don´t ask.   The mission really is a humbling experience.  There are a lot of things I´m learning to give over to the Lord,  it´s definitely hard but sooo worth it. 

Anyways, I love this quote from President Uchtdorf, "Doubt your doubts, before you doubt your faith."  And please do, because doubts come from the adversary and not from God. 

Rohayhu!!

Hermana Amy Lindsay

I'm Grateful for the Sun

June 30, 2014

¡¡¡¡HOLA!!!!

Happy 4th of July!!!!

Today, I´m grateful for the sun.  It rained straight for like 4 days here.  I´m not even sure how the sky held that much water, but it was coming from somewhere.  But the sun is out and shining today, so I´m grateful for that.  I feel a little like a plant or something, I just want to go sit and soak up the vitamin D.  Kind of like that boy in that movie Timothy Green or whatever. 

The work is hard in the rain though.  The people really don´t like it and they don´t come to their doors and if they do they just shoo you away and tell you to come back when the weather is nicer, but we work either way.  Other than that, sometimes I feel like Paraguay is pretty normal... but then again I just a saw a little family on a motorcycle and the little boy was holding a chicken.... so maybe it´s not so normal.  I think I at least am staying a little normal, although, I may be reverting back to my old ways of falling.  I fell twice this week.  Once when we were out running and once down the stairs from our apartment.  Hermana K_____ asked me if this was a normal thing for me.  But I´m good, I only got a scrapped up knee and hurt pride! 

The work is going really well though.  We actually met a really cool family.  They all accepted a baptismal date...but then they moved.  Luckily we happened to pass by or we would have missed them completely, but we have their new address and are going to make sure some other missionaries take care of them!  It was fun to get to teach them for a little though because they are just so ready to except the gospel.  I love seeing that.  I love seeing people who are prepared...usually they are people I meet that live in different areas, but either way it´s cool and I pray that they will accept the gospel where they live.  We are going to keep working hard finding people to teach. 

We work a lot with our ward missionary leader.  Hermano Miguel.  He´s a pretty crazy guy, but he loves the work, and he´s always willing to come with us to lessons.  His one dream is to visit the US and learn English, so he asks all of the North American missionaries if he can stay in their house for a week or two.  I guess he figures if he asks enough he´ll have lodging for a whole year!  I guess that´s actually kind of smart and for right now he´s fine with throwing little berries at the back of heads and pretending like nothing happened.  We put up with him because he helps us out a lot. He´s the one who baptized Tobias actually. 

Speaking of Tobias he is doing so well.  He´s picking up on things a lot faster now and he just loves it.  We taught him a way to remember the 10 commandments using our hands and he just ate it up.  He´s like a whole different kid.  His mom is pretty happy too.  It´s just a testimony to me that the gift of the Holy Ghost really does make a difference.  It really does help us to become better in every which way.  He´s such a good example to all the other kids that live in that house too and adults...because there are a lot. 

I´m well and happy and I love this work sooo much! It´s basically the hardest thing I´ve ever done and Heavenly Father is still testing my patience and my faith, but I´m willing to work on both of those things.  Sometimes I still wonder why I came specifically to Paraguay, I really don´t know yet, but I´m glad I´m here either way!

Love you all! And have a great week celebrating and stuff!!

Rohayhu!

Hermana Amy Lindsay