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

Half Way Through Training

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