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

A Baptism This Week

June 23, 2014

¡¡Hola!! 

We are playing it safe since being robbed and trying to stay in more populated areas after dark.  The only problem is it gets dark at like 5:30 and then we still have about 3 and half hours of proselyting to do, so it limits who we can go see, so that´s a little frustrating.  I really didn´t have anything of value with me when we were robbed, just copies of stuff.  The mission has all the original copies, so that´s good.  I´m definitely more wary of motorcycles now though, but Hermana K____ is so fun and positive we haven´t let it stop the work.  We have a good time together. 

We actually had a baptism this last weekend.  It was of a little boy named Tobias.  He just turned nine.  He´s mom is a member, but a little less active.   She was starting to get active again, but she just had a baby so she can´t bring the baby really out yet, but she was able to come to her son´s baptism so that was good.  There are quite a few people in that house who aren´t members so we hoping that this baptism will be a good example.  But it was a lot of fun! And Tobias was pretty happy!  

We had divisions this week too with the Sister Leader Trainers.  Hermana W____ is in San Lorenzo now so I went there.  I had divisions with her when I was still new in the mission training center, so it was fun to go out with her again.  We taught this one lady who had been sharing with the missionaries for quite some time, but she just didn´t want to get baptized yet. We brought the elders anyways to have her interviewed just to see if she was ready.  Anyways, we had a lesson with her before and there were four missionary teaching this lady, resolving her doubts.  It was kind of fun.  It was a like a team, four missionary minds and the Spirit fighting against the adversary.   I think she got baptized this weekend so it worked. 

Really though, they call it missionary work for a reason.  It´s hard work, but we have the promise if we are worthy the Spirit will help us to know what to say and where to go.  I have a huge testimony now that all good things come from God and if it isn´t good it´s not from God.  It´s as simple as that, white and black, so if you have doubts or are afraid just know that those feelings do not come from our Heavenly Father.  He wants us to be happy and find peace in this life.                                               

We celebrated Hermana K____ birthday this week and that was kind of fun. She´s 20 now! The other hermanas next door planned a little surprise party one night. They put tons of balloons in the apartment and made brownies and bought pizza, so we celebrated.  Then Hermana K_____and I made cake and had our own little celebration too for lunch.  The cake was pretty good... well except for the bottom got a little burned.  Oh well it´s the thought that counts! 

I decided though, being on a mission, I want to learn how to cook, because I really don´t how.  The Paraguans just cook, they don´t really use recipes, but they make all this delicious stuff.  So that´s my goal, to learn how to cook... but it might have to wait until after my mission because I don´t have a whole lot of time.  But I am learning a little!                     

So that´s basically all with me!  I can´t believe there are so many people coming home soon, I feel like time is just flying on my mission, but maybe it´s different from this side.  I already have more than 7 months out!!  But we do the same stuff day in and day out so the days really kind of all blur together. 

I love you guys and hope everyone is doing well!! Have a wonderful week and ROHAYHU!!  

Hermana Amy Lindsay

We Might Have Gotten Robbed

June 16, 2014

¡¡Hola !!  

So first things first.  I guess I should tell you the most "exciting" thing that happened to me.  Saturday we might have gotten robbed.... Ok not might have I did, by two guys on a motorcycle.  But don´t worry, both me and Hermana K___ are fine!  And really there were a lot of things I was grateful for. 

Usually I carry my personal scriptures and my pictures of you guys with me when I´m proselyting, but for some reason that morning I didn´t feel like bringing all that stuff.  Spirit!! So they didn´t take that much stuff, just a tiny bit of money and a Book of Mormon, (because they actually just took my whole bag), and some other little stuff that was in my bag, like my umbrella, and my hymn book, and little stuff. Oh and our phone and keys, so we had to go track down where our owner lives to get in to our apartment and luckily we can borrow the phone of the hermanas that live next door to us.  

Today I´m going to at least buy a new bag so I can carry around my stuff.  Onto to my third mission bag whoo!!  But really I´m fine!  Kind of an interesting start to a new area.  Maybe they´ll realize that robbing missionaries really doesn´t have a purpose.  But ya, so that was Saturday.  

This week we also had a zone conference which was fun.  We got together with several of the zones and had some good meetings and had a really good lunch and now we are just prepared to hit the ground running in this area.  I really do love this area and I love Hermana K_____, she´s a pretty hard worker, so we are going to have lots of success here, I can just feel it!! 

We are actually going to have a baptism this weekend for a little boy who´s mom is less active.  She was getting active again, but she just had a baby so she´s been recovering from that and the baby was really tiny.  But Tobias is really excited to get baptized so we will be working with him a lot this week to help him get ready.  Little kids are awesome; they are just so receptive to the spirit, I love it!! They are just so willing to follow Jesus Christ.  It´s going to be a fun week. 

Also, tomorrow is Hermana K_____´s birthday so we will doing something fun to celebrate, probably go get pizza and make a cake today or something like that.  As for my apartment, it´s really actually pretty nice.  There are two rooms and a kitchen and a bathroom which is a step up because my last apartment was just one room and a bathroom, so I enjoy having a little more space.  The only thing that´s weird is our shower, it just comes out of a little tube, but it´s hot water! So I really can´t complain!!

The members here are awesome!  We don´t have as many lunch appointments as my last area, but the few we do have are always delicious!  This one Hermana, Juliana just cooks so good!! But she cooks a lot... and then gets offended if we don´t eat a lot so we walk away really full from her house, but it´s fun really.  Honestly, I wouldn´t want to be in any other place right now.  I know that it is the Lord´s work and that He is protecting us.  All of the great missionaries in the Book of Mormon went through great afflictions before they had success.  Alma and Amulek were in prison for three days but afterward they were able to change so many lives and bring people to the waters of baptism.  So, it was kind of annoying to have two guys just come take my stuff, but really it could have been worse and I know that everything happens for a reason.  Sometimes the Lord gives us trials to make us stronger. 

I want to work even harder this week!! I love the Lord, I love His Gospel, and I love this work!  I know that the message we are bringing to people is true and the Jesus Christ really restored his church on the earth again.  I know that this is that church!  Hope you have a great week!!

Everyone at home are always in my prayers!   All is well and Rohayhu!!

Hermana Amy Lindsay