Letter sent Monday, March 23, 2015

Estoy muy feliz! (I'm very happy)

First baptism!! Sorry I couldn't send pictures last week. The computers weren't working!

HaHa.  I didn't even realize Eder Den is the only guy in this picture.  When we asked who she wanted to baptize her, she said,
"La blancito con lentes". Also  in this picture is Liz Marina, the granddaughter of Hermana Justina to my left. Nayelie
and Norma and Lujan.

Our zone after zone conference.  We sang like heavenly angels.  Haha.
 I really don't know what all the elders are doing, but us sisters look good.

Dad reminded me of something else that happened this week.  Mickey died and two days later Minnie.
We didn't even know we had two...Hermana Aguilar was kind of mad at me because she is like a hippie to
the extreme.  I can't even pick flowers or leaves, so she was really sad but afterwards  she wanted to
pick him up to take a picture.  She is a special girl.

You can always hear the frogs at night and it reminds me of Kentucky. I always want to catch one but its hard to see.
So one night this week I saw one and I caught it.  All the girls where screaming. It was so funny but I had to have
a similar picture from when I was tiny holding a frog as big as me.

This is as close as the girls would get, haha. It looks like I peed my pants but actually I had been eating an avocado and I spilled on myself, classic Ball! So I was trying to clean it up. But the frog did pee while I was holding it, haha and it
almost got on all the girls (girls being the sisters of Andrea - the awesome convert in our area.  She has like 7 sisters.)

This is us doing some service. We had a pollo cook for one of the little boys in our rama who had surgery.
Everyone came and ate and donated money.  It was fun.

Saying goodbye to the family Martinez was really hard. I love them all so much.  I hope they can become active again. The dad told me it has been a pleasure eating lunch with me every Saturday and that its always the highlight of his week teaching me Guarani.

This is some of the sisters of Andrea before Hermana Escobar left

So we had our Conferencia de zona martes (Tuesday). It was so great. I can’t even describe all the things I learned. It’s like mini general conference, special for our mission. We talked a lot about how we are responsible for ourselves and that only God knows how hard we are actually working. We have always reported a whole bunch of numbers every Sunday night but starting yesterday we only report lessons with a member, number of baptisms, confirmations, how many we had in church, how many with a date and that’s all. They talked about how it’s important to have goals and to have faith in your goals but that we are only accountable to God. It was kind of intense. I think I’m just going to tell myself we still have to give the numbers so I don’t stop thinking those other things are important. We also talked about why we are here and what our goal as a mission is for Paraguay. It was really cool, as a mission our goal for baptisms this month is 204. We have never had more than 200. As of this week we have 174!! with 44 ready to be baptized this week! I know these are all numbers but it’s all connected to families and missionaries working hard and one of those 174 is Justina and one of those missionaries working hard is me...

We also got to watch.... CONOCEN LOS MORMONES!!! (Meet the Mormons) Oh man it was sooo great! At first I was nervous because the lady was speaking really fast in Spanish but after we got into the stories I understood it all. Man the last one was so trunky for everyone, haha especially when the missionary is leaving. It’s like the same drive in the car I made and the good-bye in the airport. Pretty sure we were all crying, ahah but man I loved it so much and the movie is coming here soon! Also we have Because of Him coming up. It’s going to be a lot like He is the Gift, we get to carry a DVD player and share it with everyone!!! 

President was really emotional. I think it may have been his last conference. They go home in June, the same time as Hermana Escobar. We found out our new president is from Uruguay!!! I’m stoked!

Something I never knew before was that the Liahona has a special part just for the area and it always says way cool stuff. I think you guys don’t get to see it, it’s just for us, so sorry, but maybe you can find it online. This month it said that we have like 5 new missions in our area of the world and a whole batch of new presidents, including ours!!!

In other news, Megan Gilchrist is officially here!! I asked president and he said ya she came this last change!! I am so stoked. Hermana Agizzanni said Megan is really worried about her light skin. haha They also said this change 10 elders are leaving but no sisters and we are getting 5 sisters!!! All North Americans, this was at lunch at the conference. President said this and all the Hermanas were like ahhh all Americans and then I realized I was the only North American there. There are lots of elders, but I was the only sister. It’s because they don’t like sending the blondes out here. I think they have had problems in the past.

Lots of milagros (miracles) came this week. One big one is the granddaughter of Justina. She is living with Justina right now and it’s just so great teaching her. She loves to read and she loves everything we teach. Some kids saw her walking down the street with us the other day and afterwards started saying rude things about how she was a mormona and that she is abandoning her culture and all these things. She looked at them and said "I would rather worship God then some photo on the wall" ... we told her we always need to be respectful of other religions but it was kind of cool to see after one time at church she sees herself as a mormon and that she is willing to defend it. Also we haven’t even taught her about the virgin yet so that means Justina has been teaching her. Every time we go to their house it’s like a beautiful picture, her and Justina sitting and reading el libro de mormon or pricipios de evangelio (B of M or gospel principles). Oh man it’s great. The health of Justina isn’t so great. She is still really struggling but she is so happy all the time! At church yesterday she was laughing and talking to everyone. I had to teach principios (gospel principles) solo because Hermana Aguilar said your turn. ahah So I did it. I was so scared, but I think it actually went really well.

I guess it started getting around that I might leave this week so everyone was hugging me and crying and I was crying, oh man it was kind of emotional and then they asked Elder Den, me and Elder Zavala to give our testimonies in sacrament. I was trying not to cry and make it all about me leaving, but as I looked out at our little rama and I realized how much we have grown. Every companionship has had a baptism this month and the past months we had 10 others, it’s amazing. I really love the people here. It’s hard not knowing what will happen, will I stay or will I go... to tell you the truth I love all the people here and what is hardest is to leave my investigators, Liz, Nayeli, Norma, not knowing what will happen to them. But I am kind of ready to go and start a new part of my mission. I can’t believe how fast the time is going. My 3rd campio (transfer) is already gone!!

I’m doing really good. I am learning lots of things and I hope I am touching some lives. haha Justina started calling me the gordita this week (chunky girl).  haha I think I am gaining weight, but one of the members heard her call me that and I think he felt bad so he told me I was a linda chica (pretty girl). haha It made me feel a little better. Hopefully I can get a comp that likes to run. I use to always run with Hermana Escobar. I miss it. I love you all. Cross your fingers I get transferred to another area compo (country area) with a Latina. That’s what I want, but I think I will probably be in the city... Hermana Aguilar says I am going to be in the city with a North American white wash trainamento. Wow I hope not!  ok I’m rambling, sorry.

 Xoxooxoxoxo

Hermana Ball