...one less chicken to cross the road

We found a donkey

 

This week I got to see one of my best friends, Hna Nielson!!!

Just making juice with chememby

Another beautiful week in Paraguay!!!

This week I killed a chicken.... well I think I just suffocated it, poor thing, then Marta took it out of my hands and finished the job.... but I’m learning all kinds of skills to make me a good wife... says Marta... I love her. 

So we have a family we have been trying to reactivate. The little boy got really sick this week and I don’t know why but we didn’t even think of telling her to ask for a blessing. We were sitting there and I touched his leg and literally almost instantly he got up and started playing with us. The mom started crying. She said he hadn’t gotten out of bed for three days and he is 4 so that really means he was sick. When we left he didn’t even look like he had been sick. I didn’t think much of it but the next day in my scripture study I read Mormon 9:24 “…they shall lay their hands on the sick and they shall recover.” I know that it’s talking about a priesthood blessing but when I read those words the picture of me touching Mati’s leg came into my mind and I felt the spirit so strong. I know that we are representatives of Christ to the people in Caaguazu just as much as the elders. It was a crazy experience and I didn’t share that with anyone but you guys. 

This week Paola changed so much. She is the girl that lives with Marta, the family Mercado. She is basically homeless. When I first got here, she laughed at us and never wanted to talk to us. This week she said before I even asked, “I’LL SAY THE PRAYER” and we taught lesson 2 and she already knew because she went to seminary this week and they had taught that. She asked us when she could get baptized and we had to tell her we need to see…. because of her need for permission. She is underage. Today we are going to the courts to see if we can get a document saying that Marta is her legal guardian... so pray for us because if it all goes well she is going to get baptized this Saturday!!!!!!!

Also, the nephew of Marta has been listening to us, Ismael, and he was all set for his baptism this next Saturday. On Sunday we announced his baptism and he didn’t show up to sacrament. We asked Marta what happened and she said that he had been drinking the night before. We were so crushed because he doesn’t even have a drinking problem. Some random guy came and talked him into drinking. I know that Satan is real and doesn’t want him to get baptisted. We are going to go today and see if he still wants to get baptized this week. 

Hermana Gonzalez and I have been really focusing on giving away Books of Mormon. We have given away in two months a box and a half!!! That’s so many!!! And we are seeing the fruits... but it’s interesting. We keep finding people that their big doubt is the Book of Mormon but it’s such an easy doubt. It’s ether true or not. I finished the Book of Mormon this week and I got this huge confirming feeling, like I get every time I read it, of its truth. One man was just so torn up about all this stuff he has heard and we bore such a powerful testimony to him that if he reads the Book of Mormon trying to decide if it’s true, he will stay confused. He has to seek and feel that is true and be looking with true intent. It was amazing. 

OUR AREA IS progressing soooooo much!!! I love Caaguazu. I never want to leave here! We are just having so much fun and enjoying the kind of cold weather we had this week!!!

LOVE YOU all, 

oxoxooxoxox

Hna Ball