America (written July 6, 2015)

Pablo's baptism

Happy 4th of July!!!! I was a little trunky for America on Saturday! But it was so fun being with an American. We talk all about our family traditions, and we made a way good meal!!! I will send pictures. Other than that, it was a pretty normal day. But I thought a lot about all of you. I think maybe I was just trunky this whole week. I don’t know why. Well, I think I do because Monday in the night we got a call saying that we needed to be in Asuncion Tuesday for a big goodbye party for president. We knew he was leaving, but we didn’t know about the party. It was soooo fun because it was the whole mission! I saw all my companions that are still on the mission (which is all of them except for my trainer), poor hermnana paredes, when she saw me she just fell into my arms crying. She had good news. A reference we got together got baptized!!!! It was such a miracle. Lots of people who are now in my areas told me stories like that. I saw the fruits of what happened when I left my old areas. I really made more of a difference then I thought. The one thing was somewhere in all the excitement I started speaking English and then this whole week I was just really bad at getting back on the Spanish train. I’m going to be so much better this week. This reunion just really threw us all out of whack. I also traveled twice this week. Wednesday and Friday I worked in different areas with the sisters while my comp was in our area with their companions. Both sisters I was with were Americans and maybe that’s why my bad English spree continued. Anyway it was really great. I love seeing new parts of Paraguay. It’s crazy how you can go 20 minutes in one direction and its soooo different! The split on Wednesday was one of my friends from the MTC so that was way cool being with her!!! We found some way cool miracles. I’m excited for our follow up with her to see how things went.

So wait, I’m being confusing. Tuesday was crazy because we went to the reunion and then Wednesday we got up and went strait to Ytororo to visit hermana richards from my group. I came home Thursday.  In the morning we did planning and worked in our area then Friday we got up and went to Lucerito which is where my MTC comp, hermana rosa, started her mission. So that was cool to be in her area. The sister there now is named hermana lilly from weber county and she is sooo cool, we got along way good, we had so much fun. In the night we started talking and she just let out a lot of stuff I think had been bothering her but it was good but also bad because I basically didn’t sleep. Then we had to get up early the next day and go to Guarambare to do suprise studies. It was way fun. I was with hermana badger, she is also an American. I shared lots of stuff with her and in the end she said thanks hermana that really helped me. I don’t know, it’s kind of crazy right now and I feel like I am never in my area and that’s hard. But I think I’m really helping the sisters or at least I’m really trying to!

The other reason I think we were trunky this week was because it was soooo cold. I feel like it was the coldest it’s been. One day I slept in 2 pairs of pants, a long sleeved shirt with a hoodie and gloves and socks. I never sleep like that in Utah, but it’s just such a humid cold and our house has no insulation and I only have like 2 blankets but with all that I was perfectly fine. It’s just sooo hard to get up in the morning and take a shower in our luke-warm shower or sometimes our shower is so hot you can’t put your whole body in, but I’m not complaining. I’m really so happy!!!!!!

The worst part of being a sister leader is not being with hermana austin all the time so when we are together we just want to talk and its bad because we don’t sleep sometimes and we are always getting up early. But whatever, I can sleep after the mission. The other thing was I started talking about my CNA job this week so I was kind of missing all my old patients so much. I think Heavenly Father caught on because Saturday we found 3 really sweet old people. One of them is named Ana. She is a less active member and she doesn’t have a leg. I love her so much, I just wanted to live with her and take care of her because she doesn’t have anyone to clean her up. We passed by in the night and I was talking to her through her window because it was just a sheet. This night was sooo cold, she was trembling and I asked if she needed another blanket. She said haha its so funny in guarani but I don’t know how to explain it well in English but she just said like que piko va hacer, haha (just like what are you going to do about it) basically haha. So then I just promised her I was going to come back with something to help her. so I left and honestly I didn’t know what we were going to do, but we thought of a member we could ask. Honestly, this was just a testimony builder to me that if we just tell God we are going to do something and then ask him how, he will help. The member was so great and she gave us one and we ran back to her. I told her we had the blanket and she was like just come in. Her door doesn’t even lock. It was sad, she didn’t have lights so we used our phone to find her and I put the blanket on her. I felt like such a huge wave of love for her. I could feel it doesn’t matter that she lives in this old dusty house that smells bad. God still is aware of her needs and we have to help her. I tried to get some members to help her but they all said she is just crazy and they had tried in the past to help, she will just sell that blanket you gave her. It bugged me. Why should we stop trying to help people?  I just felt so close to Jesus Christ. In that moment I felt like I was really his representative to these people, doing what he would do if he was here. I didn’t do anything special. It was just what he would have done, love them. haha I rubbed her arms with the blanket and she was like ahhh that’s so nice, thank you. Then she was like, are you trying to flirt with me? haahha We passed her house the next day and she was like “I slept so good last night all warm in my bed, but this sister is kind of crazy. She was flirting with me in the night” hahaha I love her so much. I also tried to rub her little nub with the blanket because it was so cold. I was like “where is your other leg?” She was like ahhh ya where is it? hahaha She doesn’t have one. haha She was like “It’s gone” haaha She is kind of crazy, but I love her and I know God doesn’t stop loving us when we go a little crazy.

But ya, we are just trying to find new people right now to teach. It’s kind of hard. We do have one man that’s great, Juan Jose. He knows everything. He just doesn’t get that the Church of Jesus Christ is the only church that has the power to baptize. So we have been trying to help him with that. When we taught him yesterday I felt like we were teaching like the Book of Mormon says “with power and authority”. I felt like it was really the spirit teaching not me. Honestly, Heavenly Father is helping me so much be everything I am. I had so many great moments during splits when I just knew that I wasn’t the one giving this counsel to the sisters, it was Heavenly Father. I feel like I’m finally learning to be a tool in his hands. I’m still not perfect. Sometimes I don’t listen well enough but I feel like it’s happening a lot more often than it used to. I know that it’s just a result of faith, really we just have to have faith and put all our confidence in Him and watch Him work the miracles through us. I love you all and I hope you all have a great warm week while I’m here freezing.

ROHAYHU 

Hermana Ball

4th of July!!!  Soooo cold I couldn't take my gloves off.  I was so cold!!!

Our churchie meal for the 4th. I was in heaven.  It's been forever since
I ate a pork chop and mashed potatoes. The only thing better would be
green beans, but they don't have that here.

Pablo and Wanilda

This is Rita, a really awesome member. She hates
pictures so she was trying to get away. But I got one.
She is so great!