It's the little things that count

Hermana Escobar is afraid of all these bridges. haha
We have to walk over them,
she just goes so fast or looks for another way to go.
So I was laying on this one and she was worried about me.
I love her.

This is Hermana Escobar and me with our
Christmas tree of gratitude Ali's mom sent us!!

This week was really hard, like I said in my last week’s letter, we had to go to Asuncion Monday which really wears you out. So all day Tuesday we just felt tired and sick. Also it was really hot this week. We met some really great people, we met a family. It’s a young married couple, yeah they are married!!! This is a big deal. Often people aren’t married or they are still married to someone else and getting divorced is really expensive, so lots of missionaries have this problem here. But they are married and they have a sweet little baby. They were both really nice and welcoming. I have a lot of esperanza (hope) for them. Oh, they also have a motorcycle so they could get themselves to church!!! but they didn’t come this Sunday. I still have faith in them. 

So we were planning on heading back to Asuncion Thursday because that’s what the office elders told us but then Tuesday night we get a call at 9:30 saying we needed to be in Asuncion at 9:30 Wednesday. So another sleepless night and a long bumpy three and a half hour bus ride to Asuncion. We learned that depending on the driver is how fast you get there because we made it there almost an hour faster than we did Monday. So we had extra time. We just slept in the terminal and then went to the office. It was great seeing Hermana Rozsa and Hermana Richards and Elder Evans all from my batch. Everything went smoothly at immigration so hopefully they won’t need me again for 6 months. Then we ate a real pizza at pizza hut. It was 30 mil which killed me. It wasn’t even full size.  I don’t know why, it seemed like a ton! I usually spend like 90 mil for my groceries for a whole week but then I had to remember 4 mil is a dollar so it was like 8 dollars.. but it was sooo good to have real pizza!!

Anyway we got home pretty late and studied and that was all for Wednesday. So then our sleep just never got back on track. I hate waking up every day feeling tired and sick. So this week was really just kind of the worst, but I did have a miracle. Monday when we got back it was too late to buy something from a bakery for district reunion and I was too cheap to buy it from the main grocery store, its way over-priced, and by over-priced, haha it’s like 2 dollars but again my sense of money is kind of skewed. I bought stuff to make chocolate chip cookies and I have made them before but they came out kind of weird so I changed the recipe a little and the batter looked so weird and I was so tired at this point, I just kept praying and praying they would work out because we needed something to take to the elders. They are always making fun of us because they think they cook better than us. It wasn’t even about that. I just needed something for them, and they turned out so good!!! I was just crying. I know it was a blessing from God because I made them another day selfishly for Hermana Escobar and I and they turned out way gross. I know it’s a way small thing but honestly that was my big indicator this week that Heavenly Father loves me. 

Another thing, I was reading in the Ensign when I was at the office, we still haven’t received ours for enero (January) and there is a great article about a man who served in Sterling’s mission. It was such a cool story. I started crying right there in the office and then president came out. He was like ahhh are you sisters ok? haha He gave us some candy. He felt so bad we had to come twice this week. I love him. Did I tell you we are getting a new president in June?? I don’t want a new president! but I am kind of excited to see the things that will change. I hope I get to have an interview with this president before he leaves.... 

So this is my official last week of training. Our change is next Wednesday, so we will see if Hermana Escobar is with me another change or not. Most likely, no. She has been here 3 changes... but I am so scared for her to leave. I will be in charge of showing my new comp all around and I don’t know, I am scared about it. I am praying to get someone who doesn’t speak English so I can have the next change be really hard and full of growth and leave coronl feeling confident in Spanish. I am on my way but I think that’s what would really help me so pray I don’t get a North American!!! So ya, the change is the 11 of February. Pray hard. That’s all I got this week. Sorry I don’t have more, like I said it was a hard week.

Oh, I forgot to say we didn’t have anyone at church and when we talked to Justina this week she told us she doesn’t understand why she needs to be baptized again. She has already done it a lot, but if it’s what God wants, she will. Also she wants to wait till conference because one of the members told her at conference was when she received her answer. When she told us this we wanted to die. Conference isn’t for a while, we told her. But we left her with the conference talk by Bednar “Come and See”. She said she loved it, so I hope she can realize going to conference isn’t necessary for her to receive an answer.

Also one of my first really big Spanish mistakes happened this week. I was writing the paso de oración in Justinas libro de mormón because she said she keeps forgetting and I wrote te pedo por....but i meant te pido por,  I ask for, but instead it said I fart for. hahahashh Luckily Hermana Escobar saw and took it and fixed it. haha Ya, that was way funny. I just remembered that also pedo is foot in medical terms. Hermana Escobar just told me. haha Ok, ya that’s all I got this week. Love you all,

Hermana Ball  o Vaca pi pu pu

PS: Sorry my spelling is so bad. I am writing on a Spanish keyboard that is so old and keeps wanting to change all my words to Spanish words and the keys stick, so ya just forgive me if it’s hard to understand what I am saying.

Office Elders! Written Jan. 26, 2015

These are two of my favorite young women

HOLA!!!!

Another eventful week in good old Paraguay! Ok so first off we had made a lesson plan last week about temple work and family history for Justina to help her learn more about the church. We had tried like 4 times to teach this lesson with a member and the member couldn’t come, couldn’t come. Then Monday we had a huge miracle, she could come!  The whole time her and Justina just spoke Guarani and I was lost... (even after we had sat the member, Hermana Digna, down and told her exactly what we wanted to teach. It was like all that flew out the window) but it was still really great even though it was in Guarani. I could understand part of it, Hermana Digna was really Catholic before she was converted and her story is really great. She told the whole thing to Justina. She told her even after she knew the church was true it took her a long time to decide to be baptized. I felt the spirt really strong!! But we didn’t get to teach what we wanted. so Tuesday during comp study we decided maybe it’s been so hard to teach this lesson because Heavenly Father wants us to try and fly it solo with Justina and teach without a member. So we did and it was great. I think she really understood. She loved everything we were saying. I asked her if she had a testimony of these things and she said she did that she knows it’s true. It was great!!! But she still didn’t accept a date. We were crushed.... we found out her daughter is a Jehovah’s Witness. They are really intense people and apparently she is bashing on Justina for wanting to be baptized again. We haven’t given up on her but it’s really hard to keep going every day so we only went two times this week to see her. She went to visit her dad Friday so she wasn’t at church on Sunday, we were really sad. I know she will be baptized, I just don’t know when. haha We had a lesson with her and her sabinas (nieces) Friday before they left for her dad’s. We were walking away and me and Hermana Escobar were both like sweet one lesson with member and then we remembered she isn’t and we wanted to cry. It was hard. We don’t know how to help her. We really wanted her to attend a baptism of a little boy the elders found so she could feel the spirit and want to be baptized too, but she was at her dad’s. We were so bummed. 

In other news, we are teaching Justina’s family like crazy. Her daughter in law, Nina, is great. She loves everything we teach and is reading the Book of Mormon everyday with her son out loud so her husband can hear. Her son loves to read. He is 12 and read the whole lesson one folleto by himself and loved it all. It’s like all the men in Justina’s family got together and said don’t let the woman go to church because Nina’s husband really doesn’t want her at church. Justina’s other son doesn’t want his wife at church. Her other daughter’s husband doesn’t want her at church. (she has like 9 kids) but we are still just working on them. Justina is such a missionary. She loves sharing what she learns with all her family. She wants us to teach her 90 something year old dad, but he lives really far away. haha She was like I will bring him back so he can meet you. She is so sweet!!! 

Oh so one of the things we talked about in the conference de zona last week was not going to the same families every week for almuerzo (lunch), which is really hard not to do, but we had been praying for other opportunities and we got a few this week. We were really excited about the one Saturday. She is becoming an eternal investigator también (also) because her husband doesn’t like the church. Are you seeing a trend in our week?? ughhh men in Paraguay! Anyway we walk the 40 min in the middle of the day heat, the kind that just makes you so hot you want to kill over and die, and there is no shade on the way to her house. The whole time we kept saying I hope she didn’t forget. We tried to call but honestly people never answer their phones around here or at least answer our calls. I also think the service is not very good. So we get to her house finally all sweaty and we clap at the gate and her big shirtless husband comes to the door.....

HIM:  ¿¿QUE DICE??? 

US: "Ummmm hi is Loudes here????"

HIM:  No she went to visit her parents in centro...

US: ohhh. Ok, tears in our eyes 

It was seriously so hot and we were so hungry. We were out in the farthest barrio we go to, with no food and there are like no empanada venders out there. We go to a despencia and buy an alfahore. It’s like an oreo on steroids, its so good, and we sit down in the shade and eat it... then we had the thought to go to the menas active (less active) family that lived not too far away. We normally eat with them on Saturdays. We get there and she had forgotten we weren’t coming so she had extra food. When we told her we didn’t get anything to eat, they swept us into their house and started serving us like we were so special. The dad sent the kids to the store to buy cold soda and bananas. I seriously started crying, I felt so special. Since coming on the mission you feel so important. People do stuff like giving us things for free or charging less for us or when we eat with them giving us the very best they have, or give us a whole bag of mangos and bananas. At first I thought they just love me or, I don’t know, they like being nice. But when I was sitting there in the Martenz’s little battered home as their kids served me and poured my drink, carefully placing my food in front of me, I realized they recognize that we are representatives of Christ and that they treat us how they would Him, if he were here at this moment. I finally understood what that meant and I feel so privileged to be his voice and his hands here in our little piece of Paraguay. When people do all those things, it’s not for me, it’s for Christ and when people reject me it’s not me they reject, it’s Christ. 

When we finished eating, which we ate so much they kept bringing more, they wanted to make sure we were full. The mom told us that since we have been coming they have felt the blessings. Her husband has had more work and they have always had enough money and food. She said one day they weren’t sure if they would have enough and he told her she didn’t need to worry. This is a family that hasn’t been to church in a long time but they understand the important role we play. It was such an amazing opportunity to be in their home and Hermana Escobar and I finally realized why it’s important for us to bless every home we come to, to never leave one without our love and gratitude. I don’t know. It was honestly an experience I will never forget. 

Sunday came and we had no investigators come to church. It was really hard....but the elders had so many!!! It was our turn to teach and for the first time I felt really comfortable in front of the class (it’s really intimidating to teach 4 elders and their investigators. They don’t want you to mess this up for them) we taught keeping the Sabbath day holy and it was so awesome. Everyone participated and there is this one awesome sister we found contacting that lives in the elder’s area so we had to give her to them, but she is great and she wants to be baptized so bad and she shared an awesome experience of the blessings of coming to church. I realized it didn’t matter that Hermana Escobar and I didn’t have our investigators there. We are all a team and together we had 11 investigators at church. All the missionaries in the world are a team. I wish I knew how many we had total at church, but I know that it’s not a contest. We are all doing our best to cultivate this little part of the field we have been given to take care of. I am putting my whole heart into the work and I know that someday the results of our work will come!

As for why we are writing so late in the day, it’s a frustrating story. Last night at 9:30 the office elders called and said somehow he had forgot to tell us, but I needed to go to immigrations today in Asuncion. We tried to get a taxi, but it was too late, to take us to the bus terminal, so we had to get up at 3:30 to leave by 4 to make our hour walk to the terminal, take a bus for 3 and a half hours to Asuncion and take a taxi to the office. But it was fun. I got to see Hermana Bronson. I love her so much. She is doing really good. As well as some of the sisters from the mtc that went to the north mission, they were there too!! Anyway after being at immigrations for an hour, the office elder comes over to me and says I have bad news for you. I read Hermana Hall from the north mission’s name in the email and I thought it was you. They aren’t ready for you yet. You’re going to have to come back Thursday! UGH So not only did we waste our whole p day, now we have to go back Thursday and miss planamental seminal. ugh I was so bugged, but on the bright side..... ummm I haven’t found the bring side of that story except for seeing Bronson. She is seriously one of my best friends on the mission. She had bought me a clip for my hair, so I guess that’s a bright side.

I love you all so much. I know that success isn’t solely measured in baptisms. We are working hard with our menas activos (less actives). We are going to get the Martenz family active! 

 

chao chao,

 

Hermana Ball

What to do when nothing goes as planned

This week was amazing, the rain returned along with the heat which never leaves. We had Conferincia De ZONA this week. It’s with the AP’s and the President and we also had another zone with us. It was so great. I learned a lot. President is really hard to understand. Sometimes he speaks a really fast Spanish, but I was able to understand him so much better then when I first met him. There are lots of cool things happening in the Paraguay Acuncion mission. The technicalities I am not sure if you would really understand unless you served a mission. I will write Bridget and she can share with you if you really want to know exactly what we are changing, but it is great. This week we have begun to see the blessings of the changes. The reason my subject is what to do when plans go wrong is because the conference was all about planning and for the first time in my mission this last Thursday I loved our weekly planning sesson. We made plans and plans to make plans to talk to someone or teach or invite and it was so great and I was feeling really, really motivated. Then we started to actually attempt our plans and it’s really hard when you depend on others for your plans to work out. Members don’t have references, they can’t come to a lesson or give us a ride. I realize we ask a lot of the members, but it’s still frustrating when they promise to help and then flake at the last min. We had amazing plans for Justina and a lot of them went great. She is reading her libro de mormon every day. It’s hard because she doesn’t understand Spanish perfectly, so we got her a Guarani Book of Mormon but she doesn’t understand that perfectly either. Pure Guarani is really difficult and no one really speaks or reads pure Guarani but I think between the two books she is learning. Several times this week our plans didn’t go the way we wanted and we felt a little discouraged. But I am learning that when we plan it shows God what we are willing to do in order to accomplish the thing that we want. That’s what the quote by Bruce R McConkie was about. I know it’s in Spanish so it’s hard, but he is saying that we have to convince the Lord how badly we want something. I am working on showing the Lord how badly I want to learn Spanish and how badly we want Justina to be baptized. It’s a process. It’s not enough to just ask and have faith we have to prove to Him how much we want it. Justina didn’t get baptized Saturday as we wanted, not because we didn’t do everything we could. We literally walked the 30 min to her house everyday and we did our very best, but she isn’t ready. I know that she is preparing and we have great plans for this next week to get her in the water this Saturday, but again we are experiencing problems with the members. It’s so difficult. I just hope that things will work out. That’s the thing. When we plan and thing’s don’t go the way we want we just want to give up, but we have to learn to have a back up plan and back up for our back up. It’s hard when we have plans fall through. This also goes for goals, we are tempted to not plan or set goals because it feels like why try, they never go the way we want anyway. That’s what satan wants, but as we diligently plan and follow through we are showing Heavenly Father how much we want that thing and what we are willing to do to achieve it. 

Don’t think we aren’t teaching anyone other than Justina. We are trying to get more investigadors. It’s hard. We had an awesome mujer joven but we went Saturday to invite her to church and she said her family doesn’t want her to have anything to do with us. But she loves the Book of Mormon and she is reading. I know that she will be baptized someday. We are also teaching Justina’s family. haha She is such a missionary. She is always saying visit this person. We found out that she is always visiting the elderly in the barrio. She is turning 68 and she still walks all over visiting people, Paraguayans never die. She told us the other day she was going to visit her dad. He is 96. I was like what!!! Your dad’s alive? It’s crazy. We got a referral this week from the elder’s investigator. It was her mom. She is only like 30 and when we got there we discovered her mom was 92!!! and ONLY spoke Guarani. That was a fun hour in her house as the rain poured down outside and she jumped at the sound of each break of thunder and rambled forever in Guarani. It’s so hard. I love old people and their stories. I hate not being able to understand them. 

So this Sunday was golden. We have three sets of missionaries in our rama. In my district between all of us we usually have one maybe two sometimes none investigators at church. But this week we all had someone!!! Gospel principles was packed! One of the women in the rama was suppose to go get Justina. We saw her at church and no Justina. I wanted to cry!! Hermana Sanabria told us when she went to get her she wanted to take a shower and Hermana Sanabria didn’t want to be late for church. I don’t know why she didn’t talk her out of the shower but anyway we were literally running all over like crazy trying to find someone to get her. We find the president’s son, that poor boy, he is the chauffeur of the rama, but we didn’t have another woman so we ran back to the capia trying to find someone to come with us. We finally grabbed a young woman and off we went. I was praying so hard the whole way that she would be ready when we got there and she was!!!! It was so great!!!! She loves church so much. The whole time she was smiling so big and she even read a part in front of the whole class. The lesson was on the sacrament and it was so perfect. I learned a lot. I’m grateful it wasn’t our week to teach. At the end Elder Den asked me to bear my testimony. I felt the spirit so strong. I have never had such a strong testimony of the sacrament before I came here. As I was leading the last song te nessisitio si (I Need Thee Every Hour) I was just crying so hard. It was kind of embarrassing but the whole room was investigators so they were all focused on their hymn books so it was ok.

The best part was we went to see Justina. After church she visited her son and we taught them about the sacrament and we had Justina share what she had learned and she knew so much!!! I bore my testimony again and her daughter said I believe in the blessings you’re talking about. Your Spanish is so much better then when I first met you. I know the Lord is helping you. This is someone who has never been to church. Then this question just came to me. I asked Justina if she has seen blessings in her life from living this commandment and she said she has. She has more energy to clean her house and she never wanted to read before and now she can for hours. Then she said I have been a part of three different churches and none felt right before now. I got chills. It was in Guarani when she said it so Nina, her daughter-in-law, said “she has been to a lot of churches and she feels so good in this one. I have seen a change in her. She used to be so nervous all the time and now she is so happy. She has found the true church.” The spirit was so strong. I know that people really can change!!! I know that I am changing so much. I was reading my MTC language journal and I never knew what the heck was going on. Now when I read it, I know what it says, and I was laughing at all the little mistakes I made. Sometimes I think we just can’t see all the progress we are making. I love you all so much!!

love,

Hermana Pelota

Me and Hermana Escobar with our lamitos

It was raining really hard but we had no clothes to wear so we
treked to the ladies house in the rain.  We felt bad for the elders
so we brought theirs too.  They bought us lamitos. It's the thing
we had at Thanksgiving.

For fun Hermana Escobar and I ran to the cemetery last Monday.
It's crazy.  It's like a whole city.

This is an awesome quote, Maybe you can translate it. I don't know. Mostly it's for Cade.

Los Milagros Continuan

Hola Familia,

Man, time is just flying by. I can’t believe how quickly time is going. I am learning so much. My comp and I made really good goals for this change and we have been working hard at planning and eating healthy and speaking CASTELLANO!!! It is so hard especially when it is hot and I feel like my brain is in a frying pan. Basically in these moments this week we would just sing hymns in Spanish, which I am surprised at how many I have memorized. I guess singing a million times a day they start to stick. But ya, this week was really hot. I think it rained maybe twice for a few min. and that was it. It was hard getting people to want to do much of anything in that heat. 

 

Our main wonderful investigadora is still Justina. She is progressing so much. We went to see her juevas and we were reading from the Book of Mormon and she thought it was the Bible again even after we have explained a million times what it is. We explained again and I think she really understood this time and when we came back she said she had read what we had assigned her and was eager to hear what to read next. We told her to start from the beginning. She is such a missionary already. She is always thinking of more people we can teach. I love her so much. So we were worried she wouldn’t come to church Sunday because she kept saying if it’s not too hot I will come. I guess she has some kind of blood pressure problems that worsen in the sun, I don’t know. So we were praying so hard that we could get her there and that we could have a member help. So many milagros later she is sitting in church with a smile on her face and her Book of Mormon in her lap asking me to mark every scripture they are quoting. I love her. So ya, she is all set for baptism this Saturday!!! If only she will get on board, we will be all set. She thinks she isn’t ready so we have a way awesome plan of visiting her every day, which you have to do with any investigator leading up to the week of the baptism.  We have a member to help us every day and way awesome lessons planned. She is going to be baptized, I know it!!! We will nail her to Saturday as her date tomorrow. 

 

This week I was working on really listening to the spirit in all parts of the day and I was getting a little discouraged because sometimes I listen to the spirit and it doesn’t seem to even make a difference to the person. Like I feel really inspired to say something and it doesn’t make the person accept a date. But I am learning that doesn’t mean it wasn’t the spirit. One great example was this week we were inviting Justina and she kept saying I need to learn more and we finally gave up and started to say the final prayer. During the prayer this whole speech in Spanish came to my mind. So after I said “I know that I struggle with Spanish but I feel like I have to share this” I then proceeded to tell her all about how God calls the meek and humble to his work. I told her that’s why he called Joseph and that’s why he entrusts 18 and 19 year old kids to preach his gospel. I told her about the priesthood and how it’s not about the person holding it. They aren’t perfect people, they are just striving to be worthy of the calling they have. At the end she didn’t cry or accept a date, but I think she finally understood what we were saying all along. I know I couldn’t have done any of that without the spirit. 

 

Another time this week we asked a member to come with us, she is really great, a new convert. We went to 3 houses and no one was home. I was praying so hard we would find someone because it’s really hard to get members to want and come and walk in the hot sun. Then when people aren’t home it really doesn’t make them wanna come again. I felt really strongly we should visit this contact we had been trying to get a hold of for quite some time. As soon as the thought came to me I got so excited thinking “ya this is the time the whole family is going to be home, I just know it.” Anyway we turned and went there and no one was home. At first I was so crushed and I felt like I wasn’t listening to the spirit close enough. Later that night I was still thinking about it and I came to the conclusion that just because the result we expect to happen doesn’t it doesn’t mean it’s not the spirit. Maybe if we had gone that other way we would have been in harm’s way or I don’t know, missed an opportunity to listen to this new convert and what she needed. The member who was with us, maybe she just needed to talk. I don’t know, but I do know if we listen, the spirit will guide us. So don’t feel discouraged when the results aren’t always what you expect. 

 

Cross your fingers that we have a baptism this week. I am praying for you always!!!

 

Lots of love,

Hermana Pelota

LLUVEIA!!!!!!! (rain)

This week was all about rain, rain, rain. Seriously, it was the greatest thing ever. It never rains this much in the middle of summer. It’s great because it gets so, so, so hot and then it just dumps buckets and buckets of rain. People always feel bad for us out in the rain, so we get lots of lessons.... and it’s just so nice when it’s raining. After it rains is the worst. It gets so, so, so hot, so we pray that it will keep raining till the sun goes down. ha One night, I think it was New Year’s -ya it was because we had to be home early, a huge storm came out of nowhere and there was huge winds and rain pounding down. Luckily we were at a member’s house and when we went home it was so calm and nice outside. It’s so weird, aha, one of the best parts of the rain is the rainbows!!! I saw the biggest rainbow yesterday. It was a double rainbow. I took some pictures, but it doesn’t do it justice. It was so beautiful. Ok, sorry Nan, haha. You said Blake’s letters were just weather reports, but the weather this week has just been AMAZING for the middle of summer. When it wasn’t raining, though, it was really, really, really hot. I always think it can’t get hotter than this - and it does. The amazing thing is when you are in the shade it’s really not that bad. It’s just the sun that kills you. It beats down so hard, and almost everyone’s home is completely shaded. When we are really hot it just motivates us to find someone to teach so we can sit down and get some water and be in the shade. 

I am going to start with the funny thing that happened because it was so awful and funny at the same time. My stomach was hurting because I ate too much at a member’s house and it was really, really hot so I asked Hermana Escobar if we could take a little break. She was like, where? We were on a dirt road with no benches or anything. I saw this old well a little off the road so I start trekking through this marshland over to it. As I sit down in an exhausted huff, I start to feel fire and warmth consuming my foot. As I look down, I realize I have literally stepped on a huge ant hill and my whole foot was completely covered in ants biting me. I started screaming and running around and splashing in the water. There was nothing you could do. If you wipe it with your hand they are on your hand. Hermana Escobar was yelling “What’s the matter with you???” When she realized, because they were biting her too, she started saying “take off your shoes”. So I did and I am running all over trying to get these stupid little satans off me. Aw, it was terrible. Needless to say, I guess that’s what I get for being lazy. I wish I could send you the pic of my legs after that they were covered in little red dots. It’s a mission rule that we can’t send wound pictures home. They don’t want you to worry. It’s really not bad now. They just itch like a mosquito bite, but really, it was just so embarrassing because the family we had just been visiting saw the whole thing and were laughing from the house. Well, I am not sure if they were laughing, I think they were generally concerned, but when we told them later what happened they were laughing pretty hard. 

This week was kind of difficult because, I don’t know about you guys, but the New Year here is kind of about getting drunk and blasting Michael Jackson, haahaha. If the people weren’t drunk they weren’t home. We made great plans this week to visit people with members and at every appointment the people weren’t home. It was so hard. The worst one was Justina, our golden investigator. We have to have a member because, like I told you, she has been accepting the missionaries for a few months now and has been taught everything, but we recently discovered she doesn’t know very much Spanish. haha She is so funny. So we trekked through the rain to her far-away house twice this week, both with members, and the first time she wasn’t home. The second the member bailed on us. The picture of me in the huge puddle is right outside her house. It was the only way to get to her so we took off our shoes and trekked it. This time she was home, but we didn’t have a member, so it was a long 30 min of confusion and constantly us and her saying ¿¿¿¿ENTIENDE???? (understand). haha But I think she felt the spirit and she kissed us before we left and we arranged to pick her up the next day for church.

This gets us to miracle number one of the week, well number one that I am sharing. We have millions every day. Anyway, we were supposed to be at Roma 1 at 6 because the elders had a baptism. This is way far away because our building is under construction, we were already far away because we were at Justina’s house. So we make it to our building and we go about two more blocks and we are still probably 30 min from the chapel by foot and we see the president’s son driving by. I practically jumped on the hood. haha He happened to be caring the guest of honor and the whole family, including his grandma. So we were able to get in and get a ride. I was practically crying. I was so happy, it was one of the hottest days. 

This was my first baptism in the mission. I know we didn’t convert him but it still was great. I think of our district like a little team, so when he entered the water, he is like 10, I was crying so bad. He was so tiny and cute and excited and it reminded me I hadn’t been to a baptism in a long time. I kept thinking the last baptism I was at was Ethan’s, which made me cry and miss him. But as I am writing this, I realized I went to Sadie’s baptism, my cousin on Charlsie’s side, but oh well. It still had been a long time. It was beautiful and it reminded me why I am here. 

So this gets us to Domingo (Sunday). Oh man, it was so tough. The president’s son was supposed to take us to get Justina, but I guess he slept in. So we were frantically trying to get someone to take us, but it’s hard because no one knows where she lives. So we have to go with them and most people don’t have a car, they only have a moto. We aren’t allowed to ride them. So all through church I just felt sick because I knew Justina was just sitting at home wondering why we didn’t come. All through lunch I kept thinking - we should go see her. But we don’t have a lot of time on Sunday and her house is about a 40 min walk from our house. So we decided to visit her son who lives just two streets over from where we ate lunch and guess who was visiting her son, JUSTINA!!! Miracle number 2000000000000. ah We were so happy, but also felt terrible because the first thing she said was “Why didn’t you come?”!!! “I was all ready to go”. She said she didn’t believe that we wouldn’t come, so she asked her neighbor if she had missed us. I wanted to curl up and die. I felt so bad. We kept apologizing and telling her we felt so bad, but there was little we could do. We don’t have a car and she is too old to walk it all herself. But we had a great lesson and I took a pic with her for you guys to see. She is so sweet. She is like my grandma, haha, even if she doesn’t know what I am saying. We were teaching her about the Holy Ghost. I told her sometimes I feel bad and the Holy Ghost helps me feel better. She started laughing and said you feel bad because you don’t know anything. haha Then Hermana Escobar felt bad she was making fun of me, so she said “No, like if you do bad on a test or have family problems, sometimes you feel bad.” She was like “What, you had an exam yesterday and you did bad. What’s going on with your family?” ugh We really need a member when we teach her, haha. Also her son, we taught her son’s wife a week ago and then we visited Justina. Her son’s wife, Nina, told Justina that we believe God is living in America right now.... we were like WHAT!! We clarified it all to Justina, but we still haven’t found Nina to explain that to her. hahah Miscommunication happens when you don’t speak Guadani, shoot!! But one of our New Year’s goals is to learn a prayer in Guadani for Justina so please pray for me because, seriously, that language is psycho. 

Lots of love from Paraguay!!!!!!!!!!!
Hermana Ball

This is our prime investigator, Justina.
She was so excited when I told her I wanted a picture with her.

Getting ready to make our trek the 4 blocks in the rain to the bus stop.
Seriously, this is the coldest I have been since getting here to Paraguay.

Trying to save our house from the rain.

On our way to the navidad activity at 3 am, waiting on the Elders, as usual

Papa Noel Came

Like I said, it rained A LOT

IT RAINED LOTS THIS WEEK

This is Pedro Juan, a new convert and also minas activo 

This rain came from nowhere.  This is outside our house.
 Literally 10 minutes before this it was so hot and sunny

We made empanadas this week. They were really good.

 

PS: About the Church Mail Pouch

So, I keep forgetting to say that you can't use the church mail pouch system for MY mission. I sent two letters that way and they came back. They said, get this, "only the North mission has it," I hate those guys. So, sorry to disappoint, ugh I was so bugged. If you get the letters back you have sent this way, just send them with another letter through regular mail in an envelope. Sorry, I keep forgetting.

Feliz Ano Nuevo!!!!!! written December 29, 2014



With my presents. Thanks so much for the blanket, Charlsie.  I love it.

Hermana Escobar and her presents.  She was so happy.

Man I can’t believe how fast time flies! I am going to go in order of how the week went. Monday we had our lesson with Andrea’s parents and the whole family to ask if her sisters could be baptized. Things went great. Everything went the way we practiced except the part where the papa said yes.... It was really hard. The whole walk home I felt a little discouraged but Hermana Escobar did so good. In the lesson we gave him a libro de mormon and asked him to read it and pray about his decision. He said he wouldn’t pray because he had already made his decision but he would read because he is curious about our church. He had lots of questions and I feel like we answered them well.

That night we had some guests at our house, the other sisters in our zone live far from the terminal, so they stayed with us to get up at 1 to go to the mission Christmas party. It was so fun. We didn’t do much sleeping. We walked to the terminal with the elders, it was way fun. The party was in Ita. It was a 3 hour bus ride. It was so good seeing my batch again and talking to them! It was basically like a youth conference: we played soccer and capture the flag and volley ball and that sponge game where you get all wet. It was great. I met lots of Hermanas. It was fun wondering who will be my comp someday. Lots of people thought I was a Latin. It was great until they heard me talk and then they would say “where are you from” and then they would say “WHY ARE YOU SO BROWN!!” haha I can’t wait till the day my Spanish will fool them. We didn’t get home this day until 9. It was way exhausting and we had just recovered from going to Asuncion so it messed up our sleep schedule all over again. ugh But it was great. We also had a white elephant. I got chocolate milk mix and we watched the Christmas devotional, but it was in Spanish and I was so tired. I kind of just slept on Hermana Escobar’s shoulder the whole time. We also watched David Archoleta’s song with the Piano Guys. That was way cool and we had a slide show of all the baptisms in our mission this year. I cried. I can’t wait till I have some up there!!!

Christmas Eve we had lunch with the Roma president’s family. It was way good and we didn’t really have much other success that day. Our study took lots of the day and then we went to a member’s house that night, the same one I went to call you guys. We were planning to act out the nativity with them because Hermana Escobar had never really heard of it soo we figured they hadn’t. But then we got a call saying we had to be home by 7:30 because it’s dangerous. ugh So we took them a dessert and gave them the little nativity puzzle Charlsie sent. We told them that the piece with Jesus was in the card and that they could do the puzzle with their kids and talk about Christmas without Christ is incomplete. They loved it so much. I think the dad cried a little, he loved it so much. Then we had to literally run 10 blocks home because we wanted to be obedient. We were 2 min late but we were ok.

Hermana Escobar and I made some special food and sang every Christmas hymn. Then we read the whole Christmas story in the scriptures. She had never done that before on Christmas, and we watched The Lamb of God, it was great. We also had a popcorn fight, which felt like snow. hah I tried to make Christmas really special for Hermana because she was telling me she has never really gotten a present before and it’s really just always about food. It was so fun playing Santa and putting out all the presents I got her. Mostly it was my stuff, I gave her haha like a sweater and a clip she loves of mine, but she was so grateful. Christmas morning we just opened presents and talked and then we had study and weekly planning and then I got to call you. When I think about it I wanna cry because it was so great seeing all of you in the moment. I was just too happy to be anything else. So sorry if I didn’t seem excited to see you all. I was. It was so great.

After we talked we taught some way amazing lessons and we had a little miracle. Well, were walking and I remembered we had said we would go see Justina’s son that day. His wife had said “Oh that’s Christmas and my birthday but yah, we would love you to come.” Once we remembered that we ran there and when we arrived Justina was there and we haven’t been able to find her so it was great!!!!

That night my district leader challenged me not to speak any English on Viernes (Friday) and I did it!!! I have never done so well. It was great. That night when he called he kept saying “Hermana your Spanish is so much better”. Sunday I commented in church like 3 times and he said after “that was so great”. I know it’s a direct blessing from your sacrifice. So now we are trying to go a whole week, although I haven’t been too good today. I need to be better but it was so great. He is such an inspired leader. We found out he isn’t being transferred so we are really happy!!! One elder was, but his comp is training so we are getting someone newer than me!!!! I am stoked! 

Anything I said on Christmas or in my letters that seems creepy, or I don’t know, gross, don’t worry about me. It’s gross when I think about it or talk about it, but when you are actually there having to deal with it, God gives you strength beyond your own. Hermana Escobar has never seen a mouse her whole mission and she keeps saying “When I get home I am going to be so creeped out because our house is full of them”. haha Then we got home the other night and i saw two mice in our house. She hasn’t seen them, so maybe I am crazy. But ya, haa I am glad I’m getting all the worst stuff out of the way in my first area. I seriously love it here and never want to leave. There are so many animals haha in our house we have the cockroaches, the ants, the lizards, gecko and her babies, and now Mickey and Minnie and Tina the chicken. Shoot we aren’t obeying the no pets rule very well.

I have never been around so many animals. Daily I see goats, horses, cows, everywhere pigs, chickens, cats, DOGS, birds, frogs, weird bugs. We have two parrots in our area that people have as pets. They say “hola” when you walk by and Saturday we saw a pet monkey!!! I died. It’s like the mission golden treasure, not everyone gets to see a monkey! It’s like everyone had babies overnight, because when I got here there were just big animals. And now, next to every grown up are two babies. It’s really cute. And all the butterflies hatched overnight. They are everywhere. It’s great! 

Ok, my New Year’s spiritual thought and then I will go. I was reading in the Liahona and a man was talking about growing up in Idaho and having potato and corn plants. They would rotate the fields every year. One day when he was plowing the corn area he found a beautiful potato plant. He called his dad over and asked what he should do. “Pull it” his dad said. “But dad, it’s so beautiful. It looks better than any of the plants in the potato field.”   “Pull it” his dad repeated, “this year it’s a weed!” I love it. He went on to say "When I consider all the things Heavenly Father would have me do in this life, doing them at the right TIME is as critical as doing them at all" I think that’s a great thought. As we begin a new year there are lots of great things you could do this year, but maybe for you this year they are a weed, there is something greater for you to be doing. I challenge you to look at your year and think of what you want to accomplish. What do you want to learn and where do you want to be next year? I promise, as you do, when you finish another year, you won’t look back with regret. You will feel accomplished and ready to face new challenges. I am grateful for this opportunity of new beginnings, new planner, new goals, new language and new country. Lot’s is different and I plan to make the most of it. 

I love you all, 

 

Happy New Year

Hermana Ball