Menos Activos

On the way to the ward mission leader's house.
He is so funny.  He likes taking pictures every few min.
This is in front of our local supermarket. This is the central
part of my area.  By central I mean the ONLY part of my area with
streets like the one behind us.

We don't have a can opener. I bought these peaches forever ago and finally
this week I had enough, I was going to eat them...I may have cut myself
in the process but they were way good. 

CARNE! We had lunch with our ward mission leader and it was raining
so hard that's why I am standing.  Notice the Elders got to sit.
All we had was different types of meat and this is why I am getting fat.

One of the meals Hermana Aguilar cooked for me this week.
She asked me if I wanted to try something new, but she wouldn't
say what it was...half way through she said, "Do you like gizzards?"
I didn't even know what that was but after she explained I did.
But honestly it was way good.

It is really different getting a new companion. You are so used to the old one, you have routines, you have learned what they like and don’t like, but then you have to start all over with someone completely different. Hermana Aguilar is very, very, very different from Hermana Escobar in lots of good ways. She is pushy, she makes me do a lot of things. At first it just seemed like she was lazy but she makes me do them because she knows it’s the only way for me to learn. I still haven’t spoken any English. We made a goal together. Well it’s not hard when we are alone because she doesn’t speak English. It’s when we are with the elders, they spoke English to me but I didn’t do it. I think I said a word or two but that’s it. One of my big fears is speaking in front of other missionaries because they have been where I am and now they aren’t there anymore. They can speak Spanish. When you talk with natives they just think its sweet when you mess up. At least you’re trying their language. I tried to explain this to Hermana Aguilar, she told me it’s just an excuse to speak English. So I tried really hard and I did it. It was scary and I felt way, way self-conscious and shy. I know these are things I have never struggled with before but here on this mission I have become really shy. Hermana Aguilar is helping me with that. She just won’t say anything in a lesson until I start. It’s really hard, but I am learning to rely on the spirt so much. She really is so great and we get along really well. Like I was saying it’s just new and we are still growing accustomed to each other. 

This was the week of many menos activos (less active) members. We have been working super hard to first off find the menos activos and second make sure they aren’t less active anymore! We had a little meeting with one of the members of the rama presidency and the relief society president (they are married and both ex-missionaries super capos). He told me where all the people lived in our area which was very stressful for me. It consisted of them saying you know this road next to the mango tree where there used to be a school or the older rama used to meet. First off I had to understand the Spanish and then remember our area and lots of names and streets and oh man it was really stressful. Basically I went to bed thinking how am I ever going to remember all that, mucho oración (much prayer). I knew where 11 families lived before this week. This week I now know 18!! This is huge because lots of them have family that isn’t baptized and neighbors and friends!!!! I am really stoked about all this, if you can’t tell. Honestly it was such a milagro (miracle) to find the houses. We would be walking and asking and asking if anyone knew the member and literally every person would say they had lived here forever and they had never heard that name. Then all of a sudden I would say or my comp let’s go to this house and sure enough they lived there. Literally this happened with every person. It was such a testimony to me about receiving revelation because it wasn’t like I heard a voice saying go to the green house more like the opposite. I would think, ugh, I am sick of this. I don’t want to ask here and then something inside me would push that thought away and always it was the house just after I had the thought of giving up. Satan wants us to give up just when we are so close to what we need. I don’t know if you have ever seen the picture of a man digging for diamonds and you can see the diamonds are literally one pick at the mountain away but he has already come so far and in the picture he is walking away. I feel like this is how lots of our goals are. We try and we try and when it feels like we aren’t achieving anything we give up right on the brink of finding the answer or achieving our goal. I know that if we keep pushing and remember our loving Savior, we have a dvd we got from the mission and there is a talk by Holland and Eyring that just hits home, it also pumps you up so much for missionary work. Eyring says whenever he feels he has fulfilled his duty, when his body cries for rest. When he thinks he has done all he can, he remembers this rallying cry, Remember Him. The Savior had fulfilled his earthly ministry and entered the spirit world determined to continue his work, he didn’t rest he served. This has helped me so much. No matter how much we serve we are always in debt, we are servants, we are disciples of Christ. We represent him. The mission is not easy, but Holland says that Salvation is not a cheap experience, it requires something of our soul.

This week was not easy for me. I found lots of people, I saw milagros, but it was not a simple task. It required a lot of my soul and there were lots of moments where I wanted to quit, where I had felt I had done enough. I wish I could say in every single of these moments I pushed on with perfect determination, but we are all imperfect. Luckily we have the atonement. One of my new favorite quotes is “the one who requires so much of you is the same one who made it possible for you to accomplish all that is required”. I know that is true. As long as we push forward with a steadfastness in Christ, we won’t give up on the brink of achievement. I am so grateful for this time of service and especially this change. I am learning so much! I love you guys and I hope that my little message helps you this week when you feel too tried to be nice or everything seems to be going wrong. Remember him. 

Con todo mi corazón, (with all of my heart)

Hermana Ball

Cambios (transfers). Written February 16, 2015

Hermana Aguilar

Left to Right Hermana Aguilar my new comp, Hermana Bronson my BFF from the CCM,
me, Hermana Bronson's new comp

Another beautiful week in Paraguay...... sooo the change was this week....... and Hermana Escobar se fue (she left) and I am still in good old Coronel Oviedo 2.1 and my new companion is... Hermana AGUILAR!!!!! She was the mom of Hermana Bronson, one of my best friend’s from the CCM, so its way fun! She just got done with training and now it’s like she is training all over again but worse because she doesn’t know the area or English!!! Yep, that’s right. I haven’t spoken a single thing in English since Wednesday. It’s weird. I wrote this letter in Spanish in my head last night and now I keep getting confused what to say so when its Spanish words it’s because I honestly can’t remember the English one and I am trying to hurry. It was the same in my last week’s letter but this week it is even worse, but I am learning soooo much!!! Hermana A is from Guatemala. Having Hermana Escobar as a companion was almost like having a North American especially in contrast to Hermana A. For example last night to help with my acne she rubbed aloe all over and made me sleep with it on. Also we picked some leaves on the side of the road and boiled them up and drank it to help with my stomach. Hermana Escobar would make me drink tea too but we bought it in the store not from the side of the road. But her food is really good and she is determined to help me lose weight because she is not as sweet about my weight as Hermana Escobar was. She keeps looking at me and saying seriously you look pregnant. We are going to eat healthy this change. I’m not complaining. I like the idea too. Everyone keeps saying my Spanish is soooo much better and we haven’t even been together a week. I personally think it’s just that I have more confidence to talk then I did before, but Hermana A seems to think I didn’t know anything before. ahah It’s ok. She can think that. I really am learning so much. I love that she was Hermana Bronson’s companion. She is always talking about her, and me too. I have lots of stories from the CCM with her. We have been working hard to find new people because basically all the investigators we have aren’t progressing which means to Hermana A that we don’t have any because no one we teach comes to church. It’s been really hard for me because basically I am in charge of everything: the paper work, the planning, the phone calls with our district leader, well pretty much all phone calls. This was so hard for me. In the past I would say our number but when he started asking all our plans Hermana Escobar would take over. But when he asked she just looked at me like what’s the plan and I don’t know it was magic. I just started talking and I had plans. I wanted to cry Friday because no one I planned to visit was home, literally everyone. I think she could tell I was so upset. I told her it’s because I want her to like it here. I want her to like being my companion because she had kept saying how much she missed Hermana Bronson and her old area. She told me I needed to worry less about what she thought and what the Lord thinks and how I can work harder in this area and what the people we are teaching need. I think I really needed that. I had been so worried she wouldn’t like me and what she was thinking and I wasn’t focused. So after that I spoke a lot more in the lessons and since that I have just been progressing like crazy. I don’t think she loves the area yet or me... haha but she told me that I am a great missionary and that’s why I am still here. I still have more to offer in Cornoel Ovideo and I still have more to learn here as well. As far as the combios (transfers) she is the only new addition to our district which I was so grateful for. I need Elder Denhalter this change. He is so patient and helpful. This was a rocky week of a lot of new but also a lot of growth for me and this area so I am really excited for this change. Now for the milagro (miracle) of the week. The elders had a baptism Saturday of 6 people, a whole family. We had planned for a boy in the rama to pass by for Hermana Justina so she could come and in the morning he wasn’t answering his phone. It’s kind of confusing everything that happened but basically I was determined to have her there so we walked to her house, got her already. I called lots of people and one of the youth said they could. It’s kind of really a long story but we ended up walking an hour to attend the baptism but it didn’t matter because we made it and Justina was there and she cried and she was so sweet singing the hymns. Today is her birthday. We are going to her party, I hope seeing this family is the push she needed to feel ready. The family alone is a huge milagro! They are gold. Unfortunately Justina couldn’t come to church. The same joven (youth) who flaked on us Saturday flaked Sunday, but he is the only one with a car so we have no other options. But I still have faith she is going to be baptized. Her desire is amazing. Anyways that’s all I got this week. I hope I wasn’t negative. I really love Hermana A and I feel so grateful she is my companion. I love you all!!! 

Hermana Ball

Well I finally made it through training. I can’t believe I have been gone 4 months!!! So the change is this Wednesday, we don’t figure out who is staying and who is leaving till Tuesday some time. But it’s pretty set that Hermana Escobar is leaving, which is so scary for me because I will be in charge of telling my new comp about all the investigators. I will have to know all their names and the streets and where they live. I don’t know, it just freaks me out. I know how to get around but trying to explain where people live on the paper work we have to do is so hard because no one has a set address - three houses past the big mango tree with the cows out front and a green fence – that’s the address, haha oh Paraguay....

Random thought: I have been meaning to share that I love this about Paraguay. Everything is made in PARAGUAY. It’s so cool. If you buy milk, eggs, a notebook, or a pen all of it says industrial Paraguay on the back or made in Paraguay. 

Ok so about this week. We had lots of little milagros (miracles), as always we found some really amazing people. We also had a Capacitación de zona!!! I liked it because I learned a lot, but I really hate putting all our numbers up on the board. After you put them up and say your goals all the district leaders start raising their hands and hounding you about why your numbers where low and what are you going to do better. Lots of times we don’t know - we are trying our best. “What are your plans to have more people at church?” ummmmm Invite more people, call them on Sundays, no se... We are already doing both those things but in the end its their choice if they want to come or not. But they talked a lot about baptisms in our area of South America. Our mission is third in most baptisms. We had like 1400 mas o menos (more or less). It was crazy. It said each missionary baptized 7.5 people. So that got us all pumped up about asking people to be baptized. I think that I really needed it. I have become kind of shy about asking people to be baptized. It’s hard not to feel like a freak coming into someone’s home for the first time and asking them to join your church if you look at it like that.... which is how I was.

So then Friday after the capacitación the sister training leaders came for exchanges and it was really great. We talked about what happens if people aren’t baptized, what blessings they will miss out on. I went with Hermana Jeppeson. She goes home this change so she was kind of trunky. haha In that regard it was kind of hard being with her, but I learned so much about our authority to invite people to follow the example of jesucristo (Jesus Christ) and be baptized in his church. The reason we ask people so soon is to find their doubt and to see if they are going to progress. The thing is, we can visit people all day long but we aren’t visiting teachers. We’re missionaries here to baptize and to take the gospel to these people. Lots of people will listen, everyone here will listen, but everyone won’t be baptized. It’s really hard weeding out who will and won’t. There is one lady I love, she is so sweet, and Hermana Escobar went to her with Hermana Jorgenson. Of course they invited her and she said no and all these things about how she loves the missionaries. Hermana Jorgenson said I wouldn’t go back to her. She just wants best friends. She doesn’t want to change. The question is does anyone here want to change? They see us as just nice girls dedicated to talking about Jesus, or they see us as people wanting to change their religion. Neither is true. We are here to help them to know the true and everlasting gospel, to find the conditions and the manera (way) to obtain eternal life!

So with all that in mind we went about this week boldly inviting and teaching the gospel with 5 great people saying si o si I will be at church two with fecha (baptism date). Sunday comes and no one is there, not even Justina. I was crushed. Its hard. Every week your faith grows in these people and then they don’t do this thing, which I know is lots to ask, to get up early and come to church. But it’s also a little thing that is going to change their whole life!!!!

Sunday night we visited a family with lots of asistencia and we invited them to be baptized. I think they have lots of desire. They said they will pray as a family. Their names are Maria and Hector. I hope they decide to be baptized because, honestly, they are great.

Oh, I forgot it was my turn to give the talk this week in sacrament. I was so scared. I went without a written script. Last time I had word for word written down and I just read, but this time I shared some scriptures and talked about oración (prayer). It was great. I don’t think they all understood, but I hope they felt my testimony. That’s what I said in the beginning.  I just hope they could feel that I knew what I was saying is true. That’s what I am going to leave you with, a shorten version of my talk.

I know God wants so badly to hear from you in times of joy and pain. When he answers your prayers immediately thank him. The line I love from True to the Faith said “kneel and pour out your heart to the Lord for the things you need and then do all you can in your power to make these things happen”. When I first started this whole thing I just studied and studied and honestly I didn’t pray for Heavenly Father’s help learning Spanish. I just figured he knew I needed it and I didn’t want to ask without putting in what I had first. But then I was humbled and realized that you need both to pray with all your heart and then practice and practice and practice. I know I still have a lot to learn but I never would have known all I know without the Lord. When I said that part about I obviously need to practice more they kind of laughed because it’s true. I don’t speak perfect but the fact that I can speak Spanish at all is a HUGE miracle in my life and a direct answer to my prayers. I love what Alma 37:36-37 says about prayer. “Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever.  (37) 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.

I love you all so much. I hope that you can feel my prayers I make for each of you daily. Gracias por el apoyo. 

Hermana Ball!!!

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