...one less chicken to cross the road

We found a donkey

 

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

Just making juice with chememby

Another beautiful week in Paraguay!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

LOVE YOU all, 

oxoxooxoxox

Hna Ball

Happy Leap Day!

 

The day I completed 500 days in the mission and my
comp completed 50 ...sad day!

Everyone here has pigs...and when they get fat the people kill them and have a big party.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes we like to play with sling shots...I wish I could say I killed this bird

but I'm not that skilled but all the little kids have these sling shots here

and the family Mercado gave each of us one and we always practice

when we go to their house.

So I feel bad that last week’s letter was so lame. I’m really sorry about that. I actually wasn’t as disanimada as you guys may have thought. I was fine with it, there just wasn’t much to report. But this week I feel like I could write a whole novel of everything that has happened. I will do my best to share with you how amazing and spiritually uplifting this week was.

First off we got the call Monday and I got to stay here in my beloved Caaguazu with my lovely compañera Hna Gonzalez. I always wanted to die in the compo (country) training. I got my wish! 

So we got to start leaving our apartment this week again. Presedente didn’t want us to start out at full speed so we started leaving for the mornings at 8 and studying in the afternoon when it’s so hot you just want to roll over and die... there were days this week we got up to 108 with humidity. But it was actually harder leaving in the mornings because everyone was cleaning their houses or sleeping. But it was amazing that God really guided us to the people we needed. We found SO MANY people this week and they all have amazing stories and are all very interested. I’m going to pick a few to share with you. 

We found a family a week before dengue. They were a reference from a member. They belong to a Christian church but the whole time they talked to us the first time they just talked about the apostasy and how their church just tries to follow the pure doctrine.... so we went back this week and got talking to the mom of the family. The first time we thought they were really die hard in their church but she started to open up to us and tell us all her doubts about her church. She basically grew up in a prison. She wasn’t allowed to leave her house except to go to church. She had to wear a dress always and couldn’t do her hair or wear make-up or do her nails.... they are REALLY strict. She said that for a long time she had psychological problems and all her siblings basically have the same problems. It was such an amazing lesson because we were really guided by the spirit to know what to say. We shared with her from the Book of Mormon and talked about programs the church has for youth so that they can be in the world but not of the world! She LOVED it and said she is going to start reading the Book of Mormon with her husband and she is going to sign her kids up for seminary tomorrow!!!! So pray for her. The family is called Frutos Spenetti. Weird last name. I think its Italian.... 

Also, this week Elder Bednar was in Buenos Aires and he did an area-wide conference for all the missionaries! It was so amazing!!!! It was as if he was in the same room with us and I received a lot of answers. 

This week we just found new people in tons of new ways!"!!!! I felt like we were just literally guided to their houses. One night we didn’t know what to do. All our plans fell through. There are some really rich houses in the center of out area and we started to just knock doors.... no one answered... we really never do this, but I thought it was good for my hija (trainee).. then we got to a beautiful house and we rang the doorbell.... yea, they had a door bell... that tells you how nice it was... and this super cute little boy comes out and gets his mom and she let us in and we talked to her for an hour.... we answered all her questions and she was just really happy. At the end she said I don’t know how I’m going to convince the rest of my family... but her name is Graciella pray for her!!!!

Honestly we found many more but I’m running out of time. Another huge miracle was the son of the family we reactivated, the family Akuña, got the priesthood last week and this week for the first time he blessed the sacrament. I cried so hard. It was such a special moment to see him up there and he told me he is preparing to go on a mission. This is the kid that told me that lots of missionaries passed by their house and it wasn’t till hna Lopez and I came that it really got into his heart that he needed to go back. 

Anyway, miracles are real. I’m alive and we are both dengue free!!!

LOVE YOU all,

ROHAYHU

hna Vaka pi po po 

Another Week Down

So this week was filled with reading the scriptures, cleaning the house..... reading the scriptures..... watching The Restoration..... I did get to leave the house Wednesday, our Sister Leaders came! I was so grateful. I got to leave with one of my good friends, Hermana Richards! She is so great and we had a lot of good lessons. Thanks to this day we had three investigators at church Sunday! That was a huge miracle.

Also this week my head started to itch.... and itch and itch..... so one day my comp started to look in my hair and sure enough, I have lice.... but my loving companion sat for over an hour just picking out all the little lice eggs she found... I thought maybe I was going to get through the mission without having lice, but I guess not... It’s ok. I’m just learning to be humble and to really look to the Lord and to see what he would have me learn from all this.

Also our house was the cleanest it has ever been and I don’t know what happened but every bug in the world decided to invade. We had lizards, spiders, ants, and .... WORMS, that was the worst. We woke up Sunday to a floor full of white worms. I don’t know where they came from but when we got home from church they were gone, so that was a miracle.

Now my companion is all rested and we are ready to go! Today I start my last planner... that made me sad but I’m trying to not think about it. It’s weird. I know I only have 5 weeks left but I think I’m in denial. I just can’t accept it. I just feel like I’m going to go to a new area.

I love you all and I hope you have a great week.

xooxoxoxooxoxoox

Hermana Ball

I’m sorry this letter is lame. I promise it will be better this next week.