10 September 2012

Mon 9/10/2012 3:16 PM

Hi :)
  
Hey there everybody.  :)  This week was a good one! But also very interesting!  My companion and I both got pretty sick! So it made it hard to go out and work. It was a little slower  week work wise... but we definitely taught some good lessons. I’m pretty much feeling better today, but gee, Friday was bad. I just had no energy but I had to go out and work as much as I could, because the people need us.
    
So Saturday night, oh my gosh, loudest thunder and rain I have ever heard. It kept me up for a while. It was pretty cool, a little bit scary, maybe, but not too much. These past two days have been sooo humid because the rain.  It hasn’t rained during the day, really, just at night. But everything is still wet and, wow, it gets really humid. I’m pretty much just immune to the feeling of always being wet.  I guess that’s how the mission is. I have blisters in about every possible place on my feet. I did some crazy foot surgery last night to fix a lot of them, so foot pain, as well, is just one of those things I’m immune to.  I found out very quickly that the harder I work, the less I notice the pain or the heat. The Lord definitely blesses me. I’m a little worried about one part of my foot because it is getting swollen, but we will just wait and see. :) I love it here.  We walk everywhere so I get  a lot of exercise! My legs will be so ripped when I get back. It will be awesome.  We take busses to farther away places and they are called colectivos. Yesterday we had to catch the bus after church and it was leaving. I figured we would just catch the next one, but my companion was like, “Come on!” and he jumped on. So this bus is already going, so I sprint and like grab the bars and pull myself on this moving bus. It was so awesome! I decided that I’m going to try and jump on more moving busses, its fun.
    
Paraguay is funny. To cool themselves off, the people here all roll their shirts up above their belly, even the most fat guys. It looks very appealing. Speaking of shirts, I was picking blackberries off a tree the other day and I accidently squished one on my shirt. Sorry mom! I think the stain will come out though. 
 
There are also a lot of frogs here just hopping around. So last night my companion and I were flipping them in the air with our shoes. You get your foot under them when they hop and you just fling them in the air, they are big frogs!
  
Something else funny about Paraguay is everyone’s sound systems cost more than anything they own - including their house. People are always blasting music, especially Sunday nights, the party night.
  
So on Tuesday I went on “divisions” with the district leader. He is way cool! I saw 4 monkeys in his area! Cool huh?  I also got ice cream.  :) Mmmmm, so gooood.  This family we were teaching has this kid who brought me a rubiks cube because he was playing with it. So I quickly solved it and he was like woooooooah. He got all excited. I felt cool. 
   
Today there was an expo in the city, with lots of sweet and cheap stuff, so, of course, I bought some things.  :) Pretty cool stuff. Everything here is cheap. Like empanadas are usually about 1 mil., so like less than a quarter maybe? I don’t know the conversion exactly.  I bought a box of cereal for 9 mil. We have a brand new supermarket next to our church. It’s very handy.
   
As for my investigators, one is doing so well! We just need his work schedule to be changed so he can go to church and then he will be baptized fo sho.   This other one, Juliana, she is having a very hard time quitting drinking.  We got her so pumped and excited Saturday night to quit and it was perfect! We worked with her forever.  Then a member went to pick her up Sunday morning and she was found asleep with a bottle of cognac. Gee... it was so disappointing. I don’t know what to do with her. We meet with her tonight though. We have some other sweet people we are meeting with as well. We work with a lot of less-actives too. A lot of people here get offended very easily, so we have many less actives. We are having quite the ward drama right now as well. Speaking of our ward, I wish I knew how to play piano. Yesterday in church, the singing, with no pianist... oh boy.
    
Yesterday, Elder Wheatley and I cooked brownies, because we didn’t have much success. Boy, they were so good.
   
Let’s see – answers to questions. I go to a place in Luque to use a computer. Yes, it costs. In the morning, I print out my emails to read them.  It doesn’t cost much though. No, I haven’t heard about the Brigham City Temple? If you are sending a package... I can’t think of anything I need.... but, um, there are a lot of cool souvineers (I don’t know how to spell that) here. So if anyone would like something specific throughout my mission, don’t be afraid to ask. Or else I’m just going to bring home a bunch of random crap. I love you all! If you have more questions about what Paraguay is like, just ask! I can never remember things I want to tell you about it. I will send more pics next week though. I didn’t have a chance to take any this week.  It’s very pretty, lots of fruit, oh my gosh, the juice here is amazing! I think I drink more pop and juice than I drink water. We drink a lot of pop here because, most the time, that’s all they have at the little stores on the street. But at least I walk all day to keep in shape. I haven’t had a problem with the food. It’s all been pretty good. Well, I don’t know what else to say... love y’all :)
   
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