Mon 10/15/2012 12:36 PM
Only in Paraguay
Well, hello there family. Life is good out in Paraguay. I
was sad to hear about grandpa, but thank you for telling me the situation, dad.
I think he will pull through! Good ol’ grandpa. :) What a great guy. I love him. Make sure you
tell him that for me dad. Please. Tell him sincerely that I love him, and tell
him thank for all the candy and ice cream he has provided for many years, and
his funny attitude and smile. I love him.
So this week we had some good "only in Paraguay"
moments. These happen every day, but this week we had a good story. I will tell
the big one last. So first story: There is this lady we are teaching - well
trying to teach. It’s really hard to teach her because she barely speaks any Spanish,
mostly Guarani and her son is wacko! I think she had him when she was on drugs
or something, because she told us once she did cocaine. Anyway, this kid is
crazy. He like picks up the cat by its leg and slams it on the ground. The
other day he was cutting his hair with a knife. He is insane so it’s really
hard to teach. The other day we had a crazy lesson with her! We got about two
sentences about the gospel in. We are talking and randomly her son comes up,
says, “Caca,” drops his pants and starts pushing. His mom starts chasing him
and he rolls over as a turd flies in the air. Yes, flies. Oh my, it was crazy! So
we are like, “We gotta get out of here.” So I was saying the last prayer before
we left, then the kid starts yelling so the mom chases him. I look up and it’s
just me and Elder Wheatley there praying by ourselves. So I just start laughing
and she comes back and I’m laughing super hard. I could barely say “amen.” Oh
gosh. It was crazy. Then another moment we had: We contacted this other lady. As
we talked to her, she started telling us how these little Virgin Mary dolls
follow her around everywhere. She was crazy! She kind of looked like a lawn
gnome though. We have some interesting moments. The other day, I met, for the
first time, a person in Paraguay that doesn’t believe in God or Jesus. It was
weird. She was very stubborn.
So you all should start this style at home, just kidding,
but everyone here wears fanny packs. Like the bishop at church wears one under
his suit coat. A lot of people wear them over their shoulders like a sash. It’s
funny. oh! The other night I saw a cat that had spots in the perfect places to
where it looks like it has a mexi-stache. It was cool.
So anyway, my big story. You know the 9 year old we were supposed to
baptize Saturday? So Friday, before the interview, we were looking over some
papers and we saw that it said he was only 8 years old! So he had to be
baptized through the ward, not us. So we go to the house and ask the kid, “How
old are you?” He replies. “I don’t know.” His brother says, “My mom says he is
8 my dad says 9.” So we ask the mom, she is like... “I dont know... I think 9.”
Then we tell her about the paper we found and she is like, “Oh okay! That
sounds right. He is 8.” So we were going to baptize him Sunday under the ward,
then we were looking at the papers again and realized he doesn’t turn 8 until December!
So we go back and ask the mom and tell her what we found and she says, “Oh
yeah, he is only 7.” We were like,”... uhhh.. do you have any records of
identification so we know?” She tells us,
“No, you guys are right. He is 7.” I felt like we could have told her any age! So
we didn’t get to baptize him, after giving him all the lessons. I felt really
bad, because on Sunday, he comes up to me and looks up at me and asks, "How
come you aren’t baptizing me today?" Ah, I felt so bad. I had to kindly
tell him that his birthday was December 26 and that we can baptize him then,
when he is 8 years old. Poor kid.
This week was a great week though. I am really seeing the
"fruit of our labors" because our area has had a lot of lazy
missionaries in the past. Now my companion and I are here we work super hard
and the ward is becoming a lot better! We are activating people. We had this
ward’s first baptism in over a year and a half. Ah, Juliana is great! She fits
right in with the ward! It’s like she was always a member! Now we are teaching her daughters. They are
accepting our message so well, because they saw the great change in their mom. It’s
great. We’ve got the domino effect going.
So with Cristian.. they are having a hard time money wise. We
went there the other night and they had no money. They needed to buy dinner. He
had like 10 mil. His girlfriend was crying.. but we had a great lesson. That
really helped comfort them! The spirit probably played a big role. At the end Cristian
asked me what my advice was for them to do. I didn’t know what to say.. so I
went with my motto "Smile :)" I just told them to smile. I didn’t
think this would have an effect on them, but they were like yeah. That’s so
true, nothing goes wrong when smiling and they even asked in their prayer for
help to smile. We got them on the bishop storehouse now and we are getting him
a new job! So it will all be well. They are great! They’re probably my favorite
family to visit.
So another spiritual experience. Last Monday we had some free time.. and a random
thought came to my mind. Hey, let’s go visit Alva (a non active). She is great.
She was a great member then had a kid and has been afraid to go back since. Anyway,
we got there and she was crying. Some people have been talking bad about her
and she felt alone. As we were talking, I thought of a story in my life but I
was too afraid to tell it. Then the spirit kicked in. I’m like, “Oh crap, maybe
I’m just hungry.” I had this feeling in my stomach. Nope. It was the spirit so I
told her my story and I hoped it helped out. I don’t know if it did, but she
came back to church this week for the first time in 4 years. My companion and I
are doing great. My companion is such a good teacher.
Well, it’s watermelon season now, so I bought a watermelon. I
bit into that sucker. Mmmmm. It was like the Fourth of July. The mission is
great! The Spanish is good. My vocabulary is getting better. I can understand
everything people say. I just need to work on speaking more fluent. But I haven’t
had a problem. We have some great people we are visiting. I’m loving it. Also,
it’s crazy with no mountains here. I realized how big the sky really is. It goes
on forever. I love the sunsets here.
Love,
Elder Rigby.
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