Hola everyone! I made it safe to Paraguay, this place is crazy awesome and i'm just loving this work. This place is crazy different! The roads are different, the people, church buildings, just everything.
I had to walk for so long and its the kind of climate where when you go outside, you start sweating and you sweat the whole day. its so hot here but it's pretty cool at the same time. The food is completely different as well. There is a lot of rice and beans and weirdly enough there is a lot of noodles too. Its all covered in grease for some reason but maybe they only give that to us because we are american XD. Everyone offers you water when you go to their house, and you can't drink the tap water because if you do you might get shivivi. oh that reminds me i'm learning tons of Spanish, and guarani. Guarani sounds like a mix between Spanish and Japanese. we greet people in guarani and then talk to them in Spanish its a bit funky but i'm starting to enjoy it.
I got to see Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay one day all in the same spot! its where the river forks and the countries are separated but it was super cool.
There's a lot of trash everywhere and its super sad to see but its alright i guess.
I can see the Brazil city foz, its a pretty big city and it looks pretty at night.
There are also a ton of dogs and cats but most of all...chickens. TONS of chickens EVERYWHERE! You can also see the quality of someone's house by looking at their chickens. if the chickens are dirty and missing feathers and limping around, Its probably a run down house. But if the chickens are healthy, then I guarantee the house is higher quality.
The title of this email is come what may and love it. You might wonder why its that way and that's because this week I wanted to have that kind of perspective for anything that came my way. Helping the people, you bet. keeping the mission rules and being obedient, for sure. Being nice to a random drunk guy that comes up and talks to me, for sure. This place is different in every way than in the United States, but i'm going to love whatever comes my way.
One thing i didn't realize about the mission is one of the hardest things in the mission is your companion. I love my companion and he is so awesome but sometimes it get frustrated at him or hes having me do one thing or another but i will love him and help him feel better because missionary work is difficult and it takes 2 to be on a mission.
I love this work but sometimes its really difficult. I walk on roads called empedrado and its a street with just rock that they pour in and it makes it so that the road doesn't flood but anyway it hurts to walk on and sometimes it can be super hot and I'm tired and i just want to sit down or go to sleep, or go back to sleep but one experience changed my mission, needles to say changes my life.
I was on a colectiva with my companion (a colectiva is what they call a bus in Paraguay) and we were going to go back to our apartment but he remembered a family that he wanted to go talk to that was close in the area. He pulled a wire that let the bus driver know to stop and we got out. and without even knowing where to go, we walked down different roads, being led by the spirit. we came across a woman sitting down outside, enjoying her evening and we asked her if she knew where this family was and she said she didn't know so we started to go find this family. Suddenly as we were walking away, my companion said, let's go teach her. We turned around, and told her we wanted to teach her the plan of salvation. Once we started teaching, the spirit filled our hearts and we were guided to teach what she needed to hear. Once we were finished with the lesson, she told us about how her life had gotten hard, with her son dying. She was looking for the truth, and at some points tried to repent for his sins because she was so scared for his salvation. There aren't any words for what we felt at that moment. I could feel the presence of the spirit so strongly and it was an amazing experience. Once she was done crying and we had finished sharing the lesson, she offered us a ride and gave us some money. we didn't have enough money back to our apartment and a ride back was an enormous blessing. We invited her to church and the next day it rained. The people here think that if you go in the rain you will get sick so lots of members didn't show up and we were worried that she wouldn't but she DID! we knew that she is probably going to be baptized if shes that dedicated because members don't even come in the rain. I testify that if you are obedient, the lord will bless you and i know that god lives and he loves us so much.
After i walked away from teaching her, i had the energy to teach everyone! and at that moment it made all of the trials worth it, and i saw the goodness of god working through me and my companion. I love this work and i cant wait to keep doing it! }
I love you all sorry for not having everything I don't have a lot of time at the moment. anyway, love you all so much, see you next time!
chow!
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