Week 86 - Christmas: Let in Everywhere and Given Food

This week was different. every house that let us in just wanted to give us food instead of listening to us, since they had made a lot of chipa and sopa and cooked a lot of meat, so that was a good problem. There was tons of fireworks and firecrackers all over the streets on and before Christmas, so that made it an exciting day. Everyone was home, but a lot of them were doing things that didn´t make us super excited to talk to them, lots of loud music which made it hard to focus on anything for more than a little bit.

We spent Christmas with the Paraguayans, and  ate a lot, and got to know a lot of nice people that hopefully will accept the gospel. At every house that let us in they gave us food, even if they didn´t know us, so that was awesome. The mission had a sports day, so that was fun.

My companion speaks very well for only having been here since August, he´s a great teacher, and we're having an awesome time together. 

Right now we´re working with a guy named J**n, who when we told him that baptism was a way of making a promise with god, he just said, maybe I´ll wait till I´m a little older, when I won´t want to go and party anyways, so that it´ll be easier. We also met some people who when we mentioned baptism they asked if they could do it, and then they found out that they had to go to church and keep commandments, and then they weren´t as excited, it was kinda sad. We are also working with a kid named R*dr*g* who when we asked him how he was he said bad, because he was thinking alot aboiut his salvacion and how he could acheive it.

Here it frosted once this winter and the bushes almost died.

Here they sell quail eggs like crazy in the supermarket.

-Elder Bowles

Week 85 - Sharpie Tie, Dance Club, Grapefruit Juice, City Living, More Talkative in Spanish, Surprise Singers

Ivan called us bright and early at 6:30am (11:30am HIS time) on Monday.  When he found out it was 6:30am here his only response was “that’s nice.”  Ivan asked if everyone is just waking up right now.  I tell him that we WOKE everyone up.  He just laughs. He was very concerned about who was here.  He could hear Julia but not see her and was asking about Kami (who was still sleeping).  Having Hailey and Jeff (also sleeping) to talk too was a bonus.

Ivan was wearing a yellow tie which we commented on.  He flipped it over and written in black sharpie was  Elder Hamilton, who was his trainer when he first arrived to Paraguay.  Apparently, Elder Hamilton sent the tie intermission mail to Ivan when he went home.

Ivan has a new companion Elder Patton from Elko, Nevada.  This is third companion from the set of newbies who came out in July.  Julia was in Elko yesterday during the drive here. New missionaries are just coming in like crazy.  Everyone is just going for it. The areas are getting smaller because they have to divide them into more areas.   There is enough work, of course.

His area is Tajuasape (pronounced TA-GEE-WAH-SA-PAY).  Dave said we couldn’t find him on the map.  He said we could find his place if we looked on google earth for Popeye’s, a dance club.  He’s been there on his P-day (joking). They have loud music (obviously).

He will have the opportunity to hear Jeffrey R. Holland (the apostle, not his brother in law) speak in person in the spring. I asked him to talk to Elder Holland and tell him that his sister is married to Jeffrey R. Holland.   He simply stated that there probably wouldn’t be time for him to do that.

On P-day today, they will buy food, take a 9 minute bus ride home, clean the house, and then burn the trash, take a nap and drink some juice – grapefruit juice, of course.  Grapefruit juice comes in a box, as a powder or sometimes he buys the fruit. He was also getting his hair cut today.  He said they can’t be bald or have a buzz cut.

He comments that this is the first time he seen Hailey since she has been married.  He says she looks the same just a bit more tired (she did just get up after all).

Dave asked how the city (where he lives now) is different from the country (where he was).  He said that the country had a slower pace, people were more open and they give him more food.  They speak Guarani in the country.  He spoke some Guarani  for us. 

Ivan is a district leader (which he never told us). When queried why, he said he was still a missionary that he just went to an additional 2 meetings a week and he does interviews.  He was called in October apparently. His district has 4 sister missionaries and 4 elders.  He says that sisters are awesome.  The sisters teach the women.  He listens to the sisters and gives emotional support when they call and then it is done. He helps them if they ask and it is easy to do.  There is not too much you can do when you are in your area and they are in their own area.

We were telling him that the missionaries in our ward now have iPads.  He was very surprised and said he would not like that because missionaries are poor and don’t have stuff to rob.  He said then he feels they would get robbed.

There are 4 young women is his ward right now.  He doesn’t know how many come because he doesn’t keep track of them.

Ivan became very talkative when Jeff started talking to him in Spanish.  Then he told us that he was talkative/outgoing person in Spanish but not in English.  They have 1-6 baptisms a month.  He has only had one companion who only spoke Spanish.  He tries to only speak Spanish with the English companions as well, but sometimes they want to speak in English so they do.  He talks  to people every day in Spanish and you just have to talk a lot and so now I just talk a lot in Spanish.

For service they cut old people’s grass with machette’s.  You squat down and go at it. You go at it like you are cutting off someone’s head right near the ground. When they use an electric lawn mower, the cow bones get stuck in the blades. There are cows everywhere here.  People keep them on the empty lot on the corner during the day and then bring them in at night in a shed/stable.  If you leave something out at night, it is free game. The cows get in front of the buses and it’s annoying when you are running late. 

He said it is pretty safe there.  He hasn’t been robbed. You just don’t’ get robbed, that’s all.  Some sisters were on a bus where everyone on the bus got robbed, but they left the sisters alone. The sisters are assigned to all the safe places. Sometimes the robbers think the missionaries are students.  One missionary was about to get robbed and the Elder told them they were missionaries of the LORD and then they just left them alone. Ivan only has a cheap phone, backpack, scriptures.  I guess they might want a Bible, he states.

Here it got down to 9 degrees Celcius is the low for the winter.  40 degrees has been the high in the summer. The rain just causes the humidity to increase.

Ivan was surprised in church last Sunday when the Bishop announced the missionaries would give a musical number.  They went up there and sang Noche De Luce hymn #127 in the Spanish hymnbook. One missionary played the piano and the other 3 sang. Everybody said they liked it.

He hasn’t lost or gained weight.  He is the same.  He eats at members house everyday of the week.  He told us what he usually eats, but everything he listed was in Spanish.  He claims there is no English equivalent.  They eat a lot of fried food.  He says it is super good. When they have food here they eat unhealthy food.  They eat rice with extra grease and he loves it.

He received a letter from the primary and it was really nice.  It was sent in the mail and it was from all the primary kids.  It was pretty fun.

He was holding the camera during the entire conversation.  We had a good view of his nose.

Investigators have invited the for Christmas to eat something. They received a gift of sweet bread last year.

He told us all that he loved us.

To make things better, we heard the song “White Christmas” that night on Pandora which reminds us of Ivan because he would sing all the low parts with his bass voice.

Week 84 - Getting Lost, Sitting Next to Strangers, Christmas Attitudes, Built an Oven, Package

This week was pretty dang good, we are teaching a couple new families, I´ve still been seeing a lot of people from Kennedy, and it´s super hot.

We got lost in our small area ( I don´t know how) and we ran into some lady that showed us how to get to go where we wanted to go, and then asked if the church was still there and if the meetings always happened, and said she had gone before and wanted to go back! So that was crazy, then I didnt´feel bad at all about getting lost.

I gave a talk this last week on the Holy Ghost, so that was fun, it only had to be 7 minutes, so that was nice, I had about an hour to prepare it.

I try not to hitchhike, I´ve only done it about 5 times, but it is always exciting when we do.

I will call between 11 and 11,30 this coming Monday (Paraguay time), which is the time when I usually email, I´m planning on skyping, if that´s all right.

I sweat from the moment we leave our house until I come back at night, unless we get extremely lucky and some rich person lets us into their airconditioning, or it rains, but then we get wet anyways.

When I was in Villarrica I really liked talking to people in the park, because you just sit down next to them and start talking (that´s completelly normal here, it´d be a little weird in the states.)

Usually the attitudes change a lot during Christmas, there´s more loud music, a lot more drunk people and big groups, but there are always people who just want to find the truth. I have seen the gift of patience a lot in this area (in me and others) here in Asunción Satan has a good grasp on the society and the people in general, but luckily we have God and Jesus and everything good on our side to change that.

I only learned one spanish word this week- fratacho - trowel. I helped some guy make an oven out of dirt and cow poop and bricks, so that was fun. I would have to say that´s one of my favorite ways to serve people.

I went and did baptismal interviews for the sister missionaries and I interviewed someone who was 13 with a kid, but she´s changed her life and wants to follow God. Then I interviewed someone who was 14 without a baby and it was really interesting seeing the difference of their lives and everything. oh, and here in paraguay there´s a 23 year old grandma-figure it out.

The Spirit teaches me all the time as I teach or read scriptures that I´ve read hundreds of times.

I got the package a week ago, and I decided I was going to wait until Christmas to open it. I made it until the next morning, and then I just had to open it. I already used the screwdriver to fix a leak in our gas stove almost the very next day, so that was nice, and I am enjoying the taco seasoning scented shirt while it lasts...and the taco seasoning

Week 83 - Very hot, Poop Moths, Feeling Healthy, Trash

This week was pretty good, it's getting really hot, here its almost 40 degrees celsius (104 F) and its super humid.

I actually tried a new food this week, the paraguayan coconut that has a yellow fruit outside of it. It was just ok.

Yesterday there wasn't very many people at all in the area because all of them were in Caacupe to make their promises to the virgin over there, so that made the day interesting. 

I can't even imagine having snow here, the people here are verry interesting, sometimes too interesting, but different is just fine.

I got to go through my old area, Kennedy, becasue I did some interviews, so that was kinda fun.

The big moths that poop on people are out again, so that's fun. This area is more cityish than all my other areas, but at least the people are smarter, so that at least makes my work easier.

Elder D**z (his companion) is learning Spanish pretty fast.

My shirts arent yellowish brown, they're reddish brown, I tried to bleach one, but then all the really dirty spots stick out more because some of the shirt is really white and the rest is super dirty, so yeah.

We have investigators pray on the 1st or 2nd visit.

*lv** said he was going to go to the church in a different ward this week because his cousin is a member! so that's awesome.

I'm completely healthy, yes the mosquitos are out, but I always have bug spray in my backpack. Don't worry, our house was moldy, but we bleached it and its all gone now.
People here use drugs and substances a lot more than they do in the states. Luckily that's why I'm here.

Days like this make me appreciate Elder Oak's talk about not having other gods (http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/10/no-other-gods), because that is always what starts people down the wrong path.

Here I am completely used to having trash on the street. It is normal to me now, it's going to be weird going to the states again where everything is clean.

The garbage all goes to the lake Ypacarai, which is a really polluted lake, because that's where most of the creeks and rivers go.

-Elder Bowles

Week 82 - Flooding Roads, Floating Garbage, Forgot Thanksgiving

This week was pretty awesome, *lv**, someone we´ve been teaching came to church with his two sons, and it seems like they all enjoyed it. They´re just awesome people just that *lv** has health problems, and that impedes him.

This week there was tons of rain, and it came very suddenly as well. Where I am right now, there are lots of people and the roads flood more than I´ve ever seen them before, there was one road that we had to walk about 4 blocks to find a way accross. Here sometimes the streets turn into rivers, no big deal. When it started to rain we were talking to some people that weren´t really interested in talking about God, but then it started to pour so they let us in, and so that was great.  I got help from the rain without even getting wet! Then we talked to some other guy afterwards who gave us free food, so that was awesome. One interesting thing that people do here is when it rains really hard some people throw their trash in the streets so that they don´t have to deal with it, because it gets washed away. I hadn´t ever seen that before.

This week people started asking us a bunch of questions about the Virgin María, because the 8th of December is coming up, which is her day here in Paraguay.

I completely forgot about Thanksgiving, to be honest. We were walking down the street and then Elder D**z just mentioned it was Thanksgiving and that´s when I realized it as well. I never would have thought that I would forget about a holiday that is so great back in the States. Oh, well Turkey is kinda expensive here anyways since the eggs don´t hatch down here hardly at all. You just wait until next year, and then you all won't have anything left to eat because I´ll have to eat 3 Thanksgiving´s worth in one sitting.

Last year we did have a Christmas Celebration, we´ll see what we do this year. Christmas is celebrated worldwide, so I´m sure we´ll do something.  I don´t think I´ll decorate for Christmas we´ll see if we are still in the same house or not, because this house has some issues.

We have a ward mission leader who has actually served a mission and is active, so it´s super awesome.

Lately we´ve been cutting grass for service.

We eat about 3 times a week with the members here, we´re working with a drug addict, so that´s fun.

We use rolls for the sacrament bread.

 Elder D**z is more outgoing and talks more, so that justs makes it more exciting because even if he is new to Paraguay he makes entertaining mistakes. 

At the bi-mission meeting, it was just nice to see the missionaries I had met and worked next to.

-Elder Bowles

Week 81 - Lots of Listeners, Tons of Bugs, Investigator Disappears, No Air Conditioning

This week went by soo fast! We had tons of people who wanted to listen to us, it was great.

Elder D**z is from Arizona, and he talks a ton, and without shame as well, he has the same amount of time in the mission as Elder L*dd*ll. His grandparents are from Mexico, but he didn´t know Spanish before the mission.  It´s super funny, because everyone just assumes he knows Spanish perfectly because of his last name. The last time I smiled was when my comp told someone he was waiting for his man. (estoy esperando mi hombre) it was super funny because the lady understood just that. Elder D**z became a member 3 years ago, so it´s been fun being his companion.

I don´t know if I mentioned it before but Elder Cristopherson came and told us all how we could be better, and it was great.  I also got to see some of my friends from the other mission.

 I learned some Guarani cuss words because some guy took his time to explain them to me, so that wasn´t appreciated. I also learned a really fun word (hy) which means negro in guarani, but you have to say the y as a u using your nose and throat at the same time.

It is suuuper hot here right now. We cut somone's plants

.Here there are tons of bugs, every day when I wake up I have to run the shower for a little bit before I get in so that all the bugs go down the drain, so that´s fun. I started taking cold showers because it feels super nice after being sweaty and hot all day.

I tried to explain to somebody here about squirrels and acorns, but it didn´t work, because they don´t really have a name for them here.

The 20 member family did have the same dad.

I have tried cow meat, cow intestine and cow foot, but cow tongue was new for me.

I can get to Kennedy(an old area) in about 15 minutes on a bus. The only reason I´m not in the same zone is because the zone was split because of all the new missionaries. 

*d*lf* (an investigator) basically disappeared, we´ll see what happens.

Our apartment is good, we have 2 half broken fans, and a broken air conditioner, so we´ll see if that changes. My apartment is 2.5 blocks from the chapel. we just walk now, the area is small. At church somebody gave a talk and shared Juan 4:53 and 54, it was really simple, but somehow I learned a lot.

 53 So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and ^ahimself believed, and his whole house.

 54 This is again the ^asecond miracle that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judæa into Galilee.

We gave one of our investigators *lv** a blessing, and then we told him that we were only sharing what we were because it would help him and it was just great, he´s super awesome, but his health problems keep him back.

-Elder Bowles

Week 80 - Man borrows Scriptures, Lunchbox on head, Feels the Spirit, Exploding deodorant

This week was great! The area I´m in right now is really small,but the good news is that we can´t get very far without finding someone who wants to listen to us. We have tons of help from everyone it´s awesome. This week we found tons of cool people, we gave a Book of Mormon to an investigator, *nt*n** and he´s not super interested.  When we came back, his neighbor, *d*lf* was there reading it and was mad at  *nt*n**  because he wouldn´t loan it to him to read it, so we gave him another one.  He's already read a whole bunch of it, so that was awesome.

During church on Sunday a kid started running around with a lunchbox on his head, it was super funny.  They also did the primary program, and it was great and super fun as well.

Sundays do feel way different, because everyone plays louder music and there are more drunk people in the streets, I feel the Spirit the strongest when people decide to make commitments without us even having to invite them.

 

I almost forgot about Thanksgiving. 

 

We burned our trash this morning,and a deodorant bottle got left in there by accident and it exploded,so that was pretty exciting.

 

The reason the people have so many kids here sometimes is because some of the men have or have had about 3 families.

-Elder Bowles

Week 79 - Tajuasape - No Cake, Cow's Tongue, 20 kids, Sugarcane farmers, D&C 4

Well, I got taken out of Villarrica, and now I´m towards Asuncion again in the Tajuasape ward, which is really close to Kennedy (an area he served in for 7 months).  I´m pretty popular lately, I´ve seen people I already know about every other day, so that´s been kinda fun.

 

It´s kinda weird being in a place with so many members. I really enjoyed church this week because there was more than twice as many people ate church than there were in Villarrica. It´s also really nice not having to worry about people only speaking Guaraní.

 

My new companion is Elder Diaz, I want you all to guess where he´s from.  Elder Diaz has the same amount of time as Elder Liddell (his former companion who he just tranined) in the mission, just a couple of months, so that´s fun. Yes, companions are always together.

 

They had been working with a man called C*rl*s, and when we asked him if we could bring a cake to the baptism, he said that he didn´t want one because the baptism is all that mattered, and he didn´t even really want to sing or do songs, because he just wanted to be baptized, that was pretty funny.

This week I tried a new food, and it was super good, cow tongue, they asked if we wanted it.  It wasn´t sure if I did, but I said yes just so I could try it, and it was real tasty.

If you both would like to come to pick me up.  I would have no problem showing you around, there are hotels to stay in in, you would just have to do your research to find the good ones (or maybe ask the mission office). Usually the office likes to know a little ahead of time so that they can schedule the flights good. If you want to get sick you can.   I am fine either way, if you would like to come thats fine with me, and if not, that´s ok too.  All my areas in Asunción are within 2 hours of each other (in bus) and Villarrica is 3-4 hours away from Asunción.

They have district conference about the same as stake conference.

In Villarrica everyone grew sugarcane for a living.

Families have anywhere from 1 kid to 21 kids (20 is the most I´ve heard of).

My favorite Paraguayan desert is what they call crema (cream) its the cream of the milk with burnt sugar in it, and it´s really good. I drink water or juice or soda.

People need to go to church 3 times before they can be baptized. Being able to help people get baptized does make being on a mission very worthwhile.

Luckily the summer is slow coming this year here too, it´s sprinkling today, so that´s nice, since it was pretty hot yesterday.

 

The house I´m in has a super long lawn, so we´re gonna be whacking that down with machetes today, so that´s gonna be kinda fun.

 

The old people here in Paraaguay aren´t nearly as healthy as the old people in the states, most of them are crazy here.

 

I had D & C 4 (see below) memorized before the mission, now I can´t keep it straight in Spanish and English.

 

1 Now behold, a ^amarvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men.

2 Therefore, O ye that embark in the ^aservice of God, see that ye ^bserve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand ^cblameless before God at the last day.

3 Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are ^acalled to the work;

4 For behold the ^afield is white already to ^bharvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in ^cstore that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul;

5 And ^afaith, ^bhope, ^ccharity and ^dlove, with an ^eeye single to the ^fglory of God, ^gqualify him for the work.

6 Remember faith, ^avirtue, knowledge, ^btemperance, ^cpatience, ^dbrotherly ^ekindness, ^fgodliness, charity, ^ghumility, ^hdiligence.

7 ^aAsk, and ye shall receive; ^bknock, and it shall be opened unto you. Amen.

 

I like the mission, becaue it is just great, and helps me have more charity.  

 

Before this change, I have only had one Latin companion from Peru, so I really can´t tell you much without assuming all of them are like Elder Ag**l*r.

 

When I´m sick I usually try to work anyways because nobody likes staying in the house.

 

I haven´t seen any weird animals recently, just birds, dogs, dead dogs, cats, cows, horses.

 

Iwish that I could sleep from 8 to 8 that would be awesome.

 

-Elder Bowles

Week 77 - Eavesdropper wants lessons, Send a Maple Donut, Antismoking Drink, Drunk Investigator, Gospel is about Happiness

There are aboutt 30 of the hymns in Guaraní.  The hymnbook in spanish has 210ish hymns in it, and a couple that are only in Spanish, and don´t exist in English. 

Well, this week has been full of surprises, we went to Paso Yobai, and we were visiting someone to see if they were ready for baptism and they were drunk, so that didn´t work out. He said he was drinking because he wasn´t baptized yet, so I guess that means he has desires to follow God, who knows.  Then we went by someone named C*rm*l*, and I guess he had been going to church for a while and so he was able to get baptized, and he´s even happier than before now, and he seemed happy before, and so now he´s suuper happy. If I haven´t learned anything else on the mission, I´ve learned that the gospel isn´t just about praying and reading long scriptures, it´s about being happy.

We also are working with FO, we took him over to F*d*l´s house for a lesson, and we prepared the paraguayan ¨remedio¨ (medicine) to help him stop smoking, which included throwing a pack of cigarettes in a blender and adding water and having him drink it. We´ll see if it works, supposedly everyone who´s ever tried it has stopped smoking. But F*de*l thought it was sooo funny, and his laugh was super contagious.
 

We were reading the Book of Mormon with a member and his brother, and some really angry looking man was doing some stuff in the yard and just sat down to listen, and when we were done he told us he wants us to share what we were sharing with his whole family, because he really likes what we are doing. It is really easy to share this gospel, because it is God´s gospel.

Mom- If I remember right I should be fine, but I´ll double check and let you know next week. I was thinking that if you havene´t sent the package yet if you could try throwing a couple of maple donuts in there and we´ll see how they come out over here, because I really want one.

I´ve written Justin (his cousin) a couple of times, and he´s written me a couple of times. I get guarani and spanish mixed up sometimes, and then he asks me what stuff means. (it is funny to me that just don't write to each other in English)

We taught 22 lessons this week we had one person in church here in Villarrica and 1 in Paso Yobai. There´s less and less investigators in church each week because they are all embracing the gospel. So that´s awesome. I think that I have just been able to figure out how to get people to ask me good questions, and then they are always interested in what we have to say, if they ask me questions. but really its´ just God helping us out.
 

The branch is going to get him a calling real soon, President Galeano said he´s going to be his second counselor once he´s ready.  F*d*l is going to get a calling as the ward greeter, and he´s going to be the best ward greeter ever!

Luckily here in Villarrica it doesen´t seem like it´s going to get as hot, but I´ll see where they throw me for the summer, changes are next week but I really just want to stay here.

We do have an elders quorum, but each week it´s 4 missionaries, Hermano Líder (the elders quorum president), Hermano Miguel, and Hermano Fidel. The other men are always helping out in other places during the meetings. but this branch is growing.

We hit a great landmark this week we officially have 1 deacon, 1 teacher, and 1 preist.Tthe ward secretary is also the young men´s president. There is a primary.

One thing that made me laugh was we had a visit, and the person we wanted to visit wasn´t there, so Juan Ramon his little brother with 9 years ran to get him and yelled ¨I want Ever to get baptized´ it was great.

Julia, My week was great this week. I paid 15,000 ($3) guaraníes for a bus, I helped a one legged man get a chicken out of his pigpen, I was a witness for a baptism, I made a pizza in the microwave, and I gave a talk in church. My tie is yellow, my shoes are brown (they were black before). I have tacos sometimes when I make them for myself because no one here knows what they are.No, I don´t really know Jeff (their brother in law) at all, but when I was with him he was pretty cool. Yes, I went on a date or two in college, I just said maybe when you asked me before.

-Elder Bowles

Week 76 - Just Big Rats, Supermarket Shopping, P-day Synopsis, Cops don't stop Investigator

I couldn´t write yesterday because the internet got cut while I was trying to write, but really quick here are a few of the things that happened this week: C*rl*s and his daughter were both baptized, and are super happy now.

It´s gotten super hot now, and rained a little bit yesterday and it felt really good because it cooled things off. I cleaned all the dust of the fans and now they work twice as good.  My companion seems like he´s really enjoying the mission.

 

I got the other popcorn package, and I enjoyed it as well, they really don´t have popcorn here in Paraguay, so that was super nice.

 

Pomegranates sound so good right now. I´ve only seen one pomagranate tree in all of Paraguay.

 

There are so many birds here, and they all sing in the morning, it is nice, but it makes it hard to sleep past 6 o clock. They don´t have squirrels here, just big rats.

 

I think we could go fishing on preparation day, there´s not too many rivers super close to Villarrica. On p-days we study, drop of laundry, write families, buy food, sometimes clean the apartment, take naps, and just do nothing, because it´s our only chance to just sit around.

 

Having all the differenct companions (he has had 7 so far) just have shown me that everyone has special needs, and that some peoples special needs make more sense than others. 

 

Sometimes I have problems just walking on over wet muddy roads.

 

The bus didn´t come because it was going to get stuck if it did.

 

The corruption ranking for Paraguay seems very accurate, it only surprised me a little bit that only 26 countries were below it.

 

I shop in Herrero (ironworker) super market. there´s sprite, cocacola, colgate, aquafresh, head and shoulders shampoo, crunch bars, kiwi shoeshine, and quite a few more american brands, but things from the states are always more expensive, so the only thing that I buy from the states is toothpaste.

 

well, they said we´ll get the hard copy from general conference sooner this time, acoorinding to the apostol, usually takes a couple months.

 

I am inspired to speak words that aren´t my own almost every day.

 

We have our recovering drug addict that has recently stopped smoking even tobacco cigarrettes and is progressing towards baptism. His highlight this week was when he walked past the cops and they didn´t even stop him.  He just seems way happier than when we found him, he came with us to teach someone with us, and he already refers to himself as ´un mormon´ even though he´s not baptized yet.

 

-Elder Bowles

Week 75 -Villarica - Misses Last Bus, Safest Area, Mosquitos, Horses, Hitch Hiking

This week was great, as usual. On Saturday we had a little bit of an adventure, the bus we needed to take to get back to Villarrica got cancelled, because it rained a bunch and the bus couldn´t go through.(the only bus) so we basically just went home with other means (we paid some guy 10,000- just over $2 American) guarani to take us halfway, and then some family who had talked with missionaries before gave us a ride almost the rest of the way, until we got a couple other rides with other people. It really is amazing how well God has taken care of me since I´ve been on the mission.

At night, I hear drunk people and music quite a bit, but the only thing that wakes me up sometimes is all the horses going by with their metal shoes on the pavement. I have no problems sleeping.

 

There are a lot of mosquitos here in Villarrica, especially since it´s warming up.

 

This is probably the safest area in all of Paraguay, there are street lights in the whole area, and I basically hitchiked without any problems.

 

I just want reeses cups and butterfingers and skittles. I don´t really ´need´ anything.

 

C*rl*s had to work, but we were able to get the interviews in, so now he just needs to get to the river with his daughter to get baptized.

 

Presidente Agazzani is just great, I had an interview with him, but his letters he writes to us always seem to have hidden meanings in them, it makes me kinda nervous sometimes. Our mission president is super funny, he always cracks jokes. He´s only 40something, and he really does have a lot more energy than President Madariaga.

 

There´s one member who takes a bus for about an hour to get to church Everyone who lives in Paso Yobai used to take the two hour ride every Sunday.

 

There´s not too much to do on P-days, look at carpinchos (large rodent), that´s about it.

 

Elder Bowles

Week 74 - Being Chaste, Idea of Serving a Mission, Teaching Old People, Friendly Members

Well, we had general conference this week, I watched it in Spanish.  I really liked how Dallin H Oaks taught the first two commandments, it is what almost every single person here in Paraguay needs to apply, probably almost everyone in the whole world. (For a video of his talk click on the following link.  He gives lots on interesting statistics on % of people living together, age at marriage, % of babies born into single parent homes.... https://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch/2013/10?lang=eng&vid=2724154478001&cid=5   I also really liked how they emphasized staying chaste, because those two things are things the whole world desperatly needs to hear. And I hope they did. I know that the messages were inspired, and that if we apply them, we will be blessed enourmously.

Fidel went to the conference and he said it was ´pure spirtual nourishment´ and for me, it really was.

It´s not that they cancel things here (like the primary program), the church just isn´t as organized here in Paraguay, and not everything gets done sometimes.

 

Before college, I always knew that I should serve a mission, but I feared the idea of serving one, so I just kinda avoided the idea.  Then when the time came I tackled the idea, and I knew it was the right thing, so I did it. and I am still learning how good of an idea it was - every day. If someone understands the gospel, and has a testimony, and is able, they will go on a mission. I was more focused on the mission during college, because I graduated from high school and it was time to face my future. I probably should have made that shift before.

We are going to try again with C*rl*s this saturday, pray that everythign goes well.

I also know that my English is getting progressivly worse.  It was kinda funny, because the Spanish had a delay,since the translators say everything after the speakers and at first I thought that the speakers were saying Amen while they were walking away from the pulpit, but that was just my mistake. 

 

I don´t know why, but I´ve been finding a lot more old people to teach here in Villarrica, they just seem to be the most open to listening sometmes, which is completely opposite to how it was in Asunción.

 

For a while now I have been hearing squeaking sounds when we are walking around or teaching people, I recently found out that they are bats all of them, there are tons of bats here.

 

General conference is just nice in the mission becasue it´s something different than normal, that´s what makes it so great. We watched general conference in the chapel in Villarrica, they have cable there, and I guess Villarrica gets BYU tv, so that´s cool. All in Spanish. I liked the talk by President Monson about home teaching.

 

We taught 22 lessons this week. 

 

My shoes were filthy, but I cleaned them. It has rained at least once a week for about 4ish weeks.

 

I haven´t met anyone who´s seen snow. 

There are quite a few Paraguayans who are as tall as me, I imagine they have seen people as tall as my companion, but I hadn´t thought about it before.

 

My favorite fruit is mandarina.

 

It depends on the investigator if they stay the full three hours of church.

 

The members here are the most friendly I've met.

 

Elder Bowles

Week 73 - Another baptism, Thank you Parents, Street Lights, Just Keep Working

F*d*l got baptized this week! He says he just feels soo clean and free, and that´s really just how it is, he really understands the gospel and how he needs to use it. And to think that we found him only because we forgot the map of our area and had to turn around. It seems like it´s rained every weekend for a while now, so that makes things hard as a missionary, because nobody does anything when it rains. It´s kinda cold today, this week the winter has been longer than normal, this time last year I was dying of heat, so I guess I can appreciate it.

I just wanted to thank both of you for raising me good, as a trainer, especially training an American, I just realize how much of an influence both of you have had on my life and how hard work and patience it must have been. My comp is learning how to ´talk¨  and cook.  I know that it doesn´t even come close to being a real parent, and even farther from being good ones like you two were. I also have realized that the main thing that both of you did was be awesome examples for me, and that I know I really won´t ever know how big of a sacrifice it was until I do the same thing. Thanks a bunch.

Someone did offer their daughter to be my wife (not new either) there´s just no quality control here, even if I did want a wife here.

My favorite devotional speaker while I was at BYU -President Monson.

Right now we´re working with c*rl*s and his daughter. C*rl*s missed his baptism because his tire popped and he was in the middle of nowhere and we had to catch the bus back to Villarrica, so just pray that he can get to Paso yobai when we are.

My branch president is also the district president, he´s 40. his couselor is also the elders quorum president, and he´s 35. He has another counselor that I think is 27ish.

Villarrica is my first area where almost the whole area has street lights. In my other areas we did walk in the dark, but we try not to wander too much. as a missionary.  There´s almost always someone else within earshot, if it´s next door, inside the house, or accross the street. This is in answer to a question Dave asked after reading this article:  http://www.lds.org/liahona/2013/09/youth/through-thin-walls?lang=eng

If we had missed the late bus we would have been stuck. We just don´t miss it, or else we´d be in a difficult situation.

Give my companion another couple of months, then he´ll be fluent.

 

Here in Villarrica on a good day I think there´s about 6 kids in primary. We had a primary program in my first area, we´ll see if the memo that they are done got all the way out here to Villarrica.

 

Here in Villarrica the people are more Catholic than other places, there was one guy that I said hi to and then he said ¨I don´t do that¨ and then wouldn´t let us talk to him.

 

When we are down, we just keep working, because that´s what us as missionaries do, there´s no time to feel sad or discouraged, or stressed out.

 

The fish soup was super good, it was nice and salty and they put lemons in it, I will try goat milk again, you should get some so that I can try it there! or maybe deer milk! They also have super good empanadas here in Villarrica with cheese, ham, and corn in it, it´s super good.

 

-Elder Bowles

 

 

 

 

Week 72 - Buses, Pink lightening, Seizure at church, Fish Eye Balls

This week was pretty normal. Nothing super fantastic happened. We spent a lot of time in buses this week.  We went to Asunción, Coronel Oviedo and Paso Yobai, so that was quite a bit of just sitting down, which is kinda hard for me now. This week we were almost late for the last bus back to our area because some guy wanted a Book of Mormon, so that was a good problem, I can´t complain about that, hopefully he reads it.

 

 It´s been raining again, so that always makes the work a little harder, but if we work hard enough, there´s always people ready to listen (and hopefully act). We had a really stormy night last night, the wind blew the window open while I was sleeping. Luckily it seems that it only really start raining right after we get under a roof, so that´s super nice.

 

This week a member had a seizure before church started, it surprised me quite a bit. He had been going to church for quite some time, so everyone knew what to do since it had happened before, so that was good. What is the correct thing to do when someone has a seizure?

 

There was a big lightning storm here last night and several times last week. Here the lightning is pink sometimes because of the polution.

 

I took a temple preparation class once for a week, and then the teacher got sick or something so it kind of ended.

 

The ´biggest problem´ with my roomates in college was that no one wanted to buy toilet paper, so I had my own stash in my closet that nobody knew about.

 

I´m sure the goat (who gave the milk he tried) wasn´t eating things that were super healthy because people here don´t really care what their animals eat. Here in Villarrica all the eggs from the store have really thin whites and super big yolks, it´s kinda different

F*d*l is about 60ish I think. He can´t read because his eyes almost don´t work. When we invited him to church the first time, he asked us to wear the same ties so that he could recognize us, so we did, but we told him we would be wearing suits as well. We ordered a big Book of Mormon for F*d*l so that he can start to read soon.His baptism is this Saturday, along with an awesome member reference in Paso Yobai, so it´s going to be a crazy day.

 

I think we will watch General Conference here in Villarrica, but I´m not sure. It´s springtime here, so it´s super rainy. Some members still do their prayers very similarly to the Padre Nuestro (Our father? the one in Matthew 6) but that´s ok. We use rolls for the sacrament bread.

 

The scripture that I have used the most this week is Matthew 6:7, but my favorite scripture right now is probably Éter 12:23.

 

You had more youth in the temple in one day than we had people in church on Sunday. That is awesome.this week we set a landmark because there were more non missionaries than missionaries in Elders Quorum.

 

The fish soup we ate was really good. It did have bones and fins and everything, but this time at least I didn´t get any eyes.

 

-Elder Bowles

Week 71 - Awesome Investigator, Close Talkers, Interesting Meals, Stressful Sundays

F*d*l is just awesome, every time we review a commandment or a principle, he sometimes is surprised by it, but then we ask him if he´ll do it, and he never has any problem, and he´s super excited for his baptism.  When he get´s baptized he will be the 2nd active priesthood holding man in my area!

In Paso Yobai we talked with a neigbor from the branch president, he said that his friend wasn´t doing too good, and we went to see how he´s doing, and now he wants to find out more about the church, he just can´t get baptized yet because he has to wait for his hernia wound to heal, so that the creek water doesn´t mess it up.

 

Also, I tried goat milk on Saturday, and to be honest it just tasted like sour cow milk. They that it´s supposedly really healthy, but only if you only drink a little bit.

Here in Villarrica the longer we talk to people the closer they get (sometimes too close), and the guys have good handshakes, the girls always do the dead fish handshake. Here everyone says olah, or mbaelaporte, or mbaetekopiko, or mbaechapandekaaru, but most often olah, qué tal, all that. I don´t remember how close together people stand in the states.

 

I still stick firm that if they open the Book of Mormon twice while we´re not there, they are basically always baptized. but it usually takes us 3ish visits to really know if they are going to take in the gospel.  Sometimes the 1st visit, and sometimes when they reject us in the beginning.

 

We do plan meals (lunches, the biggest meal of the day) and then we throw all our stuff in a cart, and try to guess and put about half the lunch with my companion´s stuff, and half of it in mine, and make two purchases. Usually I get it split with a 4-5 mil guaraní difference (about a dollar). Last week we ate sphagetti (with a sauce that I guessed how to make and it turned out pretty good), sweet and sour chicken, pizza paraguaya, tallarhin (at a members house) and fish soup with bones and everything (at a members house) and hamburgers one day.  So yeah, Elder Liddell is learning alot about cooking. 

 

Here in Paraguay I really like how pretty the country is, and how nice everyone is.

 

Sundays are stressful, because if people don´t go to church on Sundays, they can´t be baptized and get to their salvation. Also, sometimes I´m worried that there won´t be enough members to hold all of the classes. In elders quorum it is the Elders Quorum President, us 4 missionaries, and one other member.  That´s also stressful when an investigator comes, because you don´t know what they´ll think. Here in villarrica people give great testimonies and talks, so at least during Sacrament Meeting I´m not worried.

 

I did meet some interesting people. I met someone who said the world would end in 2018, and that he learned it by faith, and when I told him about the Restoration, he asked me how I knew it, and that it wasn´t in the Bible, so I told him I learned it by faith. He got kinda mad but didn´t say anything, because he knew he was wrong. A man with some large sins said his issues made him a better person, so...I told him no and why. The paraguayans trust us more than the Latins, they just like talking about america.

 

We´re not allowed to visit women alone, and it just happens that in order for them not to be alone, they invite a bunch of friends, so that´s my favorite rule, because it´s just awesome.

 

Ivan's college advice....Just try to stay as ahead as possible in the homework and studying and everything because once you get behind it gets harder and harder to get caught up again (and you can do more things with your friends on weekends without school on your mind). 

 

One thing that almost everyone has no matter how poor they are is a TV, then a cellphone, then a satellite dish. Then, after that they try to get fridges,ovens, stuff like that, it´s really amazing how much time people use on the TV when they could focus on other things, like having a door that locks.

 

I could have bought a fan in town, but they are very, very expensive here, because I don´t think that they make them here, and they come from other countries.

 

The barbed wire used as clotheslines doesn´t usually put holes in the clothes, but it does sometimes leave rust stains.

 

ELDER BOWLES

 

 

 

 

 

Week 70 - Villaricca - BIG bats,Old People,Technology, Sugar Cane and Thread

This week was great!

When we went to F*d*l the first thing he asked us is if there´s church every Sunday!

The office elders called me last week and asked if I wanted to end my mission the 24th of April or the 4th of June, and I told them the 4th. That´s just one of those lucky things about changing missions, is I get to serve for a couple extra weeks.

The branch is growing, but the last complete family on our side of the branch moved back to Bolivia this week, so that´ll make things a little trickier.

Also, this week I saw sooo many bats, and some were as long as our beagles back home! I didn´t believe it until one of the bats in the swarm went under the streetlight, I had never seen anything like it ever before.

 

We have been finding some cool people to teach, it always seems like if we find some people who are really awesome one week, that same week we always find a lot of really stubborn and ignorant people in the same week, but whatever, it´s the good that I care about.   

 

Even though I lived away from home for a year before I came on my mission, I don´t feel better prepared, I just feel like the people who didn´t are underprepared. jk

 

There only are multi story buildings in Asunción, here in Villarrica, the tallest building is 5 stories, from what I´ve seen.

 

There was a huge rainstorm with lightning yesterday afternoon, so that was kinda fun, luckily we were inside eating lunch.

Old people are just the best. One told me 2 days ago that he discovered from the Bible that the end of the world is in 2018.

 

No, nobody eats the carpinchos, they are just there in the city park. There are 3 carpinchos that are all in the park, I just couldn´t get a picture of me with all 3 of them.

 

The fan is fixed, and I fixed it just in time for a really hot evening (since we´re only usually in the house in the evening). 

 

They don´t use clothespins, because the barbed wire does a good job of keeping the clothes on the line.

The chapel is smaller than a portable classroom.

 

Here in Villarrica less people have cell phones, I´d say about 2/3 of the people have them, and almost nobody has their own computer. We have a tv and dvd in the chapel, but the remote is broken, so it´s hard to use it.

 

The main industry is sugar cane and thread, there´s two huge factories here, one for each of them. some members have been members for a long time. We don´t have stake meetings, since we are not part of a stake, we are part of a district, and we go to a city about 1 hour away for district meetings(coronel oviedo).

 

Our branch president got baptized because his wife told him that if he didn´t that meant that he didn´t want to be with her for the eternities.

 

My companion is improving his Spanish quite a bit, he doesn´t know as much as I did when I came out, it takes patience because I had almost forgotten how hard it is to learn a language. I really like having Latin companions better because then Paraguayans don´t just want to talk to the Americans, and we can more easily focus on the message.

 

 

Elder Bowles

Week 69 - Villarica - World's largest rodent, Barbed wire clothesline, More cooking lessons, Sample Schedule

 

Ivan's new neighbor, world's largest rodent, carpinchos (huge guinea pig)

LDS Chapel in Paso Yobai

This week was a rough one, just about everyone who we put appointments with wasn´t there when we went back, but 3 men of the few people who were there all went to church, so that made it all worth it, and they all seemed to have felt something special there, and that is just what they need. That is really how it is. Out of all the thousands of people I have talked to and will talk to, some people are just ready for the truth and the blessings. 

On our way out of one of our visits I got a scrape from someone´s barbed wired clothesline, that just shows how lucky I am, since almost every house in Paraguay has a barbed wire clothesline, and just now after a year or so one got me. One of my companions would hit almost every one of them.

 It´s rainy today, last week it warmed up for a couple of days, it was really nice, I actually  wore a short sleeved shirt for a couple days.

From 8 to 9am we have personal study, 9 to 11 companion study, 11 to 12 language study. During the first 12 weeks of someones time in the mission this is the schedule, normally there´s a little less companion study and sometimes less language study. 

My companion is the second youngest in his family. if I remember right his parents used to be inactive, but now they´re active. He just hadn't heated up leftovers before, this week I taught him how to cook noodles, and how to fry sausage, he´s becoming a real cook.

Luckily, Elder Reyes, one of the other missionaries in the ward knows how to play the piano. 

The first thing I would do if I was in Paraguay and someone told me to make money off of 20 bucks, I would buy some bananas and jump on the colectivo and sell them.

 My project of the day is fixing the fan that we have, because we´re really going to need it in a week or so.

 I actually weighed myself in a Pharmacy, just before writing, and the scale says I weigh 73.3 kilograms (160 pounds). You can figure out if I gained weight, and if you think the scale was reliable (its very possible it wasn't).  Paraguayans are skinnier than Americans. I've only seen one super fat person in all my time here, (instead of every time I go into town in the states).

The harp music here sounds very good.

-Elder Bowles

Week 68 - Villarica- Too Tall, Harp Capital, Baptisms Solve Everything, Blankets, Paraguayans Have Faith

This week was great! Elder Liddell is learning so much, and it´s super fun being a companion with a new missionary who is new to Paraguay. It´s been cold almost this whole last week, and rainy for the last couple of days (on and off since Friday evening). 

Juan was baptized and confirmed, so that´s super awesome, now his uncle has someone to sit in church with, so that´s even more awesome.  Since it´s winter here, the water was pretty cold. Juan was just super ready to be baptized, it rained super hard Sunday morning, but there was still quite a few people there. 

 I taught my comp how to cook hamburgers and hot dogs this week, as well as how to use a microwave to heat up food, we´re having tons of fun down here. This is his first time living away from home, so he´s learning tons of things.

 Every time we talk to anybody they tell him that he´s demasiado alto (too tall), and they all ask him how old he is, and he says 18, and they always say "se anota" (it shows). so that´s been kinda fun. He´s six foot five, and he sticks out a lot here between all the Paraguayans. He tried mandioca and he didn´t like it, so he´s in for a rough 2 years, at least in that aspect. The Gomez family is still shoving him full of food, whether he wants it or not and whether he´s full or not so that´s been super great, I taught him how to say he´s full, so that´ll help him out a bit.   

I do feel better, now I just am trying not to get a cold, because it is cold here. I do not have diarrhea.  One thing I appreciate in the mission is solid poop, because it just feels so good. 

Here in the fall most of the trees don´t lose their leaves, it´s pretty nice. Here I just want spring to come (I don´t want summer to come, just spring)

Could you send me the sweet and sour sauce recipe?

Littering, carrying guns, carrying knives are all illegal, but it happens very often.  Since everyone does it, the police do not bother enforcing it.  That´s basically the way it is with all the Paraguayan laws. 

Villarrica is the paraguayan capital of the harp, and there are quite a few people who play it here, and it sounds really good.

We taught 20 lessons this week, the rain hurt us a bit, as well as baptismal preparations. We were cleaning mosquitos and spiders out of the baptismal font in Villarrica. Creek baptisms in PasoYoBai are just so much easier. The creek is about 2 'blocks' (there aren't blocks) from the chapel.  We changed our clothes behind towels. My companion was homesick until the day of the baptism because baptisms solve everything.

We haven´t met the chief, he lives super far away, the branch president was planning to go out there in a couple weeks, but now there´s going to be a baptism that day! That´s the best problem I´ve run into in my mission.

I usually give my companion a good chunk of the lesson to try to teach, and then I ´bear testimony¨ for a while explaining the things better that need explaining better.

How many people are in the ward now? It sounds huge. The most people I´ve seen inside a chapel for more than a year is 118, and that was just a fantastic day. Here in Paraguay I have never had a problem with too big of a class, except in Sacrament meeting we had 40-something people ,and I think we only have about 60 chairs in the chapel, so we had to move the chairs into the Sacrament room, and then back out for the classes.

A member washes our clothes. My bed is fine, just a metal bed with a cheap mattress. The blankets in this mission aren´t as soft as they were in the other one, that´s my one complaint. 

Paraguayans are the kind of people that would get embarrassed if their neighbors think they don´t have faith, so they always say they have a lot of faith (see James Chapter 2).

-Elder Bowles

Week 67 - Villarica - Training American, Forced Feeding, La Bomba, Serving a Mission is Like Making Cinnamon Rolls, A Map!

 
Well, I got a new companion, and his name is Elder Liddell, He is also from Utah, and he got here to Paraguay last week. I sent a picture of him, and I made sure to get the door frame in the picture, just to show how tall he is. Even though it is super challenging training a new American missionary, it is super fun, just because everything is so new to him.

We ate lunch with some members his first full day, and they made him eat sooo much food, it was so funny watching his face. Missionaries always have stories about how south Americans always give them way too much food to eat and that it´s rude to not eat it, but I think it´s just the Paraguayan way of being funny, because they were laughing as well.

My companion has two different expressions during lessons--when he is focusing like his life depends on it and what I like to call ´completely lost´.  Being with him makes me remember when I first got here, and how much patience it took, from me and from my trainer.

There are cocroaches in the house here, so that´s fun.

 

The thing that´s interesting is that here in Paraguay, the few people who do have really fancy houses, don´t seem all that happy at all, and everyone else, the people who have houses made out of tarps, garbage bags, or pallets, all with holes in the wall seem like some of the happiest people in the world.

I miss being able to have a full day of just hard, physical work, I haven´t been able to do that for a long time, my hands are soft as a baby´s bottom right now.

 I´ve had diarrhea since my second week here in Villarrica.

 I´m sure that there would be at least something harder than serving a mission, but it´s like making cinnamon rolls, they are sometimes really hard to make, but its fun making them, and it´s fun eating them.

I used a different computer today, the usb port was hanging out of the computer by a couple of wires, but it worked.

I haven´t ran in a while.

We got a whole bunch of references from the open house thing, it was great. about 50 came. I want to say, some were less active members, but that´s ok, seeing how that number is more people than come to church each Sunday.

People here just don´t have manners, it´s great.

What I´ve heard is at the end of the mission they send each missionary home with a pill, and they call it (la bomba) the bomb.  We take it when we get home and have diarrhea really bad, and then we are completely free of parasites. That´s what I´ve heard.

They just have little small rules here, like you can´t roll up your sleeves, no zone activities, and they run things differently, it´s just kinda interesting.

If  I didn´t have a map, and if this town didn´t have street names, I would be lost, but luckily there are street names, and I have a map.  This is my first area with both of those.

For transfers the misión paraguay asuncion norte district leader calls Monday afternoon or evening to let us know about transfers (new companion, new area, or training) if you train they don´t tell you the name of your companion until Wednesday morning when you meet him. Misión paraguay asunción district leader tells the whole district Tuesday after district meeting.

The biggest group of missionaries I´ve been in was in the MTC in Provo every time there was a devotional.

-Elder Ivan Bowles

Week 66 - Villarico - Moto Crash, Worse Manners, Mystery Meat, Dead Body, Today, Chipa

This week was another great one. There are some old missionaries that came and helped us have an open house in our little chapel, and a lot of people came to see, so that was really awesome.

 

It was the first time in a long time that I heard an old person speak English as their first language. During the open house a super loud American song came on, and everyone was surprised by the ringtone, and even more surprised to find that the ringtone came from the oldest little lady in the whole chapel, it was super funny.

 

We had a zone meeting this week, and I saw another car crash, some moto was tailgating a car, and then it stopped and he went in the back window.  It looked like it hurt, but he was kinda asking for it.  Glad the united states doesn´t hand out licenses willy nilly.

 

I realized the other day that my manners have gotten way worse since I´ve been here  just because of the culture. Here it is completely ok to use your hands when you eat, and to wipe your hands on the tablecloth, (in some places the face too, but I haven´t done that one yet).

 

I really can tell that everyone here are descendents of the Indians (or are Indians).  If my facts are right this is the only country in South America that wasn´t conquered by the Spanish when they were colonizing.  Everyone here acts like Lamanites, it´s just that some live in the city with normal clothes and the others live in the country ( I still haven't quite seen them yet).

 

Here in Villarrica everyone is Catholic (as normal in Paraguay) but most of them actually go to church almost every Sunday (super not normal at all).

 

Also, I just realized that since I got here not a single person has said ´´otro dia´´ or wagged their finger at us, which I got every single day at least once in my last area.

 

Elder Reid goes home this week, so that´s weird, hopefully I can get around the area without getting lost too many times with my new companion that´s gonna come.  Elder Reid leaves Villarrica tomorrow evening, and spends a day in the office and doing things, and then he flys out Thursday morning.

 

We cook a lot of rice and pasta, with various things mixed in. This week we tried 'mystery meat' which was some organ that a member gave us when she killed her pig, I haven´t gotten sick yet, but I didn´t really enjoy it either.

 

I don´t know if I told you, but my first day in Villarrica I went to a funeral and saw a dead body for the first time in my life, so that was fun.

 

I still don´t know Guarani well enough to have more than a 3 sentence conversation, let alone a lesson. That´s what members are for, either I´ll learn guaraní , or my lack of speaking Guaraní will motivate me to bring even more members to lessons with us.

 

There are, if I remember right, 4 young women and 3 or four young men in the branch.

 

And one of the people who got baptized chose me to baptize them, so I baptized in the creek. We should have another creek baptism this Saturday if the branch president is on top of things over there in Paso Yobai.

 

The marriage missionaries in our zone are in charge of finding out if the less active members still live in their respective wards or not, so they basically just drive around in Paraguay in the truck the mission gave them. It´s elder arnold and his wife, and he´s the brother of the Elder Arnold who was the area 70 just months ago. I just remembered that you wanted to know about the old missionaries. if you have more questions about that, I imagine I´ll probably be able to talk to them one more time. Hermana Arnold is trying to learn Spanish for the first time in her life.

 

We are teaching Ju*n, whos a really shy 15 year-old. V*******, a mother that is really emotional, so thats interesting. *v*r, who lives in Paso Yobai whose brother was baptized a week and a half ago, and his parents are just waiting for a divorce to go through so they can get married and baptized. We always have more, but those are the poeple that I think for sure will be baptized.

 

I´m not about to pinch myself because I don´t want to wake up from this super awesome dream.

 

My house has all of its windows, a balcony, a couple wooden chairs, an air conditoning/heater that´s stuck on 24 degrees celsius (75 degrees Farenheit) because someone lost the remote, and the water goes out everyday at about 12ish or 1ish when we need to either make or clean up after lunch.

 

If you were to ask me what I did today I would say that I woke up at three in the morning and took a collective to Coronel Oviedo and slept in the zone leaders house so my companion could go with another dying elder (one who is going home soon) to have their last interview with Presidente Aggazzani.

 

It may sound ridiculous, but there´s a rule that we shouldn't call missionaries by nicknames. I suppose I could make one for my companion, but I couldn´t ever use it.

 

I have seen snakes, skunks now, but bats sí.

 

My favorite food in this area is chipa cabure, which is chipa, but instead of cooking it in a tatakua, they roast it on a stick over the fire, and it has melted cheese inside. super rico!

 

-Elder Bowles

Week 65 - Villarica - Creek Baptism, Strong Branch, More Guarani, Tallest Hill Ybytyruzu

This week was awesome, everyone here in Villarrica is super nice, and they are smarter, and the people who speak Spanish talk fancier Spanish, so that makes them easier to understand.  My new area is bigger, prettier, the people are nicer, and there are more people who have never met the missionaries.

 

We had a baptism in Paso Yobai in a creek, it was super awesome. The branch president out there says that the missionaries shared with the Indians there before, and a whole bunch were almost baptized, but right before the day of the baptism the Indian chief changed his mind, and nothing happened. They just got a new chief this week, and we´re about to talk to him, so that´s gonna be great.

 

The Branch president, Presidente Galeano, is basically an Indian himself, he´s probably one of my favorite people ever.  He doesn´t have very much, but he´s the happiest person I have ever met in my life. And his happiness is real, its not like those people who just smile, and just say that they´re happy. 

 

I was going to send a picture of the chapel in PasoYobai, but the computer I´m using is half-broken, so that´s not going to work.  I really want to go to church in Paso Yobai, but I don´t think we´ll ever have the chance, since we usually try to get investigators here in Villarrica, and we only go to Paso Yobai when they have references for us.  Recently that´s been happening quite a bit, but it´s a super strong branch, there are only 50 members on the list and 35-40 go every week, but hardly anyone lives there in Pasoyobai, so that´s why we only go there for references. They do speak a lot more Guarani in Paso Yobai. We go there, visit the references with the members, and leave, since the bus leaves early.  In my opinion it is the best branch in all of Paraguay, since it´s stronger, without as much help from the missionaries. The people didn't meet the missionaries for so long, because the branch president was teaching them.  He called us after 5 months, who knows why, but now he knows us and it seems like he trusts us and is giving us a lot more references. No, we don´t spend the night there, it would be hard to find a place to sleep. there were missionaries there once before, but they took them out, because the missionaries always got discouraged because there´s hardly anyone to talk to there, since it´s so tiny.

 

People here speak Guaraní, but it´s real Guaraní, so that makes it easier to learn, because they actually follow all the rules of the language.

 

Also, the chipa (flat bread) here is sooo good. They just don´t know how to make it in Asunción.(they sold it on the double decker colectivo, and sell it in the street here as well).

Elder Reid is finishing his fourth change/transfer in the area (he´s been here since March). fast and testimony meeting in Villarrica was great, almost everyone gave their testimonies since there weren't that many people.

 

I live about 1 block east and 2 or three blocks south of the chapel on the second story. There´s a stadium close to the chapel, and a park/pond. 

 

On the bus ride to Villarica, they paired us up, two by two, and I sat next to Elder Vasquez, who came from my last district.  We talked in Spanish, since he speaks Spanish.

 

For me the key to a good companionship is if the two companions are both obedient. If that isn't the case, then it just takes patience and what I call 'creativity.' The sister missionaries are way better, so you shouldn´t have to worry about that.

 

In the mission procrastination means disobedience, so there´s really not any way to do it.

 

My area has the tallest hill in Paraguay it´s called ¨Ybytyruzu¨ which in Guaraní means something like viento fuerte (strong wind), or something. 

We have been cooking more than ever before in the mission, we usually have about one or two lunch appointments each week.  My companion often wants to cook a certain way, and I tell him not to, and then the food turns out bad because he didn't follow chef Bowles´s advice, so that´s been fun. 

 

Kami,  that´ll be super fun with Mr. Vought as the cross country coach.

 

-Elder Bowles

Week 64 - Villarrica - Long Journey to New Area of City & Jungle, Spicy Soup, Testimony Now, Sitting Down

Click on this link to see Ivan's new mission boundaries.  We was near Luque (just right of the red square) and now he is in Villarrica (middle of Paraguay).

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=gmail&attid=0.1&thid=13f9b7008b0a4252&mt=application/pdf&url=https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui%3D2%26ik%3D34924753d1%26view%3Datt%26th%3D13f9b7008b0a4252%26attid%3D0.1%26disp%3Dsafe%26realattid%3Df_hillkcxk0%26zw&sig=AHIEtbTMyQyT6Lks7xfp0bXRhNtfUUfF-g



Well, here I am in my new area, it´s super great here. I feel like I started my mission over again. New area, new companion, new rules. I´m here in Villarrica, a city outside of Asunción. I grabbed a taxi in my old area, and arrived in ´la Terminal´ at 7am in the morning, and then I grabbed a double decker colectivo at 8:40am with a group of other missionaries for 3 hours, and we arrived in Coronel Oviedo.  Then my new companion and I took another colectivo for a little less than an hour to arrive in Villarrica.

It is just awesome here. there aren't very many people at church (49 today was more people than normal), but the people here are very nice and for the most part sincere.

There´s also another ´branch´ in my area (its called Paso YoBai) about 2.5 hours from Villarrica, where we live, in a dinky little town. The branch president there called us and told us that he had some people for us to teach (and baptize), who had ´only´ been going to church for about 5 months. So we went and taught them, and it´s even prettier over there, which I didn´t know was possible.

 

My new comp is going to end his mission in a little more than 2 weeks, so I have to learn the area quickly. His name is Elder R**d, and he´s from Utah, so we´ll see what happens. My companion has been out 1 year and 11 months in the mission, or as he always tells people 'more than a year and a half.' My companion is good, and he likes to work. 

 

There´s a Bolivian family in our ward, and they made us some soup, and it was actually spicy, which was super nice, because Paraguayans don´t know what the word spicy means.

 

In this new area, I now I have hot water! The only thing is, we can´t use the heater and the hot water in the shower at the same time, or the circuit gets overloaded.

Here they have ice for 500 guaraní (less than 10 american cents) on every house corner.  It warmed up yesterday, so I´m enjoying life again.
 

Our house is 3 blocks from the chapel in Villarrica, and more than 2 hours in colectivo from the other chapel. The city part of our area is more city-like, but there is a whole part of my area that is just jungle. My area is all of the ´departamento Guairá and the departamento Villarrica which is super huge and southeast of asunción. 

Don´t make me jealous with those big numbers (Dave had told him 150 people came to our last church dinner), I haven´t even heard of a ward in Parguay that has more than 130 people in church on Sundays.
 

When I left on my mission I had a testimony, but I didn´t have a testimony confirmed by the Spirit. I knew that the church is true because the Bible says that Jesus has a church, and all the other churches either contradict themselves or the scriptures. After being thrown accross the world I gained the confirmation by the Spirit that I know even more that my testimony is true.
 

I lived in Felt hall at BYU (al lado de fox hall) fox hall (where Kami stayed for EFY last week) was in my ward at BYU. 

No. I don´t like speaking in front of groups standing up. Sitting down is just way easier and more comfortable, if its on the ground or on a chair it doesn´t matter. I wish I could go to the temple whenever I want, that would be just awesome.

Julia, My companion has blonde hair and straight teeth.  I don't know if he likes blood sausage.  He´s OCD.  I´m gonna make it a fun two weeks.  He is senor companion.  I haven't been playing the piano, but my companion is the only other person who plays piano and he´s gonna leave in two weeks, so we´ll see. You go and start those mission papers!

I´ll send a couple pictures next week, just remind me to do it, I don´t have my card adapter today.

-Elder Bowles