Loma Plata and... winter? Or no? GENERAL CONFERENCE

Mon., 3/26/2018 (Loma Plata)

Well as usual it's been a really fast week!

 Tuesday to Wednesday we had a division, and I went with Elder Trejo, from Arizona to Abundancia to work. I've been here in the Chaco for 8 months and it was my first time working there. They have an interesting area, which consists of a 500 person community of Nivacle indigenous members. Only a small portion aren't members of the church. Due to the rates of church attendance, there are currently 2 sister missionaries working there, with the Elders now free to leave the community and preach the gospel in the surrounding communities. Abundancia's area where they work is reallllllllly big. We ended up having to walk that day, and the weather actually felt like winter weather! That probably means it's 60 degrees outside, but compared to the weather we normally have, it was a nice break from the 100 plus we normally have.

After that it was back to Loma Plata. Once again we had rain Sunday, which makes it hard for people to come to church, but we had a good meeting anyways. As usual, Elder Garrett and I do everything in church. We missed our bus (Paraguayan version... the bus never showed up hahaha) so we biked to Filadelfia instead. We had to do it during the daylight because it gets super dark and nobody drives defensively here hahaha. Due to the winter weather, the sun was out but it felt really nice outside. We also got good news this week in that our investigator, Perla who has had all the lessons, has to get married to her husband, and he had to get a divorce first, but all that should be taken care of in the next week or 2, so we may have a baptism coming up! We have been working with a few more people who have good prospects of getting baptized too.

With changes coming up, Elder Garrett and I think I'll be leaving, as he is about to end his mission here and I've been in the Chaco a looooooooooooong time. But we really don't know, so we just have to keep working! The next change whoever stays will have a good amount of success!

 It hasn't been so long here in Loma Plata, but so far I have learned a lot. Elder Garrett is really good at helping me realize what I need to work on, and so I think of all my time in the mission, I've improved as a person here in Loma Plata. We've really focused on serving others. I've always held service up to be an important aspect, but to be honest, I haven't always served without complaining. Recently I've learned a lot about serving and never saying anything negative; just giving a smile and saying  'I'm on it.'

 Well that's about all except for one more announcement: GENERAL CONFERENCE IS COMING UP! It's a big event, so make sure to take this opportunity to listen to our prophet and the other church leaders. For more enlightenment, look up 1 Nephi 19:23. Have a good week; I love you all!

Pictures:

1 Biking a little.

2 A couple of ostriches, no big deal.

3 Vegetables all day (when it's Sunday and you have to use whatever's left in the fridge).

4 Anthill under Elder Garrett's bed.


5 and 6 Elder Garrett and I at the only restaurant here in Loma Plata that's actually a restaurant.

7 Our house.

8 Elder Garrett's astounding photography skills... getting the lighting just right.

9 Division in Abundancia with Elder Trejo! We played basketball for exercise time! It was my first time playing in ages.

10 Abundancia.

11 same

12 Some goats.

13 Some pigs .

14 We found a hill in Abu.

15 Last week after district meeting.

16 When the Zone Leaders came up a couple weeks ago. Elder Staheli was also trained by my trainer, Elder Bridge, so he's my 'brother' in the mission!

Loma Plata and NO rain!

Mon., 3/19/2018 (Loma Plata)

We had another fast week here in Loma Plata, and finally without rain. I'll just go over a few of the highlights.

The past few weeks we have been looking for a new house/chapel for Loma Plata, that is better quality/location, and we found a place and are working out the details with the landlords! It is going to be 100 times better than the current house! We had interviews with Pte Evans in Abundancia, which are always good. We got the house that we want to move into approved with help from Pte Colman from the District, so hopefully we can get everything worked out with the landlords.

We did have a good morning on Sunday; we had ELEVEN people in church! That doubles last week's number. Thinks are looking up here in Loma Plata. Having a chapel in the center of the city--as we are planning to have--will help even more.

Today for Pday we played some soccer and football with the rest of the district. I can't remember if I had told y'all, but Elder Garrett is going to college on a full ride to play soccer. Kind of cool right!

I also learned a lot about prayer this week. We are told to always pray (2 Nephi 32:9), and it's for a reason. Many people think prayers are just a custom and don't actually do anything, but I know that they do do something. In the past week, year and a half, and honestly in my whole life I have seen the power of prayer. From finding misplaced keys, phones or other personal items, to making crucial life decisions, prayer is always an answer and a way for us to receive help and blessings from our loving Heavenly Father.

Thanks for the letters; it's nice to always have something to read on Mondays and know how y'all all are. I love you!

Pictures:

1 Eating pizza with the Neuland elders and Pte. Carlos and Romi Colman and Elder Garrett.

2 With Elder Garrett

3 It rained a little.

4 Sunset in LP.

5 As I've said a few times, it rained a lot recently!

6 We still cook all of our food every meal every day!

7 This family has a valid excuse for not coming out to talk.

8 The streets here all flooded.

LOMA PLATA and some more RAINNNNNN

Mon., 3/12/2018 (Loma Plata)

It has been another fast week in Loma Plata! It's kind of like the time flies here. Sorry, once again I can't send pictures, we are writing from a hotel computer and the cable port broke. So for the week:

We were hammered with rain here in the Chaco once again. From what I've heard, some of the rainfall records here have been broken. In some areas of the Chaco close to us, there has been a good amount of church and government aid, as the flooding has been pretty bad. In Loma Plata we didn't have terrible flooding; juts a lot of rain. It gets pretty muddy here when it rains, so the few people that we have been able to talk to use that as a bit of an excuse. We have recently hit a few dead ends and hadn't known what to do in this area, so we called up one of the missionaries that opened up Loma Plata to ask for some people that he used to visit. We plan on visiting them this week, as well as a loooooooooooooot of contacting. For various reasons we have had to drop almost all of the investigators that we had, so it will be a really different week. Elder Garrett and I have been getting along really well, which is good. In church on Sunday we had 6 people (7 but one left early), which is better than past weeks but we hope to have many more this week!

So most mission houses have a few old Liahona/Ensign  magazines laying around which we read sometimes during studies. Here is a talk that I found this week that I liked; it's written about marriage but I think family relationships such as children and parents are also benefited by reading it:

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2011/04/the-eternal-blessings-of-marriage?lang=eng

I love you all and hope you have a good week!

A LITTLE RAIN

Mon., 3/5/2018 (Loma Plata)

Well I have to keep it short as we don't have much time and it's a little late. We had a bit of a slow week this week, with a lot of rain. I can't send pictures today, but believe me it rained a LOOOOOT. Like everyday all day all week. Apparently the elders in Neuland spent half the week wading in WAIST DEEP water! We didn't have thaaaaat much but let it suffice that it rained a lot. Sunday we only had the 2 of us (Elder Garrett and I) in church, as the mud in the streets was too deep for anyone to come. Elder Garrett is the world's next piano prodigy. I've been teaching him there by there and so he played in church (I sang by myself hahahaha). As a result, we didn't have too much success, but we did have a good amount of time to get to know each other and talk. The weather here will never cease to surprise me. In other news, a worker came to fix the shower, so we now have one! That was a blessing. Elder Garrett has been a dope companion so far; he is a really good teacher and doesn't let the weather ruin the fun! We are hoping for a much more successful (and maybe a liiiiiittle drier) week this week! I'd like to end with a quote: "Never is a man taller than when he's on his knees." Don't forget to say your prayers; God is listening! I hope y'all have a a good week!