Email time

Mon., 8/27/2018

Time is just flying! I dont have much time, but here's a summary of the week:

-Matias had his confirmation this week! His friend's dad, Juan Gimenez, got to be in the circle for the confirmation. It's cool here in Bella Vista because they call members from the congregation to participate in the confirmation and we missionaries don't do it.

-We had a cleaning inspection by a senior missionary couple; we got 5 stars!

-I got bit by a tiny dog that didn't even draw blood but it ripped my pants a bit.

-Honestly it was one of those weeks where we just worked and didn't see too many fruits in the moment, but we have tons of lessons planned for this week and we have been working a lot on getting the members involved! We have a couple investigators that are alllllllmost ready to be baptized. [They] just need answers to their prayers! Keep them in your prayers please!

We are doing good and hoping to have a productive week!

Here's a really good article that I read this week!

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2017/10/a-yearning-for-home?lang=eng&country=nz

Have a great week, I love you all!

Pictures:

1 Matias's baptism.

2 Spontaneous service project with Hno. Villalba.

3 My boy Elder Messa from Brazil.

4 And another old friend Elder Rossi from Paraguay/Argentina.

5 Where the dog ripped my pants.

6 Cleaning inspection with Elder and Sister Beans!

7 How many stars did we get?

8 Cows in the street.

9 Checking out the swings.

10 My first landlord in the mission in Juan de Salazar!

11 Our best friend Barbara (Paola's niece) gave us like 20 flowers she had recently picked from a tree!

12 Fm Ojedas kids (from Juan de Salazar).

13 Pday soccer from last week when we went to Juan de Salazar.

14 Service with Hno. Cristian Benitez.

15 Eating lunch on pday about 2 weeks ago with one of the members here, Gustavo Meza.

16 Matias and his friends John Fitzgerald, Martin, and their dad (who is a member) Juan Gimenez.

Another week with the beautiful view!

Mon., 8/20/2018 (Luque)

Well we have had a good week here in Bella Vista! They just speed on by! I had a few pictures of the week, but the computers here aren't letting us load pictures. But oh well, next week! For now, here's a quick summary of the week!

We had a baptism yesterday! From last week's pictures, the guy in the hoodie at church was Matias Gimenez,who just got baptized! He is 17 years old and friends with a few of the youth who are members. Heis also neighbors with the Familia Gimenez (not his relatives hahaha). It was a great service and he was so excited to get baptized!

We have been working a lot with members,and trying to have more lessons with members present! We are also planning to start an activity called Noche de Barrio (Ward Night) which will have people playing sports, having classes of English and cooking and such, watching movies of the church, etc. Honestly, it's going to be such a help, because activities make life 98473654256234 times more fun and for fellow-shipping it'll help a lot.

If you're wondering how I personally am, I'm doing good, still getting up at 6:30 a.m., doing my exercises, and just doing as much as we can until 9 or 9:30 p.m. or so, then honestly trying to stay awake long enough to write in my journal!  hahaha We just get so tired at the end of the day!

It's pretty hype though, Elder Alvarado and I are just trying to make the most of our time together as companions. We have a few more people who we are hoping that will soon be baptized; a couple of them really are ready, just need answers to their prayers that the church is true and such and they'll be good! So just be praying for Martin, John Fitzgerald, Santiago, Nayeli, Vicky and I could go on for a while but they are some of the people we are helping right now that are so close! All I know, is that what I'm doing here is super important,and God loves all of his children one by one! Whether the Paraguayans,  Americans, or wherever else, He loves us all

Thanks for all the prayers and emails! Have a good week!

Bellllllllllla Viiiiiiiiiiiista!!!!!!

Mon., 8/14/2018 (Luque)

Well here's the week in a few quick sentences:

We are just busy here trying to find new investigators and help the progress.

This Saturday we had a baptism; a few weeks ago we were leaving a lesson and a less active sister, Ana Talavera we had never met, waved out to us from across the street so we went to check it out, met her sister Paola Talavera who is about 22 years old, who wasn't a member, and started teaching her from there! She was baptized this week!

We also had a lot of less active members come to church this week, which may not be that interesting but really to us there were a few miracles there in the process!

We also had a problem this Friday…. normally in my mission we have had to make our own food, but here we get fed by members. Well, we had our normal lunch appointment and left (we weren't stuffed with food but definitely satisfied), and passed by the house of a member family to go visit a referral  they had for us. Well it was a little late in the lunch hour, and when we got there they had forgotten we were coming and told us to wait and that they had a visitor but would be able to go with us in a second. Well then they told us to come into the kitchen and it turns out they had a big lunch ready… the other Elders in our Ward were supposed to eat there that day but hadn't shown up and they thought we were there for lunch! Well, to save the other Elders's reputation, we didn't say anything and had to bite the bullet; we ended up having to eat all of it, and there was a lot! We hobbled out of there and went to a nearby park to do some companion study because we could hardly walk! Good part of the story is that we saved the Elders' reputation and can say we even had 2 lunches in 1 day (not to mention being given 2 snacks and 2 dinners that day also…!) We just went home and didn't want to see ANY food… the next morning we weren't even hungry! Moral of the story, always serve others.

Much of church this week was on the importance of service, and I even taught a lesson on it during Sunday School (the teacher couldn't and while walking to the class I was notified that I had to teach hahaha). It made me remember back to my last 3 áreas where I taught classes or gave talks every week hahaha! Service is honestly so important, and we learned a lot about how we need to love to serve and when we serve we learn to love others! We should have the mindset to always serve others! Thanks for all your emails and prayers, I hope y'all have a good week! I love you!

Pictures:

1 Who needs fire extinguishers....

2 When you have a bucket of sand?

3 Elder Smith leaving our Zone!

4 We had to stop by the office for Elder Alvarado to get fingerprinted, so we got to say a few goodbyes! This is Elder Vasquez from Ecuador!

5 My mission brother Elder Hill!

6 Elder Richard!

7 Elder Castro my old comp!

8 Elder Smith!

9 Elder Hermansen!

10 Not saying goodbye to Elder Castellaw! He was just getting a trainee!

11 The skate park in Bella Vista; we pass by here sometimes to do our companionship study!

12 PaolaTalavera's baptism!

13 same as 12!

14 The Bella Vista lineup!

15 The great Wall of… Bella Vista!

16 With Hno Juan Gimenez (he is a church service missionary in the Bishops' Storehouse) and some of his family members who aren't members!

Bella Vista- Beautiful view!

Mon., 8/6/2018 (Luque)

Man, well we have had a good week here in Bella Vista! Just putting in work and having a lot of fun! Here are some of the secrets of how we do it:

1 Leaving the house and working every day.
2 Being obedient.
3 Focusing on having members in lessons when possible! I used to not see how it helps so much but man does it just make life better!
4 Positive attitudes- never being positive never brings positive results.
5 Working with members!
6 Working on being united as companions!

Some other cool stuff from this week:

We got to go to Yukyry Thursday to do more interviews!

We got to go to the Baptisms of a few people in Yukyry this week, and Elder Alvarado and I were the witnesses!

We had members invite us over for asado (like a cookout basically).

We had 5 investigators come to church, and they had to open the chapel's overflow for Sacrament Meeting again! (Last week and this week were the first times they've done that!)

This week we have changes, guess what? We're staying together, no suprize. But it's bittersweet, as Elders Hermansen, Elder Torres (from my District), Elder Castro (former companion), and Elder Ollero (from my District) are all going home this change! Also Elder Castellaw is training, good stuff!

That's pretty much all we're doing well, eating well (well doing our best) and trying to lighten up the darkness as much as we can!

I love you all, have a good week!

Pictures:

1 Throwback to Scooby Doo!

2 Part of my area!

3 There are literally cows everwhere here!

4 Asado with Fm Gonzalez!

5 Our house.

6 My Primo (Cousin).

7 Squaddin' up on Elder Torres' last day.