ANOTHER WEEK, ANOTHER EMAIL

Mon., 6/26/2017 (Yby Yau)

It has been a pretty eventful week, so I'll start from the beginning! Monday I was with Elder Behrens from Boise and Elder Reategui from NYC in a trio for P-day, and it was COLD. Turns out it got down to 1 degree Celsius! And raining and windy. To end P-day, we had to go to the other side of PJC to pick up the office elders' truck, since Elder Behrens used to be secretary and has a license. We had to get a ride from their landlord, who stopped by their house to pick up his 2 dogs. The dog that climbed all over us did it in this moment. We finally got the dog under control, but there was no hope for our 3 white shirts hahahha. We picked up the truck and went back to their area to work. They're in a whitewash (both are brand new in the area), so I showed them around Monday evening since I had had 4 or 5 divisions in their area.

Tuesday, my 20th Birthday, we had to get up around 4:30 to pick up my companion, the zone leaders, and the office elders from the terminal. WE then had district meeting, and got to get a ride home with the office Elders. They had to renovate a couple housing contracts, so it took a while to get home, and we also found a cool national park on the way so we took a pit stop. Later the office Elders had to stay the night so it was a pretty jam packed birthday! Nobody sang but we got to do a lot of cool stuff and President and Hermana Evans called to wish me happy birthday so that was neat. The rest of the week was back to business; we had a couple service projects raking leaves and such, and I started teaching Elder Cartagena how to cook. Sunday we had church as normal, and I taught the first 2 hours as usual, but we had visitors. The District President, Secretary, and a couple of the people in the Young Mens' presidency dropped by. After church we had a meeting with them, and learned a lot about working together as a branch and with the missionaries. It was really helpful. They also brought a huge container of empanadas, and they didn't know how we were going to finish them off, but just think about how much the missionaries eat and the fact that nobody ever feeds us. Between the two of us, we finished off at least 25 or 30 empanadas hahaha! WE got back out to working the rest of the day. It is SO much easier when the members give referrals and help the missionaries. Today for Pday we are here in Yby Yau. Since I'm district leader and there are just the 4 of us, we will have our meetings here in Yby Yau, we just have to have a member come to the meeting. We went to Cerro Memby for Pday. That's pretty much all for the week! Please remember your scriptures, prayers and to go to church! There are so many people that I've met here on my mission that don't have the knowledge disposable to them that we do, because they've rejected our message! Don't reject the message! The only way to not reject it is by looking for it. You can do that by reading, praying, and going to church! Have a good week! And thanks for all the birthday wishes!

1 Got to see my buddy Elder Grey from Honduras during transfers; we waited together for a while

2 District Yby yau!

3 A lot of divisions later., I finally had to say goodbye to Elder Ollero

4 As well as Elder Albornoz, our zone leader

5 Asado (Cookout) with Airton on Elder Castros last Pday in Yby Yau

6 We helped dig a well 

7And I got a little dirty

8 Last pday we got attacked by a dog in a car hahahah

9 we got the dog under control (with Elder Reategui from NYC)

10 And then picked up the office Elders truck from the shop

11 We got a lift from the office Elders to District meeting

12 My bed for Sunday and Monday night
PS that bed was actually really comfortable

13WE GOT IPADS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well not rally but it was pretty close. Whiteboards are soooo useful when the people speak a different language! ! picture is worth 1000 words!

14 We got a ride back from district meeting too

15 WE got a ride home too! Also discovered a national park in the middle of nowhere

16 Pretty cool place

17 The park is some kind of war memorial

18 And there's the name

19 For those who have said that Paraguay doesn't have mountains, hills or good views:

20 This all occurred on my birthday. Turns out the office Elders next stop was pretty far out and President didn't want the driving far during the night, so they had to stay with us for the night

21 Elder Olson's cooking class

22 He's learning!

23 We went to Cerro Memby for Pday

24 Some cool graffiti halfway up the hill

25 I think it's suposed to be a rainbow?

26 A little throwback to the university days because lets be honest, everyone is always sleeping

27 In the words of Louie, " What a wonderful world!"