bueno, entonces. This semana was, well pretty great overall. It`s still hard of course and I get a little impatient when I`m speaking a sentence perfectly in Spanish and the people still don`t understand me for some reason, but I love it. And I`m starting to learn some Guarani! So that`s fun! The people love it when you talk in Guarani. They could be staring at you cold as a rock, and you say, "Mbaechapa" (Como esta/hola) and their faces light up and they say "Ipona" (muy bien) and todo esta bien and from that moment on they love you! Well, that`s not always how it happens, but a good share of the time.
So this last week I think the Lord was teaching me patience and faith. Most of our teaching appointments fell through and we spent a good share of the week walking around Reducto trying to find our investigators or new people to teach. Lots of contacting. haha. And I was thinking "I`ve been improving. My Spanish is the best it`s ever been, I can understand the people, I`m teaching more, I`m teaching better, I`m trying harder, I`m really trying to follow the Spirit in everything I do and love the people and etc. etc., so why are all of our appointments following through! Why is everyone rejecting our message? and why are we finally finding the few people in Paraguay that dont kindly tell you no, but attack your beliefs, tell you your crazy, and just want to contend." But throughout the week, with all our experiences, things I was studying in the scriptures, and my companion`s constant optimism and hope, I finally started to realize a couple things.
First, the scripture in Ether 6 that says before you receive miracles there is always a trial of your faith. And I realized, I need to have diligence and keep going and keep trying and keep improving and have faith that the miracles WILL come, and then have patience and remember that they will come in the LORD`S time, not mine.
Second, as 2 Nephi 2:27 dice, people have their agency. Which sometimes can be really frustrating. haha. Sometimes you just want to shake people and say, "this is it! you want happiness, this is the way! choose the right!" and make them follow the commandments and come unto Christ. However, that kinda defeats the whole purpose of them CHOOSING the right doesnt it. They have to choose it. We can give them all the info and show them the way and do all we can to encourage them to follow it, teaching and testifying with the Spirit. But ultimately it is up to them. That is God`s plan. And after we do all we can, we have to pray and hope and have faith that one day, they will choose to accept the truth and act on it.
And third, even in these times when it seems like nothing is going right, there are still miracles. Everyday this week, at the end of the day, I could look back and find AT LEAST one miracle. Whether it was with one of our investigators that we did find who felt the Spirit and was really interested and wanted to know more, or helping out a member family with a problem they`re having, or finding someone in our contacts who truly wants to learn more, or even during those times when the people were attacking our beliefs and telling us we`re wrong- all that did was strengthen my testimony of this gospel even more as I thought about it and realized that I truly know that its true, and teach me to love those people and show them kindness no matter what they say or do. Everyday, there were miracles with other people and miracles for myself. This is hard, I know it is. But I am learning so much, and if I can help just one person come a little closer to Christ this week, as long as I keep trying my best and following the spirit, then at least I know I`m doing what God wants me to do, and its a success.
..so story time. Today we almost got attacked by more dogs. but we backed up and their owners came in time. We were meeting the elders and they were running up, so they saw our pathetic run away thing. But hey, i tried the trick they taught me about how to scare the dogs away (pretned to pick up a rock and throw it at the dogs) and it DID NOT WORK. But hey, i`m alive, so all is well.
Anyway, that`s it for this week. Love you!! yayu topata (nos vemos/...we´ll see you later... )
chao!
Love,
Hermana Urie
Monday, November 25, 2013
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Strange Weather
¡Hola!
So the weather is a bit strange here. One day we are walking down a
lone and dusty road and about to collapse because of the heat (okay
maybe I´m being a tad dramatic but not much) and then 2 hours later we
are huddled under plastic garbage bags running through the pouring
rain. Haha. and to answer kristi´s question. Technically it´s "spring"
but, at least in my unexperienced opinion, this is totally summer. But
I hear it gets a LOT hotter in December, January, and February. So
that will be a blast. The people here get cold at night sometimes, but
to me it feels like a day in May so its fine. But apparently july is
pretty chilly.
The work is great! While of course there are many disappointments all
the time due to the fact that people have their agency and often
choose not to accept the truth or keep commitments, there are all so
many miracles. For instance...
My one baptism so far. She stopped reading the Book of Mormon for a
few weeks, missed 2 and a half of the last 3 weeks of church, stopped
coming to the activities and was starting to have lots of trouble in
her life. We are startin to get a little worried about her. But
yesterday, she came to church! On her own, without us passing by or
reminding her! And she was really excited and happy to be there! And
says she wants to come to church every week from now on. Small
miracles.
Another miracle.. We are having a baptism this Saturday! The problem
we had this week with her was this.. So when we started teaching her a
couple weeks ago, her ex-boyfriend/father of her children was living
at her house. Different rooms, they are totally separated, she said he
was just their for his kids and at first we were told this was fine.
But this week the zone leaders said, didn´t matter if they weren´t
together anymore, he still had to move out. So we spent a fair amount
of time practicing how to tell her in a simple, direct, loving, non
awkward way that she can´t get baptized until he finds somewhere else
to live. Well we get there, teach the law of chastity and then Hermana
Espinoza is like "Part of keeping this commandment and preparing to
get baptized is that you cant live with your ex-novio" and Rosa is
like "no. no no no no no. We don´t live together"
Appárently when we started teaching her, he was visiting his kids for
like 3 or 4 days and then went back to his own house in San Lorenzo...
So that´s why we haven´t seen him the last 2 weeks! haha
So she´s all set and ready and excited to get baptized this Saturday.
And she really loves this gospel and is ready to change her life and
raise her kids in the gospel. I´m so excited! This gospel is amazing!
Also, we had intercambios this week with the Sister Training leaders
(we do once every cambio) and I was with Hermana West again! Yay! I
freaking love her! They are in our zone so we see them quite a bit.
She is so excited about the work and always has so many things to help
me with whatever problems I´m having at the time. She kinda reminds me
a bit of Nessa and Savannah. So that was fun. And I learned so much
that I´m trying to apply in my teaching and everything to improve.
Cause I need to improve. haha mostly I´m worried about my Spanish. I
can understand so much now it´s so cool! ..but I still can´t speak
well at all. haha at least the people understand me mas o menos, and
they´re really patient and listen to my slow, gramatically horrible
Spanish. haha
Anyway, we have some new investigators too that we´re really excited
about with fechas in Deciembre (para bautismo), so hopefully they will
all work out and we´ll have like 3 or 4 baptisms right before cambios.
Wow, I can´t believe I´ve been here in Paraguay for almost 2 months
now! The last month has seriously flown by. Anyway, time to wrap it
up. I dont have time to send pics this week, but I will send like 20
first thing next week! haha
Oh and dad isnt in the stake presidency?! Or a bishop?! Okay, I feel
lost, I can´t remember the meaning of life! My whole world just
exploded. I literally can´t remember a time in my life when dad wasn´t
bishop or 1st counselor in the stake presidency. Okay, really vague
memories when it was Bishop Sitake, but still.
haha anyway..
Love you so much!!
Hermana Urie
So the weather is a bit strange here. One day we are walking down a
lone and dusty road and about to collapse because of the heat (okay
maybe I´m being a tad dramatic but not much) and then 2 hours later we
are huddled under plastic garbage bags running through the pouring
rain. Haha. and to answer kristi´s question. Technically it´s "spring"
but, at least in my unexperienced opinion, this is totally summer. But
I hear it gets a LOT hotter in December, January, and February. So
that will be a blast. The people here get cold at night sometimes, but
to me it feels like a day in May so its fine. But apparently july is
pretty chilly.
The work is great! While of course there are many disappointments all
the time due to the fact that people have their agency and often
choose not to accept the truth or keep commitments, there are all so
many miracles. For instance...
My one baptism so far. She stopped reading the Book of Mormon for a
few weeks, missed 2 and a half of the last 3 weeks of church, stopped
coming to the activities and was starting to have lots of trouble in
her life. We are startin to get a little worried about her. But
yesterday, she came to church! On her own, without us passing by or
reminding her! And she was really excited and happy to be there! And
says she wants to come to church every week from now on. Small
miracles.
Another miracle.. We are having a baptism this Saturday! The problem
we had this week with her was this.. So when we started teaching her a
couple weeks ago, her ex-boyfriend/father of her children was living
at her house. Different rooms, they are totally separated, she said he
was just their for his kids and at first we were told this was fine.
But this week the zone leaders said, didn´t matter if they weren´t
together anymore, he still had to move out. So we spent a fair amount
of time practicing how to tell her in a simple, direct, loving, non
awkward way that she can´t get baptized until he finds somewhere else
to live. Well we get there, teach the law of chastity and then Hermana
Espinoza is like "Part of keeping this commandment and preparing to
get baptized is that you cant live with your ex-novio" and Rosa is
like "no. no no no no no. We don´t live together"
Appárently when we started teaching her, he was visiting his kids for
like 3 or 4 days and then went back to his own house in San Lorenzo...
So that´s why we haven´t seen him the last 2 weeks! haha
So she´s all set and ready and excited to get baptized this Saturday.
And she really loves this gospel and is ready to change her life and
raise her kids in the gospel. I´m so excited! This gospel is amazing!
Also, we had intercambios this week with the Sister Training leaders
(we do once every cambio) and I was with Hermana West again! Yay! I
freaking love her! They are in our zone so we see them quite a bit.
She is so excited about the work and always has so many things to help
me with whatever problems I´m having at the time. She kinda reminds me
a bit of Nessa and Savannah. So that was fun. And I learned so much
that I´m trying to apply in my teaching and everything to improve.
Cause I need to improve. haha mostly I´m worried about my Spanish. I
can understand so much now it´s so cool! ..but I still can´t speak
well at all. haha at least the people understand me mas o menos, and
they´re really patient and listen to my slow, gramatically horrible
Spanish. haha
Anyway, we have some new investigators too that we´re really excited
about with fechas in Deciembre (para bautismo), so hopefully they will
all work out and we´ll have like 3 or 4 baptisms right before cambios.
Wow, I can´t believe I´ve been here in Paraguay for almost 2 months
now! The last month has seriously flown by. Anyway, time to wrap it
up. I dont have time to send pics this week, but I will send like 20
first thing next week! haha
Oh and dad isnt in the stake presidency?! Or a bishop?! Okay, I feel
lost, I can´t remember the meaning of life! My whole world just
exploded. I literally can´t remember a time in my life when dad wasn´t
bishop or 1st counselor in the stake presidency. Okay, really vague
memories when it was Bishop Sitake, but still.
haha anyway..
Love you so much!!
Hermana Urie
Monday, November 11, 2013
Cambios!
So I dont really remember anything that happened at this point in time... Oh yeah!! Cambios!! I am now in.....(drum roll...)..... the same place. With the same trainer! Yay! No cambio for me. But the elders in our ward both left and have been replaced with 2 new elders. They are both from Utah
but they are both half Latino so Im now the only blonde-ish "gringa" (and yes I am kinda blonde now. The sun has totally bleached my hair). But they speak English!! Seriously its great. I know I still need to learn Spanish, but still. And they have both been here for 3 months longer than I have and one of them is district leader! Seriously they´re moving up the time for leadership positions. Which means I´ll probably be training next cambio. um.. no. haha so not ready for that. But we´ll see.
Anyway, we were going to have a baptism this Saturday.. but she didnt come to church yesterday so we have to put it back a week.. again. One of the hardest things is getting people to come to church! But we´re workin on it.
I´m trying so hard to remember this week and legitamately I can´t. It went by SO fast. Probably because I´m finally figuring out how to lose myself in the work. And I can actually understand most of what people talk about! And then reply and they can understand.. kind of.. I hope. haha anyway, I´m getting more involved in the teaching and I´m really starting to love it out here.
Oh yeah, mom wanted to know more about my companion. Her name is Hermana Espinoza, she is 23 years old, she´s de Peru, and she´s been in the mission exactly one year longer than I have. And I´m her 3rd hija (trainee). At first was a little difficult because I couldn´t speak Spanish super well and she couldn´t speak English super well, so that was fun. But Im actually really impressed with how well she speaks English!- she´s had a lot of American companions. and sometimes we study English during language study because the Latino missionaries are supposed to learn English tambien. Anyway, things are really great now that we can actually communicate better, but yeah shes great. And shes learned a lot here in the mission. I´ve been learning so much from her.
So today, we get to go practice with the choir again which means I get to see Hermanas Thacker and Mills and Macintyre and West! (hermana Macintyre was in our group from the CCM and Hermana West is my sister trainer leader. She´s also in our zone so we see her quite a bit. She is amazing!! I have learned SO MUCH from her already. And she was only in the mission 7 months when she became a sister trainer leader! Loco!) Anyway, the choir is like my cielo (heaven). I miss music! And this Wednesday.. D. Todd Christofferson!! Yay!
Anyway, time is short. Love you tons!! I´m trying to sen pics but no funciona muy bien. so we´ll see...
Love,
Hermana Urie
but they are both half Latino so Im now the only blonde-ish "gringa" (and yes I am kinda blonde now. The sun has totally bleached my hair). But they speak English!! Seriously its great. I know I still need to learn Spanish, but still. And they have both been here for 3 months longer than I have and one of them is district leader! Seriously they´re moving up the time for leadership positions. Which means I´ll probably be training next cambio. um.. no. haha so not ready for that. But we´ll see.
Anyway, we were going to have a baptism this Saturday.. but she didnt come to church yesterday so we have to put it back a week.. again. One of the hardest things is getting people to come to church! But we´re workin on it.
I´m trying so hard to remember this week and legitamately I can´t. It went by SO fast. Probably because I´m finally figuring out how to lose myself in the work. And I can actually understand most of what people talk about! And then reply and they can understand.. kind of.. I hope. haha anyway, I´m getting more involved in the teaching and I´m really starting to love it out here.
Oh yeah, mom wanted to know more about my companion. Her name is Hermana Espinoza, she is 23 years old, she´s de Peru, and she´s been in the mission exactly one year longer than I have. And I´m her 3rd hija (trainee). At first was a little difficult because I couldn´t speak Spanish super well and she couldn´t speak English super well, so that was fun. But Im actually really impressed with how well she speaks English!- she´s had a lot of American companions. and sometimes we study English during language study because the Latino missionaries are supposed to learn English tambien. Anyway, things are really great now that we can actually communicate better, but yeah shes great. And shes learned a lot here in the mission. I´ve been learning so much from her.
So today, we get to go practice with the choir again which means I get to see Hermanas Thacker and Mills and Macintyre and West! (hermana Macintyre was in our group from the CCM and Hermana West is my sister trainer leader. She´s also in our zone so we see her quite a bit. She is amazing!! I have learned SO MUCH from her already. And she was only in the mission 7 months when she became a sister trainer leader! Loco!) Anyway, the choir is like my cielo (heaven). I miss music! And this Wednesday.. D. Todd Christofferson!! Yay!
Anyway, time is short. Love you tons!! I´m trying to sen pics but no funciona muy bien. so we´ll see...
Love,
Hermana Urie
Monday, November 4, 2013
Sorry This is Gonna Be Insanely Short
So the internet place here doesn't work super well and I just wasted my first half an hour. Nothing I did saved and I´m now on a different computer that actually works but I have to start completely over so I only have 25 minutes of internet time today. I will write a lot more letters to send to make up for it. I promise and I´m sorry. I love you!!
So this week was full of adventure. In like a week and a half D Todd Christofferson is coming!! yay!! so there are some missionaries in a choir and we´re going to sing, so last p-day we went to the office to practice... and i saw Hermana Mills and Hermana Thacker!!!!!!!! You have no idea how excited i was. Me and H. Mills saw each other, squealed and screamed and hugged and jumped up and down and said "i love you i miss you so much i just love you" over and over again. It was great. then we freaked out again when we saw Hna. Thacker. It´s crazy how much has happened since we all last saw each other. We had so many stories and just wanted to talk, but we focused on the singing instead. But that's okay cuz we saw each other again on Wednesday!! Yay!!
Wednesday we had like a "test" thing to see how our training was going and sign some legal papers.. not really sure.. so everyone that came this last cambio with me was there and I got to see my companñeras and the elders from our district in the CCM! Then we actually got to talk. Elder Fox already has 3 baptisms!! and Elder Jardine and H. Mills are learning quite a bit of Guarani! So cool.
anyway, fun fun.. Oh and our choir sounds amazing by the way! (oh and if you have any friends in this mission, don't tell them about this till after Elder Christofferson comes cuz were supposed to keep it on the DL for now-its a surprise..
Okay, last week I read the 4th missionary. It is AMAZING!! Please read it. It´s good for life even if you aren´t a missionary.
funny story for the week. I accidently tripped over a frog. Well kinda kicked it and then realized what it was and freaked out. just so ya know, the frogs here are HUGE, like "some as big as your head" (name that movie!)-- but seriously. They are awesome.
So this week was full of adventure. In like a week and a half D Todd Christofferson is coming!! yay!! so there are some missionaries in a choir and we´re going to sing, so last p-day we went to the office to practice... and i saw Hermana Mills and Hermana Thacker!!!!!!!! You have no idea how excited i was. Me and H. Mills saw each other, squealed and screamed and hugged and jumped up and down and said "i love you i miss you so much i just love you" over and over again. It was great. then we freaked out again when we saw Hna. Thacker. It´s crazy how much has happened since we all last saw each other. We had so many stories and just wanted to talk, but we focused on the singing instead. But that's okay cuz we saw each other again on Wednesday!! Yay!!
Wednesday we had like a "test" thing to see how our training was going and sign some legal papers.. not really sure.. so everyone that came this last cambio with me was there and I got to see my companñeras and the elders from our district in the CCM! Then we actually got to talk. Elder Fox already has 3 baptisms!! and Elder Jardine and H. Mills are learning quite a bit of Guarani! So cool.
anyway, fun fun.. Oh and our choir sounds amazing by the way! (oh and if you have any friends in this mission, don't tell them about this till after Elder Christofferson comes cuz were supposed to keep it on the DL for now-its a surprise..
Okay, last week I read the 4th missionary. It is AMAZING!! Please read it. It´s good for life even if you aren´t a missionary.
funny story for the week. I accidently tripped over a frog. Well kinda kicked it and then realized what it was and freaked out. just so ya know, the frogs here are HUGE, like "some as big as your head" (name that movie!)-- but seriously. They are awesome.
Your missionary,
Hermana Urie
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