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