So this week... was my last week of training.. what?! yes!! haha. tomorrow they tell us about cambios, if I stay, if I go, if I train... I´m kinda terrified to train I am SO not ready. But if that is what the Lord wants, I guess I will do it. and wednesday morning we switch! Its gonna be weird not to be with Hermana Espinoza and have a new companion, but I´m excited for a new experience. I´ll let you know next week what happens! dun, dun, dun, dun....
And the good news of this week is... OUR INVESTIGATORS CAME TO CHURCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 3 of them!!!! One of them comes every week- they´re just waiting for the girls divorce papers to come so they can get married and he can get baptized. and another already knows its true and loves it all, she just needs 2 more times in church before she can get baptized. and the other is diligently searching an answer todavia...uh.. still
We were so excited!! and we found some more menos activos that want to come back to church and have her kids baptized. so we´re gonna work with them too! Well.. whoever stays here will work with them. I don´t wanna leave! And then again I do.. Change is good, and I can have like a new start but with more experience and the ability to actually understand and kinda speak spanish.. but i love the people here and I dont want to leave them! there is more work to be done here in Reducto. I´m so torn... the good thing is I will not be the one making the choice. I will go wherever the lord needs me, and be both happy and sad no matter which thing happens.
Well, thats it. Love you all!!
Talk to you soon :)
Hermana Urie
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Monday, December 9, 2013
Thinking in Spanish
¡hola familia!
alright, time is seriously flying by. in one week i will have been out for 4 months!! what?! yeah, thats loco. it`s basically great here. I was lying in my bed last night trying to fall asleep (unfortunately it still takes me like 45 minutes to fall asleep and i`m basically exhausted every day, but hey, at least i`m not falling asleep in the lessons like i did in that first week). Anyway, i was thinking... in SPANISH!!!! hahaha yes!! unfortunately, this morning i woke up thinking in English. . but hey, it`s coming along.
so i was thinking, and one thing i thought was, i`m gonna be really sad next week if they change me to a different area. I love it here, and we`re finally starting to find people that are ready for the gospel! i love it. i love the mission. it`s wonderful. oh and thank you my dear familia for the package. I have opened the box because i wanted the christmas decorations and the nutella, but the rest of the things are still in their packages, waiting till christmas. If there`s anything important that you want that I open before then, tell me and i will bust open the presents!! :)
So this week in Paraguay.
We were NOT attacked by any dogs this week! success!! but we also didn't practice the rock throwing thing in district meeting.. I was a little disappointed, but hey I`ll probably survive.
So I encountered a sad situation this week. we got the name of a less active family from one of the members this week, so we stopped by to talk to them. we found the mother and some kids outside of their house and started talking to them. and the mom was not at all interested in talking to us. and she started talking about how she doesn`t believe any of it anymore and that we are young and have no idea and no experience and one day we´ll wake up, etc etc. and it basically broke my heart. this woman learned so much, was baptized and everything, and then fell away. and nothing we said made any difference to her. I seriously almost started crying, I just wanted to say, please come back, repent, Christ can help you with all of this!! but she refused to listen. the sad part of missionary work.
but the funny part is that the elders were waiting for us to come to an activity during this and they called us to ask where we were, and hermana espinoza accidently answered instead of ignored and they listened to part of the conversation and told us later.. haha oops.
Anyway, back to spiritualness. so recently was some fireside or devotional or something by Elder Ballard. (I'm not exactly sure, we just go to the quote later on) and he says that if EVERY member of the church reaches out and invites ONE person to come unto the Christ and the gospel before Christmas, MILLIONS will feel the love of Christ this Christmas season. I don`t know the exact quote, you guys can find it, but its so true!! and how hard is that right. one person. and, they may not be a golden investigator and get baptized in 2 weeks. But they will feel the love of Christ in their life!! so I am reiterating that challenge to all my family and friends and whoever else happens to read this. Contact 1 person before Christmas. Invite them to church, to meet the missionaries, to learn more, to come unto Christ. Christmas is the time for miracles.
Alright, Teresa asked a question. No its true we do not have thanksgiving here in Paraguay. and not really any other holidays around this time other than Christmas.... EXCEPT....
Calcupe! hahaha. But as member of the church we do not celebrate this holiday. it is something about the virgin calcupe, its like the `saint` for catholics of Paraguay or something and there's this huge worship thing that happens December 8 in the city cacupe. so half our investigators couldn`t come to church this week because they were in cacupe :/ hey what can ya do.
Anyway, that's all I remember right now.. so love you!! adios!!
hermana Urie
alright, time is seriously flying by. in one week i will have been out for 4 months!! what?! yeah, thats loco. it`s basically great here. I was lying in my bed last night trying to fall asleep (unfortunately it still takes me like 45 minutes to fall asleep and i`m basically exhausted every day, but hey, at least i`m not falling asleep in the lessons like i did in that first week). Anyway, i was thinking... in SPANISH!!!! hahaha yes!! unfortunately, this morning i woke up thinking in English. . but hey, it`s coming along.
so i was thinking, and one thing i thought was, i`m gonna be really sad next week if they change me to a different area. I love it here, and we`re finally starting to find people that are ready for the gospel! i love it. i love the mission. it`s wonderful. oh and thank you my dear familia for the package. I have opened the box because i wanted the christmas decorations and the nutella, but the rest of the things are still in their packages, waiting till christmas. If there`s anything important that you want that I open before then, tell me and i will bust open the presents!! :)
So this week in Paraguay.
We were NOT attacked by any dogs this week! success!! but we also didn't practice the rock throwing thing in district meeting.. I was a little disappointed, but hey I`ll probably survive.
So I encountered a sad situation this week. we got the name of a less active family from one of the members this week, so we stopped by to talk to them. we found the mother and some kids outside of their house and started talking to them. and the mom was not at all interested in talking to us. and she started talking about how she doesn`t believe any of it anymore and that we are young and have no idea and no experience and one day we´ll wake up, etc etc. and it basically broke my heart. this woman learned so much, was baptized and everything, and then fell away. and nothing we said made any difference to her. I seriously almost started crying, I just wanted to say, please come back, repent, Christ can help you with all of this!! but she refused to listen. the sad part of missionary work.
but the funny part is that the elders were waiting for us to come to an activity during this and they called us to ask where we were, and hermana espinoza accidently answered instead of ignored and they listened to part of the conversation and told us later.. haha oops.
Anyway, back to spiritualness. so recently was some fireside or devotional or something by Elder Ballard. (I'm not exactly sure, we just go to the quote later on) and he says that if EVERY member of the church reaches out and invites ONE person to come unto the Christ and the gospel before Christmas, MILLIONS will feel the love of Christ this Christmas season. I don`t know the exact quote, you guys can find it, but its so true!! and how hard is that right. one person. and, they may not be a golden investigator and get baptized in 2 weeks. But they will feel the love of Christ in their life!! so I am reiterating that challenge to all my family and friends and whoever else happens to read this. Contact 1 person before Christmas. Invite them to church, to meet the missionaries, to learn more, to come unto Christ. Christmas is the time for miracles.
Alright, Teresa asked a question. No its true we do not have thanksgiving here in Paraguay. and not really any other holidays around this time other than Christmas.... EXCEPT....
Calcupe! hahaha. But as member of the church we do not celebrate this holiday. it is something about the virgin calcupe, its like the `saint` for catholics of Paraguay or something and there's this huge worship thing that happens December 8 in the city cacupe. so half our investigators couldn`t come to church this week because they were in cacupe :/ hey what can ya do.
Anyway, that's all I remember right now.. so love you!! adios!!
hermana Urie
Monday, December 2, 2013
¡¡¡o´ky!!!
She sy porá, and the rest of my wonderful family as well (see bottom for translation),
Alright, this week... que paso... no recuerdo muy bien. time just FLIES.
So this week we had tons of rain. Going to ward council yesterday was fun. We live like 4 minutes from the capilla. So we left as it was just starting to sprinkle, it got worse, and by the time we got to the church, we were complete soaked. But hey, that's just Paraguay right? Oh and when we came home, our apartment was a little flooded because we forgot to strategically place the buckets, pots, and bowls around our house to catch the water from the leaks. But nothing was ruined, so todo esta bien!
This last week we had a zone conference! And not just like the monthly meeting with the zone. It was at the mission office with like 3 or 4 other zones, and we had a member of the 70 there! Elder Avila, de Argentina. It was so purete!! (Guarani for ´cool´- the missionaries use it all the time here) We learned about being guided in the work by the spirit and doing things the Lord´s way. How he wants it, not how we want it, because he knows better than we do. And then the other half was like major, spiritual pep talk thing. They shared a quote by Elder Holland that I really like that says ¨Salvation never was easy. It wasn´t for Him, it won´t be for us either." (something like that, mas or menos) and how the Lord is with us to bear us up. (it was a lot better than that but I have limited time and writing skills, so I can´t really do it justice right now.) Oh and they shared the thought that dad shared with me last week about how we can´t help people úp the mountain´(to salvation/Christ) without going there ourselves; taking the journey with them, etc. Muy poderoso, muy purete.
Next thing... So we´re having a little difficulty getting our investigators to come to church right now, BUT. tons of menos activos are starting to come back!! And the members are getting more excited about helping out with missionary work, and building each other up and doing home teaching and visiting teaching. So that's good (cuz seriously we have a ton of less actives here-gotta fix that).
Well that´s basically it. Except that we almost got attacked by dogs AGAIN on Wednesday, but I tried the ´pretend to throw a rock at it´ thing and it worked this time!! Elder Oscco (district leader) says we´re going to practice tomorrow in district meeting.. I´m not sure if he´s kidding or serious, but I wouldn´t be surprised if we did. haha
Oh and there are some weird sounding animals here. I´m not sure if they´re birds or frogs or what (did i tell you about the HUGE frogs here?) but its strange. I love it!
Anyway, eso no mas. Love you all hope everything is going splendidly!!
Until next week :)
Hermana Urie
p.s. o´ky (the y in Guarani is pronounced by shaping your mouth like you´re gonna say ´eeee´ and actually making an ´ooo´ noise) is Guarani for rain :)
She sy porá is Guarani for "my beautiful mother". The y is that same "ooo" sound and the á (supposed to be a squiggly line like ñ not ´ but I don't know how to do that on the computer) is really nasally (pronounce up in the nose). This is difficult to explain, find someone who knows guarani to show you! haha love you!!!
Alright, this week... que paso... no recuerdo muy bien. time just FLIES.
So this week we had tons of rain. Going to ward council yesterday was fun. We live like 4 minutes from the capilla. So we left as it was just starting to sprinkle, it got worse, and by the time we got to the church, we were complete soaked. But hey, that's just Paraguay right? Oh and when we came home, our apartment was a little flooded because we forgot to strategically place the buckets, pots, and bowls around our house to catch the water from the leaks. But nothing was ruined, so todo esta bien!
This last week we had a zone conference! And not just like the monthly meeting with the zone. It was at the mission office with like 3 or 4 other zones, and we had a member of the 70 there! Elder Avila, de Argentina. It was so purete!! (Guarani for ´cool´- the missionaries use it all the time here) We learned about being guided in the work by the spirit and doing things the Lord´s way. How he wants it, not how we want it, because he knows better than we do. And then the other half was like major, spiritual pep talk thing. They shared a quote by Elder Holland that I really like that says ¨Salvation never was easy. It wasn´t for Him, it won´t be for us either." (something like that, mas or menos) and how the Lord is with us to bear us up. (it was a lot better than that but I have limited time and writing skills, so I can´t really do it justice right now.) Oh and they shared the thought that dad shared with me last week about how we can´t help people úp the mountain´(to salvation/Christ) without going there ourselves; taking the journey with them, etc. Muy poderoso, muy purete.
Next thing... So we´re having a little difficulty getting our investigators to come to church right now, BUT. tons of menos activos are starting to come back!! And the members are getting more excited about helping out with missionary work, and building each other up and doing home teaching and visiting teaching. So that's good (cuz seriously we have a ton of less actives here-gotta fix that).
Well that´s basically it. Except that we almost got attacked by dogs AGAIN on Wednesday, but I tried the ´pretend to throw a rock at it´ thing and it worked this time!! Elder Oscco (district leader) says we´re going to practice tomorrow in district meeting.. I´m not sure if he´s kidding or serious, but I wouldn´t be surprised if we did. haha
Oh and there are some weird sounding animals here. I´m not sure if they´re birds or frogs or what (did i tell you about the HUGE frogs here?) but its strange. I love it!
Anyway, eso no mas. Love you all hope everything is going splendidly!!
Until next week :)
Hermana Urie
p.s. o´ky (the y in Guarani is pronounced by shaping your mouth like you´re gonna say ´eeee´ and actually making an ´ooo´ noise) is Guarani for rain :)
She sy porá is Guarani for "my beautiful mother". The y is that same "ooo" sound and the á (supposed to be a squiggly line like ñ not ´ but I don't know how to do that on the computer) is really nasally (pronounce up in the nose). This is difficult to explain, find someone who knows guarani to show you! haha love you!!!
Monday, November 25, 2013
Learning Guarani
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
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
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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