This week we had changes and I am staying in Juan de Salazar with my companion Hermana Còrdova! We are both grateful we have another six weeks to do some good here.
This week has been back and forth between clear skies and tormentas. On Monday we had a noche de hogar in a member's house and at the end of our activity it began to pour. We didn't have any choice but to walk home with it raining cats and dogs. Por suerte we had our rain jackets and I had my umbrella, but even with both my rain jacket and umbrella my shirt was wet and skirt soaked. As we were walking in the torrential downpour we just laughed and sang "I hope they call me on a mission", in spanglish.
After the storm my companion came down with a cold. As we were visiting some neighbors one day they gave us a branch of hojas de guayava, just out of their tree, and told us to boil it and drink the water to get rid of the cold. We did just that and not only did my comp's cold get better, but the stomach aches I get after eating a lot of meat went away as well! We also were given the advice to boil eucalyptus leaves and breath the water vapor - we did that as well and my comp's sinuses cleared us as well. Natural remedies work!
During the Christmas season everyone gets unusually active in their respective religions and we haven't been received as much as we used to. One day after walking and contacting a lot with little results we paused at a members house and talked with them while they drank their Terere - we can't drink Terere as missionaries but they always give us cold water. We talked about the ward and what we were all doing respectively to strengthen the ward and I realized what a great blessing it is to have strong active members who serve. There's a difference between the members who just come to church and the ones who come to church and serve throughout the week. As missionaries, we are very grateful for the people who serve throughout the week. The ones who serve throughout the week are also, generally, more strong and able to handle the trials that come their way. I've definitely got a testimony of the importance of strong members and dedicated service.
Funny story of the week: After a lot of walking and a rough night's sleep we were teaching a lesson and I was feeling pretty tired. As I started to introduce a scripture my mind got a little ahead of my words and I said, "este escritura esta redimiendonos de nuestros pecados..." or "this scripture is redeeming us of our sins" instead of "este escritura esta hablando sobre el remission de nuestros pecados" or "this scripture is talking about the remission of our sins". My comp was laughing at that one for a while.
Today we sang Christmas hymns at an old persons home and afterwards we Hermanas went and got ice cream. Christmas and ice cream: two things I thought would never go together.
With love sent from Paraguay,
Hermana Carr
