Monday, March 28, 2016

¡Felices Pascuas!

Hola Familia y amigos!

Happy Easter! Or as they say here, Happy Easters. We had a great Easter yesterday- we ate lunch with the Familia Ramirez, as normal, then we found a menos activa while contacting and she gave us banana-orange juice and torta and then later we had a Noche de Hogar/dinner with Andrea and her kids, a single mom in our ward. That, on top of the Easter candies and grandma's fudge, made us two very full Hermana misioneras. Earlier this week we also made chipa, as is the semana santa tradition, with the Familia Admen. It's been a very fun, junk-food full Easter week.

Yesterday I finished el Libro de Mormon and the spirit confirmed to me that it is true. As a mission we have been marking all of the words "faith", "repentance" and "baptism" to find all of the passages about the doctrine of Christ, but I also added the word "diligence" to my word/verse search, one of the Christ-like attributes I want to improve/develop. I was thinking there would only be a few verses on diligence, however there is a lot of verses on it. As I have been reviewing what I've read and learned I've been working to apply diligence to my work as a missionary. With anything, we can't be the best of the best tomorrow after deciding so today. It's more of an uphill process, little by little getting better and better, working consistently towards our goals that will get us to where we want to be.

On Thursdays I was having a rough diligence day - it was rainy, we'd been walking and contacting without much success and I was pretty tired, just one of those days you're just ready to throw in the towel. As we were heading towards our next visit I randomly thought to take a left and head down a street when we usually just go straight and take a short cut. Our appointment wasn't at a set time so, thinking why not, we turned down the street. Not two houses down I saw Limpia, a menos activa we visited a lot in Juan de Salazar, working at a house in our area. We talked to her for a minute and found out that she got a job and has moved in with her cousin here in Asunciòn! Turns out her cousin lives about a block outside of our area, but it was a great tender mercy to me that day to find her and invite her back to church. We're passing on the reference to the other missionaries and I'm hoping for the best for her! If we hadn't been diligently working we would not have found her or known that she had moved.

I love the Book of Mormon, I know it's true. I've truly come to know my savior and the importance of His redeeming sacrifice for us more than through any other source. Every time I read it I feel this kind of joy that's hard to describe - all I know is I want everyone to feel it and that's why I'm here, to share it. I also know that Christ lives! I am so grateful to know that He lives and is working, more diligently than we can imagine, to bring us back to our Father in Heaven. Hallelujah.

With love sent from Paraguay,

Hermana Carr





P.S. Here are some pictures to give you some insight into my life here in Asuncion.

My ironing board (my comp's bed)


My air conditioning (we call it R2-D2)

My washing machine 

My dryer

My dish washer (just like the one we take camping!)