Monday, July 25, 2016

Lizard Killer

¡Hola familia y amigos!

We've had a pretty tranquilo week here in Salado.

This week Hermana Sanchez and I have been putting in practice "how to begin teaching" from Preach my Gospel and we've found a variety of new investigators and, also, have been able to quickly discern who wants to investigate and who is just kind and willing to listen to us. I love Paraguay because the people are very friendly and usually open to letting us in the door. However, many people aren't very interested in actually investigating the church. We keep on the lookout and make a return appointment for the ones who are truly interested in learning more.

Wednesday, after our personal study, Hermana Sanchez found a little "friend" living in our house. We're not sure how long he'd been there or how he got in, but don't worry - I took care of it. After about a 1/2 hour of scheming and trapping, I finally got the lizard under a Tupperware and then scooted it out the door to let it be free. I couldn't let it come back in our house though and thought that by flinging it a little ways down the stairs it would fall and scramble off somewhere else. Sadly I underestimated my brute strength and sent the poor creature flying off the staircase and, upon impact, it ended up dying at the bottom of our stairs... oops. I'm just glad it wasn't a tarantula.

On Saturday Hermana Sanchez completed a month since she left home. We celebrated by getting Lomitos arabe, one of my favorite things about Paraguay.

Today we deep cleaned and lizard proofed the house, I got a hair cut/trim really and we had a nice lunch in Luque. Working hard, loving every minute. (Alma 32: 41)

With love sent from Paraguay,

Hermana Carr


Sunday, July 24, 2016

It's a girl!

¡Hola familia y amigos!

This week has definitely been a CHANGE!

I spent Tuesday and Wednesday sending off Hermana Noorda - such a bittersweet good-bye. We went through a lot together, but I'm glad that she returned safely and honorably to her family. Wednesday afternoon I received my new companion, fresh out of the CCM, Hermana Sanchez from Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is super sweet, always ready to laugh and ready to work.

We've started off the change well, contacting, finding new people to teach and visiting our recent converts. We've been having a rough time following up with old investigators - a lot of them aren't progressing, so we've decided to go forward and break into some parts of our areas that we haven't set foot in for a while. We've also made plans to start doing Noche de Hogares Wasu (Big family nights) with active and less-active families in different sectors of our area. We've got a lot of ground to cover in Salado, but we're hoping these activities will make our work-task a little smaller.

Today we had a zone activity and all of us Hermanas are training/being trained! It was super fun and I learned how to "arc" my fùtbol goal shots :)

With love sent from Paraguay,

Hermana Carr




Monday, July 11, 2016

Your Prayers Are Heard


¡Hola Familia y Amigos!

This week has been loco-crazy and a little scary at the end. 

We started off the week preparing some investigators for their programmed baptism that was to be Saturday in the afternoon. We taught, contacted and worked hard throughout the whole week- I am so proud of Hermana Noorda, she has endured to the end 100%. Friday afternoon our investigators passed their baptismal interview and we went to bed tranquilamente...

Then the house alarm went off. Right after we had gone to sleep someone entered into our apartment, but by the time we got up and out to turn off the alarm and see what happened they had gone. Our window was wide open and wouldn't close again though, so a member came and drove us to the Hermana's house in Juan de Salazar. We were shaken up, but safe. 

Saturday morning we came back and played Sherlock for a little bit, and, with the help of the mission handyman Hermano Sanchez, figured out that the intruder probably picked our lock, set off the alarm and then took the fastest exit out, forcing open the window. 

The "Hermana Alarms" were just put in our house two weeks ago- we are so grateful. We know that Heavenly Father is watching over us and that the leaders of the church were very inspired to put alarms in the Hermana's houses. Your prayers are heard and answered. We are safe and sound and taken care of. We are very protected. (

Saturday morning our investigator called us and, when we got to their house, told us that they wouldn't be able to be baptized- their extended family had called and said they'd cut them off and never talk to them again if they associated herself with our church. We bore our testimonies, read a few scriptures and left pretty disheartened. They were progressing so well, but the adversary works very hard to make it seem like our world will end if we take a step of faith. We are praying for them and will pass by to visit them again- we love them, baptized or not.
 
It's been an emotionally taxing weekend, but we've had sleepovers with the Hermanas in Juan de Salazar and in Campo Grande, Asuncion, so we've been having fun times there. Today we are using our P-day well, relaxing in the offices- Hermana Noorda has her final interview! So crazy!

This week is changes and I will be getting a new companion! News to come...

With love sent from Paraguay,

Hermana Carr




Monday, July 4, 2016

Hermanas in Distress

¡Hola familia y amigos!

We've had another less-than tranquilo week here in Salado. I'm starting to expect and anticipate random things coming up through out the week.

Tuesday we were pioneers. After lunch on our way to an appointment we contacted two women, Paula and Miguela, cutting wood with machetes and helped them put it in their metal cart. Our appointment wasn't home, so we decided to help them push their cart about a half-mile to their house. I'm very grateful I only had to push a cart that far...

On Wednesday we had divisions with the Hermana Leaders and I got to go back to Asuncion for the day in Campo Grande and work with Hermana Jara. It was fun and I learned how to make the Peruvian dish Carne Saltado.

By Friday we were well into preparing the baptism of Adrianna, our 9 year old investigator- younger sister of RM Esteban. After the baptism of Yanina we had unloaded the baptismal font (we use a combination of the slow drainer and manual-bucket labor) and were expecting to be able to come Friday morning, spend a half-hour cleaning out whatever dirt and then do our weekly planning as the font filled up. However, as soon as we opened up the font door a swarm of mosquitoes started flying out. Turns out someone had opened the window that sits on the side of the font and turned on the water a little bit so that the font had been filling up all week. Foul play- idk. Maybe by Satan.

Either way we had no idea what to do and our risk of getting dengue went up by 75% if we were to clean the font in our short sleeves and exercise shorts. We prayed, brain-stormed and then were given the inspiration to go get these bug-repellent coils that you have to light on fire and then the smoke clears out the bugs at a near by dispensa. We started fumigating the font and the connecting girls bathroom and began to plan. About 2 1/2 hours later most of the mosquitoes had gone and we were ready to drain the font again. We walked out into the hallway, heading towards the bathroom and buckets, when I saw a bird hop and then fly around in the corner at the end of the hall! We felt responsible because the front door to the chapel had blown open and we hadn't noticed while we'd been planning- so we grabbed the broom and the squeegee and started chasing it down. We finally got it cornered into the primary room and- slamming the door closed- we successfully got it to fly out a window. We celebrated for half a minute until we turned to leave and realized that the door-handle was gone. My companion found it on the floor a little ways from the door, but despite our wiggling, pushing, nothing took hold and we were trapped. (Keep in mind that the churches here have bars on the windows and there was no other way out).

My companion began to go all McGyver and started using everything and anything to try to get the door open while I began trying to flag down people from the street by yelling and waving the broom out the window. Even if we had been able to get someone in the street to come, we'd locked the outer gate so that not just anyone would walk in as we were cleaning/planning. After about a 1/2 hour we began to lose hope. My companion took a nap on the chairs and I swept the primary room- not a spider web will be found there. About an hour later, 1 1/2 hours since being trapped, it hit me that we had not tried clapping to see if the neighbors to the capilla would come out. Using my well-developed loud-clapping talents we got the neighbor to come out and another hour and a half later the bishops wife came running with the Elders in tow. So embarrassing.

Despite the unexpected setback, we got the font clean and Adrianna was baptized along with the Portillo twins Saturday. Sunday they were all confirmed as members and received the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Saturday morning we got to meet our new mission president, President Evans, his wife and their son Travis. We miss the McMullins, but are excited to work with the Evans.

Mosiah 24:15-16. The promises in the scriptures are real. Happy Independence Day!

With love sent from Paraguay,

Hermana Carr