Elderas

¡Hola Familia y Amigos!

It's official: we wear pants.

Last Monday the dress pants came in and ever since receiving them Tuesday we've been walking in pants in the streets. It's been weird for everyone- only our plaques have been identifying us as Hermana Misioneras. However, I have not had a new mosquito bite on my legs since! They've just started attacking the tops of my feet and arms instead.

At the beginning of the week it was raining gatos y perros, but now we've just got clear skies and great sun-burns. Wearing pants has proven very practical hopping over puddles, getting on and off collectivos and just everyday tasks, no matter the weather. Everyone comments and says they're glad we wear pants, even though it's strange to see.

This week has been a slower one, but full of great moments: Last Monday we went to the dentist to see about some tooth pains Hermana Douglas was having. We did a follow up today and they just replaced a filling she'd lost- these have been the first and last experiences I hope to have at the dentist here in Paraguay. Thankfully I wasn't the one in the chair.

Tuesday, due to the rain, our street turned into a river. While walking on our way to lunch we saw a fist-sized fish on the side of the road so my companion just tossed it back into the rolling road waters- we did some good in the world that day. On Wednesday, we had a conference with President and Hermana Evans and Elder and Hermana Braggs in preparation for when Elder Rasband will come next month. It was enlightening, I learned a lot and overall I just felt the importance of the work we do when we work for the Lord.

Thursday night we enjoyed eating deliciously prepared liver with Jorgelina and got to play with their new-born baby cats.

By Friday it was getting hot again and we decided to invest 3 mil guarani's in ice cream cones on our way home. The ice-cream vendor didn't have change and, after seeing us struggling to dig change out of back-packs for a good five minutes, ended up just giving us the ice-cream for free. After walking a block a lady approached us, asking us for 3 mil for her bus fare, telling us a sad story and saying she and her little son had not eaten all day. We gave her our ice-creams and then, 30 seconds later, a man came up and picked them up on moto. We're pretty sure she just swindled us out of our ice-cream- but, it was all good, cuz it was given to us for free. Sometimes we get things, sometimes things are taken away, but in the end just the important things stay. (Alma 41:14).

Saturday we helped out with the Primary Presentation practice and on Sunday we had a great turn out and even one of our investigators got to participate! -the hymns are great, but it was a fun change to play the Primary songs.

After the dentist follow up today we went to Bellavista so Hermana Douglas could say goodbye to some of her friends there. Later, we called in our "connection" (Hermano Villasboa from our ward) and got to walk through the Beehive factory here in Luque and then went to La Casa de Azucar to celebrate the birthday of Hermana Sanchez.

With love sent from Paraguay,

Hermana Carr

I Hope They Call Me On a Mission

¡Hola Familia y Amigos!

It has been a fun, HOT week here in Paraguay!

So- to follow up on last week's email- right after we left the Ciber the AC guys called us and came Tuesday morning to replace our air-conditioning! Prayers are answered. We missed our District Meeting, but we have slept very well ever since.

Stake Conference went well. It was really cool to be able to share my testimony through piano. I didn't even mess up badly! Just minor errors and no one noticed.

It was an uplifting conference and it was cool seeing faithful members from all over the Stake.
Even though it's been caloroso and we're still working to find those ready to come unto Christ and progress, we've been meeting a lot of cool people and serving in the ways we can. Yesterday was probably one of the coolest days in my mission. In the morning I was able to use my talents to accompany the music. Later that day we went to the house of an investigator who lives with his sick, very old, bed-ridden mother called Ña Manu and in the middle of our lesson Ña Manu reached out her hand and said, to me, "Señorita, te voy a hablar ahorra" (Miss, I'm going to talk to you now), and upon taking her hand she just talked to me about everything and anything in Jopara- I didn't understand everything she said but I just felt so much love for her. Later, we went to our recent convert's house and I got to play with Sergio (their little brother) with his makeshift slingshot and almost pegged my comp on accident. At the end of the day we went to Jorgelina's house- one of the most amazing people I have ever met - and she shared her sopa Paraguaya with us. After planning my comp and I just talked laughed and, at the end of the day I didn't want it to end. Not all the days are like that- even yesterday it wasn't a perfect day- but some days are just worth it. Being a missionary is awesome. (Alma 34:38)

Funny story: Earlier this week we were talking with a girl outside of her house and she told us that she had school-off because of exams. Upon leaving said girl my comp told her, "Disfruta su libertad" (enjoy your liberty). I just about spat out my chupa-chu (otter pop) I was laughing so hard.

With love sent from Paraguay,

Hermana Carr

Apparently, I Bring the Blessings

¡Hola Familia y Amigos!

It has been a fun week here in Palma Loma. It's been getting hotter and hotter here as Summer approaches and every day I find myself laughing more and more with Hermana Douglas - seriously, she is SO funny.

We've been working on finding more investigators from our own initiative and have been having a hard time finding anyone solid, so we've been working hard to help the menos activo families to progress and take steps to reach their goals. We've also had lots of opportunities to work with the members. There's not a lot of pianists here - I'm the only one in our ward that knows how to play the hymns - and I've been asked to play the piano in our Stake Conference next week and for the Primary Program the following week. Thank you Mom again for getting me through all the years of piano lessons and practice. It's nice to be able to help out, even if it's just by accompanying the music.

Funny story: So, the members in our ward play favorites and, for some reason (probably just for the piano playing) I've fallen into favor with some of the members. One day we decided to contact a street and we ended up finding the house of a really old lady from our ward. We shared a scripture with her and asked her for a reference and she ended up taking us to her neighbor's house! - that was awesome - However, before leaving she asked me to say the prayer by saying "Hermana, ¿puedes dar la oración? porque traes las bendiciones." ("Sister, can you say the prayer? Because you bring the blessings"). Hermana Douglas and I have been quoting her all week. Little do these members know, Hermana Douglas is one of the funniest, realest, most spiritual people I know. Paraguay will lose a solid missionary once she's gone.

Today we had a Zone activity "Lamanite obstacle course" that left our faces and lungs full of flour and gave us a good laugh.

Loving every minute- praying for the maintenance man to come fix our AC. (Alma 31:38)

With love sent from Paraguay,

Hermana Carr

Paradisical Palma Loma

¡Hola familia y amigos!

It has been a week of changes! I have been transferred from Salado, Limpio to Palma Loma, Luque Sur. It was hard leaving Salado - I have come to love a lot of people there- but I am optimistic and meeting great people here in Palma Loma.

My new companion is Hermana Douglas from Herriman, Utah. This is her last change and my second to last change, so we're trying to "live like we're dying", taking advantage of every minute we have left as full-time missionaries. (Alma 37:34)

I haven't been here long in Palma Loma, but already we've been seeing miracles. On my first day my companion was telling me about some recent converts that haven't been receiving us. Later on we passed by their house and found their daughter, also a member, who let us in and expressed desires to change and come back to the church. So cool! On my second day here we were on our way to an appointment when a girl walked out of a "chuchi" house in our area, stopped us, and gave us the reference to her patron, telling us she'd given the reference to the Elders in her ward about a month back but it must've never reached us. We had a lesson with the patron, Mirta, and found out that she was baptized a long time ago with her mom, went to her old ward but has never really come to church after she moved to Palma Loma. Her husband isn't very interested, but she has three kids and is wanting to come back.

The members here are also super purete (awesome). Many of them have kids, have busy work schedules, etc, but they work hard and are willing to go on visits with us and have given us lots of references this week.

Today we've been taking advantage of being close to Asunción and went to "sparkle" the temple. I really love to see the temple!

With love sent from Paraguay,

Hermana Carr

Happy Conference Weekend!

¡Hola Familia y Amigos!

It's been a good week here in Salado. It's been awesome to be able to get out and work this week. We've been really focusing on helping our recent converts and menos activos progress and, through them, we found three people, ready to make changes in their lives, and are now preparing for baptism at the end of October! Seriously - with members missionary work runs a lot smoother and progresses a lot faster.

General Conference weekend, for me, is right up next to Christmas - I always wait in anticipation and feel uplifted and ready to put new goals afterward. This conference I felt that every session had a principle or theme that I learned from or that the spirit impressed me with. After the Saturday sessions my companion and I were talking over the various talks given. For my companion, she felt that in every talk they said something about talking to people, sharing the gospel and strengthening our testimony. For me, I felt that most of the talks were geared towards prayer, developing faith and being valiant in our testimonies of Christ. The most beautiful thing about scripture is that we all hear or read the same words from the same people and books, but the spirit tells us each something unique, or calls to our attention something that applies to our personal spiritual growth at that time. I know it's true when I feel enlightened and edified, motivated and directed after. (2 Nefi 32:3)

Hermana Sanchez has now finished her training! We've become best friends and I'm confident she's going to help a lot of souls throughout her mission.

Wishing everyone a Happy Conference Weekend!

With love sent from Paraguay,

Hermana Carr