It's been a great, HOT week here in Palma Loma.
This week we've been working a lot on extending the baptismal invitation to the people we've been following up with and prepping for the Capilla Abierta. Through the references of members and a few of our past contacts we have found new people to teach! It's always fun to meet people with questions who are ready to come unto Christ and act.
Highlight reel of the week:
So on Friday all of our lesson plans had fallen through and we thought we'd go visit Dora again to follow up on her and how her neighbors are doing. After sharing a thought with her she brought up an hermana named Amalia that someone had mentioned last Sunday in class. She told us that she wanted to go visit her with us. We told her we'd be busy until the following week with the Capilla Abierta and a few appointments we had, so she agreed to going right then and there. Hermana Dora IS THE COOLEST. Even though she's about 75-80 years old, she, again, left her house and walked with us 10 blocks to show us where Amalia lives and to visit for a little bit. They say that a sign of conversion is your desires to share the gospel. Hermana Dora is truly converted.
Earlier in the week a youth in the ward, Henrique, told us of three houses he wanted us to pass by of his neighbors. After visiting two of the houses, we contacted the third reference and found a 12 year old kid that, after teaching a brief message about the importance of baptism, accepted the baptismal invitation and came to church and all of this weekend's church activities. His nick-name is Kiki and we're super excited to see how he progresses.
After a long, hot day, we passed by Jorgelina's house to get our laundry and she made us cold parsley juice. I was hesitant at first- but it is delicious. Parsley, sugar and cold water. Who knew? Later we experimented by mixing it with some under-ripe mango juice- even more delicious.
The Capilla Abierta was awesome. I remember last year when we did it in Juan de Salazar it was mas o menos. This time around we had a lot more success! The members got really into it and we had a few people show up and even got a new investigator from the chapel tours and we got a solid 18 new references. Woo!
Saturday morning, before the Capilla Abierta, we also had divisions and I got to go work with Hermana Santos in Laurelty again! It was fun to work with her again and we celebrated her hitting her year mark with getting a quick ice-cream after lunch :)
This email is a little long winded with lots of events- we are going to Capiata to let Hermana Douglas say goodbye and I don't have as much time to organize my thoughts.
Final funny story: While passing by a members house they had a visita with one of their nieces. She looked at us and kind of ignored us, until my companion started talking in Spanish and there is only one word to describe her face. She was ASTONISHED. She could not believe that we spoke Spanish- she said, "¿Hablan español? Yo no sabia luego" (You guys speak Spanish?! I had no idea.) It made our day.
With love sent from Paraguay,
Hermana Carr
