Falling for Moroni

¡Hola familia y amigos!

This week has been a crazier week than usual for us here in Moroni.

On Monday we had a tender mercy - WE GOT FANS IN OUR APARTMENT!!! Every missionary house/apartment should have a certain set of things, such as a stove, refrigerator, air conditioning, blenders, fans, etc - however over time these things break and most of the time no one replaces them and you never know what you're going to get. Our house has no windows to the outside world, we had no fans and our air conditioning machine only cools about a 2 ft x 2 ft section of our house. Basically it's an oven. After getting fans, our house is still an oven, but it's an oven with wind and we are super grateful. It's really the little things that make a difference.

Funny story: on Monday night we were putting together the fans w/o reading the instructions and it was getting close to bedtime so Hermana Santos improvised and used her jump rope and tape to get the fan to point down on us as we slept. My hija is truly becoming Paraguayan.

On Wednesday we had Zone conference and we learned a TON of what we can do to help our investigators become more converted to Christ. On Thursday we both went to Salado to do divisions with the Hermana leaders and I got to spend the day with Hermana Mera from Mexico. We learned tons over the two days and were super excited to get back and apply what we'd learned.

Another funny story: On Saturday we were walking to an appointment and there was a group of people sitting in front of a dispensa/bar. As always we waved and greeted them in passing, However as I was focusing on smiling and waving I stepped in a hole in the pavement and cìao-cito Hermana Carr - I went down. With minimal damage done, I hopped right back up and we kept going, but the people we were waving to seemed shell-shocked and Hermana Santos did not stop laughing for a solid 5 minutes. During this Valentine's weekend the only thing I'm falling for is our area, Moroni.

Even while walking in the 47 degrees (celsius) heat, everything is awesome and we are working hard en la obra del Señor.

With love sent from Paraguay,

Hermana Carr

City Slickers

¡Hola familia y amigos!

Wow. This week has flown by. Last week when I arrived in Moroni I was a little star-struck, but instead of fading my love for this area just grows and grows.

Being in the city has been an adjustment - especially with remembering where all of the streets are (we've gotten lost a few times). Luckily we have our district meetings at the mission offices and last Tuesday we were able to print off maps of our area to carry around with us in hand. Thank you Google maps!

It's been rough finding new investigators because everyone we contact either just works at the houses as maintenance/cleaning crew or they live somewhere else - we are very persistent with the people that we find that live in our area. We have a few solid investigators though. One of our investigator's - José Luis - his wife had their baby this week. The named him Josías Luis Moroni - after Moroni in the Book of Mormon. José is awesome. The family that came to church last week was not able to come this week, but they are beginning to understand the importance of scripture reading and daily prayer.

As far as being a trainer goes there's really not that much to it. We just study more to know the lessons better. Hermana Santos is awesome - a lot of the time I feel like she's training me more than I'm training her. Together we are learning how to be effective missionaries and how to appropriately persist in helping and inviting people come unto Christ. I've been learning how to call, set appointments and follow up on commitments - all in Spanish. There are only a few moments when neither Hermana Santos nor I know what someone is saying to us in Spanish. Thankfully people are usually understanding and patient and will repeat themselves.

The heat has been getting pretty crazy. The air conditioning in our apartment doesn't work very effectively, but today we are getting replacement fans and we are super excited to (hopefully) spread the cold air around. Even though it's not fun to have wet, mushy shoes, I am starting to love the rainy days because the temperature drops to a more bearable level after it rains.

The members here are awesome and I am loving getting to know them more and more.

With love sent from Paraguay,

Hermana Carr

A beautifully, hot, sunny day in the streets of Asunción.

After fast Sunday we were starving after a good, hard days work so we pulled out all our food and had a snack night. WE ALSO FOUND NUTELLA

From Dirt Roads to City Streets

This week has been crazy.

After six months I have finished my time in my “birth” area. On Tuesday I said my goodbyes and left Hermana Córdova and a piece of my heart with the people in Colonia, Juan de Salazar. Wednesday morning I moved to the ward Moroni in North Asuncion to finish the training of Hermana Santos.

It’s been a big change to go from the suburban and fields of yuyal to the inner city missionary life, but I love love love Moroni. We have the temple in our proselyting area and pass by it just about every day. We even had a lesson with a menos active on the temple grounds. SO cool. I LOVE IT!!! Also, Hermana Santos is great. I’m supposed to be her trainer, but I think she’s training me more. She’s a great example of someone who’s here to love everyone and spread the good news of the gospel.

Yesterday we were able to help a family of investigators come to church for the first time and it was a great experience. The kids weren’t comfortable attending Primary without their mom so we ended up going to Primary for the first time in my mission. I got to help out by playing the piano for the Primary songs, we ate cookies and even got to color. Gospel Principles class is great, but Primary’s awesome. As great as Primary was, we’re hoping the kids are more accustomed and next week we’ll be able to help the mom meet and learn in the adult classes.

I hope all is well!

With love sent from Paraguay,

Hermana Carr

last day of proselyting in Juan de Salazar

Trabajemos Hoy en La Obra...

¡Hola Familia y Amigos!

This week has been a fairly normal week for us here in Juan de Salazar. To give you a day-by-day run down: we wake up, exercise, get ready, study, start proselyting/teaching, eat lunch, proselyte/teaching, come home, plan, do miscellaneous tasks or eat snacks, get ready for bed, sleep, and repeat. Although it seems the same every day, we learn a lot from our daily experiences and grow from diligently working all day every day.

This week we’ve been working on working more with the members and finding new people to teach. I’ve learned a lot from getting to know the members here. They are few, but the ones who come to church every week are rock solid. Here, a lot of iniquity is openly acceptable and even encouraged, sometimes, by the older generations. Although people know that a lot of what they do is wrong, they just follow the norm and put themselves subject to various types of vices. The majority of the members are converts and have family who do not follow the standards of the church, but, regardless of their family or personal history, they are strong and work to build their testimonies and teach their immediate families the truth of the gospel. It strengthens my testimony to see how difficult their situations are and yet how faithful they choose to be.

Part of finding new people to teach is finding people who are very deeply devoted to their churches. Here in Paraguay there are countless churches and varying degrees of devotion among the people who congregate in these churches. Usually people are very respectful and receive us regardless of their faith, however this week we’ve ran into a few very devoted religious people who tried to tell us where we are wrong and why their doctrine is right. Even though I may not have the bible memorized, I know this church is true and that the message we share is more than a theory or interpretation of the bible. Even after listening to variations of doctrines, I still have the firm belief that in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints we have the full truth and are lead by a living profet who receives revelation for us in these last days. The Holy Ghost has testified of this to me and can testify of this to any humble heart searching for the truth as well.

Today we had a good-bye lunch for Herman Farrish, my comp’s trainer, who is finishing her mission and heading home in a few days- crazy how fast time flies! We ate Domino’s and I forgot how much I love pizza. SO good. Earlier this week I also made mashed potatoes- It’s been a good week to remember the foods I love.

Hope all is well with everyone!

With love sent from Paraguay,

Hermana Carr

Oh, the heat!

¡Hola Familia y amigos!

This week has been a hot one... again. We wake up, start to sweat during exercises and really don't stop sweating until we get back to the house at night. My hope everyday while walking in the streets is our air conditioning machine that we use at night. One night the electricity was cut until 2 in the morning and we were melting... I am SO grateful for aire. While we were walking one day I lifted part of my piri hat to see the road a little better and my comp said I looked like a pirate so I put on my best Kira Knightly face and said "oh, the heat!" and we had a good laugh.

Even though we've been working hard we haven't been received much this week. We keep searching for new investigators though and revisiting the menos activos in our area. Funny story: one day we were sitting in front of a menos activo's house and the dueña went inside to get some cold water. A kid came up and asked us if the Señora was there - I responded that she went inside for a moment and asked what he needed. The kid just said "nada" and walked off. My comp just laughed and laughed and laughed and said, "even the kids don't want anything from us". Received or not received we keep working and smiling through every day.

On Tuesday at lunch we were given our plates and I had no idea what kind of meat I was eating. Trying not to be rude or make a big deal I asked what we were eating and my comp responded that it was "higado", supposedly the healthiest part of the cow to eat. I didn't know what higado meant so I shrugged it off and just did my best to ignore the weird aftertaste. Looking up the word later that night I found I out we ate cow liver... yup. I figure, at this rate, by the end of my mission I will have eaten every part of a cow.

Yesterday we were able to find a young family that Hermana Còrdova and Hermana Farrish contacted during divisions. As we began teaching they really opened up and began asking us SO many questions, but all of the right questions. One thing I am learning here is that there are two parts to understanding something new - 1) a good teacher and 2) the right questions. As missionaries we study every day to try to be better teachers, but if people don't have the right questions it's hard to teach. The same applies to our personal scripture study and learning in the gospel. In the scriptures we have excellent teachers - all of the prophets and Jesus Christ, the master teacher. Even though we can be inspired and uplifted just by reading and listening, I've found I learn much more quickly and profoundly when I have questions and I search for answers.

With love sent from Paraguay,

Hermana Carr

Even though we use umbrellas and hats, we still get a lot of sun. Nos llamamos chocolate y fresa.

Today we went "thrift" shopping in a little store in our area

Mangos!

Hola Familia y amigos!

This week has been super hot and full of mangos.

One thing awesome about Paraguay is that there are mango trees EVERYWHERE. They are really great for shade and keep their leaves year round. It is now mango season and there are fresh mangos por todos lados. There are mangos in our patio, in the streets, hidden in the yuyal and everyone tries to give us mangos. Our fridge is so full of mangos! We have been eating at least one mango each every morning and the pile never seems to end.  For service this week we helped a man clear his patio of mangos. It was like shoveling snow while it's snowing - the mangos just kept falling out of the trees as we were raking/sweeping! To thank us, he gave us some of the good mangos. I used to love mangos - I am still eating them, but I'm not sure how much farther I can go until I reach my mango limit.

This week we also had divisions! I got to go work with Hermana Noorda in Ensalado and I met a lot of my companion's old investigators and converts. (Hermana Còrdova was working in Ensalado before she came to our area) It was so fun to get to know her old area! Hermana Noorda is also super awesome and a great example of someone serving with all of her heart, might, mind and strength.

The heat is constant, the flies are out and feasting on mangos and we come home tired every day, but we are learning so much and our investigators are really progressing!

With love sent from Paraguay,

Hermana Carr

For Tres Reyes the chicas Oveido got play makeup- therefore the missioneras got makeovers.

our fridge fifty percent mango

A Year For Service

¡Hola familia y amigos!

¡Feliz 2016! ¡Oppá 2015!

This week we finished off the year celebrating a few birthdays with a few menos activos and investigators and with a "fin de año cena" with the ward - in other words I ate a lot of junk food and dulces and have some solid New Year's metas to eat healthier - how it usually goes during this time of year.

We were also able to do service cleaning the patio of the menos activa we spent the 24th with. As we were weeding and sweeping she pulled out a ton of her old clothes and gave me a nice, modest summer dress! I used it later that day and was so grateful because the heat is getting really intense and light clothing is essential to survive the day.

As a mission we also started reading the Book of Mormon to finish it by April and fulfill the prophet's challenge. I don't have words to express how much I love the Book of Mormon - it's so fun to start again and read it through looking for specific themes. We are looking for all of the times the book of Mormon mentions Faith, Repentance and Baptism. What's even cooler is that I'm to the point where I can study in Spanish 100%, so I'm reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish cover to cover - it's a challenge, but I'm going for it!

This year is a very special year for me - not every year do you get to put the goal to serve the Lord full-time for an entire year. It may sound extreme to many, but I am so grateful I have 365 more days to serve as a full-time missionary to help gather Israel and build the kingdom of God. It's a privilege for me to be here and I hope to use this sacred time wisely and fully dedicate it to the Lord. 

I love you all! Put down some goals and make them so you don't forget about them in a week!

Hermana Carr