Happy Pi P-Day!

¡Hola familia y amigos!

So today is the only day in my life that I will ever have a "Pi" day, P-day. Pretty cool! To celebrate, because we celebrate the little things, we got "pie" tarts from Superseis.

This week we had changes again - man, six weeks flies by!- and Hermana Santos left Moroni and is now in Laurentu, Luque Sur. I am still here in Moroni - livin the city life - and Hermana Lundberg (or as the Paraguayans say, Hermana Alumbra) is my new comp!

It's been a rough week with our investigators. Many of them aren't progressing or keeping their commitments, which means they are not repenting and are not coming unto Christ. We keep working, praying and hoping for them though! We have been able to find some new investigators here and there. We've also been coming up with a new ward plan for the missionary work and we are hoping to start some fun activities throughout the week that people can invite their friends too to help us find new people to teach- we'll see how it goes!

Today for our Zone Activity we went to the Fundación Solaridad and helped set up wheel chairs that they will be handing out to those in need. It was super fun and it felt good to do something different to serve.

This week is also our Zone's "temple" week and we will be attending the temple tomorrow!!! I am so excited- I love the temple. Every P-day we have the opportunity to serve and clean the temple- and by cleaning, we mean to "sparkle" and wipe off finger prints; the temple doesn't really get dirty. In preparation for tomorrow, we went and cleaned the temple and we made sure that all of the dust particles that had settled since last week were all cleaned up. The temple really is a holy place. I am so grateful for temples!

With love sent from Paraguay,

Hermana Carr

Pi day and new comp!

Tranquilo sunday mornings on España, Central Asunción

Work Hard, Work Hard

¡Hola familia y amigos!

This week was a good one for Hermana Santos and I.

To finish off her training, Hermana Santos and I took the determination to si o si contact 70 personas this week. As missionaries we have the mandate to each talk with 10 people everyday - it sounds easy, and may be it is easy for some, but for us it's hard. We can't control the number of people that receive us and we can't control what commitments our investigators do or do not keep, but we realized we can control how many people we talk to - this week were determined and we made our goal! To celebrate we got Dominos today for P-day! ... now we're going to do it over again this week, and for the rest of our missions :)

The heat is starting to calm down a little and we are super grateful. We've cut down trees with machetes, we've seen break dancers street performing for the people at red lights and we even contacted houses to ask to use their bathrooms. This week has been crazy, and overall this change has been crazy with Hermana Santos - just as with all my comps, she's become a best friend of mine. Tomorrow we will start the new change and we are excited to see what will happen!

With love sent from Paraguay,

Hermana Carr

Healings and Divisions

¡Hola familia y amigos!

This week has been loco crazy.

Last Monday we started off rough as Hermana Santos came down with a high fever, eye, back and muscle pains - all symptoms of dengue. We took it easy Tuesday, said a lot of prayers, drank lots of water like Hermana McMullin told us and by Wednesday she was back to 100%. No dengue here!!! We really think it was a miracle - Hermana Santos was not feeling good and usually dengue takes you out for a week or two. We're super greatful for her health!

Wednesday morning we attended an incredible devocional given by Elder David A. Bednar for the missions here in South America. We learned a lot and my comp and I have been applying what we learned. The greatest lesson I learned from the devocional was how to take notes and receive impressions from talks/devocionals. He gave us the advice based on the Book of Mormon; the Book of Mormon was written on two plates: 1) the large plates - a historical record of the events/what happened and 2) the small plates - the spiritual impressions, teachings, visions and writings of the profets. He said our notes should be more as the small plates (what the spirit is teaching to us), less of a word-for-word record of what the speaker says (what the speaker is teaching us).

This weekend we got to do divisions with Hermanas Jara and Lundberg in a neighboring area, Campo Grande. It was a lot of fun and I got to know a lot of members and investigators in Campo Grande. We also got to sleep in well-working air conditioning - the house in Campo Grande rocks! #tendermercies

The weekend was fun, but we are now back in home-sweet-home Moroni, ready to work hard. We only have a week left of this change - Hermana Santos is almost done with her training! And I feel like I'm just about to finish my second training - I've learned so much these last weeks.
I hope all is well! Thank you for your prayers for our health! They are answered!

With love sent from Paraguay,

Hermana Carr

We got a ton of Burger King coupons from a member so we celebrated Leap Year with Hermanas :)

Just a glimpse into the good times at Campo Grande

Updates from Asunción Norte: Moroni B

¡Hola familia y amigos!

This week has been another crazy, super hot, great week. We're working hard and helping people come unto Christ.

On Tuesday I got pretty sick - we're thinking I either had the flu or I ate some bad fruit - but by Wednesday I was up and going alright. On Tuesday night I was feeling good enough to be there for an investigator while he received a blessing to help him quit smoking - the Lord answers prayers and, when we ask in faith, will help us even when we feel weak or pass through bad moments.

We were able to help the familia Baes come to church this week as well. Even though the kids are still having a rough time feeling comfortable without their mom in Primary, we feel they felt more a part of the ward and their mom, Lourdes, was able to learn more being in the adult classes.

Hermana Santos and I are working hard but also having a lot of fun - even though I'm technically the trainer we're really just learning how to be better misioneras together. This week we are praying for our investigators, health and less heat!

With love sent from Paraguay,

Hermana Carr

I got my plaque in Guaraní! ... and we keep finding GIANT dead cockroaches in our apartment... we're just glad they're dead.

from the streets of Moroni B

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