De TODO un Poco

¡Hola familia y amigos!

Holy cow... where to begin. This week was pretty rough for us. From not having water in our apartment for 3 days, to getting pique in my toe (again), to collectivos breaking down on us, and even my faithful Iron-man watch literally falling off my wrist, it seems that everything has passed us this week. There were various moments where I just wanted to give up, collapse in my bed, sleep and then start over the next day- however somehow I didn't (with some help and self-motivation from Hermana Noorda) and I learned a great lesson.

On Thursday we had a multi-Zone Conference where President McMullin and Hermana McMullin gave their goodbyes and final testimonies. I had the chance to sit and reflect on the life of the Savior a little more and felt the spirit helping me realize our problems are so small. Christ suffered everything and did so with love and long-suffering. Our challenges this week have been fleeting, who am I to complain? We also received the General Conference revistas (finally!) and I read two talks from the Women's conference that changed my perspective. In the talk by Cheryl A. Esplin she gave account of a lesson example using a mirror and a window. I have found this week that the more I "looked in the mirror", or looked on our problems, the more I wanted to give up. However, the more I "looked through the window", or focused on the work and our investigators, the more I was able to forget about what was happening to us and feel satisfied and happy with the day. The following talk, by Neill F. Marriot, helped me realize how I could direct my thoughts even more outward on others and continue to work and become the woman I want to be. At the end of the week Yanina Mongelos was baptised and confirmed and the Mongelos family became a full-member family.

We are grateful fhe McMullins and all they have done for us- during the conference I could really feel their love for us- and are awaiting the arrival of the Evans as our new mission president.

With love sent from Paraguay,

Hermana Carr

Single and Ready to Contact

¡Hola familia y amigos!

Another humid-cold week has come and gone in a blink of an eye. Even though Hermana Noorda is going home in a few weeks we've been putting our all into everyday and that makes time fly.

We've had a great week finding new people to teach, finding and working with menos activos and visiting our recent converts. We were going to have a baptism this Saturday, but Adrianna came down with pneumonia and figured it probably wasn't a good idea to get her wet head-to-foot quite yet in this cold. We're waiting and praying for her recovery.

This week we are looking forward to the baptism of Yanina, another 9 year old from a reactivating, part member family. She is SO cute- will be sending pics next week- and very ready. Yesterday we taught her about tithing, fast and offerings and she told us that she wants to pay her tithing once she gets money. She also told us that she has been reading her book of Mormon and when she prayed to know if it was true she felt super happy and good. This touched my heart- I had a similar experience with the book of Mormon before I was baptised as well. We feel she is ready and we are happy to see her family members so animated for her baptism.

Funny story of the week: So yesterday was "Día de los Padres" here in Paraguay. As with most días feriados, it was a little difficult finding sober people to talk to in the streets. We were about to leave Cuarta Etapa, a distant part of our area, when we decided to contact a girl studying/reading in her front yard. As we were talking to her her intoxicated relatives/family friends came out. One of them had a Spain-spanish accent and came up to us asking if we were from some organization. We said yes, said we were missionaries and he turned around to his friends and said (roughly translated), "Are you guys ready to sign a contract with the monk Mormons?". We then corrected him and said that ours was just a simple invitation to learn more about Christ. He very animatedly accepted a contact card and then skipped to behind his friends to watch as we proceeded to testify a little and extended the invitation to come to church. Afterwards Hermana Noorda and I walked a little ways and just burst out laughing- he was SO funny. We're probably not going to go look for him again, but it was a great contact story.

I hope that your Father's Day was a little more tranquilo and full of great family time. I'm very lucky and definitely have a great Dad who acts as my "sherpa" through life- and, if I was hiking, through the backtrails of Yosemite and the Western USA (He's currently on an insane backpacking trip from what I hear). Mateo 7:7-11

With love sent from Paraguay,

Hermana Carr

Camping in Skirts

¡Hola familia y amigos!

This week has been an awesome one.

Hermana Noorda and I are still working a ton, finding new people to teach and working to help our current investigators in their progression. We've had a few baptismal dates fall and have dropped a few investigators, but we are finding new investigators and still have a good handful of investigators progressing. We are tired all the time, but it's a good tired. We've also had some great lessons this week where we felt edified with our investigators and both of us are decided we never want to leave the mission. (so sad for Hna Noorda)

I've either become accustomed to the heat or it's gotten really cold here because these last few days I've pulled out my leggings, sweaters and coat. This morning we looked at what I was wearing while getting ready and we figured out it was a camping outfit with a skirt - so we took a picture. The mornings are the hardest getting out of bed because it's so cold, but after we come in from running we're fine.

Today we had our Zone activity and we used face-paint to paint our flags and faces and then we played capture the flag. Funny story: So we got to the activity SUPER late. We had to take two collectivos to get to the location of the activity and when we got off the first collectivo we ran into other Hermanas from our zone and decided to go with them because we weren't 100% sure where we had to get off the second collectivo. We followed the other Hermana's lead and ended up getting on the wrong collectivo and having to walk about an hour from Parque Ñu guazu to the Garden Club on the shoulder of the highway road to the airport. It was an adventure getting there, but we made it. We even saw some ostriches (the birds that bury their heads in the ground).

Things are good and we are working hard. I am still loving my matte dulce every Monday night and the chipa wasu members make us. I also made a homemade- experiment soup that turned out great and lasted me the whole week.

Quick thought: This week we studied the Christ-like attribute "Knowledge" and I learned a lot. One of the things that stood out to me most was the principle of learning "grace to grace" like our Savior (DyC 93:13). We don't have to "mess up" to learn from our mistakes, we can diligently search the scriptures and keep the commandments so that we can gain further light rather than falling into deeper darkness to get back to the light. That's the easiest, least painful way we can learn and gain spiritual knowledge.

With love sent from Paraguay,

Hermana Carr

Camping in skirts

The Same Old Same Old

¡Hola familia y amigos!

We've had another great week here in Salado. Changes were this last Tuesday and we found out that I will be "killing" Hermana Noorda (she will be finishing her mission with me :) ). We are happy and excited to keep working hard, keeping the momentum in our area going.

This week was again, refreshingly normal and somewhat slow. Even though it was slow, we've been putting 100% into everyday which lets us feel satisfied looking back. We've been finding a lot of people who are not quite ready to receive the restored gospel. A lot of people are willing to let us share with them, however they are unwilling to pray or read to know if what we share is true or come to church to see how it is. We've heard time and time again, "if God tells me to come to your church, I will". Even though we're not angels dressed in white sounding trumps with giant wings, we are two blonde Americans in skirts with plaques knocking door to door, talking with everyone in the streets inviting all to come unto Jesus Christ through the restored gospel. I think we often ask for revelation and direction in our lives but stay waiting until a great sign or clear vision comes before us when really our Heavenly Father is gently urging us to take a few steps of faith. Once we take make a move He then has the opportunity to correct our path or to confirm our decisions; if we stay put we neither move forward nor give our Father the ability to fully guide us. The more I study, the more I find that humbly and diligently moving forward doing our best to follow the whisperings of the Spirit and staying away from the things that will do us harm (aka following the commandments) is the best way to go. (DyC 98:12, Isaiah 28:10, 2 Nefi 28:30).

On a lighter note, we have a young, progressing investigator named Adrianna. Her older brother returned home from his mission about a year ago and, with his support, she wants to be baptised. Unfortunately her brother lives in a different ward, so he just drops her off and picks her up and we end up having to play parents trying to keep her, their younger brother and her friend in line during church. It's a challenge, but we are figuring it out little by little and are recruiting members to adopt them into their family bench during sacrament meeting.

Working hard and still having great times here in the land of chipa, carne and palm trees.

With love sent from Paraguay,

Hermana Carr

Spiritual paydays

¡Hola familia y amigos!

Another week has come and gone in a blink of an eye - it's really true when they say the days feel like weeks, but the weeks feel like seconds or however the phrase goes.

This week has been pleasantly normal and full of work for us here in Salado. We put a focus in our weekly planning to get more members to visit with us and we were able to go out with at least one, if not two members everyday this week! It was a little crazy and we had more than one occasion where Hermana Noorda and I would've put the speed-walking Olympiads to shame, but we did it and we had various members who brought or were at least assigned to bring our investigators to church. Even though it took a little more thought, phone calls and punctual planning, it was worth it and has made our job a little easier. I now have a testimony of member involvement in missionary work - it is essential! It really makes a difference when we are able to really work with the ward instead of just in the ward - it takes a little bit more effort on both sides, for members and missionaries, however in the end it's easier and brings more joy in the work. This has probably been one of the more joyful weeks of my mission, or better said one of the more fulfilling weeks.

On Friday we had a late Mother's Day activity and the youth, some of the Priesthood and even us missionaries put on skits and sang songs. We did a last minute skit with the Hermanas and Elders "swapping" roles, acting out how we thought the Elders exercised, studied, contacted and cooked and them vice versa. It was pretty funny, especially for being so spontaneous.

Saturday was a very special day. Around the beginning of May Hermana Noorda and I met three women in the street looking for water. The next day we came back, taught, invited them to be baptized and they accepted. The following visit we put a baptismal date and witnessed a miracle happen to them. A few days later they moved into the Elder's area and we, choking back the tears, passed our golden investigators into their hands. Since then we have seen Isidora and Monse at almost every church activity - including Sunday reunions - and Milagros every now and then. We've witnessed them making changes in their life and Saturday Isidora and Monse came to the waters of baptism.  They were looking when we found them, they chose to follow what we&the spirit taught and now they have entered through the door of baptism and are on the way back to the presence of our Heavenly Father. As a missionary, and friend of Isidora & family, it is a great privilege to be part of their conversion. Sometimes, as missionaries, we reward ourselves with working for good numbers, Amandau ice cream on P-day or mate dulce, but the real pay day comes when we get to see our efforts really take part in the work of the Lord.

With love sent from Paraguay,

Hermana Carr

Spiders... I hate spiders!

¡Hola familia y amigos!

This has been a great week to be 20! :D

First off, my birthday was a great day. We found a new investigator that has TONS of questions!!! (Those are my favorite kind) We also had a powerful lesson on the first vision with a menos activo that allowed the spirit to confirm to me the truth of the restored gospel. It's true and I am so grateful for it. In the evening we had Noche de Barrio and they sang me "cumpleaños feliz" and Hermana Jara (Relief society president) gave me banana bread/cake (almost as good as my mom's banana cake) and Isidora (the investigator we contacted a few weeks back) made us a pizza to take home and eat. Hermana Arrua (member and the reason for my growing panza) bought us a small cake/sweet roll as well. Needless to say, I was not hungry on my birthday.

Wednesday marked the beginning of my new snack addiction: Mate dulce. We shared with some recent converts and they offered us some and later that night we were able to successfully replicate it with sugar water instead of sugar-milk and I have been drinking it every other night since. Mate dulce is usually made with carmelized sugar mixed with warm milk drank through shredded coconut. As a snack I just use a little sugar mixed with warm water and the shredded coconut. Yum!

On Friday we had our Zone conference with interviews with President. We learned more about how to love the people, use our agendas more effectively and how to work better with the member references we receive. Member references are the best - it is a much easier transition for converts if they already know people in the church and we, as missionaries, are able to teach with their friends and/or family present to help.

Story time: On Saturday we were on our way to our last lesson passing through the dirt streets in the dark when my companion gasps and pushes me forward. Alarmed I looked back to see what happened and saw a HUGE spider crawling in the road where I had been just moments before. Ciao-cito so ran Hermana Carr. From my safe distance of half a block away I stood and watched as my ever so curious companion threw pieces of kro - a street snack we eat - and informed me it probably wasn't a tarantula because it didn't rear up on its legs. We reached our next lesson's home to find that they weren't home and my companion had lost her agenda with various phone numbers, lesson plans and other valuable information. Putting my brave pants on and calling myself Hermana Indiana Jones we went trekking back, retracing our steps (even past the sighting of the spider) looking for the agenda. After a good 30 minutes of looking in the dark we decided it was probably best to just head home and plan, just using my agenda. As we passed by a girls soccer game for the third time a contact we made two weeks ago named Rosanna called us over. She asked if we had lost something and we said yes, and then proceeded to tell us that she had found my companions agenda in the street and remembered it because it had so many pictures of Christ on it. She picked it up to give it to us later and then saw us coming back down the street.

Miracles do happen. Heavenly Father loves us so much, he is looking out for us even in the little things and is always directing everything to be for our good. (DyC 82: 8-10).

With love sent from Paraguay,

Hermana Carr

¡Feliz Dìa de las Madres!

¡Hola familia y amigos!

Even though I got to talk to my family last week, yesterday was Dìa de las Madres here in Paraguay. Even though a lot of people used it as an excuse to not come to church, we had an awesome RM in our ward bring his (non-member) mom to church before they celebrated. I can't think of a better way to honor your mother than to come closer to our Heavenly Father. I love my mom and I'm lucky that Heavenly Father sent me to her!

This week has been a week of diligence - working hard every day, coming home insanely tired at the end of every day, but feeling a unique satisfaction from our labors.

We've been working to start doing ward night more consistently and this week I taught piano for the first time! I vaguely remember trying to teach Javier the piano basics and did my best to apply that to my lesson -- I'm not sure how much information was retained, but it was fun and I think people will come again next week!

The Elders also had a baptism and asked us to make brownies. Even though they were very modified, Paraguay-version brownies it was a big hit and everyone raved over how good they were. My confidence as a pastry chef has been greatly enhanced.

On Saturday I had a blast from the past re-visiting Juan de Salazar to help with their ward "Rescate". I got to go out with a young woman named Sarita and got to visit Fatima, our old-recent convert, and a few other menos activos that we worked with during my time with Hermana Getz and Còrdova. It was SO surreal! It feels like years since I worked there - but it's really only been a few months.

This Sunday Maria was confirmed and I gave a talk on missionary work and did my best to tie it in to a tribute to mothers. If it wasn't for my mom and her example I would not be here in Paraguay sharing the gospel as a full-time missionary. Thanks Mom! <3

Funny and spiritual story of the week: Yesterday we did our Sunday study right after church. As we were leaving our apartment we saw the clouds in the distance and thought, it'll probably rain, however we did not stop to put our scriptures in the grocery bags we carry in our back-packs. The members who feed us lunch Sundays live in the middle of the Elders area and we were a little lost trying to find the right road to take when all of a sudden these HUGE deep purple clouds come over us and everything got darker. Stopping on the side of a soccer field/open area we said a little prayer/prayer in our hearts that it wouldn't start raining until we got our scriptures tucked away in bags. We took off our back packs, got our jackets out, put the scriptures and our things in the bags and, as I zipped up my back-pack, I said jokingly "Alright, bring it". Not 30 seconds later, as I started putting my arms into my rain-jacket sleeves and my companion struggled to get her umbrella open a wall of rain rolled over the trees across from the field and came pounding towards us. We yelled in surprise and pitifully tried to run a few steps before we realized the rain was coming, ready or not. Hermana Noorda struggled more fervidly to get her umbrella open as I struggled to get my jacket on and hood over my head, regretting and laughing over my poorly chosen words, "bring it".

As I pondered over us getting caught in the rain just after being able to protect our scriptures I thought about the power of prayer and how mindful our Heavenly Father is of us. In Matthew 7:7-11 it talks about how Heavenly Father will not give us a rock if we ask for bread, neither a serpent if we ask for a fish. I learned yesterday that he will hold the rain right up until we say "bring it" and, as I now know from experience, only then will it be brought. Heavenly Father loves us so much and listens to our every prayer, even the ones of the heart.

With love sent from Paraguay,

Hermana Carr