Hola from Paraguay!
I can´t believe it´s been two weeks since I¨ve written to you. Thank you so much for all of your letters and love and support. It totally made my P-Day to read letters from home today. Thank you Dad, Sarah, Ashley, Mom, Teresa, Chelsy, Holly, Laurel, and Grandma and Grandpa Springer.
Please forgive any grammar errors, random Spanish words, or just plain weird things I may type today. I´m on a Spanish keyboard in a little internet cafe and I´m trying to write quickly so I´m probably gonna make tons of mistakes. And the keys are all weird so my life-long typing habits are all wrong.
Well, here I am! The trip was SO long. It was so surreal as we got off the plane at Miami and then hopped right onto a plane to Argentina. We had to like...give our passports and stuff! We were leaving the country! It was bizarre. The plane was huge. Elder Vance, the Elder I sat next to, kept calling it the Inception Plane because first class was ridiculously nice like the one on Inception. The seats were uncomfortable but the food was good and there was a nice interactive map to watch throughout the trip. But since it was at night, I couldn´t really compute that we were actually flying over Cuba. And then the Caribbean. And then Brazil. But when we landed in Argentina, I definitely could tell the difference. The health codes are definitely lacking in Buenos Aires and everyone spoke Spanish. Luckily the Church had a travel agent lady waiting there to tell us what to do. She took us through ¨"security", which was one metal detector with a guy who didn´t even watch the monitor or make us take our shoes off or anything. She left us at the gate for Paraguay where two Elders from Uruguay and Guatemala were waiting, and we were really glad to have them there to interpret for us.
When we landed in Paraguay, after being severely confused on a Brazilian plane where people spoke Portuguese, German, and YIDDISH, but not English, my first impression of the country was that it was SO GREEN! It had been raining all last week and there was long green grass and thick green foilage everywhere. I was instantly in love with it. The tiny airport was decorated with flowers and all these exotic birds were flying around... it was awesome. I was so excited.
Our mission president and his wife were there to greet us. They´re so sweet. They said my SPanish was really good compared to most newbie missionaries. I wonder how long they´ll think that´s true... I got to hang out with them that first day because I was the only Sister to arrive so they had me drive with them and stay in their¨air conditioned house while the Elders piled into a van and spent the night who knows where. But anyways, they´re super nice and have emphasized all the great things I´ve learned in the MTC about obedience and loving the people. I promised them that they would never have to worry about me, and I´m determined to keep it that way.
My companion is Hna. Stagg. She´s from Colorado and she is seriously awesome. I feel like such a baby sometimes, which is appropriate because here we call our trainers "Mama" and they call their trainees their "Hijas." But seriously, I know I must be such a pain sometimes asking so many questions, doing things wrong, not being able to teach very well. But she´s so patient and nice and hard-working. She´s definitely a realist, but she is always so positive, still and very determined to meet all our goals.
You will be happy to know that our apartment has both a flushing toilet AND air conditioning! You have no idea how happy I was to realize that. We can´t flush toilet paper, though, which is weird but actually it isn´t as gross as you might think. Our apartment is actually quite nice compared to some of the houses I´ve seen. Many houses are just there to sleep in and some people are just happy to have four walls and a roof. We have bugs and it´s dark and it does get hot, but I seriously don´t mind any of that at all and I feel very much at home there. Oh, and I do NOT have to wash all my laundry by hand. A woman in the ward does that for us. I feel bad having someone else do it, but it´s good work for her.
Our area is Mariano Roque Alonzo but there really aren´t street names or house numbers or anything so sorry, Dad, you´ll have a hard time google earthing it. But if you go to the LDS maps and go to my area, you should be able to find the LDS chapel and that´s my general area, only it´s on the other side of that big road. There´s a school called Ebenezer and a place called La Metro nearby if that helps you find the general area. Ours is the only house with three stories in the general area. Anyways, our area is really nice. It´s kind of like the suburbs of Asuncion. There are only branches here, but we´re trying to make them into wards, and in Concepcion they´re sending the best missionaries to form a stake. My goal is to be sent there because then I´ll know I´m doing well.
There are only 14 Sisters out of all 197 missionaries in this mission. So yes, we are the minority. It´s fun, though. And from what I´ve seen, many of the missionaries here are from the states. I´ve met very few natives, actually.
Oh gosh, there´s too much to say about this past week... I tried to keep a list of cool things to tell you, so in random order, here are some fun facts about Paraguay:
The roads are crazy. Everyone warned me about the cobblestone streets, but I was picturing like London cobblestone streets or something because I did not expect them to be so rocky here. Our area only has one paved road and the rest are just made of broken up rocks placed relatively flatly and held together with mud. And of course there are a lot of roads without stones at all and they were SUPER muddy when we first arrived. They´ve dried up some since then. Driving is crazy, too. That first day here we got to go to the Paraguay temple (so pretty!) and it was raining. There are little to no traffic laws, and no speed limit, so driving to the temple in roads covered with water felt more like Splash Mountain than anything.
My feet hurt so bad and I´m so tired but I´m getting more used to it now. Those first few days, though, I felt like I was hiking Flat Iron. Twice. Every day. It was ridiculous. I have great shoes, but Í´m not quite used to wearing them yet, and they each have straps that rub in different areas so I have about six sets of blisters. My Mama is taking good care of me, though. She taped up my feet really well yesterday and I was SO grateful. I shouldn´t have too much of a problem in the future.
There are animals EVERYWHERE, but I´m not allowed to touch a single one of them. Most of the time I´m not tempted. Dogs are like rats around here. There are packs of them all over the streets. People don´t pay them any mind or they give them a kick if they become too bold. But there are house dogs, too, and sometimes I´m sad that I can´t give them love. Most Paraguayans I´ve met don´t really treat their pets like Americans do. Apparently it´s baby animal season here because there are so many adorable puppies, kittens, calves, foals, and chicks running around. And when I say running around, I mean they are literally everywhere. We never go down a street without passing a cow or chickens or something.
The food here is really, really good, but there is just so much of it. Hna. Stagg has no problem cleaning her plate at every meal, but I definitely do. We don´t eat a big breakfast or much of dinner. Lunch is the big meal here, and they feed us SO MUCH. Whenever I first taste the dish I think it´s so good and I´m gonna have no problem finishing it. But by the time I´ve forced myself to clean my plate, I think I never want to eat again. That first day with a member cooking for us was the worst. I think I´ve done better since then and I hope I won´t offend anybody in the future.
The people here are super friendly for the most part. They love having people over. Their properties consist of a big front "yard" with some kind of shade, like a tree or something, and they usually just hang out there on their front porch all day. They also usually have a back yard for more intimate gatherings, but it´s too hot to go inside except to sleep, so generally they´re out front. It´s very easy to contact people. Their culture is such that they never say no to letting us sit with them unless they´re genuinely busy (or if they come up with a good lie...). Since their front yard is basically their living room, the correct way to "knock on doors" is to clap outside of the gate, and then say "permiso" when they say we can come in.
Apparently there´s been a kind of religious revival of sorts going on here. People are very used to the missionaries, whether from our church or from another. I´ve come to find that they seem to expect us to just read to them from the scriptures and then just leave, so they´re not too suspicious. But when we invite them to come to make steps to know that the Church is true, they generally dig in their heels and say, "Soy Catolica." It´s hard to find people who are actually interested in finding the truth. Most of them are SO uneducated. They just do what their pastors tell them to do on Sundays and that´s it. It´s kind of pathetic sometimes when we try to teach people to pray and they literally cannot comprehend what they´re supposed to do'--what they have the privelege to do, really. Nobody understands that God is a loving Heavenly Father and that prayer is a communication, not a way to earn points on Sundays. But we have found a few really great people who are looking for the truth. The three that we´ve found this week that I´m thinking of in particular are younger and better off and have room to make changes in their lives. I was SO excited to find them. One was a young father who was like, "I love having missionaries over but nobody has ever satisfied my questions. They all just say that the Bible is perfect and tell me to accept what they´re saying. But the Bible isn´t perfect! They say there was only one God before the creation of the world, but then it says "Let us make man in OUR image". What´s with that?" My heart instantly started pounding, and when he sat back and let us talk, expecting us to be the same as all the others, we delved into the story of the Restoration. When Hna. Stagg had me recite the First Vision (that´s usually my job), I started crying a little when I read the part about God AND Jesus Christ appearing. The investigator got so excited and kept looking at the sky and saying, "Thank you! Finally it makes sense!" It was awesome. I really, really hope he progresses. I really do. Not many people here are willing to take the steps.
We had our first baptism yesterday. There´s this really amazing family here who we just call The Chicos. There are five kids, four girls ranging from 11 to 4, and one boy who´s 14. They live with their grandma, Flora and a friend who they adopted named Isa. She´s 18. They´re super poor. They have nothing but the clothes on their backs, their tiny house, and daily food. Oh, and cell phones. Everyone has cell phones here. It´s funny. And computers aren´t uncommon either. Anyways, they are teh sweetest family I´ve met. I thought they were crazy at first because they´re loud and they live right next to the paved road so it´s hard to hear anything and I¨m often confused. But the older kids are all baptized and Flora was baptized yesterday. Last night we had ham and ketchup sandwiches and punch to celebrate. I almost cried seeing how happy Flora was with the gospel and virtually nothing else but that and her family in her life. She thanked me for visiting her, even though I´ve only been here a week and did practically nothing to give her the gospel. And she told me that I can come to her if I ever need anything, that she doesn´t have much but she´s willing to give anything. She is a saint. No joke. She actually found the church because after the Chico´s mother died she came to the members and asked for help, and afterwards she let Isa stay with them when she got kicked out of her house for being a member. I´ve never seen someone so Christlike in my life. She´s amazing. I love her and the Chicos so much already.
Shoot, I´m almost out of time. The language is coming great out of necessity and I´m learning the customs really quickly thanks to Hna. Stagg and trial and error. I´m happy and safe and loving sharing the gospel with those who are open to receive it. I know the Church is true and I promise I´ll write more in depth next time. I won´t have nearly so much to cram in next week. I love you!!
Hna. Springer
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