Hermana Tua´one is officially my hero. Despite being sick two days this week, she worked as hard as she could and we almost met our weekly goals even with the missed time. She´s so great with all the members and our investigators, and we´re seeing a lot of progress this Change.
Not only is she a great missionary, she´s an amazing friend. She had my back in major ways twice this week. First was when, after a few days of me being in denial, I told her that my scalp was itching really badly. For the next two hours she picked lice out of my hair, and that was the day she was sick! Yes, I got lice. After only three and a half months in Paraguay. It was really nasty, but now the itching is gone and my hair has been declared clean, and I´m told I´m less likely to get it again now. I´m not sure how much I believe that...
The second time she was my hero was just this morning. We´d just come back from grocery shopping. I opened my wardrobe to get my sweats to lounge around in, and there on the back panel of the wardrobe was a tarantula. This wasn´t the little baby, half-dead tarantula of that time with Hna. Stagg. No, this was like the father of all nastiness--as big as my palm and very much alive. I immediately shouted for my companion. She came running, and after giving her my flashlight and showing her where the monster had gone, I fled to the opposite end of the apartment. The next twenty minutes were very dramatic. Equipped with a plastic pitcher and a piece of cardboard, Hna. Tua´one struggled to evict the spider, first from amongst my clothes, and then out of the house. Sometimes it seemed like a fight to the death ("Ew! Ew! EEEWWW!"..."No, get off of that!"..."Oh gosh, it´s in your coat!!"..."AAARGH!!"), other times there was a tense silence as she carefully tried to trap the thing. I just watched from the kitchen, laughing and shuddering and stomach churning. Finally the eight-legged freak was caught in the pitcher. I followed Hna. Tua´one outside, armed with bug killer, ready to finish this battle with chemical warfare. But the kid of the people we live behind was out there, feeding his ducks, and when he heard we had a tarantula to kill he suggested we feed it to his ducks. That proved a much more satisfying end as the ducks eagerly chowed down with much excited quacking, leaving no body to dispose of. I was ready to invite the ducks to move into my wardrobe but sadly that´s against mission rules.
I couldn´t rest until I had sprayed bug killer all over the house, and I´m still not gonna feel secure using my wardrobe for a while. I carefully extracted an examined everything in there using a pair of coat hangers and sprayed it all with bug killer just for good measure. i just can´t get over the fact that it was in my clothes! The only way I can imagine that it got into my always-locked-tight closet is through my laundry. It must have hitched a ride from the plant-filled backyard of the woman who does my laundry, and it must have been chilling in my socks as I put them in my closet. That means that at some point, I was HOLDING IT!! Thankfully I was too lazy to put my clothes away nicely this morning, or finding that thing would have been a lot more traumatic. *SHUDDER*
So yeah, I love Hna. Tua´one. I´ve pretty much sworn to wait on her hand and foot for as long as she´s my companion. :)
Anyways...how are you all doing? Having a nice, tarantula-free week, i hope? It sounds like you´re all having a great time hanging out in Utah together. Dad and Mom, I totally think you should just move to Utah. That would be so sweet to just fly home to the Salt Lake airport and be greeted by the entire extended family. Not that I ever think about the day I fly home... :)
Oh, Happy Father´s Day by the way! Grandpa Springer, Goompa, Dad, Clayton, Todd, Neil, Jared, James, Jens, Taylor, and EVERYBODY, thank you for being so amazing. You are really all such an inspiration to me. I´m so glad to have you as father figures in my life. Paraguayan men celebrated Father´s Day by getting too drunk to walk. I was very very grateful for all of you that day, for being such awesome fathers, uncles, husbands, and grandfathers and making our family such a happy place to be. I hope I can marry somebody who will be as good a father as all of you are. Not that I ever think about being married... :)
Our investigators are all doing great. We´re teaching some really nice people. Not all of them are totally gung-ho about learning about the church, but the one who is makes it all worth it. Griselda is an absolute joy to teach. Every time we go to her house, she´s not only read the pamphlet or chapter we assigned her last time, but she´s taken detailed notes and enjoys teaching US the doctrines. She went to one of the Elders´ baptisms with us on Saturday, and she came to church with us yesterday in a pretty pink skirt borrowed from her cousin. Now we´re planning her baptism on the 25th, and we´re all super excited. She´s being such a great example for her siblings, and I think her mom really likes the gospel, too. I hope to see her whole family baptized someday.
Last Monday, right after I e-mailed you, we went to go visit Hna. Sanchez, and the change in her was amazing. I was there for her baptism and her confirmation, but it was like she transformed Sunday night. When we showed up at her house, she came to greet us, and it was like she was a completely new person. She walked tall, she was smiling, she seemed really put-together, and she just FELT like a member of the Church. I can´t really describe it. You could just feel the Spirit in her, and it made me so happy to see how much happier she is. Now we´re teaching her about the temple and getting her ready to make more and more covenants and receive more and more blessings for herself and her family.
I´ve beeing going through the scripture reference guide i made in the MTC and marking key scriptures in my Spanish set to use during lessons. In doing so, I found that 1 Corinthians is my new favorite book of scripture. There are so many jewels of knowledge in there that are so useful when teaching--references to the Kingdoms of Glory, baptisms for the dead... I especially enjoyed reading chapters 12 and 14. I wish I´d read 14 a long time ago, as it addresses speaking in tongues--something that people bring up a LOT here in Paraguay. What I love about that chapter is that Paul compares speaking in tongues with prophecy, and ultimately concludes that prophecy for the edification of the church is a thousand times more important than speaking in a language that nobody else can understand. That´s what God and the Gospel is all about--making things clearer so that all can be edified. I try to help people understand that, but some Paraguayans seem determined to remain confused and hoodwinked.
And I lied, I totally have been thinking about marriage and the day I come home lately. Not in a trunkie, "I want this to be over" way, but in a very constructive, motivating way. Amanda´s wedding certainly got marriage on my mind, and in reading the conference talks and remembering Father´s Day, I´m realizing just how important marriage is. Families are so key to happiness here in this life and in the eternities. I´m so so SO grateful to have an eternal family. I don´t even want to think about what kind of life I would have without that knowledge of eternal families.
As for thinking about the day I go home, in Preach My Gospel there´s an activity where it encourages us to do that and ask ourselves what kind of person we will have become after our mission and what kind of legacy we want to have left behind. After every lesson, at the end of every day, I love to think about all the people that the Lord has put in my path and all the inspiration that has come to my mind that day. I´m reminded constantly that there is a higher purpose to it all, and that this is my time to really make a difference in Paraguay.
Well, that´s all for today. I hope you´re all enjoying the non-humidity. I really hope it rains here soon because this muggy, sweaty heat doesn´t make it really easy to get up and go. I thought it was supposed to be winter?
I love you all and hope you have an amazing week. Don´t forget to write before next Monday. Read the scriptures every day and try to find some new inspiration every time. Thank you for everything.
Love forever and ever,
---Hna. Springer
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