¡Hola todos! ¿Cómo están?
Happy birthday Dad! And a very happy Pioneer Day to everyone! I´ll admit I kind of forgot that yesterday was a holiday. Earlier this month I was totally planning on talking to all of our investigators yesterday about being pioneers in the gospel for their generations to come. I forgot to do that, but I think I´ll make that my theme for this week.
There was a major Paraguayan holiday yesterday, though. Paraguay played futbol against Uruguay for the Copa America. Apparently it´s a tournament they only have every four years, and Paraguay hasn´t won in 32 years. Man, you should´ve seen this place when Paraguay beat Venezuela and Brazil, meaning that they would be in the finals. It was like a war had been won or something. The partying went on all through the night. Hna. Tua´one and I were actually in a colectivo during the last few minutes of the game against Brazil, and it was like being back on BYU campus during football season. The bus driver had the game playing loudly over the radio, and several people in the bus had little portable TVs. All of these complete strangers on the bus were best friends when Paraguay made that final goal and made it to the finals. There was lots of cheering and hugging and it was all very fun. The hype built up all week long. It was almost impossible to get people to commit to go to church. "But I have to watch the game!" said one of our investigators, "The game´s only gonna last a few hours. Christ will be around forever! He can wait!" When we asked if there was anything we could include in our prayers for our investigators, the vast majority of them said, "Pray that Paraguay will win!" People were buying and selling flags and jerseys and kites and fireworks... and then they lost. You´d think there hadn´t been any game at all the way the excitement just DIED and absolutely nobody was talking about soccer anymore. It was so sad. I kind of hoped they would win. Soccer is pretty much all Paraguay does for fun. But at the same time I´m glad we didn´t have to worry about all the drunkards and parties.
Thank you so much for the package, Mom! I just got it on Tuesday, but I¨m pretty sure it got here earlier this month. Packages get to Paraguay in about four weeks without any problem. It´s getting them out of the office and to the missionaries that takes forever. But I absolutely love the socks. They´re PERFECT and got to me just in time. Thank you! :)
And thank you for your e-mails Shelli, Lucie, Dad, Mom, Sarah, Ashley, and Grandma! I´ve said it before but I´ll say it again--I LOVE YOU!
I´ve had several people asking me if they can e-mail me or if that would take too much of my time to read. Um... YES E-MAIL ME! I don´t have much time to RESPOND, but I can never have too many e-mails to read! I print them off in the morning on P-Days, then read them in my free time before writing the weekly e-mail at the end of P-Day. Never ever ever ever feel like I don´t want to hear from you, because I appreciate every single word you guys send me. The more the merrier! And it´s a total myth that your writing to me from home will make my homesick. In reality, I feel MORE homesick if I DON´T know what you´re doing. But when you tell me, it´s almost like I was there with you and I´m not homesick at all. And yes, Goompa, I got your last e-mail loud and clear. And no, Dad, Hna. Tua´one doesn´t read all of my e-mails. I hear missionaries used to have to e-mail one at a time with their companion looking over their shoulder during their hour of e-mailing, but now all we have to do is make sure that we´re on neighboring computers and can see each others´ screens. It saves a lot of time and it´s a lot less stressful. I hate it when people read over my shoulder.
Paraguay has a holiday on the 30th of July called "El Día de Amistad," which I´m excited for. Everyone gives gifts to all of their friends to express their love. Hna. Tua´one and I are planning little gifts to give to the members and our investigators. I wish we celebrated Friendship Day in the States. I guess that´s what Valentine´s Day if for, though.
People keep telling us that winter´s over now. If that´s true, that was the most anti-climactic winter ever. Yeah we got cold, but whenever we had a cold day people would say, "Oh, just wait until winter! Then you´ll REALLY freeze!" And now they´re saying that it´s over already! I was expecting it to get so bad and instead it´s getting hot and we´re wearing t-shirts again and suffering from humidity sickness. People are also saying that this summer is going to be incredibly hot. Oh joy. Maybe they´re wrong about that too? Hopefully?
Hna. Tua´one and I had another great week. We didn´t meet our goals every day, but only because we didn´t work on Tuesday due to humidity sickness (which was just headaches and nausea that needed sleeping off). We still did really well, though, and made up for lost time by doing my first ever division on Saturday. I was worried at first when Hna. Tua´one suggested that we do a division, because I´ve never had to do anything without my trusty Senior Companion before. But it turned out to be a really great experience and really refreshing for both of us. I went with a 16-year-old convert named Dihana, and she was excellent at sharing her insights and testifying at just the right time. She really has strong faith in the gospel and could really connect with all of our investigators who have problems living the gospel. That´s not to say that she carried the lessons. That was my job, and I did it just fine. It´s easy to be a leader when you´re left virtually on your own. :) The only real challenge I had was with Mario. Hna. Tua´one is a lot better at charades than I am. Dihana did well with him. I just started getting kind of frustrated at the end because earlier this week Hna. Tua´one and I had written out our testimonies and given them to him to read on his own. He told me that he´d read them and that he really admires us for serving missions. But, we´re just young girls from a "problem-free" country and have no idea what life is really like--we should learn from him and see that all this faith stuff is nice, but it doesn´t solve problems in "real life." I was really put to the test there. Had I been able to speak Spanish, I probably wouldn´t have been able to explain myself well. Having to speak Spanish to someone who can´t hear? That was hard. I couldn´t write fast enough as he went on raving, and nothing I wrote was adequate to get him to understand. Finally, I just sat back, let him finish his shpeal, and said a silent prayer for help. I still wasn´t able to get Mario to realize that he needs to exercise faith, but I was reassured by the Spirit that I AM right about the Gospel helping people. I may not be a poverty-stricken Paraguayan with four kids out of wedlock and three jobs and an addiction to alcohol, but I HAVE had problems, and I HAVE had them fixed through faith and prayer and keeping the commandments of God. God doesn´t give us commandments so that He can boss us around, no más. They´re His guideposts for us to be happier. Anyways, I was reassured of that, and Dihana and I said a closing prayer with him in which I prayed that Mario could understand that we CAN help him with his problems. Mario may not have felt the Spirit--maybe he did--but Dihana and I sure did, and we left feeling happier for having shared our testimonies.
The rest of the day went perfect. We visited a lot of menos activo members and they were a lot more open with Dihana there to share her personal experiences about being a member in Mariano Roque Alonso. We also had success finding new investigators to teach, which Hna. Tua´one hadn´t expected me to do without her. She was very impressed, and by the end of the day I felt confident that someday I will in fact be able to be a Senior Comp. :) It was a really great day, and we have plans for a branch missionary to come with us every day this next week so that should really help us a lot.
As for me personally, I´ve reached Mosiah in the Book of Mormon. I love how the prophet Enos must have had so many amazing life experiences, but the one that he found most important to put in the records was his experience with prayer. I love how when God assured him that He forgave him of his sins, Enos immediately felt happier because he knew that God will never lie. I love how even after having been relieved of his own burdens, he continued in prayer in behalf of his people, and then in behalf of his enemies. I also really enjoy the story of King Benjamin. The part I recently read from his speech to his people is about how good leaders should work for their own support and not ask for the people to give them money. He was also confident that he had been a good leader and wouldn´t have to answer for the sins of his people because he´d done all he could to never permit his people to sin against God. Enos, too, said something about how he was excited to face God with a clean conscience. How many of us can say that?
When I was with Dihana, she chose the opening hymn in a lesson and picked "Count Your Blessings." At that point I wasn´t sure what I wanted to share with our investigator, so I looked at the footnotes of the hymn and opened to the reference there--DyC 78:17-19. That´s now one of my favorite scriptures--about how we have the understanding of little children when it comes to us knowing what amazing blessings God has in store for us. We don´t have the faith to live our lives problem-free, but we can be happy knowing that God will guide and bless us as we learn and grow. We need to be grateful for all that He has given us and do all we can to draw closer to Him so that we can have more and more happiness. God gives us riches after He knows that He can trust us to use them for the good of others. If we have God, we have EVERYTHING.
Y...eso no más. :) It´s been a good week. It´s been a good mission. I´m very happy with how things have been, and I´m excited to see how much better things get. I hope you all are counting your blessings and doing all you can to draw closer to God so that He can help you with all of life´s challenges. Never forget that the blessings are always there waiting---we just have to reach out and take them.
I love you all. Have a great week!
---Hna. Springer
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