Week 38 - Asuncion Paraguay - Villa Hayes

Week 38

Dear Family,

Once again, I have SO much to say and so little time to say it. Such is life. Here goes.

On Monday night we got a call from the Zone Leaders and heard the dreaded words "Special Changes." But it turned out not to be dreadful at all. After only four short weeks in Loma Pyta, they took me out of that trio with Hnas. Young and Brittner and sent me off to Villa Hayes to form another trio with two little latinas. Their names are Hna. Rivera and Hna. Alvarenga, and they are freaking AWESOME! I was so worried that being with latinas would be intimidating and miserable, but many they are so nice and fun and super spiritual. I love them to death already and it´s only been five days!

Hna. Rivera is from Nicaragua. She´s been here in Paraguay one month less than me nad has been in Villa Hayes that whole time. Subsequently, she´s very good at taking charge in planning and lessons, and she´s excellent with the people. She´s very calm and sweet but not afraid to defend herself, and we often have great spiritual discussions sparked by her ponderings about the gospel.

Hna. Alvarenga is from Honduras and she´s ALWAYS looking to make everything we do as fun as humanly possible. She has the cutest laugh and is always making us smile. I already have way more pictures of her than I do of myself, because she´s just always doing something hilarious. The people love her. She has a few months on me in the mission and I´ve followed in her wake a few times and everyone remembers and misses her. It´s adorable.

My Spanish has improved so much already as you can imagine. I´ve learned so much vocabulary for household items and cooking terms and other things I never had to learn being with "gringas." And it is SO MUCH FUN teaching the Hermanas English. Hna. Rivera especially picks up phrases quickly. We´ve already mastered such helpful sentences as "We need to leave now," and "It´s very hot." :) I´m so excited to really perfect my Spanish with these two, as well as learn how to teach as well as they do.

But man, I feel so up in the air right now. NO IDEA why they moved me from one trio to another when Changes are only two weeks away. I think I´m the only Special Change there was, too. I don´t THINK I did anything wrong in Loma. :) I have this horrible fear that they´re just giving me some time to get to know the area before pulling out the Hermanas and giving me a Junior companion. NOOO! Even if that´s not the case, though, we have no idea who´s staying or going. Sadly, Hna. Rivera will most certainly leave as she´s been here forever. But I don´t know. Maybe they just sent me here until they can rearrange things and put me somewhere else. I´m not even gonna bother unpacking yet.

I would LOVE to stay in Villa Hayes for a while. True, it´s back in Mariano Zone and I feel like I´m gonna be in the same 10-mile radius my entire mission, but this area is GORGEOUS. It´s exactly what I imagined Paraguay would be like before I actually got here--a small, less developed town with lots of wide open spaces, livestock everywhere, beautiful sunsets, interesting wildlife, and many Guaraní speakers. And since summer is coming on, we wear loads of sunblock, mosquito repellant, and sombreros, which makes me feel like an official Paraguay explorer. It really feels like starting over in teh REAL Paraguay away from all the urbanization. It helps that you need to cross the river to get here. The river is HUGE! It has BARGES in it! Our house is only a block away from the shore and when we go jogging in the mornings we pass by this little sand volleyball court and it really feels like we live by some remote ocean bay. Minus the salt smell and the seagulls. I love it. And our house is so cute. It´s bigger than Mariano´s and Loma´s funnily enough, and it´s pink and purple. Very Hermana-friendly. :)

The people are a lot more respectful with two thirds of us being latinas, but I still stick out like a sore thumb. I´m pretty sure I´m the only American in the whole town, and I feel humongous next to my teeny tiny companions. People tend to stare a lot.

There is, however, an American family that attends our branch. It made me so happy to meet them. They´re from Panguitch, Utah, and the dad works in the embassy. They live in Asunción but come to church here at President´s request to "shadow teach," which basically means show Paraguay what being LDS is all about. They pulled up to church in a mini van (the first I´ve ever seen in Paraguay), and five little platinum blonde, blue-eyed kids under the age of seven piled out. It definitely felt like being in Utah again. :) The dad is the sacrament pianist and the mom leads music for the Primary. They´re a welcome part of the branch.

From Loma Pyta to Villa Hayes I pretty much went from the mission´s most active, faithful ward to one of the smallest branches. There were only three people there on time, about ten an hour later, and a grand total of 50 in sacrament meeting, half of them made up of us missionaries, the branch presidency, visiting District representatives (my old friends from Mariano), and the American family. :) We have a lot of work to do. The chapel itself is so tiny, and it´s almost literally in the shadow of a huge Catholic cathedral down the street. But I love how no matter where you are in the world--California, Arizona, Loma Pyta, Villa Hayes--an LDS chapel feels like coming home. The Spirit of the Priesthood and the pure love of Christ don´t vary from place to place.

Since there aren´t many members, we also don´t have many lunch citas. Again, in Loma we had to rotate weeks there were so many people wanting to feed us, and now it´s drastically different. But my companions cook so well. I honestly don´t miss the lunch citas. It was always noodles with chunks of meat anyways (blech). Now I´ve got awesome Nicaraguan and Honduran cooking. Scrumptious! I do miss having a supermarket, though. There isn´t a single one in the whole town. And there´s only one ciber. I´ve seen like six orthodontics offices and there´s a bazillion pharmacies, but just scattered despensas for food and one tiny internet cafe for the whole town to share. Crazy.

I have yet to be fed anything revolting or weird here, but I´ve heard a lot of revolting and weird things that Hna. Rivera has tried in her time here. Thanks to living next to the river, we´re dealing with fish, snake, and crocodile, and thanks to the campo we´ve got armadillo, monkey, "lion," and "tiger." I think by "lion," they mean cougar or maybe bobcat, but I´m really confused by "tiger." I´m pretty sure they´re talking about jaguars, but nobody here recognizes the word "jaguar" when I ask. Has my life-long learning about animals led me astray. ARE there in fact tigers in South America?! In any case, I don´t want to take part in eating endangered animals. (Or is that whole "endangered" thing a lie, too??)

It´s fascinating to me how customs and sayings vary so much from place to place--even cities right next door to each other. I notice it most with names. In Mariano, every girl under the age of ten was named Sofi. In Loma, I heard so many weird first names such as "De Las Nieves," "De Jesus," or "De Los Santos." (Yes, that´s their FIRST name. And they don´t use nicknames!) Here in Villa Hayes I discovered a new strange name that I´d never heard before but have since heard a lot. I´d just gotten done introducing myself to a menos activo man. "...I´ve been in Paraguay seven months but this is my second day in Villa Hayes. What´s your name?" "Bienvenidos," he said. "Awww, gracias!" I said, touched. Then everyone burst out laughing and I learned that "Bienvenidos" is a NAME here. Go figure. :)

It´s really been a fun week. I haven´t ONCE thought, "Is it 9:00 yet?" Every single lesson is productive and well-taught and uplifting. One of our investigators, for the first time since Elber, actually did their whole reading assignment and had QUESTIONS for us! It´s incredible what a difference that makes. Instead of hitting the usual roadblock in our lesson plan and having to backtrack, it was like the floodgates were opened. The investigator was willing to act, and was listening with an open mind and eagerness to learn, and my words just flowed. I was able to bear my testimony without fear of casting pearls before someone with a closed heart. It was excellent.

This week I´ve been studying a lot about having an open heart--how to literally have the Spirit guide my every footstep. There´s a quote in Predicad from Joseph Smith that says, "Salvation cannot come without revelation; it is in vain for anyone to minister without it. This is the principle on which the government of heaven is conducted--by revelation adapted to the circumstances in which the children of the Kingdom are placed." It´s so true. That´s what we tell people every day. "Don´t just listen to us. Ask God and trust in what HE tells you." Satan has made that such a foreign concept for people, and until we bridge that gap between people and personal revelation from God, we can´t make headway. That also entails me being worthy and receptive of revelations so that I can help others receive their own. I´m so excited for General Conference in two weeks. I´m gonna listen hard for how to better work on being guided by the Spirit.

But I´m so grateful for the knowledge that God IS willing to help me--that He knows and loves ME. It helps me so much as a missionary, not only in lessons but especially when people attack my testimony. Yesterday someone asked me how much money we make for each baptism (that´s the most common lie other churches spread about us), and I told him I haven´t recieved so much as one Guaraní for my service. He told me I was a liar and wouldn´t listen to me after that. It hurt to be judged like that, but I had the consolation that God knows the truth and that every challenging, mean person I meet God has put in my path for my eternal benefit. I feel His love for me every day in the little joys like someone FINALLY doing their reading, AND in the difficulties that make me stronger and happier day after day. I know that the harder it is, the greater the prize at the end if I do my best, and I know that God will and does give me happiness as I serve Him.

On a random note, I´m sorry for anything mean or judmental I´ve ever said, whether in e-mail or in person. Now I realize how annoying and even damaging that is, I´m doing all I can to root out any tendency in me to talk badly about anyone.

Anyways, Sarah, you probably thought I forgot all about you, didn´t you? Nope! HAPPY (LATE) BIRTHDAY! I´m grateful your birthday was the day I moved to Villa Hayes or I would have been super distracted all day wishing I could be with you. Even with the newness of Villa Hayes and my companions, you were on my mind a lot. I´m glad you had a great birthday. Seventeen already. Holy cow.

Thank you for the e-mails this week Dad, Mom, Grandma, Laurel, and Sarah. You make me a very happy missionary. :) I love you so much.

Due to the move, my brilliant plan to send you all my photos kind of fell through, but I´m working on it. In the meantime, enjoy these five. The first is of my new companions. Hna. Alvarenga is the one on the left. The second is of me with Miguel and Justo from Loma Pyta. The third is me in a cool foresty part of Mariano. The fourth is me with Hna. Sanchez´ adorable little sobrinos. And the last is of me with Teodocio. Enjoy!

I LOVE YOU!!

---Hna. Springer

Well I can´t burn a CD today, but this computer sends photos really well so I´m gonna send as much as possible today. Enjoy! LOVE YOU!

1-Me and Hna. Tua´one
2-Me in the middle of the crazy main road (Hna. Tua´one´s idea, not mine)
3-Griselda´s baptism
4-Me lugging groceries home from the Super
5-The "Dream Team"--my last District in Mariano
6-Me with pretty much all the youth in the Mariano branch

More to come next week! 

---Carly

Week 37 - Asuncion Paraguay - Loma Pyta

Querido Familia Mia,

Hey, how´s it going? I have so much on my mind right now. I didn´t have a lot of time to think out this week´s letter and I want it to be awesome. First of all, thank you Laurel, Grandma, Dad, Mom, Sarah, Amanda, and Ashley for your letters this week. I loved all of your thoughts about the September 11th stuff, and it sounds like things are going well with you in school and everything. I´m sorry I don´t have time to email all of you back today, but I´m gonna go home and write some letters to you.


Check it out! I got photos to upload! It´s a miracle. You´ll also be happy to know that next week I have it all planned out to send you a CD of all my pictures thus far. But here´s one of me and Hna. Tua´one at Hna. Sanchez´ baptism. That was definitely one of my happiest days last Change. And the other one is me with my two new companions. Hna. Young is in the middle, and Hna. Brittner is the one taller than me. I´m so incredibly happy that some photos finally uploaded. Aren´t you? 

Anyways, this week was pretty great. We had some great quality lessons. Our mission president changed our rules a little bit after the conference with Pte. Arnold, and now we can only count new investigators if they accept the baptismal invitation. Subsequently, our numbers went from an average 20 news to only 7 this week. Ouch. But I´m really happy about that rule. It makes us a lot smarter about what we do. I´m realizing lately that we haven´t had the Spirit with us enough in our lessons. The Spirit is kind of vital to mission work, as you know, so that´s a pretty big problem. So I´ve been reading a lot in Predicad lately to receive more motivation and inspiration when it comes to having the Spirit with us. Something I really liked at the beginning of Predicad was the suggestion for us to remember that God has the same love for the people in our mission as He has for us. I think back on those special moments when I´ve felt God´s love for me, and to think that He has that same love for the people I pass in the street definitely makes me want to help them feel God´s love for them. Also, I think about my past needs to repent, and how good it felt after the repentance process, and it makes me sad to think about how many people around me have no idea how to get rid of that guilt, or even that it´s possible! 

We´re also supposed to report now how many of our new investigators were references from members. We did really great in that respect. Five of our seven were references from members, and really they´re great people. One of them was my first ever reference from outside of our ward. A member in a neighboring city came to find us on Saturday night and introduce us to his friends who live in our area. The member, Mahonri, was so excited to share the gospel with Fabian and Cristina, who he knows from work. Teaching with him was so refreshing and inspirational, because you could just feel the love that Mahonri has for Fabian and Cristina. He wanted so badly for them to understand the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation and the other things that have shaped his life, and he´s a returned missionary so he did it really well. We Hermanas hardly did anything, really. We were pretty much just a means for him to openly talk about the gospel. 

We´ve been teaching these kids named Miguel and Justito. I´m not sure if I´ve written about them before, yet. They´re such great kids. Their parents are inactive members and their mom is very anxious for them to get baptized. We´ve been working on helping her come to church again and remember why it´s important for her kids to get baptized. Miguel is 16 and speaks a lot of Guaraní because he lived out in the country for most of his childhood, but he also had a troubled past that brought him to God and he´s a really spiritual person. His little brother Justo is only 9, but he is so smart and so funny. I need to film him someday. He´s so charismatic and sarcastic. He kind of reminds me of Rico from Hannah Montana, actually. Anyways, they came to church all on their own yesterday. Miguel was wearing his best clothes, which consists of a t shirt for the annual idol worshipping festival. Oh, I mean, the adoration of the Virgen de Caacupe. Justo has a white shirt and black pants and looks so adorable. Anyways, we were heading away from the chapel when they were arriving because we had to go pass for somebody, and they were all like, "Oh no, is there no church today??" We assured them that there was. Justo asked anxiously, "And is primary over?" We told him no it hadn´t even started yet, and he actually skipped for joy, he was so excited. It was so cute! I can´t wait for them to get baptized on the 24th. And I really have hopes for their parents, too. We went to visit them yesterday with a member of the bishopric, and the dad actually volunteered to say the opening prayer, when he usually gives an excuse not to share with us. And he and his wife paid attention during the whole lesson. The Spirit was strong, and they were really sincere in their desires to change how they´ve been living.

Oh, and remember how I said I live right next to Mariano? Well the other day we hopped on the bus, and Rosana was there! And she was reading the Book of Mormon! I was so so happy to see her. I think my companions were a little confused when I gave her besos and chatted with her the whole bus ride. Anyways, Rosana has changed so much. She´s getting baptized on the 17th and actually got emotional when she told me how much she loves the church and how much better her life is because she goes. And that´s not all. Nasario is getting baptized, too! Hna. Tua´one told me he´s been wanting me to call, so I did the other day and he wants me to go to his baptism so badly. I´m definitely asking permission to go to Mariano this weekend. It would definitely feel like finally reaping what I sowed there.

So...fun things about this week. It was Hna. Young´s birthday on Tuesday, so last Monday we went to Pizza Hut to celebrate. I thought it was going to be some cheap fast food place with icky Paraguayan pizza. So I was pleasantly surprised when we walked in and I found that Pizza Hut here is a high class restaurant with waiters and menus and ambiance. Everyone there was having a business luncheon or something. They ate their pizza with forks and knives, making us feel like savages when we ate it by hand like you´re supposed to. And the pizza was actually legit pizza. With mozzarella and marinara or barbecue sauce. True, they didn´t have a lot of the same toppings (they have a fondness for sprinkling corn on pizza for some reason), but the crust and sauce and cheese was perfect. I was in heaven. 

At district meeting when we told the Elders we´d gone there for lunch, we laughed about the fact that in the States going to McDonald´s or Pizza Hut is like embarrassingly cheap. You don´t eat there with your boss, for example. You like hide the receipts from your boss. But here, if you eat there people think, "Wow. They must be loaded! How classy!" 

The Elders also scored big points when, for Hna. Young´s birthday, they provided banana pancakes with homemade cinnamon syrup. They even brought candles. It was really sweet. 

Hna. Brittner and I had fun telling the Paraguayans that it was Hna. Young´s birthday. They would leap out of their seats yelling, "Felicidades!!" and give her besos (that´s "kisses" for those who don´t speak Spanish. Here in Paraguay when you greet a woman you give her a kiss on each cheek. Even the men do it, leading to lots of awkward situations with us missionaries who are supposed to stick to handshakes.) They would then go scrambling to find some kind of gift to give her, usually a piece of candy or something. It was hilarious.

In district meeting we also talked about how Paraguayans are very simple minded. They´re not stupid, but they have a different way of thinking. Give them some shade and some tereré and they´re happy as clams. When talking about the gospel, they´re a lot like 13 year olds, always wanting to be right and show that they know a lot. So we thought about ways to teach them in a way that avoids making them feel ignorant. We need to be more humble and simpler in the phrases we use and the concepts that we teach. It´s better to teach them really well the concept of prayer and leave in ten minutes than to teach the whole Plan of Salvation in an hour and not have them understand any of it.

Paraguayans really aren´t stupid. They´re just a little naive. This week we had several people ask us, "Did you hear about the Twin Towers that one time? Lots of people died." They don´t really have any idea how big the States are, either. "New York is far away from your place, right? So it probably didn´t impact you at all." Or the usual, "I knew someone from the States. You know them, too, right?" 

Drat, time to go again. I wanted to write some more, but at least I got to send you photos! Enjoy! I love you all so so much!

Love, Hna. Springer

Week 36 - Asuncion Paraguay - Loma Pyta

Hey Familyª"/()¡!

That was my attempt to find the exclamation point on this keyboard. Some wise guy thought it would be funny to mix up all the keys in the internet cafe. He also put inappropriate pictures on the computer wallpapers. I just replaced mine with a picture of the Asunción temple. :)

Anyways... thank you Dad, Mom, Sarah, Ashley, Grandma Springer, and the Straddlings for your letters to me this week. Oh, and Jared, Naiya and Eva, I got your letters in the mail on Wednesday! They made me so so happy. I love you all so much. Getting mail really is the happiest. 

Well, second to baptisms, of course. :) This week, we had that baptism of the member whose records got lost. For once, it was a perfectly normal, problem free, peaceful baptism. It kind of threw us off, actually, to have everything go according to schedule and be in and out of the chapel within the hour. :) But it really was a nice service. Her less active daughter and ex husband came to support her, as well as her immediate family and friends. The Hermanas and I sang "Our Savior´s Love," and Aurora (the woman getting baptized) cried with happiness. Since she hasn´t had the practice of doing baptisms for the dead, she was nervous about doing everything right in the font. It all went no problem, though. Pretty much the first time I´ve seen someone only have to go under the water one time.

Everything should be good to go for Blanca to be baptized next weekend, too. She really is such a sweetheart. The other day we taught her about the Plan of Salvation, and she was like, "I´m gonna get baptized so we can be neighbors forever in the Celestial Kingdom!" She´s so cute, and very intelligent. One time this week we went in to teach her about the Ten Commandments, and before we started she told us about how the Virgencita healed her little cousin. We nervously said, "Oh...um...we´re gonna talk about that today." I was worried that Blanca would get all offended once we started telling her that worshipping saints and idols is wrong. Instead, she was like, "Yeah...it really makes sense. The saints and angels can´t do anything without God, right? So why would we give them the credit? That would make God really sad." 

I also talked to Hna. Tua´one this morning, and she said that things are going excellent in Mariano. She baptized Teodocio (after many many ups and downs, he was coming along great right before I left), and Nasario and Rosana are set to go on the 17th. She said Nasario has really sobered down and was really depressed when I left. He told her that the missionaries are the only real friends that he´s ever had, and he wants to do all it takes to be baptized and be a part of the LDS family. I´m so happy for him. I need to write to him...

This last week we found a new investigator named Victor Hugo (no, I highly doubt his parents named him after the awesome Les Miserables author). He´s an older man, and we found him because we were trying to find his mom who we´d contacted on the street. Turns out she´s one of those "SOY CATOLICA!!!" women, so she hides from us. But Victor happily let us in. He said that nine months ago he broke away from the Catholic church, recognizing that he didn´t feel close to Christ there. Now he´s church hunting. Que suerte for us. :) The last time we visited him he actually told us that he´d prayed to God for a sign to lead him to the truth...the same day that we clapped his door. We´ve mostly just talked about the Restoration with him, and he´s being kind of difficult. He pretty much said last time that if it wasn´t for the fact that God might have sent us as his sign, he´d probably just dismiss us as crazies. He reads the Book of Mormon, but he keeps nitpicking at it. ("Most of the Witnesses of the Book of Mormon were Smith´s relatives." "This story about Nephi sounds a lot like Abraham...not very original...") He´s a very smart guy, and he knows a LOT about the Bible. Sadly, though, that means that he knows all the anti=Mormon scriptures, about how there can´t be more scripture and how prophets were only a thing of the past, etc. But every time we talk with him, I just feel that he is so ready for the gospel. He is so smart and so sincere in his search for the Truth. He´s also very open to our explanations, and he seems really impressed with our efforts to just get him to learn from God, not from us. I pray so hard when we talk with him. Every time I´m not speaking, I´m just praying, "Heavenly Father, PLEASE help us say the right words." It really feels like an open war with the Adversary. If he just opens his heart a little bit, I KNOW that God will help him to feel that we´re teaching the truth. I just pray so hard that the next time we teach him, he´ll have softened up.

Oh yeah, and we had zone conference this week with Pte. Arnold, our Area Seventy (he spoke in conference a few years ago and told that story about the "stupid cow!" that stuck its head through the fence and died from eating wheat). It was such an amazing day. Pte. Arnold didn´t turn out to be nearly as mean as everyone made him up to be. He was actually really full of praise for our group. He said the mission has improved a lot since the last time he came six months ago, and he gave us great counsel for how to do even better. What really touched me the most was how he told us that he was giving us a clean slate. He wasn´t going to assume that we were going to do poorly. He was going to trust us to take what we learned and go change who we were and what we did to conform to the Lord´s will. He says we´ve got obedience down, but now we need to work on personal sacrifice until we finally come to consecrate everything we are to the Work. 

Hna. Madariaga also spoke, and she read a lot of scriptures out of DyC 6, but she put our names into the verses. The next day, I wrote out that whole section, inserting my own name into each verse. It was amazing how powerfully that hit me. It was like receiving revelation straight from God to me, and I realized how true it is that the scriptures were written for US, not just for those who received it years ago.

Pte. Madariaga showed us how to ask references from the members. We practiced it that night with a menos activo family, and it worked so well! We gave each family member a blank piece of paper and had them write down the names of everyone they know who isn´t a member. When they ran out of names, we had them put stars next to those who live in our area. Then we talked with each family member, one by one, about their names and when we could visit them and what they needed, etc. It really created a lot more enthusiasm for reference=giving than we usually see. It was such an efficient tactic. We´re gonna have to do that again once we run out of those first names. It´s definitely something we need to do sparingly, though.

A funny story about this week before I sign off. Hna. Young just learned the other day that when people say, "How are you?" in Guaraní, she´s been responding for the last ten months, "I´m pretty!" Gotta be careful with pronunciation. :) 

Well, time to go again, sadly. I´m so glad that I still have eleven whole months in Paraguay. It´s sad how fast the last eight months have gone. I can´t believe that Joan and Hollis are almost done with their mission! I still remember so well going to their farewell! I´m glad the hurricane didn´t ruin this last month for them, though. 

Take care everyone, and thank you again so much for your letters and your prayers. I LOVE YOU!!

==Hna. Springer

Week 35 - Asuncion Paraguay - Loma Pyta

Hey Family!

Thank you so much for the outpouring of letters! Shelli, Teresa, Holly, Dad, Mom, Ashley, Amanda, Grandma, and Goompa--you´re the best. I´m glad to hear that things are pretty tranquilo with you all. I hope you survive the summer heat, and remember that your summer is ending while mine is just beginning. Remember how last week I was freezing cold? Well, on Friday night I went to bed with four blankets and still shivered all night. But on Saturday night, all four blankets ended up on the floor as I tried to escape the heat! Paraguay weather is so random. Yesterday was sweltering hot, but everyone keeps telling me that it was nothing compared to summer heat. I think I´m gonna die. On that note, since you´ve all been asking what I want for my birthday, I would really appreciate some light summer shirts and skirts. But only if you really want to get some for me. I can totally buy some here for myself if I need to. I wouldn´t say anything if you hadn´t offered. 

We had a good week this week. We had six investigators in church! My record before Loma was only three. The members are just so friendly here that we can easily rely on them to help us give investigators the motivation to come. We have one investigator named Blanca who is super amazing. When I first got here she was all upset that the Hermana before me had left, and she´d just gotten back from a trip to her parents´ house where they fed her anti-Mormon lies. So my first impression of her was that she was flakey and didn´t have a strong testimony yet. But then on Friday night we had a Noche de Hogar with a cool member family called the Flia. Ruiz. Hno. Ruiz had asked us to talk about keeping the Sabbath Day holy (obviously there´s been some debate in their family about that...). Blanca lives really close to the Flia. Ruiz, so we invited her to come with us. She was nervous. Before, she´d told us that one of her reasons for not wanting to be baptized was her lack of friends in the ward. But we convinced her to come to the Noche de Hogar, and it all went perfect from there. We read a lot of scriptures and talked about the beauty of church attendance and how God loves us so much that He asks that our tribute to Him is rest from our labors. Blanca really opened up about how much she wishes the world would keep the Sabbath Day holy, and she got to talking about how when she came to church last month she really felt at peace and it made her whole week better. Hna. Ruiz shared her testimony, too, and then the rest of us. It was a really sweet lesson, and in the end the Ruiz family and Blanca were exchanging numbers and figuring out where to meet to go to church together. Yesterday Blanca came to church with them, and during a new member´s confirmation, she whispered to us, "That´s going to be me on the 18th!" Now she has a baptismal date. :)

Oh, and that new member who was confirmed yesterday? She was our convert. Her name is Viviana. She´s the 15-year-old who only speaks Guaraní. I still don´t feel like I know her hardly at all, so it´s weird to count her as my baptism, but as I re-teach her the lessons this next month I´m sure I´ll come to love her as my convvert. Anyways, her baptism was on Saturday, and as is typical, nothing went as it was planned. Due to conflicts in her work schedule she couldn´t have her baptismal interview until an hour before the service. We planned to have her interviewed at 2:00 and have the service at 3:00. But we blocked out from 3:00 to 5:00 in our plans knowing it wouldn´t be on schedule. Not even that was enough, turns out. Vivi didn´t show up until 3:30, and the service didn´t get underway until 4:30. There was an activity for the Día del Niño in the cultural hall and her family was all distracted by the hot dogs and cake being dished out, so it was hard to round them all up. :) The actual service went well. The Hermanas and I sang a hymn with a singer in the ward named Matias. We sang "Mirad al Salvador," which is a great baptismal hymn, but I don´t think it´s in English, sadly. We sang a capella, and it was really pretty. As for the actual baptism, we had issues with the amount of water in the font. When filling the font earlier, the water in the whole building just shut off (I won´t even tell you about what kinds of problems that caused with the bathrooms). We only had like two feet of water to work with. At every baptism I´ve been to the person has had to get baptized twice, because Paraguayans don´t do much swimming and they try to get out too early. Well with Vivi, we had the issue of her not liking water, AND it was too shallow. They had to try FOUR TIMES before they finally figured out how to get her all the way under the water. It involved her kneeling in the font and tucking in her arms really tight against her body. She was unperturbed, though, and when she was confirmed yesterday, she was just glowing. 

We´re going to have another baptism next week, but again it´s going to feel weird to count it as my convert. The woman getting baptized is named Aurora, and she´s been a member for the past 30 years. Yeah, you read that right. A member of 30 years getting baptized. Apparently last year, after being inactive for a long time, she tried to get her temple recommend and it was discovered that nobody could find her baptismal records. Nor her witnesses. Nor the man who baptized her. So, 30 years after her original covenant with the Lord, she gets to be baptized again! I was worried that she´d be all offended and leave the church like you sometimes hear of people doing, but instead she´s totally excited! After being inactive for a while, she wants nothing more than to start all over. She´s having a big party with the relief society after the service. She´s so cute. 

You´re going to have to wait a while to recieve pictures from me. I´m having issues remembering my PIN number so as of right now I have no cash to print pictures. Next week they should be done and that means they´ll get sent the week after that... Eh. Just tell me when you get them. 

I just ordered my cool personalized scripture cases from the man who makes them for our mission. They are going to be so legit. I ordered a cover for my Bible, for my Triple, and for my little Spanish hymn book. They should be done on Wednesday, and I´m so excited to see them. I´m definitely going to leave them at home once they´re done, though. I don´t want them to get stolen or ruined. They´re purely souvenires. 

We have Elder Arnold´s conference this Wednesday, too, which I´m super excited about. I´m hoping it will be as great as General Conference and that I´ll come back more pumped and with more ideas on what to do to be a successful missionary. 

I can´t believe that it´s been eight months already, can you? Sheesh, I feel like March was just yesterday. But I´m really satisfied with what I´ve done when I look back on my time as a missionary. I may not have converted all of Paraguay (yet...) but every time I watch a baptism I can feel the Savior´s love for that person so strongly. I know that even just one person entering that baptismal font makes such a huge difference in God´s plan. I´m so honored to be able to be a part of that plan. 

I miss you all loads. I´m jealous of your air conditioning and swimming pools. But I´m loving my time here, and I´m not worried about us being apart. I am so blessed to know that I have you as my family for all eternity and that God has blessings in store for us that are unimaginably better than anything the Adversary can give or take from us. Don´t worry about me, and always look on the bright side. Study the scriptures every day. When you wake up in the morning, ask God for help doing what He expects you to do, and when you go to bed, ask Him how you did. I feel closer to God every day as a missioanry. I´m so grateful for this chance that I have to refine myself as well as change the lives of others, and I hope that you´re all growing closer to our Savior as well. I love you all, and I thank you so much for your strength and spirituality. Take care! 

I LOVE YOU!!

---Hna. Springer