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
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