Sorry if this e-mail is a little earlier than expected. We have exactly one hour in this ciber because they close at noon, and we think we may be doing a Halloween zone activity later so we´re just rolling out the e-mails quickly today. So if you didn´t get to send anything yet, sorry. But thank you so much Sarah, Dad, Mom, Clay & Pam, Bro. Jenson, Goompa and Nana, Andersons, Grandma Springer, and Ashley for your e-mails this week.
I did have a very good birthday, thanks. :) Honestly it wasn´t very spectacular. We still got up at 6:30am. Hna. deVries made me an awesome French toast breakfast with dulce de leche on top (which is basically just straight caramel). We studied until noon, then went to a member´s house for lunch. They had forgotten our lunch cita so they just fed us a quick, tasteless soup with spaghetti noodles and a chunk of cow femur in it. Then we went to work as usual out in the heat, trying to stir up the members to a remembrance of their covenants and teaching the doctrine to new people. I got lots of handshakes and besos in congratulations for my birthday. In the evening I got torta de leche from the Gonzalez family, which was really sweet of them and very yummy. At the very end of the day Hna. deVries and I got lomitos to celebrate. I received lots of calls from my mission friends and from the mission presidents, which was nice.
The best, though, was a little party that the branch president´s family threw for me. The oldest daughter, De Las Nieves, had just bought a new oven to bake with, and she wanted to try making brownies for me for my birthday. When we got there, we found that they had decided to double the recipe, stirring all the ingredients together in a full-out bucket. They tried to bake the batter in really shallow pans, and it was a fiasco. It all spilled over the sides, thoroughly dirtying her brand new oven. They tried multiple attempts while we were there waiting. Meanwhile President Rojas had asked another member to come over and look up a youtube Happy Birthday video for me. It was really silly but sweet of him. I felt bad when we had to leave their house at 9:00 before any brownies were even close to being done. I felt even worse the next morning when we went back and learned that her oven had EXPLODED because of all the burnt brownie and being overworked (or something). It´ll be easily fixable, they assure me, but after feeding us what little brownies they managed to produce, I´m sure they´re not gonna try that again for a long while. :) It´s the thought that counts. And Pte. Rojas made little wool prayer rugs for me and Hna. deVries so we can get rid of those callouses on our knees. I paid for them, but it was still nice of him to make them in time for my birthday. :)
I haven´t gotten any of your packages yet, but I´m told one of them arrived on Wednesday and is waiting for me in the mission office. Some of the Elders promised to pick it up for me if they head out that way today. I hope so. I´m excited. If they can´t pick it up, it´ll take a couple weeks for me to get it. I´ll let you know next week how that works out. :)
The best thing about my birthday weekend was Fabiola´s baptism. It all went so perfectly. It was held out in Benjamin because they have all their friends and Cesar´s relatives there, and we were pleasantly surprised to find that the Elders and the Benjamin branch (which is way bigger than ours) had already arranged everything. Aside from Cesar being nearly a half hour late, everything went super smoothly. The font was clean, the clothes were all there, the talks were great, they only had to perform the ordinance once, there were tons of people there to support her, and there were plenty of refreshments at the end. Even better, Fabiola´s non-member mom and sister were there. They were pretty wary at the start, but we sat by them and explained things and shared our hymn books with them. We all got a ride home from Cesar and really bonded during that 25-minute drive back to Villa Hayes. In the end we were all laughing like old friends and she´s invited us over for lunch tomorrow. It all made me really really happy.
In other news, Hna. deVries and I experienced our absolute worst weather day in the history of our missions this last week. The natives assure us that in the summer it doesn´t get too bad because even though the sun is super strong, there´s always wind. But we learned first-hand that when a rain storm is coming, there is no wind. And without wind, it is seriously like being in an oven. I´ve never sweated so hard in my life. If I hadn´t had my umbrella for shade, I think I would have fried up like an ant under a magnifying glass. It was so miserable. The rain that followed was refreshing but brought more problems, like flooded streets and such. The weather´s great now that the rain has cooled everything down, but I still dread those pre-storm hot spells.
We´re appreciating the little things, though, like our prayer rugs and the baby birds in the nest on our front porch. We´ve been studying a lot about how to strengthen this ward and how we need to really prepare the world for Christ´s second coming. I´ve been reading Paul´s epistles lately, and I love them. I never quite understood the 13th article of faith where it says, "Indeed we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul..." But now that I´m actually studying Paul´s words, I get it. He is always so loving and personal in his letters to those he has taught. He is such a great example of missionary work, and he always encourages the members of the church to not be judgmental but love and support one another. I do want to follow his admonition better...
That´s pretty much all to report for this week. I can´t believe it´s November tomorrow. Joan and Hollis are back from their mission ALREADY, Goompa and Nana are done being temple presidents ALREADY. Wow.
I love you all so much. Thank you for your letters this week and for your prayers and your strength. I really am so blessed to have a Royal Army behind me, ready to lift me up when I´m discouraged and keep me going strong. Just knowing that you´re out there being righteous and worthy gives me hope and confidence in the work. Thanks so much.
I LOVE YOU!!
---Hna. Springer
P.S. A random Paraguay fact for this week: In filling out Fabiola´s baptismal registro, we realized that people here have absolutely no way of sending written mail. They were so confused when I asked, "How do you get or send letters?" All of the members just get letters passed along by missionaries. Everyone else does e-mail or texting. I have no idea what they did before cell phones or computers.
My 22nd birthday, a cool shot of Paraguay from the bridge (note the complete lack of any semblance of landmarks), and Fabiola and her husband Cesar.
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