Week 51 - Asuncion Paraguay - Villa Hayes

Dear Family,

¡Feliz Navidad (almost)!

I hope your Christmas weekend is full of family, friends, laughter, carols, fudge, and charity. Thank you all for your Christmas wishes and your prayers, and for helping me to remember that even though I´m thousands of miles away from any snow or sleigh bells, the spirit of Christmas is still here with me. I swear I can feel your love. That´s the only thing I could ever ask for this year. :)

Thank you Grandma, Laurel, Jared, Mom, Dad, Ashley, Pam, Clayton, Madison, Lexi, and Cami for your e-mails this week. You´re all so sweet. Clayton, I especially liked reading about your armadillo. Who knew all this time I just had to go to Texas to see exotic wildlife? I really enjoyed the picture. Thanks for sharing that with me. 

I´m still not entirely sure what´s going to happen this Christmas. I´ve heard rumors of a mission party on Thursday, but we have Changes on Wednesday, so I might get transferred to an area that has already done their Christmas party. That would be sad to miss it. I´m really scared for Changes. Part of me would LOVE to be with a stronger branch, and in a cooler environment, but there are so many people who could get baptized in January and I wouldn´t want to miss that. It would also be sad to spend the holidays with complete strangers instead of a branch that is at least loving if not active in the church. I´d also really miss Hna. deVries. We get along so well. The prospect of a new companion is always scary. We´ll hear tonight (hopefully--tomorrow morning at the latest) what Changes are going to take place in the zone. I can´t believe my time as a Trainer is already over. This was a fast three months. I can´t believe I only have seven left! I can count the number of Changes i have left on one hand! That´s psycho.

I´m not sure what to expect for Christmas no matter which area I´m in. All I´ve heard is that on the 24th they stay up until midnight, then set off fireworks and honk their horns and get drunk and stuff to celebrate the birth of Christ. Then on the 25th they sleep in (we´re only having one hour of church, from 10 to 11 so they can all sleep) and have a big dinner I´ve heard. They don´t exchange presents until January 6th, which is when they celebrate the Wise Men coming to give gifts to Christ. That´s where the 12 Days of Christmas comes from, after all. 

Everyone keeps asking us why we haven´t made a little nativity on our porch yet. I sent you a picture of all the stuff they sell on the highway for it. I think it´s a very cute idea, but we don´t have time to weave palm flower branches together, and buying the little ceramic figures is way too expensive. Our house is actually quite un-Christmas-y now that I think about it...Oh well. :) 

We are LOVING mango season. So far there aren´t too many, but some of the trees further into the forest are just dropping them like crazy. They´re really small and very stringy because they don´t bother to prune the trees, but they´re still pretty darn yummy. And we have a tree by our house (see attached photo) with some HUGE ones that are so much better. So far we´ve only found one on the ground before the cows got to the rest. Every day when we come home we check to see if any more fell for us. We made mango juice with one yesterday (just mango, milk, ice, and sugar) and it was so yummy. I´m definitely a fan of this authentic mango stuff.

The work is continuing to go well. STILL no baptisms, but I´m honestly not upset about that. Numbers really don´t mean anything--I´ve never been more convinced of that before in my life--but it would be nice to end my mission with more than just seven baptisms on my record. I´m sure my President understands that I´ve helped so many more people than that, but still. Something I´m really learning though is that success isn´t mine to control. I know I´ve already written about that before, but this last week our Zone Leader, Elder Argyle, shared a story with me that has pretty much changed my whole outlook on mission work.

The story goes something like this (sorry if you know the story already and I tell it completely wrong): A man one night is visited by the Savior, who tells him to go push against this huge rock in front of his house every day. The man obeys, of course, and day after day goes out and pushes against that rock. It doesn´t budge at all, but he keeps trying. Years go by, and still the rock is exactly where it was before. Satan sees that the man is starting to become disappointed in himself, and so he whispers to him, "It´s impossible. You can´t move that rock. You might as well not even try." The man becomes discouraged, and starts to just do the bare minimum every day--going out, pushing on the rock a bit, then going home. Finally, he decides to make it a matter of prayer. He asks God´s forgiveness for not being able to move that rock--for not being good enough. The Savior appears to the man again and says, "My son, I asked you to push against that rock every day. I never asked you to move it, I just asked you to obey. Now look--you are stronger than you have ever been before. You have grown so much. I only asked you to obey, and you have. Now I will move that rock."

That hit me so hard, and I´ve thought about that every day since then. It´s so true--the simple act of obedience has made me so much stronger physically and spiritually. God never asked me to get more than seven baptisms. He simply asked me to obey. Now look how much I´ve grown! I can only imagine how much more I will grow as I keep "pushing against the rock" every day for the next seven months (and beyond).

We finally got the November Liahona too, so those amazing Conference talks have helped me loads this week, too. I LOVE conference. That was a Christmas present enough, just getting that and being able to re-live those talks. I especially love reading those by the apostles, whose voices I know so well. As I read, I can still remember them saying it, and the Spirit comes so strongly. I loved finally getting to read the Priesthood session, Relief Society session, and a few other talks we missed when the power went out. So beautiful! I´ve already read the whole copy, but now I´m gonna go back through and take notes and stuff.

Our English class continues to go fairly well. We played Jeopardy this last time to review all the things that they´d learned. It was so much fun. We don´t usually have non-members show up, though. If we can´t get others to come, I think we may have to discontinue it. I´ll be sad if we do, but it´s been fun, and we´ve at least helped one person a lot. There´s this recent-convert kid in the branch named Sergio who is very shy and a little awkward socially. He lives with just his dad and his four-year-old brother, and we get the impression that his dad can be kind of mean to Sergio sometimes. When I first met him, he never smiled at all. He was the most serious kid I´d ever seen. Now, though, after the English class, he´s gained so much self-confidence. His dad praises him for his intelligence and Sergio´s made friends in the branch. He smiles so big when we show up at his house, and he loves greeting us in English. He´s also the Deacon´s quorom president (because he´s the ONLY deacon). Yesterday the district presidency came to the branch, and we did the sustainings of everybody, and when they proposed that we sustain Sergio as president of the Deacons, his face lit up so much. He felt so important. He has a place in the church. That´s what the work is all about. 

Well, time to go again. I´ll be talking to you (Mom, Dad, Sarah, and Ashley) on Skype hopefully on Saturday at 3:00. I´ll tell you on Friday if that changes. I´ll only have 40 minutes, so I´d like 10 minutes with each of you individually if that´s cool with you. I can´t wait to hear all about your pre-Christmas week! 

I love you all so much! Thank you again for everything, and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

---Hna. Springer

Here are some more photos! Enjoy! I wish i had more. 

1-The mango tree by our house

2&3-Better pictures of the baby coati

4-Nativity stuff salesmen alongside the road

---Carly