Happy Valentine´s Day tomorrow! I honestly forgot that tomorrow is Valentine´s Day until you all wrote to me. They do celebrate that here in Paraguay, pretty much the same way we do, but since it´s a holiday limited to those with boyfriends or sympathetic best friends around, we missionaries are kind of oblivious to it all. Also, Happy Birthday to (insert your name here if your birthday is this week)! I love you and hope you have a special day! :)
Well, here I am in Ybera! Once again, I had nothing to worry about. Hna. Fonseca was in Marambure for six months before she came to Ybera, and she says that already after only one Change here, she loves it more than Marambure. I´m starting to agree with her, even though I never really knew Marambure very well in the first place.
Our ward is pretty small for a ward, but the people are so great. So many of them have been through the temple or are preparing. The whole ward is in celebration mode in behalf of a family of ten who´s getting sealed in the temple this Friday. I so wish I could go. We´re going to put on a big surprise party for them after they get back from Asunción. They´re wonderful people, and the significance of the temple ordinance isn´t lost on them at all.
The families here in Ybera are just a lot more unified than I´ve seen in any of my other areas. They´re all really sweet and determined to pray and read scriptures together every day. There´s this adorable young couple who struggle with the fact that the husband has to work late every other night. To keep their habits strong and stay more unified, the husband calls the wife every night when he´s on his break and they read out of the Book of Mormon and pray together over the phone. So cute!
We have a lunch appointment every single day except for Monday, and the members love to visit with us. They´re all really nice to me. They´re less impressed with the fact that I¨m blonde, because they´re closer to the city and are more used to diversity. But they just can´t get over the fact that I´m so tall. I feel like a skyscraper compared to Hna. Fonseca, who barely scrapes five feet. Yesterday we both gave talks in church. I went first, and I had to stretch the microphone up as high as it would go. Then Hna. Fonseca got up after me, and she had to pull it all the way back down to its lowest. The congregation cracked up.
The family we ate with yesterday like us so much that they named their puppies after us! There´s a fluffy dark one that they named Fonsequito (after Hna. Fonseca), and the other one has short fur so it seems slimmer, and it´s yellow. They named it Springer. Awww! They all call me "Springfield," though. I have so many nicknames. People hear me say my last name and hear something completely different. My nicknames include "Springfield," (where the Simpsons live), "Hna. Aire Condicionado" (after an air conditioning brand that actually is Springer), "Pinguino" (translation: penguin), "Pringles" (like the chips), and "Sprim" (a brand of juice mix here in Paraguay).
Anyways... Hna. Fonseca is absolutely wonderful. I love having a latina companion. She´s so great with the people. She says the most inspired, spiritual things at the drop of a hat. I on the other hand am second-guessing my Spanish way too much around her. With "gringa" companions, it was easy to get away with grammar errors. Now I´m super aware of how sloppy my Spanish actually is. I feel like I´m completely re-learning the language. My accent is going to be awesome after our time together. We had a very quiet few couple of days as a result of my sudden shyness in speaking Spanish, but now we´re a lot more comfortable together. She´s so fun. She comes from really humble circumstances and just makes the most of every day. She also really loves to clean. We´ve offered service to so many people this week. Paraguayans never let me and my blonde companions lend service. Ever. But with Hna. Fonseca they all just throw us their brooms and we get to work! It´s really nice. I love cleaning, honestly, and it gives us a nice break from all the walking while still doing something productive and Christlike. :)
Sadly, though, Hna. Fonseca has some health issues. We were in the hospital all day Friday and we´re going back tonight to see what the doctors have to say about all the x-rays and stuff that she had to get done last time. I don´t think there´s anything seriously wrong with her. She didn´t lead the healthiest of lifestyles before the mission (she´s lost like 40 pounds and still weighs more than me, almost). But I don´t want to lose another companion! I don´t know if Hna. Greer is ever coming or what. It´d be nice to know how long I¨m going to stay in one place with one companion. But what can I do? Just enjoy each day as it comes, right?
We have some great investigators, too. We have two couples who are both working on getting married and being baptized this month. It really IS the month of love! :)
The only gripe I have about Ybera is the apartment. It´s TINY and on a very loud street corner. And there´s no air conditioning. And my first two nights here were the hottest of the summer so far. It was miserable. Yet, I actually slept okay. Maybe I am adapting to the heat after all, or maybe my body just gave up when it was known that there would be no respite all night. If you´re mentally prepared to not have air conditioning, it´s a lot easier to live without it. Thankfully it rained almost every day this weekend so now things are a lot cooler. I hope autumn is on its way.
Oh, and P.S. I gave my talk on charity and forgiveness, using Luke 6 and Moroni 7 to share my feelings on the matter. The mission is the training ground for learning to turn the other cheek. If I got all upset every time somebody said something ugly about me or about the U.S. or about the church, I´d have died from sheer depression by now. But since I´ve learned to just leave all the insults and offenses behind and move forward with faith and cheerfulness and enjoy all the good things that happen. As a result, I´m more at peace now than I´ve ever been in my entire life. And it makes me sad whenever I see someone in the ward or otherwise who´s holding a grudge and letting it ruin their life. Keep moving forward!
That´s all for this week. I love you all so much and hope you have a wonderful Valentine´s Day! Take care!
---Hna. Springer
Here´s a picture of me with my new companion, the adorable Hna. Fonseca! Also, here´s a photo of the map of Ybera. The stickers at the top of a temple and a star are the chapel and our apartment, respectively. :) At least this time it´ll be easy for you to find my house on Google Earth. It´s on the same corner as the church! Let me know if you have trouble finding Ybera, though. It might be spelled Yvera or Ibera. They´re not too good at spelling around here so I´m not sure which it is. :) Also, here´s a random picture of our shoes. Can you guess which are mine?
LOVE YOU!!
---Carly
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