Week 61 - Asuncion Paraguay - Ybera

 Mis Queridos,

This week was so wonderful. First of all, I got your packages, Goompa
and Nana and McConkies! Thank you SO MUCH! And thank you Grandma and
Grandpa Springer, Dad, Mom, Ashley, Sarah, and the Blaires for writing
to me this week. I love you all and appreciate everything you do!

A ver... where to start... Really, so much happened this week. Hna.
Fonseca and I made it a goal to do at least one act of service every
day (you know...besides the full-time service of missionary work). We
did a LOT of raking and cutting weeds with machetes and filling bags
with water to make ice to sell and playing piano for the Young Women
and washing dishes and helping at birthday parties. :) I have two big
blisters on my thumbs from using big, Harry Potter brooms to clear
yards with. It´s satisfying to see it all cleaned up in the end, but
not much fun to do in skirts. We´ll have to plan ahead better so we
can bring our jeans next time. :) Thankfully it hasn´t been too hot
lately. We´ve been getting lots more rain than usual (is autumn coming
I hope??). It´s more humid, but the sun is usually hidden so I´m not
being fried alive much.

Hna. Fonseca provides a lot of service by cooking for people. She
makes some awesome Honduranean food. I want to help cook for people,
too, but I don´t know how to just throw meals together with the few
ingredients that the street despensas provide. Everyone keeps saying,
"Oh, you don´t know how to cook because you Americans just eat
hamburgers and French fries and pizza for every meal." Hna. Fonseca
has quickly learned that I HATE it when they say that. :) But it´s
hard to convince them otherwise when they ask me what a typical
American food is and hamburgers and pizza are the first things to come
to mind. :) Can anybody help me out with this? I´d love a brainstorm
of purely American foods (that aren´t desserts), and some simple
recipes, too, if that´s not too much to ask. I think of chicken,
mashed potatoes and gravy, homemade rolls, and cooked carrots, but I
don´t have the ingredients or time to make any of those...

Anyways, the birthday party I mentioned as one of our service projects
was the birthday of an eight-year-old girl whose baptism we were able
to go to. I´ve helped set up birthday parties several times before,
and I love how simple yet elegant Paraguayan birthday decorations are,
but it was the first time I actually got to attend a little girl´s
party. It was so cute. I could tell you lots of things about it, but
the thing that fascinated me most was how they did the piñata. Instead
of a big paper machet (sp?) thing, it was just one of those big, thick
balloons filled with candy and confetti. An adult headed over to the
group of excited kids waiting under the balloon, and he had a knife in
his hand. I thought, "THIS should be safe--using knives instead of
bats..." but then he said, "Alright, let´s do this!" and everyone
knelt under the balloon and held their hands cupped above their heads.
The adult said, "One...two...THREE!" and stabbed the balloon. It
exploded all over the place and the kids scrambled to grab as much
candy as they could. A lot simpler and safer and faster than the
Central American piñata tradition, huh? Not quite as entertaining,
though. :)

This week we had Zone Conference in Asunción. It was so wonderful--all
about charity and being true disciples of Christ. We watched a
video--almost a music video, really--of MoTab singing "My Song in the
Night," with a video of a chain of acts of service that were so simple
yet so touching I almost cried. I´m never going to be able to listen
to that song again without tearing up. :) Hna. Madariaga talked a lot
about getting to know our companions and becoming a strong team. She
had us fill out questionaries about each other. I was sadly lacking in
knowledge about Hna. Fonseca, so now I´m working harder at getting to
know her better. I know how she is NOW, but I don´t know much about
her family or past.

Zone Conference was great, except the lunch they served us gave half
the missionaries who attended food poisoning, including Hna. Fonseca.
I was luckily spared, but my poor companion! She´s doing lots better,
but she sure didn´t need an upset stomach on Saturday, our busiest day
of the week! I´m doing better, too, by the way. No more runny nose,
but still a little bit of a cough. Nothing to complain about, though.

I got a haircut last Monday. Hna. Fonseca looked through a menu of
haircut options and decided which one would be best on me (I have no
creativity when it comes to my own hair. My favorite haircuts have
always been those where i let other people choose). I agreed with what
she selected, but I didn´t see when Hna. Fonseca told the hair stylist
how short to cut it. She kept cutting...and cutting...and CUTTING!
It´s now shoulder-length with lots of layers, AND it´s thinned out. I
barely have any hair now! A change was LOOOONG overdue, and I really
love my new look, but it´s gonna take me a long time to get used to
it. I don´t have much time to experiment with it. Thankfully it´s
still just long enough to pull into a ponytail.

So this week we had a day when every single lesson that we had was
with someone who wanted to Bible-bash. It was not a very fun day. The
next morning I felt kind of depressed, not because of the Work, but
because they´d challenged my knowledge of the scriptures and expressed
surprise that I was a "preacher" when I knew so little about God.
According to them, anyways. But that next morning I read in the Book
of Mormon (which always helps), then turned to the living prophets by
reading in the Liahona. As I did, I felt reassured that God doesn´t
expect me to be a professional preacher. He doesn´t want me to be like
other religions´ pastors--He wants me to be humble and rely on Him,
and then He will make me strong enough to confound the wise and keep
this great work going on nobly, boldly, and independent. I ended that
morning´s personal study reassured that I´m doing just fine, and when
I prayed to end, I finished with "I love Thee," as I always do, and I
felt an overwhelming sense of love as if Heavenly Father responded, "I
love you, too." It still makes me tear up, remembering that moment.
It´s a morning i won´t soon forget.

Well, that´s enough for this week. I hope you´re all doing great.
Seriously, thank you so much for writing to me and keeping me
up-to-date with your lives. I love hearing all about you and the great
things you´re doing. I´m grateful for each and every one of you. Take
care!

---Hna. Springer

1-The Paraguayan piñata (see big e-mail for details)
2-Me with Yadira, the girl who got baptized this last weekend
3- Yadira with her dad
4-My new haircut!