Week 69 - Paraguay - Concepcion

Dearest Familia,

For all you Utahns who would like to meet my awesome companion, Hna. Tua´one, here is the information for her Homecoming:

Cell phone of Hna. Tua´one (her mom, I mean) in case you get lost:  801-381-4527.

Granger 6^th Ward

3276 South Hillsdale Drive

West Valley City, UT 84119

Church 9 -12 (sacrament last @ 10:30am)

I can't believe she's leaving THIS WEEK. I already miss her. :( We did a bunch of shopping for souvenires today and she's finally telling the gente that she's leaving. We're all really sad. She's trying not to be sad by not focusing on the fact that she'll miss Paraguay so much, but then at the same time she's trying not to be trunky by thinking of how cool home will be, so... she's a little emotional. :) I don't think I'm going to tell anyone that I'm leaving soon, either. It's a lot nicer this way. I just tell everyone that I have over a year in Paraguay, but don't specify the months. It's not fun to have everyone sad about you. 

So Hna. Tua´one heard from her old companion who was told by an office Elder that some other office Elders said that Hna. Greer is coming after all and I'm training her these last three months! Normally I don't depend much on rumors, but I'm feeling 99.9% sure that it's true. Which is crazy, but would also help me a lot to focus hard on the work to end the mission and not be trunky at all. I don't want to let on that I'm about to "die." I've already got most of my souvenires now, anyways, so it should be smooth sailing from now on. I hope it wasn't just a rumor. I'll find out tonight. I'm a little nervous. Training is fun, though.

And I will seriously be fine staying here in Concepcion until the end of my mission. This is a great area and the branch is doing so well. I've always known that they're better at their callings in church and a lot more sociable and friendly and all that, but then yesterday they really proved to us just how much they worry about each other. There's a recent convert family in the branch named the Flia. Garcete who have had problem after problem ever since they joined the church. They're dirt poor and the Hermana just had another baby, her fourth child under the age of five. They haven't been to church in a while and Hna. Tua'one and I were really worried about them. We weren't able to find them at home and we were afraid that they were angry at the Church.

Then yesterday we were heading to their house to see how they were, and we ran into a group of Relief Soceity sisters already on their way to visit them! We were so impressed--it was seriously the very first time I've ever seen visiting teachers actually visiting people here in Paraguay. We went with them to visit the Garcetes, and it was all perfect. They fawned over the baby and brought a gift bag of diapers and milk and stuff. They talked with the Hermano about the difficulties he's having with his chipa business and took note of what they can do to help. 

Then ANOTHER family from the other side of town showed up. They'd just felt impressed to come visit this struggling family, even though they have their hands full with their own kids. Hna. Tua'one and I just sat back and watched happily as they all socialized and expressed their concern and showed their friendship and Christianity to this little family. We barely said two words to them, and I'm happy about that because it feels to me like these recent converts are learning to lean on their ward family rather than depend on the missionaries. It's always so hard when we can't help people temporally, but so happy when we see the branch taking care of that while we take care of the spiritual needs. It should always be like that.

This week our zone did a "Miracle Fast." Due to some lack of animo in the mission and a lower number of baptisms than usual, our president told us that the Lord expects 80 baptisms from us this month and 100 next month. Each companionship needs two in April, then, and this zone of Concepcion always has the lowest numbers. So we fasted for a miracle and...it's happening! We had SEVEN investigators in church this week. Two are scheduled to be baptized this next Saturday (just in time!), and the others are set to go in May! One of them is Mariano, who I mentioned a while ago (the one who got a blessing from his Branch President brother). He'd been having problems with his girlfriend but now she's out of the picture so he's back to learning and coming to church. I never could have imagined things turning out so perfectly! Fasting DOES work, and all it takes is faith to work a miracle.

Well I don't have a lot of time today. Sorry for the shortness. Im sure Ill have a lot more to say with a new companion next week. I LOVE YOU ALL!! Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Springer, Goompa and Nana, Sarah, Ashley, Blairs, Mom, Dad, and Amanda for your letters this week!

---Hna. Springer

1-Rainy puddles in front of our house
2-A pretty park we visit sometimes
3-Another gorgoues Paraguayan sunset over the river
4-Our lovely chapel

Week 68 - Paraguay - Concepcion

Dear Family,

Just a few hours ago, I got THE CALL. The office secretary called to ask me which airport I want to fly home to. AAAAH!! What with Hna. Tua´one figuring out all her trunky home plans I feel like the time is ridiculously short. It's kind of scary, but at the same time, three months more is a long time to make a difference in Paraguay, especially if I spend all that time here in Conci. 

On Saturday Hna. Tua´one slept all day to get over a bug that she'd been trying to work past all week. With all that "free time" I came to realize that I've really come to the point where I don't really have anything i want to do besides just go out and be a missionary. I caught up in my journal within like that first half hour, then spent the rest of the day studying Doctrine and Covenants with help from the DVDs. I tried doing some creative writing, but it just wasn't fun to me anymore. I tried looking at past pictures or reading past journals, but that wasn't very fun, either. I just wanted to get up and go. Studying and learning was the only satisfying thing to do with my time because it felt so useful and productive. 

When I ran out of D&C videos to watch and Hna. Tua´one was still sleeping, I tried again to do some writing, but this time I wrote stories from the mission. THAT was fun, and very useful. It helped me to remember the details of past spiritual experiences and recognize how the Lord has helped me so much this past year and a half. I hope that I'll be able to get some of those stories into the New Era to share with other future missionaries. I love reading the Liahona, and I hope to use my talent to contribute to it someday.

Anyways, the point I was trying to make when I started that first big paragraph was that I feel like I'm finally learning to just let go of my own desires and get immersed in the Work. I loved Pte. Monson's advice to the Young Women to just follow the Spirit one day at a time. We can't let the past weigh us down, and we can't be crippled by fear of failing in the future. We just need to wake up determined to make that day the best day ever.

My studies this week all seemed to have a common theme of just finding joy in the Lord's current assignment for you. I realized this morning that it's kind of crazy that nobody stays in the same calling for very long in the church. Even when we feel like we're in the perfect calling and we're just perfectly equipped for it and we're doing a perfect job...we always have to learn something new and try something else. Sometimes we get upset about that and think that the bishop doesn't understand us very well, but the truth is that the Lord understands us perfectly, and He inspires the bishop. Whatever calling we get is what the Lord needs us to do, and it's what will help US the best, as well. How would we ever learn and grow if we never had to try something we wouldn't ever choose for ourselves? Sometimes we need to be pushed out of our comfort zones a little. :) 

There are a few people in the branch who can only think about how wonderfully they did in a past calling, and they're so focused on that that they neglect their current calling. It's pretty sad. Especially since the callings everyone has right now are perfect from where I'm standing. The branch president is by far the greatest strength this branch has compared to other branches I've known here in Paraguay. Every time we give our informe, he actually knows everyone we're talking about personally and he's already visited them, too. He really takes time to go out and get to know the members, and he's very good at seeing what they need in order to be strengthened temporally and spiritually. I really admire him and all the other bishops I've known who make that kind of effort to really take care of their "flock." 

The weather's been cooling down a lot, thankfully. No more sweating to death, and the mornings can be pretty nippy. There's been lots of rain, so the kids have been missing lots of school and very few people go to work in a storm, either. It's funny, though, to see those who do make the effort and try to drive their motorcycles while holding umbrellas over their heads. It's never very effective. :) 

Sadly there's not a whole lot more to report on for this week. Boring, I know. :) Let's see... I was forced to eat polenta again, which is a really weird corn mash that we´ve nicknamed "wanna-be mashed potatoes." I hadn't eaten it since Mariano. Hna. Tua'one must have brought it with her! It's probably my second least-favorite food, just under mondongo. 

We also learned the other day the reason why everyone insists on putting back chairs alone. People always take all this time to drag chairs out to their front yard for us to teach them, and when the lesson is over we always offer to help put them back. They never let us, and when we offered to help this one brother, he taught us that putting somebody´s chairs back means that you didn't enjoy the conversation and you don't want to come back. Yikes! So much for common courtesy. Now we'll probably hesitate to offer in the future. After a whole year and a half, Hna. Tua´one is pretty traumatized by that revelation, wondering how many people she's offended unintentionally. :) 

Thank you Grandma, Goompa, Dad, Mom, Ashley, Laurel, Blairs, Amanda, and Bro. Dorny for your letters this week. I love you all so much and hope you're all doing great. Take care!

---Hna. Springer

Week 67 - Paraguay - Concepcion

Dearest Familia,

Happy Easter (Yesterday)! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend, ate lots of chocolate bunnies and hard-boiled eggs, and felt the Spirit as the world remembered the Atonement of our Savior. 

I am happy to say that I had a much better Easter than last year. First of all, it was easier to miss a holiday at home that I already missed last year. Even without that, though, I really enjoyed this year's Semana Santa in Paraguay.

For those of you who don't remember my report from last year, Paraguayans celebrate Easter all week long. On Sunday they decorate their churches with palm leaves. On Tuesday they all travel to their families´ houses. On Wednesday they all make chipa. On Thursday they have a huge pork dinner (because Christ had the Last Supper on Thursday night). On Friday they watch movies about the Crucifixion and are as reverent as possible. Then everything goes back to normal on Saturday and Sunday. They have yet to really center everything on the Resurrection, but we're working on that. :) 

Thursday and Friday were so spiritual for me, though. The streets were so quiet and everyone was appreciating time off from work to spend with their families. We got in a lot more lessons than I expected to get, and everyone was so nice to us. They loved to listen to our message about how Christ lives and loves us. Friday was especially tranquil, and each lesson we went in it was so easy for me to feel the love that Heavenly Father has for each of His children. I was able to listen with more patience, offer more words of comfort and hope from the scriptures, and pray with more sincerity on their behalf. 

Yesterday in church we had an amazing fast and testimony meeting. I can only imagine how wonderful that was for all of you back home. Last year in church the Atonement was only mentioned once. This year, everything centered on Christ--Relief Society, Gospel Principles, and Sacrament Meeting. Several members cried as they expressed their love for the Savior and their gratitude for His love for them. It was really sweet.

A fun cultural and food experience I had was on Thursday when we went to the house of some nonmembers to make chipa--the traditional Semana Santa food. I´ve eaten LOTS of chipa in my time here in Paraguay, but I'd never made it before. Now I know how, and I may have to make some for all of you in the future. I don't know if you'd care for it, though. It's kind of an aquired taste.

The lady we made it with brought out this humongous mixing bowl and cracked fourteen eggs into it, added two cups of oil, a handful of salt, a bunch of "anis" (is that the name of an herb in the States? I'm not sure...), and some yellow food coloring. Then she had me mix that all together. With my bare hands. Raw eggs are gross, but I did it anyways, with Hna. Tua´one happily taking pictures and expressing her gratitude that she'd avoided that part of the job. Then the lady poured about a kilo of cornstarch into the bowl. Do they even sell cornstarch in such huge quantities in the states? I'd never noticed before. It made for a very hard dough, and I worked my arm muscles hard as I tried to mix it all together. Then she added about half a kilo of dry, shredded queso paraguay. That was even harder to mix in, but I worked at it and she added a bit of hot milk to make the dough more pliable, and in the end we had a nice, uniform dough. Then I washed my hands while Hna. Tua´one made the cute little chipa shapes. Traditionally it's just made into little blocks or rings, but we enjoyed making braids and birds and bunnies. Hna. Tua´one tried to make a fish and a crocodile. The crocodile didn't survive the baking process. :) In the end, we had some rrrrrrica chipa. We ate a lot of that stuff this week. Now that I know that it's mostly cornstarch I'm a little more hesitant to eat it. That stuff's not too good for you, is it? :) 

Anyways, I also got to play the accordion last night, which was interesting. I'd never actually seen a real live accordion before, so when we saw a man playing one on his front lawn, the member we were doing visits with pulled us over to talk with him and he had us take a whack at it. It took us a while to figure out that you need to pump it while you play the little keyboard, and then we were so uncoordinated that Hna. Tua´one did the pumping while I plucked out "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on the keyboard. It was hilarious. Then the man played this awesome polka paraguaya, playing on BOTH keyboards and pumping away without looking or reading music or anything. Lots of practice, I guess, is the key. I doubt I'll ever actually get to play the accordion again, but it was fun while it lasted. :) 

I feel like I should give some kind of Easter insight. I read a lot in the Bible this week, both Old and New Testaments, to study about the love of God. I know that the Bible contains a lot of stories of God's wrath and punishments, but there are so many wonderful gems in there, too, about how He's slow to anger, how He doesn't find pleasure in condemning the wicked, and how His love is so unconditional that He sacrificed what He was most proud of to save all of us imperfect children. Probably Abraham is the only mortal man who could ever contemplate the pain of that kind of sacrifice, and he didn't even have to follow through with it! I am so grateful for the justice of God that means that my hard work will be rewarded, and His mercy that means that I can erase my mistakes. I've felt His love so strongly as a missionary, both for me and for those I meet. I know that Christ lives. Did you hear President Monson testify of that at Conference? His eyes showed no hestitation or doubt as he proclaimed that truth, and I believe him. Jesus Christ lives and is always with us as we serve the Father. Someday we will all see Him in His glory, and I only pray that we will all be ready and rejoicing when that day comes. 

I love you all so much. Thank you Grandma Springer, Goompa, Bro. Dorny, Pte. Ballard, Shelli, Laurel, Hyrum, Dad, Mom, Sarah, Ashley, and Amanda for writing to me this week. I'm glad to hear that you all had happy holidays, and I hope you let the spirit of Easter last all year until the next one. Take care!

I LOVE YOU!!

---Hna. Springer

The only photos I have for this week are of me making chipa with my bare hands. I'll send the details in the big letter. :)

Love you!!

---Carly

Week 66 - Paraguay - Concepcion

Dear Family,

This week was so excellent for me. We didn't get a whole lot done, due to Conference and a Zone Capacitación and such, but it was a week that exercised and rejuvinated my spirit where I didn't do as much walking and physical exercise. :) 

The zone training meeting thing that we had last Monday involved our mission president and his wife driving all the way up to Concepción to give us all a pep talk. Apparently there's been a little drop in ánimo since last year and we're having less success as a mission as a whole. Pte. Madariaga reviewed all the factors and possibilities for that happening, and after lots of prayer came to the conclusion that we all need to stop worrying about ourselves and start sanctifying our lives so we'll be more Christlike and have more desires to serve the people. 

His amazing counsel to us was to set aside a day to fast specifically to help us identify things that we need to do away with in our lives so we can focus more on the mission. We were to make a list throughout that day, praying continually for inspiration and strength, and then at the end of the day we were to make a covenant with the Lord to not do those things for a full 40 days. 

Hna. Tua´one and I weren't too excited to fast, but funnily enough just a few weeks ago I was telling her how fasting was one of those things I didn't really have a strong testimony in. I've fasted a lot in the past, but never with much purpose and never really paying attention to the results. I never understood why fasting is called a joy in the scriptures. Now, though, I do. I started that day asking the Lord to show me why fasting is so wonderful, and then that entire day was wonderful. My mind was so much clearer--so unmuddled by thoughts of buying food for lunch or whatever--and every time I thought about food I remembered that i was fasting and said a silent prayer. I must have prayed at least twenty times that day. :) And the result was I was much more focused on the work and I felt God's guidance so much easier. Now I really think I have an idea of why fasting is a joy. I look forward to doing it again--to subjecting my body to my spirit and growing in my trust in the Lord.

My forty-day goals are proving a little difficult to stay true to, but thankfully there's repentance and i'm improving every day. What I'm mostly working on is patience, optimism, and faith--the biggest challenge is not saying any sort of negative comments about the weather, the people, or anything. But I'm finding a lot more happy moments as I choose to turn a criticism into a compliment. I hope I can keep it up long after the forty days are over.

And now I have Conference notes to strengthen me! Oh my goodness you have no idea how much I love Conference. It was like Christmas, only better because here Christmas is drastically different than at home, but Conference always feels the same--AMAZING! Heavenly Father was really nice to me this time around and I didn't miss a single minute of it. I even got to watch all the fun BYUtv stuff inbetween sessions. Very inspiring. :) 

Did you notice all the common themes this year? Those always intrigue me, because when there´s a theme it means that that's something the world is really struggling with. This year I noticed that they've talked a lot about teaching others the doctrine so that they'll exercise their own agency to make good choices. Also, Priesthood needs to be weilded responsibly and with love. I loved Elder Scott´s instruction on how to receive personal revelation. Several talks mentioned that. There were also a lot about having patience through physical suffering, and jumping in to help others who are suffering. Most of all, it all came back to just staying away from the things of the world and finding everlasting joy in the gospel. Man, I wish that everybody in the world listened to Conference, but I'm just super happy with the millions of members and visitors who do.

My favorite talks were by Elder Ballard, Elder Anderson, and David F. Evans. I loved how Elder Ballard talked about how good society doesn't create good families--good families create good society. If everyone focused on being good parents, could you imagine how beautiful life would be? I'm so grateful for the many wonderful parent figures I have in my life to show me that unconditional love everyone should have and demonstrate. I hope I can be a good mother someday.

Elder Anderson's talk made me cry as he talked about that poor family in Haiti. His talk was so tender and his question so penetrating: What does Christ think of me? 

David F. Evans inspired me with his discussion of how we should make sharing the gospel a normal, natural thing. I hope that I really can instill that in myself and not just sit back and relax as soon as I take the nametag off. 

Conference came just in time for us missionaries. Now we're heading into La Semana Santa, where all of the catholics are much more fiercely loyal to their religion than during the rest of the year. I'm praying for more patience, and I know that God teaches us patience by giving us more difficult situations to have patience in, so I'll let you know how that goes this next week. :) Hopefully it will be pretty chill, with just lots of chipa and FHE´s about Christ. 

Oh, before I go, something really amazing that happened last week: Hna. Tua´one and I were just leaving to a cita when Hna. Tua´one realized she didn't have her nametag so we turned around to head back home. On the way back, a lady stopped us and asked if we'd been in Mariano Roque Alonso before. We told her rather confusedly that yes, we had. She told us that we'd taught her before. We couldn't remember her to save our lives, until about five minutes later when she finally said something that sparked our memory--her name is Mabel, and we visited her twice in Mariano. She was really receptive to the gospel and everything, but then she had to move to Concepción. We thought we'd never see her again. Now, six months later, here we are, BOTH OF US in Concepción, and who should we happen to run into? If that's not miraculous, I don't know what is. She's still receptive to the gospel and everything, and Hna. Tua´one and I are holding our breath wondering if maybe she's the reason that God sent us back together again. He obviously would know that all three of us would be here at the same time. Coincidence? I think not! :) I'll let you know how that turns out.

Well, I love you all. Thank you Grandma, Sarah, Ashley, Mom, Dad, and Laurel for your letters this week. You´re the best!!

---Hna. Springer

First, a "Welcome to Conci" sign that I thought was funny--Coke is a staple of life here. :)
2-Walking to the Stake Center for Conference and taking pictures of cows on the way
3-The pretty sunset we found after Conference
4-The "English Room" where we watched Conference. Every now and then Paraguayan members would come walking by and poke their heads in to watch us watching Conference like we were zoo animals or something. "And on the left we have American missionaries watching Conference in English." "Ooooh!"
5-Some gorgeous flowers that are in season this time of year. Can you believe they just grow so perfectly? They look sculpted to me.

---Carly

Week 65 - Paraguay - Concepcion

Querida Familia,

Happy Fall! Can you believe that I officially survived a South American summer? I think I should be given a medal or something. :) I'm so glad for the cooler weather. I was amazed at how on March 21st, the very first day of Fall, we got a huge rainstorm, and the mornings have been cold enough to make us wear jackets ever since. It was like a switch was flipped and now we're heading into winter! Yay!

Now the problem is rain, but I'm not complaining after that long, dry, summer. It's better to bundle up than to not be able to escape the heat, and our boots allow us to navigate most of the city. Concepcion has a lot of dirt roads, but they've at least got a solid foundation and don't turn TOO muddy. It only gets bad when we get closer to the river. 

This means that the mosquitos are back, though. Those first few days I forgot the repellant. Bad idea. Hna. Tua´one's anti-itching cream came in handy. Now we're a lot more vigilant with the repellant, and we keep some "repellant-incense" burning in the house to chase out those that come in through the windows. Dengue is going to be on the rise, soon, if it hasn't already started in Asuncion. I hear it's not usually too bad here in Concepcion. I'm still going to do all I can not to contract it, though. Never let your guard down!

I'm amazed at how many people let us in when it rains. On a dry day, we go out contacting and people make some excuse not to let us in. When it's pouring rain, though, and we're obviously soaked, suddenly it´s, "Come in, come in immediately! Sit down! Take off your wet coat! Have some empanadas! Drink some cocido!" Except we're not allowed to drink cocido, so they say, "Mate, then!" Except we're not allowed to drink mate, either. "Coffee?" "Nope." "Tea?" "...Can we just have water?" "Hot water?" "Sure. Sounds good." They're really a lot more generous when they see the two crazy Americans wading through the streets and begging people to let them in. :)

We had a really great week as we went about using the huge member list to find all the menos activos in our area. Hna. Tua'one is super dedicated to making this area as organized for me as possible before she leaves. You wouldn't think she was leaving, though. She doesn't tell anyone that she is. Whenever people ask her how much time she has in the mission, she just says, "Oh you know... about a year..." And she tells everyone that I'm the Senior companion. She's never lazy, either. She's as invested in our investigators and our members as if she was going to work with them for another year. She loves them and serves them so readily. 

Service has once again proven the key to opening people up to our visits. We one day found the house of a teenager who doesn't come to church anymore, and of his family who doesn't like to meet with the missionaries (according to their registro). When we showed up at their house, they were trying to move a pile of wood from the front yard to the back. We immediately put our bags down and started helping. They tried to get us to stop, telling us we'd get dirty and that the logs were too heavy. We didn't listen, we just kept going until all the wood was gone. Then we asked if we could share with the teenage boy, and not only him but his whole family came and shared with us, completely open and accepting. Now three of their non-member neices and nephews have baptism dates.

We had great church attendance this week as a result of all our searching for members and reminding them of the gospel. We had seven investigators come with us, and several menos activo families that hadn't been there in months. It made me very happy to see the fruits of our labors. I feel like the branch is becoming more unified as we emphasize the importance of visiting and home teaching to the branch counsel. We're trying to build friendships among them so that they won't all fall apart again once "their missionaries" leave.

I'm so excited for Conference! Are you excited? I'm excited. :) I love going about and inviting everyone to come listen to the prophet of God. I love being able to testify to them of how by listening to our general authorities I draw closer to Our Savior, Jesus Christ. I love that the prophet and apostles don't speak to us at Conference to show off their skills at speaking or their knowledge of the scriptures--they talk purely so that they can help us feel the Spirit and receive personal revelation. It's so beautiful. I really can't wait until Saturday! Something I've come to love to do at Conference is go with a specific question in mind. I always find the answer. I also like to write down all the commandments that we're given, along with their promised blessings. I need to look for ways I can improve in my covenants to follow the Lord. 

By the way, if any of you are wondering, I'm not writing until today because yesterday Pte. and Hna. Madariaga came to Concepcion to do a zone training meeting, so we worked a regular day yesterday before that, and now today is our day off. Sorry if any of you were panicking. :) The training meeting was great. I'll tell you all about it next week.

Thank you Dad, Mom, Amanda, Ashley, Goompa, Grandma Springer, Holly, and the Blairs for writing to me this week! I love you all! Enjoy Conference and remember that I'll be watching it right along with you! 

---Hna. Springer


1-The obelisk that is one of the very useful landmarks here in our area.
2-I title this "Good morning, Conci!"
3-A beautiful sunrise
4-The humongous "Virgencita" that also makes a useful landmark. Especially at night.

Love you!!

---Carly