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
No comments:
Post a Comment