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
Love you!!
---Carly
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