Big news! (Well...big for us Paraguay-serving missionaries, anyways...) Concepcion is no longer the farthest-away area for the Hermanas! This last Change they opened up Pedro Juan Caballero, right by Brazil, for the Hermanas to work in! And guess who's going to open up the area, with a trainee? HERMANA DEVRIES!! Soy abuela! I hear she's very nervous to be training (especially since I hear it's a latina she's training), and to be opening up an area so far away from Asuncion, where they're known to speak a lot of Portuguese, but I know she'll do great. And we're in the same zone now, so we might be able to do divisions! I'm so excited. She's amazing.
Hna. Goimarac is amazing, too. It's so fun to see her beam when everyone says, "What? There's no way you've only been here a month--you speak Spanish too well!" She would tell you that she speaks atrocious Spanish, but she really is very good. And really any mistakes she makes are overshadowed by the fact that she's so bold and loving in talking to the gente. They all think you're brand new when you don't say anything, because it means you don't understand and/or are afraid to make a mistake when you talk. But she has no such fear. "Perfect love casteth out fear." And she understands very well. She's a great companion partly because she already fits right into sharing the load with talking and teaching.
We had a few very cold days this week. Last Sunday it was blazing hot, and then on Monday it poured rain and the temperature dropped significantly. It gave us no time to learn to adjust to the cold weather, so that first day we were a little unprepared. On Tuesday, though, we were armed with literally every sweater we owned. I must have been wearing six layers. I'm so glad I thought to bring tights and thermals to wear under my winter skirts.
It threw off our contacting skills, though. In the warmer days, it was easy to just say, "okay, we're gonna talk to everyone we see sitting outside doing nothing." We got 75 contacts each fairly easily. But this week, NOBODY was sitting outside. We hardly contacted at all those first few cold days, and then this weekend when it warmed up we scrambled to catch up on our goal. It required a lot more door-clapping than we've gotten used to. It's also thrown off our church attendance and lessons, because at least one person in every family has a cold. No joke. I'm amazed Hna. Goimarac and I haven't caught any kind of bug yet.
The cold sure is helping me a lot with my exercise goals, though. I love getting up and going jogging so I can get my blood pumping and warm up for study time. If I didn't have that to do, it would be very hard to make myself leave the comfort and warmth of my bed every morning. :)
We've been seeing great progress with our investigators lately. The Mezas are almost 100% set to be baptized this weekend! We're going to have a Noche de Hogar with them tonight to plan all the details, but so far I see nothing that could stop them from making the covenant. They were kind of afraid to make a promise with God, not wanting to mess up and be found imperfect, but we explained to them that getting baptized is a lot like making the decision to get married. When you get married, you KNOW it won't be easy, and you KNOW that you're going to mess up, but that doesn't stop you from making a promise with the one you love to try your absolute hardest. Baptism is the same thing--a promise with the One we love to try our very best to make Him happy, even though you know it will be hard and you'll probably mess up. After we explained it in that sense (thankfully the Mezas are a couple that actually ARE married), they agreed that it was a leap they could make, and they accepted a baptismal date. I'm so excited for them!
This week Hna. Goimarac and I have been studying a lot about using the Book of Mormon to help people progress in the gospel. We've been seeing so much more happiness and success by applying that. Leida especially made us happy when we asked her about her reading of the Book of Mormon and she said she loved it. She'd read the part we left her about Alma's people bearing their burdens with the help of the Lord, and then she'd kept reading to find out more! When we asked her if she believed it to be the word of God, she got really quiet and said, "Nobody could have just come up with something so beautiful if it wasn't given by God." I agree. :)
I wish everyone would just take the time to read the Book of Mormon more. Yesterday I gave a talk in church, and I used the first four chapters of 1 Nephi to discuss personal revelation and trusting in God's direction. Nephi is so admirable in how he responded to his father's directions by praying about them first and then following them without question once God gave him a testimony. He also studied the scriptures a lot and relied on the story of Moses to give him courage to face Laban. He let the Spirit guide him when he had no idea what to do to get the plates. We all need to do the same, and do as Lehi did by giving up everything that would stop us from obeying the Lord, even if it means wordly discomfort. I'm sure it wasn't a very cheerful prospect to give up a luxurious home and wealth in Jerusalem to go live in the desert for who-knows-how-long, but Lehi did it anyways, and he ended up getting a promised land better than anything he gave up.
Our branch president is a good example of giving up worldly luxury to do as the Lord asks. He and his family are going through a financial crisis lately, but you would never think so the way he puts on a smile for everyone in the branch and goes about helping individuals as the Spirit directs. He's a little underappreciated around here, but he's determined to never quit until the Lord tells him "enough." Yesterday when we went to visit him and his family (it had been almost three weeks--we've been busy), he and his wife were more than a little saddened by a mean text that a member had sent them. They'd helped this member a lot, yet he was accusing them of doing nothing on his behalf and judging him for his past mistakes. President was feeling really upset until he got another text almost immediately afterwards. This one was from a menos activo we've been working with ever since I got here, who recently has been 100% active thanks to the President and his family. She sent them a beautiful, happy text thanking them for being true followers of Christ and helping her put her life back in order. It was so great to see how happy that one message made them. They're dealing with so many problems on every side, but when one person changes for the better, all the struggling is worth it. :)
Well, that's all for this week. Thank you Goompa, Grandma Springer, Laurel, Amanda, Dad, Mom, Lucie, and the Blairs for writing to me this week! It's great to hear about your summer adventures. Hopefully you're dealing well with the heat and praying for me to be able to survive the cold. :)
I LOVE YOU!!
---Hna. Springer
This is the only photo I have for this week, of our district before it got Changed. Don't we all look so happy? It's a bummer the other cameras caught the glare of the flash, but hopefully you can crop that out for me. :) I'll have more interesting pictures next week. We're going to go check out some museums today right after this.
I LOVE YOU!!
--Carly
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