Dear Family,
I HAVE A NEW COMPANION!! Her name is Hna. Tua´one (Too-ah-oh-neh) and she is awesome. She´s of Tongan/Samoan descent but she was born and raised in West Valley, Utah.
I was so worried when we got The Call and I hear that I´d be getting a new companion. Hna. STagg was happy as a clam. Not that she doesn´t love me, but six months working in the same area is a long time. She got sent to Ypacarai (I still can´t pronounce that) and is in a trio with two latinas. She´s always wanted native companions and I hear Ypacarai is really nice and really pretty. It´s out by the big lake.
So yeah, I was nervous to meet Hna. Tua´one and have to learn to work with a different companion. But she is totally cool. She´s super sweet and just fun to be around. The apartment has so much more personality with her stuff in it (our dark study is now lit up with Christmas lights!) and she´s an amazing teacher. Everyone loves her already. She just knows how to talk with people. I feel like our lessons are more relaxed and yet so effective. We never stay too long at anyone´s house, but we seem to have more fun with people. Hna. T is a little unused to the stricter rules that were put into effect right before I came to the misison, but she´s determined to help me make some awesome memories during my time in Paraguay even if I don´t have as much freedom as she did when making her own.
I finally got Amanda´s announcement in the mail this week. We were at district meeting, and the Elders all gathered around when they saw the big, obviously-a-wedding-announcement envelope. They were all smitten. "That´s your SISTER?" "She has the most amazing eyes!" "Can I see it again?" "I don´t know if I should be looking at this right now..." Good thing you and Chase are already sealed, Panda Bear, or I think some of the Elders would track you down after the mission. :)
I knew better than to open my package in front of the Elders. McConkies, thank you SO much. I was totally in need of more pens, stickers, and notecards. And I loved sharing the snacks with my new companion, especially the Cadbury mini eggs. You know me so well. :)
Thank you Grandma Springer, Mom, Dad, Ashley, and McConkies for your letters this week. Today I worked on returning the favor. I ventured out to the only photo printing place I´ve heard of in our area. YOu may now look forward to 30 mission photos, to arrive sometime at the end of June. You´re welcome.
It´s been quite the adventure having to remember everyone´s names, how to get from place to place, and what we did in past lessons. I have yet to get majorly lost, and now I know my way REALLY well after lots of trial and error. I´m still learning how to keep good notes on lessons and such. Hna. Stagg would always write down everything. Too many times this week I´ve had to admit, "Um...I have no idea who that is." But we´ve done great, anyways. I still stress that someone´s gonna slip through the cracks of my memory, but I think I´m doing pretty well so far.
It´s been really awkward explaining to people that Hna. Stagg left. We tried to say goodbye to everyone on Tuesday, but there were some people who it just wasn´t possible to visit. I didn´t know how to tell people why they didn´t make the cut, especially in Spanish. I think some people are really hurt that she didn´t stop by. But it´s fun for me now to be the one who knows everyone. Before, I kind of let Hna. Stagg do all the talking, but now I´m a lot more involved as Hna. T is catching up. It´s weird, though, to be at the forefront. Not only do I talk a lot more, I´m also a lot more conspicuous on the streets now that I don´t have a tall, blonde companion to take some of the attention away. People are a lot quicker to assume that I don´t speak Spanish and Hna. T is my translator. They don´t believe that Hna. T is from the States, either. She speaks AMAZING Spanish. They always kind of laugh a little, like she´s joking, whenever she tells them she´s from Utah. Then they look between us like, "You can´t both be from the States. You look nothing alike."
Anyways, the work is going well. We did great on our weekly goals despite the confusion of Changes, and we have an awesome new Ward Mission Leader who gives us hope for more progress. His name is Julio and he´s only 18 (all the really great, active people in the branch are jovenes). Tired of disorganized meetings, Hna. Stagg and I trained him well the first time we met him. Now, last night with Hna. T and me, he started the meeting with a song and prayer, then gave a spiritual thought and read out of Preach My Gospel. It was so cute. He was all nervous, hoping to be awesome at his calling. So far he´s doing an excellent job. He took notes as we went through the informe, suggested solutions to our problems, and gave me hope that he´ll follow through on all that he promised us. Tons of jovenes joined and stay active in the church because of him, and I know he´s going to do a lot more in his lifetime to change others with the Gospel.
Hna. Sanchez wasn´t able to go to church with us this Sunday. She had bronchitis, pobrecita. "We want to get her medicine," said her nephews after we rich, LDS, American Hermanas visited her on her sickbed, "but we don´t have the MONEY. Hospitals cost so much MONEY. If only we had the MONEY!" I think they were hinting at something... Well, we brought her something better. We took the Elders over on Saturday night. One of them was a three-day-old Greenie who I´m sure is writing to his family today all about the experience he had with us his first week. :) They gave Hna. Sanchez a sweet healing blessing. You could feel the power of the Priesthood in the dark, drafty room. It was so peaceful. Hna. Sanchez was too weak to move or speak much, but she was smiling the whole time and thanked them so fervently at the end. We prayed for her that night, that she´d be able to come to church. She was still sick in the morning, unfortunately, but when we visited her later that afternoon I was overjoyed to see her cleaned and dressed and sitting upright on her bed no problem. Saturday she had awful bronchitis, yesterday she was ready to make more torta de leche and prepare for her baptism next weekend. She has so much faith. I´m so blessed to know such an amazing sister.
There´s this cute little family we´re teaching. The parents are all, "somos catolicos," but their eight-year-old boy, Rodrigo, is golden. The first time we visited him we said that we can find answers to any question in the Book of Mormon. He asked us to mark a part for him that would tell him how to make his family happier. His mom told us that when she wants to watch telenovellas (soap operas), he asks her not to because there´s stuff in those shows that kids shouldn´t watch. He always volunteers to pray at the end of the lessons, and when it comes time for him to ask Heavenly Father for something, he always whispers what he wants so we can´t hear. You can tell that he´s asking for something really sincere, with so much faith. I know that he´s only eight and we should be working with his parents more, but he is so golden. I want to see him join the church so badly.
We found two families this week in interesting ways. First there´s the Flia. Ibarra. We´d passed by the house earlier and talked with the dad a little, but he said he didn´t want to talk with us without his wife and family there. So we left, not really planning on going back anytime soon, and passed by another house maybe a half our later. In the front yard was a handicapped boy whose wheelchair said, "A donation from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints." So of course we stopped to talk with the boy, his siblings, and their mom, who was just cleaning the house as her job. She said we could for sure visit her house, and when she told us where it was, we realized it was the house we´d already contacted. Glad to have the mom willing to have us teach the family, we went back a few nights later to find that they had a cousin over who just happened to be a very active member of the Church. It was just very obviously meant to be. Now the 13-year-old daughter, Griselda, is super excited to be baptized like her cousin, and the mom is always asking us about what she needs to do to baptize her family, and I´m super excited for all of them.
Then there´s a woman named Miriam who we´d randomly contacted weeks ago. She´d been really distracted and uninterested that first visit, but then earlier this week we saw her walking down the road carrying these huge heavy bags on her shoulders. We took the bags for her and helped her back to her house, asking after her and learning more about her as we went. She was very impressed with us, saying that most people usually just ignore her. As her job, she goes out into the forest every day and looks for all these fascinating South American herbs and roots and things for remedies and teas and such. She´s very poor, but super sweet and intelligent. She said she´d had a bad experience in the Church a long time ago, because she attended wearing pants and people pointed out that she needed to wear a skirt. She´d sworn that she would never go to the "Mormon church" again. But then we helped her out, and she was so touched that she completely forgot that she doesn´t like Mormons. :) We taught her yesterday as she cut and wrapped and prepared all her plants to sell (it´s really fascinating). She´s so cool, and she knows there´s Truth out there that she hasn´t found yet. She´s going to learn from us and gain a testimony and be baptized soon. I just know it. :)
I´m kind of skimming the Bible again now. Don´t judge me. :) I never realized how much repetition there is in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. It´s amazing how many times the commandments are repeated and expounded and emphasized, and yet i´ve met so many people here who profess to know the Bible and yet break the commandments without a problem. Anyways, I´m getting into Joshua now, and the stories are getting really fascinating again. I like being able to tell people that yes, I do indeed know about the Law of Moses and the Exodus and everything. They tend to think that we only read the Book of Mormon and know nothing about Christianity.
Well, time to go again. Pray for Mariela for me (Victoria´s mom). She told us on Tuesday when Hna. Stagg went to say goodbye that since she started listening to the missionaries she´s had more problems than ever, and yet she wants to get baptized more than anything. Unfortunately, after all the prodding he did to get us to teach his señora, Hno. Gomez is dragging his feet about marriage, preventing her from getting baptized. She´s considering leaving him because she can´t stand living in adultery anymore and wants the Spirit. Have I mentioned how much I love her? Anyways, I appreciate all of your prayers and your support. I hope you´re all having a great beginning of summer (I expect letters even if you´re on vacation).
I LOVE YOU!!
---Hna. Springer
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