Week 76 - Paraguay - Concepcion

Dearest Familia,

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

Week 75 - Paraguay - Concepcion

Querida Familia,

Can you believe that it's Monday again already? I feel like the days are slipping through my fingers like sand. Today we're having a very laid-back P-Day. After a week of humidity and blazing sunlight, we're being pounded with rain finally. It's amazing how yesterday we were sweating bullets, and now we're wearing coats again. 

We just got done making a TON of empanadas with the Elders. They were all excited to make the crust themselves, so we spent two and a half hours putting it all together. Empanadas are like the hamburgers of Paraguay--they're sold for cheap on any given street corner. It probably would have cost ten minutes and 16 mil for all of us to buy how many empanadas we made for 50 mil of ingredients and two and a half hours of time. But at least we got to handle the ingredients ourselves, and the crust WAS much better quality. Plus it was just fun for all of us to be together. Changes are happening tonight, so who knows how our district will look next week. It's always good to do a last, parting get-together.

Of course, I know exactly where I'm gonna be next Change. Right here in Concepcion with Hna. Goimarac. And it will be my VERY. LAST. CHANGE. 

What.

Six weeks feels like nothing. Today's quote in the quote book Laurel made me says "When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hold on!" I feel like that's what I'm doing. I'm reaching the end of my mission rope and tying knots as fast as I can to keep myself from slipping further. By the time the end comes, it will take quite the effort to get me untangled, and I pity the fool who tries to take that rope out of my hands. :) 

I want to see the Meza family's baptism SO BADLY. We're doing all we can to make it happen in June. They are such an amazing family. They read the scriptures and pray as a family every night. Even before we suggested such a habit, they were doing it. Who DOES that? They're so unified and loving, which is amazing considering that Juan Angel had a dark past as an alcoholic father. His family is amazing for having forgiven him and moved on with happiness and hope. 

They all prayed together to ask the Lord if they should be baptized in June. We haven't been able to talk to Juan Angel about that, yet, but the mom, Gladys, says that she feels that it's right, and she's doing all she can to convince her husband that he's ready. Juan Angel wants to be baptized. He wants to be a member, but he's afraid that he's not good enough, basically. He wants to be worthy to be called a member of the Church of Jesus Christ, and he's afraid that he'll slip up. We're going to be talking to him a lot about that this week, and I highly doubt that he'll put off baptism for too long. Hna. Goimarac has a good saying for people who think they're not ready for baptism: "The Church isn't a museum full of perfect people, it's a hospital for those who are working to become perfect." 

Alex Franco, Juan Angel's member friend who's been 100% the reason why the Meza family is doing so well, gave a beautiful testimony on Sunday. He's not a very sensitive person, but he was crying so hard as he shared with the congregation the joy that he's felt in helping his best friend get over his addictions and put his family together. It was very sweet, and I'm glad that the Meza family was in church to hear it.

Rolando was confirmed in church yesterday, which means that we already met our part of the mission goal for June for every companionship to get at least one baptism! We're not gonna slack off now, by any means, but it still feels nice to know that we did our part. He's doing great. He had a fun week with his dad in town and is obviously sad that his dad has to leave to work again, but he's happy that he's baptized and that his dad got to see it.

This week was a big deal for Concepcion. On the 31st of May was the "Birthday of Concepcion." Actually, the 26th is when the city was actually founded, but back in the day they could only get to Asuncion by horseback, so it took them five days to take their constitution to the capital to become a city. So they celebrate on the 31st.

Anyways, there was a HUGE parade. As you know, they've been practicing outside of our apartment for weeks (and we're very thankful that that's all over and done and we can study in peace again), and on Thursday it all came together. Every school in the city AND in the surrounding cities, AND some cities closer to Asuncion and Brazil, AND many major Paraguayan organizations participated in the parade. We didn't recognize the city center at all when we went to see it (our lunch appointment was cancelled for the occasion, so our lunch hour was spent at the parade instead). The main street was packed full of people, the whole center full of chairs and the catholic church sporting a pavillion for the country officials to wave to the parade participants. The Virgin Mary statue was decked with cameras and announcer people so everyone could watch the event on TV. Street vendors from other countries were there, taking advantage of the crowds. It felt a lot like a major football game or 4th of July carnival or something--lots of cotton candy and noise and families having fun together. Now if I ever decide to come back and visit Concepcion as a tourist, I know when to do so. There were lots of things to buy. 

It made contacting a cinch, not only because everyones' families were in town but also because we had a great conversation starter. "Hey, how was the parade? Were your kids in it?" It was a good week. We met our goal of 75 contacts again, easily.

...I don't really know what else to write about today. This week was so fast and fairly uneventful. 

Oh! But I finished the Book of Mormon again, for the third time as a missionary. I could have read it faster, but I try to just read a chapter a day so I can really get the most out of it, and so that I can have time to study Doctrine and Covenants and Preach My Gospel AND the Conference Liahona. I love the Book of Mormon. I love Moroni's final plea for us to come unto Christ, lay aside all ungodliness, and let Christ's grace let us become sanctified. Also, his challenge for us to ponder over the Book and ask God if it be true. I honestly feel bad for anybody who doesn't appreciate the Book of Mormon, or who thinks that it's a fake or whatever. I can feel its reality whenever I read it, especially in the end. Mormon's and Moroni's sadness is so touching, and I wouldn't dare tread their sacrifice and hard work under my feet. I want to be able to see them after this life and thank them for what they did, not be embarrassed or apologetic for not having followed the guidance that they gave their lives to give me. I am so thankful for that guidance. My life would be so different without it. I know that that Book is true. I KNOW it, and I love it, and I wouldn't replace it for anything. I'm excited to begin to read it all over again tomorrow. 

Well, that's about it for today. Thank you Grandma Springer, Hna. Tua'one, Amanda, Ashley, Sarah, Mom, Dad, Goompa, and Holly for writing to me this week. And thank you McConkies for the awesome pictures. I love you all and hope you're doing well and reading the Book of Mormon lots. :)

---Hna. Springer


1-One of the only photos I got from a member of little kids in the parade
2-Us making empanadas
3-Our empanada feast

Love you!!

---Carly

Week 74 - Paraguay - Concepcion

¿Mba'eichapa, mi familia?

Are you having a wonderful Memorial Day weekend? Today we're experiencing unusually hot weather, so I'm jealous of all your accounts of perfectly cool weather back home. 

I'm so glad that I get to write you today. We had a scare when all day the internet in all of Concepcion was down. It just barely came back on, so now we're all scrambling to write home before P-Day ends and we start working again.

This week was so great. So much happened, I wish I could just copy down my journal for all of you. Hopefully Hna. Goimarac will write about some things that I skip, so you can check out her blog to fill in the gaps.

First of all, we finally had a baptism in Rama 1! It was quite literally a miracle. The 10-year-old boy, Rolando, is the son of an inactive member and lives with his inactive member cousins. He has been ready for baptism for months, and he always comes to church, but one thing after another kept coming up so we kind of put his baptism on the shelf so the speak. Then last week the zone leaders called and told us that our mission is very close to meeting our goal of 100 baptisms in May, but that nobody had anybody left to baptize. We started a special fast, hoping to see miracles, and a half hour later we were at Rolando's house. Before we'd even taught the lesson, the grandma said, "Hermanas, Rolando's dad is going to be in town this weekend. Can we have his baptism while he's here?" We couldn't believe our ears! We quickly reviewed the baptismal questions with Rolando and of course, he was an expert on everything. So when we left the house I called our zone leaders again (hardly an hour had passed since they'd called us about the special fast). I said, "Hey, Elders. Just a question. Could you possibly come to our area tomorrow to do a baptis--" "YES!!" they said, "YES YES YES we absolutely can!!" They were so thrilled, it was hilarious. Sometimes the Lord takes a while to respond to our prayers, sometimes He answers immediately. :)

The baptism was beautiful for having been thrown together in under three days. There was a great big turnout, as most of Rolando's family is members, and many others in the branch showed up as well. We didn't have seats for everyone. They were all so excited to see a baptism for the first time since January, and they were all so sweet about welcoming Rolando into the branch. I gave a talk before the ordinance about the Holy Ghost, and explained that in order to feel the Holy Ghost, we have to be doing things worthy of His companionship. I then gifted him with the Book of Mormon that the Palo Verde Primary sent to me (the kids loved the picture of all the blonde little American primary kids), and I started crying when I explained to him that the primary had worked hard to send him something special. He seemed really touched by it.

Immediately after the baptism, Hna. Goimarac and I put on a special fireside. We were running around like chickens with our heads cut off on Saturday night, trying to bake desserts and confirm member participation and everything. To make it worse, the power in the whole city went out for a few hours that night, and we were panicking thinking that everything would be closed and we'd have nothing done by the Sabbath. But then the power came back on (and Hna. Goimarac made a comment like, "Wow! That was just like when the Church was restored after the long night of apostasy!" She's so cute!) and we were back in business.

The fireside went great. The theme was mission work, but instead of the usual, cane-dropping, "Come on, members, help us missionaries!!", we took the tone of, "Thank you so much, members, for all that you do. Check out what your small acts of kindness do for the world!" We showed a few videos about converts and church growth, one of them being that epic "The Gospel Rolls Forth" video with the dots appearing representing stake growth over the years. It had ME in tears, at least. And we'd asked several members to share their testimonies of how members had helped them in the church. I think the branch really liked it, and they all seemed pretty impressed with our efforts. We had printed programs and everything, and it helped that we had six investigators in sacrament meeting earlier that day. :) At one point, the power went off again, and I expected them to all bolt for the door, but I was so proud when instead they just opened the windows to let in a little moonlight, turned on their cell phone flashlights, and stayed put as if nothing had happened. This branch is awesome!

The members have been helping us so much this week. Now that they've actually met our investigators at church, they're a lot more willing to come do visits with us. We have three with-member visits already booked for this upcoming week, which is very unusual. I'm very impressed with our investigators as well. The Meza family (Juan Angel's family) couldn't come this week because of a family emergency, but they still have a solid baptismal date for June. Instead we had brand new investigators come, a few of them from very far away. I wasn't exaggerating before when I said that the Lord has been putting quality people in our paths. They say that in the States, if somebody lets you into their house, it's very likely that they'll be baptized. We have people let us into their houses no problem--it's getting them to church that marks their readiness or not, and we've been seeing so many in church lately! It's so great.

Juan Angel and his family really are so dedicated. That FHE that I mentioned last week went well. We showed up at the church at 7:00 with our recent-convert family, but the Mezas didn't arrive. I called them and they said that something had come up and they wouldn't be able to make it. We were bummed, but told them we'd just go visit them the next day. So we had a nice little FHE with the recent-convert family alone. At 8:00 we'd had the lesson, played the game, eaten some dessert and cleaned up. We were literally walking out the door when who should appear but the entire Meza family! As soon as they'd resolved their problem, they'd run as fast as they could to the church to see if they could catch the end of FHE. We were so impressed and touched that we just had the entire activity again--lesson, game, treat, and all! :) The recent convert family hit it off well with them, and the Mezas loved it. They're progressing well, and showing a great love for Christ. I can't wait to see their baptisms in June.

To end, I just want to remind you that the Lord works in funny ways, sometimes. This week we were working to contact a ton, as usual. We were tracting around in the city and it was awkward to just approach people on the sidewalk. We were coming up on this old couple sitting out in front of their house, and I was scrambling to think of what to say to make the contact natural. ("Uh...I like your shirt?" "...Your house is pretty?" "Whatcha doin'?") We were just at the point when I had to open my mouth to say SOMETHING in greeting, when out of the house came this little black weiner dog wearing a pink Hello Kitty sweater. It ran right up to us and greeted us with a friendly, wagging tail, for all the world as if we were already best friends and it had heard us coming. It was the most amazingly perfect ice-breaker as we went, "Awwwww!!" and rubbed its round little belly and were able to ask the couple about their adorable little dog. It was the most casual contact of the day, all thanks to a friendly little weiner dog. :)

I love Paraguay. I really do. I wish I could just clip a webcam to my nametag and let you in on all my amazing experiences. The Church is so true. Hna. Goimarac in her talk at the Fireside did a great job of talking about how she's gone to several countries for service projects before. She's helped people with their schooling and housing and business-sense, but in all her endeavors, she's never seen as much change in peoples' happiness as in preaching the gospel. I'm so glad that I chose to serve a mission. I want to do service projects in the future, too, but it's true. Nothing changes a person so much as when they learn that they are a child of God with a divine destiny and potential. 

I love you all!! Thank you Grandma (and Jenkins), Ashley, Amanda, Goompa and Nana, Hna. Tua'one, Mom, and Dad for your letters this week! 

---Hna. Springer

Hey! Here are some sweet pics from another great week in the Heart of South America!
1-Me and Rolando, who I gave my special Book of Mormon to from the Palo Verde Primary.
2-Us and Rolando, the newest member of Rama 1
3-Hna. Goimarac cleaning the font
4-Me cleaning the font
5-Hna. Goimarac breaking into the font from the front when we found that the door was jammed. :)

LOVE YOU!!

---Carly

Week 73 - Paraguay - Concepcion

Hey everybody! 

It's another beautiful, overcast day in Paraguay. The marching band is doing their thing right outside the ciber, I'm stuffed full from a yummy milanesa sandwich, and I am thoroughly enjoying a calm, plan-less P-Day. How are things in the States? Hopefully good, too. 

I'm glad to hear that you all had a great Mother's Day. It was a really nice time for us here, too. Their Mother's Day was on Tuesday, and Independence Day was on Monday, so those first few days of the week we were able to talk to a ton of people who normally wouldn't be home. Everyone was enjoying time with their families and just sitting back to chat with strangers. Perfect contacting ground for us missionaries. We doubled our normal number of new investigators.

One of those new investigators is an adorable young mother named Leida. She, like an astonishing number of people we've been meeting lately, has investigated lots of churches in the past and is excited to learn more about ours. She listens so well, and while she like all other Paraguayan women loves to talk, she loves to talk about spiritual, eternal things rather than just chit-chat. Her four little kids are ADORABLE. She married a blonde Brazilian, so they've all got gorgeous bronze skin, hazel eyes, and lighter hair. I love them all already.

Bernardina is doing well, too, though she still has tons of conflicts that prevent her from coming to church. She loves our visits, though. She's gaining little by little a greater appreciation for what we have to share. She's always had a Book of Mormon at home (a little tattered, with some pages missing), but when we explained to her what it was, she looked down at it in her hands with new reverence. "I've had this all this time and never knew what it was!" she said. "Now I want to read it. I might find answers here." We're going to give her a new Book of Mormon today, in which Hna. Goimarac marked some of her favorite scriptures. Bernardina is amazing. Her whole family is. Her kids all excitedly come running when we show up. Kids are the best--so accepting and excited to learn. 

Juan Angel's family is the same way. They all squeeze into their little sitting room to listen to us. They came to church again yesterday! They were able to make it to the last half of Gospel Principles, and we had a great discussion on Heavenly Father. Church was extraordinary yesterday, thanks to a power outage that lasted from 7:00am to 3:00pm. It affected the whole city, which made walking the streets a lot more tranquilo than usual, what with everyone's stereos being silent. Usually music blares all around you. Yesterday it actually felt like a Sabbath Day in Concepcion. Anyways, in church it meant that there was no organ and no microphone. We all had to be extra quiet to listen to the talks, and it created a new sense of reverence.

We're going to have Juan Angel's family over for FHE today, along with some other investigators and a recent-convert family. I'm excited for them. I really think they're going to get baptized in June. Even if not, it's so amazing to be part of the teaching process. Maybe I won't have tons of baptisms under my belt, but hopefully I'm still on Satan's watch list, as an enemy who causes havoc for him every day by enlightening the people and loosening his grip just that much. Every visit we do, even if someone won't let us talk, at least we almost always pass with a prayer, showing people what prayer can be. Everything we do opens people's minds to the idea of religion--even just seeing us on the street will make them wonder. 

Anyways, FHE is fun. Hna. Goimarac is especially creative. She still isn't showing any signs of winding down from the MTC. I hope she never does. Last week we taught a lesson with some little kids by writing ideas from the lesson on little pieces of paper, putting paperclips on each one, and having them "fish" for the papers using a magnet on a pole (we used our broken plunger handle and some floss for a fishing pole). It kept the kids entertained throughout the whole lesson. 

In the middle of the week we taught a "Pearl of Great Price" object lesson. We bought some little candies and a big pack of cookies. We gave one kid the candies, then had him leave the room so we could hide the cookies where he would never be able to find it. When he came looking and started to get desperate, I asked him to give me a candy in exchange for a hint. The way I gave the hints, he ended up having to give me all of the candies in his hand. When he was finally left with nothing, I told him where the real prize was, but unless he'd given me everything he never would have found the big prize. The concept was being willing to let go of the little, less-important things to allow God to grant us the greatest blessings. 

The best activity we've found for FHE in Paraguay is "Bingo." We just made Bingo boards for tonight using words from Alma 32. That's another great game that keeps all ages entertained. 

Along with FHEs, Hna. Goimarac and I are preparing a fireside for next Sunday. Our goal is to not leave a dry eye in the room by the end of it. We want it to be the most spiritual experience this branch has had in a long time. The plans are still underway, but we hope to have several members bear their testimonies of their conversions, how the gospel has helped them, and how the members have shown their love through it all. We want everyone to remember to share the gospel with others and stay strong in their own conversion. We're making it clear to the members that this event means a lot to us by passing out hand-made invitations and giving them all specific assignments to assure that they'll show up. I'll let you know how it goes. 

There's not much going on besides that. Sorry I don't have any fun photos to send this time around. Hopefully we'll do something interesting before it's time to e-mail again. :) I'm still trying not to think about the fact that this is my eighth-to-last e-mail home. 

Thank you Blairs, Bro. Dorny, Grandma Springer, Goompa, Dad, Mom, Sarah, Ashley, Amanda, and Laurel for your e-mails this week! And thank you Palo Verde Primary for the package! (The Primary sent me a beautiful, hard-cover Book of Mormon to give away to somebody, after having earned the money to send it to me by bringing their scriptures to church every week. Adorable, right?) I promise to give it to someone who will really appreciate it, and I'll write you all about the experience.

Hna. Goimarac has invited all of you to check out her blog to read her take on our time together. :) The address is faithinjerusalem.blogspot.com. Read all about it!

I love you all. Be strong. Choose the right. Pray always and be believing. Thank you for everything you do. 

---Hna. Springer

Week 72 - Paraguay - Concepcion

Dearest Familia,

Happy Mother's Day yesterday, or tomorrow if you're in Paraguay. :) 

Also, Happy Paraguayan Independence Day today! 

And Happy Anniversary Amanda and Chase! 

There are a lot of holidays this week. Concepcion was founded on May 31st, so that day will be a holiday, too. Basically everyone's out of school and working a lot less this month than most other months. Right now the streets are so quiet. Everyone's with their families. We did have a branch activity, though, at the chapel. They made a bunch of grilled meat and played soccer and chatted. It was nice and relaxing. As far as we can tell, though, there aren't many traditional ways to celebrate these holidays. On the 31st they're gonna have a big parade. The marching band practices every morning, passing right by our house and making it quite impossible to study. By the time it's actually time to DO the parade, nobody in town's going to want to go see it. We've already heard it a bazillion times. :) 

This has been a seriously excellent week. Skyping was a blast, of course. It came and went way too fast, but it was great to be able to see my parents and my two youngest sisters again. I'm glad to hear that everything's still normal back home and everyone's happy. Dad noticed that I was both very excited to talk about the future and very sad. The end is coming way too fast and I don't like thinking about it too much. Thankfully, Hna. Tua'one is helping me with that by writing to me every week. She sounds kind of bored not being a missionary anymore, so that helps me to not picture non-missionary life in too exciting of a light. 

As I mentioned last week (I think), Pte. Madariaga gave us all the challenge to get 75 contacts each this week. That means introducing ourselves as missionaries to 150 complete strangers in seven days. That used to be pretty nerve-wracking for me. At the beginning of last week I was dreading this challenge, but that was just Satan trying to get me to focus on all the possibilities of rejection. In reality, we didn't get rejected too hard at all, and now contacting seems SO much easier and more natural. Not only that, but Pte. Madariaga's promise came true! He said that if we got 75 contacts a week, we'd find a new golden investigator before the end of the week. 

I can definitely say that that's true this week! I don't even have time to tell you about all of the amazing people that we've found this week! It really has been miraculous. For sake of time, I'll just mention a few. They're all pretty new investigators so I can't guarantee that they'll actually get baptized, but our visits with them have been so spiritual and amazing, and I'm so grateful that God let me meet them.

First of all, there's Bernardina. We were out contacting as usual and when we couldn't find this one man we'd met a few days ago, we went across the street where we'd seen some people walking around. We clapped the house, and some little kids ran to get an adult to come talk to us. Bernardina came out looking like she'd been dragged out of bed and had a migraine. She was kind of short with us, so we explained quickly who we were and what we were doing and asked if we could share with her. She was like, "You want to come in?" I said, "Um...well...yes?" thinking she was going to turn us down flat, judging by the skeptical look on her face. But she said, "Alright, come on in." 

We sat down on her porch and met her adorable little girls, Mireia and Dalba, and we chatted a bit to get Bernardina to open up. At first she kept on being kind of curt, like she'd talked with missionaries a thousand times before and thought we were wasting her time. Then we kept asking inspired questions and Bernardina started to soften up. Hna. Goimarac is especially good at coming up with thought-provoking questions, and from that we learned that Bernardina had actually been looking for Truth ever since she was a teenager. She started listing all of the churches and religions she'd checked out before, then told us all of the things that she'd found unsatisfactory about them all. "Basically," she said, "I tried them all. I didn't find what I was looking for. So now I'm back to the catholic church. It's what my parents raised me in, I guess it's good enough." The way she said it, she sounded so genuinely upset by it, like she was really hungering for something more. "The only one I haven't tried," she said, "Is yours. I've never talked with you missionaries or gone to your chapel before." 

As soon as I heard that, the Spirit was so strong. I wish I could describe the amazing feeling of having the Spirit just flood your body and help you to know exactly what to say. Feeling on top of the world, I told her, "Bernardina, I promise you that if you try the Church of Jesus Christ, you WILL find what you're looking for. This is the truth that you've been wanting, and God has sent it to you now." 

At first she was still kind of skeptical, but as we went on testifying, she got really pensive. We explained the Restoration, and at the end she said sincerely, "I'm going to pray about this. I want this to be true. I want to find God's church."

And she did pray. She said she was filled with so much happiness, she started to cry without knowing why. She and her husband read and re-read the Restoration pamphlet to learn more, and they've been happily continuing to let us visit them. She is golden. I'll tell you more about her as things develop.

The other investigator is named Juan Angel. He's the friend and co-worker of a member, and he's had some hard struggles in his life with his family, alcohol, and lots of other things. The member friend, Alex, was so great to him during it all, that now Juan Angel is convinced that the Church is true. In our visits, he's so attentive and just feasts on the information. He asks amazing questions and is always so surprised and thrilled when we can answer his questions unlike any other pastor he's asked. 

We've already taught him most of the lessons, and in each one the Spirit works freely. He's incredibly sensitive to the Spirit and he's already come to the conclusion that everything we teach is true. When we taught him the Plan of Salvation, he told us that he wants to not only save himself, but his whole family, and he promised to bring them with him when he visited the church for the first time yesterday.

They didn't show up at 8:00. We were pacing the halls and Alex was calling him frantically. Then 9:00 came and went and our ward mission leader was like, "What happened to your investigators?" and made it clear that he was disappointed in our efforts. I was so sad when it came time for sacrament meeting and Juan Angel and his family still weren't there. When it was time for the sacrament, I just sat there and prayed for patience. I was pretty resigned to the fact that all of our success was out of our hands. I could plant, Hna. Goimarac could water, but the increase always comes from God. I prayed and prayed, basically telling the Lord "Thy will be done" and I would be okay if I never saw another baptism in the area as long as I knew that the Lord was pleased with my efforts. A great calm came over me, and I was grateful for that quiet moment in sacrament meeting.

Then the deacon offered me the sacrament, and when i looked up, there was Juan Angel and his family! They'd snuck in at the precise moment when I was surrendering my will to the Lord. I couldn't stop grinning all during the perfect sacrament meeting talks, and I kept praying, now thanking God over and over for such a wonderful surprise.

Well, that took way too long to describe, but just know that we are seeing miracles and I'm very very happy. The mission is amazing and the Lord is so incredibly merciful when we do our very best. 

I love you all. Have an amazing week and don't forget to thank the Lord every day for His gifts. 

---Hna. Springer

Here are a couple of photos I just snapped this morning at a ward activity.

Feliz Dia de la Independencia de Paraguay!

LOVE YOU!

---Carly

Week 71 - Paraguay - Concepcion

Hey everybody! 

How's everything going with you? From all of you lovely e-mails it sounds like you're all healthy and happy. I'm so glad. :) Thank you Goompa, Grandma Springer, Laurel, Blairs, Hna. Tua'one, Dad, Mom, Ashley, and Amanda for writing to me this week. 

The time is flying so quickly. I can't believe it's already Skype Week again. I feel like I just barely sent my Christmas greetings, and now we're to Mother's Day again. Oh yeah, speaking of which, I guess I should wish all of you wonderful mothers a Happy Mother's Day! Thank you for being such great examples for me. I know I have a ways to go before being a mom, and especially on the mission I shouldn't be thinking about that, but I really am so grateful to our Heavenly Father for blessing me with such righteous, loving women all around me. I hope I can be just like you someday.

So this week was wonderful. As I mentioned last week, we got to go to Asuncion for Zone Conference and the temple. The temple was so amazing. The church really has got closing out all outside noise down to an art. As soon as those thick front doors closed behind us, I felt like every worry just washed away and I had all the time in the world to be in the best place on earth. We did an endowment session there, and it all seemed so new to me. I was really focused on the covenants that I made so long ago and I determined anew to stay true to them my whole life. 

I wish that everyone could go to the temple. I wish we could just take our investigators in there and be like, "See? THIS is what it's all about!" But of course they wouldn't really understand and they might not feel the true meaning of it, anyways. :( But still. It would be cool. I'm grateful for all of the open houses that the church does to let people at least get a glimpse of what it's like before the dedication. It's not quite the same, but it's close. 

Oh, by the way, I met a Brother and Sister Wagner there. I guess they're friends with Grandma and Grandpa Springer and Teresa? I'm sure I'd bet them before. They seemed familiar and they recognized me right off the bat. They were SO nice! They were so complimenting of the sister missionaries and having them talk about my family just felt like a little piece of home even though I don't really know them. :) It was a nice gift from the Lord to me to let me meet friends of the family there. 

Can you believe that it was my very last Zone Conference I attended last week? I gave my final testimony in front of everyone. It was bizarre. I felt a little out of place with all those who are "dying" in June. I wasn't nearly as emotional yet as they all were.

I'm sad that that was my last temple trip and Zone Conference and interview with President before the FINAL one, but at the same time I'm really glad there won't be any more bus trips until July (knock on wood). No bad movies this time around, but we still didn't get a good night's sleep either night. The first night, there was a man sitting right behind us who snored like a sawmill. No joke, it was ridiculous. I'm really amazed that he didn't wake himself up. I'm even more amazed that the poor lady sitting next to him didn't just snap and smother him with her pillow. 

Anyways... President Madariaga and I had a nice interview. Basically it all came down to the fact that the only challenge I still seem to have as a missionary is contacting. I DO contacting, but not nearly as much as I could. Thankfully Hna. Goimarac is super hard-working and just loves meeting people (to the point where I have to sometimes physically steer her away from the drunk creepers trying to hit on her--she's very trusting--not that they don't need the gospel too...) Pte. found a scripture for me that is now my new favorite--Romans 10:13-15. It's so inspirational--about how nobody can be saved without believing in Christ, and nobody can believe in Christ without hearing His gospel, and nobody can hear His gospel unless we go out and preach it to them. I put that up on my wall right when we got back home. :)

The work continues to go on strong, though. We should be having a baptism this weekend. Mariano is so eager to join the church. It's impressive, really. He doesn't even have all of the lessons yet, and yet he almost sounded disappointed that we put his baptism a whole seven days away when we talked with him last. :) He's come to church so many times and seen the good example of his member family. He knows that it's true. I just hope that we don't teach him some concept that he'll end up having a problem with.

The Elders had a few baptisms this last weekend, though. They don't have their own font in their area so they held it at our chapel and we took Mariano to see it. It was nice to go to a baptism for my first time since January, and Hna. Goimarac really loved it, too. Now we just need to have a few of our own! :)

I hope you're enjoying the Spring weather. We're back in a heat wave but I know it's just a matter of time before the cold comes back. Thankfully we got a big heater for our study when we went to Asuncion. 

I LOVE YOU ALL! Have a wonderful Mothers Day week/end! 

---Hna. Springer



1-The temple again. :)
2-Me and Hna. Goimarac by the temple
3-Asuncion Paraguay temple
4-Me with Elder Barazoto
5-Angel Moroni

LOVE YOU!!

---Carly

Week 70 - Paraguay - Concepcion

Hola familia!

Sorry if this is a little early for those of you still planning on writing me last-minute. My companion is really eager to write her family so we're doing things earlier than usual. 

Would you believe that I'm NOT training Hna. Greer? She did come to Paraguay, finally, but my old companion Hna. Brittner is training her. I'm training, too, but I was really surprised not to get Hna. Greer. So was Hna. Brittner, who was actually acquainted with the Sister that I'm training. I don't know what Hna. Greer would have been like or why President switched things all of a sudden, but I am LOVING being with my new companion and training again.

Her name is Hna. Goimarac. In English, it's pronounced go-mare-ick, but she tells all the Paraguayos that it's Go-ee-marr-ack. It's easier for them that way. :) Anyways, she's an adorable Hermana from Sedona, Arizona. You'll see her in the picture I sent of us, but let's just say that I'm no longer the only pretty blonde in Concepcion. She is turning lots of heads around here. And she just loves Paraguay. As luck would have it, she's already traveled the world a ton. Her first name is Faith but it should be Charity. She's done service projects her whole life, and before coming to Paraguay went to Jerusalem, Tanzania, Peru, and Guatemala. She's very used to culture shock and dealing with strange new customs. It hasn't thrown her off hardly at all. 

She learned quite a bit of Spanish before the mission and was in the advanced class at the MTC. Nobody believes her when she says that she only has one week as a missionary. She's a pro already. She loves meeting new people, so I'm learning quickly to not be afraid of contacting anymore. We stop and talk with EVERYBODY. Well, SHE stops. I still end up doing most of the talking. :) She thinks I'm so good at talking with people but really if it wasn't for her boldness and friendliness in just approaching people I wouldn't be doing as much contacting. She's helping me grow already in so many ways, and I know she's going to be a stellar missionary.

She's also very health-conscious, which is what I was praying for in a companion--hard-working and health-conscious. We go jogging a lot and we eat a lot less sweets than I did with Hna. Tua'one. (By the way...I guess I wasn't clear enough in my e-mail last week. Hna. Tua'one's homecoming was YESTERDAY. Sorry...)

There's just such a special spirit to training that I love so much. I'm SO GLAD that the Lord has given me this opportunity to really work my hardest right up to the very end. No slacking off at all with a new Sister to train! And with someone fresh out of the MTC, I'm so aware of how special each and every day really is. This is all new to Hna. Goimarac, and I love remembering that feeling that I had when I was new. I can't believe how long ago that was. It's still funny to me how she thinks I'm so old and knowledgable in the mission, but I don't feel like it at all. 

A lot has changed in the MTC since i was there. Hna. Goimarac is teaching me a lot more than I feel like I'm teaching her. There are a lot more teaching tactics that they're given at the MTC, and a lot of what I was doing before is now being taught as being wrong. Oops. :) So I feel like I'm improving a ton, and she's really learning so much every day, too. We're having tons of fun meeting new people and teaching with the Spirit. It helps that everybody else in Concepcion is being a lot more receptive to our message now that there's a super-model blonde teaching them. :) That sure gives us a lot more opportunities to find people to teach. 

Saying goodbye to Hna. Tua'one was hard, though. She is definitely one of those friends you keep for life and beyond. I hope you all get to meet her sometime. She should be coming to the airport when I get home and I'll probably invite her to family functions a lot so be warned. :) 

It's getting way cold here in Paraguay now. Is that bizarre to you? Hna. Goimarac doesn't even wear a jacket and I'm all wearing a coat around. She just came from snow but my blood's all thin from trying to not fry to death this last summer. I can't believe I've already been through an entire winter and summer and now I'm repeating seasons. A year and a half is really short. 

Anyways, we have a lot of baptisms lined up for May. We were supposed to have one on Saturday but then the mom last-minute decided she wanted the dad to come from out of town to see the ceremony and he can't come until the 20th. Such is life. We really have some great investigators, though, who I don't think will let us down. They all came to church yesterday. It was fantastic. 

Since it was the 5th Sunday we had a really spiritual Relief Society/Priesthood block about the temple. We watched a movie with real families on their way to the temple and it was so sweet I cried. I realized as we were watching that movie that there's a deeper meaning to that famous scripture about the spirit of Elijah. I always thought it just meant that everyone would be interested in their ancestors. Which is true. But when it says that Elijah will "turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers," it's referring to our current families, as well. When we're all working together to go to the temple, our families are strengthened. We understand each other better and strive to be more united. 

Speaking of temples, we get to go this week, finally! I'm so excited. We also have interviews and zone conference that day so that should be an adventure, but I'm glad they're only making us go on one bus ride. The ride to and from Asuncion to pick up Hna. Goimarac wasn't too bad, but there were some truly awful movies playing during the drive. We all did our best to read the scriptures in English and turn off our Spanish ears and avoid looking at the screens. It was more or less effective. Next time, if that happens, we may just have to bribe the driver to put in the Restoration DVD or something. :)

Thank you Hna. Stagg, Grandma Springer, Goompa, Dad, Bro. Dorny and Teresa for your e-mails this week! I hope you all have an awesome Monday! Until next week, take care!

---Hna. Springer




1- Hna. Tua'one with an adorable Paraguayito signing her "goodbye shirt"
2- Our old zone being silly
3- Our old zone being silly
4- Me with my new companion, Hna. Goimarac

---Carly