Week 10 in Paraguay

Ha upei mi familia! I thought I would start a little differently today, with a little bit of jopará! That is what they call it when someone mixes Guaraní and Spanish, Jopará. It is pretty much all the people speak here, unless they are Brazilian, then they speak Portuguese. The language has been coming really well lately. I haven´t really seen an improvement in my speaking at all, but I am really starting to see how the understanding is getting easier. Now I can even pretty much understand what people are saying in Portuguese. Well only about as well as I could understand Spanish when I first got here, but that is a lot better than nothing, which is what I understood at first. It is so crazy out here on the frontera with all the languages, and the people are so proud of it too, whenever you bring it up they always talk about how they know three different languages, its pretty cool.
The work in the Branch went a little down this week, but it is getting a little better. We have people going to church every once in a while now that never went before. Also, a lot of the more active members are starting to be a lot more willing to help. We still need to do a lot more to get the Rama (Branch) to where we want it to be. We can see how the Lord is helping his work. The work with investigators this week was really hard though. We are supposed to be getting 8 to church every week, this is the mission goal. We haven´t got a single person to church in 4 weeks now, so it is really slow. It seems like every new person we talk to is super nice, lets us in and lets us talk, and then shares how they are Catholic and they have their own religion so they can´t go to our church. It has been really hard lately and a little frustrating. We only have two interested people right now, Paula and Muara. Muara is this older lady with a lot of kids that accepts everything, and I think really wants to go to church, but can´t walk long distances because she just had her appendix removed poorly so she needs to get another operation. We have been trying to figure out ways to get her to church, but nothing has really worked yet. Paula is an 18 year old girl with a little girl. She is just about the only person we have now that is progressing. Her sister Jenny has been to church 7 times before, but was never baptized because she never read and hasn´t ever prayed. We´re working a whole lot with her too. I really hope she can just pray and get an answer because after that I don´t think there would be any problem baptizing her and she would always go to church. Both of them had a birthday party yesterday and that is why they didn´t go to church. They are pretty sure for next week, which is good, we need investigators in church.
My companion, Elder Dennis, goes home in 2 weeks from this Wednesday. It has been pretty hard in this area for him. I think the biggest thing is just he gets frustrated with the work and with the people because he is so tired of people's excuses here. It is not the same here as it is in Asunción where more than half of the missionaries in the mission are. In one of Elder Dennis´s earlier areas on his mission he had 79 baptisms, in one area. Now he has only had one baptism in more than 6 months. It´s been hard for him here. I have been working hard with it too.
One big thing I studied this week, to try and work with the situation I am in here, was Joseph Smith in Liberty jail. I am trying to learn what really caused him to put his trust in the Lord so that he could have that complete trust that everything is in the Lord´s hands while he was marching on to Carthage. The things I found led me to read Moroni 7, specifically verses 48-49. What I learned is that when we put our trust in God he can fill us with his love. The part I really thought about was the part that says we will see Him as He is because we will be like Him. Developing charity is literally becoming perfect, that is the defining characteristic that helps us become like Christ, every other Christlike attribute we can develop comes from a perfect love for God. This was really cool to me and I am going to try to apply how I can have greater charity so I can help the work progress here.
The apartment is really awesome. I don´t really have time now to describe it now, but I will make a video and send it in a letter, which reminds me I sent all the pictures home with a note, and I just wanted to emphasize that when it comes do not lose the coins I sent with it, the 1 Guaraní and the 5 Guaranies, because they don´t make those coins anymore. Oh, and I literally sent you everything, every picture I took without getting rid of anything, when you get it and it all works tell me so I can clear the memory card. Also, if you have questions about pictures you can send me one or two in emails to ask me and I can explain them, when you get them.
The basic food here is really just a meat with rice and noodles with a salad, but I will explain more of that later, I don´t have too much more time now, so I love all of you and I am so glad I´m serving a mission. You´re all in my prayers , I love you all, Elder Adamson V