Week 23 in Paraguay

So it sounds like everyone is just settling down after a crazy full week, It was a fun week for us here too, I kept asking my comp what time it was and telling him exactly what I thought all of you were doing at that time. Sounds like Kimi's wedding turned out great, and everyone had an exciting week. Now you are going to have another full week with Andrea's baby coming. This week was pretty full here too, we had tons of help from members this week and ended with 39 lessons with members present, which is just crazy. We figured out that after Thursday we didn`t teach a single lesson without a member being there, and then on Sunday we had 3 investigators in church, and the best part about that is that we didn`t go and look for any of them, they were all brought by members. The members in the ward here just love us now and the work is really starting to get going. We had a big ward meeting this week that the bishop planned to get the members together to figure out how we could be more unified and firm as a ward, and he asked us to prepare something to present to the ward on our mission plan that we put together. Our ward mission leader is fantastic too, he helped us out with everything and the meeting turned out super nice. We started by reading a quote from Gordon B. Hinckley that says how great will be the day when the members aren`t just praying for the missionaries, but they are also praying for their own missionary experiences inside their own wards and branches. Then we watched this video our ward mission leader has called Small and Simple things made by a North Carolina Mission, you can You Tube it and find it if you want to watch it. I`ll let you watch it to see how it is, but it just shows this girl having a her own missionary experience. We used the video to kind of animate the members and get them set and ready to start helping and getting us a lot a references. It looks like so far it has worked because the members are all super excited and all want to split off with us. So many that we haven`t had time to be able to have them all help us. Oh, and after the meeting we had some really good barbecue steak. The steak meat here is so good, and they really don`t put anything on it, and it is still super good. Another thing the members have really been doing for us, we have lunch appointments everyday. It seems like every time we go over to a members house for anything they bring out food to use, especially our bishops house. Our bishop and his wife have a catering business, so they always bring us out food no matter when we go by. We have a lunch appointment there on Wednesdays and the bishop`s wife just keeps offering us more and more food. The food is so good that you don`t want to stop eating. We walk a ton here, but I still think with how much the members are feeding us I`ve got to gain weight here. I have lost weight since the MTC though. I'm back down to how I was when I left on my mission, but I think I`ll be going back up before leaving this area. Anyway, running short on time now though, we`ve got two baptisms set up and ready to go for the 7th of May, just in time to talk to you guys on the 9th! Love you tons and thanks for all the prayers and letter (but I could always use more letters) love you so much, Elder Adamson V

Week 22 in Paraguay

This week here has been pretty crazy too. First off Tuesday we got super lost, ended up walking way out of our area without even knowing it trying to get somewhere. Then had to walk all the way back in. We got a call from the Bishop telling us that there was this Elder that just got back from his mission that just lives with his sister so he wanted us to be with him until he got released. So we had to go over to his house after losing all that time getting lost. We finally got that all figured out and were able to leave. We had already lost most of the day. After Tuesday we were trying to contact all of these referrals we got from the members. Most of the cards with the referrals on them just say to contact a certain member to get the address for the referral. We didn`t even know where members live, so this week pretty much felt like a finding game looking for people to find other people to find other people. It was a good week though. We have been to going to play soccer and basketball during the week because our Bishop told us there are always investigators there that like to play. We put two baptismal dates through that way this week. One of them that is pretty secure to get baptized on the 30th of this month, the other one is for May. One of my favorite days now is Friday because we get to go to the church and play soccer with the members, tell Kimi it was a good call buying the Sambas before I got down here, I use them all the time to play soccer. The members here are so fun to play with and I think I`m getting better, you play on little concrete courts here, so it is more of a first touch game, and I think it is helping me play better. Anyway, before soccer, Friday morning, our power goes out, so we went down to talk to the owner and he told us he was going to send someone up to look at it, but we needed to move out because other people wanted to move in. So what happened is that when we moved in he wanted us to pay a guarantee because the last missionaries that were here lived there and they left the place a mess, but the office here always just makes contracts, so we just paid for a month and told him we would come up with the contract during the month. We had lived there for a little over two weeks and he was already kicking us out and trying to make us pay to get it painted so we just moved out again this week into a different apartment that is actually a lot nicer and we are paying the same amount of money. That took up pretty much all of our day on Saturday though and then Sunday was Elder Williamson`s 21st birthday, so every member wanted us to come over to eat with them. We ended up eating at two lunch appointments, a dinner appointment, with two cakes and brownies that we made at the house at night, we ate so much food yesterday I felt like I was going to explode, Elder Williamson was so full at the Bishop`s house he had to lay down on the couch, it was a super fun day though. The members here really do love us. There are so many, so willing to help us out, and we are going to use that to get the work going here.
Well, I don`t have a lot more time left, this week is going to be a big week for everyone, I`ll be thinking about the family this week. The time has changed now so we are only two hours faster than what is happening in Utah, so it`ll be 1:40 here on Saturday when Kimi and Landon get sealed, right in the middle of the ciesta so I`m sure I`ll have time to think about you guys. I`m so thankful for the family I have and I`ll be thinking about all of you a lot this week, and its only 3 weeks from yesterday until I talk to you guys again, love you all, Elder Adamson V

Week 21 in Paraguy

So we`re finally getting kind of settled into the new area here. We had a super good week with some awesome things happening.
First of all, we had our baptism on Thursday. This girl named, Fatima, wholives with one of the members in our ward and has been going to church with them got baptized on Thursday. We had to go over to her house on Wednesday and Thursday to teach pretty much everything in just two lessons, but she was pretty much gold (a very interested investigator) and accepted everything and was very ready for her baptism on Thursday. She was definitely one of the choice ones here, we are supposed to find, and we didn`t even find her, our members did everything. She couldn`t come to church on Sunday though because it was her mother`s birthday who lives in a different city, so we were able to get permission from our Bishop to confirm her at the baptism and everything went really great. She had already had an interview with the Bishop here and started going to the activities without us saying anything to her. It is really nice because she is already living with some members so we don`t even really have to worry about her too much because she is already pretty much taken care of.
On Friday, we had Zone conference. This was my fourth zone conference here in Paraguay. It was a really good one. We focused a lot on the month of March and the miracles we were able to receive together as a mission and how we can improve our diligence in order to be more worthy to receive the miracles we want from the Lord. As a mission we were able to baptize 220 people in March, almost 100 more people than we were able to baptize in February. The goal this month is to baptize 250 people. That is 3 people for every companionship. It was a really great conference with a very strong spirit. We received many blessings in March and we know how we can receive them in April, so we are going to focus on staying diligent and succeeding as a mission.
Later on Friday, we had Ward night where we all get together and play soccer and it was really fun. It is really funny because they haven`t had missionaries here for so long we are almost celebrities.
Saturday we were able to go to the temple. I missed going to the temple before conference like it is supposed to be because I was out lejos (so far away) so we got to go with just a little special group of missionaries that were kind of in the same situation as me. They got changed before they were supposed to go with their zone. Anyway, I had a really special experience in the temple and it was a lot of fun to go through in Spanish for the first time. I was very thankful for the trip I went on with dad, to all the temples on the way to Provo before my mission, because it really helped me to understand everything already having gone to the temple so many times I already knew pretty much what the words meant.
That is something else about this change, my Spanish has really been improving since I got here. It has been somewhat of a humbling experience, but a very helpful one at the same time. I realize now that out lejos (so far away) in Pedro Juan, people did not have very good Spanish. The people aren`t as educated and use a lot more of the Guaranì when talking to each other so they speak with a very simple Spanish. When I left there I thought I had very good Spanish and I could pretty much communicate with anyone. Coming to San Lorenzo, I can communicate with pretty much anyone, but the Spanish here is more intelligent because we are here in the middle of one of the biggest cities in Paraguay. I recognize a lot more of the grammar here and the ways to use it and because of that my Spanish has really been improving, but it has come with a lot of correcting too, and for that reason it has been a little humbling. It has been good for me though and I feel like I`m really improving still. My companion knows a lot of Guaranì, so I`m looking forward in this change to learn a lot more Guarani I can use.
This week has been a very productive and very spiritually uplifting week. We still do not have too many investigators. We have been working a lot with members and we are still trying to get to know the area a little better. We have been working hard and we have already started to see some results. I`m really excited to see what Elder Williamson and I can do here. We work really well together, which I am really thankful for. I am pretty sure I will be with him for two changes until he goes home. So having a long time together in this area, we will have time to do some good and really get this place going. We have so much help from members. We had a member yesterday in church come to us and tell us that he had gone around when there weren`t missionaries and got referrals from all the members. He gave us 52referrals for us to go find this week, then he told us that he wants to give us that many to go find every week. This area is really looking like what the prophet said, the members are the full time finders and we are the full time teachers. Can`t wait to tell you next week how it all works out.
I am so grateful to be serving a mission and I have a family that supports me so much in what I am doing, I know I am where I am suppossed to be and I am so excited to change the lives of the people living here in San Lorenzo.
I love you all and can`t wait to tell you more next week, Love, Elder Adamson V

Week 20 in Paraguay

So my change came this week and I pretty much got the biggest change I could have had. I left my little Paraguayan branch out in Pedro Juan and my latin companion to come down into an area called San Lorenzo Centro that has been closed for 3 changes. My new companion is Elder Williamson from Utah, he`s a good missionary that really cares about the people here. The only thing wrong with him is that he`s a diehard Utah fan! We kind of hit heads on that one, but he has good reason because before the mission he was actually on the University of Utah basketball team, and he has been going to Utah games since he was in the womb. I guess I don`t really have room to talk since I hadn`t even gone to a BYU game until I was going to school there. It`s the same as it was with Elder Dennis. He has only two more changes left before he goes home so I might end up killing him (sending him home off his mission) too.

We have the largest chapel here in all of Paraguay in San Lorenzo. We have 80 members that go to church every Sunday. President pulled out the missionaries in this area because there wasn`t a baptism here in over a year. The members were so excited to see us when we came into the area. Almost every member when they met us, set up a time with us to go see them and told us they would have an investigator there with them.

We already have a wash lady that has already washed our clothes once. We haven`t eaten in our house yet. Our Bishop is the coolest Paraguayan I`ve ever met. We met with him the first day and he told us he wants to make sure the members are doing the work and we are just there to help. It is so amazing how much the members here wanted us back. They went without missionaries for about 4 1/2 months and they are super excited to see us. One member had actually been bringing this one girl to church so we are even baptizing this week. The first baptism this ward has had in probably over a year. It is so awesome here. It was hard the first day though because the mission literally just put us here and told us to find everything we needed. So we found a house, got moved in, and have been contacting pretty much all week to find members and find our way around around the area. It has been really hard, but it has been really fun because of how excited the members are here.

I loved conference too, but we weren`t able to see the priesthood session here. I also had to watch a little bit of the rest of conference in Spanish. We had this wonderful investigator there we wanted to sit with. I understood a lot, but not nearly as much as if I had been listening in English. It was only the second half of the Saturday Afternoon though in Spanish. I listened to Elder Holland's talk in Spanish and it was still just as powerful. I definately know what Gary was talking about now. Pornography is just part of the culture here. It is really hard to go out and work a full day without seeing it here. I know that we are doing the Lord`s work though, and there is protection in preaching the true gospel here. I love the Lord`s work and I am so excited to do bring this work forth here in San Lorenzo. I loved conference, it seemed like there was so much spoken in the conference this time about the family. A super focus on teaching children and the importance of mothers and that kind of thing, it was just filled with it. I am so thankful for a family that loves the Lord and is supporting me in this work. Keep doing what's right and I`ll tell you all about my first real convert and baptism next week! Love you all, Elder Adamson V