Week 37 in Paraguay Change 6 Week 5

So things are starting to get very busy here as we approach my first change in the office next week. The work load has gone up because of changes coming and it is the end of the month so there is a work load of its own there. We just had the big training meeting last week and I was in Pedro Juan for four days, so it has been very demanding, but its P-day now so everything is good. Pedro Juan was so awesome, I got another P-day to pretty much just walk around Pedro Juan and see all that wonderful area all over again. Then I had an opportunity to work with Elder McCarty for 3 days in the zone leaders area. Elder McCarty was the Mission Secretary before Elder Peterson so we heard a lot of experiences to share about office life. He also had Elder Williamson as a companion, so we went back and forth telling some good stories about that time we were both able to experience in the mission. It was really nice to just get out and put myself to work for the last couple of days. We had quite the adventure trying to get back into Asunción. We had everything all set up so that as we were traveling everyone would have a companion at all times, but the bus lines were being really difficult. Elder McCarty and I were in Pedro Juan and Elder Wilkinson, another office elder that went on the division with me, was in Yby Yau, about 2 hours closer to Asunción than Pedro Juan. So the plan was we would leave from Pedro Juan, once the bus got to Yby Yau Elder McCarty was going to get off and stay with Elder Hopoate who is in Yby Yau and Elder Wilkinson would get on with me. It was a super easy simple swap in Yby Yau, or at least we thought. We got onto the bus and I called one of the host guys over and told asked him if he could just advise us when we were getting close to Yby Yua, he told me it would be hard because he had to drive once they got to Yby Yua, so I asked if the guy driving now could and he said he would be asleep, it was frustrating because it the middle of the night and you can't see anything so you don't know where you are and they have always helped us so we could get off when we needed to. So Elder McCarty just started to explain the whole situation, that he was getting off and someone else was getting on, then the guy just started telling us about how that wasn't allowed; how Elder McCarty needed to buy another ticket and you can't share tickets, so the guy just walks off to get him a ticket to buy, he comes back and Elder McCarty has to pay and then he doesn't want to help us anymore so we just ask him what time we should be arriving in Yby Yua, he tells us 11:45 to Midnight, so we set our alarm to 11:30 and both fall asleep. The alarm goes off and we find out the bus had just passed Yby Yua 5 minutes ago and the other Elders had missed the bus because of the bad information. Elder McCarty goes downstairs on the bus and starts trying to figure out something with the guy and the next thing I know he comes up and tells me I have to just go and wait in Asunción for Elder Wilkinson because they won't turn around, but they were going to send someone to drive Elder McCarty back to Yby Yua, about 10-15 minutes behind us. So I go the rest of the way alone and arrive in Asunción at 4 in the morning. Meanwhile, Elder McCarty just gets off the bus at 11:35-11:40 to wait for the guy that is supposed to bring him back to Yby Yua. At 12:30-1:00 the other bus goes by Yby Yua to and Elder Wilkinson gets on, so its almost 1 in the morning and 4 of us are alone. So Elder Hopoate is just waiting at the terminal in Yby Yua for Elder McCarty to arrive, turns out they never sent anyone and he had to get a ride back to Yby Yau from some random guy that just stopped to help him out. I was on this really nice bus and Elder Wilkinson had to get on a really cheaper bus, so I had to sit in the terminal from 4AM to after 6AM alone just waiting for his bus to arrive because it stopped so much and I didn't have a phone or any money. Everyone got back together safe and sound, but it was quite the adventure.

Week 36 in Paraguay Week 4 in the Mission Office

Things here have been going pretty great, we are progressing in our area and we are still working with Luis who has gone to church with us twice now. His baptismal date is for next week so hopefully I'll have some good baptismal news for next week when I write. I have some really exciting news for today, I'm going to Pedro Juan tomorrow! I get to go on a four day division back in my first area, I'm so excited, I won't be exactly in my first area, I'll be in Rama 1, where the zone leaders are, but I'll get to have a second P-day on Monday. I got permission to go and eat with some people from my Rama out there. I'm super excited, so I'm going to be a proselyting missionary again for four days next week. I'll try to make them super eventful so I have some really good stories to share once I write again next Saturday. I'm going to get back to Asunción on Friday of next week, just in time for Luis' baptism, so its going to be quite the week. Going out to Pedro Juan is every office elders dream, I'm so excited. What happened is there is this big training meeting going on next week for all the leaders in the mission. It is part of a new program that the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve are having every mission in the world do to help the missions better apply the techniques of Preach My Gospel. It is going to take place over two weeks, next week and then again two weeks later, this next week is going to all the older office elders, the zone leaders and older district leaders, and then the second time it'll be the younger office elders (like me), and the younger district leaders, so it just kind of came out just right so I would be able to go back to Pedro Juan, awesome right? Anyway, so I'm super excited for this upcoming week, and I'm going to make the best of it I can.
Thank you so much for the little thought in the letter today, I really liked it. That scripture in Galatians is one we use all the time with the first lesson, so it was interesting to see it and apply it like you did. The spirit is something I have really been focusing on this past week. I just read this part in Preach My Gospel this past week, I'll see if I can find it quick.
“El Espíritu es el elemento más importante de esta obra. Cuando el Espíritu magnifica su llamamiento, usted puede realizar milagros para el Señor en el campo misional. Si no cuenta con el Espíritu, nunca tendrá éxito, no importa cuánto talento y habilidad tenga”
Sorry, I only have Preach My Gospel in Spanish on my computer, but what is says is that the Spirit is the most important element of this work. When we have the Spirit we can make miracles for the Lord in the mission field. If we don't have the Spirit, we won't have success, no matter how much talent or ability we have. I really thought about that a lot this last week for a few reasons. The mission is really down right now, lower than I think it has been in a very long time, we might not get 100 baptisms this month as a mission and you can't even find in the computer the last time that happened. Our mission has always been the leader mission in our Area, that is all of Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay, our leadership is slipping away a little and honestly it is because we have a lot of young missionaries right now that just don't know how to work, and a lot of older missionaries that just don't want to work. Anyway, last Tuesday Elder Adams, one of the Assistants wrote something on the board in our Zone meeting. He wrote $1,000,000 and asked us if we had ever seen The Amazing Race or Surviver, what were those people willing to do for $1,000,000? Then he wrote the number 5 and asked us if he told us he would give us $1,000,000 what would we do to have 5 people in church. We had the lowest week this year to date with investigators in church last Sunday. People started saying they would do anything, just give out free hot chocolate, work all day and night, all sorts of things. Then he just wrote the words The Savior, and ask what would we do for our Savior, and quietly sat down and let everyone think for a second. It really actually made me think, so in personal studies I was specifically looking for things we could do to better serve the Savior, and I found the part I just put in the letter. You can make miracles for the Lord in the mission field when we have the Spirit, so that is the key, the best thing we can do to honor our Savior and serve Him is always have his Spirit with us. So after that I changed my focus for my studies for the week, How can I always have the Spirit with me, and it has been a learning experience. When we are true to our covenants we will have His Spirit, so it was really interesting to see that you had been studying the same thing, it is funny how the Lord works like that, His little tender mercies. I love all of you so much, I am so thankful for the family that I have, for the love I can feel from all of you, it really has been such a blessing here on the mission. I am starting to really understand fully the power of what I can do here, I wish I had really really focused as soon as I got out here, I knew then how important it was, and I knew I was in the right place. I guess I just didn't really understand the true power I have, the power of the Spirit I can be worthy of, the power to create miracle for the Lord. I know this church is true, I know of the divinity of this work, I had the chance this last week to explain some things to our investigator in Guaraní, in every language this message has power and is so true. I know it with all my heart. Cheakua Hesuchristo Tupao Marangatukuera Arapahapegua ha'e peteî tupao añetegua.

Week 35 in Paraguay Week 3 Mission Secretary

Things have been going pretty great here in the greatest place on earth, the only thing is its cold now, really cold. It was really nice last week, there were actually a few days in the 90s about two weeks ago, and now it is just bitter cold, all the way down to 40, with wind and humidity, and today rain, and there is no insulation in the houses here. I think that is the biggest thing, it feels like your camping here, the houses are just as cold as outside. It is nice in the office though, with our nice heater all day, but the coldest part of the day we are outside.
About my area. My area here is Campo Grande A, the 6 office Elders all share the area of Campo Grande. The areas right around here are kind of like the 4 corners in the States, Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico, the place where the two streets in front of the church meet, Julio Correa and Santísima Trinidad, is our little 4 corners here in Campo Grande. The corner where the church is, is the Assistants area, Campo Grande C; clockwise, next is Campo Grande B where the membership records elder and the mail elder work; next, Campo Grande A where I work with my companion the Financial Secretary; and then the last corner is Mburacuya, and that area has real Elders working there, not to say we aren´t real Elders, but we work our area three hours in the evening after all the office work is done. Campo Grande is the richest part of Asunción, and in a way I feel like sometimes I am just in the states. There are some huge houses here, and I mean huge, and most of the nights we spend contacting all we do it push the little button on the speaker phones people have and the people don´t even have to come out of their houses. It is kind of hard also because it is so cold right now and we can only work at night. A lot of Paraguayans go to bed early in the winter, so a lot of times we just get the whole I´m already in bed thing. We are having a little bit of success though, we have this one man named Luis with a baptismal date, he is progressing really well, but it is a little hard with him, he has a hard time speaking Spanish because he is poorer. He literally lives in these little rented out rooms on this one street with all these little houses, right in the middle of huge houses all around them. He speaks a lot more Guaraní and he is always really excited with what we are teaching him, but it doesn´t really seem like he understands much. He is going to go to church with us again tomorrow and I think he´ll be ready for his baptism at the end of the month. We just really have to make sure he understands everything so he won´t go inactive right away after his baptism.
It really has been cool working in the office though, it has been fun to work so closely with President and learn kind of how the mission runs right along with him. Even though we haven´t been having too much success in our area, I really have been able to feel a lot more of the spirit while teaching people in this area. I´ve got a super cool story about one new investigator we found this last week, it´ll probably finish off the email, I´m sure you´ll like it. So we had set up last Sunday a lesson with our ward mission leader at his house with one of his friends. We started off getting to know her and she seemed like the kind of investigator that already has their own church, but loves to talk about God and discuss gospel topics, but won´t ever go to church because she already has her own. Just a little side note, a big belief here in Paraguay that is hard to help people realize is wrong, is that all the churches are true. I don´t know how many times I have heard that one here, people will talk to you and believe everything you say and then they won´t go to church with you because they already have their own church and don´t want to leave that community. People believe that since everyone believes in the same God, even if you worship him differently, all the churches lead to him. So a big thing we focus on in a lot of lessons is the authority and the importance of the restoration of the priesthood. But anyway, back to the story, this lady seemed like one of those Paraguayans that wasn´t going to change because she already felt good in her church and it was a very normal first lesson up until we started talking about Joseph Smith reading James 1:5. Right as I said James 1:5, she said she knew the scripture and quoted it to us, she then started to tell us that she had had a dream about that scripture and said it is the only scripture in the Bible that has really impacted her. So we just ate it right up and told her that is just how Joseph Smith felt and shared the first vision and the spirit came and the whole lesson changed, she was so much more interested because it was personal to her. And then something even cooler happened, she stopped us and told us that she had another dream, she was walking with someone else, and friend of hers, and 3 angels came to her and started asking her questions, I don´t remember the questions she said they asked but the last one they asked was what was the meaning of Romans 1:15, she was confused and turned to her friend and her friend told her that Romans 1:15 would make everything clear about the angels, and then she woke up. So we got out the Bible and started reading Romans 1:15 and it just talks about how Paul is soon to bring the gospel to Rome. She then went off about how much she had thought about it and she figured that she represented Rome and the gospel was soon to come to her, but she didn´t understand why the angels came. The coolest thing is that right now we are in a 3-some companionship, just like 3 angles coming to bring her the gospel, so we suggested to her that maybe we could be the fulfillment of her dream and closed with a prayer leaving her with some things to read in the Book of Mormon. It was a very cool experience for me and related directly to an experience I had in the MTC about angels and how missionaries are figuratively angels to the people they will teach. We have the same calling now to bring about the gospel as the angel Moroni had to bring forth the gospel when he appeared to Joseph Smith. I am so grateful for the calling I have and for the accompany of the spirit I have been able to experience already in this area. It is going to be a wonderful 6, 7, or 8 months more in the office.

Week 34 in Paraguay Week 2 Mission Secretary

I´ve got about 20 minutes left of my internet time so I´ll try to write an awesome email, but I´m not going to lie, there aren´t so many stories to tell in the office as there were in the field. I did have something super crazy happen this last week trying to get my driver´s licence. I still haven´t driven yet, but I do have my licence, the car has just been in the shop for the last couple of days so I haven´t had the opportunity to do drive yet. On Tuesday, I left with Elder Gage to go and get my licence. First of all, Elder Gage has only been there once. We are in downtown Asuncion with all these crazy streets crossing back and forth and we have no idea where we are. We pass the place we are supposed to go, go back, get lost again and then get to a red light. While we are at the red light Elder Gage decides to call for directions. While he is on the phone the light turns green and he doesn´t see it, so I tell him to go, but he sits for just about 10 seconds without going, this traffic cop comes over and starts hitting on our window. Elder Gage takes off. So all is well, Elder Gage is still on the phone looking for directions when this traffic cop pulls in front of us on his moto and then tells us to pull over to the side of the road. We go over and he comes and starts taking to us and just goes off. Elder Gage told him that it was a green light. The cop tells us that he was directing traffic in front of us and we passed right by him, so we say that he hit on our window during a green light so we thought he was just telling us to go. He starts trying to tell us that he was trying to get us to turn to the right. Then he starts going off trying to scare us telling us we have to pay a ticket of 2,600 mil, divide by 5 to put it in dollars ($520), and then he just keeps adding things every time we say something else. Like he has to impound our vehicle for three days, he has to have our boss come and get it, he has to take a picture of the front and back of the car and one of us, all this stuff. So Elder Gage asks him if we can just settle it right now and the guys tells us he will only take 500 mil and he´ll let us off, we get all of our money together and we have 160 mil and we tell him that is all we have and he won´t budge, so we end up giving him all of it because I had other stash with me. So we leave, find the place and get my licence and then when we get back the the office we talk to our lawyer I work with and ask him what would have been a good price to pay him with, and he started telling us just how much the cop was deceiving us, how the worst driving ticket you can get is just over 1,000 mil and what he said we did wasn´t even close to that. We shouldn´t have given him any more than 100 mil. He told also that the cops here have no authority to take vehicles or even driver´s licence, so the cop couldn´t have done anything. We should have just told the cop that we were going to call our lawyer and wait for him to get there and then we would settle it, and then after you say that he would have taken just 100 mil. The lawyer told us that he thinks the cop pulled us over just to get money out of us just because when he hit our window he saw we were Americans. Anyway, there is a fun interesting government story for you, that´s what Paraguay is like, and the next time we will only give him with up to 100 mil, but we were breaking a mission rule because only the non-driver in the car is allowed to talk on the phone, so maybe it was just our little consequence, anyway, it makes for a pretty good story, and now I am out of time, but I love you all, and I will try to have some more cool stories to tell next week.

PS. The package hasn´t come yet, but it should come straight here when it does, but don´t worry, it´ll probably take about 3 weeks, no matter what they told you, because they can´t account for how long it just sits in Asuncion, it probably is in Paraguay, but the question is when they are going to deliver it.

World Cup Today

Argentina lost 4-0 today, so there is only Uruguay left from South America and I really don´t want Europe to win again, and I´m not really such a big fan of Uruguay. Paraguay campeon!

Week 33 in Paraguay Mission Secretary Now

So its been a pretty crazy four days since the last time I wrote you, I don´t have tons of time to write, but tons of things to say, so I´m just going to devote this email to all the questions.

Do you live in the mission home or do you have an apartment?
We actually don´t live in the mission home, we have a separate apartment that all the office elders live in and it is one of the nicest houses I´ve been in, in Paraguay. We have three bathrooms, four toilets, 7 beds, dressers for everyone, two refrigerators, sports equipment, a huge patio to play on in the mornings, tons of exercise equipment, it is very nice.

Is there a mission cook and dining and reception area in you mission home?
There isn´t any dining or reception area or anything. There is a mission cook, there was an older sister missionary that is in this mission that was cooking for us for free, but she decided that now that the move to the new office is over she has a little more time, so she started working at the temple more and is only going to cook for us once a month now, which is sad because her food was completely American. President´s wife has been cooking for us lately, but we going to start having the mission cook lady cook for us, but it is going to be a little expensive so we´ll see what happens.

Is the mission home part of a church building?
No, they have this huge house close to the mission office. The mission office now is in a church building, it is brand new and looks super nice, they are just getting all of the final finishes on everything.

It will be interesting to find out what your duties are?
Honestly, I still don´t really know all of what I do, I kind of have a good grasp on some of it now though. I am in charge of all the people going in and out of the country, mostly making sure that everyone stays here legally. I send out all the flight plans for old and new missionaries, file everything about everyone, put all of it in computer databases, send out call letters to missionaries and their families. I just sent a letter to you from president talking about me getting called as the executive secretary, I thought that was kind of funny to mail a letter home to you. I take all the phone calls, and do pretty much anything president asks me to do with the districts he is over and things like that. Elder Peterson, my trainer, tells me I´ll have a lot to do with missionaries trying to get out on missions from the districts here. I´ll work close with district presidents here and the area office in Argentina, and related things. It has been pretty fun so far, but I still have a lot to learn.

Tell us about you new companion? Is he patient? Is he a good teacher?
My trainer is an awesome guy and he is doing an awesome job with the whole transition getting me into the office. I actually am companions technically with Elder Gage, the Financiero, or the missionary that works with all the money. Both of them are super awesome and I am super grateful for great comps. I have companions who are really willing to keep the rules and do exactly what they should be doing. So far in the office it has been super easy to keep the rules and do everything how you should, but we were having this discussion the other day and my companions were telling me I´ll see, its hard to keep the rules in the office because of how much freedom and trust you do have, but all the more reason to keep them right? Anyway, my companions are just great, even out teaching, hopefully we can get some sweet investigators in church tomorrow.

What is the new president like, what is his wife like?
The new president is super awesome. He is a whole lot different from the last mission president, but he is one of the best men I have ever met. He will be my mission president that I will remember as my mission president from my mission I think, being his secretary I´ll be with him pretty much every day and starting my mission out lejos I only saw the last mission president once a change, so I think I will be getting to know this new mission president really well. He is latin, so English is his second language, but he sounds exactly like in General Conference when the latins get up to give talks, that is what it reminds me of. The whole first day I didn´t even hear him speak Spanish, he just loves English. His wife doesn´t speak as much as he does, but she can speak English too. You can have a conversation with her in English just fine, but she prefers to speak in Spanish more. They are from Buenos Aires so the Spanish is a lot different> It is surprising how different the accent is. I have had to talk to a few people from the Argentine area office also and sometimes it is really hard because the accent and the whole way they form sentences is so different. The Presidents wife told me the same thing, that sometime she has a hard time understanding my Spanish because I speak like a Paraguayan, hopefully that's the case. They are getting used to the Guaraní here too. President is super excited about it and wants to learn the language, I think he could be speaking it by the time he goes home, or even by the time I go home.

What is the process to get a driver´s licence?
Honestly, I don´t really know, Elder Gage takes care of all that and he just took my one from the States, talked to a guy for a while, then told me I have to get my picture taken on Monday and I´ll have it, so it isn´t hard, I don´t have to take any tests or anything, so next week I´ll be driving!

Is your Spanish coming along well and how is it in relation to this new assignment? My Spanish has been coming along well, it seems like there are days though where it wants to come and others where it doesn´t. I´m a little worried with the new calling ruining my Spanish though, the only Spanish speaking people from Paraguay I´ll be speaking to are the lawyers I work with in Immigrations, so I´ll have to make sure I practice a lot, plus I have the three proselyting hours at night to keep me in shape, so I´m not too worried. I will be speaking a lot more though with Spanish speaking people in Argentina, so I just hope my accent doesn´t change.

What are the other elders in the mission home with you like? All of the Elders here are super awesome, we have a way fun office group right now. There´s Elder Adams and Elder Vance, who are the Assistants to the President; Elder Decker, he is the Fichero, or the guy that files and logs in the computer everything to do with numbers and membership records; Elder Wilkinson, he is the Cartero, or the mailman, but he is also in charge of all the mission materials and the mission´s vehicles; Elder Gage, the money guy, and then me and Elder Peterson. As for the apartments, that is also part of Elder Gage´s job, on top of all the money business.

How many cars are in the fleet?
Right now, only two, President´s car and the office van, and we just switch off nights who gets to use it for the proselyting, but it all works out well. There used to be a separate car for the assistants, but I don´t know what happened, maybe in the future...

Anyway, that is all I have time for, anymore questions about the office just let me know. I love you all so much and I am grateful for your support, love you all, Elder Adamson V