Week 88 in Paraguay Change 15 Week 3

How is everyone doing? So, first of all, update on the Copa America, the final was yesterday, Paraguay vs Uruguay, Paraguay lost 3-0, seems like it was a pretty big blowout, Paraguay can't complain though because they technically didn't win a single game and they still made it to the final. They tied all three games in the qualifiers and then won the two playoff games in shootout, and then lost 3-0 in the final. We heard today though that the Paraguayan goalie got the MVP award for the Cup, in the two shootouts he blocked 3 of the shots, which is actually really impressive, I think it was just for that though that he got the award.

The meetings with President went great, it was just a training meeting on the 8 funamental principles that they have been implementing over the past year, it was a really nice meeting. I really liked how they set it up, President split all the missionaries into workshops with his wife, the two asistants, and himself. It turned out really well and we have been trying to apply more things in our teaching and it's really helping out. As for the division with the Asistants, it didn't happen, we had a little bit of miscommunication, they really just wanted to do splits with us until their bus left and their bus ended up leaving right after all the meetings, so we didn't work with them. Things in the Rama are really changing though for the better, we are in the Concepción District and they just barely got a new District President, he heard about some of the problems in the Branch and came on Sunday to clean a few things up, he went on a division with us Saturday and had a bunch of interviews on Sunday to show our Branch President some things and to get some new callings, we now have a new Elder's Quorum President and a Ward Mission Leader, so we are going to be working a lot with them to try and get things moving well here. Yesterday we had an investigator in church that Cintia brought to church, I don't know if I told you about Cintia yet, if I haven't, sorry, there isn't enough time, but she brought someone to church yesterday and we went to her house after and invited her to get baptized on the 13th and she accepted. Hopefully everything goes well there, she is a pretty smart girl, which is nice, and she understands what we are teaching her, so I think everything will go well and she'll get baptized, it will be nice to get another baptism after having gone so long here without one. Anyway, I'm already out of time, I love you all so much, I hope everything is going great back home, Elder Adamson V

Week 87 in Paraguay Change 15 Week 2

So, this was one of the fastest weeks I think I have ever had in my mission, seriously, it is just flying by, and the funny part is we really aren't having any success, that usually makes it go pretty slow, but somehow it's flying by. Anyway, I've got some good stories from yesterday, so right now the Copa America is being played, it's pretty much the world cup of the Americas. Last night Paraguay played in a Quarter Final game against Brazil, the two time reigning champion of the tournament, and Paraguay won in shoot out. Their goalie blocked two shots by himself, which is actually really impresive. President told us to move our studies during the Paraguay games because no one accepts us during the games. We were studying just waiting for the bombs to go off when they scored and it was the silentest game ever. We finished our studies and we were about to leave, thinking Brazil had won because we didn't hear any fireworks, when we got a call from Elder Reyes, who is the senior comp of the other side of Santaní. There are four missionaries in the branch, anyway, he called us and told us that his comp left him and was at the house, he had called the mission president and he told him to go home to his companion, but he didn't want to go because he was so mad he thought he would punch him, so I told him to stay at the member's house he was at and we went straight to the other Elder's house. Well, meanwhile while all this was happening the game went into shoot out and people just went crazy, screaming at goals, swearing at missed shots, and then Paraguay won and it was the craziest thing I have ever seen. I have never seen people celebrate anything like that, so Santaní isn't really a big city. It has 3 main streets that make a triangle through the middle of the city, anyway, once Paraguay won EVERYONE got into their car, or on a moto, or just went to those streets, which we just happened to be walking on to get to the other Elder's house, with super loud music and honking horns, people were riding on windshields, people were hanging out windows, it was crazy, but I guess they deserved to celebrate, I mean they did beat Brasil, which is a powerhouse soccer team, and they made it to the semi final. They play Venezuela on Wednesday to see who goes to the final, the other semi final is Uruaguay and Peru, hopefully Paraguay wins and plays Uruaguay so we can have a battle of the "guays", get it? I've got some videos of the celebration from my comps camera and Elder Reyes's camera. Anyway, as for the missionaries, we got to the house and Elder Aguilar was in his room crying, so Elder Aguilar is brand new and Elder Reyes is kind of lazy, and he went to the member's house to watch the game, and Elder Aguilar is Paraguayan and he wanted to be obedient and not watch the game so he got in a fight with his companion and just left. I talked to our mission President with a plan we came up with and he gave us permission to do a quick division overnight, I slept in the other house and Elder Aguilar stayed with my companion for the night. I was able to talk a whole lot to Elder Reyes after talking to Elder Aguilar and it sounds like both of them are a little too prideful and think the other one is always wrong, well, anyway, Elder Reyes is getting a special change on Wednesday to an area in Asunción so tomorrow we are going to find out who is the new missionary coming to Santaní. Anyway, I'm past time already, President is coming tomorrow to do a capacitation with our zone, so the whole zone is coming tonight and we have interviews with President tomorrow and then we are doing a division with the assistants on Wednesday, so we have a pretty full schedule for the week already. Anyway, I love you all so much, oh, other news, another one of the missionaries in my zone got a gun pulled on him this week. They were teaching a teenager of about 16 years and his dad came out with a gun pointed at them telling them to get out of the house. We've got a pretty fun zone, love you all! Elder Adamson V

Week 86 in Paraguay Change 15 Week 1

first off, the shift key is not working on this computer so don't get upset that everything is going to be in lowercase, well not everything, it works on some letters and not others. I really don't get it, it is really throwing me off, but it's alright, I'm in paraguay. secondly, I'm already almost out of time, I can't believe how fast an hour goes by, but I will try to make the best out of the time I've got left. so about the missionaries that got held at knifepoint, their cell phone was stolen so I can't really talk to them to see how they are, they called their district leader on sunday from a member's phone to pass their numbers and told him they haven't been working later than 7:30pm because they are afraid they'll get robbed again. we're going to have to talk to them about that because we have to stay out until 9:00pm. I wonder what they are doing with all that extra time in their house. anyway, as for the work, things are pretty tough right now, we are really having problems with the leaders in the branch, investigators aren't coming back to church and less active members don't want to go to church because of "the family" that goes, the only people with callings in the whole branch, so it has been really hard. There is nothing worse than going over to an investigators house after church to see how it was and they tell you they aren't going back because of the members that go. Yesterday we had this father go to church with his family that are all members, except him, and he told us yesterday he didn't want to go back to church because the church isn't a church of jesus Christ it's a church of the a family's. so it is pretty tough right now. But we are working through it, my companion and I are thinking of things we can change right now and new ways to find new people and stuff, we really still having fun despite the situation, we are working hard with the members, but its tough to get them to do things, but we're making it fun, tonight we are going to make pigs in a blanket with the family and try to get them excited to do some visitas to some less active members to try and get something going. I love you all soooo much, sorry for the short letter again, can't wait to see you all! Elder Adamson V (hey, caps lock works!)

Week 85 in Paraguay Change 14 Week 6

I don't really know what to write this week, we're in Asuncion again, we had our zone leader council today and we are in the bus station waiting for our bus to come so we can go back to Santan. Things in the area and the branch are pretty slow right now, Liz and Edgar haven't gone to church now in 4 weeks and we are going to have to drop them if they don't decide to either get married or move out this week. It has been really hard with them, but in the end I think it will help them to just be really direct and drop them for a little while. We are teaching this teenage boy named Rodrigo that went to church yesterday. He lives super far away from the church and is really excited about going, we haven't talked to his parents yet though. That is the project for this week, to try and meet them and get permission for Rodrigo to get baptized. They have a huge farm with a bunch of cows and other animals, so they are usually really busy when we come over, but we'll find a way to get to them. It is kind of fun to go to his house, it is actually a miracle we found him, because he lives way back in the woods and its the only house on the road. We just walked by him one day in the street and he told us how to get to his house, so we contacted it one day and they were really receptive. We were teaching his sister and her husband also, but they moved to Asuncion for work, so we were left with just Rodrigo. Other than Rodrigo we are working with this other lady named Dolly that lives with the Branch President's family, she was baptized last year but never got confirmed, so we are trying to get her and her mate, pair, boyfriend, (I really can't think how to say that) married so she can get confirmed and so he can get baptized. We have a few other investigators here and there, but they are progressing the best. Other than that is was a pretty uneventful week. Oh, other than the fact that one of our missionaries in the zone got robbed at knifepoint. They were a couple kids that robbed them and one of the missionaries got stabbed at, but he was wearing his big coat because of the cold and nothing happened. The kids just stole their cell phone and ran off, they didn't take any money or anything else. So other than that it was a normal week, I'm out of time now too, I love you all so much, sorry for the short email, love you, Elder Adamson V