Week 89 in Paraguay Change 15 Week 4

Santaní is really teaching me a lot about hard work and dedication, we are finally starting to see a lot of good things happen here and it is because of the work that we are putting into it. I don't think I have ever fasted more in my life, I really am gaining a testimony about the power of a fast. When I got here Elder Felix told me they had been fasting once a week for Santaní, for the members and for the work, he invited me to join him and I gladly accepted. Each week we think of a specific thing that would help the work and we fast for it, and we are really seeing the miracles. A lot has changed in Santaní just since I got here, pretty much everything but the church attendance, but now I think the leaders are really ready now to help people come back to church. All the active members are finally learning to visit people and the work is really moving forward. Yesterday there weren't that many people in church because it rained pretty hard, and you know how Paraguayans are when it rains, but it really is going a lot better and I think soon we will be seeing changes here. I love the mission so much, I don't know if I'm going to want to go home when the time comes, I mean I could easily go another two years without seeing the family... No, that really would be the only reason I would want to go back. Right now we are in the terminal again in Asunción, we just had zone leader council at President's house and we are going to be heading back to Santaní pretty soon. The next couple weeks we are going to be going out doing a lot of divisions with the zone to help people out, the zone is really not doing to well right now, so I talked to President today about what we could do and presented him the idea and he thought it was a good idea to travel the both of us, Elder Felix and I, to do divisions in one day with more than one companionship because of the distance we have to travel. So this week I'm going to go out to Puente Kyha and Elder Felix to La Paloma, and then next week we are both going out to Saltos because there are two companionships there. It's going to be pretty fun, but we have to work super hard too though. We want to leave a real good impression with the missionaries to help them work a little bit harder from now on. Anyway, as for our investigators, we are finding some really cool new people recently, the girl that had fecha for the 13th didn't go to church because of the rain, she is still pretty solid though. We just have to check on some things because she has a boyfriend, and it doesn't matter how old you are, here in Paraguay we all know what that means, so we moved her fecha yesterday to the 20th, so she can still go to church two more times before her baptism. Anyway, things are going great really, I am really happy, I saw a lot of old mission buddies today at concilio and we sat and talked for a while, it was a lot of fun, but don't worry, I'm focused, I'm feeling the spirit a lot everyday, and just all around I'm happy, its a funny thing because I don't think I have ever been so tired or worked so hard my entire life, but I really am super happy, I love you all so much, I can't wait to see you at the end of next month... Love you! Elder Adamson V

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

Week 84 in Paraguay Change 14 Week 5

Mba'e piko?! E'a! I can't believe Kimi already had her baby! It sounds like it was quite the process, but I'm glad to hear the baby came really healthy and everything is alright, as for me things are going great here too, but we had some delays today because of some health issues with some people in the zone, some logistics about missionaries going home going to the temple because we are so far away, and some other zone leader business like that. So I'm a little hurried, but I'll try to make the most of the letter, the biggest news, it's freezing right now! It is so cold, I didn't believe it got this cold here, this morning I climbed our tree and found frost on the top of it, when we went to bed the thermometer was at 4 degrees Celsius, and I'm sure it got colder as we slept, but it was beautiful today, we played some american football and it felt just like Thanksgiving, the air was perfect and the Paraguayans thought we were crazy in our shorts and T-shirts in the cold, but its really not that cold anymore, I think it was just last night. Anyway, I'm just going to answer your questions quick,
How many districts do you have? We have 3 districts in our zone, two with two companionships and one with three, and then us, we don't belong to any district, which is kind of fun.
How many sisters in your zone? None, Sister missionaries usually don't come this far out, the mission likes to keep them a little closer to Asunción, there's really only one exception, but that's not in our zone.
Have your people gotten baptized yet? Sadly, not yet, they are going through some problems trying to get married, and its not looking very good right now, hopefully things improve and I can give you some good news next week, but as for now it looks like the soonest she could get baptized is in about 2 weeks.
How has your week been? It was a pretty good week, the only really eventful thing was that my comp got athlete's foot really, really bad, the mission nurse said it was the most miserable case of athlete's foot she has ever seen. It got so bad that his toe got infected on top of the athlete's foot and half of his foot down to his toes was all swelled up, so we had to stay home a little bit this week, we got a little bit of extra time to sharpen the saw.
Is your health good? My health is great, and it felt so great to play football today, and now my comp is doing really well too, the infection is gone, he's still trying to get rid of the last little bit of athlete's foot, but it doesn't hurt him as much now.
Anyway, I really don't have time, sorry for the short letter, say hi to Jackson for me and wish him luck if you can, tell him he's going to do great. I love all of you so much, Elder Adamson V

Week 83 in Paraguay Change 14 Week 4

Due to some technical difficulties in the cyber space here, my computer is super slow. It shut down on me once, and I don't really have much time to write much of anything, but, so you know I am still alive and well, here I am. This week was a really adventurous week. We had a lot of unplanned things happen and we tried out our first division here as zone leaders and it turned out to be really exhausting. Our district leaders live about 6 hours away from us and we have to travel at night. So needless to say we took a good nap today and there might be another one coming here shortly. As for the investigators, Liz and Edgar are still in a little rut, we have been working a lot with them but they are progressing a little slowly. We thought maybe the baptism could be happening this week, but they didn't go to church yesterday and when we went over we realized it was because of some bigger doutbs that they have, and so the baptism is getting pushed to at least next week sadly. We really need to teach them well this week so they can get baptized next week because you can tell Satan is using this time to his advantage and he is just going to keep making things harder for them, so we're trying to get things moving as quickly as possible. Other than that we don't really have much of anything right now, we found a new family this week, the Branch President's sister in law and her husband. His sister in law was already baptized but never confirmed, and she is living with her husband and they aren't married yet, so we are going to work with them to plan a wedding and a baptism and then 2 confirmations once they are all ready. We also have this other young 14 boy that has gone to church every single week since I've been here, but his parents aren't too into the idea of him getting baptized, hopefully we can help them understand and if so, he already commited to getting baptized this week, so we may have one. Anyway, I love all of you so much, I know this is the true church and this is Christ's work, and I thank all of you so much for your support, Elder Adamson V