Week 59

So we had a pretty calm p-day last week. Elder Wolfgramm and McClelland were busy, so we were by ourselves.  So we went and ate. I got Quiznos and then frozen yogurt.  So good!  I also began my health kick as you can see. Then we decided to go in and explore a different supermarket.  And it was worth it. I scored Kraft mac and cheese and snack packs. Who says I’m a grown up? Ha ha. So that was really legit.

Then at night, we had a cool family home evening with the Familia Avalos. They are a legit family.  Every time we are at their house, I feel like I’m home in the States. Their family is like a good, normal family, and their house is pretty nice.  They even ask us to wash our hands before we eat.  Crazy!  So we had planned on showing them the “Family is Forever” video.  But, we couldn’t get it.  Then we were gonna show “Testaments,” but they wanted to be outside so no TV.  So, we winged an activity about Lehi’s dream.  But Elder Beus and I both thought and imagined it different ways, so it was awkward.  But it went well.  They understood and we had a good lesson and then good food as she made sopa and pizza. Pretty solid night. Hopefully we can get the dad baptized. He is such a good guy that the members joke that becoming a member of our church would corrupt him. He gave us 2 of his work shirts.  So I can now pretend I work for ANDE (the electric company), pretty legit actually.

Then on Wednesday I hit my year mark in country.  How crazy is that!  It doesn’t feel like I’ve been here a year or that in like 10 months I’m home. So weird.  We didn’t do anything special for it, but still a landmark of the mission.

Then we had quite the day on Thursday. It was a zone conference and so that always basically kills your day. But at least this one didn’t make me want to kill myself.  It helped that before we went there we went to McDonalds and ate with Elders Wolfgramm and McClelland. They have a sweet big mac deal right now where it costs 7500 Guarnai (approximately $1.69 U.S.).  So I got that 10 piece nuggets and an Oreo McFlurry.  Also while we waited for them to show up, the TV had Pokemon on, so naturally I watched.  Ha ha.  Yes I am 22 years old, but again who says that is grown up?  Ha ha.  Then the zone conference went well.  We learned some stuff.  And then…a bit of an adventure.  So I tried taking a bus back to our house or rather a route I never take, but a member told me works. Well, apparently 2 buses of the same number pass by there but end up in different areas.  So instead of getting dropped off on our doorstep, we got dropped off 4 kilometers away with a box of Book of Mormons, our winter blankets, and our backpacks, and on top of that we were in our suits and it’s still in the Paraguayan summer.  Not a fun walk back. Very hot!  But we made it.

On Saturday we did service for a member family, and it was good to get my hands dirty again.  Although I’m older and wiser now, so when the blisters started I switched to raking instead of using the machete to cut.  The others weren’t as lucky. But then it started to rain, so that died.  But not before she gave us banana bread and lemonade. So good.

Then on Sunday we had a less active lady come to church with us. She was the town drunk just a couple weeks ago.  We have been teaching her. When we showed up at her house, she was ready to go.  Not only was she ready to go, but she was listening to hymns. Crazy.  So that was really exciting.  Then after that, we did a visit with the Hermano Martinez.  Like always, it took hours - but it was worth it as she could turn into a cool lady to visit.  We also gave her a blessing for her surgery, so that’s always a really good feeling. I also ate two milk-based dessert things this week with the Familia Zorrilla.  The first one was milk, white corn kernels and sugar.  The second was rice with milk.  Both were pretty good actually.  And I ate a lot better this week and did harder workouts so hopefully that will make a difference, and I’ll look good by the time hot tub season rolls around and I’m home.

Love you guys. Take care and have a good week.

Elder Frost

Week 58

First of all, I am sorry that this post and last week's post were delayed.  There was a computer issue.  But now that it has been fixed, I can post this weeks as well as last weeks blog.


So, I had a pretty good week except for the one big negative -- I’ve gotten fat. 

So I’ve known my body has pretty much gone to crap, but I’d been lying to myself saying it’s not that bad.  Well, the past week everybody and I mean everybody has made a comment about my panza, my stomach.  Therefore I’m on a health kick and workout kick so hopefully that dies.  If you have any good advice, please let me know. I’d prefer to not be thought of as the fat missionary. Ha ha.

On Monday, we went to Asuncion to take care of some business. I forgot how long it takes to get there and how much it takes out of your p-day. Luckily, I had a package and we went to TGI Fridays for lunch so that made it all worth it. We accidently jumped on the wrong bus to get to the office but we made it there anyway somehow someway.  Then Elder Wolfgramm gave me terrible directions on how to get to TGI Fridays but like I said we did make it and the Jack Daniels BBQ sauce steak and brownie obsession was definitely worth the trip. It was my last meal. Ha ha. I promise I’m going healthy.

Anyway, I also got a sick Valentine’s Day package from my family that was all TMNT (teenage mutant ninja turtle) themed. Yup, my family knows me well and loves me.  It was so good!  Especially the gummies. I love gummies.  Also hanging out with the boys at a restaurant is always a good time.  

The weather is also starting to get nice, so that’s awesome.  Unfortunately, that also means it’s starting to get rainy, and I hate the rain.  We had one rainy day this week, and it didn’t turn out terrible so that’s a good thing.  I even busted out the trenchcoat again. Oh, boy here we go.

I also had to do a division this week -- maybe the worst division I’ve done.  Not because of the person, but because every visit fell through, so he had me walking around in the sun all day not really doing anything.  I got chaffed hard core.  It was terrible.  I do feel like the one visit we did though I was able to help him understand and break through his doubt.  He is Brazilian and teaching him made me feel right at home back in PJC.  It was so cool!  I can also still understand most of my Portuguese.  

The next day we did service for our bishop, helping him build a roof.  I’m so much more impressed with how Paraguayan houses are now that I have seen the tools they have to work with.  I didn’t know the Flintstones were ahead of their time, but in Paraguay they are.  It was really good helping the bishop out, even if I did get sunburned.  We also talked with him about his military service, and that was really cool. 

Also, I got in trouble this week.  Well, more like my reputation as a lone wolf, rebellious missionary grew.  There was a zone activity on Saturday to help out a different zone, but I had things more important in my area and so we didn’t go.  Apparently it turned into quite the story.  Gotta love mission gossip.

Also, met a really cool guy on Sunday.  He was waiting to talk to a member, and he talked to us instead.  He is from Africa and speaks English and has a crazy story of coming to Paraguay.  Basically his country was placed on sanctions, so they went around to all the embassies hoping to get out of the country, and Paraguay was the only one that accepted him.  So, he came and now he’s been here for years.  Crazy.  Also we finally got to meet the Hermano Diaz and did a good lesson with them using a box activity about faith and eternal life.  Thanks Elder Anderson for teaching me that one.

Love you guys. Take care and talk more next week,

 

Elder Frost

Week 57

So I finally got to play rugby. After years of thinking I’d be good at it and wanting to play and watching games, I finally did. Elder Wolfgramm had scholarship offers to play rugby after high school and his comp Elder McClelland has a ball and several other kids had played before the mission, so last Monday we played. I love it. I’m seriously kinda depressed I didn’t live in Utah or Cali or any other state than Montana growing up so I could have played. It wasn’t a full contact game or even have the right number or players, but after Wolfgramm helped explain the rules and I had played for a little bit, I seemed to get the hang of it and played well. He said I was a natural and would have been really good. Dang it. I did "accidently" tackle Elder McClelland once which lead to both of us getting busted up and bloody and covered in red dirt. That stuff is a pain.

We played on Monday at a zone bbq thing in Capiata. I’m glad I showed up an hour late since the food wasn’t even close to being ready on time. They bought a bunch of hamburgers and sausages but they didn’t have a grill, so they made a makeshift one that took forever. Poor Elder Lubomirsky spent the whole day trying to cook these things. He eventually did, and they were good, but man it was a process.

After we ate, we played some volleyball and while I’m not my dad, I feel like I hold my own out there. After that, we visited Belen, our investigator, to keep her on track for her baptism on Friday. She is ready. So pumped. And then we had an FHE with the bishop’s family that I set up.

I made a bunch of friends playing soccer with the youth Wednesday nights with Elder Stopper, but they all live in the hermanas half of Anahi 1. And they have been ducking the hermanas, so I cornered them last week and made them commit to this FHE. So they came, and we ate empanadas and cake and watched the restauration video. It went really well -- except one of the youths that came is very immature and kept distracting everybody the whole night. Besides that it was a great night.

Tuesday was an interesting day. We had some really great visits with Belen and with an investigator named Irma, but in the middle was this one random contact that talked to us like 3 hours and we could never get a word in to share our beliefs or to try and escape. Finally some friends and his wife came over, and we were able to teach a lesson. There was one cool lady there. She teaches philosophy at a Lutheran school in San Antonio and has lived and taught all over the U.S. She was so cool. She kept correcting us on our Spanish and in this cool sassy Mexican English action said it’s "what I do". Anyway, we felt inspired to give her a Book of Mormon, so maybe the visit will turn out to be good.

Then that night we saw Irma, who was a contact the week before, and was straight up hard core Catholic. Well, we came back as a follow-up, and she had completely changed and was willing to keep all our commitments and just changed. We had a sweet plan of salvation lesson with her where we talked about eternal families and her dead husband. So sick. Then on Wednesday night we started a division. So I changed the location of the meeting to a supermarket called Superseis instead of a supermarket called Stock because I knew how to get to Superseis but not to Stock. Well, it was late and rainy, so we jumped on a bus I didn’t know and asked if he went to Superseis in San Lorenzo. He said yes. Well, a good while later, I saw a Nike store that I knew was not anywhere near where we needed to be. So we jumped off at...Stock. Yup. Haha. So then we had to walk a ton to get there and meet up.

After that, the division was good. I went with Elder Moncada, a new guy from Chicago but his parents are from Guatamala so he speaks perfect Spanish. He’s a really cool dude. He also convinced me to try to go to Northwestern for grad school as Chicago is a sick city. We had a really good time, including finding an awesome lady. So like all divisions, your plans fall through. Well, I began running through all the names I knew around there. None of them worked out. I literally was on the last name of my list -- a person I’d never met. But we went, and she is awesome. She gave the most amazing prayer -- thanking the lord for bringing us back into her life and sharing our message with her and her family. I’ve never been so excited after a first visit.

We ended the division, and then on Friday we had the baptism of Belen. She is the most prepared 11-year-old I’ve ever met. She is the niece of a less active member here in our ward that moved here from the country for school so we began teaching her, and she was pure gold. It was a joy teaching her. And it was really cool that her cousin was able to baptize her. For once, nothing went wrong during a baptism; although, I did have to clean the dirtiest baptism font I’ve ever seen and I’m sure I got some weird disease that will make my feet fall off.

Then this weekend was stake conference, which went well. That was basically it for the week. Baptism weeks are always hectic, and a stake conference weekend makes it even more so. This next week should be way more relaxed, and I’m excited. I love you guys and wish the best for all of you. Take care.

 

Elder Frost

 

Week 56

Turns out I still can’t play basketball. That’s what we played last Monday for p-day and it’s the same old same old,  I can drive on anybody and just can’t finish.  I’ll literally pay somebody to teach me to finish, ha ha.  It’s so sad.

Then unfortunately my comp got hosed on a speaker he bought to listen to music in the house with.  The guy was a little sketchy, but my comp did all the right things and made him bring it out and try it out and everything and it worked just fine. It just doesn’t read USB.  So that’s a bummer.  We will try and return it and see what happens.

Then later that night, we did a really good FHE with the Familia Martinez who were all super excited since their son was finally getting out of prison after 5 or 6 months. So that turned into a great night.  Hopefully the rest of the family can come to church now and not just the father.  

Then since we are still learning the area a little bit, we found some really sick people that were accepting our lessons and everything - only to find out that the don’t actually belong to us.  So that was depressing.  But such is the mission.  Somebody in Capiata just lucked out on our hard work.  

Speaking of hard work, we have been working a lot with this girl named Maria Belen Ojeda and she is going to be baptized this week.  She’s an 11 year old niece of a member in our ward that moved here to live with her aunt from the Chaco.  She is so legit and so excited to be baptized.  It feels great to baptize again and to see the results of our work. 

Something that still needs some work, or in this case to work out, is my body.  It’s falling apart and looks terrible.  I thought I’d bottomed out a couple months ago, but I guess I was wrong.  Not only that, I’m straight up weak now.  We had to return a grill from a family a couple blocks away and I had to stop 3 times and my biceps hurt for like 3 days after.  Sooooo, who wants to be gym buddies with me when I get back?  This is unacceptable.

Also unfortunately, we are leaving summer and getting into fall.  Which means the rain is coming.  I got straight up soaked last Wednesday night.   Luckily our bishop gave us black garbage bags to use as ponchos.  But I just tore through the bag with my hands and head instead of using scissors like my comp.  The result?  I had a deep v-neck poncho that didn’t do me a whole lot of good.  It looked sweet though.  

I also have developed my first hole in my shoe.  Not a good sign, as I have 10 months left.  Hopefully they can at least hold on until winter when I can use my boots again.

Also this week was a lesson in potential.  We contacted and found a ton of super legit families that sat with us read with us and accepted all of our commitments.  But over the week, we truly got to know them and their potential.   It has changed from golden to, dang I guess we will come back 1 more time next week.  Kinda sad actually.  But on the flip side, some rando that we met in the street on Saturday and invited to church came to church without even a lesson from us.  So that could turn into something legit. 

We also had the opportunity to do some service this week and I gotta say, I prefer a hoe to a machete.  The hoe was so much nicer.  My comp got worked by the machete - his hands were all busted up.

Also I hung up my hammock and am doing my language study in there now.  The best idea ever.  Hammocks are amazing.

I gotta go, as we have a sweet FHE planned but it’s been a good week.  I can’t wait to talk to you guys again next week.

Take care.

 

Elder Frost

 

Week 55

So it was quite an interesting week. First of all, we had changes this week.  So that is always quite the experience.

We got the news Monday, and it was cause for more than a little excitement in my life. Elder Stopper absolutely hated the news and was quite adamant about hating the news. For me I’m more oblivious, nonchalant, as I’m just doing my time.  And 6 weeks with one person, is the same as 6 weeks with somebody else.  Either way, I’m a missionary and I’m gonna do me.

Also, nobody knew my new companion so it was hard to get excited or upset about the news. My new companion is Elder Beus from Farmington, Utah.  He has been in the mission for a little over 6 months but comes highly recommended from the higher ups in the mission. So take that for what it is. Elder Stopper decided he did not want to say goodbyes to anyone, but rather, to have one last soccer game and just do goodbyes there.  That ended up being a great thing, as our day got taken for a loop, when Elder Fernandez, Elder Menchaca and Elder Wall came by.  

Elder Wall is going home after a good 2 years served.  Elders Menchaca and Fernandez came with him from Pedro Juan and were waiting for changes on Wednesday. They wanted to visit some of his old areas which lead them to us. We ended up checking out some huge mountain that he had wanted to climb and took a bunch of pictures there.  It was a pretty great view. Then back into town for the goodbye soccer game.  It was really fun, but unfortunately, I played pretty poorly.  It is probably my last chance to play with these guys, since this tradition likely dies with Elder Stopper.

Then on Wednesday, we went in to Asuncion for changes. I saw and talked with a bunch of my friends in the mission.  Which is always one of my favorite parts about changes.  Well it’s the only part I like usually.  Then we headed back to the area.  After taking care of unpacking and buying groceries, we went to the ward activity and called it a night.

On Friday we had interviews with president. I was really excited and nervous for these interviews as it was the interview I was going to talk about going home a little bit early.  Also in a change, instead of having one big meeting, we had several stations where we learned things and then got pulled out one-by-one to do our interview.  In the end, I had nothing to worry about, as it went well and I got my time.  My new end date is December 17^th.  Which should give me plenty of time to do the things I need to do before school starts in January.  Also I get to be home for Christmas, my birthday, and New Years.  So that will be fun and quite the party.

After that, we went to McDonalds with Elder Wolfgramm and Elder McClelland, which was way fun.  I love those guys.  We also got into the deepest, weirdest doctrine talk I’ve ever been a part of.  It was quite interesting.

Also, we had some legit visits with the Familia Diaz, who we can hopefully help bring back to church.  We also had a visit with Fabian, a professional chef, so that was legit.  You know how I love my food.  

We ended the week with a fireside about families on Sunday, and that was amazing.  It was one of the best ward activities I’ve been to.  I liked it a lot, and hopefully we can build on that and do even better in the future. I’m excited for the upcoming change and the work we have in the area including a baptism the 28th of February -  fingers crossed.

One other big thing this week was Valentine’s Day or single awareness day. And it made me realize that I have never had a valentine in 22 years of existence. I can’t decide if I should be proud of that, or sad.  But I’m leaning towards sad.  Either way, I’ve decided that as much as I enjoy spending all of Valentine’s Day with some dude, or getting into fights with teachers in the MTC about nothing, or hitting happy couples with water balloons, which are the activities I’ve done the last 3 valentines days, my goal is to have a valentine for next year. It’s gonna be tough, but I feel like I can do it.  If you wanna be my valentine, just let me know. Ha ha. I always love packages. ;)

Well that’s about it for this week.  You guys take care of yourself and I’ll talk to you next week.

 

Elder Frost

 

Week 54

Well, it’s official -- my best friend and the best trainer out here has gone home.

Elder Anderson finished his mission last week and spent a week touring the country with his family.  He is now enjoying life in the States. Good for you, man. I just want to take this opportunity to thank him for all he did for me out here. Without him, I probably would have been home months ago when I wanted to quit for the language, or after that for being depressed, or after that for punching out the AP.  Ok, that one I wish he woulda let me do.  But the reality is he was like my brother out here. Always let me vent and never had anything to say but agree with me. Never got on my case for how I was living my mission or the many, many problems I have with mission personnel. I don’t like to get super spiritual or to share many scriptures on the blog but I do want to share a scripture.  It’s Proverbs 17: 17 “A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” It shares my thoughts about my friend and brother out here, Elder Anderson, and all the other missionaries that are going through this challenge in their lives. Take care, man.

Well, let’s see, after that, not much else seems to really matter this week or to have made much of a difference.  We had a birthday party for Elder Stopper since his birthday is in March and realistically he won’t be here any longer as changes are today.  That was a good time.  Some of the other elders got together with us, and we ate Elder Stopper’s favorite food -- BBQ’d pork with rice and minestra de lenteja (stewed lentils). It was pretty good, as always. 

It was actually quite the week for birthdays as we celebrated another one on Saturday night.  One of my favorite members is Hermana Vera.  Well, her husband is always out of town working so she didn’t get a chance to celebrate her birthday with him. He came to town this last weekend, and she decided to have a BBQ for her birthday and being the super nice lady she is, she invited us. So me and Stopper bought a cake hoping to save money only to find out it’s a lot more expensive that way.  Oh well, we bought and carried the cake to her house and had a great time.  They really know how to do a BBQ.  There were ribs and pork and sausages and some intestine thing stuffed with rice.  I didn’t like that.  Then, there were like 5 different kinds of salad and rice and bread and lots of drink. We ate, and ate, and ate until I thought I was gonna die.  But I didn’t and instead just got even fatter.  Man, the mission is killing me. Ha ha.

What else? Oh ya -- the Copa Libertadores is going on right now. It actually just started a couple weeks ago. It’s a huge tournament for soccer where they take all the top teams from the leagues in South America and they compete. Well, Guarani, one of the teams from Paraguay, played this week in Paraguay. They lost the game in Chile by a score of 1-0 but played a lot better so everyone was excited for the return game at home. And they weren’t disappointed -- well at least for the first two-thirds of the game. They came out great and were leading by a goal with not much left in the game, and should’ve scored a couple more but just couldn’t quite finish. Those came back to bite them as U de Chile went on a run late in the game and came from behind to score and score again and win the game, effectively eliminating Guarani from the competition. It is quite something to watch soccer in a restaurant with a bunch of drunk Latinos cheering for the home team. I’m really not sure I will be able to get over the lack of support in the States.  The atmosphere and soccer craziness of Latin America is infectious.  I love it!

Another thing that was really cool that happened this last week occurred on Sunday.  So I had always been told that it is basically taboo to use props or do an object lesson from the pulpit.  Now I may have been lied to since this particular talk happened with my mom when I was determined to use the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue as my prop one Sunday. Ha ha.  But either way, I like them. There was a lady who used them on Sunday for her talk. She had a Ken doll all dressed up in pioneer looking clothes and like a handcart looking thing, then she gave a really good talk.  She also had pictures and other things she kept using to relate her talk with things people could connect with.  It was great! It was so different than most talks down here, and it even got me to look up from my awesome drawing on the back of my mission planner.  I may have to outdo myself on my homecoming now to have that kind of reaction, although I still have a year to plan that.

We also got changes today.  I am staying in Anahi 1 with a new comp named Elder Baus or something like that. And Elder Stopper is leaving. Changes are weird.  

Love you guys. Take care.

Elder Frost

 

Week 53

I know I started my last week’s blog talking about food and how it made my week.  Well, this week was very similar.

On Monday I got a slushie. Yes, some of you will laugh, but I haven’t seen a slushie in over a year.  It’s not exactly like 711s are on every corner down here.  Anyway, last Monday we ate at McDonalds and right by McDonalds there was a lady with a little stand selling slushies.  Obviously, I got really excited and bought one. It was lemon flavored.

Then on Tuesday, we tried having district meeting.  But, no one had keys.  So that got moved until Wednesday. 

Since we had some time to kill before our lunch cita, we went and visited a member whose wife has cancer, a lady we took sacrament to the week before. The husband and wife live and work in the same place. He is a glassblower. When we got there he was at work so we went and watched him blow glass. It’s amazing how they do what they do and how it all works. We talked for a while after that and then went and ate.

On Wednesday night, we had our normal soccer night.  But for some strange reason, almost no one came.  In fact, instead of having 4 or 5 or sometimes 6 teams, we had exactly 2.  So just the 2 teams played.  It was a lot of fun to be able to play for a good while like that.  We ended up playing for 80 minutes or almost a whole game.  Needless to say, I was dead.  I haven’t played a game of that length since my senior year of high school-over 4 years ago.  I’m outta shape.  The mission killed me!  Well that, and the fact I haven’t gone to a gym in almost 4 years as well.  Anyway, it was a lot of fun, and I played really well.  I got lots of compliments from the fans and the players. I still got it!

The next day a member showed us this place called Loslagos.  We stopped by just to see what it was on our way to a visit.  It turns out it’s a hotel ran by a German guy who bought the land when it was still a jungle and chopped it all down and made this resort-like place.  There is a lake to fish in, a lake to canoe on, some rope bridges, some houses to rent, horseback riding, all sorts of stuff.  But for me, the coolest thing was seeing the birds.  The guy has toucans and some other parrots kept in a cage.  I’ve wanted to see a toucan my whole mission, and I finally got to see one.  Well, more than one.  They are awesome! I want one.

 

 

 

 

After that, we got wet, as it rained and for the first time in months.  I didn’t have a plastic bag with me in my backpack, so I got wet and all my stuff got wet.  That’s such a downer, but such is the mission.

Then we visited Fredy, the less active guy, who hates North Americans.  But, he has grown to love me.  And slowly but surely, we are getting him to come back to the church.  Right now it is only activities, but soon I think and hope it will be on Sundays as well.  He has grown to love me, and now wants me in the circle when his baby is blessed in April.  Hopefully, I’m still here.  Not bad for a gringo from Montana.

Then we had our ward cine night.  Unfortunately, it was worse than last week, as no one came this time. Ouch. So we did an impromptu obra misional with the lider and made sweet announcements and invitations for our fireside this Sunday.

Then on Saturday we visited Fredy again, and we ordered pizzas and just had a good night hanging out and talking and eating with him and his family.  I really hope we can get them back. Also this week, I bought a new camera so that is a relief that I can finally take pictures again.

And finally, I found a place that does frozen yogurt like the places in Utah.  And yes of course I went.  Chelsea Chen that was for you!  Not as good as the States, but still amazing.  As you can see, I still think with my stomach.  I’m short, fat and proud of that and in the mood for food.

And with that, I will leave you guys as my time is up and the week is over.  I hope you all have a great new week; I know I will try.

Take care of yourselves. I love you.

 

Elder Frost