Week 71

I didn’t know to become a missionary you had to join the Glee club, ha ha. But really with all the choirs I’ve done just in this area, not to mention in other areas, and the karaoke in Pedro Juan I should probably just be inducted into Motab (Mormon Tabernacle Choir). We had another choir this week and it always makes for a good week and its fun, but it does use up a lot of time. That was the big news from this week so I’ll save it for a little later.

 

On Monday we had a normal day until the night, when we had a family home evening with the Acostas again.  They aren’t doing them, and want to start getting in the habit, so we’ve been helping out.  Last week my comp gave the lesson, and this time I did.  I just used a talk from a Liahona (Spanish version of the Ensign) but it went over well.  Also I made a cake, but since I was lazy, it was just a box cake orange flavored.  Turns out the husband likescake like that, so it was a good choice.  She also cooked us some milanesas and some noodles in a cream sauce super good way to end a pday.

 

Then on Tuesday I had quite the adventure as I woke up to an upset stomach.  But I didn’t think it would be a problem, so off to district meeting where we discussed a potential big project for us.  Then we went to lunch where I wasn’t gonna ea,t but she had chicken milanesas which she never does so I had to take the opportunity. Bad choice.  We ended up going out to Nueva Asuncion after and that’s the far poor part of my area.  We did some visits and some contacting before my stomach started acting up.  And by poor I mean most of these houses don’t have toilets just a hole in the ground if that.  Well now  I’m worried cuz we are now where near home and I’m gonna need a bathroom.  In the middle of a visit I couldn’t take it anymore and took a chance and asked to use their bathroom. I lucked out.  No door, but it did have a toilet.  I was able to finish out the work day out there before coming a little bit closer to home and my stomach started acting up again.  So hurried through that lesson before going home.  Quite a stressful day.

 

The big project I talked about is we are contemplating starting up a group or a family unit out in Nueva Asuncion.  There is a ton of baptized members out there, but nobody comes to church again due to the poorness. So in an attempt to get them coming back to church, we might hold a sacrament meeting in a members house out there on Sunday afternoons.  But in order to do that, we have to talk to the bishop, the stake president, the mission presiden, the members who own the house, the people of Nueva Asuncion and so on and so forth.  So we began that work this week and we will see what happens. 

 

Also we continued our work with our drunk friend whose wife died.  He seemed to be doing a little better this week and drank less but he is still a mess.  Hopefully we can get a breakthrough with him this week. 

 

Now the choir was for youth and of course missionaries for the ward conference we had on Sunday. Well we sang 2 hymns that almost nobody knew.  Numbers 8 and 9 in the Spanish hymnbook.  So that was a challenge and so is the fact that each time we practiced we were missing some people or some new ones came.  But in the end, it sounded good and the practice paid off.

 

Also for ward conference there was a deep clean of the chapel which was desperately needed. Our convert Abdon got the priesthood Sunday as well so that was awesome.

 

And the work out craze has continued as we bought a metal bar and made weights out of cement this morning. Hopefully they work.

 

That’s about it for this week.  Love you guys and take care.

 

Elder Frost

 

Sorry!

I am sorry the blog has not been updated in a couple of weeks.  Let me explain. 


First of all, the computer that I use to post Anthony's blog got a virus.  Actually...it was over 300 viruses.  It took 4 days to get cleaned up.


Then, since the computer had to be wiped clean, the Login and Password for the blog was deleted.  It took me a while to get the security back up. 


But now everything seems to be working. 


I hope you enjoy the last 2 blog posts.

Week 70

This was a pretty normal week. Started the week off with a good ole soccer game. I’m so outta shape it’s sad. But we played.  And after the first couple games where I shook off the rust and warmed up I could move again without wanting to die.  We ended up getting the dream team together again and ran the court for most of the day.  It does feel good to play again.  One of the other elders has gone to calling me a Latin and asking to see my birth certificate and other such jokes. Glad to know I can still play a little bit. 

 

After that it was just a normal pday.  Ate lunch, did cyber.  And ya, normal pday. 

 

Our Tuesday was a little bit different though.  Ok a lot different.  It started off with district meeting which went on fine. I actually really liked it, as Elder Jimenez talked about the Book of Mormon and the importance of it and having a testimony of it.  I really like him as my district leader.  He does a really good job of teaching without being boring or annoying.

 

Then after district meeting we usually eat together, all 4 of us from Yukyry, at this little restaurant.  But somewhere along the way we lost Elder Jimenez and Laurente and they never showed up.  So a nice quiet lunch with Elder Alvizures and I before going back to the area. 

 

We had a good work day in our area although we discovered it is really hard to teach old people as they either don’t wanna change, or can’t walk anymore. 

 

Then we went to the Arguellos house to pick up a cat. The Hermana Acosta has a rat problem and apparently the Arguellos cat is a heck of a hunter.  Anyway we got asked to carry it from one house to the other.  Originally we were going to have a bag to carry the cat in.  But once we got there, Hermana Arguellos said not to worry, the cat would be fine, we just needed to love it and be gentle on our walk.  Elder Alvizures drew the short end of the stick, as he got to carry it.  No way was I going to do that.  Anyway we are walking along and all of a sudden my comp drops the cat and it gets away.  Apparently it stretched and he panicked about it attacking him and dropped it.  Well now it takes off into the woods and the weeds where we can’t even see it.  We can’t tell the family we lost their cat!  Luckily, we finally find it and manage to scare it all the way home a block or 2.  Long story short, we didn’t take the cat to the Acostas.

 

Also while at the Arguellos I had the weirdest coffee.  Yes, I drank coffee as a missionary.  Now it’s not the coffee bean kind. It’s a coffee made out of dried cereals.  Anyway,  I’m not a fan.  But apparently everybody else really likes it.  I’ll stick to my hot chocolate to survive the winter months.

 

Later on in the week I had another interesting moment as I helped a member lady with her English homework.  It was actually really hard.  Not because the English was challenging, but because the assignment was stupid, Ha ha.  She had to come up with 2 things for ever letter of the English alphabet.  Ok not so bad.  But they had to be school related items. Ok, a little harder.  And finally she couldn’t just write them, she had to cut and paste a picture of them into a notebook.  Are you kidding me?  How am I or anyone else supposed to come up with 2 things for the letter “X” that are school related, have a picture of them, and then paste it.  Well, we did our best and I promise we did better than anybody else.  Luckily there was a loop hole.  We couldn’t find 2 things we could use anything with that letter.  So this is a nice school with water skiing and a yacht, ha ha.  It was fun to use English though, and to teach her some new vocab as well.

 

On Thursday we went to Nueva Asuncion and had a really good experience out there.  Out there we are always worried about time, as the last bus leaves at a certain time.  If we miss it we have to walk an hour in the dark through the woods where the rapists live and the people that steal missionaries clothes.  So we always make sure to grab the last bus.  Well we were heading over to the bus stop when this drunk guy yelled at us.  We said no.  But he kept persisting, and at the same time we felt like we should go talk to him.  So we did.  It turns out he was drinking to forget.  His wife died 2 months ago and he’s just a wreck.  He can’t even talk without bawling like a baby.  We had a really good lesson with him explaining how he can see his wife again and how he is never alone and Christ will always be there to comfort him and help him. It went really well.  I can’t wait to see him again this week.  Hopefully, we can help him.

 

On Friday I found out just exactly how heavy ten pounds can be.  I’ve wanted some dumbbells for forever, since I need to do some exercise besides pushups.  Well we visited Valdeer, a member, and he gifted us his.  They are only about ten pounds, but it’s something.  The only problem is he lives at least 3km from our house.  So we walked home with me carrying one and my comp with the other.  My arms were exhausted by the time we reached the house.  I’m excited though. 

 

Last exciting bit of the week was a Quince.  Basically a Quince is a huge party where a girl becomes a woman. Due to weather, nobody was sure it was gonna happen.  But luckily, it cooperated and she was able to do it.  We stopped by to help set up and eat, of course, ha ha.  We were really early so I didn’t take any pictures or anything, but it was the place to be Saturday night.  Apparently it went til 3 am and a lot of people were late to church.  Then they slept once there.  Gotta love the way Latin’s party.

 

Well that’s about it for this week.  Love you guys and take care of yourselves.

 

Elder Frost

 

Week 69

(NOTE:  On May 15th, we were sent an email from the mission office stating that Anthony had been made a Zone Leader.  When we wrote Anthony about it, he had no idea what we were talking about.  So we sent him a copy of the letter we received.  He checked with his district and zone leaders, but they knew nothing.  About a week later, Anthony had a scheduled interview with the mission president.  They discussed the letter.  Anthony discusses it below.  About a week after the discussion with the mission president, on May 28, we received a letter from the office apologizing for the mistake.)

So first of all, sorry to any of you that got the letter last week about me being a zone leader. Anyway that bit of mis-information definitely made for an interesting week.

It started last Monday when I got the surprise emails congratulating me on becoming zone leader, news that I had not been given.  So I did some searching, and nobody knew anything.  So I ended up waiting until Friday when I had my interview with the mission president.  Needless to say that kept my mind a little occupied all week.  Well he laughed when I asked him - definitely not a good sign, ha ha.  So ya,  I’m not a zone leader. But I’m ok with it. 

Other than that, it was still an interesting week.  On Monday after our pday, and buying a rubiks cube for my companion (those things are impossible), we had a family home evening with the familia Acosta.  We were hoping that her grandchildren would be there so we could start prepping them for baptism.  Well due to waiting for buses, we were running late and didn’t have a chance to make the brownies we wanted to.  But we traded the raw ingredients with the Hermana for a cake she had made.  Good trade!  Raw food for cooked food, I’ll make that deal all the time. 

We had some surprise visitors, as the elders from Canada Garay were there dropping off their clothes but it went good.  Unfortunately the grandkids weren’t there, but it still went well.  We talked about making Christ the anchor of our lives using Elder Uchtdorfs talk.  I thought it went really well, and the cake was good.

Then on Tuesday we visited her again, and this time the grandkids were there.  But it wasn’t as good.  It turns out the mom is furious at the church right now, and is not happy her kids are talking to us.  Wanna know why... because at church this past Sunday, her son was peed on.  In the chapel by an 8ish year old who pulled down his pants and peed all over her sons face and chest.  Who the heck does that, and what were the teachers doing?  Oh man, this could take some work to get her to calm down.  She wouldn’t even acknowledge our presence. 

Then the week took a turn for the worse as the week wound down and ended.  On Wednesday I made this spaghetti with sausage I was super pumped to make.  Well never again.  The sausage ended up making me ridiculously sick.  So sick in fact, I couldn’t leave the house on Thursday because of my stomach problems.  To make things better, my comp ate the sausage on Thursday saying I just didn’t know how to cook it.  And a little bit later, we were tag teaming the bathroom.  Lesson learned.

It also got cold this week. Yes, I know the temperature says it’s not that cold, but trust me it is.  Remember that there is no insulation and we walk around all day in it and its windy, rainy and a humid cold.  It goes right through any and all clothing.  Luckily our room has a bomb heater, so we sleep well.  Just everything else sucks, ha ha.  Also, it signifies the start of winter, which consequently means a drop in church attendance, namely from 100 to down to 34.  Gotta love it!  But we will get through it with hot chocolate and blankets, ha ha.

Also I had my interview with the President like I said.  It went really well.  The news about zone leader, figuring out if my dad can come to pick me up, and some deeper stuff that helped me out a lot.  It was a good thing.

Also the champions league final was this weekend and I know people that took off work to see it.  Love it.  Love soccer countries and I’m excited for the world cup. Can’t wait!

That’s it for this week.  Love you guys and take care. 

 

Elder Frost

 

Week 68

We had a really good week this week. I always like weeks when I get to do something out of the ordinary.  470 days and counting of the same is starting to get to me so this week was definitely a blessing.

The first thing that helped was on Wednesday when we went to a choir practice.  Now for any of you that knew me remotely before the mission, that sentence is going to shock the heck out of you.  A choir practice would have  been one of my least favorite things to do.  And ok, I still don’t love it.  But we went anyway, and I surprisingly had a very good time. It does help that I sing better than the majority of Paraguayans.  Nothing to be ashamed of.  The idea was to do a little choir on Sunday for Mother’s Day here in Paraguay.  The youth planned, organized and did it.  So it was a little shaky.  It ended up being the 4 missionaries, 2 young women, 4 young men and a mom.  We sang “Teach Me to Walk in the Light” and some other primary song.  The highlight by far was when Elder Laurante was taking it all serious and "teaching" us how we have to sing, and I was making faces. The youth loved it and laughed.  Definitely lightened the mood.  Although maybe not the most respectful thing I could have done.  We left with a plan to meet together on Saturday with hopefully more youth. 

Also on Wednesday it was Elder Alvizures’ birthday so we sang to him at the choir practice.  But besides that, we did absolutely nothing.  He didn’t want to make a big deal about it.  All too normal if you ask me, but hey, it’s his b-day.  It was also Paraguay’s Mother’s Day this week.  It’s the 15th of May always.  It’s quite different from the States.  Nobody really does anything or buys anything for mom. It’s just a day off work, and everybody gets drunk.  Nothing says “I love you, mom” like being absolutely hammered and making poor decisions. 

We went out to Nueva Asuncion that day, and it started to rain, and the swamp does get swampy.  But it was still a good day, and we talked with Celeste, a 9-year-old girl who doesn’t talk.  Her family are all members just inactive, but they want her to be baptized.  The last time I saw her I literally talked to her through a Barbie.  This time she opened up at the end and talked a little and had us draw pictures in her notebook.  Baby steps. 

We also went and filled up the font, which luckily was still half full from the week before, so it went fast.  Even more luckily it was still clean.  So we lucked out. 

Then on Saturday, we woke up and went out to service in Nueva Asuncion.  Basically we “extreme makeover home editioned”  her house.  She needed a new roof and to patch up her walls so the water doesn’t get in.  While we were there, half the roof got re-tiled and the walls got patched up.  Apparently it didn’t quite get finished as we had to leave early so we are going to go back in 2 weeks and finish up.  Paraguayans’ construction work is still weird to me.

 

 

Also, a really old member fell and broke his finger.  Being old sounds terrible. Once we got home we were going to shower and then head off to choir.  Well, we got a surprise as we had no water.  So covered in dirt and cement and just generally dirty, we didn’t go to choir.  Finally the water came back; we showered and did visits for the rest of the night. 

The next day, Sunday, was our baptism - bright and early.  We got there and somehow the font has half drained, so we start filling it. Luckily, the wait allowed all of his family to come.  It felt great to have a baptism again, especially his as he is going to be great, and we fought to get him there.

 

 

Then in 2nd hour, they decided to have an impromptu choir practice.  Plus -- all the youth were involved. Negative -- all the youth were involved.  It was a mess trying to get the young men who didn’t want to do it to try and behave.  But the 4 missionaries separated and settled the problems.  So we sang and it sounded good, all things considering.

Then a scramble as our lunch cita dropped, but an Hermana was nice enough to cook for us and the other elders. Then a good day of visits and the week was over.  This week we have interviews so that’s always an experience. 

Hope you guys have a great week and take care of yourselves.  See ya soon!

Elder Frost

Week 67

So first and foremost, I want to give a shoutout Happy Mother’s Day to my wonderful mom who put up with way, way too much of my crap during high school. I’ve come to learn and appreciate what she did for me out here in the mission. No matter what I say in this blog, it won’t be enough to praise her. But I do want to thank her for all the good moments in my life: the summer book fairs, books on tape in the car, always being there to read and correct and help me with school papers, always supporting my choices even when she disagreed, for all the hours we’ve spent playing board or card games, and always challenging me to be better. I also want to thank her for not killing me for things I did and said.  Love you, mom.

The other important thing about Mother’s Day is that it’s one of the 2 days every year that I can Skype or call home. Luckily for me I can Skype here. It’s always one of the highlights of the year. I Skyped with my family on Sunday, and it was great seeing them again. Some things have changed -- my dad is balder and my sister is a ginger, but it’s still family. As usual, we talked and talked and talked and said a lot of words about nothing, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.  I love my family.

It also occurred to us that it is my last phone call home. How crazy is that? Feels like yesterday I was calling home for Christmas and had a year left. The time is flying. Can’t wait for the end and to be home again.  I love the mission and the things I’ve learned here, but to steal a line from Dorothy, “There’s no place like home.”

Besides that huge moment, there were some other fairly big events that happened this week.  We did some service this week for a lady in the ward. We eat lunch with her on Saturdays, and she is super cool.  So when she told us that she wanted us to cut the weeds behind her house, we had no problem. Turns out that a bunch of thieves have been hiding in them at night and robbing people as they walk home. They got even braver a couple of weeks ago, breaking into houses at night and stealing cars and motos when they got the chance. The sister even heard them talking in her yard about breaking into her house. Luckily, they didn’t. So we came with the other elders here in Yuquyry and Vasilio, our professional yard work guy, and a youth in the ward. It was quite the field. So we spent a couple hours cutting and cutting and cutting some more. I’m getting pretty good with a machete; although, we realized I cut completely different than the Latins.  But it works. 

 

 

We had fun--  it’s a good time doing service with Elder Jimenez.  He’s a good guy.  Me and him pushed over a tree as well.  It was all eaten out by ants, so we just pushed and over it went.  So that was pretty cool. We got most of the field cut down and then after some juice we headed home to shower and cook.  

So we got invited to a little girl’s birthday party, and to be nice, I asked if we could bring anything thinking she’d say no or ok how about some pop or cups or something.  Nope.  She wanted peach cobbler.  So that’s what I did.  They loved it.  It is good.  Thanks to Elder Anderson for teaching me that one.  We ate cobbler and cake and drank hot chocolate and pop and talked and sang happy birthday.  It was good to celebrate something again.

 

 

One other interesting thing this week was they fixed our windows.  After the pictures you guys saw, it’s clear our windows needed fixing.  Well they said they were gonna come every night this week, but in the end it took until Friday for them to actually get there.  And when they did, all they did was rubber cement some pipe cleaners to the ledge and said that will seal the windows.  I’m skeptical, but we will see.

Finally, we had some baptism drama this week as we have been preparing a guy to be baptized.  He passed all the mission standards, and passed his interview, so no problems- right?  Well, no.  Our bishop was against the baptism from the start, but he said it was up to us.  And he’s right, we can baptize without any permission from him.  But, when we told him it was gonna happen, he freaked out and called the stake president.  So I get a call from the zone leaders, who wussed out and told us we shouldn’t do it since the bishop disagreed.  I argued with them.  The next thing I know, I get a call from the APs. They talked to me about 5 seconds before having enough of me arguing and sending me to the mission president.   I argued with him as well. In the end, I half won.  The baptism still got canceled, but not permanently.  In the end, the mission president came and interviewed the investigator and the bishop and cleared him to be baptized this week. The issue was the Sabbath day, as our investigator works Sundays, but we explained the importance of it and he promised to look for a new job and to talk to his boss about getting his shift changed.  Good enough for us, and the mission president, but not the bishop.  So that’s what the fight was about.  But in the end, he’s a great guy who despite being visibly upset when we had to cancel his baptism less than 12 hours before it was supposed to happen, he came to church anyway and passed his interview with the Mission President with flying colors.  One baptism this week.  I’m excited.  

I hope you guys have a great week, and I’m sure I’ll have more stories next week.

Love ya and take care,

 

Elder Frost

Week 66

First off, happy 25th anniversary to my parents. Today is the day.  And they have all of Mexico celebrating with them. Good for you guys. Here’s to 25 more.

So some crazy news of this week is that my old companion Elder Stopper went home. He went home for a broken bone in his hip. It’s really surprising. He was also doing so much better; it couldn’t have come at a worse time.  But he’s home, and I feel even older.

 

On Tuesday we had a dinner with Jose Felix and, as always, it got interesting talking scriptures with him. Some people need to focus on the little things and not dig deep.  Milk and meat kinda stuff.

Then on Wednesday, we had a ridiculous rainstorm hit. It started sometime during the night and ended in the afternoon on Wednesday. Our house flooded so badly. The water enters in through our windows and our balcony door. I literally started looking for something to bail water with. Our patio outside turned into a lake and where the steps were it was like rapids. The street was a river. It was crazy. I’ve seen some rainstorms, and I’ve even seen some worse than this in the mission, but Yuqury out in the middle of nowhere floods like nowhere else.  It can’t handle the rain. So we ate soup and saved all our things on the floor, and every so often we grabbed the squeegees and squeegeed the rooms we could. Then in one room we had to use a rag and soak it up and drain it into our garbage can before dumping it outside. It took a couple hours to clean and dry everything and 3 full buckets of water. It was kind of impressive actually.

 

 

We were supposed to go to Nueva Asuncion, our swamp like area, but with the rain the buses couldn’t get there and the city was literally underwater.  So we didn’t go out there.  Instead, we took care of some business around the house and waited it out.

The other really big thing around here this week was a visit from a member of the Quorum of the Seventy.  His name is Elder Wilhelm. He planned two firesides -- one for investigators and less actives and then one for the missionaries. So that took up a lot of our time this week.

On Thursday was the first one.  So we spent our day running around to all of our less actives and investigators to re-remind them of the fireside.  Only problem is that Thursday was Labor Day here, so there were no buses. Once people found that out we lost all support; nobody wanted to go, and I don’t blame them.  Over an hour and a half walk at 10 o clock at night sounds terrible. We didn’t have a choice though, so we began walking at 5:30ish to be there at 7. We walked and we walked and walked some more before a cop was nice enough to pull over and give us a ride.  He was a really cool dude. We’re going to try and visit him someday. 

The actual meeting went ok. It was all about the restoration and the people seemed to enjoy it.  It was really cold in there, so some of the Paraguayans looked like they were going to die.  Our only person that came was Abdom.  He is the husband of a member and a legit guy.  We talked to him this week, and he has read the Book of Mormon and got his answer saying he knew this church was true.  We are planning his baptism for this weekend.  So we were really excited he was able to come.

I also saw some unexpected people there.  The first was Elder Menchaca, who I didn’t think was in Luque anymore.  But he is, and it was good seeing him again.  He’s gotten tiny.  Apparently he’s been super sick for a couple weeks now. 

The other was even more surprising.  It was Elder Bennett -- now just Bennett.  He is the Peruvian Canadian that was in my MTC group the first time.  He had ended his mission last July and was back visiting people and my guess is a girl in particular.  I talked with him for a while before it was time for the walk home.  Luckily the assistants decided to give us a ride; even though it was only halfway, it’s appreciated.

Then day 2 of Wilhelm.  The next day, it was 5 hours long.  Good themes, but way, way, way, too long.  I thought I was gonna die. I don’t wanna sound negative, but so far in the mission the 70 and apostles visits have been way overhyped.  Oh well, it was still good and gave me some things to think about.

Also I get to Skype this week for Mother’s Day so that’s gonna keep my mind busy as well.  It’s so good seeing the family.

We also have some baptism drama, as the bishop doesn’t wanna do the baptism of Abdom this week. It’s a long story, but basically it boils down to him not believing that Abdom will keep coming to church. So we are gonna work on that. 

Also, final bit of news, is that one more change is down.  I’m staying here in the same area with the same comp.  So not too spectacular.  This is gonna be a good week.

Love you guys and take care,

 

Elder Frost