Week 77

So I don’t have a whole lot to say this week, since to be completely and brutally honest, we didn’t do a whole lot.   But that’s what happens when the nurse tells you to spend 72 hours in the house icing and elevating your foot.

Well I guess I had better start at the beginning. Last Monday we went to Aregua to play soccer at the playa.  Which is funny, since Paraguay is landlocked, and therefore there are no beaches.  But it’s by this huge lake and there is a little sand, so I guess technically they can call it a beach.  Well they had a couple grass fields and that was the original plan.  But those fields were pretty wet and muddy.  So I proposed playing on the sand soccer court they had set up since I had so much fun in Italy doing it.  It was a huge hit.  Everyone had fun.  And it wore us out.  The running joke was that you could only play if you’d been doing your morning workouts.  Well my blister wasn’t quite completely healed so I ended up taking my shoes off to play.  Yes… not the best idea and the nurse would probably have a fit due to pique and other things.  (NOTE:  Pique is an inflammatory skin disease caused by infection by a flea found in the tropical parts of South America.  It is the smallest flea in the world, measuring 1 mm across.)  But Latin’s play all the time barefoot and haven’t lost their feet.  Well I didn’t get any weird infections or anything, but I did hurt my foot.   I ran up to take a shot and I hit it with everything I had.  Elder Gunther hit the ball at the same time, but I still had enough power on it to drive him back and put the ball in the water like 50 yards away.   The only problem…he had shoes and I did not… and I lost.  My foot was red within seconds and I couldn’t put any pressure on it at all.  Effectively ending my day playing soccer.  So I played goalie and was terrible.  But after an hour or so, my foot didn’t really hurt anymore and the adrenaline of playing took away the pain and allowed me to come up with some huge saves, Cameron Icenoggle woulda been proud. 

Well then I put on my real shoes and walked to the bus and then sat for 40 minutes.  Then it swelled up and went cold and it hurt to walk.  So we did some cyber and that was it.  Well that night when we got home, I was barely walking and when I took off my shoe my foot was huge and purple and red and hurt.  So we iced it and wrapped it and I took some ibprofen.  The next day was even worse, so another day in the house only doing the visits we had to and our district meeting. 

Then Wednesday a couple visits as well before calling it a night.  At this point I’m worried so I call the nurse and she tells me to shut it down and ice it.  So we hung out in the house we cooked made some really good chili.  Although we ditched this insanely hot red chili we found.  It burned.  So we ate and talked and slept and I caught up on my journal and we did visits that were important, but that was about it.  Well my foot still hurts so I have to call the nurse and I’ll probably have an x-ray this week.  She thinks I’ve got a fracture on one of those little bones on my arch, but I think it’s just a bone bruise.  Either way it hurts, so our week was pretty uneventful.

Although Elder Jimenez did go home, and Elder Rodriguez replaced him.  We found out that they are closing an area here, so only 6 missionaries will be here instead of 8.  And I got a haircut.  That’s about it.  Sorry to disappoint.  Hopefully next week is better.

Love you guys and have a great week.

Elder Frost

Week 76

We had a pretty enjoyable week this week.  Although  I’m still battling this sickness and I hurt my foot today playing soccer, it was a good week.

 

Started off good last Monday as I said I bought new shoes.  And at the risk of sounding incredibly girly, I do love buying new shoes.  Then we played soccer, which was fun, as it’s been awhile. But I am fat and out of shape and my lungs wanted to die.  My new shoes also gave me a blister that was very annoying during the week.

Then on Tuesday we didn’t have district meeting, since we had a zone meeting on Wednesday.  I know you are all probably tired of hearing about them, cuz I know I’m tired of going to them.  This one wasn’t the worst I have had, but it still was a waste of a good part of my life. We talked about goals and attendance and looked at statistics and our president got mad at us for not planning perfectly in our planners.  So, all-in-all, it was rather pointless.  I don’t know anybody that left feeling as if they learned something. It was an interesting one for me though, as I spoke and offered advice.  Some people asked me questions for really the first time.  Normally my - don’t bother me I’m tired and don’t want to be here scowl - is enough to keep people away.  But recently I’m becoming one of the senior citizens of the mission and I have had a decent amount of success in the mission so people now want to hear what I have to say. Apparently, I have a reputation as a great missionary going around. Who knew?  It’s definitely been a change for me and I try to lead through example and share my wisdom when I can.

 

Then we had some choir madness this week as well. We were trying to put a choir together for this past Sunday since it was the first Sunday of the branch and ward being combined.  So we wanted to make a good impression. Well Wednesday, it rained so it got canceled and the aforementioned rain made me even sicker and my cough even worse, so it’s a good thing we didn’t have to sing til Sunday.

 

Then on Friday we went to the Arguellos to make donuts with Elder Jimenez as a goodbye for him.  Well we got there on time, but  Elder Jimenez didn’t.  So after waiting around for 30 minutes, we find out these donuts aren’t going to be done for like 3 hours, due to their need to sit and rise.  Sooo… we left.  Which ended up being a good thing, as we had a really good visit with one of our investigator families.  We felt we had a breakthrough, but they still didn’t come to church.  So we will try again this week.

 

Then Saturday, we had choir practice.  The missionaries were the only guys there.  I still wasn’t feeling great so I didn’t sing all out, pedal-to-the-metal, but I was singing loud and better than the girls.  Until one girl got up in my face and asked me to help them out by actually singing.  I’m a lot more patient than before, but that still set me off.  So we finished choir, but I was kind of in a mood.  Which apparently turned scandalous, since I left without saying goodbye.  But I had good reason to. 

 

After the choir, we were supposed to do this big family home evening with Valdeer, his family, our two investigators and Elder Gunther, since he knows them.  Well nobody was answering me.  No big deal.  Until one time when the phone gets picked up.  It sounded like it was picked up by accident, because all I hear is “you’re so bad”, and it sounds like a fight. OK, fights happen.   Except this is a family  is where I’ve acted like a marriage counselor several times.  Just recently the husband moved back in.  So in a tizzy, we took off to find out if the FHE was gonna happen and what the issue was. It turns out her phone was busted and he was still at work.  But the one investigator couldn’t come so Elder Gunther stayed in his area.  We taught the other investigator without problems and had a good lesson.  He committed to come to church, and said he wants to listen to us.  Good signs.  The bad thing is, he was going to get a ride with Valdeer and his wife, except they didn’t come to church either.  So that was a downer.

 

Also on Sunday, to finish out the choir drama, we were like a minute late and the choir was singing the prelude.  So we didn’t go up.  Then the choir got axed from the program altogether - so it was just a mess.  Also a mess happened after Sacrament.  Since this was the first Sunday where the ward and branch were combined, nobody discussed when and where the other classes would happen.  Well nobody planned it.  So we scrambled, but in the end, we had all 3 classes and nobody got hurt. 

 

Then a funny thing happened on our walk to lunch.  My comp Elder McClelland had some things we needed for brownies in his bag, since after lunch we were making brownies with a family.  One of the ingredients is oil. Yep, the oil bottle opened up and drenched his pants in oil.  Poor kid.  But I laughed.  He borrowed some pants from Brother Arguello, we ate lunch, and then off again for the visit and the brownies.  That got pushed about 2 hours since the world cup final started and she’s Argentine, so there was no way she was missing any of the game. You shoulda seen her face and reaction when Germany scored.  It was awesome.

 

Then another visit and we ate brownies. It was a good day.  Congrats to Germany.

 

I love you guys and take care.  We will talk more next week.

 

Elder Frost

 

Week 75

We had a very busy, very good week this week, just like I told you guys we would.  Weeks like this go flying by, as every day has something to be done rather than just walk around.  I’ve learned I can’t do the same exact thing, every minute of every day, or I go crazy.  So a week like this one is a good change of pace.

 

It started on Monday as we continued our streak of doing FHE with the Acostas and also teaching the grandchildren Ivan and Nahomi. We had to teach them lesson 3 or the gospel of Jesus Christ.  So -- faith repentance, baptism, Holy Ghost, and preservering to the end.  So we taught the lesson and then to make it a little funner we did an activity of blindfolding the little kids, spinning them around, and then telling them to walk across the room to the grandma.  It was really funny.  They loved it! We even set up obstacles and stuff to act as temptation and pit falls and had the grandpa’s voice be the Holy Ghost and guide them through it. Dang, I’m a good missionary.

 

On Tuesday, I had my hopes dashed as the US choked against Belgium.  I will never forgive Wondo for choking on that shot.  That’s a rec league shot!  A drunk 3-year-old could make it.  Ugh.  Oh well, I’ve never been so excited for the future of the U.S. soccer program as Yedlin and Green are studs.  If anybody wants to buy me a Yedlin jersey, I’d love you forever.

 

On Wednesday, we had a ward goodbye party for Elder Jimenez.  He is going home and ending his mission in a week, so we decided to celebrate.  Ok wish him goodbye, ha ha.  It was really good.  We had a karaoke thing and played Pictionary, ate and did all sorts of fun stuff.  The only problem was we forgot the speakers, which lead to us spending most of the time walking to and from our house.  We did get coerced into singing Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing,” which we decided is way too high for me to be singing.  I’ve missed karaoke actually.  It was a good time, and Elder Jimenez definitely went out with a bang.

 

We also taught Nahomi a little bit more.  Ivan had his interview with the bishop and passed with flying colors, so that was a relief.  Later on in the week, we had the 4th of July.  Not nearly as big a deal here as it is in the States – obviously, but everyone was really nice and wished us a happy fourth.  We just did a BBQ and had fun at night, nothing major.  But it was still fun to celebrate something.

 

On Saturday, we had a crazy day as went to our baptism interview for Nahomi, which went surprisingly well.  That was a pain to do, as the mom wanted the interview to happen in Aregua, a good hour and a half from our area.  So we had to convince her to get the kids on a bus and send them for the interview.  She did, and it worked.  But it was stressful. 

 

Then after the interview and lunch with a very stressed out Argentine Hermana, as Argentina was playing Belgium. Then it was back to the church to fill the font and choir practice.  Unfortunately, I’ve got another sinus throat infection thing and don’t really have a voice so I didn’t sing. 

 

Then we were going to go to a San Juan party and see fire soccer and walk on coals and stuff.  But it rained a little, so we didn’t go and changed our plans.  Also we didn’t have brownie stuff and the stores didn’t have the stuff we needed, so we made Jell-o for the baptism. 

 

Then it stormed at night and everyone kept calling to ask if the baptism was still going to happen.  Duh.... it’s only a little rain.  But the buses weren’t going because of the rain.  So we walked and started late - but it happened.  The water wasn’t even that cold for a change.  I baptized Ivan and Jimenez baptized Nahomi.  I had a little problem remembering how to do the baptism, as I haven’t gotten in the water in forever.  But the words were no problem.  They ate the Jell-o, even though it was Fast Sunday. 

 

Then we had our meetings on Sunday.  Lunch turned into another goodbye party for Elder Jimenez, but it was still fun.  Then some more visits, and now we are here.

 

I bought new soccer shoes today and then immediately played in them, so I’ve got a blister. I’m sure I’ve forgotten some stuff, but it was a hectic week.

 

Love you guys and can’t wait to talk face to face.  Take care. 

 

Elder Frost

Week 74

It’s officially winter.  I think I’ve said that a couple times here on the blog, but then a new week comes and I remember how much rainier and colder it gets.  This week was one of those weeks.

 

Monday was an interesting pday for once as even after 2 changes here I still don’t really know Luque and Elder McClelland wanted to get to know it.  So we spent almost the entire day walking around Luque and seeing what there is … and isn’t.  It’s a cool city, but not much to do or too many great shops. So we will see what souvenirs  I take home from here. 

 

Then at night, we had a Noche de Hogar with the Familia Acosta.   It turned out to be one of the most awkward visits  I’ve been apart of.  It’s the first one that the family has been in charge of the lesson and the Hermana decided to just go off on her husband and family literally ripping into them the entire lesson and used us as support for her taking our words out of context and everything. I turned it into a marriage counseling session to try and save the visit but it was pretty ugly.  Then a dinner with them and finally home to sleep for the next day.

 

Then more family drama as Valdeer, one of my favorite people in the area, was found living at his moms house after a fight with his wife and her family.  So we talked about that. It was especially important since we are trying to teach his brother and sister-in-law and both have interest in the church.  So we need his help.

 

Wednesday was a full day, as I finally finished showing McClelland the area.  We met with some of our old investigators.  I have a really good feeling about a couple of them this time around, so hopefully we can make something of it.

 

We also did a really fun family home evening with Valdeer and his family later in the week where we used a dart board and darts to talk about the church, Christ and how we can make it easier or harder on ourselves to achieve our goals.  It went really cool. 

 

Then the rain came down and it got really cold for the rest of the week making it extremely difficult to work effectively especially since we are focusing on Nueva Asuncion and with 3 days of rain it becomes impossible to get out there.  It didn’t help our case when we got a little sick after working in the cold and rain for a couple days, so we had to take it easy. 

 

Also we did not plan out our meals well at all, resulting in a lot of rice being eaten this week.  I did make some amazing fajitas though. 

 

Also we kept the progress of our 2 young people going and they are going to be baptized this Sunday, so that’s gonna be awesome.   They are the grandchildren of one of the best members in the area and come to church every week so it’s about time they get baptized.  We are really excited. 

 

Also exciting, or rather crazy news, it’s that they are going to be combining the ward and branch into one mega ward in 2 weeks.  That means 8 missionaries in one ward.  It’s gonna be strange.  We are going to have a crazy week this week;  a FHE tonight, US v Belgium tomorrow, Elder Jimenez’ goodbye party Wednesday, Thursday working the swamp, Friday 4th of July, Saturday baptism prep. 

 

I’m sure I’ll have lots to say and pictures next week, but for this week this is the end. 

 

Love and miss you guys.   Take care. 

 

Elder Frost