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

 

Week 65

So, I feel old.  I am old actually, and it kinda sucks.

So this last week two more of my mission friends went home as they ended their time. I’m realizing I have less and less people I know every time the mission gets together.  So that’s kinda freaking me out. Also back in the States all my friends are graduating college this month or have already graduated. Where did the time go... also I’m still a college sophomore. go me.   But for all my friends, good luck in the real world.  I’ll be along someday...

Now, on to the week that was.  It began with a normal Monday of soccer, cyber and grocery shopping. Although my team went on the most impressive run of wins I’ve seen in the mission during soccer.  We straight up dominated. My defense was lock down again; although, my shot has become terrible. We beat everyone over and over again. We played so long and won so long Elder Alvizures had to sub himself out due to dehydration. It was legit.

Then we had a Noche de Hogar with Jose Felix and his mom. It went really well.  He’s a little different, in more ways than one, but he wants to help us.  Plus they gave us dinner for free.  Love free food!

We are working a lot with members, and well everybody, to work on reading the Book of Mormon cover to cover.  It’s amazing how many people have been members their whole lives and never done it.  So if back home, you are one of those people - do it.  And, yes, I didn’t do it until the mission I’ll confess, ha ha.

On Tuesday we went to the temple. We only get to go once a year so it’s kind of a big deal to the missionaries. It turned into quite the day. Started off with way too early bus rides like most mission days do, then it got crazy as all the missionaries tried using the same bus.  So no one got on.  In the end, we trusted a missionary who was wrong, and we ended up walking forever to get to the temple. So we got there all tired and sweaty and just a tad bit late. 

On the walk, a shopping center had the VS (Victoria’s Secret) fashion show playing on a Times Square type screen.  It was crazy.

Anyway the temple went really well, even though I almost didn’t get to go as the humidity has blurred my numbers on my recommend, so it couldn’t be read.  But they did finally admit me, and it was a very great experience.

After that we had a testimony meeting that went really well.  I even bore my testimony or the thing I attempt to call a testimony. I haven’t done that in years.  It went well, I think. I also got told by the mission president’s wife that she misses my confidence.   See I told you cocky was a Christ-like attribute.  Just kidding, ha ha.

Then lunch was Pizza Hut, so pretty solid even though not States quality.  Then a slideshow of the mission. I was in the slideshow 2 times -- one at a BBQ in Anahi, and the other with Elder Anderson at Rafa’s baptism. Yup -- being an example for the entire mission, That’s me and Anderson.  But for real, those were the best days of my mission and how the mission should be.  I’m trying to get back to that, and with Elder Alvizures, we are progressing.

Then as we waited for a bus, we went into BK (Burger King) and got milkshakes and they happened to be showing the champions league semifinal between Atletico Madrid and Chelsea so I may or may not have kept ordering things and eating them until the game was over. Sadly the game was a disappointment, but still a good time.

Then on Wednesday, Elder Beyhmer and Willes both went home. So crazy that everybody is dying on me.  But good for them, and hopefully, I’ll hit them up once I’m back in the States, as they are going to UVU.  Like I said, I feel old.

That same day I also did visits with Jose Felix, the member from Monday night. So like I said, he is a little different, which makes visits a bit of an adventure. One is he’s gay.  So that’s just always a little uncomfortable.  The second is he loves deep doctrine and most of the time it is way, way, way, out there and not at all confirmed.  So you gotta be careful with what he says.  But the visits went really well. He showed us a lot of former investigators’ houses and some of his neighbors.  We got some good work out of it.  The final visit was with a deaf lady who was nice enough to invite us to her grandkids’ b-day party on Saturday.  So that was exciting.  We do love parties and free food.  Not sure if I said that. Ha ha. 

We also did service this week cutting down a coconut tree.  So we walked around with an ax for awhile.  Surprisingly nobody wanted to talk to us.  Nobody wanted to talk to us when a boxer followed us around for awhile either, but both were good days.  We did the service on Saturday -- my job being the unknowledgeable ax user was to pull on the rope so the tree fell in the right direction. We brought a pro with us and in like 10 minutes he cut the tree -- something it woulda taken us hours to do.  So that was a plus. 

Then at night we had the deaf lady’s b-day party.  It turned out to be just us as everybody else had come and gone before we got there.  She had made 20 liters of hot chocolate and had cookies and candy and cake to eat. So we ate and drank and had a good night before she sent us home with a doggie bag. Super, super nice lady and really funny.  But trying to yell a lesson is really ineffective, so we will see where that goes.

This week there is a member of the 70 coming, so that’s exciting and then next week is changes.  Time flies.

Hope you all had a good week; I know I did. 

Love you guys and take care,

 

Elder Frost

Week 64

So one thing I hate about the mission is the inability to be there for your family when they need you, and when they are celebrating. This last week was my mom’s birthday.  Since I was taught at a very young age never to say a women’s age I’m not gonna say how old, but happy late birthday mom.

Monday was an interesting day. I had an interview with the president in the morning which went really well.  But an Asuncion trip always takes up a ton of time. 

Then we went to the cyber to email and such and the power went out in a whole city block so we sat there awhile and just enjoyed not doing anything.  Finally it came back on and we finished up.  Then we bought groceries and went home after waiting forever for a bus.

Then there was a lunar eclipse Monday night, so we naturally tried to stay up and see it.  Well after checking the window like every 15 minutes, I called it a night around 1 am…without even a glimpse of the eclipse.  My comp made it a little longer and saw the beginning, but also fell asleep. In the end, the idea of having to get up at 6:30 am was worse than the desire to see the eclipse.

This week was also all about service; service we actually did, and service that got canceled as well.  We did some service for an investigator, cutting apart a tree that fell down and crushed his fence.  I used an ax for what I think is the first time in my life, and I realized a chain saw is so much better. I also got a laugh out of the Latin's when I explained that nobody uses axes anymore.  Lazy gringos, ha ha. 

We also met an interesting family that as all sorts of issues and varying interest in the church.  We ended up teaching the mom, son and father separately, and it may stay that way due to the aforementioned issues.

Then on Thursday, we had to do a division.  I ended up staying in my area with Elder Greer. We had service planned all morning, so that’s what we did.  But only after he made us take a bus I’d never used before because he didn’t want to wait.  So yes… we got lost and ended up walking an hour to find the actual house.  Once there, we got assigned to help the bishop cut a tree.  But not the whole tree, just the branches that were hanging over the member’s house. Way, way up.  So in Paraguay instead of a bucket truck the bishop climbs up there without anything holding him there and hacks and whacks at the branches with a machete until they are about to fall then ties a rope around it and breaks it off before lowering it down to the ground and us.  We cut the branches into smaller pieces. 

Then we switched to the other house where they were knocking down a wall.  That was pretty fun.  But I’ve realized how unable my body is to do real work anymore.  It’s sad. 

Then we ate lunch grabbed some fruit to take to a member and headed home. We dropped off the fruit, then showered and walked an hour to the swamp. We did visits in the swamp and met some cool people.  We found out that due to Good Friday, the next day there was no more buses and so we walked home just before the huge storm hit.

We had a lightning bolt hit so close to the house it fried a couple bulbs.  We also found out a ton of water enters the house through our balcony door and the windows - turning our house into a lake when there is a lot of rain.  So we tried to fix that for awhile.  Eventually the best thing was taking my towels and using them to block the rain.

Then we woke up the next day and since there were no buses due to Good Friday, we waited 3 hours for a bus before finally getting back to Luque and making the switch.  Then instead of waiting again, we walked the hour and half home. I was tired! 

We also ate a lot of chipa this week due to Paraguay tradition during the holy week.  Due to the rain, most of the parties and things got canceled and it was actually a quiet Easter.

On Saturday we watched Tom and Jerry while we ate with some members.  So that was legit.  It’s a great show!

We finally have an investigator with a baptism date.  Hopefully it holds.  Tomorrow we go to the temple, so that will be cool.

I’ve got nothing else to report. Life goes on.

Take care everybody.

Elder Frost

Some Pictures - Finally!

Catedral San Lorenzo

Easter came early

Familia Avalos

 

 

Familia Diaz

Familia Vera

Familia Poncs

Freddy Gonzales

 

Hermana Troche and Willie

New house in Yukury

 Junior

Nidia's Family

Nidia

 

Oscar

Soccer Boys

Familia Zorillo

Week 63

So, we played soccer last Monday, and I’ve gotten fat and lazy with bad soccer skills once again. I still have it in bursts though.  Enough so that Elder Dias from Brazil was nice enough to tell me I’m only the 3rd white kid he knows who can play. Not too shabby!

One other thing from this week is I learned how much of a pain it is to wait on buses. Anytime we come to Luque or the city closest to us we end up waiting at least 30 minutes for a bus and then it’s on a terrible dirt road and packed.  Soooo much fun.  

Also I got sick this week.  So it’s officially fall, almost winter.  Almost one year ago, I got sick for the first time -- Easter Sunday. Not fun.  I’m hoping this year goes by a lot better.  Ideally less than 2 trips to the hospital ha ha.  So far it's just a head cold, but so it begins.  Also I found out that, yup, I am allergic to something. Some plant in Paraguay does in fact cause me to have hives.  So that sucked, but I got medicine from the nurse and all seems to be better now.  Hopefully, it stays that way.

 

Also, I got the chance to do karaoke again this week. I’ve missed it. We did it as part of a ward activity. Elder Jimenez has a program that acts like an actual karaoke machine. It was pretty cool to sing with words and the bouncing ball, and it judged you and gave you points.  I was the worst of the night.  But I was sick, and I was far away from the computer so it couldn’t hear me well. Ha ha.  It was really fun.  This program even had songs in English, so naturally everyone wanted me to sing.  But they wanted me to sing songs that I have never even heard of before and tried to justify it as, oh well, it’s karaoke.  Nope, not gonna happen.  They did get me to sing a Backstreet Boys song though.  And then we all sang some Spanish stuff.  Luckily one of the songs was by Camila, a favorite of Elder Anderson’s, so I knew it a little bit.

There was also a ton of cake, so that was a plus. I ate a lot.  But not as much as I wanted to ha ha.  I am trying to lose some weight. Luckily, the insane amount of walking we do here is doing work, and I feel better even if I don’t look it yet. 

For example, on Thursday we went to Nueva Asuncion, the little colony like thing we’ve got.  Well, we missed the bus going out there, so we decided to walk it. Over an hour later we arrived. And that’s not even far in this area. Everything is at least 40 minutes from our house.  It’s crazy!  Being in the jungle is definitely different.  We had a good day out there though.  Basically, I showed Elder Alvizures all the things that I was shown the week before, but we got to know it a lot better and visited some good people.  It was also less of a swamp this week, but I’m sure it will be back. We did catch the last bus out of there though, as the gang of thieves is running around.  A member told us a story about some elders years ago who got robbed all the way down to the skin.  And they had to walk the hourish home in the nude. Yup, not for me.  Ha ha. 

We also had an interesting experience this week as we got our electric bill.  It is not included in our rent, like it has been in my other areas.  Well, our landlord gives us the bill and says, “I gave this to the other elders but I guess they didn’t pay cuz they are going to shut off your power Friday.”  Well, it hadn’t been paid in 3 months, so that was fun.  Luckily, the office took care of it.

Also, we had rain this week. Another sign that it is fall almost winter.  I still hate the rain. I also found out that our house leaks through the windows, so that was interesting waking up to rain on the floor.  Luckily, no holes in the roof like in the other houses.  So all’s good still with the house. Also lucky for us, this area is really great in giving us references so that’s been good, since without them we’d be seriously lost. So we spent most of the week contacting references. So give your elders people to visit ha ha.

Also I got to meet 2 of the first people baptized in the area, and they’ve been members basically since the beginning of the church in Paraguay.  They even built the church building.  It was way cool to hear their stories.

Also, we finally began to get the hang of all the little paths in our area, and it makes it a lot shorter but I’m allergic to some weeds ha ha.  So it’s a good and bad thing. But our area is really pretty.  If you like the jungle, ha ha.

One of the references we had this week was a guy named Jose that the elders used to teach before a guy threatened to kill them and they got changed into another area, ha ha.  He is super legit and easily jumped to the top of the prospective baptisms list. I’m really excited to be working with him, and it should be a good thing.

Also, I met a man without a leg who still plays soccer.  He has 2 fake legs -- 1 for normal use, and 1 for playing soccer.  Now that’s dedication.  I’m gonna miss the soccer madness of South America, ha ha. 

Also I saw part of the masters golf tournament at a guy’s house.  Who knew golf was popular in South America? Also, I wanna play again. Boakes temp -- let’s get er done.  Also, I played credit card Monopoly in Portugeuse while waiting for lunch. It’s so different.   Latins don’t know how to play either. Ha ha.

But all-in-all, it was a good week.  Hope yours was just as good.

Love you guys.  Take care.

 

Elder Frost