Week 13

So, not much really happened this week.

And by that, I mean we didn’t even really get out of our house. Elder Anderson has been sick for like 2 weeks.  So this week, he started taking “the bomb” or the pills they give you when you go back to the States.  And well, they wrecked him.  He was super weak and sick, so he couldn’t even leave the house Thursday or Friday.

Wednesday we did work but had to cancel Griselda’s wedding because she lost her ID.  Sometimes I swear, we have to live these people’s lives for them.   But, it is all worth it.

Anyway Anderson was sick, so I basically laid around all day.   I read a little.  Then I cleaned the whole house like crazy. Then I made fajitas, which were freaking bomb by the way.   And crazy, cuz I had to use a whole chicken - like guts and all.  It was crazy; I had no idea what I was doing. I basically just broke the bird in half and cut off the drumsticks and the breasts. Haha.  But the breasts turned out nice. It was pretty crazy though. That’s what the pics are of.

I don't know why Anthony has to cook with his shirt off -

especially when he is sporting a farmer's tan

Leftover "stuff" after cleaning and preparing the chicken for fajitas

The end results - best fajitas in Paraguay

Umm what else, oh ya, I watched Charly, which isn’t a mission movie, but it’s about baptism and is generally accepted as ok to watch.  Freaking saddest movie ever though. I almost cried, and I never cry.  I recommend it everyone…if you wanna cry. Haha.

 

Also, this week were changes, and I successfully survived the first one.  So I have 1 down and 15 more to go.  But whose counting? Haha.  Elder Hunsaker finally left Pedro Juan.  He’s been here for almost 9 months, which is a crazy amount of time. He was replaced by Elder Anderl, who is a friend of my comp Elder Anderson.  He is just getting over dengue though, so he’s still pretty out of it.  I also got called "fat" this week, which was rather shocking since I didn’t think I had gotten fat. Haha.  And yes, down here being called fat is not an insult, but it was still shocking.   Micheli, an investigator from Brazil, told me I had gotten fat in my cheeks.  But it was cute.  Yup, that’s right, all overweight Americans need to move down here.  Haha.

Also, we finally got a table to prep food from the office elders' house, which is way nice!  So now we can actually cook.

Oh ya, and then Saturday night I started feeling sick.  Then yesterday I got really sick and had temperature in triple digits; I was super dizzy and had weak, upset stomach.  Ya, it just sucks.  Being sick is so much worse on the mish.  For this reason though I’m gonna end this now since I need a nap.

Love all you guys.

Elder Anthony Frost

Week 12

Another crazy week leads into another one this week. The mission flies by when it goes like this. This Wednesday I complete my first change or 6 weeks in the field. It seems like just yesterday I left, really.

Sorry that this one is a day late. I got called into Asuncion out of the blue so our p-day got moved to Tuesday or today I guess. Ha

Let’s see -- last Tuesday was a crazy day. After out district meeting, we went and talked to the 2 ladies in the electronics store I told you guys about and gave them their Book of Mormons, which was cool.  Then we decided we wanted food.  So, we did a quick grocery shopping trip.   Basically, we bought a fish -- a Pacu. (NOTE:  A Pacu is related to the Piranha.  It has human-like teeth that crush seeds and nuts.) 

 

A Pacu

We also bought some stuff for homemade chicken noodle soup and tacos.  Oh ya, and I bought a kilo of bacon and some cheese.   Best part of that besides eating it of course is that after our walk home my whole backpack smelled like a bacon cheeseburger.  Sooo good!  And yes, kinda gross.  But oh well. 

So then, that night after doing all our visits, we get back to the house and decide to cook that fish.  So of course that turned into an adventure.  We eventually got its head off and cleaned it out and then stuffed it with garlic, lime and butter. Then we put carbon, a kind of charcoal, down outside and melted plastic bags as a kind of starter, but that wasn’t working. Then Elder Anderson remembered a trick where you use the fan to blow air on it and ignite the coals better, so we did that and it worked. 

 

 Preparing the Pacu (fish)

 

 Elder Anderson preparing the coals to cook the fish

 

 

 

But it was crazy looking.  Then we put the fish down, put our hammocks up, and just hung outside all night til the fish was done and then ate it.  It was surprisingly way good for some random fish we grabbed out of the store. 

After our taste of food not made my Paraguayans, we decided to continue and did so by making nice breakfasts for ourselves.  I made the bacon and cheesy scrambled eggs, and my comp made French Toast and homemade syrup. So together we are by far the best cooks in this whole country. Haha.  It was way good though.

 

Scrambled cheesy eggs, french toast & syrup, bacon and juice

Then that night, we had a baptism. So we prepped the font and cleaned the chapel and got ready for that most of the day.  There was an 8-year-old member girl being baptized that night as well.  So we helped her grandma prep for it, since she wanted it to be a bigger deal.   And by bigger deal, I mean she made the largest, heaviest cake I’ve ever seen and then made us carry it 5 blocks to the church.  Ya, good thing I’ve been working out ;) Haha. 

Then some baptism drama.  Nothing bad, just the grandma was supposed to have the speakers picked and didn’t.  So they asked me like 2 minutes before to talk about baptism and the Holy Ghost.  And well, I didn’t do the missionary thing.  I said no. Haha.  But karma got me as after the baptism the branch president asked me to give a talk on Sunday...about baptism and the Holy Ghost.  Sooo, ya, I learned my lesson.  

The actual baptism went good and the cake was tasty.  The baptism was for a girl named Digna who was a complete snake when I first got here but changed her life 180 to this point. It’s been way cool to watch.   

Anthony, Digna's mom, Digna and Elder Anderson 

We also found out this week that dengue fever is up to 10% of the mission having it, including our mission nurse.   Asuncion is the main area, so that made going there a little nervous, leaving our sanctuary of Pedro Juan, but I had to go to sign papers and become legal in this country. 

So off we went.   The terminal is way out of our area, so we asked the district leaders to buy our tickets and we’d pay them back.  Well they didn’t, and then we tried to reserve them.  The bus company said ok.  So, we roll up on Sunday and guess what, no tickets for us.  So we seat hopped for an hour, until the bus was full.  Then I sat on the stairs and my comp sat on top of the cooler and tried to sleep/ride.  The only problem was every 10 minutes someone else would get on and bump us and I’d have to get up and move. Eventually it got so packed that the attendant guy pushed everyone closer together so they could fit more people. I shared a step with some guy and had a family lying at my feet.  It was crazy.  Eventually we gave up and stood the last 2 hours. 8 hours later we got to Asuncion dead tired.  

We go sign my papers, do dentist stuff with my comp including a visit, then a 20 block walk to a hospital for a panoramic x-ray, and then back to the previous dentist.  After that, we grabbed our mail and our reimbursals.  Then we went to a goodbye lunch for Elder Staker, one of my comp’s best friends in the mission.  A bunch of people came.  It was way cool, and the food was awesome.  

After that, we sat in the terminal for a couple hours then back onto the bus.  This time we had seats, but the bus never turned its lights off.  And it was hot, so we still didn’t sleep well. Suffice it to say, we are tired and crabby, but today became p-day, so there’s that. All we did is email and shop for chains.  We found some real silver ones that aren’t too pricy.   So we will see.   

 

This week is busy as we have a wedding, maybe a baptism, and the Mission President is coming this week.  So we gotta deep clean our house.  All in the life of a missionary.  It’s crazy, but good.

Love you guys.  Don’t forget to write me, either by email or by letter.  We can email friends, and they gave us 2 hours of internet.  So I’ve got time, or hard letters are awesome too.

Stay safe and have fun.

Luvs,

 

Elder Anthony Frost

Week 11

So this week was kind of a blur  - not gonna lie.

In this week alone we had baptism drama, bug drama, dengue drama, robbery drama, house shopping, service, a quince, and I taught a class on Sunday. Yes, I will go into detail on all this.  I’m not just gonna leave you all imagining stuff.  Haha.

The baptism drama is that we were supposed to baptize a girl on Friday night.  She has been involved in this love triangle and so obviously we knew the law of chastity might be an issue.  So, we hammered it all week leading up to her interview.  Each time, she said she was ready. We set the interview for Thursday night. Everything is ready to go.  The district leaders are on their way to do the interview when we get to our mission work meeting and a member that helps us tells us this girl called her.   She said she doesn’t think she can keep the law of chastity. Oh crap. So, we call and cancel with the district leaders and run out to see her because we had to inform her we were canceling her baptism for the next day.  Fun, right?  But, it went well.   We talked with her a lot and figured it was ok.  She just got nervous, and it was a misunderstanding about her concerns. I bore my testimony to her about the law of chastity and told her my story.  If you want to hear my story, it can be found on this blog.  And no, that wasn’t a selfish plug for my video. Haha.  Anyway, it helped, and she is getting baptized Wednesday night.

We have a birthday for an 8-year-old girl.  Her baptism, our investigator's baptism, and ward night is on Wednesday.  It’s gonna be nuts!

Next up, bug drama. When I first got here, I met one of my comp's friends in the mission. He had dengue and looked like death.  He is just now getting back on his feet, and it’s been a month!  Crazy stuff.  Anyway, 4 missionaries got it in like 3 days this week.  So the nurse is freaking out about bugs.  So, we had to use this crazy bug killer that is illegal in the States.  Basically, it kills anything on contact, also people if they drink it. We needed to spray it anyway, but this was motivation. So we sprayed it.  Then, we were just kicking it in the house, laying in bed, writing in our journals, talking, that sort of thing, and then all these cockroaches came flying out of everywhere trying to get away from the bug spray.  But, at this point, they were already gonna die. So, we are on edge, because they are coming out of walls.  They were falling off the ceiling and into our beds and are just everywhere!  We finally get to sleep, and the next day, we wake up to 20 dead cockroaches that we found and 1 dead lizard.  It was insane!  There were more, I’m sure, that died outside of the house.  So, we will never know how many.

Now the robbery drama. Our zone leaders got robbed - losing their phone and their money.  Which lead Elder Anderson and I to decide - what we would do if someone tried to rob us? It broke down like this: gun - give it to them; knife - resist if they are drunk; if not, give it to them; unarmed - hit them or run.  So, hopefully nobody tries to rob us.  Haha. 

What else? Oh ya, house shopping.  So, as I was jumproping outside the other day, our landlady showed up, and we paid her rent.  Apparently, she is screwing us price-wise.  The Aguello family knows of some houses that are nicer and cheaper.  So, we are looking around.  We found 1 sick one.  It has a fenced in yard with a steel gate, a yard big enough to play a small soccer game on.  It has an air conditioner and looks much better constructed.  It’s cheaper, so we may be moving next month, which would be sick. 

We also had a quince this weekend.  For those of you who don’t know, a quince is like a sweet sixteen mixed with a bar mitzvah.  They spend more money on this than they make in a year.  It’s like giving your daughter away to the world and like legalizes her for marriage.  It’s strange.   And then everybody hooks up afterwards.  It’s crazy.  Anyway, my comp and I went to that, looking fresh.(see pic below.  But before that, we did service for the family, getting it ready.  We had to cut weeds with a machete, pointless tool by the way, but I looked sick using it.  Then I pulled water from a well, like 1700s status. Weird.  And then, we moved bricks so they could make a BBQ.  It was a nice change of pace from missionary work, all day everyday, though.  But I will end with some good mission stuff.

 

 

On Sunday I had to give my first class, all in Spanish.  And of course, chastity is up this week. Luckily I’m a pro on that subject (watch the farewell talk, seriously).  Anyway, I thought it was rough, but the 6 people in there all said I did good.  Haha.

We found an amazing guy that makes me see the power of the Holy Ghost.  So we contacted this reference but the wife wasn’t there, so we talked to the husband.  We taught him the restoration lesson.  We did not teach the best in our words or in our technique, but the guy started crying and hugged us and said, "Thank you so much for coming. " He wanted us to come back and teach his whole family.  He asked when and where church is, which NEVER happens.  It was just awesome to see that power.  So ya, crazy week, but so good.

And then today, I bought my first soccer jerseys.  It’s a sick Gremio one (Gremio is a soccer team from Porto Alegre, Brazil) and a fresh Sneijder Netherlands black one. Way nice!  We also contacted two ladies in a store, as I was checking out a sick Diesel watch and some Oakleys.  Both real, by the way.  Anyway, they worked there and asked about the church and want a Book of Mormon, so we are going back to give them to them tomorrow. Should be good.

Write me.

Love all you guys. 

Elder Anthony Frost


Just a reminder - please send all future cards, letters, and packages to:

Elder Anthony Frost
Paraguay Asunción North Mission
Avenida Santísima Trinidad N. 1280 C/ Julio Correa
Casilla de Correo 1871
Asunción, Paraguay

International mail rates apply - $1.00 per ounce.

OR

Elder Anthony Frost
Paraguay Asunción North Mission
P.O. Box 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150

This is a "pouch" address. You can use U.S. First Class Postage, BUT, only postcards or letters that are a single sheet, folded into three panels, and taped at the top only (no envelopes) may be sent through the pouch..

 

 

Week 10

So this week was basically a waste of actual proselyting time, but it was also way good.

Conference can save even the most pointless week.

It rained all week.  Literally all week.  And in Paraguay, that means nobody goes to anything, does anything or lets you talk to them.  So that is terrible.   It did allow me to wear my black trenchcoat and get called “matrix” by all the Latinos, which was pretty funny.

Then Wednesday we did karaoke again, which is always a good time.  I sang “Wherever You Will Go” by The Calling.  It was nice.  Although the highlight was by far Elder Hunsaker’s version of the Backstreet Boys’ “I Want it That Way”.  So funny.   (Note:  Elder Hunsaker and Elder Plasencia also serve in Rama 5 with Anthony and Elder Anderson).  It got crazy after though.  

We almost had a “situation”…    I’m not gonna use names cuz that’s bad, but basically, two of our investigators showed up to karaoke in some of the sluttiest dress clothes you can imagine.  Anyway, they somehow managed to arrive at the activity on motos (motorcycles), but did not have a ride home.  I hope you can sense my sarcasm.  Anyway, they decided to walk home.   And their path home leads them through some of our worst streets, so they might actually have gotten raped or worse.  So of course, we can’t let them do that.   And, yes, we know as a missionary we shouldn’t walk them home, but, as good guys, we couldn’t let them do it.  So we start to walk and of course they have heels -- so dumb in Paraguay where the streets are crazy uneven or dirt.   Anyway, they need our arms so they can walk.  Ya, starting to get sketchy, so my comp breaks free and starts calling everybody we can to try and get them a ride.   And they start leading us down a dark street.  Then it’s like…oh crap.  Just then their ride comes.  Oh man, were they mad.   But we survived, and nobody got in trouble.   Although they did end up crashing, and of course it was our fault for making them ride and not walk with them.   But ya know, not worth it.   And, they were uninjured in the crash, so all is good.   

 It did enforce the point that I need a fake girlfriend.  I know I joked about that in the MTC, but out here I really do to get some of these girls off my back.   It’s insane.   So if you want to be my fake mission girlfriend, email me, and I’ll send you an application. Hahaha.   Anyway, that was exciting.

Then Thursday, we had a huge zone meeting that took all morning, and then we had to pack.  So Thursday was a wash.   Our zone leaders missed the bus, which was rather hilarious. But we rolled into Asuncion at like 5 am and then waited around until 7am for our interviews with the mission president.   And then a crazy packed day began!   

 After my interview, which went way good  -- the president said I speak very good Spanish -- we went to the dentist for my comp, who broke a tooth in Filadelphia and was having crazy pain with it.   They wanted do an implant, so I slept while they cleaned it out.   And since it’s a surgery, he got to call home and see if they wanted to do it in the States or here.   It woulda sucked if he went home, cuz he’s awesome!   But they chose to do it here.   

I also got a package and letters from my dad and grandma.   If you have written me, I will get it.  It just takes forever for me to get to Asuncion and actually get the mail.   So don’t’ worry, I will get your letters.

Then it was off to the distribution center for tons of Bibles and Book of Mormons for our new converts and temple clothes for me.   Then we ate a sick lunch at a nearby restaurant.  I ate a Lomito.  It was so good!  Then I attended a temple session, which is always nice.  Then we walked to Pizza Hut.   Real pizza!  Awwww, yeah.  So good.  Some stuffed crust. Yum.

Anyway, then a crazy bus ride back to Pedro Juan.   There were like 50 million people on the bus.  It was so hot, and I was worrying about my backpack, my exit, my suitcase with the books and clothes.   It was just so stressful.   While I was in the terminal waiting for the bus, I watched The Dark Knight (Batman) as it was on the bus station TV.   Then while on the bus, I slept til… the tire exploded.   Then slept more.  Then  I watched conference on Saturday and Sunday,  which was way good.

It is weird to do Saturday conference and to actually pay attention, as I never did before the mission.   Elder Holland’s talk really stood out; so did Elder Bednar’s.   And it was cool to see Elder Callister’s talk because he wrote my Infintie Atonement book, which is a way good book. Then conference was over.

And now I’m here again, writing you guys.   It seems just yesterday I was here.   We played soccer, did some shopping, and now emailing.

This week should be a good work week.   We have a baptism scheduled this weekend, another wedding, and 2 baptisms at the end of the month.   We also have several really promising investigators we need to focus on this week.  So it should be good.

As always, love you guys. Email me or write me.  Love hearing from people.  Peace.

 

Elder Anthony Frost

Pictures from Pedro Juan Caballero

Lunch with the Branch President and his family

"La Linea" - The border between Paraguay and Brazil.  On one side of the street is Pedro Juan Caballero.  Cross the street, then you are in Ponta Pora, Brazil.

 

 

 

On P-Day, we went to the Muncipalidad Museo (Muncipal Museum). 

The photos below are from there.

 

A fat armadillo rug

My first jaguar kill - ha ha

Paraguayan Myths

A soccer trophy

Week 9 Blog

Well, I am officially a South American missionary.  I finally got sick!  Sometime Saturday night I got sick, went to church Sunday, spent most of it in the bathroom, then laid in bed\rested all day Sunday, bathroom all night, and finally pulled myself together for p-day. Still not great, but I think the pills have helped.

Oh, what to say about this week, besides the fact that Paraguay is freaking crazy!  This week alone, we had a drug trafficker’s body dumped in our area out of a moving vehicle.  Then, a drunk guy shot up a cop’s house before being chased down, run over with the police truck, and then beat to death literally 20 feet from our main investigator’s house and like an hour after we were there.  Oh, we may also have an exorcism we have to do.  I love South America, man.

But really, today we checked out the linea or the border between Paraguay and Brazil.  It is literally just a road. It also has tons of shops and stuff, so I know I’m gonna get some sick souvenirs and some really cheap soccer jerseys. I gotta be careful though, or else I’m gonna come back loaded with fat watches, nice chains and sunglasses.  These people are gonna take all my money. Haha.  It really is like my MTC teacher said, Paraguay is just one big black market.  It’s rather crazy, but way cool.

On the border between Brazil and Paraguay.  The Brazilian city is named Ponta Pora.

 

Unfortunately, the work wasn’t great this week.  We had a bunch of really amazing investigators and lessons but none of them came to church, so we have to move their baptism dates and figure out what went wrong.  Digna did come though and is ready to be baptized, which is crazy. When I got here, she was just a straight snake only talking to us cuz we are sexy North Americans.  Then, somewhere in the last week, she changed and keeps all our commitments, comes to activities, and wants to be baptized. It’s legit. I know the spirit touched her.  It’s so sweet. We have also been able to use Paola and Rafa to help us teach investigators.  That is going awesome! 

 

What else? This week is gonna be crazy and not much work is gonna happen since today is p-day, tomorrow we have district meeting and an amazing lunch cita (lunch date).  But, it always runs late. Wednesday is normal.  Thursday we are painting Mercedes’ house, then going to Asuncion.   Eight hours later, we have interviews and a temple trip.  Then back to PJC (Pedro Juan Caballero), so 8 hours later has us here just in time for Saturday conference then Sunday conference.  And then boom, I’ll be writing you guys again.

 So weird how long the days seem, but when you look back, you have no idea where the time has gone.

The language is still tough, but I have started teaching more in my lessons, which is cool.  But, apparently my accent is terrible so nobody understands me.

I also had my first division this week, which was a total waste of time.  A division is where you go with a different elder in the district or zone for a day and see how the work is and stuff with them.  Mine was terrible. Every meeting fell through, so we literally walked around all day contacting.  Which isn’t terrible, but the district leader has the most random train of thought I have ever seen then he’d just stop and look at me and expect me to pick up where he left off and lead the lesson.  So dumb.  Never happier to be back in Rama 5.

Also, we lost our water this week for a good chunk of time, so that was fun.  We have a lizard that moves into our house when we’re gone during the day.   And a neighbor’s dog that barks all night.  Oh, and I get woken up by roosters.   So different than the States.  

 

Also, this week was Semana Santa or holy week.  So every shop has been closed since like Wednesday, and on Friday they really believe that nobody should leave their houses and they only eat chipa.   So weird.   

Also, I finished the Old Testament 2 days ago.   So, Elder Diotaiuti, I fully expect you to pay me the 20 bucks you owe me when we get back to the States in 2 years.   Now I only have the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants left.

 

Also, if you have any pics of me and you that you want me to have for the photo album here, email me them and I’ll print them off.  Latinos love seeing pics of your home and friends and such.

Also, the rule has changed so anybody can email me. Do it! afrost@myldsmail.net

Adios, amigos. Love and miss you all.

 

Elder Anthony Frost

 

Just a reminder - please send all future cards, letters, and packages to:

Elder Anthony Frost
Paraguay Asunción North Mission
Avenida Santísima Trinidad N. 1280 C/ Julio Correa
Casilla de Correo 1871
Asunción, Paraguay

International mail rates apply - $1.00 per ounce.

OR

Elder Anthony Frost
Paraguay Asunción North Mission
P.O. Box 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150

This is a "pouch" address. You can use U.S. First Class Postage, BUT, only postcards or letters that are a single sheet, folded into three panels, and taped at the top only (no envelopes) may be sent through the pouch..