Pictures

 Ready to enter the ring

 

 Boxing Lessons - Left punch

 Boxing Lessons - Right punch

 

Eye of the tiger

Week 35

So I don’t even remember how I started last week’s blog, so this one is starting like this. Haha

Anyway, the week was good and it went pretty fast which is definitely a blessing as I need a change in my life.   I’m hoping this next change will give it to me. I’ve been in Pedro Juan Caballero for both general conferences, a time change back and forth, I’ve finished a 3rd of my mission and I’m still here. I shoulda just bought a house and started farming. I probably coulda got some crops before I left.  I’ll have to check with Spencer on that one. Haha

Anyway, now to this week. I don’t have a whole lot to share, but there still were some really cool and interesting things that happened this week. The first happened on Tuesday. So the Hermanas (sister missionaries) being Hermanas wanted to do a visit in between district meeting and our lunch cita (date), which is technically possible.  But I mean, come on, you gotta relax a little. Anyway, so we went with them as they wanted our help. On the walk over there they tell me the person is schizophrenic. Yup.  So that was weird. Then I had to explain to them what schizophrenia is. And of course it didn’t faze them at all that they were teaching somebody that could literally be hearing and seeing things as they taught. Nope their response was, “I hope one of his delusions tells him to be baptized.” That’s Hermanas for ya. Anyway, the visit went fine and life moves on.

Nothing really memorable happened Wednesday before karaoke at night. It actually had a decent turn out and we all sang along and had some fun. Not to sound cocky, but I’m pretty sure I was the highlight of the night. Haha.  The Paraguayans all sang the typical slow Spanish love songs.  Elder Menchaca sang something from Mexico that was pretty funny. Camila sang “Someone Like You” by Adele.  So that was cool seeing a Paragayan sing in English.  And then little Aricely, maybe my favorite little kid in PJC, sang the Titanic song in Spanish.  It was legit.  But me...I sang a duet with Rafa of “Wake Me Up When September Ends” by Greenday.  Then to top the night off, I sang and danced to Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the USA”.  Yup pretty epic night!

 Karaoke Night

Rafa and Aricely singing

Once again, we are looking for a new house. This time I think the missionaries will actually move. (1) because it’s starting to get hot and this house has no air conditioning, which will actually kill you here.  And (2) we only have one functioning light in our house, so we wander around with flashlights.  Or for me, yesterday it was a candy lightsaber that lights up that my dad sent in the last package.  Super legit! 

 

Using a candy Lightsaber

A really, cool spiritual thing happened this week.  We decided to crash an FHE from the Hermana Blanca Rojas. So me and  Elder Anderson baptized her like right when I first got here and she is now the Relief Society president and just super legit.  Since the church is growing so fast in South America, many of the wards and branches are dysfunctional, but she runs it just like in the States.  It’s awesome!  Anyway, in this FHE she did an object lesson with turning out the lights and Christ being the light in our life and stuff.  Super legit. Then she made bomb bread that we ate. Haha.  Yup, I’m a missionary, always thinking with my stomach.

Some other cool things were lessons with Mercedes and Griselda who are both struggling with coming to church due to some outside problems, but we were able to connect with both of them and that was legit.

Also, we baptized a little 8-year-old girl named Tatiana.  As we were prepping and teaching her, the family started to reactivate.  We can now teach her dad, which we couldn’t before.  So that’s tight.

Baptism of Tatiana

Also we are going to baptize Roni this Wednesday and that is helping reactivate his mom.  So, life is good - workwise in PJC.

Also we are helping Lucia prep for her mission, so that’s interesting.

Also the youth sold hamburgers for an EFY fundraiser, so of course again thinking with our stomachs, we helped out and bought some. Haha.

Last bit of news--I’m running on like 2 hours of sleep, since it hailed last night and hail on a wannabee tin roof is terrible. But it’s better than the people in Asuncion whose roofs fell apart last week when they had hail. Look for little blessings. Haha.

Love you guys.  Hope you have a good conference weekend, and we will talk again next week. 

You shoot me down, but I get up, I’m bulletproof nothing to lose, fire away, fire away ,you shoot me down but I won’t fall.

Love you guys,

 

Elder Frost

Week 34

So this week was a much better week.

I just want to say how much I appreciate my comp. Elder Menchaca has been awesome through this change with me and my many ups and downs and mood swings. And yes, not gonna lie, I’m pretty stoked he’s teaching me to box. I’ve always wanted to box but my mom would never let me. I used to shadow box in the hall growing up and read books about all the great fighters and watched fights late at night when I could. So getting to learn to box from somebody who is about to make his pro debut is pretty awesome. So along those lines we went and bought boxing gloves this week. We bought a heavy bag the week before for the house, but last Monday we bought gloves. I wanted some sick white and gray ones. And after asking the lady if it was a good color for me I picked them up. Love them.

That same day we found a legit restaurant where I got a nice chicken parmesan and a bomb fresh juice. I got a fresh pineapple orange juice that was legit. That is one thing I want to do more when I get back. Drink more juices. I love them down here.

Not much exciting happened on Tuesday, but then Wednesday hit. And I don’t know why, but every activity or something like that I‘ve tried to do recently has been terrible. This Wednesday was no exception. We decided to do a movie night, since that is always well attended.  Well, only 2 people came.  A little later, some youth from a different rama (branch) came, but they don’t count. Haha.  So, ok whatever, it’s 4 missionaries and 2 members again. Next we can’t find the TV. Finally find it. Next can’t find a DVD player. Oh that’s cuz there isn’t one.  Couldn’t get the VHS to work.  Yes I went there, I tried using a VHS player. Finally Lucia went home and got her DVD player. Well great, except the TV is so old, it’s only in black and white, haha.  So we watched a black and white church movie - in Spanish.  Oh and a couple kids came at the end and started throwing popcorn around the room. Haha. Oh man.

So I thought I had seen it all when it comes to cleaning down here. By that I mean they just dump water on everything and put a towel on a stick and move it around. Well nope.  On Thursday I used a power washer to clean the church.  Ya, a power washer.  A little different than the vacuum cleaners in the states.   

Then we had a chorizo dinner after. I also made Chipa for the first time this week. Well, I started to make Chipa and then Blandina finished it the next morning. It’s pretty disgusting seeing what goes into it.  Anyway after that, the usual Paraguayan drama came back.

Making Chipa with Clever

 

So I love Griselda.  She is awesome! She’s one of my moms out here, but her family has the most ridiculous drama. She’s the one with one child living in Brazil because the ex-boyfriend sold drugs and is wanted by the police for kidnapping 2 girls.  Anyway, other drama -- her son Rafa is in serious debt and hiding from his debt collectors.  One daughter got in a fight at work and refuses to go into work now.  The other son has been having a love triangle forever and is now running to hide in Brazil because the one girl got pregnant. And he can’t tell her because she’d kill herself.  So many headaches.  But worth it when I can help.

Saturday we went to Arturo Cantero’s b-day party.  He’s a little boy of the president in Rama 1, and he’s a devil child.  But his party was cool.  It was Disney themed, and we ate hot dogs, drank pop and had cake.  It made me remember all my little kid parties.  Thanks, Mom and Dad.  They were fun.

 

Then I had to give a talk in church on Sunday.  I talked about the second coming and prepping ourselves for it.  Everybody loved it and said I did a really good job.  And yes, Dad, I did begin with a joke. Also Diego came and was confirmed, so that was a relief. We had some really promising investigators not come, so that was a downer.  We went and found out why on Sunday afternoon.  One drank again. So that sucks. The other just had to work, so he will be baptized next week.

Baptism of Diego, with Elder Menchaca

 

Then finally to wrap up the week, I cooked dinner for Clever. He’s the son of Blandina, the chipa lady.  And he can’t cook, and was home solo for the weekend so… I took pity on him. I made some cheap, easy Chinese food.  Basically chicken and vegetables marinated in soy sauce then some noodles -- kind of a stir fry.  It went really well, but I made a mistake I haven’t made in years. I got caught up in doing the stir fry stuff and forgot to drain the noodles.  So ya, they were straight to mush. Especially embarrassing considering I worked at an Italian restaurant before the mission. So I’d like to say sorry to Luke my homeboy from the kitchen at Monticos. I promise I won’t let it happen again.

 

Like I said I had a much better week, but it’s still tough.  I’m struggling right now, so say some prayers for me.

Why is everything I love the most so wrong for me.  And everything I’m holding close, so far away from me.  Deep thoughts from Frosty.

Love you guys.

 

Elder Frost

Hanging with Elder Walton

Week 33

So as good as last week was this week was bad. Ya, sorry to burst all your bubbles, but the mission does have bad days.  This week had more than one. I don’t even know where to begin This week was a train wreck since day one.

Last Monday, for example, one of the missionaries out here in Pedro Juan told me he probably needs to go home due to issues prior to the mission.  Well that sucks.  Especially when he had quickly become one of my best friends out here. So I spent all week trying to help him get ready for what was to come, as I know better than most exactly what he is in for, as have done what he is going to do.  And honestly it sucks.  There is nothing good about it until the forgiveness part.

Anyway after that bombshell on Monday we had a visit with Diego, our investigator that was going to be baptized on Wednesday. Well that went to crap as soon as he told us “ya, I don’t really know a lot I’ve just memorized answers.  So we pushed the baptism to Saturday to try and scramble and save it. Oh ya this kid doesn't speak any Spanish only Guarani so that’s fun.

Then we had a really weird lunch on Tuesday.  Only because the Hermanas made us do a lesson at that house with them.  Cuz the daughter tried to kill herself after her boyfriend started beating her, and she dumped him. Ok I get why you want us there. But she just got out of the hospital and was passed out on the couch she didn’t hear a dang word we said.  Sometimes Hermanas, just give it a break and be a normal person and think.

Then we played volleyball on Wednesday.  That was a nice change of pace from playing soccer every week.   Yes I still suck for anyone who has ever been in one of my gym classes.

Then we played a little soccer.  During the game, I got called some name in , which was something about knowing how to play soccer.  So that was cool.  The members also found my YouTube video, and loved it.  So, that’s pretty cool.

We are going to interrupt this broadcast for some good news. Roni is progressing, awesome and should be baptized soon.   And we talked with Rocio, who dumped her boyfriend, and now can be baptized soon, as well. Now back to your original programming.

Not much else to report except for things regarding Diego’s baptism. In short, it was the worst baptism of all time. So, we go to fill up the font on Friday right.  And well, in short, we lost water.  And nobody answered their phone.  So, I had no idea what to do.  Oh and we were on a small division, do I was with Elder Walton, a new kid, while Elders Menchaca and Wall were doing a visit.  So,  they can’t help.  Basically I just waited it out for as long as possible before going into the pump room and randomly flipping levers and switches hoping it would work.  It did.  Yay.   But then, we were late for our interview with Diego.  So all 4 of us rushed there, only for him not to be there.  So we wandered around trying to find his house.  His uncle told us he couldn’t come, because it got late.  No luck.  Finally we go back to get better instructions. Oh, P.S. Paraguayans cannot give directions.  So, another mini division as Elder Wall has to go and Elder Menchaca speaks better Spanish.  Well anyway long story short, they found him and did the interview.  But it was nervewracking.

Then Saturday - baptism day.  I’ll just skip straight to the point.  The baptism.  Nobody freaking came.  There were 4 missionaries, Diego, and his two brothers, 2 members, and some random little girl that wandered in.  That’s it.  It frustrates me beyond reason, as they had nothing better to do.  And I know they had nothing to do, because they all told me they would come, but nobody did.  The branch president, who should be there, just decided he didn’t want to come. Fine, whatever, be like that.  But at least bring me the keys, so I can give him baptism clothes. Oh… nope you can’t do that either.  Ok good for you.  So we used a suit 10 times too small and taped it to him.  And it still draped off him.  And bless his heart,  he was still happy.  Iin fact, he was overjoyed to be getting baptized.  So ya, pretty pissed at the ward.  Especially since this wasn’t the first time.  It’s been like this for a while and they’ve all promised me they’d be better.  Oh ya, I also burned the brownies ridiculously bad,  as I forgot I’m in a P.O.S.  3rd world country that uses Celsius instead of Fahrenheit.  Ya, it was a train wreck.  Oh ya, and nobody had towels.  What I’ve told you doesn’t even do it justice.  But since I can’t swear or myldsmail will block my email.  And I’m getting fired up, so this is where that story ends.

After that, we went and got some pop, some food and hung out in our hammock.  I breathed a sigh of relief and frustration, then partied the night away.

Well the next day is Sunday.  I was ready to go off on some fools, but luckily Rafa came and got the Priesthood.  That was awesome and saved my day.  I told him I’d make him some Italian food this week to celebrate.  So, that should be fun.

To wrap up my terrible week, my friend did go home out here. But I wanna make this clear to everyone out there, going home from a mission does not make you a failure as a missionary.  It does not even mean you’re a bad person. In fact, if you’re going home for the right reasons, its better than being out. Everyone freaks out about saving souls as a missionary.  Well sometimes, you gotta save yours first. So everybody calm down. Going home saved my life.

I just wanna end this mini rant with a big shout out to my boy Elder Walton. Dude you’re the best. Don’t let anybody get you down.  Remember why you went home, and own it.  You’re one heck of a kid, and you’re gonna do fine in life.  Take care of yourself man.   I’m here for ya.

Last bit of news I’m still learning to box.  But I know now why boxers hands look terrible. My hands got beat up this last week so I bought some gloves today.

Love you guys. Take care of yourselves.

Elder Frost

 

Week 32

I want to start off by saying, this was one of the happiest weeks of my mission. I had a ton of really legit moments this week .  It all began last Monday.

So, we had a Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening) that was way legit. We went to the Familia Canteros house because a member of Rama 1 has a boyfriend that lives in our area. He is really cool and I think wants to progress towards baptism. It was also really cool to have his girlfriend help us and a former missionary, Hermana Cantero helped as well.

Then Tuesday was a district meeting, which was fine.  I learned some good stuff, you know the drill.

Then, we started doing our normal visits during the day.  Then, the night happened and it was legit.

It started with Diego, our 10 year old investigator that is being baptized this Wednesday.  He is super legit. He gets to church at 7am on Sundays and we start at 8.  He stays after and grabs all the hymn books and all.  He’s awesome!  So that was legit.  Then we saw the Ojedas. 

The Ojedas are a less active family that truly has a special place in my heart, as I feel they are a reason I’m in Pedro Juan.  I know the guy who baptized them, Jake Gertsch, and I’ve been trying to reactivate them, and I feel we finally had a breakthrough this last week.  A month ago, President McMullin taught us a method to reactivate less actives found in the book of Alma.    So we used that, and it was the most amazing lesson of my mission.  And yes, they did come on Sunday.  I was so pumped! 

Then Hector, Griseldas husband, who is progressing like a champ, had to cancel, so that coulda killed our night.  But instead, we contacted a reference and it was legit.

It was the neighbor of an old investigator.  So, we met them together and as we taught more and more people came and listened.  I felt like Jesus in the New Testament, when the people stood around and listened.  It was crazy.  The 4 main people we taught were 2 old investigators the reference and her niece.   All 4 accepted the baptism challenge and seemed generally pumped to listen to us. So legit. 1 lives in a different city so that was a bit of a bummer, but still it was a way legit night.

Then, another thing that usually kills me, a division happened Wednesday.  And while I’m still not ready to jump on the bandwagon and say I like them, I can’t deny I felt the spirit that day. During parts of other divisions, I wanted to shoot the other Elder in the head.  Anyway, the coolest experience of the day was walking to a lesson.  I took a path I never would have taken and a guy whistled at us.  So we went over and he had a beer.  So we thought, oh here we go.  But the guy must have just opened it up cuz, he was sober as we were.  He was amazing.  He talked about how he had problems and he had been praying to God for some help, and then we walked by so he whistled.  So cool. 

Then we had a zone meeting, and learned about the importance of using the Book of Mormon.  So that was legit.

Then we had an Obra Misional ( Missionary Planning) meeting where he actually wants to help us.  So, that’s exciting.  The ward council meeting was really good this week as well.

Things are just going awesome here.  We have a ton of amazing people we are teaching that are progressing.  In fact, we should have at least 1 baptism in each of the next 3 weeks.  Starting with Diego this Wednesday.  It’s so exciting.  I love baptisms.

Also that Thursday night, we went and saw Mercedes, a recent convert and one of my favorite people out here.  When she came to the door, it looked like she had gone 12 rounds with Mike Tyson.  Her face was a mess.  Come to find out, she wrecked her moto hard, and that is why she was all messed up.  It was really sad, but good to talk to her again and see what is going on in her life.  We tred and help her come to church again.

And just so all you people that are gonna say, oh look Anthony has changed, and he’s all weird and crap, can relax. I still had fun this week.  Elder Menchaca and I are going hard out here. He used to box in Mexico so he is teaching me.  Its freaking legit.  That’s right everybody, “and in the red corner Anthony Frost”.  I’m coming to a local fight night near you.  It’s actually been really cool learning to box.  One thing I learned is I box southpaw.  Which is really, really weird, since I do everything else with my right hand.  As Elder Menchaca put it, it just looks natural when I punch something hard with my left hand. Haha. 

Another cool story, real quick, about the boxing stuff.  So he has a heavy bag and needed to get sawdust.  So, we went to a carpentry shop and we joked with them about paying for some sawdust.  They just laughed and gave us all the sawdust we needed.  They even gave us a bag to put it in. Super nice people. We decided that we are gonna go back and clean their garage someday I think.  Anyway, good times.

Baptism Wednesday.  Loving life.  Ate Brazilian BBQ and gelato again today.   Life is good.

Is the good life, better than the life I live, when I thought I was gonna go crazy.

Love you guys, take care.

 

Elder Frost

Week 31

So, I finally lost my companion, trainer and brother -- or whatever you want to call him. He was awesome! He got changed last week. We had a crazy, anxious Monday night waiting for the call - only for it not to come until 9:00am Tuesday morning. It was terrible. Anderson went to a city in Luque, a part of Asuncion in an area I can't say or type so you’ll have to settle for Luque.

I am staying here in Pedro Juan Caballero with Elder Menchaca.  He is an elder from Mexico who came to Paraguay from the MTC with me. So I knew him a little before the mission, but that was back when I still didn’t speak Spanish at all, compared to my baby speak now. Anyway, after a terrible day of watching Elder Anderson say goodbye to everybody and seeing tons of members cry, we got on our bus at 11 pm.  The worst was saying goodbye to Griselda.  Elder Anderson means so much to her and she just lost it when it came to an end.

We slept like crap as always -- those collectivos (buses) aren’t the best. Then I experienced the craziness of changes, as all the missionaries who have changes roll-in in taxis and drop their bags off, meet and hang out with missionaries they haven’t seen in a while, and then meet their new comp and then leave. So naturally, I hung out with Elder Anderson and saw Elder Anderl and a bunch of Elders from my MTC group.

I also finally met Elder Osbourne.  He is a friend of Elder Anderl and Elder Anderson, so I wanted to meet him. He was super cool.  I spent most of the day hanging out with him since Elder Anderson and Elder Anderl had to leave earlier.
 

 

 

We went to Pizza Hut, where they have an all-you-can-eat pizza thing for like 5 bucks.  It’s awesome! Haha.   Elder Osbourne was just a really cool kid.  Unfortunately, he is going home due to sickness.  So that sucks, but it was awesome hanging out with him for the day. I had to wait around til 10 at night for a bus, so I hung out at the office with him.

Then at the terminal I hung out with Elder Wolfgramm, another really cool kid I met that day. Then our bus didn’t show.  But, the next one did, and it was the nicer, more expensive bus and they put us on that one.  Score!  Finally, we got to Pedro Juan.  

Two other elders came out to Pedro Juan Rama 5 to take Elder Anderl and Elder Plasencia’ s old area.  I had to help them find their house and move their bags.  Their names are Elder Wall, who ironically was Elder Anderson’s comp in the MTC, and Elder Walton, who is being trained.  I want to share my experiences with Elder Walton about PJC (Pedro Juan Caballero) since I love it here and was “born” here.  And now he is.

That first day, I decided to go see Griselda to do it like a bandaid.  It was the most emotional thing I’ve done in forever.  It was horrible. I almost cried.  She did cry.  All she did was talk about Elder Anderson.  It was really amazing how much we can be loved and remembered by people down here.  I want that in my mission.  

It’s also been cool being the old guy here and showing everyone around.  It has made me realize that this is basically my home.  I know it better than I know Fairfield.  It’s pretty strange, but cool at the same time.

We are continuing to work with Hector, Griselda’s husband, and he is progressing really well.  He even came to church by himself on Sunday.  He is for sure going to be baptized, and then in a year I’ll go through the temple with them both.  It’s going to be amazing!

We celebrated the Hermana Blandina’s birthday, and she loved it!  She is our chipa lady and the most giving lady I’ve met.  So, we wanted to return the favor.  It was really cool.  We talked and told jokes, ate brownies we had made, and sang happy birthday in Spanish, Guarani and English.  It was legit! 

Oh, I also got a package.  Dad, I love you!  You’re the best!  For all you people out there with missionaries, send them a package.  We love it!  This one was filled with all sorts of goodies.  Seeing a Panda Express fortune cookie nearly killed me with excitement.  Same for the Skittles and the beef jerky.  Well, basically all the food.  Also super exciting were the toiletries: Crest toothpaste, contact lenses, and deodorant.  What more could I ask for?  But for real, those things are a blessing.  Those products just aren’t as high quality out here. I also got some toys and stuff.  It was legit.   And I got an awesome shirt.

Come on, come on.  That’s just the way it is.  Things will never be the same.  That’s just the way it is. Aww yeah.  I see no changes.

Take care of yourself. 

 Elder Frost