Week 73

I had a great week in more ways than one.  I’m sure some of you have been waiting for that, ha ha.  You’re all tired of the sad depressed Frost, I’m sure.  So here’s to a happy good week.

We got changes last week and it was definitely a shock.   We all assumed that Elder Laurente would be gone since he’s been here 5 changes,  and that Elder Alvizures and I would stay for one more.  But nope.  Elder Alvizures has left and I got Elder McLovin.  Yes, ha ha that’s, how it was pronounced to me.  I’m super excited about this change as Elder McClelland, not McLovin, was one of my good friends from Capiata when I was out over there. And, Elder Laurente has stayed put. 

So after a normal pday, except for that news, we get to Tuesday. 

Now most… ok, every missionary I know says goodbye to people when he leaves his area.  But in true Elder Alvizures fashion, he doesn’t like saying goodbyes.  So he just doesn’t.  We watched a little of the world cup with our landlord and packed and cleaned the house and printed off some photos but he didn’t even want to deliver them himself.  So, I’ve got to do that.  Then we set up our taxi for the next day, and off to sleep we went.

Change days are still some of the weirdest most exciting days of the mission. Today was no exception.  After a nice nap in the back of a cab, we get to the office and it’s just craziness like always.  But I feel this time especially was nuts since so many people were there.  It turns out I’ve got some more mission friends than I knew.  Even some Elders I don’t know came up to talk to me.  Apparently I’m still pretty famous in PJC and a lot of kids are reading this blog so it’s been cool getting to know and talking to everybody.

I took one last picture with Elder Alvizures and talked to Elder Durand who is going home for awhile.  Then I took care of
some money issues and picked up a pillow for Elder Richardson.  I found my new comp, and jumped back in the cab.  Not too crazy, but always hectic.

Once in our area, we unpacked, reorganized the room, and took our dirty clothes to the clothes lady.  Then it was time for lunch.  We went around and visited a bunch of the members and I introduced them to Elder McClelland.   It
was interesting to see his response to the area, since like me he was coming from a fairly city part of the mission.  Every time we’d take one of the cow paths or come up over a hill he’d make a comment about how campo (rural) the area is.  But people liked him and the day went well.  Then we went into town for supplies and day 1 was done.

The next day I took him out to the swamp that is Nueva Asuncion to show him that.  But we did an actual work day and he loved it out there.  I did too, as we found some cool new people to teach and some old ones that are showing signs of progress.  The work has been great with my new comp.  He’s younger in the mission and he has really revived me.  We are working harder and better than I have in awhile.  It makes things so much easier when your happy as well.  We found several new promising investigators and have a baptism set up for 2 weeks so things are going great in that regard. 

It is also nice to be able to speak in English again after several months with nothing but Spanish.  Like I said, we are really excited and we expect a good change.

If only Bradley hadn’t had one of the worst soccer moments I have ever seen, costing us 2 points, and an automatic advancement, my week woulda been dang near perfect.  I’m praying for a tie against Germany.  Then we advance.  Go team USA.

Love you guys hope you are all enjoying your summer.  Take care and well talk again real soon.

Elder Frost

Week 72

Not a terribly exciting week but a good week nonetheless. Especially good since the world cup has finally started.  The countdown had been killing me! But before I get to the best thing every 4 years (sorry olympics but the world cup is better), I gotta get through the beginning of the week.

 

It all started on Monday which was a completely normal Monday except for the morning. So as I’ve been commenting to you guys Elder Alvizures and I have been trying to get in shape.  Slowly but surely, we are building our little home gym.  First the dumbells, then the bar, then the buckets and finally last Monday morning we made the weights.  Yup, that’s how ghetto our gym is.  We made our own weights out of a mixture of gravel sand and concrete.  Our landlord owns an ace hardware kinda place, we actually live above it, so we met up with him in the morning and bought the concrete and dug up some sand from a riverbed by our house and he gifted us the gravel mixed it all up and weighed it out and then just had to wait for it to dry.  It’s gonna end up being just over 80 pounds.  Not too shabby, but we would like one a little lighter and one a little heavier to get an actual good work out so we might do that as well.

 

Then a normal p-day of cyber and eating and grocery shopping before Tuesday when we had to get up early and go to Luque again for a zone meeting.

 

It basically wasted 6 hours of my life, but I guess there had to be some point to it.  I mostly disagreed with everything that was talked about but I’ll give you a rundown anyway.  It started with our zone leaders being too lazy to plan their own meeting so they asked us for ideas and that was a bust for a good 20 minutes before finally talking about how to get poor lazy people to church.  There was actually some good ideas there so we are gonna try that out in Nueva Asuncion.  Then it turned into a really long time about cleaning and eating good.  Things, I don’t have a problem with.  It even included a cooking segment from the Hermana McMullin which was interesting and slightly foolish, since we don’t even have a third of the cooking supplies she used.  And her assessment on cost was hysterical.  But, the part that bothered me the most was the fact all the office elders were involved.  They even had time to make a blooper reel.  Why does that bother me you might ask?  They are, simply put,  terrible at their jobs. I receive a fourth of the letters sent to me, and I haven’t gotten several packages.  And, the money guy still hasn’t taken care of my rent problem and it’s been 5 months.  Way to go boys, more cooking less work, I like it.

 

Then we had a lecture about how to use our planner, again.  Kind of annoying.  It’s a stinking planner.  And finally a lesson about needing to know the doctrine better which turned into a scripture mastery kinda thing from seminary.  Not a fan.  Who decides what scriptures are important?  But in the end, I decided to not fight with anybody, be obedient and try to be better.  And who says the mission hasn’t changed me, ha ha. 

 

Then in the middle of the week once our weights were dry we fabricated a bench out of a stump a bookcase and a piece of wood we found, ha ha.  Only in the mission.  But it works and it feels good to have a workout of sorts.  

 

It was rainy and cold this week as we continue into the winter but it’s been better this year so far and people are hoping for a warm dry winter, me included.

 

Then on Thursday the world cup started.  It’s awesome being in a soccer crazy country even if they aren’t in it.  Everybody watches the games.  The games are on huge screens in some areas.  Everyone talks about it and just be contacting or visiting people I can see parts of games.  I’m gonna miss it!  It is strange though how everybody cheers for the other Latin America countries to win every game.  It’s strange how they absolutely hate each other but when it comes to soccer pride, they hope a Latin country wins. There is just an energy in the country during the games – it’s super legit. I thought  I’d be bummed I was missing games due to being a missionary, but it is really awesome to experience them in a soccer country.  Their main channel like ABC or NBC or FOX for us is 24 hours of games commentary replays and a little local news thrown in - so awesome!

For example on Thursday we went to do a visit with the Hermana Adriana, and she invited us to watch part of the opener with her family.  She made a bomb dessert. Gotta love that!

 

Then on Saturday we had a ward activity. We got assigned to bring this giant cake from the Hermana Acosta.  But she didn’t trust us to carry it there, even though it was really light.  So we waited and waited and waited for a bus that never came.  So in the end, she called her daughter to come pick it up in a car and we lucked out.  A little more drama, as it was supposed to start at 11, but none of the leaders or food showed up until 2.  So it was our job to keep the youth entertained.  Luckily there is a soccer field in the church.  So we played soccer in the mud and rain.  It was awesome!  A little tough though, as one less active member didn’t have a belt.  So I gave him mine to use and my pants and shirt was flopping all over the place.  And to top things off, I blocked a shot which left a nice muddy ball print on my white shirt.  The clothes lady is gonna kill me! 

 

After that, we ate to celebrate Mother’s day and Father’s day.  The food was alright.  Then there were games before the activity was over.  But it was fun.

 

 A normal Sunday. 

 

Today when we got changes news.  I am going to be staying here with Elder McClelland, one of my good friends from Capiata.  I’m really excited for this next 6 weeks.

 

Love all you guys and hope all is well. Take care.

 

Elder Frost

 

Week 71

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Elder Frost

 

Sorry!

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


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


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


But now everything seems to be working. 


I hope you enjoy the last 2 blog posts.

Week 70

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Elder Frost

 

Week 69

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Elder Frost