Thanksgiving

So I recently re-read my Thanksgiving blog from last year and…spoiler alert…there is no way this one is better. Last year’s Thanksgiving blog was a work of art. haha  But tradition is tradition, and so without further ado… my Thanksgiving list for this year.

 

So I’ll start out for the reason this list even exists - my family. I am so thankful for everything they have done for me in my life, all that they have sacrificed, all that they have withstood without so much of a complaint (I was a jerk), and for teaching me the core that has come to define my life. I am thankful for all of them for always being there for me and supporting me and allowing me to find my own way.  For allowing me to do things my way even if it isn’t the smartest idea. I’m thankful for Sunday finger foods, board games and naps.  For long car rides and terrible playlists for car music. For showing me so much of the world and letting me see some cool places.  For helping me out financially when I needed it.  Well, need it. Haha. All in all, I’m just so thankful and love my family. They are the best!

 

I’m thankful none of my family has died while I’ve been out here. I couldn’t imagine how hard that must be, and I give my props and sincerest condolences to anyone who has had to deal with that.

 

I’m thankful Ebola doesn’t exist in Paraguay.  This country is rough enough on your health -- don’t need that on top of it.  Plus, I really don’t want to die. haha

 

I’m thankful for my companions out here, for Anderson being the best trainer anybody could ask for and making the start of my mission exactly what I needed. It’s still been the best part of my time.

 

For Elder Menchaca teaching me to box and being a good friend. 

 

For Elder Stopper for countless hours of watching and talking soccer and for being a big teddy bear.

 

For Elder Beus for getting my off my butt and making me a working missionary again.

 

For Elder Alvizures for being a good friend and great talks about childhood shows and the World Cup.

 

For Elder McClelland for getting me back to the balance I needed in my mission and for having one heck of a good time.

 

For Elder Singer for giving me a purpose as I come to a close and for being a funny dude.

 

I’m thankful for the rest of my mission friends I’ve made along the way, from the MTC to these final weeks. Some of these guys are my closest friends, and I can’t wait to be able to kick it stateside with them.

 

I’m thankful for all the people who read this. This has been way more successful and read than I ever imagined.

I’m thankful for all my experiences out here. I have some great stories and some spiritual ones and some that are both. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. It’s been worth it.

 

I’m thankful for the way the mission has opened up my eyes to what I needed to get back to and the bad habits I needed to leave behind and have left behind.

 

For making me realize I need to improve myself and get better all the time. For teaching me patience and hope and every other Christlike attribute.

 

I’m thankful for my childhood; it was truly a good time. Every time I think back I have nothing but fond memories.

 

I’m thankful for more than one chance. I’ve screwed some things up in my life and some things more times than I’d care to count, but if I’ve learned anything, you can always have another chance with the Lord and with people if you try hard enough.

 

I’m thankful this is my last one of these, as it’s a lot of writing.

 

I’m thankful in one month I’ll be home. I’ve missed it.

 

I’m thankful for America and everything it stands for and being the greatest country on earth, yes I’m biased, haha, but really.

 

I’m thankful for cars. No more buses! I’m thankful for roofs that don’t flood, buildings that don’t lose power, hot showers, and pizza.

 

For video games.

 

For couches.

 

For holidays.  Nothing better than that time with your family.

 

I’m thankful for all my friends I’ve made along the way in my life. 

 

And I’m thankful for the ones who have stuck with me through it all and always forgiven me. I’m sure it hasn’t been easy.

 

I’m thankful for the mission and how it has helped redefine me and improve me in ways I needed even if I’d never admit it.

 

I’m thankful for soccer, the beautiful game, and for rediscovering my love for it.

 

I’m thankful that Chelsea is unbeaten, the special one and the fabregas costa connection.

 

I’m thankful for Anahi and teaching me how to be a better friend and listen to what people truly need and helping them get there.

 

I’m thankful for Yuquyry, for the great friendships I’ve made here, and the way the people respond to our calls for help. 

 

I’m thankful for Jesus. Without him, my life means nothing and has no purpose.  I’m thankful that he was willing to sacrifice it all so that I might live. I’m thankful for his atonement and his love for me and for forgiving me so many times. I’m thankful for his gospel and the way it improves our lives if we only believe and live it. I’m thankful for finally having a real testimony, and I’m thankful for the path that led me there. 

 

I’m thankful for Game of Thrones teaching me the importance of trust and not getting killed, Arrow for teaching me how to survive trials and then come back as a billionaire vigilante.  For Sportscenter and the countless hours of highlights I‘ve seen.  For the Walking Dead preparing me for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. For Mad Men and the power of advertising and marketing. For Will Smith for saving the world over and over and over again. For Russell Crowe for teaching about leadership, showmanship and getting the job done.  For David Beckham for well being David Beckham. Dude is an icon. For Reggie Bush.  Still the best football player I have ever seen and a good guy. 

 

For girls. For the ones in the past who have taught me things, and for the one in the future who will change my life.

 

For haircuts and style.  I’ve learned an appreciation of both out here.  For faux hawks and steps and beards and chains. OK, maybe I’m still not stylish. haha 

 

For the geniuses who invented quesaritos, chicken and waffles, and BBQ.

 

For being happy, and not letting anyone or anything stop you from being that.  For you guys again for the support and reading this thing.  You’ve been amazing.

 

Love you all and take care,

 

Elder Frost

Week 95

Just a short blog this week since I’m going to have my Thanksgiving one as well. And because nothing remarkable really happened this week.  Well, at least not for me. I know every day there is something that would blow your minds, but after two years of it, something’s got to be out there to get attention.  

 

The week started on Monday like always. We played soccer, and it was way better than last week. First off, I played way better.  I also looked super sexy with my black Sneijder jersey.  I hadn’t worn it in awhile. Also, I’ve decided me wearing my chain was the difference between good and bad Frost.  So the chain is here to stay. 

 

After a couple hours of fun soccer, we headed off to Asuncion to a market to buy stuff.  Well, we got on the wrong bus and got way lost but eventually made it after walking a couple blocks through a ghetto.  Now this market is what people think of when they think of South America.  It’s pure craziness, but it’s got great deals.  I personally didn’t buy anything, but it was a fun trip regardless.  Also, it was super funny -- as we were walking, a lady reached out and grabbed/rubbed my arm and shoulder and said how cute I was and how short. Haha. It was hilarious, but it’s a fact, especially when I’m walking behind Elders Garner, Singer and Turley. Also, a crazy guy pinched me. It freaking hurt. It bruised up even. I have no idea why, and the other people in the street just explained it by saying, “He’s crazy.” Nice.

 

Then we had an FHE at night where we watched part of 17 Miracles and taught a principle of the gospel off of it. Then a little karaoke. All four of us gringos sang together. It wasn’t good, but it was funny. We sang Linkin Park’s “In the End.”

 

On Tuesday, we had to get up bright and early for zone meeting. To be completely honest, it was one of the most bearable zone meetings I’ve had. I didn’t hate it. It was set up in stations. One was going through the area book. Then the baptism commitment. Then tithing. Then solving doubts. Interview with Pres., and scripture mastery stuff. It all went really well; although, the poor sister who taught the scripture mastery had to hate us. Hint -- I don’t know them, so I just guessed wildly and vaguely. It was funny, but she probably didn’t think so. My interview with President went really well. We just kind of looked back at my mission and how I’ve changed. I’ll do a more in-depth one when I do my last one next month.

 

It also rained a lot on Tuesday and Wednesday. And sadly a man in the ward died. His name was Benito. He was one of the nicest guys. Apparently, his heart exploded or something like that. So on Tuesday, we stopped by his wake, which I hope was a good gesture because I had no idea what to do at a wake.

 

Then on Wednesday, there was more rain and his funeral. I was asked to do the opening prayer. It was a little weird doing a prayer for a funeral. Hopefully I said a good one. Then a pretty normal rest of the week. Two service projects fell through as they cleaned up all the blood from his house without us and then the Hermana Lopez had to cancel again.

 

On Saturday, we had a mix-up as we were invited to a stake choir thing only for it to be on the 21st of December, not November, so that was what it was. Another bus ride. Haha. That’s basically it for this week.

 

Love you guys. Take care. And…one month.

 

Elder Frost

Week 94

Another week down. I really don’t know where the time has gone or where it is going, but it’s going fast. In only a couple more weeks, I’ll be home.  So weird.

 

This week was busy.  It started off with a fairly normal pday.  We played soccer in Luque, but a bunch of people got invited so there was a ton of people there meaning we didn’t get to play as much as we would have liked. On top of that, I played terrible. My body just couldn’t give 100%, and a lazy Frost is a bad playing Frost.  Oh well, one day I’ll be good again.

 

After the games we went to lunch at The Patio. It’s where you weigh out your food.  I ate there a lot with Elder Alvizures. After lunch we just kinda stayed and talked and hung out before heading off to cyber -- only problem was our normal guy was closed and all the others were full. So we called him, and he said 15 minutes. Didn’t show. So we called again, and he said 15 minutes.  We ended up calling him 5 times over a 2-hour period before he finally showed up.  It was a pain, but we ate ice cream while we waited, and that’s always a plus. 

 

That night it was stormy; in fact, our power went out during the night.  So I woke up early since I couldn’t sleep without our fan going. So I spent all morning preparing for district meeting.  It was going to be awesome. I had quotes, scriptures, arts and crafts all prepared and then we were going to make a district brunch after of omelets. So I got all that stuff together.  Well, we get to Luque and the stake center all excited only to not be able to open the electronic gate. Well, no problem -- we just jumped the fence. I got all dirty, but it’s Paraguay, ha ha.  So we got the keys and went inside annnnd…no power.  That’s when we realized why the gate wouldn’t open -- the building had no power.  Unfortunately, this meant no district meeting and no brunch as the kitchen is run on electricity. Bummer. So we all went and ate together at a restaurant. It was a good time.

 

When we got home that night, we had a surprise guest as some bird had managed to fly into our house during the storm through the bathroom window, so we had quite the adventure before finally getting him out. I also had problems with my credit card pulling out the rent as there was a problem with the connection to Visa, then a problem with the ATM, and finally I was trying to take out more money than I had in my account. It was annoying. So several trips back and forth to Luque later, I was finally able to pay my rent.

 

On Wednesday, we also had an activity night in the church. We played volleyball (I’m terrible) and handball (which I was a lot better at although the star of the show was definitely Elder Turley).  It was a fun night and good to see the ward starting to do activities again. We also had experiences running this week as for one reason or another we ran to catch buses or evade storms or what have you. I panted so hard. Terrible. My lungs were in open rebellion after a couple blocks.

 

On Thursday, we did a visit with the Hermana Acosta to talk about her daughter’s quince and to make her really good key lime pie. I’d had it before, but the others hadn’t, so we went and made it -- only a slight problem as she expected us to double the recipe but we really didn’t have enough ingredients to double it. So she got fancy, and we managed to make it work. It was still really good.

Then Friday was Elder Ballard’s birthday, so we got together and ate Lomitos to celebrate.  Also on Friday in the morning, me and Elder Singer went to an old lady’s house to help move stuff.  We moved a fridge and a dresser and a bed and swept and cleaned the whole house while she was gone. It needed it to say the least. I’ve never seen so much trash in one house. We’d open drawers and find trash. It was insane. 

 

Then on Saturday, we had lunch with the Lopez family, which was cool since the Hermano was back for the weekend after moving to Ciudad del Este. They are an awesome family.

 

Sadly, on Sunday, our attendance went way down for no real reason. Me and Elder Singer also had to improvise a lesson on marriage for Gospel Principles. It went well. Then after church, we did some less active and recent convert visits and made some real progress with some of them. It was really cool to see and finally get that breakthrough.

 

This week, we have interviews with President and a zone meeting, so it’ll be a quick week. Love you guys and take care. And all my thoughts and prayers go out to the Drishinski family in this time of tragedy. 

 

Elder Frost

Week 93

This week reminded me how lucky I am to be an American and live in the United States.  It seemed just one thing after another happened this week.  Well, at least in the middle. 

 

First was a rather enjoyable pday.  We had cash, which you know means we go out to eat.  And it was a late celebration of Elder Luke’s b-day.  So we went to TGI Fridays.  I got my usual -- my Jack Daniels steak with onion rings and cheesy mashed potatoes.  It was awesome!  So delicious, like always.  It was just a good time to eat good food and hang out with friends.  Then a funny moment --  since we told them it was a b-day, they got all ready to sing.  But then Elder Luke left, so when they came out we had to give it to somebody.  So it became Elder Turley’s b-day.  It was quite funny to see him dancing around and doing all the birthday stuff.  I then tipped a little since I know how important tipping is.  She was so excited for a 2 buck tip.

 

Then we had a pretty awesome FHE.  It was supposed to be with the Arguellos, but Hermana Acosta called and asked if we could go there since her grandchildren (my recent converts), her less active daughter and the daughter’s new boyfriend would be there.  So we changed our plans.  We taught a lesson about obedience, and it went well.  The guy seems really cool, and it was good to teach him in that environment.  He doesn’t live in mine or Elder Turley’s area though, so we turned the reference over to Elder Ballard.  Hopefully something comes of it.

 

Then I had my district meeting.  I’ve made it very clear that  I’m going to be my own district leader and do things my way and help my zone in whatever I can.  So today that included quotes from Fight Club on the board and a list of scriptures that I have used to get people to church.  That is something that is really bothering Elder Martinez, so I focused the lesson to help him out.  I heard it went really well, and hopefully it helps in the future.

 

Then afterwards, as a district we went to the store and bought stuff for tacos then went back to the church and made tacos together. It was way good; I miss Mexican food.

 

Then the disaster days.

 

On Wednesday we had no water. Thursday we blew a fuse in the house, and Friday it was a downpour all day and my shoes got soaked so I had to wear boots the rest of the week.  It rained most days this week actually.  It makes the mission so tough since the whole country just does not respond well to rain. 

 

On Saturday, we got up early to go help clean the church and empty out water since there is now a hole in the roof and there was water up past our ankles inside the chapel.  On the bright side, we got some cake from a member’s baptism.  At night we went to the Arguellos for another hamburger fundraiser -- this time for their daughter Natalia.  She needs cash for her graduation party.  So we ate and played some volleyball before calling it a night. 

 

On Sunday, we got invited to the Hermano Gimenez’ birthday party so we had a BBQ and ate well and had a good time with the members there as well.  The members in this ward are awesome.  And on a mission note, we had 10 less actives in church, so hopefully we can bring them all back.  I like teaching them.  They always let you in the door, ha ha.

 

Well, that’s about it.  We have a zone meeting and interviews with the mission president tomorrow, so we will see how that goes.

 

Love you guys and take care,

 

Elder Frost

Week 92

So the beginning of the week was interesting as we decided to skip our zone activity only to go to somebody else’s.  But I guess I’d better start at the beginning.

 

On Sunday I got a call from the zone leaders, and they informed me about the zone activity.  But the way in which they did so made sure I wasn’t going.  They asked me what I wanted to do on Monday – soccer. Then told me “Awesome -- you can’t because we have a zone activity.” So I exercised my free agency and skipped it.  But since everybody had zone activities, we didn’t have enough to play soccer ourselves so we went to Menendez’s zone activity since friends like him and Elder Alves would be there. Once there, we played some basketball and some capture the flag that got heated as nobody could decide the rules and everybody accused everybody of cheating then some soccer.  Which was fun until a kid kicked the ball into the street and it got run over by a bus, my ball.  So that sucked.  Rest in peace, ball, you were good to me and to the missionaries here. 

 

Then KFC was supposed to be open, so we all headed out to shopping pinedo to eat.  Well, we get there and in the entrance there is a giant inflatable KFC bucket with chicken pieces and KFC footprints on the floor.  We are ecstatic.  Then we got there, and it was closed.  Apparently it was the opening day, and it wouldn’t open until 7 at night.  Soooo dumb.  Luckily, we found a McDonalds promotion of 2 quarter pounders for the price of one, so we did that. 

 

At night we had an FHE, which went really well.  We talked about the Holy Ghost.  I liked it. 

 

I also got razzed by two Hermanas for being a liar about going to lunch as I asked to renew our lunch visits with them.  So no lying, and we are going to go now. Ha ha. 

 

Then on Tuesday we had a district meeting, which was my first one to be in charge.  It went well.  I brought some breakfast pastry things, then everybody shared the real reason they are on the mission.  It was really cool to hear. 

 

Then I found out the gayness that is the ovejas list. Basically, I have to report on all the investigators of the district.  Ok, it’s not terrible except they didn’t send me the form so I had to wait hours for it.  It sucked. 

 

Then off to Nueva Asuncion to show Elder Turley some houses.  It was cool to be back there.

 

Then our first ward mission meeting in months and finally home. 

 

Then we went back to the Lugos’ for lunch for the first time in months as well and did a joint lunch with Elders Turley and Garner.  It was cool, especially when Abdon came and we were able to share a lesson with him.

 

Our house also had a major ant problem this week.  We used up almost our whole bottle of poison trying to keep them out.  But in the end we won.  For now, ha ha. 

 

Then on Friday we did service for the same Hermana as last time, moving more bricks.  It was still pointless but good to help her out and get my hands dirty.

 

Then for Halloween we played Monopoly.  Not scary at all, but they don’t really celebrate it down here and our options are definitely limited as missionaries.

 

Then we did some blessings, which is always a cool experience. 

 

Then Sunday was the primary program, which was interesting -- definitely not organized like in the States but still a fun meeting.  Then lunch with an Elder that came back to pick up a girl -- always weird when they do that. In my opinion anyway.  And another week bites the dust.  I’m getting close to the end now, and that’s exciting.

 

Hope you guys all had a good week and take care.

 

Elder Frost