Dec. 27 2010 Photos

Araceli and her family (vivi´s friends) aswell

Cool Christmas present I got from a member

                                                  Marcelo´s baptism (not sure if I sent one)

Our House

Us and Vivi

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hola everybody!

Hope Christmas went well for everyone back at home. It was a little bit strange here for sure, but it was a good experience all in all. It´ll make me appreciate Christmas´s with my family from now on a lot more though, thats for sure. It was great to talk to the family. Sorry everybody back home if I didn´t sound super happy, wasn´t too exciting to listen to, or didn´t seem to care too much about your lives back home. As you all know, phone talking isn´t my forte. But I´m sure i´ll get better. But it was great to hear all your voices. Sounds like everyone is doing great. It was exciting to hear about everyones lives and share a little bit more about whats going on down here.

So today I´m writing a little later. This morning we went and played some soccer and some football with the young men in the ward at 6 in the morning. I think people play that early because its not as hot at that time of day. But the sun and heat was even more ridiculous when you started running around. All of us missionaries were SOAKED. It was gross. So right now I´m super tired and working on rehydrating. But it was really fun. It was actually (believe it or not) the first time I´ve been able to play any sports at all since being in this country, so that was cool. We also went out and ate at the fanciest Chineese food restaurant in the country. It was pretty good. Not like ¨legit¨ Chineese from home, but all you could eat and very different from the food we usually eat.

Random note. I keep hearing that these emails are getting spread around among all sorts of interested people. Just an idea, but that´d be great if maybe you checked the spelling and took out any nonsense sentances. Wouldn´t want to look like too much of an idiot. lol.

Anyways, this´ll probably be a little bit of a shorter letter today. Its wierd because each week there seems to be less to write about just because I´ve been around long enough now that there are things that happen repeatedly that I would have written about before but are just kinda normal now.

But yah. The week was good. Kinda crasy with all this Christmas-ness and such. Last monday we headed in to the office at the end of our regular P-day activities for a Chirstmas activity. We watched the Christmas devotionals, some random MoTab stuff (The Friendly Beasts - Brian Stokes Mitchell...wierd but entertaining), and sang hymns. I finally got a great feeling of Christmas and it was pretty emotional for me. lol. Then we all got on the same bus and went to a fancy meal with the president and missionaries. It was fun because I got to say goodbye to Elder Lee (went home today), and Elder Hansen from the MTC.

The 24th was an interesting day. Its Christmas for the people here (kinda like how newyears is technically on the 1st but we celebrate it on the 31st). TONNES of fireworks, drunks and crasy people. But we still got some work done so that was good. Me and Elder Call sang people christmas songs.

Saturday was great. Talking to your family seems to either make you trunky or more motivated to work hard. I think for the both of us we´re more ready to work now that we´ve got that done with. So that was another great upside of talking to home. A cool thing that happened was that we got to talk to a guy named Amado who Elder Call had been talking to before. He´s the one thats going to help us talk with the native tribe in our area. He seems super legit and wants us to start working with his people now that he´s back from holidays. So thats exciting. We´ll see what happens. Their culture seems very different and I´m excited to learn more about them and see what we can do to help them out.

Sunday was rough. Very few investigators came to church again, all for their various reasons. Kinda frustrating. And then when we went to visit people in the afternoon NOBODY was home. We honestly walked from house to house all afternoon and sat down only once or twice. Ridiculous. But we´re not letting that get to us. We´re just going to keep working hard, doing what we can, trying as many ways to find success as we can, and leaving the rest up to the people and the Lord without getting discouraged.

Got to talk with Elder Patterson shortly on the phone. Sounds like he´s doing great and still has lots of ¨animo¨ for the work. It´ll be fun to hopefully see him in the future. But I got to wish him a personal Merry Christmas so that was cool.

Another random note: I´m continually showing new people I meet the pictures of my family and friends back at home. Just thought it would make you all happy to know that I´m frequently recieving compliments on how pretty and youthful my mom looks, how ¨lindo¨ my sisters are, and what a good looking dog I have. Sorry dad, for some reason not as many compliments coming your way... maybe send me a picture of your best portrait and I can see what I can do. haha. But for reals, they really like my family and say that you guys look great and I´m very lucky to have such a good family. Just thought I´d pass that on. :)

Anyways, thats about all I got time for. Have a great week. It was great to talk. Enjoy new years and all the parties! 2010 was swell!

Love you lots!

Suffering as always (from the heat....lol),

Elder Humphreys

The Wierdest Week Before Christmas Ever.

So yah. What up everyone? Right now I´m dying of the heat, and although Christmas is right around the corner, it sure doesn´t feel like it. I don´t know if I mentioned it last week but whenever I catch myself thinking of home it sure isn´t of Christmas... its usually about boating and going swimming or something. lol

And so thats kinda silly. People here don´t really celebrate the same way as us. To them, it seems like Christmas goes like this: The 24th everyone gets all ready. Nobody really buys presents or anything. They get a huge dinner ready and at 11pm they start feasting and getting really drunk. Then at midnight they all light off their fireworks. Party through the night. Lots of beer, lots of fireworks. Then the 25th is just pretty chill. Its depressing. So thats part of the reason it doesn´t feel so Christmas-y. Its too hot and there are very few decorations.

And I can´t believe it, but I forgot to mention the biggest difference about this area - our house is HOT. Like, its usually hotter inside than outside. Its usually about 35 or 40 degrees in there all day long. Its ridiculous. The only way you can survive is by sitting directly in front of the fan. We have three fans between the two of us. No AC - the landlord is too cheap to put it in, and the house is otherwise too nice and cheap for us to want to move. The roof of the house and all the walls are painted black. Every morning you wake up sweating. Its so hot that me and Elder Call have even been sweating the bed quite regularly. hahah. You heard right. Not wetting, but sweating. Theres usually big wet patch where you´ve been laying on the bed. Its disgusting. We´re going to see what we can do about some AC. Its ridiculous.  Another bad part of that is that i put my head by the fan but my feet are uncovered and the fan is too far away so the mosquitos usually have a feast on my feet. I think I have 15 bites on one foot. But I can´t cover my feet from the heat either. I think I´m going to have to pull out the bugspray before bed from now on. lol

Anyways. Sorry. This is kind of a wierd letter. As for phone calls this week I really don´t know too many details yet. Theres that one email I forwarded and thats about all I know. I should call sometime this week (probably the 24th) for a couple minutes just to let you know when to call me and on what number.  Hopefully you´ll be home and I won´t have to call a cell. It should charge me though for that part so no worries tho. And then Christmas you can call me. I´ve heard that you´re going to want to use a calling card if you can, because E. Calls family called without one, or a long distance plan once, and it cost like 400 dollars for one hour. So I´d watch out. And calling cards are funny cuz 1000 minutes might last less than an hour due to the long distance. So I´d just look into that. I´ll be calling you first though and hopefully I´ll know more by then...

Huh. What else. Oh. Just btw, I´m liking how dad sends his letters. I don´t know what he does, but it works nicely. So if Mom wants to do that too that would be cool.  As for other mail, I learned last week (Thanks Grandma), that it takes one of my hand letters about a month to get home. DearElders like just over 2 weeks. So yah, just a heads up.

Sorry, but I´ll tell you right now that I didn´t send any presents. Sorry! I´ve been collecting some cool stuff but I didn´t have things for everyone and it didn´t seem worth buying lame stuff. But once I got some cool stuff I´ll send a bunch home to lighten my load.

Oh. And there are no such things as postcards here. At least not as far as I´ve seen. So there are a couple people I guess I´ll just write some thankyou letters to, but sorry, they probably won´t be cool. I´ll be keeping my eyes open though.

Tried mangos this week. They are everywhere. Most aren´t ripe yet, are already mashed on the ground, or are out of reach so I hadn´t had one yet. But I tried my first Paraguayan mango. It was interesting. They are SUPER stringy, and so they are a real pain to eat. There are also big Brazilian ones and I like them way more. They´re pretty good. I´ll send a picture some time. Sorry, no pictures this week cuz I´m low on time.

Update on Elder Call - Hes pretty chill. Likes Taylor Swift. Has great taste in ties. BUT, he´s never seen star wars. So I just don´t know if we can ever be friends.... we´ll have to see. haha. We get along well though. He´s from Grover Wyoming (basically a non-existant hick town... hahaha). Been in Paraguay for 13 months or so.

To finish answering your email mom - We spend our days doing all sorts of stuff. Feels like mostly all we do is walk though. lol. My feet hurt, but they´re doing good. And my face is getting pretty burned too, but I sweat so much sunscreen doesn´t really stick.. especially when you´re sweating in your own house. You just can´t get dry. We spend a lot of time doing visits though.. haven´t done toooo much contacting yet thank goodness. Contacting is probably my least fav part of being a missionary. lol. My area isn´t really in Asuncion, but I think the cities have kinda grown together, so you can´t really tell you left. Its pretty close. Crasy they got a dog. Hopefully it´ll like me more than Penny did. lol. Keepin most of my stuff dry. Only got really wet once, but fortunately my fancy scrip cases saved the day.

Oh. Cool thing. Theres this isolated native group in the middle of our area. Most don´t speak Spanish so nobody´s really ever worked with them (they speak Maka or something like that), but there are some people from the tribe that want to start opening up the area so we´ll see how that goes. Could be a real life Ammon story. We´ll have to see...

Haven´t got my package yet, but I still have today and Friday where it might be here. We´ll see. If not, no big deal. Its like fake Christmas here anyways. lol

Wow. Sorry. I didn´t really share much about the week. And I only got 5 minutes. I guess the highlight (which I can´t believe I missed so far), was the baptism we had this Saturday. It was great. Things didn´t really go all according to plan, but it was alright because the investigator showed up and it all got done. Elder Call was going to do the baptism, but he asked her if I could do it and she accepted. So that was a really cool experience. It was really stressful memorizing the prayer, her really long name (Maria Viviana Gabriella Martinez - she goes by Vivi), and everything, but in the end it went fine. I´ll send a picture next week. Besides that... this week was pretty usual. I´ve been assigned to do this job where I call people and make sure their investigators get the pristhood - means I have to call people in our zone twice a week. UGH. lol. Went for this hike around in the dark in dress shoes with a member one night. It was fun/sketchy. lol. Oh, and we had noone in church. That stunk. Our investigators car broke down, one disappeared etc. It stunk. We´ll do better next week.

Tonight we get to see the devotional and eat good food at the office. Should be SWEET!

Anyways, thats all I got time for. We got some meals booked this week which is awesome. Anyways. HAVE A GREAT CHRISTMAS EVERYONE. LOVE YOU LOTS. ENJOY ALL OF YOUR BLESSINGS FOR ME AND DON´T TAKE THE COLD FOR GRANTED. KEEP IT REAL. REMEMBER THE TRUE MEANING OF CHIRSTMAS, BUT ENOJOY YOUR PRESENTS AS WELL. lol

LOVE you lots. Merry christmas!

Elder Humphreys

Dec. 13th, 2010 PHOTOS

Elder Humphreys and his zones "souviner" tee shirts :)

Elder Lee, Elder Humphreys and Elder Sorensen in front of their member friends Christmas tree.

The chapel and the temple in Asuncion

The front of Elder Humphreys hand made, genuine leather, Book of Mormon case.

The back of his Book of Mormon case.

The front of the Bible case.



                                                     And the Back of his Bible case.

Elder Humphreys and Elder Lee Paraguayan tourist attraction :)

Elder Humphreys at the soccer field.

Hola from Mariano Roque Alonzo!

Hola everybody!

 

Had a good and interesting week. Really hot, and fairly different, but an all in all great experience. I forgot my planner for the notes on the beginning of the week, but I think I can remember most of it. Basically I´m giving day to day reports because I´m having a hard time with the whole journal thing and am falling behind. I plan on catching up, but this will do for now.

 

Anyways. Monday was P-day as always. We went out and bought some requerdo´s (souvenirs). Stopped by the office and got some dearelders sooner than otherwise. Ate another ¨Canadian¨ sandwhich. Elder Sorensen did some more ridiculous stuff. He was a great guy, but a hard comp to work with. Didn´t have too much regard for the rules. It was extra hard due to the fact that we were in a 3some. But I´m just really happy cuz I only had to deal with it for like 2 weeks, instead of him being my new comp or something. lol. Oh, and the big news of the day came in the evening. Got a phone call that said that I would be leaving the area, and going to work with Elder Call in an area called Mariano Roque Alonzo. Its reasonably close to my old area, but its not nearly as wealthy or anything. Elder Lee and Elder Call had been comps before, and Elder Lee said he was a great guy. I was really thankful for that. I was afraid my next comp would be a goof. I´ve heard that second companions are often the hardest just due to the fact that you´re so used to your first comp that when things go differently you don´t know what to do with yourself. So that was a relief. And then Elder Sorensen told me about how highly he thinks of my new area. So that was great too. The wierdest part is that Elder Lee and Elder Sorensen will both be training a new kid. That never happens. But Elder Lee leaves in like a week and a half so nbd.

 

Tuesday we had our last district meeting. Had my last fancy seafood lunch. Got poured on. It rained so hard that we gave up running and just walked home soaking wet. It was fun. Fortunately Marcelo´s baptism still went through even with the rain. It was really good. Had some other non-members there and stuff. Said goodbye to the Zaffras. Elder Lee did the actual baptism. I still haven´t done one personally yet, but I´m not worried at all. Marcello was happy and thats what matters.

 

Wednesday was my last day. Packed up all my stuff. Didn´t forget anything. Said goodbye to all the cool members in the area and took some pictures.

 

Thursday we got up early and headed in to the office. Thankfully we live close so it wasn´t too bad. Said goodbye to Elder Lee. Sad to say goodbye. He was a great guy. Had some funny quirks (of which I´ve especially noticed after talking to Elder Call about being comps with him), but he was a great trainer. We got along, we worked hard, he taught me well. Elder Call´s great too. He works hard, knows his stuff. Good attitude. I think this companionship will go well. Oh, and he knows how to cook. Thats the most important thing. haha. We have ZERO lunches with members in this area so we´ve had to make all our own food. So far we´ve had soup, crepes, omletes. Any easy food ideas would be much appreciated though. I just can never think about what we should make. So yah. Its going to get boring really fast if we have to eat eggs or something every day.  The new area is cool. We share the branch with 2 elders and 2 sisters. The members are good, though we have almost none in our third of the area. LOTS of youth in our ward though. Makes it interesting. For instance the first night we had ward night and played volleyball with the youth. It was suprisingly fun. We have some really good youth aged investigators too, so we brought them and they have lots of great support from the kids in the ward. The only problem with all the youth is that apparently there have been girl problems with some of the missionaries in the past here... So to avoid any potential problems, I´ve started telling people that I may or may not have a girlfriend. hahaha. Fortunately they haven´t asked for any pictures or yet cuz I´m not sure what I´ll do with that, but so far its gone okay. Wish me luck. lol.

 

Anyways...

 

Its been stupidly hot lately. We were at someones house and they have a small shop called a dispensa where they sell drinks and snacks and stuff. Anyways, it got so hot there was a 2L bottle of pop that spontaneously exploded. Its ridiculous. haha. As for groceries now, we have to ride a bus, get them, and then carry them on the bus back. Kind of a pain, but it was expected.

 

Our area also has this cool indian tribe in the middle. Most don´t speak Spanish or Guarani, but Maka. They seem pretty legit. We´ll have to go check it out.

 

So whats up back at home? I was thinking the other day about how technically its December even though its just stupidly hot. When does everyone get out of school? Have a fun holiday for me. I´ll be working! haha. But I´ll be happy to hear about everything that you guys do.

 

Should have a good week ahead of me. There are a couple people that are pretty close to getting baptized. We´re working with this one family thats super cool. The daughter, Araceli, is like a modern day Joseph Smith. lol. Shes 14 and is super legit. Was baptized recently. Now her family and friends will probably be baptized too. Hopefully one of them this saturday. Cool beans.

 

Anyways, somehow I just got through everything way faster than expected. Sorry if its a short letter or something. I guess I´ll just respond to some old DearElders. The temple was actually in my area. We saw it like every day and it was right beside the chaple we met at. Even stepped in a time or two cuz we had to talk to some people at the front desk. We don´t have any bikes which is kinda a bummer. Actually, as far as I hear, there aren´t really any bikes in the whole mission. I think there are 2 areas that have them. Apparently you need to get special permission from the 70 to get them or something. Something like a saftey issue. So thats kinda lame, but oh well. I´m getting my walking exercise. Wearing out my shoes. lol

 

Hope all the basketballs going good. Sounds busy! Oh yah, and I started crying a bit when I heard limewire was gone. Not that I ever used it or anything.... Enjoy the Jack Black/iCarly for me too. haha. Oh, and you can let Jaclyn know that I´m very happy she´s still alive. And thanks Aunt Barb for the letter: Fun to hear about the cousins. Crasy that Jaclyns gettin ready for BYU, Carmens babysitting, and that Stevens already got that chief scout. Kids. Growin up so fast. Makes me feel like an old person. haha

 

Funny thing. I keep thinking about what I would ask for Christmas. Now that its too late. lol. I´m going to see what I can pick up here, and then maybe I´ll ask for some things for my birthday or something. Still haven´t got my package yet though. But I´m pretty excited for whatever it may contain. I´m sure it´ll be great.

 

Anyways, I should probably wrap things up. Letters take longer to send with pictures attached. But things are doing grand. Should have a great week ahead of me, and the past one wasn´t bad either. We´re going to be workin hard, and I´m excited to spend time getting to know this place. I´ll probably be here for a while. But yah. Church is true! Read your scriptures! Be good missionaries! Hope you´re all well and healthy. I´m doing fab. Talk to you all next week!

 

Love ya lots!

 

Elder Humphreys

 

PS. If anyones looking for a long distance relationship, I´m free. Just send a picture of the two of us. Keep those crasy Paraguayans away. haha

 

Oh. And PPS. There are some wierd people in this area. Not used to that. For instance, I met a kid whose Dad is also her Grandpa. Messed up. I´ll let you all figure that one out for yourselves. haha. Anyways. PEACE!

Elder Humphreys ramblings at 100 days...

Ugh. I don´t know how to start a letter...

Welcome to this weeks version of Elder Humphreys ramblings (40 minutes)...

It was a pretty good week. It was challenging, not going to lie. Threesomes are harder than you´d think. It´d be chill except for the fact that its harder to motivate your companions and work hard when you´re outnumbered. But oh well.

Monday it was just me and Elder Lee. Elder Sorensen went off on a division with some of his buddies. That was kinda wierd. We didn´t go play soccer with the zone either cuz elder Lee was still feeling a little sick. Oh well. I´m sure I´ll get to play some time or another. So we took it easy which was chill. Went to the restaurant we usually eat at mondays (the vienessa) and got the Canadian sandwich again. lol. We also checked out an authentic Paraguayan T-shirt place. It had guarani on it and everything. But when we took Elder Sorensen there later he said they were all painfully rude. haha. Oops. Also, that night we got abducted by a member from another area in the mission. He told us that he wanted us to come to his wedding at the chaple on friday to meet all his work buddies. More on that later I guess.

Tuesday Elder Sorensen came back. We went out together and Elder Lee went out with a member for part of the day. We checked out a part of the area I´ve never been to. Kinda fun. It was downtown and even more rich. It was cool.

Wednesday we wasted a lot of time. It was depressing. Like I said, its hard to convince two people to work when you´re outnumbered. But we got some cool pictures and saw some soccer stadiums I wanted to see. It was cool. They´ve been having their championships and though I haven´t followed it close I think one of the teams in this area one. So I´m a fan of them, and I can brag because I picked the winning team. lol. We talked to Marcelo about his baptism. Apparently the main reason he wanted to get baptized was to get a Godfather.... so we taught him why baptism is important. We also tried to set it up so that Daniel could baptize him (they live like right accross from each other), but his mom didn´t want him to do it. Its wierd. People think missionaries and bishops and stuff are like extra powerful and don´t really seem to believe that people can change. So yah. She thought Daniel and his family weren´t good enough or something. So Elder Lee´s going to baptize him instead. Elder Lee felt bad cuz he thought I should do it, but I told him not to worry about it. There will be lots of baptisms in my future. Went and had nachos at Hna Kimbals house. She´s a missionary helper (probably 70ish), and temple worker. I´m super spoiled here. I´m ruined for my next area. Got my fancy scripture cases. They turned out way good. I took pictures but I forgot my cord, so I´ll show you guys next week. Oh, I also tried jumping on the stage but forgot I was wearing dress shoes and caught my toes on the edge. Ground my shins on the edge of the stage. They´re still swollen a bit and bruised. haha.

Thursday was my 100th day on the mission! I feel so old and experienced. haha. Only 630 days left from that point. haha. Not that it matters, its just fun to have numbers that feel like I´m accomplished or something. Oh yah. This was also the hottest day I´ve ever lived. Both Elder Lee and Sorensen said it was in their top 10 hottest days on the mission. It was ridiculous. You just are sweating all day. Constantly whiping off your face. Your clothes are totally soaked. It was disgusting. haha. We also travelled through a graveyard that day. Apparently rich people in this country build little house things and bury all their relatives in it above ground. Wierd.

Had our poorest lunch visit Friday. Apparently that will be my best lunch in basically any area I could go to. I´m in trouble. We had watched the Restoration movie with Marcelo on Thursday and when Elder Sorensen talked to him about it he told him that he didn´t know why but he said the whole time it just made him want to cry. In a good way. Super cool. We went to the wedding. They are both members but while they wait for their temple divorce to go through they got civily married. So we greeted all their co-workers and such, gave them Family Proclimation handouts and showed them around the temple. It was a great way to meet the church. So good on the Garcia family. The wedding was like a regular old non-temple wedding though... seemed kinda like a big show for nothing to me. lol. And it was wierd too because it was kinda like an awkward dance situation again (brought me back to highschool), where you were supposed to meet people and introduce the church but you just felt awkward walking over and talking to random girls you don´t know and stuff. hahaha. We met a guy there that spoke English tho - and its funny. Elder Lee kinda has a accent that I don´t notice until he talks to people that don´t speak English super well. Anyways, those people always like to talk to me because they say I speak very clear and am easy to undersand. Take that all you people that tell me I mumble! haha

Went for our last lunch at the Zafras. Sad but fun. They took a picture of me too so you might see me on Facebook. You´ll have to check. Met a dog like Toby as well on Saturday. He was fun to play with cuz he was actually clean. Had a cool experience too where we needed to find one new investigator to meet our goals and so after praying and working hard we found one last person on our last contact of the night. Sick.

Sunday. Daniel still goes to church. Awesome. Marcelo and Osmar both came too. Bore my testimony and it went well. Went to the Garcias for a dinner visit (this is the only area where you´ll find that), and they are super cool. Gave us our first opportunity for service this week comming up, and talked about just random stuff. They´re funny cuz they know some English, but they learned a lot of it just from movies and stuff. So he´s always saying words like ¨sucks¨ ¨stupid¨and ¨shut up¨, not meaning to be rude, but sounding like a real jerk. haha. Oh, and wierd story... while we were there their daughter was acting kinda wierd. First she was just nice. But next thing you know she was getting all wierd and like tickling me, climbing on my chair and trying to give me hugs. I kept looking to my comps for help but they weren´t doing anything. Ahh! Awkward!! haha.

She was 4...... hahaha. No worries.

Oh. Also we saw this funny movie while waiting for lunch. Its called ¨The Errand of Angels¨. It was about sister missionaries in Europe. It was terribly made but its fine for missionaries. It was funny cuz some stuff was super real like missionaries, and some stuff was so opposite of here. I don´t reccomend it.

Today we get one of my last good meals. Going to another mall to print some pictures. Just keeping it real. Get to talk to our rich investigator too. Should be fun.

This week... should know wednesday where I´m going. Meet my new comp Thursday. It´ll be sad to go, but yah. I´m sure the next place will be great too.

Mom. Glad your doing well. If you were an investigator I´d be ticked you´ve missed so much church... but I guess this is a legit excuse. lol. Most people here drink the water straight, but I try and keep it to a minimum. But its innevitable that you drink it now and again. Grocery stores aren´t AS nice as at home, but they´re pretty normal. When we go on divisions we have to travel with our comp. Its lame if you´re the one who has to travel all over for nothing. Sometimes its hard to see how people live, but at the same time they´re comfy and used to it, so its not as bad as it could be. We´ll see how my next area is. Daniel is the man. Marcelo is getting baptized tomorrow :)  I personally find understanding people easier than speaking. But thats cuz I spend a lot more time with my ears open than my mouth. But I´m getting to the point where I can speak more so thats cool. Most people speak Spanish. Its more of a fad here in the city. We use certain words like whats up, rich, chill, bye, and such in guarani but its mostly Spanish. Elder Sorensen is almost fluent in Guarani though (not many people are), so thats cool. Its stupid hot, but its okay when you sleep cuz we have fans and AC. No rats either.

Can´t believe the flames stink. Hopefully better when I get back. Too bad bout the stamps. Oh well. SICK that the girls made the teams tho. Thats super cool. Keep readin those Harry Potters. Thats cool. I have the Extraordinary missionary thing on my computer if you want to look. In music form. We do changes every 6 weeks, but the president says he doesnt want to change people for about 6 months at a time. But its a wierd situation right now. My christmas package might be late, but I haven´t heard of them not comming so I wouldn´t worry. Didn´t get to see the christmas devotional unfortunately

Anyways. Times up. Have a good week! Hope all is well. Wish me luck on the upcoming week!

Later!

Elder Humphreys

STUDY TIME

K. Lots to write. Sorry, no pictures this week, but there will be lots to come. But its good cuz I got lots to write about so I wont waste time with that stuff.

Um. Just a quick thing. Mom, if you´re ever bored or something, i was just filling out that memory book thing. There are a couple things I don´t know about so if want to look them up and send them thats cool. If not, whatever. Its the busy christmas season right? lol. I need: Who was there when i recieved Melck. priestood, The date i was endowed and who was there, the date i was set apart as a missionary, the people involved in my baptism, conf, deacon, teach, preist and elders ordinations, and the dates i became a priest and an elder. Some of them I know but just want to check. Others I have no idea on. Cool.

K. Just as a side note. As I was studying the other day I just thought of some interesting things I was thinking of. One, I´m like the first Elder in the mission to have the Liahona this month and its been super fun to read up on conference. I still really enjoyed the talk by Elder Holland (not sure why). Also, I´ve noticed that studying is cool as a missionary cuz you get to study from two angles: things relevant to me, and things that would help an investigator. You get twice as much out of what you read. Its probably why adults know so much more - they read for them and for their kids too. lol. Also, talks like the one in the Ensign about teaching (by David M. McConkie) are more relevant to you. Study is crasy. So much to read, but we only get an hour. I have to split it up and read 15 minutes each from Jesus the Christ, Preach My Gospel, The Book of Mormon, and The Ensign/Liahonna. But its cool. You feel like you get more done in an hour than otherwise. Also, I´ve enjoyed any little scriptural thoughts that people have sent. I want to be able to share more indepth scriptures/ideas with people instead of just the obvious scriptures, and so its a good way to get my mind thinking about things to share.

Anyways, on to the week. Oh, but first of all, last week I forgot to mention that we accidently ventured into the South Mission. Its really close to an area we were working. But its cool. Now I´ve been to them both. lol

Oh. And one other side note. I remember reading before I came here that Paraguay makes a lot of chalboards. Well they either ship out all the good ones or else they just make a lot of lame ones. Cuz the chalkboards here are nothing like at home. haha. On that note, its the same with the beef. They apparently have lots of it, but it seems (and I´ve heard this from other people too), that they ship out the good stuff. The only beef I´ve had here has been all chewy and bleh. But whatever. Its always nice to have some meat to eat.

Anyways. Monday: Had a ¨Canadian¨ sandwich for lunch. I don´t know how it was canadian at all. Had hardboiled eggs in it (they have hardboiled eggs everywhere here), and such. I dunno. It was really good, but not canadian. Oh well. Tried to get a haircut. Didn´t work. Apparently some people exclusivly cut girls hair. Made it kinda awkward when Elder Lee came in and said ¨We´re here to get our hair cut¨. haha. Anyways, we´re just going to get the bishop to do it (sounds like it´ll turn out pretty rough), but its only going to cost a dollar and no one here cares what you look like. My face is nice and tanned tho so I´ll probably look kinda silly. Whatelse. Some chick grabbed my butt as I walked by. That was kinda wierd. Talked to Elder Patterson on the phone. Sounds like he´s doing good. It was really fun to just chat about whatever for a while. Not something we´ll get to do every day, but you know. Nice of him to call. Oh, we also went and bought some stuff out of our zone. That was fun. Went to a place called Luque. Bought some handmade ties for cheap. If anyone wants anything just let me know. I saw some doilies and stuff and remembered that Grandma wanted some, but couldn´t remember the details. So if someone could ask her about that that´d be great. I´ll pick something up. Found a job for our investigator Osmar so he could come to church, but it was awkward cuz you´d have to work the first two sundays. Awkward. Anyways, we offered it to Daniel instead cuz his job is terrible but he didn´t want to be a guard. Anyways, not really important. But it was just kind of a interesting experience having to deal with that.

Tuesday. Apparently our zone has been slacking or so we were told at district meeting. So afterwards we went out and committed a bunch of people to be baptized. But they were all kinda lame and none came to church. So that was kinda ridiculous. I also didn´t feel like standing around when it started to rain and so I made Elder Lee walk through the rain with me and get soaking wet. haha.

Wednesday. Elder Lee was sick all morning. I will spare you the details. But I got to play pharmacist and hand out medicine, and then I got to study all morning. Kinda lame cuz I want to be working, but at the same time it was pretty chill cuz I got to study all morning and afternoon which was nice.

Thursday was thanksgiving. Elder Lee was still sick and so I had to eat twice as much just for him. lol. It was divine. The family is name the Zafras. They are from Texas/Utah, but he was born in Peru and his wifes family is from Mexico I think. So they speak both good Spanish and English too. Super cool. There was even pie which I here is really hard to come by in this country. Also, he´s like a super tie critic and so he traded me a nice tie for my very lamest one. Nice. The funny thing is that in this country nobody cares about ties. You can basically wear whatever you want. I wear my nice ties, my valuevillage/birthday ties etc. and nobody mentions a thing. So thats fun. You can wear a tie covered in stains and nobody cares. But of course I wouldn´t do that...lol Met a guy named Cesar. He´s a reference. Should get baptized. Super cool.

Friday. Got a phone call from the office. Thats never good. The news: Me and Elder Lee had to go pick up our new comanion. Wow. Thats right - We´re in a three some. Apparently they´re rearanging the entire mission with new zones and zone leaders and everything. So apparently instead of staying here with Elder Lee until he goes home and then being here for almost 6 more months maybe, I´ll almost definately be leaving this change (the 9th of December). Wow. So I´m going to be taking a lot of pictures and saying my goodbyes while showing the area to Elder Sorensen so he can be zone leader and train here. It was a shocker for all of us. But you know. Its all in the lords hands. Its going to be sad to leave so soon, but what can I do. Crasy. Anyways, for the next week and a half we´ll be with Elder Sorensen. Hes a pretty cool guy. Really good teacher, knows how to speak Guarani. Nice. As far as looks and personality its funny cuz he kinda reminds me of a cross between Jordan and Darren. But yah. Working in a threesome is pretty challenging. No one knows what to say and usually everybody else does the talking, and I get the prayer. But its cool. And its nice cuz it´ll be done in a week and a bit so its okday.

Saturday. Nothing to report. Hard working in threes. Thats all I got to say.

Sunday. It rained. Almost nobody in church. Fortunately we got Marcelo to come tho. He might be able to get baptized before me and Elder Lee go. Elder Lee had pretty bad hives that night and that day tho, and so we took the day off cuz the Benydril made him super drowsy. That hurt our goals, by taking two days off this week but theres nothing we could do. Oh well. Did tonnes of studying. It was pretty nice.

Anyways, I had lots of questions of yours to answer but I guess I´ll do what I can now and then answer the rest next week. The chapel here is really nice and big cuz its right by the temple. Something I probably take for granted now. Daniel looks grumpy in the pic, but people just don´t smile for pictures from what i´ve seen. Elder Lee baptized him and he was confirmed by the bishop. But I was totally cool with that. He has some friends, but most of his family is members to so thats good. He was a member reference. Marcello is good. His mom missed church due to the rain, but the baptism should go ahead. I ran out of money this month, and so I´ve been eating mostly buns the past two weeks but whatever. Teach me to use it better next week. I even had a good money plan but I got hit by all these random expenses I didn´t know about. Stuff is cheap but they dont give us tonnes to spend. Can´t believe Katie´s getting married. Wierd. Hno. Coles is getting married to. Crasy!

Anyways. Glad you´re all healthy. Love you lots! Keep it real!

Elder Humphreys

NOV. 22, 2010 PHOTOS

Our old district

Weirdest jumping photo ever, hahaha

Daniel's baptism !

Zone conference with Elder Foster of the 70

FIRST BAPTISM!

Okay. Wow. Lots to write about today. Hopefully I can get it all in and a few pictures maybe too...

 

Wow. That was lame. The computer just restarted on me. So a few less minutes, but we´ll see what I can do.

 

First of all. Sorry. I´ve been getting your dear Elders. I´ve just forgotten to respond. But: Marissa - Sick costume. I approve. lol. You sent your letter on the 29th of Oct, I got it the 9th of November

Dad - Weekend sounded sick. I especially liked more free hockey without me (lol), and the shoes. Enjoy!

I´m still enjoying Theo´s letters. They´re funny. They make my companions laugh too.

Sis. Mysyk - Thanks for the letter! Much appreciated

Grandma - Sounds like you guys had one heck of a sweet trip! I´d be jealous if I wasn´t on a trip of my own. lol. It sounded super cool

Mom - Just for reference you sent one on the 5th of Nov, I got it the 16th. I´m cool with the Dear Elders. Emails are nice cuz they´re more recent. I´d say one email a week is good just to get the low down. But DearElders are nice cuz i can read them more than once at my leisure. And they´re easier to respond to. So its up to you. If its something more interesting more recent than email it. If not, DearElders are chill. Kurts talk sounded good. He´s got it right. People here are obedient for sure, but theres always the little things that sometimes people don´t care about, but I still think are important. So if he´s already got it on the brain than thats perfect. Crasy how hot its been. But its been REALLY hot here. lol. And its only going to get hotter.

 

Yesterday was my one month mark in Paraguay. Crasy! It kinda feels like I´ve been here forever. Kinda feels like I just showed up yesterday. American Thanksgiving is this week. Although I missed the Canadian version, I´ll at least get to enjoy it the American way. There´s this super cool American family in our ward (probably the most with-it people I know AND they speak English.), and they´re having us over. It´ll be good.

 

Lots of rain this week. I´ve started a love hate relationship with my umbrella. First I forgot I had it when I needed it. Then I would neglect to take it with me. And so I´ve been pretty wet lately. lol. We got rained out of working on Friday for most of the day, and it rained yesterday too. But I like it cuz its nice and cool.

 

Just an interesting thing I´ve noticed here - Ward Mission Leaders are so key. Don´t know if I didn´t give them credit back home or what. But they´re like second only to the bishop in the ward it seems like sometimes. Fortunately the mission leader is sweet. He might be moving though. I might cry. We´ll see.

 

Oh. Perchance, do you think you could send a pic of our house? Maybe with some snow on it? All I have is the picture of my university house. People want to see the real deal. Oh, and another just idea. A list of things from ¨How to be an Extraordinary Missionary¨. I forgot what they are. Might be interesting. I dunno.

 

Oh. So we got our first baptism this week. More on that later. Anyways, hopefully its the first of many. But just so you all know, there have been 100 baptism missionaries before in this country. But I don´t think that I´ll be doing that. Things are different now. Everyone used to know they would be getting free food from the bishops storehouse and so that got a lot of people baptized. Also, apparently they used to get people to sign to allow their kids to be baptized while they were drunk, just for baptisms. We won´t be doing that. Anyways, just so you don´t have unrealistic expectations. But we´ll be trying our best, and our investigators should hopefully remain strong and active members.

 

Anyways, what else. Alright. I guess I´ll just start day-to-day stuff.

 

Monday: Chill P-day. Didn´t do anything fun. But thats alright. It was nice taking it easy. Also found a place with an inactive member who wants to go back to church, and her 9 year old son. Jackpot. He´s getting ready to be baptized and we´re working on getting her back fully active. They look very promising.

 

Tuesday: We had zone conference. It was cool. Elder Foster from the 70 was there. He was a pretty cool guy. I almost had a one-on-one interview with him, but that fell through. Apparently someone else needed it more than I did. Whatever. He´s a very business-y type guy and so I´m not sure how personal it would have been anyways. But the conference was good. Got to see some old MTC buds.

 

Wednesday: I contacted us into the richest house Elder Lee´s ever contacted. Sweet. The guy was pretty cool. We get to go back once he gets back from his business trip. Got to know the sisters area better. Daniel had his baptismal interview and passed

 

Thursday: Nothing all that exciting. Work as usual. Planned the baptism. I volunteered to give the talk.

 

Friday: Had lots of plans for the day. But then it rained and we got stuck at the Church where we had been filling the font. But it was cool cuz there was some guy interested in the church that got stuck there with us and so we got to become his friend and talk about the church for a while. Anyways, besides that, the day was basically just the baptism.  It went really well. My talk went pretty good (what most people didn´t know was that it was basically just the stuff from Preach My Gospel organized like I wanted to say it. lol), and the baptism was really spiritual. Daniel bore his testimony. I think he´ll be a good active member for some time. It was only like the 7th baptism this year in this area and so it was a pretty big deal. Cool stuff. And it was well organized with treats and everything. The only thing that could have been better would be if more showed up. But we invited everyone so it wasn´t our fault.

 

Saturday: Accidently got ourselves into a bible bash. Bad stuff. It made me angry once we finally left. Not cuz of what he said but because we fell into that trap. So we won´t be doing that ever again. Oh well. We learned from the experience.

 

Sunday: Took marcelo to church. He liked it (he´s the 9 year old). It was my one month mark. Crasy. Lots of people promised to come to church like usual. We believed in them. They failed us. Oh well. We tried.

 

Anyways, nothing special planned today. Haircuts. Probably buy some handmade Paraguayan ties. Cool stuff I guess.

 

Anyways. That was the week. Hopefully the pictures work. Keep it real! Missionary work is grand. The church is true. Keep being good member missionaries and read the Book of Mormon! Love you all. Hope everyone is healthy and safe! Don´t do drugs! Stay in school! 

 

PEACE!

 

Elder Humphreys

NEW PHOTOS FROM PARAGUAY - NOV. 15

our kitchen

weird deodorant in Paraguay

cereal

milk

cockroach we lit on fire

our living room

our bathroom

my half the bedroom

Elder Lee's half of the bedroom

the "huge" mall we went to

me at the Asuncion Paraguay Temple grounds

A POSSIBLE BAPTISM??

If someone wouldn´t mind btw, I´m not allowed to write other missionaries, but I got a forwarded letter from Elder Nilson. If you could just say thank you very much. I enjoyed his letter and am thankful for his prayers. Hope things are going well with him, loving the mission and hoping that he´s having a good time as well. I´ll be praying for him and his work as a missionary as well.  His mom sent it on to me. Thanks.

Now that I´ve forgotten for multiple weeks now, I´ll start off by complimenting the pumpkins. They looked super sick, and I know that they always look better in real life too, so good on you all. Elder Lee thought they were sick. I can´t believe they didn´t just automatically win the best trunk for you. We also we´re amazed by those transformer costumes. How sick are those eh? I´m jealous.

One of two biggest new bits this week is that if all goes well, we should have our first baptism! Exciting stuff. Daniel is his name. Don´t know if I´ve mentioned him before. We heard about him as a reference. Had lost his job, was looking for a new direction in his life. We´ve been with him for about a month and I think he´s ready. He got a new job and I was worried he wouldn´t care to talk anymore, but he´s still good and strong. Stopped smoking the minute we taught the Word of Wisdom, and although he´s been all sick since (probably because of it), he hasn´t gone back. He got up and bore his testimony in Elder´s quorum about his daughter (I think she died unexpectedly), and that he believes this is the true church of God. Carries his scriptures around with him and is reading stuff. Seems like a really solid baptism. And I´ll probably be in this area for the next 6 months too, so if he starts slacking I´ll be here to tell him to smarten up. lol. Fun stuff. Its scheduled for this Friday.

Other cool stuff I´ve forgotten to tell you about.... We´re getting cool leather hand made scripture cases. They were like 40 bucks or something, but I got to pick what I wanted. It´ll be like a picture of the tree of life, the mission emblem, christ calling for them to be fishers of men (simon dewey), and a picture of the field being white all ready to harvest. Hopefully they turn out well. I´ll send a picture. Other story... way back soon after I got here, me and an office Elder went and changed my 160 american to Guaranie money, as well as picked up a couple thousand dollars worth for the office. It was crasy. The banks here are full of guards and they´re really uptight. Elder Dailey (the Elder that deals with the money), was kinda freaking out. Fun stuff.. haha.  What else... people are sometimes really ridiculous here... They´re all catholic by tradition, but for instance one person told us she was catholic, but right after said that she doesn´t believe in God or heaven or anything. Its kinda silly. But whatever. Nothing we can do about it.  No exciting food this week. We were scheduled to have breaded cow stomach thursday, but apparently it was kinda expensive or something so we´ll do it some other day. Maybe it was just cuz of the look of dread I gave her when she said we´d have it. haha

Now for this week. Monday. After emails we did our regular stuff, but we also went to this ¨Giant¨ mall. It was kinda cool. A lot like the malls back home, but a little smaller. lol. It felt wierd being in a mall though. Elder Lee was kinda freaking out cuz he hasn´t seen a mall in ages. Kinda sad cuz he ruined it for when he gets home but whatever. lol. There was music playing all over the place, and I heard a lot of some of my favorite songs. That was kinda wierd. Anyways, all we got was some envelops and Elder Lee got some Nike kicks. Funny experience but whatever. It wasn´t really what we thought it´d be.

Tuesday. Chipa died. They re-did our favorite store and their chipa is now way more cheesy. How lame is that. Its not even good anymore. :´( Tried some funny drink called Cocido. It was kinda nasty but whateves. This was the first day that Daniel stopped smoking though, so that was really cool.

Wednesday. Nothing much. We were going to play soccer with the youth, our investigator and his non-member friend. But they didnt show up, so we didn´t play. Kinda lame. We were hoping for reference and whatnot... some other day I guess. Haven´t played soccer once here yet. Kinda disapointing but whatever. Thats not what I´m here for.

Thursday was kind of a shocker. The sister missionaries that we shared the ward with got reasigned to a different area. Wow. We´re not sure exactly why. Might have been because of their stalker. I dunno. lol. Anyways, our area instantly doubled in size. What the heck. I thought we were already doing a lot of walking. Now its just outrageous. They introduced us to some members and stuff, but they didnt really have any good investigators or anything. So its just kinda wierd. Lots of area to cover. We now have 2 of the biggest soccer stadiums in our area tho, so thats kinda cool i guess.

Friday we got a call from some other elders. They asked us to go and give a blessing to one of their investigators brothers in the hospital. First blessing I´ve done in Spanish. Fortunately all I had to do was memorize the 2 lines you need to say to do the anointing. But it was still kinda nerve wracking. It went well in the end though, and we left him a Libro de Mormon. Cool stuff.  Oh. Also I woke up at 6. Found laying unpside down on my bed a fairly large cockroach about the size as in the pic I sent. Wierd cuz I didn´t really freak out. Just brushed him off and killed him in the morning. Sprayed all around my bed with fancy bug repellant stuff tho. lol. Also lost one of our prime investigators that day. Her boyfriend told us to go away for good. Lame.

Saturday. Nothing much, but we taught one guy. He´s got descent English skills. So it was sweet. I got to teach him in English. Its the most I´ve said since being here. He´s super close to baptism, but he can be super illogical sometimes. I explain something super clearly, he understands it perfectly, and then he has the same problem 2 seconds later. But I think we still might be able to drill it into his head. We´ll see.
Sunday went really good. Apparently a guy from the 70 was there. I didn´t know cuz it was in Spanish. lol. But most of the people didn´t understand either cuz he was from Argentina and apparently the accent threw them off. haha. Anyways, the rest of church seemed to be perfectly what Daniel needed so that was sweet. The rest of the day was good. Checked out the Sisters old area and did a LOT of contacting.

Todays just a regular day. Its raining so its nice and cool. Tomorrow´s zone conference. I have a 1 in 3 chance about to see anybody I know in the mission, including Elder Patterson. Pretty chill.
Anyways, thats the week. Enjoy! Hope its all swell back home. Keep up the good spirits! Hope the treatments are going well. Things are grand here! Wish me luck with the baptism. The church is true! Keep it real.
All the Best,
Elder Humphreys

PHOTOS!!

at the SLC temple

MTC district

Hermano Cooper and Elder Humphreys

Hermano Coles and Elder Humphreys

MTC Zone (all my MTC buddies)

a classroom at the MTC

the schedule we lived by

our bedroom the day we packed

our MTC zone President and wife

Elder Brad Payne (Ross's Uof A roommate), and Elder Ross Humphreys

the Kitchen of the first place we stayed in Paraguay

Elder Humphreys with the Paraguay Asuncion North mission President and his wife. 

Brother and Sister Madariaga

BAD WATER

¡Hola familia y amigos!
This week has been descent for sure. Sorry. My letter might be a little shorter today, cuz I got creative and transfered all my pictures off my camera onto a flash drive, and also tried to attach a couple. Hope you enjoy!
Actually, apparently I can´t attach too many. So I´ll send them off and make a new letter I guess...
Nevermind. Theyre loading. Apparently it´ll take some time. So I´ll tell about the week then.
Monday was chill. P-day is good. Wrote some letters. Shopped. We tried going to pizza hut, but after being ignored for a half hour we gave up and went to another restaurant. Lame. Whatever. The food was good there too.
Tuesday was Elder Lee´s birthday. Apparently he´s a pretty popular guy cuz everybody wanted a little bit of his time. We had district meeting which took up the whole morning, went to a fancy seafood lunch with a member of the ward and the sister missionaries from our ward, and then tried to be productive in the afternoon. Well, some guy needed an interview with Elder Lee which only took like an hour, then we had to go to someones house to give them treats for Elder Lee´s birthday (kinda wierd, but whatever), and then we had ward council, a party at Hna. Kimball´s house (she´s the american lady that works here. Very nice and loves having us over), and then we had to rush over to some members house where they had made Elder Lee 2 pizzas. We almost skipped that cuz it was getting late, but they put in a lot of work, so it was worth it. Anyways, the day seemed kinda unproductive but it was fun.
Wednesday we had lunch at one of the poorest houses in our area. I was scared. lol. Anyways, it turned out that he pretty much went all out for us and the meal was pretty descent. Thank goodness. On that note tho, I accidentally convinced one of the members that we talk to all the time that she wants to make us milanesa de mondongo (not sure if the spelling is right...). Point being, its like breaded/deepfried cow stomach. Oh gosh I´m scared. hahaha.  She says its good but I find it hard to believe. Whatever. I´m going to go into it with as open of a mind as possible. And if I puke everywhere, I´m sure she´ll understand. haha.
Anyways, my pics are loaded. I´ll finish on another email.

This isn´t working so well. lol. Sorry. No pics of Paraguay really. If there´s time I´ll send some. If not, next week. I´ll take a bunch of cool ones all week.
Anyways. The morning of wednesday was kind of a shocker. Not going to lie. But you know, at the same time its not like it was totally unexpected or anything. And so I managed to stay strong and focused. I think about it once and a while, but I´ve been able to not let it weigh me down or anything so thats good.
Wednesday night I also got the exciting news that I´d be going on divisions the next day. Basically the zone leaders split up once a week and go on splits with another comanionship and this was our lucky week. So I had to pack up everything I wanted for the next day, get on a bus and meet my new companion. Fortunately I got the one that speaks English, and Elder Lee got to stay in our area with the Spanish speaking zone leader. lol.
Thursday was really interesting. I got to see another part of the country where things our different. Fortunately it all went well and I enjoyed my time with Elder Burr. The area was quite different. Its kinda like the suburbs of the city I guess and its much poorer there. We had to cross a bridge made of two skinny trees spanning a river full of garbage in our non-hiking shoes. That was fun. We went to see one family who were so poor that they didn´t even have any chairs for us to sit on, and they sleep on the ground with only cardboard for a matress. We told them about tithing and fast offerings and they were perfectly fine with it. Its amazing how humble the poor people here can be. When we told the mother that we fast for 24 hours straight, she laughed and told us that the other week, she went 3 days straight without anything. Crasy. So apparently that won´t be an issue for her. The other crasy thing about the area was that just less than 2 years ago the church was giving out considerable amounts of donations from the bishops storehouse. Well, they considerably cut the expendatures, and it became apparent of who was there for the church, and who was there for the food. The area has whole streets worth of inactive members who never had a testimony and are near impossible to teach, all because the only reason they ever got baptized was for the food. Ridiculous.
Friday. Felt pretty dang sick. I don´t know if it was becuase Elder Burr kept accepting water from the people which probably gave me parasites, or if its like transfered pain from those at home with issues with their gutts. lol There was one glass of water that I had that was most definately from a glass that haden´t been washed for some time. Sick. But i didn´t know how to turn it down. Usually I just point at my waterbottle and say I´m good. But once they had given it to me it was too late. But I had stomach cramps and stuff for most of the next two days. Lame, but whatever. I´ll survive.
Saturday we had lunch with a family that is American. He works at the Embassy actually. Anyways, they´re super cool. For lunch they made me a ¨greenie meal¨ where all the stuff was green. Even the spagetti noodles. I told them how my mom had done that once. But I appreciated it more this time. Sorry mom!
We had buttloads of people lined up to go to church, but only like 1 out of 11 showed up. After he left early we found a guy off the street to come in. Kinda cool. Anyways, our goal this week is to actually get people to keep their word. People say they´ll be home or go to church but they never do.
Anyways, no more time. I´d tell you about our investigators but that´ll have to wait. Things are great. I´m loving my time here. Hope you´re all feeling well. Keep having faith. I was in on the fast too and I feel optomistic. The Church is true!
Elder Humphreys

WEEK 2

Hola! ¿Como estan?

So the week has been really good. I´m glad you actually got my letter last week. I sent it and right about then the Internet cut out on me. Had to get it all transferred to a flash drive and onto a computer that was working. It was messy but it apparently worked. Thank goodness. Elder Lee was kinda shocked by how much I wrote, but I plan on outdoing that today since I have a like 10 more minutes than last time.

Yup. I´m in Asuncion. Its pretty chill here. I can never really remember what I said last time and I can´t be bothered to look it back up, but yah. According to Elder Lee, this area isn´t at all like any other area in the mission. A lot of the people actually have a fair bit of money (not if they were to change it into Dollars maybe, but with things being cheaper and compared to others here they have a lot.). It seems to actually be somewhat of a problem. It makes it harder for us to get into peoples houses for sure for a couple of reasons: The people aren´t as humble it seems, the people usually just have maids there during the day that we can´t really talk to cuz they´re supposed to be working, and because they all have huge fences and gates that are easier to hide behind than a piece of plywood that makes us the houses in the poor area. The other problem of sorts is that some of the richer and poorer people dont really talk that much. After church everyone just files out and its over. So we´re trying to think of ways to break down social barriers and get the people more united. Then hopefully they´ll be more helpful in the missionary work.

We get fed by members almost every day. They invite us over to their houses and give us a meal. Some of them are deffinately better than others, but so far I havent had anything too bad. The same people feed us the same days every week and so they all have enough money to provide a meal. So I haven´t had to worry about really overeating or anything either. I just clear off my plate and its good. One lady (actually american and doing a mission herself) even fed me a salad full of onions. I ate them all. Bit them in half and swallowed them in big long strips without chewing. lol

The heat is ridiculous. It hasnt even gotten all that bad apparently, but I´m constantly wiping off my face/forehead. Its sick. I´ll let you know its doing wonders for my complexion too. haha. But yeah. I´m just dealing with it. It looks like by the second summer it wont be a big deal really. And it looks like it actually will get a little chilly here. We sleep with the window open and my feet will get cold enough to wake me up if they aren´t well covered. So come winter I´ll probably want a thicker blanket. Elder Lee says occasionally you even wear gloves, but we´ll see if I ever go that far.

Haven't really gotten sunburned though... I wore sunscreen a day or two, but I basically don´t bother. I´d just sweat it off anyways. lol. I´m starting to get a tan for sure, but its not all that great yet. It seems like its hot here, but the sun isn´t as brutally powerful as in other places I´ve been. I really wish I was coming home in like February or something tho. It´d be so sick to have the most ridiculous tan ever, as well as step off the plane into -30 degree weather. But oh well. I´m sure I´ll have a descent tan anyways.

The housing is descent. Its just me and Elder Lee in our little house thing. We live on the floor above this Catholic family that we aren´t allowed to share the gospel with really. But they´re really nice. We have a small kitchen that we only really use to wash out our cereal bowls. Is kinda got this problem with little cockroach things, but I´m working on cleaning it all out and debugging it with this super bug-spray stuff they give us. The rest of the house consists of a small living room kinda area, a room with 2 desks and a huge dresser thing for me. The other room has two matresses on the floor, 2 chairs and Elder Lee´s dresser. A bathroom with a beday (I don´t know how to spell that. A bum washer thing). We don´t use it. Its filthy. lol. But besides the kitchen there aren´t really any bugs or problems like that. I don´t know if its cuz we´re in the city or what, but Elder Lee said that its more like March or so when the Tarantulas come out. Not excited for that. lol

I haven´t really thought all that much about Christmas yet. If it can wait then I´ll let you know of a couple things that I´ve thought of that we can´t get here that I´d love. But nothing comes to mind right now. I´m sure anything would be great. I realized that I could email some pics back if you want and transfer them to a flash drive too. So I´ll do that next week.

Other things I thought of that are kinda interesting about Paraguay that I thought I´d share: Our clothes are washed by a lady in our ward. BY HAND. lol. Kinda shocked me the first time I realized that. She scrubs them all with a big old brush and hangs them up to dry. Pretty crasy. Its kinda rough on the clothes I guess, but thats pretty much how its going to be for the rest of the mission so hopefully they make it. If not, I guess I´ll send off a Mr. Mac´s order or something...
Taps here consist of a single temperature and on/off handle thing. The temperature it gives is what you get. The showers have little electric heaters on them so you can have a decently warm shower, but thats it. Elder Lee was excited when he remembered that theres a warm and cold option on the water back home. haha.
People have a heck of a time saying my name. I don´t know what I´m going to do about that... I´ve tried saying it regular, I´ve tried pronouncing it in spanish. Both ways, nobody can do it and they basically just give up. Elder Lee said that I can change it to being Elder Colton or Elder Ross maybe even but I don´t know. For now I just basically mumble it out and hope they don´t care.

Anyways, I should probably talk about the week. Apparently we need to leave a little early so I´ll try and do it quick...

Made my first stellar contact this week. She immediately let us in and listened intently to everything. Looked golden. Well we went back the next time and she told us that she never wants to see us again. Wow. Stab in the heart. Her excuse was that she was really offended when Elder Lee wouldn´t let her mom pull the kiss each cheek trick on him. But I think it was more just family pressure to not talk to us. Depressing cuz she looked so promising. But there was no talking sense into her. Maybe some other time..

Our main investigator is a guy named Daniel. Just lost his job and was looking for a change in his life. He´s been to church twice now, has had a 2 hour talk with the bishop, and says he wants to be baptized. We´ve even showed him the font. It looks right now that if anyone is going to get baptized its him. Theres a very interesting lady in our ward that tried to tell us that if we had any sense at all that we´d baptize him right away, without even teaching him the lessons or anything before we missed our chance. haha. Funny lady. But I think we have a pretty good idea of what we´re doing. lol

There are a couple other people we´ve been teaching regularly, but mostly we´re just trying to meet people and start sharing the gospel with those who have shown interest. The area is pretty old apparently and I think in the last year they´ve gotten a total of 6 baptisms. So its not as abundent as the rest of the mission but we´re trying our best, working with what we´ve got. Havening a good time and not letting ourselves get discouraged.

I don´t know if I metnioned last time, but everyone here drinks one of two drinks all the time Mate, and Terede (spelling?). You see people sittin around just drinking the stuff at all times of the day. Have nothing else better to do. lol. Its basically just like grass that you pour either hot or cold water on and drink. Pour, pass and drink. For hours. haha. We´re not supposed to drink it cuz a) you waste hours, and b) i think it doesnt do too well with missionary stomaches. But yesterday I got to have something similar. Made with hot sugarized milk over coconut. Pretty good stuff. Fortunately we checked and its legit. lol

Anyways, I´m sure there is lots I´d love to tell you more about but no more time. Things are great. I got a good attitude, trying my best and being as obedient as I can. Its great being a missionary and I´m loving seeing people progressing. The language is comeing slow and steady, but at least I´m starting to understand the accent and such. But I gotta run. Keep being missionaries back at home!

Love you lots, miss you tonnes!

Elder Humphreys