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
Monday, November 29, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
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
Monday, November 15, 2010
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
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
Monday, November 8, 2010
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
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
Monday, November 1, 2010
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
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)