Araceli and her family (vivi´s friends) aswell
Cool Christmas present I got from a member
Our House
Us and Vivi
Friday, December 31, 2010
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
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
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
The chapel and the temple in Asuncion
The front of the Bible case.
And the Back of his Bible case.
Elder Humphreys and Elder Lee Paraguayan tourist attraction :)
Monday, December 13, 2010
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!
Monday, December 6, 2010
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
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
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