Hey there everyone. Hope things are doing well at home. Things are doing surprisingly well here considering everything thats happened this week. I´ve been able to keep up good spirits and work despite all of the challenges. Its been kinda weird because of how blessed I´ve been to be able to spend so much time on the phone talking with my family. Its just too bad that it couldn´t have been due to better circumstances...
Ah. One thing I want to remember though. Happy Birthday Uncle Craig! Hope that goes well. I´m pretty sure that´s this week....lol
What else. Oh yah. Dad: Went to the office this morning. Didn´t have the opportunity to spend much time talking to the President because he was all busy and whatnot, but I did check for the package... nothin. Not sure. They only come in on Wednesdays and its not in the mail for tomorrow either so we´ll have to keep waiting. But I wouldn´t worry too much. It sounds like there haven´t been many packages come in to the office the last week so there must just be a bottle neck somewhere or something. But I can wait. Patience is one of the Christlike attributes that we are supposed to work on. lol. Got a chance to print out a bunch of old emails there too, so that was nice. Especially because it was free instead of 40 cents a page. And yah. Didn´t talk to the president. But in my email today I said thanks for the opportunity and that he can call me about it. If not, I´ll be sure to call him in a day or two.
But yah. Its been kind of a wierd week. Just being a little bit in a state of shock about everything. But at the same time, it hasn´t prevented me from working. The president told me that we could take Friday off, but we just stayed in for the morning. Read some old letters from home, looked at pictures. Did some deep thinking. I´ve been feeling okay. Its been kind of a weird, surreal experience being here in Paraguay. I understand what has happened and that things are going to be really different from now on. But at the same time, I´m kind of isolated here and so my life hasn´t been too drastically altered at the present time. So its just kind of a wierd situation of feeling. I think I´m going to watch the funeral if it all works out so that I can feel like I´m more of a part of everything back at home. Sorry that I couldn´t come home and be with you all there like I would love to. But I know that this is where the Lord wants me and that its also where mom would want me to be, doing what I should be doing. Its all a little hard to put down in words, but things are going well. I think its been a really great blessing for me to be out here during all this. Its been a real blessing for me to have no regrets, and to think of all my memories as of late with mom, and to know that we haven´t had one argument, that we´ve been able to share how much we love each other every time we´ve talked, she knew I´ve been working hard/being obedient etc. etc. So theres been lots of thinking and a few tears, but I´ve been blessed to be comforted by the spirit and to be able to continue on. One of the things that has actually been on my mind a lot is how hard it must be for everybody back home, and so I want you all to know that I´ve been thinking about you, praying for you, and wish you all the best. I´ve had my testimony strengthened a lot on the power of the spirit in his role as the comforter, and in my testimony of the Plan of Salvation. I know that although things are hard now, that everything will be okay in the long run.
Just as a heads up, I´m also going to warn you all that these letters might start getting shorter and boring-er, just because the main reason I worked so hard on making them so good was for mom, because I knew she really appreciated them. But just tell me if I need to kick it up a notch again and I´ll see what I can do. Another blessing I´ve been able to pull out of this week is that I´ve been able to start writing more faithfully in my journal again, and writing more personal and meaningful things. So thats been nice.
Besides all this I guess I could share some interesting points from this week.... We found the other elders in our ward a new house with AC and such, and then helped them move in. We´re really jealous and wished the house was a little closer to our area so we could justify living there. Fortunately our house has been cooler lately cuz there has been a lot of rain and clouds. The only downside to that is that my shoes have been really wet and muddy and I´ve had to carry around my umbrella. But I´m not complaining. The week was a little challenging as far as the missionary work goes because of the holidays and such again. Lots of drunk people and fireworks for the new year. But we were able to work hard regardless. It was funny because everyone I know woke up from all the fireworks, but apparently I´m a pretty sound sleeper because I didn´t even notice them. lol. This week the sisters in our ward were supposed to have a baptism. We went to do the interview for the investigator, they never showed. We went back the morning of the baptism and did it. And then the lady never showed up for the baptism. Weird.
Our investigator Diego seemed to progress a lot this week and I think that he´ll get baptized pretty soon here. He went to all 3 hours of church and then a youth fireside about sharing the gospel with your friends. He also came and played soccer with us bright and early again this morning. So thats been good to see, especially with some of our other investigators falling apart on us (as they often do). Another progression I noticed this week was with my Spanish. Its still pretty rough, but in the fireside I was doing a practice with a couple of the youth while my companion worked with some others, and I found that although it wasn´t the smoothest communication, Í´ve progressed a lot and can actually communicate not too bad. So thats been nice to notice.
Fun experience that we sadly weren´t able to get a picture of - one day when it rained really hard there was a canal in our area that was full of super muddy water. As we walked by there were about 100 indian kids all playing in the nasty water just having a blast. Sliding down the banks. Swiming under the bridges. Shouting friendly ¨Mormon¨´s at us. It was really cool. We´re going to just hope it rains hard again so we can get pics.
So yah. Things haven´t been toooo bad. Had some good points amidst the bad. And even with the bad news I´ve been able to stay positive. Its hard at times, but I know we´ll all be able to make it through this. I´m really glad to be a missionary at this time, and to serve the Lord in this great country. This is going to be my only full year (Jan-Dec) in Paraguay, and I´m excited to make the best of it. Hopefully everything at home is well. Keep up the good spirits. I know the Lord loves us all individually and knows our needs. And we always have the spirit to be with us and comfort us through our hard times.
It´ll be nice to see you all at the funeral. Love you all. Talk to you again soon!
Elder Humphreys
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