Monday, August 29, 2011

ELDER HUMPHREYS COMPLETES 1 YEAR ON THE MISSION WITH MIXED FEELINGS

HOLA! Wow I´m dumb. I just deleted everything that I wrote you. Fortunately it wasn´t that much.... As I was saying, glad to hear that everything went well with the trip, that you all got home safely and that you had a blast. Sorry that the fotos I sent didn´t work. I´m trying to send them again, but we´ll see how it goes. I didn´t bring my camera again with me.... if not, next week. Thanks for the ones you sent though. Super cool. I hope you´re planning a very similar trip again in about 2 years, so that the next time you can enjoy it agian, with Elder Humphreys! That´d be fun. My favorite part of course was when you made the quick stop at ROSS: Dress for Less. But I´m sure the rest of it was Almost as cool. Wierd to think that summer past so quickly and that you´re all going back to school. messed Up! Have fun! lol. Also crasy to hear that Marissa drove all the way to rexburg, and that you´ll be one member of the family down again. But yeah. Fun Stuff!

Anyways, I´m sorry to say that my week didn´t have anything all that exciting to report. Obviously it went good and we worked hard, but we didn´t go on any extravagent vacations again or anything like that. The silliest part was probably when Elder McCain got splashed by a car that drove by through a puddle. He got all wet. haha. I tried not to laugh at him or anything, because I was definately glad that I wasn´t in that situation. But its something I´ve been waiting my whole life to see, and it finally happened. But thats just ridiculousness.

The highlight of the week was probably this Sunday. I tied my all time record for non-members in church, and we also had a pretty good turn out of members. Some of them were people that don´t look like they´ll be able to get baptized any time soon, but oh well. A couple of them were some of our best investigators that finally came and I think they really liked it. Thank goodness. Went really well. I also gave a talk when our speakers didn´t show up. Talk about D+C 88:74-81. Good stuff.

Also got to do a bunch of Noche de Hogar´s (FHE´s) with people this week. Watched the new D+C videos. I don´t know if you´ve seen them yet, but they´re really good. My favourite is about a guy named John Tanner. A pioneer that gave up everything he had to the church after being miraculously healed by the priesthood. Super Legit.

Elder McCain had bad luck this week and got sick. Crasy because every comp that I´ve had basically has now had to miss a day of work at least for sickness while we´ve been together. Its like being with me makes people sick. haha. But fortunately I´m still good and healthy. Doing my excercises, trying to drink clean water etc. Its good. Keep praying for me will ya?, because its definately working and I appreciate it lots.

Super duper wierd because this week I completed 1 year since the day that I checked into the MTC. Wierded me out a little bit. On one hand it feels like I´ve been gone a really long time. That this is the only life I can really remember having, and that I´ve been away from my family for a LONG time. But at the same time, it kinda feels like just yeasterday that I checked into the MTC and that its gone by WAY too fast. Ít´ll just be tomorrow when I leave. Wierd to think that I´m over the hill and already on my way out. lol. Its been good though to do some thinking about where I was, how I´ve improved as a person and missionary and where I want to go in the next year or so that I got left. I really think that in this short time I´ve changed a lot. And almost all for the better. Its been really good. I wish that I could have done even more with the time I´ve had, but I´m excited to make year 2 even better than year one.

Also another random note, but I found out that basically nobody in my group will be leaving the day that we would normally leave. Everybody is either leaving early for work or school, or staying later to tour around. So thats nice. I won´t be missing out on the party when my group leaves. But thats still a LONG ways away. Staying focused on the present.

One of our members is really sick right now. She has diabetes, and she got bit by her cat the other day and has this big infection. And she doesn´t have money to get to Asuncion to go to the doctors. Not cool. But we had a nice little talk where I got to talk about trials and afflictions in her life, and how the Lord would help her through her problems. Related that a lot to problems that I´ve had or seen as of late in my own life.

Taught a lot of English this week. Got to do a mini division with one of the members. Went fantastic. Talked to Elder Patterson agian. Sounds like he´s doing swell and that he´s got a really good comp. Some kid that i´ve talked to before died in San Pedro the other day after he got drunk and a security guard shot him. Kinda crasy because this town is usually SUPER tranquilo. Happy B-day to Aunt Stephanie by the way. Besides that, a really tranquilo week. Went well. This week President Arnold (Area 70) from the first quorum of the 70 is coming to talk to us. Should be exciting. The last time he came he made everyone feel bad for not being better missionaries, but at the same time, really helped us out. I imagine that that is what will happen this time. lol. Hopefully he doesn´t make us feel like tooooo big of failures. Aparently his testimony is POWERFUL, so that should be good though. Wish us luck! haha.

Anyways, love you lots, hope the week goes well. HAVE FUN IN SCHOOL! haha. Talk to you next week!

Love,

Elder Humphreys

Monday, August 22, 2011

Quite the Week

Our ride.




 Concepcion Trip Gang


The Temple
 

 Noisy and crowded bus ride to temple

Hola! Hows everybody doing? Glad to hear that the trip is going fantastically, and that youre all safe and having a great time. Not going to lie, I´m a little jealous because it sounds super legit. But thankfully we had a great week here, and so I don´t feel too bad. Thanks for all the cool updates. Now I´ll have a good idea of what there is fun to do there for when I get back. lol. I´d respond to all the things, but there´s so much to talk about that I think I´ll just say that it all sounds super cool. Hopefully things keep going great and you can finish off the trip strong.
As for me.... The biggest highlight of the week for sure is that we FINALLY completed our goal of getting people to see the temple. The preperations sure came with a lot of opposition, but in the end, it all turned out fantastically, and I´m proud to say that I think that the ward is going to be a LOT stronger and unified after such a trip.
But yeah. As for last weeks letter being all rushed. Sorry about that. Hopefully that doesn´t happen again. Things I forgot to say; Happy Birtdhay Blake! Sorry its a little late. Also, I think I may have forgotten to wish Whitney and Steven happy birthdays (?). Sorry. I didn´t forget about you all.... its just coming a little late.... lol. Found out that there was an article in the Liahona September 1993 that talks about Paraguay. Not sure if we have one of those sitting in the grandparents basement or anything. The coolest part is just the fact that I actually know a couple of the people in it. Legit. Also, I forgot to mention that Grandpa filled me in on how Tanis and the family are doing, and just wanted to say that I´m really glad that they´re all doing well, and that everything turned out well with that. Crasy.
Tuesday was really kinda rough. Things werent going well in regards to our plans on the temple trip. The people who promised us money for the bus weren´t pulling through on us. Some of the people weren´t as ready as we were hoping they would be. This that and the other. We almost cancelled. But after a companionship prayer for a little guidance, and bunch of thinking, a couple phone calls for advice, and some patience, we got our heads all wrapped around it again, and we decided to go all in and just do it. Im happy to say that in the end, I´m almost positive that we made the right choice, and that the spirit was really helping us out.  Once we made it official, we put 110% into getting that done. We had to teach temple prep to one of the members every day of the week, but I´m glad to say that by the end the two that went through were very much ready and had an excellent time, and understanding of what they were doing /did. Also, Tuesday morning was all stressfull because we did a survey by the church about how well we do things. It definately pointed out room for improvement. lol. But its nice too, because I think this week I applied what I learned well and I´m working even better now.
Had brocoli for the first time in about a year. Definately took it for granted back at home. Good stuff. Also learned that not only do I speak English with a Canadian accent, but that Canadianness is going over into my Spanish too. Something to work on. lol
Wednesday was kinda cool. I read in my studies in the Liahona about how some people think that no man can see god. I thought that that was wierd because I´ve never heard that before. Well that very afternoon some guy asked me that. Crasy. Fortunately I knew that that was just a mistranslation of the bible, and that moses, isaiah etc. had all seen god, and could set the guy staight. Kinda interesting. Did some service too.... Except there weren´t enough machete´s so I basically just got to watch. lol. But I took advantage of it and got to talk to a non member so that was good. The coolest part though was on the way home we heard some people following us. Well thats not usually very cool, so we walked faster. And then they walked faster. Well, in the end it just got awkward, so I had to turn around and see what was up. lol. Turned out it was a lady about 25 years old from France who realized we were foreigners and just wanted to talk. She was here with the UN and we had a cool conversation. She was really interested in what we were all about and so we taught her a quick lesson in the street. She was really into it, and all anti catholic. lol. Disapointing because she left town like the next day, but I told her that she should talk to the misionaries again some time. Hopefully planted a seed or something. And then right after that some other guy called us over and said that he heard us talking and wanted to hear our message too. So that was  afun way to end the night.
Friday was a disaster. We spent the whole day on the phone. Looking for membership records, lineing up rides, and making sure everything was good with the temple and the distribution center etc. Madness.
But it all became worth it for Saturday. We met up at the church at 3:30. I sent a picture of our ¨bus¨. It was kinda crappy, but fortunately it made the trip all right. Had a mess where a bunch of people last minutely dropped out on us, but fortunately in the end we filled exactly every seat in the bus (and a couple extras). Not too many, not too few. We had a total of 14 go. 2 nonmembers. 2 people went to do the endowments. That was super cool, because I thought last change that I was out, but instead, I got to see all the people I taught about the temple actually make it there. On the way, we had to stop in Santani so the people could get interviews, and then had to have the ones with the mission presidency when we got to Asuncion. Thankfully everyone passed. Got to Asuncion around 12ish. Then we went all out shopping and bought a ton of stuff at the distribution centre. I had to buy a lot of ¨gifts¨for people, but fortunately I came prepared and still have a bunch of money for the month. Oh, I forgot. On the way there.... the driver, may or may not have paid off  a cop or two.... lol. I didn´t realize till it was too late. Its crasy how natural it was though. Sad to see thats how things go. Anyways, we were able to get everything done and into the temple on time. It was a TINY bit rushed for the two that did the endowments to get into the session on time, but they didn´t mind too much. I got to be the ¨acompañante¨ for Joel (Caballero), and Victorina (Franco), went with one of the temple workers. They are the first two people here in San Pedro to do their endowments, so that was really cool to know that the two of us Elders were able to help history go down here lejos. lol. Everybody LOVED the temple. Even those that werent ready to go inside. Every one was just glowing. And since, they´ve all told us about how much better they feel, just happier, lighter and more peaceful. Hopefully they can all go back soon. We made it home alive. I basically had to go the whole way home on the floor, but it didn´t really matter to me. I was just so happy that everything worked out so well. I could deffinately see how the Lord answered our prayers and fasting and that he had his hand in the whole trip.
Anyways, I´m WAY out of time, but I just really wanted to let you all know how it went. Church was kindof a disaster because it was A)cold and B) we didnt get home till late and everybody slept right through church. haha. But oh well. Next week will go fantastically. Glad to hear that things are good with you. I´m doing fantastically. 1 week and a day from now we have a meeting with President Arnold of the 70. Its going to be crasy. I´m excited for another good week. Its nice and cold and so for once I haven´t been sweating again. Excited to hear how your trip finishes off. Thanks for the letters and pictures. I loved them. Love you lots, choose the right and remember that Heavenly Father really answers our prayers!
Love,
Elder Humphreys

 

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

The Quickest letter You´ll ever get...

Wow. This didn´t work out well. I tried to write earlier this morning, but your letter hadn´t showed up yet. So we waited and now I have to catch my bus in 15 min and I still haven´t written President yet. So sorry if this letter is kind of lame. I feel bad after having recieved such an expensive one of my own. I still haven´t read all of your letter yet for the sake of time, but i´ll print it off. Glad you´re all having fun. Looks like a blast!

Thankfully this week was pretty tranquilo and I don´t have all that much to report. We recovered nicely from our long trip last sunday, and all is good. I realized that my shoes are starting to take the toll of one year of walking though. Thats no good. Made a wise super glue purchase, and hopefully things should continue to hold up for a while still. Crasy to think that I almost have a whole year already!

Dang it. I didn´t happen to take very good notes of what happened this week either. For interesting foods, I had Parsley juice (don´t think I´ve had that before), and I´m working on getting some eel or armadillo meat so that we can have a feast with some investigators. I almost got tricked into drinking soda out of a dirty wine glass, too, but thats a different story. Thankfully our investigator was watching out for me. lol

Probably one of my biggest highlights of the week was a call from Elder Call. He called to wish me a happy birthday, but even cooler than that is that he let me know that one of our investigators from back when I was in Mariano has since given up smoking, drinking and got married. His baptism should supposedly be this week. SUPER cool. He didn´t really progress for a while, but something always seemed to hold us back from ¨dropping¨him and not visiting anymore. So thats legit. I´m excitied to visit them again in a year here. Hes even got his own car which is really awesome, and I can see him being a leader in the church in the not too distant future.

Our investigators are progressing nicely too which is great. We´re going to see if I get changed tonight, but I hope not. Looks kinda probable though. I dunno. Had an investigator walkto church on his crutches and I think he liked it. Another kid who´s about 19 years old and super legit has been reading the scriptures a ful, and agreed to live the law of chastity and the word of wisdom, things that are often hard for kids his age to change rapidly. Its been going good like that.

We´ve also been helping the members a lot and trying to get ready to go to the temple this Saturday (IF I don´t get changed, I´ll be able to go too :). Today we got the devestating news that supposedly there isn´t any money for us to go all of a sudden, but Presidente Madariaga is working on it. We´ll be praying a ton. Hopefully that goes well.

Anyways, I´m sorry for such a short update. We´ve been in Santani all night. Good times. Hope you´ll all forgive me. Things are going good. Hopefully I´ll have more time to write next week. Thanks for the expensive letter. I am going to really enjoy it. Btw, got Grandpas letter. Thanks! I really liked it. And some others too for which I´m always apreciative for. And My packages are in the office, and I´m super excited for those in a week or two. Anyways, gotta run. Love you!!!!

Elder Humphreys

Monday, August 8, 2011

Elder Humphreys -- Old Man


Elder Humphreys and Elder McCain

Hey everybody. Hows life. You can read this letter in a slightly depressed voice this week if you want. Just because I´m an old guy now, and nobody likes growing old. At least not me. I wanted to be a kid forever! lol. But really. Growing up has its ups. Its also got its downs. We had a good week, but it started out on a bad note, with me finding out that my old age is catching up with me - my metabolism must be slowing down or something - turns out I´m a full 15 to 20 pounds heavier than when I checked in to the MTC. At this rate, I´ll be a full 30 more by the time I get home. I tried putting my CTR ring on that I took off a while back (apparently we aren´t supposed to wear rings), but my fingers are chubbier now and I couldn´t get it on. haha :( You probably won´t be able to recognize me... just look for the kid thats too fat for his clothes. haha. Hopefully that skipping rope gets here soon. lol.

But on a happier note! (don´t dwell on the bad stuff right?). This week went really well. Kinda messy and full of traveling, but I enjoyed it. Monday was district meeting. Meant we had to get up early and take more than 8 hours of buses in one day (the one on the way there broke down on us. Twice). But it was fun. Got to work a little bit in Santani, and found a cool new investigator for them. The coolest part though was deffinately the ride home, when I got the front seat on the double decker bus. Super cool view. lol

Tuesday I got to go on a division with Elder Aguilar from Caguazzu, Paraguay. That was fun. Hes got less time than  me on his mission, and he´s waiting on his papers to go on his ¨real¨ mission in Portugal, but in the end, he really knows whats up and how to be a missionary. Had a super successfull day and found a real cool family that I wouldn´t be suprised if they all got baptized. We´ll see what happens. This very well might be my last week here in San Pedro... we´ll see how changes go.. I don´t want to leave. I really like it here. But, we´ll see what happens. Wednesday we used up half the day getting our comps back. Divisions out here are ridiculous. But I enjoyed it, and I´d say it was worth it.

Turns out we have rats or mice. They ate my soup mix while we were in Santani. Not fun.

This week president was telling us that we´ve been having a hard time finding new investigators as a mission, and just opening our mouths. So me and Elder McCain really tried to apply that this week, and we had some good success. We found a couple new investigators because I wasn´t afraid to just open up and talk my way through a potentially slightly awkward encounter with some new investigators, and we also got to do my first real service project here in San Pedro. It was legit. Gave us the oportunity to do some good talking with an inactive member, and when dad comes to visit, he´ll be able to see the super legit fence that I helped make. Good stuff! Its hard to find people that will let you serve them, but its always super rewarding when you can.

Friday we were working on getting everything organized for our ward trip to district conference in Concepcion, about 6 hours away. Lots of people said that they would go, but in the end, Satan was doing his best, and a lot of people couldn´t go for various reasons. But it was cool to see how the conference applied to our members needs in so many ways. But before we left, one of the members got pretty sick. Gave us the opportunity to give a blessing. Also, it was kinda wierd because for the first time yet in my mission, I´m in an area where I´ve had more time than my comp, and I can actually speak. So scarily enough, I was asked to give the blessing. I´ve got the anointing part mastered, because I´ve done that tonnes of times, but this was new for me. I think it was the first time that I´ve ever given one. But it went well. Havent´had a chance to talk to the lady since, but hopefully she´s feeling lots better. First time for everything.

As I was saying though, we took a big ward trip. It was fun. We left at 2 in the morning and travelled all night long to the conference. Had 12 people total, including us, and 2 non members. It went really good. I liked getting to see a new part of paraguay. There was also an area 70 in the conference and some really good talks. I think it was something really good for all the members there. Deffinately a success. But that meant that for my birthday, I got to eat a lot of junk food on the bus, and didn´t sleep good at all. But I wouldn´t have had it any other way. It also meant that a lot of our members were able to get their temple interviews done, and wé´re getting all ready to go to the temple on the 20th. I´m hoping that I´ll be here to see them all go......

Talked a little to Elder Patterson due to my b-day too. That was nice. He´s doing great as always.

But yeah. All in all my birthday went great. I don´t appreciate being so old though. I LOVED the vid that you sent. Glad to see everyone looking so happy and eating great food. lol. I´m glad that you all haven´t forgotten how to sing. hahaha. I also loved the pictures of the baby. How exciting. Weird that I didn´t know he was coming when I left, and that he´ll be all big and grown up by the time I get back. Cool name though. As for my package - still in the office. But I´ll get it soon enough. I´m excited! Funny that Marissa lost her camera... again. lol. But glad that the week sounded good. When did you say that you´re all going to California again? I thought that that was this week.... Glad that Levi isn´t dead, and that you had a good time with the Christensens. They were nice. I like visiting them.

But yeah. Gotta run. Out fo time as usual. Thanks for the letters. I loved them. Keep it real, have a great week, and be good missionaries! Love you lots!

Elder Humphreys

Monday, August 1, 2011

Last week as a teenager

HOLA! (sorry, the shift key isn´t working today at all). glad that you guys had such a fun week! it looked like a blast. Thanks for the photos. they were super cool. everybody´s just growing up so fast! haha. sounds like it was a fantastic week full of great food, and camping and the like. traditions that need to be kept up until at least after i get home. sounds like life is just one fun crasy party after another! EFY this week? California the next. I´d say that that definately makes up for living through a whole year of school. haha. glad to hear that you´re all being fire safe, keeping your shoes dry (for the most part. haha), and taking sick shots (i did like that canoe one too. trippy). haha. we´re going to go and eat japanese food in this place some day for sure. maybe we´ll find a paraguyan place, but like i´ve said before, the food here really isn´t that.....special? spectacular?....good? lol. I like the food, but i just can´t see an authentic paraguayan restaurant every making it very big back at home. haha. good thing dad will at least get to come and try it all out. and for the most part, i think we´ll be able to recreate most of it when i get back so no worries. I learned about how to cook a cow head (including brains and the like) the other day, so maybe we could try that? i hear heads are pretty cheap... lol.

Thanks for all of the birthday wishes! how exciting. I basically was imagining that everyone would forget about it. I basically did. should be fun though. I haven´t heard anything about my package yet but I´ll let you know. like you said, it will probably still be a while before i get it because i´m so far from the office, but hopefully it´ll get here soon. apparently they charge us to get them sent to us now from the office, so I might have to wait till next time I go in.... we´ll see. :S. But either way I´m super excited! how fun.

This week was pretty good. Me and my comp are getting to know each other better, working more smoothly. having fun. We´re working really hard now so that the members can get to the temple in a couple weeks, but we´ll see if i´m still around to see my dreams fulfilled. There are only 2 weeks left in the change, and it looks like i might be out in a new area for the next one. but yeah. good stuff. we´re trying hard to get stuff done, and hopefully we´ll be able to see some success in time.

This last weekend I mastered the rubix cube, just so´s you all know. Its official. but then i retired so that it didn´t keep me away from my work. i was getting addicted so i had to stop. haha. how geeky, i know. lol. We also had some shadow like roddent in the house, but it left before we could do anything to it. kinda scary. i just saw its shadow. fortunately nothing has bugged us since.

Went to a couple of birthdays this week. Paraguayans go all out for birthdays. Balloons, little tables and snacks and decorations. Every kid from the neighborhood is there. They spend a whole months worth of money on the thing. Its ridiculous. We stopped in just to show our support, but they were kinda lame and awkward. I deffinately feel like i´m starting to fit into my old person role now. Mind you, the kids were 1 and 9, but still. I felt old.

had a funny experience were we went to an inactive members house. They told me they were busy. I verified that they were members. They denied it all. apparently they´re going to another church. it was ridiculous. i couldn´t get her to admit to being baptized. hopefully they have a change of heart or something because they just lied to my face. thankfully i´ve learned to be really patient as of late, and i just laughed it off. On the other hand though, we had a really cool experience with one of our best investigators. he was praying one night like we taught him and he all of a sudden knew what he had to do to get out of his financial/personal difficulties. we went over and he told us all about how god really answered his prayer, and how he acted on it and all things just turned out for him. really cool. he´s still working on getting a testimony of what we share with him, but he has all the desires in the world, and so hopefully him and his wife will be able to get the answer that they need and continue on.

also had another cool experience with one investigator we have. she´s been really sick lately with a stomach infection. i was able to read a part in the scriptures to her in mosiah 24 that mom had shared with me, about how we just need to put our faith in god, and that he will lift our burdens for us, even though he won´t neccesarily take them away, and then how they help us to grow and be stronger.

had a suprise visit from president saturday morning. for a second i thought we´d be going out to work with him (stressfull!), but he just came to give elder mccain his quarterly interview and so that the hermana could check out or new house. It was nice to have a nice visit from them.

Random note - my new favorite Cd ever: Spirit by alex boye. some guy that has his own mormon messages thing. good stuff. if you like EFY stuff, thats where its at.

sunday was kind of a disaster because it rained all night and morning. the streets were all mud, peoples houses were all wet, and only 6 people came to church in the end (including us). ouch. we´re going to go around this week and talk with people about keeping the sabath day holy, EVEn when it rains. but we had sacrament meeting as normal. it was different but nice. you can always feel the spirit at church, even when there are only a couple of you.

anyways, gotta roll. Thanks for the photos and letters. I´m going to try and enjoy my last week as a kid. hope everything keeps going good and you all continue having fun. Love you lots, and write you next week!

Love,

Elder Humphreys