Office - week 2

Hey everybody. Hows the week been? Super weird that I have P-days on Saturdays now eh? If its easier, you can just write me on Sundays still if you want.... or if you got time, this afternoon cuz we'll probably still be in the office or whatever and I'll have time to check again. But only if you want of course. haha. But no worries. Elder Cerpa didn't get a letter from his family for a couple of weeks in a row, so I shouldn't complain. haha. But yeah. I guess this letter will give the update of week 2 in the office. Or I guess, the first full week working here. It went well enough.
Last Saturday was super swell. We ate the BEST burger that I've had in a long time at TGIFridays. Its weird to be eating classy again. I'm loving the food situation. We get food made for us here at the office every day (at a price of course), and then we get to pick up good stuff whenever we'd like. Its AWESOME. haha. Im going to get fat. Good thing we do our exercises. But yeah. P-days here are kinda different to say the least. After lunch there wasn't much to do, so we sat in the office and watched Mormon.org and lds.org vids. We'll probably do something similar today. lol. Lame. But we also have the van, so we also have the opportunity to have a little fun. I think they went to the zoo the week before I came. Today is all nasty and rainy though, so probably we'll wait till next week before we try having a BBQ or something like that. The fun things of the office.
Sunday was really different. I was warned that the church in this area wasn't as strong as you would imagine that it would be. But it kinda blew my mind to see 70 people in church, someone that knew how to play the piano, and the church run without the missionaries help again. Cool beans. Having to sit through 3 whole hours again though was kinda rough. haha. After the first hour and a half or so I was getting all anxious to go. lol. But there are a lot of good solid members in the ward. We're trying to work a lot more with them, and I think there is a lot more potential here than everyone gives it credit for.  While I'm on the topic, I don't actually mind the area all that much. Sure, there are a lot of rich, non-humble people that make working and contacting not that fun, but at the same time, its kinda nice to talk with well educated people that really know Spanish, and really understand things when you explain things to them. People that actually like and are willing to read when you leave things with them. People that will actually accept a baptismal invitation because they understand that we aren't obligating them to do anything, but that it only makes sense that when they come to know of the truth of what we share that they follow the example of Jesus Christ and get baptized. Cool stuff like that. Not that I didn't like things in my old areas, but there are just a lot of things that are different here, and a lot of them are a nice change.
But yeah. Working in the street is obviously only half of my full time job now. As for the office... its going not too bad. lol. I'm getting the hang of things a lot better lately. Still a little timid to make big decisions on my own, but Elder Cerpa's teaching me good. Hopefully I'll be all ready to go in the week and a half that we got together. I don't really have much of a choice. lol. Basically my job consists of giving people money when they have something to be reimbursed, filling forms on the computer about all the receipts and paperwork, and printing out checks either for people that we are buying stuff from, or checks so we can get money out of the bank to give out as needed. Really exciting stuff. lol. We'll see how it continues to go. As of right now, its not too boring just yet because its still all kinda new for me. But I can see it getting a little repetitive in the future. But, you never know.... Maybe it'll just give me the inspiration and experience that I need to find out that my ideal future is in finances and accounting...... but I doubt it. haha. I also get/have to sign my name about 100 times a day. Its too bad that I still got the ugliest signature in the world. Something to work on.
Now this is the hard part. To think of exciting things to tell you about the week....... lol. There are a couple things I guess, but nothing that should really get you all excited about. Such as, I got to go to the hospital. AGAIN. Man, I hate that place. Sooooooo boring. And, believe it or not, it was for my comp. Again. haha. I've been SUPER lucky with good health. He just had some little problem with his foot, so no big deal. But yeah. Thats lame story number 1.
Got a package this week. LEGIT! Thanks sister Mysyk! All of the other guys in the office were super jealous of the T. lol. So thats fun. Along with that, I also realized how cool the Ensign is. I saw the Ensign, and put it to the side because I had already read the Liahonna from the same month. And then I realized that they weren't exactly the same. The Ensigns got so many more cool articles. Not sure why. But all I can say is that you North American people should feel yourselves lucky to have the Ensign. Good stuff.
Also, the best thing in the office - the AC. Oh, Im loving it. haha. I've gone from being the sweatiest guy in Paraguay to the coolest and driest. Feels fantastic. hahaha  Also cool - DearElders come super fast. I got one the was sent only 4 days earlier. How cool is that. And, just so yall remember, only the emails have a special day to be sent on. The others can be sent any old day of the week. But only if you feel like it. Not that I need any more mail. Just if you really love me. hahah. It'll still take like a month in the mail and however long it takes me to write to get them back though.
Met a lot of crasy ladies this week. I don't know why, but there are a ridiculous number of crasy people that are in love with missionaries here. But thankfully everyone here are good missionaries and we avoid them. Makes for some funny stories though.
Just got back from lunch. Fantastic. Super non-Chinese chinese food. Yum.
Happy Birthday to Diana btw. Sorry I missed it. Weird that everyone is getting so old. Is the wedding still going down? When will that be? Or did it already happen?
What else. Well, before, there were the 4 office elders AND the assistants working in the same area. But the ward boundries are pretty big. Anyways, for one reason or another, the assistants went off to work in Moroni, my first area. So thats kinda cool. They give me updates every week on the people that I used to know. That also means that the limits of our area changed. So we got a bunch of new area added on to ours. Thats really good because we went from having very few active members in our area, to having a descent amount. This week while we were getting to know our new area, we found a really cool person that we're teaching now. Shes only 14 but she was really interested and smart. When we came back the second time, we asked her if she read. We were expecting her to give us the usual "yeah, but only a bit" and not remembering anything about what she read. Well we were wrong. She told us all about the purpose of the book, the whole history of the book of mormon (with details about the people involved and everything), about Joseph Smith, and about Nephi's family and everything. It was crasy. So thats exciting. Found another guy this week too thats really cool. We'll see how he's doing tonight. We're definately seeing blessings even though we're in a hard area, and only are really able to give about half of our attention to the actual area. The hardest thing is for the people to give up the traditions that they've had for so long. They tell us about how they only really believe in things because they grew up with it, and agree with us when we talk about how those traditions are just traditions and that the gospel is more important. But then in the end, its still really hard for them to go away from their background and leave the ways of their families behind. But, we do what we can. Hopefully we can help the people to see how much more important these things will be for them, because its very easy to see (at least for me), how much better the lives are of the people that have the gospel in their lives, than those that don't. Everybody passes through similar problems, but the ones with the gospel pass them so much easier than those that don't have a solid foundation to fall back on.
But yeah. Not sure what else to say. Having a good time. The guys here are really good, and its fun being in the middle of everything. We basically get to know about everything that goes down in the mission and we know about all the new news before anybody else does. haha. Fun stuff like that. Besides that, not much more to tell you about. Maybe I'll try and send some photos. But, hope you're all doing well. Love you lots. Loving the misison. The church is true. Read your scrips! (lol)
Love ya!
Elder Humphreys
PS - Does the Song "Love comes First" from EFY 2011 sound like Taylor Swift to anyone else, or is that just because we haven't heard a real TSwift song in a long time? hahaha. We listen to that song ALL the time. Love it! lol