Howdy howdy. Who's excited for conference?!? I AM! lol. Glad to hear that you all had a great week. My week was.... kinda good too. haha. Congratulations to cache. Crasy that everyone is growing up so stinkin fast. Glad your trip to Edmonton and the like went superbly. Glad you liked the photo. I think we'll be making more in the future. Don't think we'll have an album ready any time soon, but we do occasionally make a "missionary chronicles" video every now and again to have a record of some of the crasy things that go down. This morning for instance, the whole road was completely flooded and was just a big old river running down the street. The sewer system could use a little help here. lol.
I liked the design for the stone btw. Its classy, the design looks legit, and I think it'll fit nicely. Good choice
Anyways, I guess I should explain myself. This week was... interesting. As I mentioned, this week was changes. Changes are usually pretty tranquilo.... if you aren't in the office. Otherwise.... its basically just madness. lol. The first few days were alright, but wednesday and thursday. UGH. haha. I don't think I've been that stressed or short tempered in a long time. haha. Good times. Thankfully we get a break for the next 6 weeks before we have to do it again. I think too that the biggest problem was that there was just SO MANY new kids (29 in total), that there was just so much to do. And it was the end of the month and nobody had money. Fortunately the biggest part of it is all over now. I'm just working on cleaning up all the messes that got made during the craziest parts. Speaking of which - I'm all on my own now. Elder Cerpa left, and its just me in charge of working the finances now. Crasy. I still can and do call him every now and again for advice and whatnot, but he's no longer here with me in every moment like he was before. Flying solo. Hopefully I don't mess anything up now, because I don't even have anyone left to lay the blame on if something goes wrong. hahaha. JKs.
But yeah. Monday was really tranquilo. Nothing to report there. Tuesday was were it all started. Fortunately it wasn't too stressful then. I got to go visit the south mission so we could borrow their van. That was kinda fun. Got to see a whole nother view on mission life. Their office is totally different. The people are different. The way things run are different. It was all just kinda different. Makes you glad to know that your calling was based on revelation, because it seems like even though the gospel will always be the same, and that the basics are always the same, the experiences that you have in other each mission are kinda different. Good to know that I'm in the place perfect for me, my needs, and the needs of the people here.
DANG IT. Bad time management on my part. Our pday is kinda getting all messed up with conference and stuff and now I'm not going to have nearly the same amount of time to write. NOOOO! Theres so many things to tell. We'll see what I can get to.
Anyways. Tuesday went well. There wasn't much for my job that day, and so I just went about helping. Got to go to the airport and pick up the newbies. Thats cool. To be part of somebodies first impression of Paraguay is cool (hopefully it was a good one). I got to be the tourguide for their first half hour in Paraguay. lol. Later, had to give a presentation on using money wisely, and how you get money out etc. Good stuff. Had a big old feast. That was super cool - the best part being that the guy who cooked it all was one of Elder Pattersons recent converts. SICK! Didn't talk to him much (mostly just about money), but I was super suprised when I found out. He cooks really good. lol.
Make a BIG mess up though either monday or tuesday. Man it was scary. Gmail asked me for my birthday just out of the blue when I logged on. Wasn't really expecting it and didn't think it important. Well I thought wrong. Being just an office email, I just decided to make whatever up. So I put in the 1st of Jan 2000. Well it turns out that people born on that day are still not 13 years old, and that people less than 13 years old are not authorized to have a gmail account. Locked out permanently. AH! Out of nowhere things went from being bien tranquilo to a big disaster. I use the email all the time, and even more, the attached callendar. I was freaking out. lol. Thankfully, rather than trying to hide my "sins" or ignore the fact that I had messed up, I manned up, got my comp to help me with it, and we were able to get it all worked out. It only took google 2 days or so to fix it. lol. But better late than never. Moral of the story: lieing isn't good. Don't do it. Even if its just to some stupid computer program. There are always consequences. haha.
But yeah. That was fun to be a part of everything. A bunch of the newbs slept in our house, which meant that I had to sleep on the floor but whatever, fun to be a part of all that. Wednesday on the other hand. Thats where the fun ended. haha. Probably one of the craziest days of my life. I showed up at the office and there was already a huge line of people that needed money. I had to help each and every one of them to have the money that they needed to pay their taxis and get to their new areas. And yeah... it coulda been worse. But then it did get worse when I realized that we were starting to get seriously short on money. I made sure I had extra before hand just for changes, but it wasn't nearly enough. With so many new guys and so many people getting changed I emptied it out SUPER fast. So I had to do all this super quick money managing with people to find ways for them to get home while giving them the least amount of money possible. All while under a huge time crunch so that they didn't miss their buses. Nobody had hardly any money at all because it was the end of the month. And then, after that was all good and done, I still had to buy a fridge, pay somebodies rent etc etc. I was freaking out. haha. The life of the oficinistas. Needless to say that we've all been a little crabby and short tempered lately. So that was basically my fun day. I didn't get to leave the office to go work because I was so busy and so I almost worked from 8 in the morning to 9 and night. Crasy.
Then that night we had to get up at 3 to drop the latino missionaries at the airport. That was fun/tiring. Said goodbye to Elder Villalon.
Thursday day was better. More tranquilo. But I was still kinda anxious all day because it was a Paraguayan holiday, and I couldn't take out money. The best parts though were the morning. Got to take the dieing missionaries to the airport. Dropped off Elder Call and a couple other people I was good friends with. Got to be with them right until the end. The saddest part was that I thought I'd have tonnes of time to say goodbye, and then they almost missed their plane and I didn't even really get to make a proper goodbye. But oh well. They say hi btw. The other really cool part is that all of the youth from Mariano (my second area) were there to say goodbye to a bunch of people. So even though I wasn't going home, I got to talk to them and see how they were doing. The coolest people being Diego and Araceli Bogarin. One of our converts and his sister. One of my favorite families in all of Paraguay. SICK.
Also, President took us out to lunch as a "thanks for all your hard work". That was really nice of him. Got to eat chineese again. And I cant believe that I forgot! - Last time that I was there, you wouldn't believe what cool thing we got to eat. Pigs ear. Legit. It was... alright. I didn't have it again this time. We just suck to cooked seaweed to be exciting instead.
Anyways, after that things tranquiloed out good. There are still a lot of little messes to clean up after changes and stuff, but now that my email works, my office doesn't have people in it looking for money, and my safe is full, I feel a lot better. haha. Not excited for next changes. lol. But meh. A little stress never hurt anyone right? I think I'm better for it. I thought it was ironic that lately in my studies I've been reading on when Joseph Smith was in Liberty jail. And how his afflictions would be for just a moment. Thats how it rolls in the office. haha. But yup. Doing good now.
Anyways, still more to say, but I think we have to go. Happy Birthday Jaclyn, have a good one! Enjoy conference and apply what you learn! Things are doing good here and I'm having a great time, even though its not always super easy. We're hoping to have an investigator or two in the conference, but its not looking too good. lol. The streets have been flooded (seriously) all morning. My shoes are SOAKED. haha. Its fun though. We did some hard core missionary-ing to go find an investigator in the storm. Good times and memories. Asà es la vida! Have a good day/week! I love you!
Elder Humphreys
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