The Office - Week 23

Howdy there family and friends! How´s it going?
Things here this week were pretty crasy... Tons of stuff to do and just not enough time. I have a HUGE list of things to do this week coming up. But its not all that bad. The only time tons to do really gets to me is when it causes mistakes to be made, or when there isn´t enough time to get everything done. But things are basically under control and so I actually don´t mind too much. Its better than a couple of weeks ago where I hardly had anything to keep me busy with here in the office. Because of all of the craziness however I can hardly remember when things happened during the week. I do however remember a few random details though so I´ll try and fill you all in.
This was my second last full week as the only Financiero in the office. I have this one coming up left, and then the new guy will be here on the 22nd. Crasy. Time has just flown here in the office. So far I´m still completely in the dark as far as who he will be... I gave a list of 3 names to President of who I would think would make a good replacement, but obviously those are just suggestions. He still hasn´t really given me any hints on who he´s been thinking of. We´ll see. Its kind of fun though to be the experienced one in the office though. I know how to get places, know where the streets are and usually what we should do in many of the random situations that we find ourselves in. So thats nice. Its a lot funner than not knowing what is going on all of the time. lol. I´ve kind of forgotten how to be a real field missionary though, so hopefully the transition back isn´t too hard.
Anyways. I don´t really remember what happened last Saturday... we played some piki-volley and had some fun. Went to work... Most of the people weren´t there. We started fasting at mid-day since Lunch is the main meal here. We also got a sweet invite to lunch at a members house. The coolest thing being that they are one of the 2 American families in the ward.
Sunday went alright. Our investigators didn´t come to church because they had to work. That was kind of a bummer because it means that they won´t be able to get baptized for at least another week or so. But thats alright. We re-explained the importance of Sabbath day observance and I think they really understand it now. I think they will be at church this week. They say that they have given up working on Sundays now. We´ll see how that goes. This will also give them more time to prepare and really understand the importance of baptism. We´ll see how they do in the coming weeks. Also, as I´m sure you all know, it was Superbowl Sunday. Normally, that wouldn´t be very exciting because nobody here watches Football, BUT we got to go to the American families house. It was Super fun. lol. Thankfully they weren´t big football fans, and the tv never even got turned on. haha. But we did have a feast with them and the other Americans in our ward. That was fun. Then we watched a mini-violin recital so that one of their kids could pass of Suzuki 1. That was fun because I knew the songs and even got to pick one of them to play. I picked ¨The Happy Farmer¨.
It was also this day that we went and visited a less active family in our ward and we found out that they were having a hard time. It turns out that about a year ago, he was preparing for his mission. Instead, he had a baby with his girlfriend who is now his wife. She has since gotten baptized and everything, and they seem repented and everything. But its still a touchy subject. His mom gives him a hard time for not having served a mission and it makes him depressed to think about it, or have us visit him. Anyways, they had been fighting because of this subject. So we shared with them a bit about the atonement and how it takes away all guilt and sin. That even though they´ve kinda messed up in the past, they can´t let it take them down. We taught a bit about the temple and how they still have the opportunity to be an eternal family. That a mission sure, would have been great. But he can´t put an eternal family on the line just because he missed a good opportunity in the past. Anyways, that lead to another cool visit about 2 days later. The new American family in our ward is really cool, and they are really excited to help us work. Anyways, we got permission to pick them up in the van and take them over to visit. They made brownies and everything. Soooo american, but super cool. Being in the car kind of scared her (I tried to drive really relaxed, but just being in the streets can freak you out if you´re not used to it). Anyways. He actually never served a mission back in the day, while she did. But now they have a super cool and super happy family. So we were able to share about that and try and show them that everything isn´t lost. I think it bumped up their animo, and I think they are more excited to go to church knowing that they have new friends there.
Annoying parts of the office this week: The bank gave me too much money and I had to give it back. More work then it sounds. Also, there was a zone leader meeting. That meant that there were tons of needy zone leaders kicking it in the office for a good chunk of the day. Ugh. All of the oficinistas have been kinda sick lately. Myself included. Probably from drinking water at members houses or from eating too much burger king since our cook didn´t come for a couple days this week. Oh well. Thats enough complaining though. We enjoy our trials even though we like to complain about them. lol.
Fun purchases of the week: Got a cool calculator watch from an investigators little shop. haha. I thought it fitted my calling as Financiero well. Now I just have to find a place to get a battery for it and I´m good to go. I´m excited. lol. I also bought a kids meal one day for lunch because they had cool Transformer toys. I think the guy working there thought I was ridiculous.... he was probably right.
Wordly but cool experiences: Got passed while driving the van. That doesn´t happen very often and so I was kind of weirded out. Then I realized it was an Audi R...8? I think thats what its called. Whatever IronMan drives. lol. Not something you see every day. Especially in Paraguay.
Language mix up of the week: Spanish is different in all parts of the world. I had to talk to a missionary´s Bishop the other day over the phone so he could send us some money. Anyways, he asked how Elder Meneses was doing. Well in Paraguay, there is a word that means hard-working - ¨Guapo¨. However, as far as my understanding, in every other country it means handsome. haha. So basically I said ¨Yeah, he´s doing great. He´s really handsome and.... I mean... Ugh. He´s... a really hard worker. Anyways, I got to go. Bye¨. And then I hung up. hahaha. Hopefully he knows a thing or two about Paraguayan culture (he´s from Argentina), or else he was probably a little weirded out by that comment. lol
The tire got a whole in it this week. That was lame. Had to take care of that. Not that exciting though.... what else.....We got to give a blessing to one of our members this week. His face was all swollen up and everything. Hopefully that gets better. An investigator gave up a job that he had because he wasn´t allowed to listen to us, and work at this catholic college place at the same time. So even though he´s going through a really rough patch, he gave it up to hopefully continue on his way to baptism. We´re praying that he can get another job soon. One of our member families goes to the temple this week. Thats a good feeling. Maybe I haven´t been able to help many people get baptized as of late, but thats another group of people that I feel like I´ve been able to help get to the temple. We´ve been inviting, teaching and helping them to prepare a lot, and so thats a accomplishing kind of feeling. One of our investigators also called us up and replanned our visit so that we could teach him about the book of mormon that we left him (something that never seems to happen). So that was kind of exciting. Anyways, all in all a really good week in our area too. Only had one run in with some really ¨snakey¨ people that were more interested in my comp than they were in the gospel. haha.
Anyways, today has been pretty tranquilo. Had to run errands and get the tire fixed. On our P-day. lol. Oh well. Got my hair cut. Just ate empanadas for lunch. They were really good though. Pretty tranquilo.
Thanks for the letters. Glad things are going well. Sorry for never really writing personalized letters. I honestly havent really been writing to anyone lately. Partly because I´m a little too lazy. But partly also because being 6 people together on Pday usually means that there is a lot of stuff going on that I have to participate in if my companion is doing. Oh well. I´ll try and be better.
Congrats on the hockey singing. Thats super cool! I´m kinda sad I couldn´t be there. Sounded great though. Glad you´re all working and playing hard. Having fun.
Anyways, I gotta run. My comp wants to go get some groceries. Thanks for everything. Love you tons and hope you have a great week! The church is true and I love being a missionary. Suerte!
Elder Humphreys