STUDY TIME

K. Lots to write. Sorry, no pictures this week, but there will be lots to come. But its good cuz I got lots to write about so I wont waste time with that stuff.

Um. Just a quick thing. Mom, if you´re ever bored or something, i was just filling out that memory book thing. There are a couple things I don´t know about so if want to look them up and send them thats cool. If not, whatever. Its the busy christmas season right? lol. I need: Who was there when i recieved Melck. priestood, The date i was endowed and who was there, the date i was set apart as a missionary, the people involved in my baptism, conf, deacon, teach, preist and elders ordinations, and the dates i became a priest and an elder. Some of them I know but just want to check. Others I have no idea on. Cool.

K. Just as a side note. As I was studying the other day I just thought of some interesting things I was thinking of. One, I´m like the first Elder in the mission to have the Liahona this month and its been super fun to read up on conference. I still really enjoyed the talk by Elder Holland (not sure why). Also, I´ve noticed that studying is cool as a missionary cuz you get to study from two angles: things relevant to me, and things that would help an investigator. You get twice as much out of what you read. Its probably why adults know so much more - they read for them and for their kids too. lol. Also, talks like the one in the Ensign about teaching (by David M. McConkie) are more relevant to you. Study is crasy. So much to read, but we only get an hour. I have to split it up and read 15 minutes each from Jesus the Christ, Preach My Gospel, The Book of Mormon, and The Ensign/Liahonna. But its cool. You feel like you get more done in an hour than otherwise. Also, I´ve enjoyed any little scriptural thoughts that people have sent. I want to be able to share more indepth scriptures/ideas with people instead of just the obvious scriptures, and so its a good way to get my mind thinking about things to share.

Anyways, on to the week. Oh, but first of all, last week I forgot to mention that we accidently ventured into the South Mission. Its really close to an area we were working. But its cool. Now I´ve been to them both. lol

Oh. And one other side note. I remember reading before I came here that Paraguay makes a lot of chalboards. Well they either ship out all the good ones or else they just make a lot of lame ones. Cuz the chalkboards here are nothing like at home. haha. On that note, its the same with the beef. They apparently have lots of it, but it seems (and I´ve heard this from other people too), that they ship out the good stuff. The only beef I´ve had here has been all chewy and bleh. But whatever. Its always nice to have some meat to eat.

Anyways. Monday: Had a ¨Canadian¨ sandwich for lunch. I don´t know how it was canadian at all. Had hardboiled eggs in it (they have hardboiled eggs everywhere here), and such. I dunno. It was really good, but not canadian. Oh well. Tried to get a haircut. Didn´t work. Apparently some people exclusivly cut girls hair. Made it kinda awkward when Elder Lee came in and said ¨We´re here to get our hair cut¨. haha. Anyways, we´re just going to get the bishop to do it (sounds like it´ll turn out pretty rough), but its only going to cost a dollar and no one here cares what you look like. My face is nice and tanned tho so I´ll probably look kinda silly. Whatelse. Some chick grabbed my butt as I walked by. That was kinda wierd. Talked to Elder Patterson on the phone. Sounds like he´s doing good. It was really fun to just chat about whatever for a while. Not something we´ll get to do every day, but you know. Nice of him to call. Oh, we also went and bought some stuff out of our zone. That was fun. Went to a place called Luque. Bought some handmade ties for cheap. If anyone wants anything just let me know. I saw some doilies and stuff and remembered that Grandma wanted some, but couldn´t remember the details. So if someone could ask her about that that´d be great. I´ll pick something up. Found a job for our investigator Osmar so he could come to church, but it was awkward cuz you´d have to work the first two sundays. Awkward. Anyways, we offered it to Daniel instead cuz his job is terrible but he didn´t want to be a guard. Anyways, not really important. But it was just kind of a interesting experience having to deal with that.

Tuesday. Apparently our zone has been slacking or so we were told at district meeting. So afterwards we went out and committed a bunch of people to be baptized. But they were all kinda lame and none came to church. So that was kinda ridiculous. I also didn´t feel like standing around when it started to rain and so I made Elder Lee walk through the rain with me and get soaking wet. haha.

Wednesday. Elder Lee was sick all morning. I will spare you the details. But I got to play pharmacist and hand out medicine, and then I got to study all morning. Kinda lame cuz I want to be working, but at the same time it was pretty chill cuz I got to study all morning and afternoon which was nice.

Thursday was thanksgiving. Elder Lee was still sick and so I had to eat twice as much just for him. lol. It was divine. The family is name the Zafras. They are from Texas/Utah, but he was born in Peru and his wifes family is from Mexico I think. So they speak both good Spanish and English too. Super cool. There was even pie which I here is really hard to come by in this country. Also, he´s like a super tie critic and so he traded me a nice tie for my very lamest one. Nice. The funny thing is that in this country nobody cares about ties. You can basically wear whatever you want. I wear my nice ties, my valuevillage/birthday ties etc. and nobody mentions a thing. So thats fun. You can wear a tie covered in stains and nobody cares. But of course I wouldn´t do that...lol Met a guy named Cesar. He´s a reference. Should get baptized. Super cool.

Friday. Got a phone call from the office. Thats never good. The news: Me and Elder Lee had to go pick up our new comanion. Wow. Thats right - We´re in a three some. Apparently they´re rearanging the entire mission with new zones and zone leaders and everything. So apparently instead of staying here with Elder Lee until he goes home and then being here for almost 6 more months maybe, I´ll almost definately be leaving this change (the 9th of December). Wow. So I´m going to be taking a lot of pictures and saying my goodbyes while showing the area to Elder Sorensen so he can be zone leader and train here. It was a shocker for all of us. But you know. Its all in the lords hands. Its going to be sad to leave so soon, but what can I do. Crasy. Anyways, for the next week and a half we´ll be with Elder Sorensen. Hes a pretty cool guy. Really good teacher, knows how to speak Guarani. Nice. As far as looks and personality its funny cuz he kinda reminds me of a cross between Jordan and Darren. But yah. Working in a threesome is pretty challenging. No one knows what to say and usually everybody else does the talking, and I get the prayer. But its cool. And its nice cuz it´ll be done in a week and a bit so its okday.

Saturday. Nothing to report. Hard working in threes. Thats all I got to say.

Sunday. It rained. Almost nobody in church. Fortunately we got Marcelo to come tho. He might be able to get baptized before me and Elder Lee go. Elder Lee had pretty bad hives that night and that day tho, and so we took the day off cuz the Benydril made him super drowsy. That hurt our goals, by taking two days off this week but theres nothing we could do. Oh well. Did tonnes of studying. It was pretty nice.

Anyways, I had lots of questions of yours to answer but I guess I´ll do what I can now and then answer the rest next week. The chapel here is really nice and big cuz its right by the temple. Something I probably take for granted now. Daniel looks grumpy in the pic, but people just don´t smile for pictures from what i´ve seen. Elder Lee baptized him and he was confirmed by the bishop. But I was totally cool with that. He has some friends, but most of his family is members to so thats good. He was a member reference. Marcello is good. His mom missed church due to the rain, but the baptism should go ahead. I ran out of money this month, and so I´ve been eating mostly buns the past two weeks but whatever. Teach me to use it better next week. I even had a good money plan but I got hit by all these random expenses I didn´t know about. Stuff is cheap but they dont give us tonnes to spend. Can´t believe Katie´s getting married. Wierd. Hno. Coles is getting married to. Crasy!

Anyways. Glad you´re all healthy. Love you lots! Keep it real!

Elder Humphreys