esta bien

A Pic not sure if I ever sent

All the mangos

Near our house

 

Hola!

 

We had an interesting week this week. Worked hard. Didn{t have too much success. Oh well. Thats the life of a missionary I guess. Some weeks are a little more challenging. The great thing though, was that there were a couple of times where I quite clearly was able to see that even though the people were letting us down, when we continued to work as hard as we could and not give up or lose our faith, the Lord quite clearly blessed us. We spent a lot of time walking and ¨enjoying¨ the heat, but in the end, there were a lot of blessings in our work, so it was all worth it.

 

I sent a couple of random photos because since we did all this walking, theres suprisingly little to talk about. But esta bien. I try and remember the highlights.

 

Tuesday and Wednesday morning we got to travel into the office for a ¨Capacitacion¨ or basically a training meeting. We talked about the new program that we{re using as missionaries, and how to better apply what we{ve learned. I really enjoyed it. And not just because the office has AC. lol. I learned a lot. It was also really cool because we got to do a lot of practices. It was there that I{ve really started to feel like I{m doing better at stepping up as Junior Comp. Often its Senior Comp leads the lesson, and JC gives his two cents whenever its required. But I got to practice and play an equal part so that was great. We{re doing that a lot better in lessons too and so thats exciting.

 

Tuesday night we had a really cool experience. After what appeared as a less than successful day, we were on our way home when a lady at a bus stop called us over. We had hardly seen her, but when we came over we noticed she was crying. Shes a lady of about 65 years. She told us about how she has raised her grandkids since they were babies, and now after a long fight with her daughter, they were moving out to live somewhere else. She was distraught and told us that all these problems made her want to just throw herself out into the trafic right then and there to end all the pain. It was sad. Especially because she was totally with it and not drunk or anything. Just really sad. Told us that she needed spiritual help. It was a great moment to be a servent of the Lord. We were able to help her calm down, and let her know of the plan that God has for her, and even though there are problems in our lives, we can overcome them. We stood by as she watched her grandkids get on the bus that took them away, and then we walked her to her house and after sharing a little (it was getting pretty late), we said a prayer with her. She had calmed right down and has been feeling lots better. We{ve only been able to visit her once since then, but she{s doing a lot better, and is interested in our message. I don{t know if she{ll ever get baptized. I hope so. Her family (whats left of it), seems really cool and I hope we can help them too, and we{re going to do whatever we can. Nevertheless, it was just a great oportunity for us to directly help someone in such a moment. Now the goal is to help them find that relief and happiness for eternity.

 

We also had a cool experience with Diego. This week we{ve been sharing a lot from the Liahonna. The picture on the fronts not my favorite... but the messages are excelent. We{ve been talking a lot with the youth about setting goals to go on missions, go to the temple etc (probably in the new era), and sharing the testimony of Elder Kikuchi which has helped a lot of people really open up about their conversions and doubts. With Diego, we had got on the topic of missions, and the sacrifices we make to go on them. We told him about the blessings that we recieve from serving the Lord and how greatful we are for that. We hadn{t even gotten into the real message yet, and I was thinking about how I{d love to be able to add on to that discussion, but didn{t think that what we had applied so well. So as we talked I started flipping through the magazine and found exactly what we needed. It was a story I hadn{t read before, but was a testimony of a young man who gave up his career for his mission, and was so thankful and blessed for that decision. It applied perfectly. It was a great testimony to me of the power of the spirit and how it speaks through your thoughts. I didn{t know what I was looking for as I flipped through the Liahonna, but I found exactly what I think we needed at just the right time. And although we hadn{t read it all the way through properly, we were still able to teach a great lesson with the help of the spirit. It was really cool.

 

Random less spiritual notes of the week. We Played ¨Tootie Fruity¨ with the Serafini{s. My team won. Its basically just Scatergories. Thanks for all the practice that you guys gave me so I could look super smart in front of our converts. lol. I also burnt my tongue on cheese grease out of an empenada. Almost cried. Be careful when you eat melted cheese. Its dangerous. Elder Call is a born janitor. He cleaned the toilet out by hand today. I{ll have to send the pic next week. lol. I mopped the floor.

 

We{ve heard a lot about Japan from the people here. They know nothing about the facts, but they{re all scared and ready for 2012 to roll around. lol. We{ve got to spend a lot of time talking about the signs of the times and how we need to be prepared both physically and spiritually. Hopefully we can use that to help people here be more prepared. And hopefully they get everything sorted out so that there aren{t any more problems.

 

Another cool experience. Last night we were working at night. Our visits all fell through, leaving us an hour and a half to work in the pitch black with nobody to visit anywhere close. Not going to lie, it was tempting to call it a day. We were right by our house. Its really hard to find people to teach at that time of night etc. But we decided that we{d be diligent and keep doing what we could. We went around and tried contacting the houses nearby that didn{t look like everyone there was already sleeping. After clapping at all the ones nearby we had nothing. We didn{t know what else to do. I saw a house right near ours that had a light on but we had already passed it. Looking back, it was basically try it, or take the two steps to the house and call it quits. We just wanted to stop, and it seemed like it{d be a waste. But we try to always do whatever we can. So we backtracked. Low and behold, we were able to talk with somebody and get in and visit with him shortly. It was another testament to me about how if we do all we can and work diligently, the Lord is going to bless us. Once again, I don{t know if this guy is going to get baptized. But I do know that the Lord put him in our path and we were blessed for working hard. Its awesome how the Lord loves us enough to do that for us.

 

Anyways, I´m right out of time. Love you all so much. The church is true, the Lord knows us, and he is always looking to bless us, as long as we are willing to do our part. Keep being great people. I}m praying for you all daily!

 

Love you lots,

 

Elder Humphreys

Mundongo

Hola everybody!

To start off, I{ll let you know that I didn{t get change. Even wierder though, neither did Elder Call. So that means that we{re going to be together for 4 and a half months at the very least. Thank goodness we get along. lol. It probably also means that I{ll be spending a total of at least 6 months here before I get changed out, but we{ll see what happens... But yeah. We{re doing good and just keep doing what we can here.

Secondly, I opened up my packages. They were great! We{ve been munching on the candy all week, drinkin koolaid (awesome. We drink powdered drink all the time but theres nothing as good as that here.), I{ve spent the mornings and evenings lounging in my p-jays, we used a bunch of the stickers this week, ate some legit poridge,  and had a blast unwrapping it all. Felt just like Christmas....away from home. :)

Thirdly. Totally forgot to mention all the birthday wishes that I meant to last week. Namely, Happy Birthday Carmen, MacKenzie, and especially Emma! Sorry I forgot to mention them. I remembered them all before the day, but it was too late to get them into an email in time. You{ll have to forgive me on that. On that note. Welcome home Tyler as well! Wierd because it felt like he{s been gone forever and yet not that long too. I guess it{ll be the same kinda thing for me.
This week has been pretty different. We{ve been doing things differently after the meeting they had with President Arnold. It wasn{t that we were misbehaving or goofing around or anything, but there were just some things that people were forgeting to do I guess, and so now we{ve been applying those things into the way we work. I{ve enjoyed it. For instance we{re making a greater effort to ask the members for references and working with them. We haven{t gotten too far with that yet, but its really easy to see how big of a deal that that makes. One of our investigators in church this week came with a member, and its crasy to see how much that helps. Remember to be good member missionaries everybody! Its SUPER important for the work. Another thing we{ve been doing is keeping track of how much time we actually spend talking to people. Its kinda depressing. All the missionaries are just depressed when you talk about the amount of time youve accumulated during the week. But its good because we{re trying hard to work with more efficiency and spend less time walking around. So thats good. I think we{re going to be able to help a lot more people as a mission. Its great to have good leaders that aren{t afraid of making changes, even when they aren{t the most popular things to do. For instance, its way harder than you{d think to invite people to say a kneeling prayer with you in their front yard at the end of the lesson. But I think it helps a lot. Those kinds of things.

Oh. Saw an ad the other day for roquealonsodigital.com Dont know what it is, but I think its just pictures of my area more or less. Might be fun to check out and see what I see every day.

As for the Subject of the email - had a fun experience this week. We went out to buy some food in this little restaurant in our area. We decided to buy some gizo and a sandwich. I don{t know how to discribe guizo really, but its usually a dish made with either noodles or rice. Pretty plain and Paraguayan. Anyways, when we ordered I didn{t hear the part where she told Elder Call that the rice gizo is guizo de Mondongo. So I ordered it because I like rice better. Well if you guys weren{t sure, mundongo means cow stomach. I learned that about the first day I got here when Elders talked about all the worst meals. Well guess who got it. Ugh. Well, I didn{t want to look rude, so guess who ate the whole plate too? haha. Yah, it was pretty gross. Its pretty chewy. Not the best tasting. I made Elder Call try a piece and he almost blew chuncks. But I did it! And now I can ¨brag¨ to everyone that I{ve eaten mundongo. Fun times. haha.

Made a sick map of our area this week. I{ll have to send a pic.

Found a pretty cool new investigator this week named Mercedez. I{ll have to mention more when I got more time.

We accidently invited and had a crazy lady come to church this week. Oops.

Anyways, no more time. Sounds like a sick summer you got planned.  Anyways, thats all I got. Love you lots! Invite your friends to Church! Choose the Right!!

Love,
Elder Humphreys

Transfer week comes again

Hola! Hows it going? I{m doing fab. Lots to say. Forgive me for the {´s though. The ´ key is in the wrong spot and its too much of a hassle to work around. lol

We had another good week. Things went well. Last week of changes. This ones been wierd because we know there{s a really high chance that Elder Call could leave, I could leave, or we could both stay. Anything could happen. So thats wierd to think about. But we did our best to keep up the good work and do our best till the end. Some people have a hard time staying focused during the last week. We should find out what happens tonight. Its wierd becuase both me and Elder Call enjoy each others company and like being together, and we both love the area. However, a little change could be nice too. We{ve been together for 3 months now and it seems like its been quite a while now. So we{ll see. Its in the Lord and President Madariagas hands now.

Tuesday we had a Noche de Hogar (FHE) with the Serafini family. We had a good lesson (the parents tried teaching it for the first time), and then we had the activity. We played a game where you have to tie a tie and undue it as fast as you could. Not too bad. But my favorite part actually came at the beginning. We started with a song which everyone was reluctant to do. We{ve tried singing before and no one knows the tune. But we went for it. Well, not going to lie, it was one of the worst songs I´ve ever heard. Everybody seemed to be tone deaf and not know the tune at all. Simultaneously. But I just sang as loud as I could and kept it going as best as I could. It sounded bad. However, the thing that I thought was really great was that it really was the thought that counted. Ya, it sounded bad. But I really thought that it did a great job of inviting the spirit to what we were doing. Thats what I love about the music. We tried our best and the Lord blessed us. I{m just hoping with a little practice it{ll stop being so hard on the ears.....lol

Tried to glue a piece of my shoes back together tuesday as well.... turns out super-glue is really sticky.... almost glued my hand to my shoes. haha. But oh well. I{ve learned. Parents:Don{t let your kids play with super glue. Most of my clothes are holding up pretty good. But they are deffinately starting to show the first 6 months. My shirts are starting to stain, my shoes are starting to wear in places, and the like. But most of it should last. I{ll be sure to send you word in time to get some stuff in the mail if I ever need it.

SPEAKING of which. I got my packages!! It was super exciting. Got them today. I got the small one with the poridge (yum :), as well as the one with all the wrapped presents. I didn{t get it until just recently and so I haven{t had the chance to open all the small little things, but I{m super excited. Me and Elder Call are going to take pictures and open them up when we get home. Awesome. Thanks so much guys! It actually made my day. I was thinkin though... my birthdays about 6 months aways. Maybe you could start thinking now and maybe it{ll get here in time...... hahaha. Just kidding. I{m just super happy it actually showed up. Everyone was starting to make fun of Canada Post and its lack of urgency, and it was starting to hurt my Canadian pride. lol

This week there was a LOT of rain. It was nice, and not nice. It makes it really hard to visit people, because they aren{t really interested in waking up and letting in muddy missionaries, but we did our best. I really enjoyed the coolness on a personal level. So I made sure to put the work first and not pray for more rain, but to enjoy the blessing while it lasted. With the rain has come humidity though. Ridiculous. We bought some cotton candy from a guy off the street and within minutes of taking it out of the bag, it was starting to do that melting thing it does when you spit on it, but just because of all the water in the air.   Also, school started here which makes it harder to find the people you want. But they do school funny here so its not tooooo bad. Its funny to see so many kids out in uniforms though.

We found this really cool investigator this week. I{m excited to see what happens with him. He{s super interested in reading the Book of Mormon and finding out for himself if the gospel is true. He wasn{t able to make it to church this week but he{s really excited to go, and he also really wants us to talk with his family. Sounds like a great person to work with. His name is Hermano Torres and I{m hoping to be able see him start to progress.

We were at Diegos house on Friday and they weren{t super feeling talking gospel that day. Well their dad used that opportunity to teach his kids about life, giving respect, working hard etc etc etc. He likes to talk a lot, and we just had to sit there and watch them fight for almost an hour. They{ve already gotten over it, but its funny how much different fighting is from the spectator position. It seems so pointless and ridiculous. It almost made me want to cry too. The hightlight of the situation being that me and Elder Call got to talk about things like the life of a parent and raising kids and whatnot. Thankfully thats a long ways away, but we got to talk about things he did right, and things he should have done differently, things our parents did etc. It was another instance that just made me super greatful for the parents I was blessed with. All the things I kept thinking from my family were super good, and things that I would want to be able to do for my kids. So that was a cool way to make a lame situation better.

Today was a little strange. President Arnold from the Area Presidency came to talk to all the Zone and District leaders about changes he wanted to make. The mission as a whole has been going through a rough time lately and baptisms have been slumping, and so he came to try and set things right. For me, that meant getting up early to spend the day with some other Elders while Elder Call went with the Zone leader to the office. It sounded like a crasy meeting. Apparently he dropped a lot of cane (something we say that comes from spanish I think. Basically he laid the smack down) about a lot of things. And yet it was still one of the most spiritual meetings ever apparently. I{m kinda sad I missed it. Anyways, there are a lot of changes coming in. Some that I can remember: no more guitars, we{re keeping track of the exact amount of time we spend teaching, we have to spend ALL of our time in our areas and no more p-day travels for mcDonalds or anything. Theres a lot more too. So it{ll be interesting to see. Kinda sad cuz we lose some fun stuff, but I{m glad for it. Should help the mission a lot I think. Exciting to see. The only thing is that the way changes happen, I probably won{t get to see Elder Patterson like I thought I might. Oh well. One day.

Anyways. Glad you had what sounded like a great holiday. I{m doing great. Loving the work! Workin hard to be my best! Love you all lots! Be good missionaries and choose the right!

Love you!

Elder Humphreys

6 Months Old

Hello. How´s everyone? This feels funny writing this week since I didn´t get any emails from anyone... But I hope your all having fun on your trip! Don´t ski into any trees (I did that on like my last run ever. Its not fun.)! lol. Fortunately I got a bunch of DearElders though, so nothing to worry about.

This week was pretty good. It flew by without too much crazy happening. It feels like just yesterday that I was writting my last letter. But I guess I´ll share what I remember as being interesting...

Monday we played b-ball at the church with the other Elders that live nearby (thus the late letter). It was suprisingly fun and we had a blast. However, we came to realize that 30 minutes of situps, stretching and skipping rope in the mornings along with walking all day isn´t really enough to keep you in fabulous shape. We were SORE. haha. It was pathetic. After that, we got up wednesday morning and TRIED chopping wood for service for this 75 year old lady that lives near our house. The axe was pretty dull and it was the hardest wood me or Elder Call have ever tried chopping though, and so I think we spent about an hour there, and only chopped through maybe 3 logs. Sad. And it made us more sore, as well as gave us some pretty nice blisters. haha. Oh well. It was nice to get out and do some service, and I think the lady just appreciated the thought. Oh, and the showers didn´t work when we got home. Lame.

Friday was a good day for me. Felt really upbeat. Brought some packets full of church books to some families. The Serafini´s seemed to actually really appreciate it and so that felt good. The girls were excited to read ¨For the Strength of Youth¨, and the parents were happy to read the family home evening manual. After that we made two visits where we gave the investigators a Book of Mormon. Most people are pretty chill about getting them, but these people seemed sincerly happy to get their very own copy for free. Then it rained. Good day. I love days that just go well and you really just feel like you´ve helped a bunch of people. Sometimes you get walking around and people aren´t home and that kinda thing, and it just gets frustrating, so this was great.

By the way, I found a few more letters that I got that I forgot to mention. Letters from the Blaxalls, Parkers, Sister Graham, Elder Persson. So you can say thanks to them too if thats cool.

A kinda funny thing that happened this week - Our Zone Leader was on the bus and after talking, put the phone down on the seat. You tell anyone in Paraguay that that happened and they are just mindblown. haha. Anyways, he forgot the phone there on the bus. Gone. Well he needs his phone more than we do, and so we had to give our phone over to him while we wait for the church to order in a new one. Ridiculous. So we´ve been phoneless for a couple days now. You don´t even realize how big that is until it happens. We are constantly using our phone to set up appointments, remind people about church, stay in contact with the zone and leaders, use it as a watch and alarm clock, and its just nice to have in case you need to call in backup or something. lol. So thats been interesting. Even worse than that though was that the Elder that was borrowing our phone dropped it yesterday and now it doesn´t work. Wow. So thats been tricky. But all you can do is just laugh it off. Hopefully a new one comes soon.....

Also kinda funny. On the news recently (so I´ve been informed by the members), there has been this story about this house that has had some problem with ghosts, evil spirits and the like. Well from what I´ve gathered, it seems like a big set up by the news to get more viewers. Because tonnes of people know about it and have been asking about it. ¨What´s the churches view on ghosts/spirits/witches etc.¨. Kinda ridiculous. Everyone here seems really gullible. Maybe we´re just skeptics. But we´ve just had to work with it and twist the conversation around to the spirit world and the like. Funny stuff.

Book review section: The new gospel principles book is pretty legit. You´d think you´d know it all, but I´m suprised at how much I learn just from reading that book. Its got my reccomendation.

Questions: How did the family pictures ever turn out? I never got to see the new ones that we got before I left. Maybe email a few of those over? Also, I thought it might be cool to have a copy of my mission call or something like that. Just for fun.

More random Paraguay facts cuz I´m running out of ideas. People here don´t just play music to enjoy. They think they have to play the music loud enough for the whole block to hear. So thats pretty ridiculous. Some people even set up the speakers in their car so that it plays pointing out into the street. The worst is when there are a couple people that have different tastes in music and they try to drown each other out. It gets ridiculous. People here listen to polka (mostly old people. It comes in Guarani), Argentinan rock, or popular music from back home (so I´ll still be up on the latest hits when I get back! lol).

What else. Oh. Last week I mentioned mangos. But I forgot to say that there are lots of other fruits here too. Every kind of tree has fruit mostly. And you can eat most of them. Its fun to just be able to pick stuff off the tree and eat it. Guavas are everywhere right now.  Apparently we´re getting into grapefruit season right now, but after that will also be mandrain oranges. I´ve also seen avacados, limes and lemons. All sorts of fun stuff.

We got to watch the movie of the life of President Monson with some recent converts yesterday. That was really cool. I enjoyed it a lot and learned a lot too. Another recommendation for sure.

Woah. Crazy news. Elder Humphreys is going to hit his 6 month mark this week. Crazy. I´m not really keeping track, but people are always talking about where they´re at, and so i noticed that the other day. On one hand it feels like its been a long time that I´ve been out. But at the same time, it seems like just yesterday that I was dropped off at the MTC. I think I´ve come to the conclusion that although the day to day feels slowish at times, the months just fly by. Its scary. I´m sure I´m going to get to the end and look back and be like ¨wow. It was just yesterday that I hit 6 months.¨ So I´m working hard to appreciate every day. This has also been the shortest change of my life. Each one keeps going faster. Scary. I love being a missionary. Its great. I love sharing the gospel. Having time to just learn and help people. And its getting better with each coming day as I get better at the language, and less worried about just talking with people. I miss people and the comforts of home and having time just for myself, but I really know that this is the best thing I could do with my life. Its awesome. I´m growing on a spiritual level, and also just becoming a better person. Its great to see the gospel change peoples lives and make people happy.

Anyways, outa time again. Until next week! Hopefully I´ll have some betters stuff to share about the people and more personal things like that. But its been swell! Have a great week. Things are going well here. Thanks everyone for all the letters. I appreciate them a tonne! The Church is true!

Love,

Elder Humphreys

PS. Happy Birthday Carmen!

6 Months old...

Hello. How´s everyone? This feels funny writing this week since I didn´t get any emails from anyone... But I hope your all having fun on your trip! Don´t ski into any trees (I did that on like my last run ever. Its not fun.)! lol. Fortunately I got a bunch of DearElders though, so nothing to worry about.

This week was pretty good. It flew by without too much crazy happening. It feels like just yesterday that I was writting my last letter. But I guess I´ll share what I remember as being interesting...

Monday we played b-ball at the church with the other Elders that live nearby (thus the late letter). It was suprisingly fun and we had a blast. However, we came to realize that 30 minutes of situps, stretching and skipping rope in the mornings along with walking all day isn´t really enough to keep you in fabulous shape. We were SORE. haha. It was pathetic. After that, we got up wednesday morning and TRIED chopping wood for service for this 75 year old lady that lives near our house. The axe was pretty dull and it was the hardest wood me or Elder Call have ever tried chopping though, and so I think we spent about an hour there, and only chopped through maybe 3 logs. Sad. And it made us more sore, as well as gave us some pretty nice blisters. haha. Oh well. It was nice to get out and do some service, and I think the lady just appreciated the thought. Oh, and the showers didn´t work when we got home. Lame.

Friday was a good day for me. Felt really upbeat. Brought some packets full of church books to some families. The Serafini´s seemed to actually really appreciate it and so that felt good. The girls were excited to read ¨For the Strength of Youth¨, and the parents were happy to read the family home evening manual. After that we made two visits where we gave the investigators a Book of Mormon. Most people are pretty chill about getting them, but these people seemed sincerly happy to get their very own copy for free. Then it rained. Good day. I love days that just go well and you really just feel like you´ve helped a bunch of people. Sometimes you get walking around and people aren´t home and that kinda thing, and it just gets frustrating, so this was great.

By the way, I found a few more letters that I got that I forgot to mention. Letters from the Blaxalls, Parkers, Sister Graham, Elder Persson. So you can say thanks to them too if thats cool.

A kinda funny thing that happened this week - Our Zone Leader was on the bus and after talking, put the phone down on the seat. You tell anyone in Paraguay that that happened and they are just mindblown. haha. Anyways, he forgot the phone there on the bus. Gone. Well he needs his phone more than we do, and so we had to give our phone over to him while we wait for the church to order in a new one. Ridiculous. So we´ve been phoneless for a couple days now. You don´t even realize how big that is until it happens. We are constantly using our phone to set up appointments, remind people about church, stay in contact with the zone and leaders, use it as a watch and alarm clock, and its just nice to have in case you need to call in backup or something. lol. So thats been interesting. Even worse than that though was that the Elder that was borrowing our phone dropped it yesterday and now it doesn´t work. Wow. So thats been tricky. But all you can do is just laugh it off. Hopefully a new one comes soon.....

Also kinda funny. On the news recently (so I´ve been informed by the members), there has been this story about this house that has had some problem with ghosts, evil spirits and the like. Well from what I´ve gathered, it seems like a big set up by the news to get more viewers. Because tonnes of people know about it and have been asking about it. ¨What´s the churches view on ghosts/spirits/witches etc.¨. Kinda ridiculous. Everyone here seems really gullible. Maybe we´re just skeptics. But we´ve just had to work with it and twist the conversation around to the spirit world and the like. Funny stuff.

Book review section: The new gospel principles book is pretty legit. You´d think you´d know it all, but I´m suprised at how much I learn just from reading that book. Its got my reccomendation.

Questions: How did the family pictures ever turn out? I never got to see the new ones that we got before I left. Maybe email a few of those over? Also, I thought it might be cool to have a copy of my mission call or something like that. Just for fun.

More random Paraguay facts cuz I´m running out of ideas. People here don´t just play music to enjoy. They think they have to play the music loud enough for the whole block to hear. So thats pretty ridiculous. Some people even set up the speakers in their car so that it plays pointing out into the street. The worst is when there are a couple people that have different tastes in music and they try to drown each other out. It gets ridiculous. People here listen to polka (mostly old people. It comes in Guarani), Argentinan rock, or popular music from back home (so I´ll still be up on the latest hits when I get back! lol).

What else. Oh. Last week I mentioned mangos. But I forgot to say that there are lots of other fruits here too. Every kind of tree has fruit mostly. And you can eat most of them. Its fun to just be able to pick stuff off the tree and eat it. Guavas are everywhere right now.  Apparently we´re getting into grapefruit season right now, but after that will also be mandrain oranges. I´ve also seen avacados, limes and lemons. All sorts of fun stuff.

We got to watch the movie of the life of President Monson with some recent converts yesterday. That was really cool. I enjoyed it a lot and learned a lot too. Another recommendation for sure.

Woah. Crazy news. Elder Humphreys is going to hit his 6 month mark this week. Crazy. I´m not really keeping track, but people are always talking about where they´re at, and so i noticed that the other day. On one hand it feels like its been a long time that I´ve been out. But at the same time, it seems like just yesterday that I was dropped off at the MTC. I think I´ve come to the conclusion that although the day to day feels slowish at times, the months just fly by. Its scary. I´m sure I´m going to get to the end and look back and be like ¨wow. It was just yesterday that I hit 6 months.¨ So I´m working hard to appreciate every day. This has also been the shortest change of my life. Each one keeps going faster. Scary. I love being a missionary. Its great. I love sharing the gospel. Having time to just learn and help people. And its getting better with each coming day as I get better at the language, and less worried about just talking with people. I miss people and the comforts of home and having time just for myself, but I really know that this is the best thing I could do with my life. Its awesome. I´m growing on a spiritual level, and also just becoming a better person. Its great to see the gospel change peoples lives and make people happy.

Anyways, outa time again. Until next week! Hopefully I´ll have some betters stuff to share about the people and more personal things like that. But its been swell! Have a great week. Things are going well here. Thanks everyone for all the letters. I appreciate them a tonne! The Church is true!

Love,

Elder Humphreys

PS. Happy Birthday Carmen!

Happy Valentines Day Everyone

Hope valentines days going well. Its pretty tranquilo here. Nothing too crazy going on as far as that goes. If it weren´t for a few extra cute couples having romantic dinners at McDonalds today, I probably would have totally forgot. haha

Anyways, along with that, we all know what Valentines means. Grandpa´s b-day tomorrow. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Hope its swell. And yes, I did get your letter. Thanks a tonne. Its deffinately been one of my most favorite and helpful ones that I´ve gotten since this rush of letters I´ve been getting. Sorry to not have sent anything back yet, but I´m working on it. Sooooo many people to write and thank.

On that note, heres a list of people that I´ve gotten stuff from. I´m sure I´ll forget somebody, but this is what I could whip together. If any of them ask, you can give them a big thanks for me. I´m going to try and write a bunch of them back but its going to take some time. Anyways, here they are: Babe and Judy, The Blomfields, The Vances and Mysyks (tonnes from them. Super thanks there), Sister Sunada, Grandma and Grandpa, Barb, Jaclyn, Shiela and the Fam, The Blaxalls, the Pattersons, Sister Pratt, The Courts, Marriane Davidson, The Bishop, and maybe one or two others.  So super thanks for that. They are much appreciated.

On that note as well - Got two more packages this week! AWESOME. Got one from Grandma and Grandpa. Loved it. Reading the books, the pictures super cool, Elder Call is jealous of the pin etc. Also got one from Carmen. Super cool. The sign things were a little wrinkled and I think they got wet on the way or something, but it doesn´t matter to me. I´m hanging them on the wall this afternoon. Also, the t-shirt is great. I´ve worn it every day this week. Also, they say that theres one more package in the office for me, but I haven´t gotten it yet because they forgot it in the car or something. But this Friday it´ll be here. I´m stoked. So I think that´ll be that.
 
Anyways, as for this week. It was a little different. We did a LOT of walking. People were being kinda lame and so we didn´t have a very usual week, and did a lot of contacting and walking. But oh well. The weather was divine. I´ve never seen so many clouds since I´ve been here. And next week is looking up, so its all good.  We also had our quarterly zone conference this week, so that was fun. We got to go into the office, see lots of our misisonary and MTC buddies we don´t see all that often, and then learn lots of stuff. Its great, because you leave all pumped on being a missionary, full of new ideas. The coolest part for me though, was probably just the fact that although it was basically 100% in Spanish, there were a lot of times were I was able to just sit and listen and still understand everything. Often it takes a lot of thinking and brain power to keep up, but not this time. Hopefully its a good sign that I´m improving. I also have been having a lot more ease speaking with people too. So although I still got lots of room to improve, I´m getting a lot more comfortable with everything.

As for stories of the week, there weren´t many. Nothing too crasy. But I thought of lots of interesting things about Paraguay to talk about. Somehow I´m short on time again though, so I´ll keep them short. Thing number one is the fruit. Theres fruit everywhere. Since I´ve been here we´ve gone through mango season, and there were PILEs of rotting mangos everywhere. Its done wonders for the fly populations. Speaking of bugs, theres a buttload of mosquitos right now. We´re doing our best to wear repelant and stuff, cuz apparently Dengue is going around. I think Elder Call had it last week. Who knows.

I finished Jesus the Christ this week. Super good book. Really long, but worth the read. I´ll probably read it again before the end of my misison, but I´m glad I was able to read it all already.

We bought sombreros last week. Sombrero just means hat in spanish, but I still think they look pretty goofy. I only wear mine when the sun is unbearable, but it helps. Its a nice, handmade straw thing. I´ll send a pic of me in it or something. The heats doing good tho. Cooling down at night. I´ve even gotten to use my blanket to sleep lately. Awesome.

Theres a new kid in Church from Nevada. On an exchange or something. Doesn´t know a word of Spanish. He made me feel smart. lol

Last thing before I go. For service this week, we get to split wood for this old lady that lives near our house. Wish me luck. I´ll probably chop my foot off or something. Elder Call went out of his way to tell the lady that I´m from Canada and have split a lot of wood in my time tho. Like we´re a bunch of lumberjacks or something. haha. Oh well. Hopefully she forgets in her old age and doesn´t expect me to do all the splitting. lol

Anyways, thats it. I´m out. Sorry for the lame letter. Things are doing spectacular. I´m excited for this next week. Shouldn´t be as much walking. Love you all lots, and am praying for you daily. Keep it real!

Love,

Elder Humphreys

It's My Half Birthday

Hey everybody. Its my half birthday today. Thanks for remembering... lol

Just kidding. Anyways. Hows everybody back at home? Things here are doing fabulously. Working hard, getting stuff done and makin some good memories.


Anyways! On to the week! Monday was fun. We went to this restaurant called Paulistas. Its a Brazilian grill set up. Its pretty much the nicest restaurant in the country, and had I not been able to pay with my personal money (it was only like 12 dollars or something) it would have been stupid expensive. Super cool though. I forgot to mention how last week we had just some BBQ´d meat off the street. It is one chunk of chewy meat followed by a piece of straight fat. I almost gagged on the fat, but it makes the meat tasty. Point being, it was the exact opposite here - the nicest meat ever. They just walk around with huge chunks of meat and its all you can eat. If you want it, they cut you of a chunk. Best meat I´ve had since I left. Awesome.

Wednesday I went on a division again. This time I got to go and help out in another area. It went good. The place is super ghetto and is so bad that the misisonaries can´t even live in the area. Anyways, it was fun to see a new place. The heat was ridiculous though. Its called Remansito and its perfectly flat and just into the chaco (the desert half of the country). I got sunburned pretty bad. haha. The chaple is made out of sheet metal, and the font is just a swimming pool basically thats out behind the church. So that was cool to see. The most exciting part of the day was when my companion for the day (Elder Thornton) was feeling sick, and then proceeded to puke his guts out all over in the street. There was nothing I could do so I got the pleasure of just watching it all go down. At least in the end we got a new investigator from it, and now he´s learned to be more careful about the water and food. Fortunately I´ve been blessed with health so far and have been careful to avoid getting sick. Oh, and the 3 Serafini girls (Rocio, Romina and Noelia) got their interviews and passed. And Romina asked for me to be the one to baptize her so that was really cool.

Thursdays we had our quarterly interviews with the President. That was nice. He always asks about my family and how you´re doing. I told them things are good. He told me to make sure that I write my sisters and we all keep in touch. It was good.

Friday was the baptism day. The day was a mess, cleaning the font, baking bannana bread, finding out we didn´t leave it in the oven long enough, and so baking another cake. Inviting tonnes of people to the baptism... then none of them coming. There was a big youth party that evening so noone wanted to show up early for the baptism. But oh well. The girls showed up and so we went ahead and did it anyways with the people we had. It was a really nice baptism. I think they´ll be great members even though they´re young. The family is super cool, and they were a big blessing for us as missionaries, and I think we´ve helped be a blessing for them too. After the baptism there was a huge storm. All the power went out. The party for the youth was ruined (haha. that kind of made me happy due to the irony), and it was raining pretty hard. But we all made it home alive. I think they had a good experience nevertheless.

The last cool thing that happened this week was that Sunday morning we woke up. Fortunately (and kinda strangely), we didn´t have to go pick anyone up for church. That turned out to be a blessing because Elder Call told me he hadn´t slept at all that night because he had been puking, fever, diareah etc. That was a shock because I hadn´t woken up at all. Some companion I am...lol. Anyways, as I´m getting ready, he opened the door to the bathroom and passed out on the floor. I called Sister Madariaga cuz I wasn´t really sure what to do. Anyways, I was just going to get him in bed resting, but he really wanted to go to church. So we got ready, rode the bus (he almost puked on our investigators), and then we stayed for church. What a trooper. Anyways, church was good, and our investigator who was there for the first time said she wanted to bring the rest of her family next week so we´ll see how that goes. She kinda reminds me of an older sister Patterson. haha. Anyways, we had to take the rest of the day off so Elder Call could rest, but it made sense. It was nice cuz I got to read and study extra. Almost done Jesus the Christ. Longest book EVER, but really good. Anyways, he´s still not 100%, but we´re working on getting him back up to full health.  The quote of the day came after I mentioned that he had been up all night ¨blowing chuncks¨ and he said, ¨I don´t like the phrase ´blowing chunks´... its too vague¨ hahaha. There´s lots of ways to blow chunks.

Anyways, sorry to be so graphic. lol. But yup! Things are doing good. I think I must be a walking virus or something though, cuz all my comps are getting sick on me. Oh well. Hopefully I can keep fighting it off. Wish me luck! Things are doing great! Good to hear you all are well. Keep working hard at school! Have fun with the B-ball and skiing! And the work. And the TV. All that good stuff. The church is true! Love you all!

Keep it real!

Elder Humphreys