Saltos - Week 4

Hello. Hows everybody.
 
We had a really good week. Hopefully this week the keyboard can keep up with everythng that I want to say....
 
Glad that your trip is going great. Don´t ¨die¨ early! thats what they always have to remind Elders once they start getting old like I am...lol. No worries here, because I just have more desires to work knowing that I have little time left. Too bad its not the same for everyone. But I´m glad your all safe and having fun wracking up the memories.
 
Anyways, as I said, the week went great. Monday was pretty normal. Had that service activity that took up most of the day. Good, but normal. Tuesday... also normalish. I taught district meeting again and talked about working with the members and helping them to realize the improtance that they have in the work and how we can help them know what we need and expect from them so that we can better work in unity. Something good to remember for after the mission. As for the day of work... not the easiest. We walked a lot and didn´t really see much success. Oh well. Thats how it goes some days. The highlight was at the very end. It was one of those moments where it was late and dark, but rather than give up a little early being already near the house, we went for one last visit, and were able to get a really good lesson in with a new investigator. Hard work pays off.
 
Wednesday was interesting. We got a decent amount of work done. This week we tried to visit our investigator Cleverson every day to make sure that nothing kept him from getting baptized. It was kind of funny though because he knew everything so well that we just started to run out of things to teach him. Just verify if he had any questions. Answer them. Make sure that there wasn´t anything wrong. good to go. Had an interesting lesson with one guy. He is one of those people that just speaks a lot of Guarani, and although he usually understands what you say, its kind of tricky to get him to open up or really get excited about the gospel. So we just had a little time to share and I gave him a list of Questions of the Soul that are answered in the book of Mormon. Well, I´ll give the spirit all the credit on that one. Not sure if we´ll see lots of fruits come from it or not, but it was just cool to see him open up and express all of these questions that he has about life. Hopefully it will help him get more excited to read the book of mormon and such, even though it will be tricky for him to understand it (the Libro de Mormon is written in pretty fancy spanish that is really hard for the majority of Paraguayans to understand. We are a much more simple people. :) For service in the morning, we helped re-build a ¨Tatacua¨ which is basically a little mud igloo that they use as a oldschool oven. You build a fire inside and then after the wood is all burned out, this igloo thing is really hot and you can put food in it and cook it. Everybody was using it this week to make the traditional ¨Chipa¨ for easter week. We ate TONS of chipa. Its too bad because I no longer like it as much as I used to. lol. So we did the service in the morning and then watched it get made at a different house in the afternoon. Cool stuff. We also got news that we can live in a group of 4 anymore so that means that it looks like we´ll be moving. More news on that in the future.
 
Thursday we had some crasy winds, and a cool light storm in the distance. It was a disaster because it hadn´t rained in forever so I felt like we were on Tatooine. Had a big Easter lunch at a members house. good stuff. Also spent a good amount of time talking to a REALLY drunk member from another area before he knocked his bike over, broke of the brake lever, and then still decided to drive away on his motorbike at full speed to go on an half hour long trip back to his house. Hopefully he made it all right.... he said that he wanted ME to visit him and nobody else. He also gave me a great big hug before he left and got his hair all up in my face.... poor guy.
 
Friday the highlight was definately in the morning. The evening was interesting too though. We met up with the nearest leader to our area (a district leader that lives 30 away by taxi in a completely other town), and we went to Cleversons house. He passed the interview. And not only did he pass it, but blew Elder Richins away with how good his anwers and testimony were. Awesome. Ready for baptism. He also made the final decision of who was going to baptize him. We were etstatic to hear that he chose his friend who is a recent convert of 2 months and introduced him to the missionaries. We were a little afraid that he might pick one of us, but we knew that it would be way cooler if his friend did it. As for the rest of the day... the distant storms continued to the point were the power in the whole town went out. And I mean OUT. No street lights or anything. It was crasy. Fortunately there is a little light on the top of our cell phone or it would have been worse. lol. Fortunately we were able to go back to Cleversons and fill out his baptismal record by cell phone light. Good stuff.
 
Saturday was a little bit of a disaster, but a great one. We spent the morning cleaning the church. The other 2 elders had another service to do, so that left me and Elder Wheatley to clean the whole thing on our own. Fortunately it didn´t take too long. Then we did lunch, studies, and invited a couple people to the baptism. Didn´t teach a single good lesson. Then we went and taught Fernando how to baptize. I told him to bring his white shirt to the baptism, but apparently he forgot. We got to the church, made a cake (which was sad because we were fasting), and then people started showing up. Great turn out. A good number of members, and 7 investigators. Crasy. The coolest part being that we didn´t know any of them. They are all Cleversons friends. we´´re going to get to know them better this week. Things went well. Didn´t get as many pics as I´d like but oh well. Sorry, I forgot my camera, but hopefully you can find the ones that they posted on FB? I´ll send some next week. Anyways, the only rough part was when we realized that fernando didn´t have a white shirt for the baptism. So in a small moment of panic, I lent him my sweaty one and wore his t-shirt. haha. Oh well. The baptism was great. You could really feel the spirit, and Fernando and cleverson both loved it. I had to put on a slightly wet shirt at the end, but it was totally worth it. Awesome feeling.
 
 
Got a good sleep with the hour change. Now w´´re back close. Cleverson got confirmed on sunday. Great day at church. Had another great lunch visit. Today we had early district meeting, and then got to have a BBQ at our house. Good stuff.
 
Anyways, I gotta run. Love you all! The church is true. Find your friends and invite them to church. You´ll be glad you did! Love ya! CHAU!
 
Elder Humphreys

Saltos - Week 3

Hi. hows it going. we had another good week here in Saltos. not tooooo much to report this week. especially because i wrote a little bit later last week. which is probably also good, because for one reason or another we keep setting our selves up for failure here. i don´t know why, but we always walk half way across town to print of letters, and then rush back with about exactly an hour left to write before pday ends - and there are never enough computers for everyone. so that means somebody is going to be missing out on time today. lame. not sure why we keep making the same mistake.
 
Anyways, i´ll try and give a quick run down so that my comp can get on. glad to hear that your week went well. Oh. just kidding. my comp just got a computer. this keyboard is still the worst one yet though, and so I´m typing about half speed. ugh. Anyways, super cool sounding trip. i can never remember when you´ll be getting back either, but I´m assuming it´ll be soon. so make the best of it! remember that you´ll probably never be there again. lol
 
So yeah. as for me. you already know up until Wednesday morning i guess, so tht maks things easier. feels weird having written not so long ago. anyways. this week, things started shaping up. we´ve been talking to lots of people, and we´re starting to build up our investigator pool. starting to find people that we can actually teach. that makes things a lot nicer, easier and effective. rather than running around in circles, we can actually sit down and share with someone. awesome. wednesdy we got to go over the baptismal questions with cleverson. he knew all the answers and really has a solid testimony of all of the points, so thats great. shouldn´t be too many problems there. so that means that this week should be his baptism. he´s been great to work with. really accepting, and willing to do his part. everything you could ever really want from an investigator. and he has great member support, and so that is great too. that afternoon we also got to get 2 member families togther at one of their houses. on one hand, not the most effective missionary thing, but I think it´ll do wonders for ward unity. 2 great young families that are now better aquainted and ready to make form eternal friendships. reminded me of a lot of good family friendships back at home, formed because of the unifying power of the gospel. Awesome.
 
Okay. now i just lost 5 minutes because the zone leaders had a silly question about a baptismal goal. Oh well. more hurring i guess. anyways, we worked hard throughout the week. thursday was nice. the only sad part was when this one lady never showed up for her visit. we had to plan it in another place because her family doesn´t like us, but she knows that the book of mormon is true. sadly she never came. but we wont lose hope. got to help out a future missionary though. thats one of the great things about this ward - there are a lot of kids getting ready to go on missions. they are always fun to help out.
 
friday was like a little christmas at the house. they send out stuff to our house evey 2 weeks from the office by courier. this week i hit the jackpot. not only did i get some great letters, but I also got tons of reimbursment money, 5 new pairs of garments (that were desperately needed), AND a bunch of the stuff I had been missing. i had talked to the Hermana about the stuff I had missed the other week and she gave me some bad news. she had found the bag, asumed that it had been left over by some retired elders and asumed it was good for regifting. so.... a lot of my stuff got lost in that way. realistically though, I think a lot of it went to people that need it a lot more than me, and so realistically i´m not all that sad. thankfully i don´t have toooo much time left on my mission, and so i was planning on giving a lot of it away anyways. but, I got a lot of it back, adn a lot of it that she gave away she replaced with other stuff for the time being. i´m mostly just glad that i have my pillow and towel back. your neck starts to hurt if you sleep without a pillow, and its not really that much fun toweling off with a tshirt. haha. anyways, hopefully your not mad about me losing my stuff. i was actually glad to hear that my jeans are being warn by a cold indian, and that my nice big jacket will keep a cold freezing paraguayan missionary warm throughout the coming winter. hope thats not bad. as for me, i´ll survive. :) As for the rest of friday, it went swell. i think we´ve been doing better relying on the Lord for help and putting our hearts into the work. we basically spent the whole day in lessons, with an especially nice one at the end with a member family and their neighbor.
 
Saturday we got ready as usual and made the half our treck to La Paloma to watch general conference. it started at one here and the bus left town at 12. worked out nicely. not many members, but that was alright because the power was out and we missed all of the morning session. :( Oh well. It came back on for the rest of them. I really enjoyed the church news and the bible history documentary before it started. the church is awesome. spent the next day and a half basically living off of cheap cookies, plasticy candy and a 3.3 litre bottle of soda. Yum... lol. Conference was great and I loved every minute of it. my favorite talks being by elder scott, pres uchtdorf (priesthood) and M. Russell Ballard. any new temples on the way by the way? learned tons. no time to elaborate though. sorry. just watch it!
 
this week is going to be a little crasy. its holy week leading up to easter so most people wont be working and we´ll probably get offered lots of traditional paraguayan food. this week we also followed presidents council and made lists of habits to break that disinvite the spirit. that was great. now we have a 40 day challenge to leave all of those things behind. should be trick but worth it. some things are hard to quit, so a lot of them will be purged off during the weeks i think, as i have so far failed in many of them. lol. we´re tryin though and thats what counts.
 
bY the way.... HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERICA! HAVE A GOOD ONE. TO UNCLE KEN ALSO. STAY YOUNG AND CLASSY.
 
thats about all i got time for. this week we tried to do service, and instead wasted most of the day sitting, and about 15 minutes working. oh well. its the thought that counts.
 
thanks for eveything. hope the week continues great. the only bad thing about conference was that rather than talking much about missionary work, they seemed to talk more about families and spending time together. not what i needed to hear... lol. oh well. just let you know that i miss you all tons and am super excited to be together again. however, im also going to stay focused as i get this awesome opportunity to take part in the best work in the world. love you tons! have a good one!
 
Elder Humphreys

Saltos - Week 2

HI! sorry for not writing. I had just enough time to read my letters, and write a nice big letter to President before the power went out and I lost everything. lol. We had a big storm blow in out of nowhere and the internet went out before any of us could write. And then yesterday we had a meeting 4 hours away and so there went most of the day. So here I am, letting you know that I´m not dead. haha. Sorry for not finding a way to write sooner.
 
Anyways, I don´t have tons of time, because we need to get out and get to work, but I´ll try and give you a quick update on how the week went. I´m glad to hear that things are well in Asia. Looks like a blast. Eat sushi for me! lol. The funny thing is that of the little you´ve said, a lot of it sounds more like here than home. For instance the electric showers, bidets and the like. Good stuff.
 
So yeah. we had a pretty descent week as usual. Not that it was without its fair share of dificulties though. But that helped us learn lots, and we are really excited about work this week. Afternoon of last monday we went out and worked with the zone leader and such. Took a nice long and needed P-day nap. That was nice. That night at about 11 pm I had to catch a bus to go do a division. Not so fun. That meant that I showed up at 3ish in the morning. The crazier part being that I traveled alone. Not a big deal, but it meant that the whole way I was in and out of sleep, and super worried about missing my stop. Not so fun.
 
Tuesday I got to work in Santani with Elder Salvatierra (from Chile). Good guy and a good area. I´ve actually been there a decent number of times after my time in San Pedro. We got to do service in the morning moving dirt and rocks. Work hardin the afternoon. Good stuff. Learned a descent amount of stuff. For dinner I had the first PB+J sandwich since.... 7th grade I think. I was kind of afraid to try it. But it was more just about breaking a PB+J fast that I had been holding for the last howevermany years that made me aprehensive. lol. It was actually not bad. Guess I´m growing up. That night we were supposed to catch the bus at 2 inthe morning. I double checked that my comp set the alarm, but somehow it never went off. So then I had to catch the 8am bus that morning. Well, we showed up 5 or 10 minutes early, but it turned out that some of the buses were racing and had already passed by. Ugh. So I didn´t get out till noon, and not back till 5ish. That was kind of a day killer. Nothing you can do though. That night we had all you can eat pizza for dinner so that made up for it in the end.
 
Thursday we worked hard. And not much came out of it. In the end we had a ward activity night and watched mountin of the lord. It probably was a little too long and a little too much for most of the people, but the coolest part was what our investigator Cleverson thought about it. Hes awesome. After the movie, he asked what he could do to be able to go inside. He has an awesome testimony and he is super excited to get baptized. The baptism would be this week, but with conference, we decided to wait a week so that things weren´t rushed. But yeah. He basically teaches himself. I handed him a Word of Wisdom pamphlet as some prereading for the next time we would pass by. He read the whole thing as soon as we left, and then 2 or 3 more times before we got to pass by again. He basically taught us the entire lesson. Then he told us that he wished his sister knew about it since she smoked. We asked him when we could meet and teach her... he invited her over right then, and she accepted the invitation to be baptized. I guess thats getting ahead of things since that just happened on Monday, but oh well. To make things short, he´s super cool. I´m super excited for his baptism and he is too. It´ll be great.
 
This week, the real problem is just a lack of investigators. Besides Cleverson, we´re running pretty dry. Its hard to teach, baptize etc. if you don´t even have anybody interested to talk to. So, we´ve been working a lot with the ward list, the area book and all of that good stuff. its taken a lot of time to get that organized and everything, but we´re hoping to see some blessings coming soon. We both have desires to meet people and help them out. Its tricky because I still don´t know the area very well with all these divisions and meetings we´ve been having lately, and Elder Wheatley is still new to the whole planning and finding people to teach thing. But I think we´re getting better. Its been really good for the both of us and we´ve been learning lots. This week really did teach us a lot though. we weren´t so much getting down about having a hard week, but more just about wondering if we´ve been doing something wrong. If there is something more that the Lord wants from us, or if we are just meant to pass by hard times at this point in time. Its been a tricky balance that I´ve been trying to figure out for a long time now. Sometimes, you just have to be patient when things don´t work out. Sometimes, they aren´t working out and you aren´t baptizing or having other success because you aren´t doing something right. Your heart really isn´t in the work. Or you aren´t doing enough to let the spirit guide you to what you should do. well, that gave us, or at least me, a great opportunity to pray and think this week. We ended the week with some pretty low numbers as a result of not having people to teach. We got some suggestions about how to work more effectively and whatnot. Alright. Anyways, I think in the end, this week really helped me to grow more humble, closer to the Lord, and with even more desires to do everything that He wants. I was able to read in 3 Nephi 1 this week and that helped me a lot. It talked about people waiting for the sign of Christs birth to know that their faith had not been in vain. It also talked about the fact that they were failing to see the smaller blessings all around them. Lastly it talked about the earnest prayers, and the promise that the blessings would come.I don´t know when will see all of the blessings of my work, but I know that they will come at some point in time. However, I still wanted to know what more I could do. So this Tuesday we had a special meeting as a zone with President. He´s been going around and teaching and such. Anyways, I was able to fast while going into the meeting and it went great. we learned a lot and I now know of a lot of ways that I and we can improve. I know that we´re going to be able to see more success in time, and until then, what more we can do.
 
I love the mission. I learn a little more everyday. I get better, but also see the ways in which I can improve, and how much more I have to go before I will really be like Christ. What a blessing. I´ve been able to look back and see where I was, how far I´ve come, and how much more I need to go. Not to mention the blessing of being able to share the gospel and invite others unto Christ. Helping souls to come unto him is one of the greatest things I´ve ever been able to do.
 
Anyways. I´m short on time and have to run. Sorry for the mid week letter. Hope you keep having a blast on your trip. Let me know how it goes, and dont forget to be safe! lol. Love you lots. Talk to ya soon!
 
Elder Humphreys

Saltos - Week 1

Hey there everybody! Hows it going. Sorry. This letter is going to come out a little rough and a little shorter I think. the keyboard in this place is a disaster. I´m honestly writing three times slower than usual. and I´m on a little bit stricter of a time limit here, so I´ll see what I can do.

Anyways. Glad to hear that you had a good week. Sounds like you had a blast. and that you will be having a blast. that things are going well, and that your´re getting all ready for your fun trip! How exciting! You´ll have to tell me all about it. Sounds like a blast. Don´t get lost in the land of foreign languages. lol. President mentioned that he got your letter dad. Not sure if he wrote you back... (the question mark doens´t work here). Hopefully all goes well with that. i´ve promised everybody that I´ll go back and see them so hopefully it all works out, and that president is cool with the date that weve picked. I hope you´ve started saving up for your new ride dad. lol. i´m stillkind of excited for the old one though. haha. I´m happy to hear that you found part of the list. i made a better list, but i think I know the one that you´re talking about, and I basically mademy list off of that one. I´ve thought about it, and I´ll let you know next week about everything that I´ve been able to remember. As for roomates. adam said that we would livetogether, but I think that´ll only work if zach has moved out. So that might be tricky. Basically I´m down with anything. after being on a mission so long, I´m pretty sure i could live anywhere with anyone. not a big deal.Anyways. hope the trip goes well and that you have a blast. tell me all about it.

Anyways, as far as my week went. pretty crasy one. Started out the week saying a couple goodbyes. tried to visit some people and take some picks, but mostof those visits didn´t really work out. oh well. not a big deal. however, church last week wasgreat. we did some visits with that american family that bought us lunch and they turned out great. then all of those people came to church. there were tons of people there. we had a really successful week and same with the other elders.Nice to see that what we did actually had a good influence on that plac. that things keep going forward. great last weekend. Also had one of my weirdest experiences of my mission. We went in to get to know the husband of one of our investigators. she warned us that he´s a little crasy, and whatnot and at the last minute warned us that he doesn´t typically like to wear much clothes. okay. well, we still wanted to meet the guy since that wasone of her major doubts. Well, we get in there to meet a old 80 year old guy, smokeing, drinking, and absolutely naked. just a little weird. lol. obviously if it was a lady we would have just run out of there asap, but yeah.we tried to talk to him for a little bit, but he didn´t know spanish or english. so we got out of there pretty quick. weird though.

Anyways, monday night I got the news on my new area. A city called Salto del Guaira. Its right near the boarder of Brasil. That makes it a really interesting place. Almost all of the people speak Portugese, spanish, and Guarani, or just a combinatino of the 3. So thats interesting. I´m here replacing on of Elder Pattersons old comps Elder Babcock. Great guy who´s just been getting tons of baptismshere for the last 6 months. That leaves me with some crasy big shoes to fill. I´m comps with the newish Elder he trained Elder Wheatly from Downey, Idaho. Great kid, really humble and hardworking. So that puts me in a really great situation.In an area that has had a lot of success, good branch, great comp. needless to say, I´m excited. Lots of recent converts to work with. I´m district leader over us and the other companionship here in town. Thats also something new, exciting and a little challenging. But hopefully it keeps going well.

So yeah. Tuesday we had changes. Last chance to give Elder Richards everything that he needs. i think he´ll do a great job. So I spent all day in the office helping out with that. That also meant that I had to stay up tll midnight just tryng to get my bags packed and everything. Turns out that I have a lot of junk. lol.

Asi es. So Wednesday I got there in the morning. got to take all of the dead elders out to do some souveniere shoping. didn´t buy anything since there wasn´t space in my bags. then we took them out to lunch t othis cool peruvian place. there we ate this real cool food. basically, they eat seafood that hasn´t been cooked, but rather justsoaked in some interesting lemon or lime juice thing that apparently keeps it from killingyou. well, i knew that I had a huge bus ride ahead of me, but I couldn´t resist. haha. so me and my comp had some raw shrimp, octupus, clam, squid etc. It was fantastic. anyways. that went good. but I barely got back in time for my bus. grabbed the bags, threw them in the van and got to the terminal with seconds to spare. fortunately there were some other guys that were also going out far and so I only had to spend a little bit of the time on the bus all by myself. Somehow between the morning and the time we left for the terminal though, one of my bags went missing. Not sure how. didn´t realize till too late. just a garbage bag with my sheets, a towel, a big coat, my pillow, bothof my blankets etc. in it. And apparently they haven´t seen it around the office. So thats a problem. if you want, you can pray that it shows up.  Its not very fun sleeping without a pillow. lol. So yeah. I got to take another 7.5 hour bus ride to my area. Just like the good old days. thankfuly the road trips don´t bug me.

The campo (field) is great. Didn´t realize how much I had missed it. The people are super receptive and nice. there is just tons of open space and jungle and wildlife. The roads are mostly just dirt and sand and so its basically pointless to polish your shoes.lol. I also came home the first night with a dirty shirt, nasty brown hands and a descent sunburn. Awesome. I have really big shoes to fill after the work that Elder Babcock did, but I don´t mind. I just plan on doing my best and trying to help as many people as possible. Elder Wheatley is great. he´s loving the fact that I actually give him time to talk. I like having a little more freedom to teach the lessons. Hes super focused and I love it. something that we sometimes lacked a little on a long day of planning back in the office. I´m not going to lie, I was a little suprised to come here, just because everybody was talking me up, telling me that I would be zone leader like every other ex-oficinista and whatnot. But I´m actually really happy to be here. the lord knows better than we do. Because just being district leader is a good challenge and stretch for me. I taught my first district meeting today. a little stressful but I think it went well and I had fun. Our district is great and I love the guys in the zone too. Wow time flys here in the internet cafe.

Elder Wheatly was sick all friday. i´m going on a division this tuesday. looks like i will have to pull out a little bit of personal money to be able to afford the travel until i can get it reimbursed. ironic for an old financiero. We have a sick investigator who is looking perfect for baptism. Hes awesome. Came to church and has an awesome testimony. had my first lesson that I taught to somebody that speaks Portugese, and all of sunday school was also in portugese. Fortunately its not to hard as the vocab is very similar to spanish. We have a cute little chaple, the members are great. Anyways, I´m all out of time thanks to this dumb keyboard. sorry to leave you hanging. basicall I´m happy working hard. I´d write more, but we´re going for 110 percent obedience here. gotta keep the ball rolling. Anyways, I loveyou lots, and glad that things are well. Have a great trip! I love you tons!

Elder Humphreys

THE OFFICE - WEEK 27

Last full week in the office. How time has flown...
Hi everybody. Glad to hear that the week went well. Nothing too crasy. Not too boring either though. The week here in office was pretty typical. Nothing too crasy. Lots of things that went splendid and make me wish I could stay. A couple of things that helped me to remember how excited I am for field life again. Kind of a week of mixed emotions I guess.
Right now I´m kind of multi-tasking so hopefully this all comes out making sense. I kind of procrastinated the day of my leaving preparations, and so I have some last minute computer stuff to do. You know... put my new music on my MP3, backup my pictures etc. All of that kind of good to do, but not really that important kind of stuff. Oh well. Something I´ve meant to do ever since I got here. Hopefully it pays off later.
As for the week.. it went decently. The office has continued to be hectic right up until the bitter end. I feel bad because my goal was to have things so under control by the time that I leave that it would be really easy for Elder Richards to take over. Well, unfortunately it hasn´t been that easy. For instance, there are a lot of random little things that we do differently here in my section of the office than they would typically run things in other mission offices of the world. Most of the reason being that we life in a country and society that is still decently behind the rest of the worlds standards. Not to mention that with Elders coming in and out every 6 or so months, without recieving any form of official or formal training, it means that a lot of things just get done in the same way that they´ve been done for a long time. Anyways, there have been a couple technicalities of my job that nobody ever taught me about. I have known for a while now that they should probably be done in another way, but honestly haven´t had the time to figure them out on my own. Well, just in the most awkward time possible, the people in Area headquarters have started sending us emails and stuff, asking us to do things the way they want them done. So now, rather than leaving Elder Richards in a nice comfortable and under control place, I´m leaving him right when all of these changes and other stuff need to be made or changed. So I´ve been trying to help him out our at least get him ready for all of this other stuff that he´s going to have to do. The only problem being that there just isn´t time to do everything I want to do. Even without all of that stuff, its been pretty crasy in the office. Just lots to do. That, and you think it would be more efficient with an extra guy in the office. But only kind of. Its nice that I can run an errand while he´s working. But its hard not to get anxious when you remember being in the same confused spot, but at the same time, you know what should be done, and know that you could do the work better or faster. I don´t think I´d be a very good teacher...lol. I like just being able to make my own mistakes if they are going to be made rather than watch them happen, or have to fix others mistakes. Oh well. I enjoy trying out a new challenge at the same time. At the same time, I feel kind of like a real dad, in that I feel like I´ve done everything that I can for him. I´ve taught him everything I know. I´ve done my best. He still lacks a little practice. And now its time for him to go off on his own. Make his own decisions and learn from his own mistakes. Must be hard to be a real dad, because it gets me all nervous for him just thinking about it. Hoping that you´ve done enough, but knowing that you can´t baby him forever. lol. So yeah. Thats kind of office life right now. There was only one time this week where it got really tense (bank closing in 15 min, check not ready, recipt missing etc... luckily I´ve managed to get good enough to make the bank run from the office to the till in 15 minutes. haha). Now all I can do is pray and hope for the best. I wish him luck....lol
In reality, that kind of sums up the week. lol. We had a couple good teaching moments. We followed up on a reference, and met a really cool guy. He´s Italian, and so we spoke about half of the time in Spanish and half in English. His name is Maximiliano. I think both come as easily to him, but for us, it has become really hard to just teach in English. So we end up mixing the two up and talking in fluent Spanglish. We´re pretty used to that by now. Thats all we really speak amongst ourselves as missionaries. Anyways, he seems to have a lot of desires and so hopefully he makes it to church this week. We found out later that our first visit actually happened slightly out of our boundaries and into the south mission, but thankfully we´re office Elders and so we´re used to that by now. lol. Hopefully we don´t make the same mistake with that again.
Wednesday was interesting. Being the extra man in the office, I got recruited to go and do the mail run with the mail man. That was something new. Wasn´t as bad as I thought it would be. Until we got to the distribution center and there was this huge load of books that we had been waiting for that had just happened to show up that week. So the two of us had to load almost 60 boxes full of copies of the Book of Mormon and other pamphlets into the van. Ugh. Oh well. Fun new experience. Then, our cook didn´t come and so we went out and got all you can eat pizza at Pizza Hut. One of our favorite things to do. I think I only ate about 10 pieces, but thats almost a full pizza, so I didn´t feel too bad about it. Anyways, afterwards, one of the assistants wasn´t feeling so well. According to what the doctor said later, he stressed and overworked himself to the point of exhaustion. So what did that mean for me? Divisions. Got to go to Moroni. Again. Good stuff. Got to do visits, and I feel like I actually was able to help out even more than usual, just knowing the area, and some people that Elder Cerpa didn´t know. That was fun. Got to see even more people that I missed too. Awesome.
Thursday was a little rough. I didn´t feel excited at all to get up and play soccer. I went anyways but was just really tired after a full day in the sun the day before. Anyways, with about less than 5 minutes before time to finish, somebody kicked the soccer ball onto the roof of the gas station. Ugh. So not only was it a lame soccer day, but it was my last one. Oh well. Today we played piki volley with the volley ball, and we also had fun playing with Elder Thomsons double dutch skipping ropes this morning. haha. Not sure why he even has them, but its a fun challenge for us uncoordinated types. Good stuff. The rest of the day was a little rough as we seemed to have the most number of problems in the financial sector. But we got through. Work out in the field was good. I got really pumped to use the ward list and we found some interesting looking people on the ward list that we are interested on looking up. It got me excited for my new area. I´ve learned a lot in the past 6 months here in the office, and the other 12 before that. Now I´m just really excited to take everything that I know and have learned and put it to work. Give everything I have to this new area and the people there. Not sure if there will be any more baptisms or success like that, but I know that I can put my whole heart might mind and strength into it and make a difference. That was another great thing that I noticed this week. It looks like I´ll be leaving this area without a baptism. Thats a really sad thought. Not something that a missionary likes to think about. But I also have been able to see more clearly now the value of every visit, every day and every effort. Yesterday we visited a family that is less active. I really noticed the change that I´ve been able to see in them in the last 6 months. They´ve gone from complete inactivity, to being really excited about church. They still have a long ways to go - they have only gone to church 2 weeks so far, and the dad still isn´t a member. But it just made me really thankful to know that I´ve been able to be there and take part in the change that has happened in their lives. See the blessings of the gospel, and know that lots really was accomplished during the time I´ve been here, even if the numbers don´t exactly show it.
Friday we had our changes planning meeting. My last one. Crasy. Looks like it will be an exciting one, since I´m technically not needed anymore, and so I get the fun jobs of taking out the old Elders to buy souveniers and eat yummy food. Stuff like that. Should be fun.
The only really sad news of the week is with our investigators that were supposed to get baptized - turns out that they are moving this week. Dang it. But we went and visited with them yesterday and they still sound like they are planning to get baptized in the future. At least one of them. They have gone through a lot of trials lately because of us and continuing to listen to us - the owner of their house is officially kicking them out for letting us in to talk. Ouch. But they´ve handled it well and don´t blame us for anything. So thats nice. Hopefully we can hear of the good news of their baptisms. To me, it really doesn´t matter if I´m here, or they are here or not for their baptisms. The most important thing is that they really make this step towards being disciples of Christ. And if they do that, its not really important if you are the one that does the baptism or not. I just hope they continue progressing and moving forward, even after we don´t meet together anymore.
Today was cool. The guys let me decide where to go for my last day. The places I really wanted to go (Sushi, Mexican etc) are all closed on Saturdays, and so we went to TGIFridays. It turned out to be quite the treat. When we showed up to the restaurant we ran into the Lloyds, the new American family in our ward. So we sat by them and chatted a little bit. Anyways, the meal was great. The burger was splendid. Great last feast in the office. But the best part was that as they got up to leave, they let us know that they had covered our bill and our meal was free. Well. Maybe back in North America, thats a usual-ish thing for a missionary. But around here, thats unheard of. Especially because that burger was ridiculously expensive. Wow. Really made us feel special. If I ever see them again, I sure owe them something special. Makes you feel really good and cared for. Not just because it was expensive, but just because people really appreciate what you do. Something you don´t always notice when a lot of people you talk to just don´t want to give you the time of day. Super cool.
Anyways, that was basically the week. Just finishing up the transferring of pictures onto my pen-drive. Last P-day in the office. Sad but happy. We´ll see what changes has in store for me. Its been the best of times, its been the challenging-est of times. Weird to put an end to such a big chunk of the mission. I´ll miss this place.
Anyways, thats that. Glad to hear about the good week. I´m pretty sure that Daylight savings should be coming up soon here too. That should put us within 2 hours again. A non trunky thought that I just thought I´d point out - since I´m getting to have less time left, I thought it might be good if somebody could call teh doctor, dentist and eye doctor guy and just set up an appointment or two so that I don´t get home and find out that they are all booked. Its been a while since I´ve seen anybody like them. lol. Also, if you haven´t written President yet, it would probably be good to do that sooner rather than later. I know you´re really busy, but just to be safe, it might be good to verify the leave date with him. Just so that there aren´t any scheduling problems. But besides that. Glad to hear that the birthday went well and you all had fun. What does Barb do for work anyways? I had fun imagining Dad at an artsy place - doesn´t really seem too much like your ¨thing¨. lol. The thought of driving in snow is scary. I won´t be able to drive nearly as crasy with that kind of hazard on the streets. Another thing I´ll miss. Cute baby. Congrats. Hope the skiing goes well. I´m super proud that ¨we¨ were able to finish our BoM read. Thats super legit. Congrats! Lets do it again! lol. As for classes, I´ll have to let you know next week what I´ve been able to think up. Then I´ll let you know. As I said though, there is a paper somewhere that says everything. Perfectly. Just have to find it. We´ll see how it goes.
Anyways, I´m out of time for this week. Gotta run. Thanks for everything. I love you lots, the church is true, and I´ll write you next week from my new area. Crasy stuff! Have a good one!
Ex Financiero Elder Humphreys

The Office - Week 26

Hey family and everyone else. How goes it. Thanks for the letters. Glad your weeks went well. Mine was pretty tranquilo for the most part. Kind of crasy that I'm back writing again. The weeks just keep going faster...

I'd say that the highlight of this week was probably right after I signed off last week from my letter. Less than a half hour after finishing, Elder Foster got out of his meeting with President and the assistants. And, thanks to Elder Short and his mercy, we had the opportunity to have a small conference with Elder Foster just as office Elders. Super cool experience. Not something that you do every day. Have a personal one on 8 with a general authority. So that was his exciting. He asked us questions about our views on the mission and how we can improve. We got to give our feedback directly to him and president. Cool to have someone take our opinion into account. Then he gave us some time to just ask questions. We asked doctrinal questions, what its like being a GA, how we can be better missionaries etc. Anything we wanted basically. It was legit. He is super knowledgeable, and knows how to listen to the spirit. However, one of the things I really liked was just how normal he was. Nothing mean or scary, or somebody with super human spiritual powers. He was just a normal guy that has been doing his best to keep the commandments, do whats right and be a good servant of the Lord. He was still easy to get along with, knew how to laugh and have fun. Just a genuinely great person. So that was just a really awesome experience.


That afternoon I got to go back to one of my old areas just for a little bit to go and pick up some more Indian goods. My favorite part was actually just the fact that once again, the members remembered who I was. And it wasn't because while I was there I was super goofy or getting into trouble, but just because I was there, doing my job and trying to help out the people and the ward. Sometimes it is hard to see the fruit of your labors. I think that's why so many people define success on the number of baptisms that they get. But it just makes me really happy to see the effect that you can have on each and every person whether they be members, converts, or people that never even get baptized. Just being able to bring the gospel and share the love of Christ is a really special gift and calling.


Sunday was interesting as always. I think my favorite part (besides when our iqqnvestigatqorqs qwqqshoqweqdq qupq qqqQ) was probably when qqqq the guy giving the talk said "If somebody asks me if I love the Bishops storehouse (he runs the one here), or my family more, I tell them that its an easy question. Obviously, I tell them... that I love the storehouse more." Wait. What? Okay. Little bit wierd... Oh well. By the way, the Q's are Elder Robert's fault. He's being lame. And and don't like him. He doesn't like Canada. Thats alright though. We burnt down the whitehouse. So there USA. ha. Jks. Thats mean. Canada is full of love and charity for our neighbors.


Anyways. Sorry about that. The week continued to go well. We had a lot of animo to work after the zone conference, Elder Foster combo from the week before. We were still sick for the next couple of days, but fortunately it wore off little by little. All good now. I did forget to wish Carmen a happy birthday last week. Bad me. Hope it went well! While I'm on the topic, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Emma. And Mackenzie? HAVE GOOD ONEs!


Regular week in the office. More training. He's learning quick. He won't even need me soon. Its still not fun being in a trio though. Super hard to teach effectively. Somebody always doesn't get to say everything that they wanted to. Got to do an out of the ordinary run to the hospital to pick up somebody that got a biopsy for stomach problems. Fun stuff. I really like when we get to take part in the sick missionary stuff and see all of their results and hear about all of the cool stuff that they did to them. haha. Thursday was a holiday and so it was really boring here in the office. However, we got news of our new assistant. And it was none other than... Elder Cerpa. The old Financiero, and my office "dad". Crasy. Wasn't really expecting that one. Scary thought too because thats the second old oficinista back in the office. Hopefully I'm not next. lol. But we really like having him around. Hes a good guy, funny and easy to get along with. Friday was a little crasy because everyone needed the van, but we made it work. The office is great right now. Everyone is really tranquilo, obedient, and not the same "up in your face" kind of people that we have seen in the past. Good stuff.


Tuesday we did service. Painted a wall. Got paint on my favorite pair of pants. Oh well. It was worth it. The people really appreciated. We also got to have birthday cake and such for our investigators birthday.


The weather here has been all over the place. Lots of rain. Thankfully its finally starting to cool down which is great. They say it will be a really long winter this year, and I'm excited. Hopefully I don't have to take that comment back later...haha


Yesterday we went to do the interviews that we wanted to do last week. And... they were out of town. Unreal. I just don't know. I really hope to be able to see at least one baptism before I leave the office, but I just don't know if they are really ready for the extra responsibility yet. Church just seems to be second priority, and if they aren't going to be in it for the long run, we really don't want to push them. But we'll see. We're going to go and try and catch them at home tonight. See if maybe the baptism can be done tomorrow after church or something. That meant that I went on a miny division for the night. It was interesting. We stole a guys cigarettes and told him that smoking was bad for him, did a lot of walking and got eaten to death by mosquitos. Everyone is really scared about Dengue after the disaster last year, so hopefully I can get by safe for another year. Wish me luck. The only part that was really interesting about the division is when we ended up getting together with a couple of the youth. It got me excited to hopefully be going to a ward where there are a couple more youth. The youth are the strength of the church here in Paraguay. They're also the easiest and funnest to get along with. Made me sad that my youth is kind of past now, but oh well. New stage of life. Kids, don't let your teens get away from you - fun stuff.


Today was pretty tranquilo. Nothing special to note. Hopefully a baptism coming up at some point, but it looks like the one we had planned for today will fall through. Praying for a miracle, but we'll probably have to wait a week or two more. My time here in the office is coming to a close. Weird feeling. Its a really fun experience here in the office and I've learned so much. Once again, sad to see how the time has gone by so rapidly. Lots of good memories though. This week I have to get together everyones pictures and the like. Try and remember the good old days.


Thanks for the letter. I really liked it this week. Nice work on the lesson. I really enjoyed hearing about the mission stories. Those are always really fun to compare. The font here is really not that bad. But when nobody drains it, it collects bugs, and the first steps in knock all the dirt up off of the floor. And the water is almost always a kind of greenish color. But I'm sure it could be worse. lol. Always crasy to hear that life is moving on. Realistically, I didn't even hardly realize that it was a leap year day. haha. Weird that people would celebrate something like that though. Here, there are rarely celebrations, and when there are, its usually just drinking and fireworks. So probably for the better that we didn't. lol.Sounds like a fun day. Hopefully the shots and the like are going well. Having fun with the arts. And the foods. And the skiing. Good stuff. How exciting. I've never had a stake mix up. Could be CRASY. Glad to hear that I should make it back in time for the temple. Hopefully they take their time and don't get it done early or anything. haha.


Anyways, I gotta run. Times up and I'm still in my nasty Piki-volley clothes. Still got lots to do! But I hope you have a great week. You're the best. Keep doing whats right and enjoy doing it. Missionary life is great! Still miss ya though. Suerte!


Elder Humphreys

The Office - Week 25

Hello hello. Hows it going.
We had a pretty crasy week here in the office. LOTS of stuff to do. Lots of ups and downs. Lots to be done. But it was good all in all.
Good and bad news as far as baptisms go. Good news - there was a baptism. Bad news - it wasn´t the baptisms that we were planning on. Kinda weird story. The weirder part being the good news. So Sunday went pretty good. One of our progressing investigators went to church. She thoroughly enjoyed it. The other one stayed home because she felt kind of sick/ her son was in from out of town and she didn´t want to leave him in the house by himself. Okay... Anyways. Church went pretty well. I did good and rather than falling asleep in Priesthood (the boring-est hour of every week) like one or two of the other Elders, I was able to have a good personal learning moment as I read in the new manual about George Albert Smith - good stuff. Anyways. The real excitement started right after church. We found out that there was going to be a baptism. Which was unusual. Even weirder though was that she wasn´t any of our investigators. She is a daughter of a member family that has gone to church almost every week for the last 42 years of her life. The reason she wasn´t baptized yet was because she has a mental handicap, to the point where she´s been told that she doesn´t need to be baptized. Well, without advising us or getting a proper interview from a missionary (necessary for all baptisms over the age of 8), the bishop interviewed her and allowed her brother to baptize her. I thought it was weird, but I asked the bishop and he told me that it was a special case and that we didn´t have to worry about it. The funniest part being that at the very last minute Elder Thomson was put in charge of directing the meeting, and the other two elders were put in charge of giving last minute talks. I took charge of adding more water to the font so it was more than knee deep (its just been sitting like that for a while), and scooping as many bugs and grossness out of the font before it happened. Very disorganized, but not our fault. But at least our investigator like it and she told the people there that she was going to get baptized on Friday. In the end, I double checked with the assistants, who then checked with president, and we found out that the bishop had no right to authorize a baptism like that. Oh well. The deed had been done. So we got put in charge of filling out the baptismal record and she now counts as one of our converts. lol. I think I´ve only taught a lesson with her there once before. Too bad we don´t work for numbers....haha.
Anyways, so that went interesting. The rest of Sunday turned into a minor disaster where we passed by one ladies house and got fed TONs of food. She made us try eggplant milanesa (basically breaded and then deep fried). Not too bad. Then we went to our real dinner visit and had to eat even more. We almost were sick. It was funny though because our first lunch visit was a very typical Paraguayan style meal. It made me realize how spoiled I´ve gotten here... I´m scared to go back (to the field). lol. We´ll see how long it takes me to get used to it again...
Monday was pretty normal. We did get one pretty cool visit in though. It was with one of the oldest members in all of Paraguay. Not that shes old, but just that she was one of the first. Apparently the church is sending people to see her give a presentation about the beginnings of the church here in Paraguay. She told us some fun stories, and some old books and stuff. It was fun. And then me and Elder Thomson got to translate for her the blessing that Ezra Taft Benson gave to dedicate the land of Paraguay for the spreading of the gospel. I had never seen it before. So that was cool. Got to read an old book about how mission life was way back when dad and that generation were missionaries. Super cool. We also got to teach our investigators about tithing. They enjoyed it and after explaining why we do it and about the blessings and such they didn´t have any problems with it. Then we went to the church and got to see who my posterity would be. Or as we say it here in the mission - who my ¨kid¨or ¨son¨ would be. His name is Elder Richards. From West Jordan Utah. He was actually the first name on the list of 3 people that I had given to President as possible replacements that I thought would do a good job. He´s a little quiet and shy-ish seeming, but he´s a really good kid. I thought that he would do a good job mainly because he gave back tons of left over money one month and so I assumed that he knows how to use money well and is honest and doesn´t love or live for money. lol
So he showed up on Wednesday. Right in the middle of zone conference week. Poor kid. There´s been tons to do, and then with the conferences, there are just people coming in with problems and needing money all the time. But he´s handling it well. I´m trying not to overwhelm him, but at the same time give him everything he needs to know. Its tricky. The hardest part is not getting bossy as I try and teach him what to do. Its a learning process. Its kind of nice because there are lots of moments when all I can do is sit back, watch him work and correct any mistakes he makes. Its also hard though because I have the huge to do list in my head, and I have to watch him practice while I know that I could get the same work done in a third of the time. But I think its good for me. Its teaching me patience. Its helping me to learn how to be a better teacher from kind of a different angle than I´m used to. He´s picking up really quick. I´m impressed. A lot quicker than I did. He´ll do a great job. The stress mostly just comes from me wanting to solve some of the problems that have come up in the last few weeks, and just get them done for him before I leave them on his own. But there´s only so much time... lol. Good stuff.
But yeah. Even without having to train it would have been crasy. Lots of money spent and lots of trips to the bank. Lots of needy people that are out of money because its the end of the month almost, and they are looking for any last penny then can get. Turns out that there are a lot of people who think I´m grumpy or strict or something like that. That made me kind of sad to hear. A lot of it just comes with the job. People want things from you, but you can´t just give them everything that they want because they ask for it. It is the Lords money after all. I realized too that I like to joke around with people, but that it they don´t know me very well, they think I´m serious and get all defensive. Oh well. Its nice because working as a missionary, and especially as an oficinista teaches you a lot about yourself. Its taught me a lot. It helps you learn patience, people skills, problem solving skills etc. Shows you a lot about where you can improve too. :)
Had a funny moment where on day during a zone conference some lady just walked in, interrupted the meeting and then talked with President or somebody for a second, told everybody there a little bit about herself and then read them one of the poems that she wrote. After that President escorted her to our (its not just mine anymore) office, and asked me to take down her information as a reference. So I got to talk with her for a while. We spoke in English. She´s from Argentina. Likes to travel around and just go random places. She was actually looking for a different church, but saw ours and she says the spirit told her to come in. So... we gave her a pamphlet and a Book of Mormon. Taught her a little bit. Took down her address. Probably will never see her again. Funny moment though because she was just ranting and raving about all sorts of stuff, but seemed pretty with it at the same time. Hopefully the missionaries find her house and can teach her.
Wednesday night we had a lesson with our investigators. Went over the baptismal questions. They seemed pretty determined to go through with it. It was strange because we had to meet in front of our house to teach them because their landlady hates us now and is kicking them out of their house. Mostly because of us and because they now attend our church. We told them that Satan is doing everything possible to keep them from getting baptized. Anyways, we planned it all out and got them ready for the interview the next day.
Thursday came along. We were calling people and inviting them to the baptism that was planned for Friday. All sorts of stuff. We even had less active members all pumped up. They were going to bring a cake, there were a descent number of people planning on going. But when we called them up we got the bad news. They said that they didn´t have time to do the interview. That they had to look for a new house. In the end, Satan was working hard and it was just too much for them. My companion went out with the district leader to see if they could calm them down and do the interview, but to no avail. So that was kind of sad. But they are looking for their new house and say that they are excited to get baptized after they get settled in to their new house. We´ll see how it goes.
The upside of Thursday is that we are now in a threesome. Which is awkward. But leaves openings for divisions. I think this week I´ll try and leave with the young men. But on this day I actually got to leave with Elder Short (the assistant). To none other than my first area - Moroni. Fun stuff. I was excited. I got to see a couple people that I haven´t been in touch with for over a year now. That was really cool. I thought that nobody would remember me because back then I hardly ever talked, and I was only there for 7 weeks. But there were a couple people that recognized me and it made me really happy. I think they really just appreciated the fact that I remembered them. It was awesome. I haven´t smiled so much in a while now. It was good too because I got to point out a lot of less active and old investigators houses to Elder Short. Hopefully it was helpful to him. It gets me really excited (but not trunky) to go around with Dad at the end.
Friday was our zone conference. Super good. We learned lots. And we really felt the spirit. It was great. Rather than focusing on techniques of teaching or things to do differently, we focused a lot more about the very important, but more general things. For instance, Charity. How important that is in the work. Also President taught us all about the complexities of Faith, and how profound and interesting of a subject it can be. Stuff that we will be able to apply in all aspects of the work. Some of my favorite Elders also gave their final testimonies in a zone conference setting. Its always kind of sad to see that they´re going to go. Usually they all say the same thing about how they´ve changed, that they are going to keep being good missionaries etc. But there were a lot this time that actually gave good solid, testimonies. Real testimonies. At the end, you could really just feel the spirit super strong. At presidents request, we all left in silence and it was a really special experience. The only downside being that the whole day my insides just wanted to be outside of me. haha. I was pretty sick. Ugh. But I just fasted it off, didn´t eat, took some medicine, and was able to recover not too bad. Must have been something I ate. It made it hard to focus because I needed to leave the meeting, but it also kept me from falling asleep, so I guess thats good. Turns out that I was just the first one to get it. Turns out that there was something in the food, because basically everyone that I´ve talked today is suffering from the same or worse symptoms. Its actually been quite humorous. We´re pretty used to being sick by now, but it has lead to many lost hours of sleep, or panicked running. haha. We typically refer to the problem as ¨Chivivi Guazu¨, or more simply ¨The Sheevs¨. haha. The very first Guarani phrase that I learned....lol
Anyways. Thats that. Today President Foster of the 70 is with us. We´ll see if we get to have a meeting with us or anything. Otherwise a pretty tranquilo day. We´ve had to get up early  and go to bed late every day this week with office stuff, and so I think we might just rest. Glad you had a good tranquilo week. That you´re having fun. Thanks for the letters and the support. Keep me filled in with everything. I love you tons. I hope you have a great week! The church is true, and don´t forget to be good missionaries!
Love,

Elder Humphreys