Miracles

My Dearest family and friends,

So Elder Torres has been recovering from his little operation, so that meant no talking for basically the whole week. So I had to do all the teaching and stuff like that. It was hard because I still can't understand everything people say. But I survived the week. and I learned so much. Last night Elder Torres and I were talking (because he is healed enough to do that now) and he said that he was proud of me and the way that I handled things. So that made me super happy. It was a fantastic end to a rough week for the both of us.

Like always we have had trouble getting people to church. Our family said they were going to come, but the didn't show!  They said they slept past their alarm clock and didn't wake up in time for all the classes. I think I forgot to explain that this branch does the classes things opposite. They have priesthood first then Sunday School (for us its called Principos del Evangelio or Priciples of the Gospel) for recent converts, menos activos and investigators and THEN we have sacrament. So any way, we called them right after our Principios del Evangelio and they said they had unexpected visitors. And once again, we were frustrated.

Anyway, to the subject line. Miracles. We visited this family on Monday night and while we were talking their dogs went out into the street to play with some other dogs, when a Jeep runs directly over one of the family's dogs (naturally the Jeep didn't stop. People just don't care about that stuff here). The dog was squealing so loud and it was bleeding from the mouth and from the leg. you could see tire tracks through the dog's body. I think it was a miracle that it didn't die instantly. 

So we visited again on Saturday and whose the first to greet us? That dog, It was running and jumping and barking and playing just like any normal dog. It was an absolute miracle. As we were talking with the family, they said that she was pregnant and lost her baby, which was sad, but it was still a miracle nonetheless.

I don't have much more for this week! Until the next,

Elder Jared

Hey so this is our Christmas decorations. I don't know if it will get much better than this!

Nativity

Also we did a kiosk and just contacted a ton. The question translates to "How can I find peace and happiness?"

The Ups and the Downs

So this week has been quite the week!! You might notice that I am writing on a Tuesday instead of Monday. But this is with permission from the President. Basicall,y I couldn't write much yesterday because we were going from doctor to doctor. Elder Torres has had a cyst on his tongue that has been growing and he decided to get it removed. So the President's wife had scheduled an appointment in Asunción for a consultation (Asunción is about and hour and a half collectivo ride away). That doctor said it wasnt anything to worry about and he would have removed it if it had been on his lip. But it was his tongue so we had to go to a different doctor. He looked at it and said he thought it should be removed but he didn't have time to do it right then. So we didn't get back home till 7 that night and the pday was over. And so this morning, we had to go back to Asunción for the little operation. He is in a little bit of pain right now and he is having trouble speaking. So the pressure is on me for a day or two. By the way, The church has a program called 12 weeks, Its just a guide to help missionaries adjust to the field, but this week I get to be the senior companion for the week. So I get the cell phone and take the lead in planing and teaching. So I guess that Elder Torres having trouble speaking came at an opportune moment!

We challenged our investigators that came to church last week with a date on Nov. 26. They were super excited for it. But the day after, they had a family emergency in another city so they couldn't make it to church. They were super sad but there wasn't much we could do about that.

I had my first "Andi Kamby" (The first word is pronouced like it looks, just like hyundai without the h sound and the second is a little bit odd, Its pronounced Kem-buh) but basically its pumpkins soaked im milk. If you truely know me pumpkin is like one if the foods that I just can't eat. It definitely wasn't very good. But the Hermana that made it lives pretty humbly so I ate it all. And Elder Torres's because he couldn't eat it at all. 

Those are the downs for this week It could have been alot worse. But now its time for the ups!

There's always that classic missionary story where someone was praying to have someone visit, and then the Elders show up at the door. Those expierences are real. And they are extremely powerful. It happened on Monday after I last wrote. We were walking down the street and we both felt that we needed to visit this family that we haven't visited in forever. So we clap and talk to one of the sisters (who is like 25). She said she was praying for someone to come and talk with her. As it turns out, a while ago, her brother, who was working on a roof, fell off and broke his spine. He was paralyzed from the waist down. And on top of that, all the blood was pooling in his sitting area and he developed cancer and passed away. And on top of it all, Her father was in the hospital sick (he is likely to make a full recovery from what I hear). So we just testified of the Plan of Salvation and the Atonement. The spirit was extemely powerful and we were all crying. It is definitely something that I will never forget for the rest of my life.

other than that, we contacted a bunch of drunk people. Which is always funny because they have no clue whats going on. We were talking to this one guy and we started a lesson, he ended up saying like 6 prayers in the lesson. I just wish he would pray when he was sober. But at least he knows the importance of prayer.

I hear its snowing in Utah, so I think I will teach Elder Torres how to make paper snow flakes. It will help with our Christmas decoration-which is nothing so far

Con Cariño

Elder Jared

The Power of the Father

Today has been a great week!! We still havent found someone new to teach, everyone that we talk to just say someother time, we ask when would be more appropriate and they just walk away. But on the good side we had some investigators go to church!! It was the first time I have had an investigator at church. And the story behind them going is pretty neet.

So my area has been trying to get this family to go to church since June. But they havent gone at all (which is funny because they tell us that when people ask what religion they are they say Mormon, Which is super purete.). We havent been able to teach the dad because he actually works all day and he doesnt get home till late. So during weekly planning we were pondering what we could do for the family to get to church and we both felt inspired to write a letter to the dad. So we wrote him telling him how much influence he has on his family and we invited him to church. And as we were teaching his family on Thursday, he came home early. So a little miracle there, and we talked to him. And of course the letter came up and he said that he didnt know he was invited to church, so naturally we invited him and he saud he would come. A lot of paraguyans say they will come but then they dont, so we were a little bit worried, and we couldnt go pick them up because they live 30 minutes away by bus. But he came and brought his family!! So I have a strong feeling that we will have some baptisms soon.. So thats the power of a father, A family not going to church for 5 months, then one letter and they come. So to my dad and all the future fathers that get this letter, always remember your influence. Its powerful and has eternal consequenses.

in other news we had a lady tell us that there were Zombies in the Dominican Republic. Supposedly they stuff some herbs down a corpse and it revives them. And you can tell if they are a zombie because their eyes are just white with a black dot. Haha. Also that same day some guy tried to convince us that Jesus Christ died in Japan. I dont know where some people get these ideas. I think its really funny.

My mom has been wondering about how much service we do. And sadly, we dont do much labor. There are abunch of people outside doing stuff that we can help, and we always ask but they say no. But sometimes they will offer us water and so while they are inside getting water we just finish the job for them. I think they like that but they dont say. One service that i do get to do quite often is teach english. Right now I am teaching two people. One of them is the stake president and the other is an investigator. So thats always fun. When I came on my mission I expected to do alot of street contacting and not so much tracting. As it turns out, we dont do much street contacting and a lot of tracting. Elder Torres says its more effective in this area because you cant tell where people on the streets are going. Dont get me wrong, we still do street contacing, just not a ton. maybe 35% of our contacts are from street contacting.

In great news, our AC Got fixed! naturally it was this morning so we havent been able to enjoy it as much, But we studied in the room that has the vent. It was Blissful. Also, our water got fixed so we have hot water! so in the morning, I switch the water from hot to cold. just because I can. And Tonight, we are going to get the room super cold and take a warm shower tomorrow. Im super excited. 

So If you have any specific questions Email me and Ill do my best to answer them!!

With love from Paraguay, 

Elder Jared

When it rains it pours

So first of all, shout out to my rediculously awesome (old but not too old) half marathon running machine Dad!! He turned a young 52 on sunday and to celebrate the day before he runs a half marathon! Congrats on the birthday and breaking your goal pops :) also, Shout out to Kenna for running too!! Those times are great!!

So according to the subject line, we had a storm. I was praying for some rain and boy rain is what I got. It started on thursday. Just a little bit here and there but not much. Then Friday was about the same, just a tad bit more. Then Saturday morning At 4:30 the heavens opened. It started pouring buckets and the streets started turning into mini rivers. It was easily the best storm I have ever witnessed. The best way I could think to have described it was like a dance party. The lightning was like a strob light and the thunder was a constant rumble. Elder Torres and I counted lightning strike and there was 12 in 15 seconds.... It was awesome! and it lasted till like 6 in the morning... so I lost some sleep but it was a super awesome storm, totally worth it.

With all that water came some problems for some people with flooding, we were excpecting to spend all day with helping people with the water, but most people had it undercontrol when we asked them. I was a little bit sad because I was looking forword to helping out. But I guess its a good thing that people didnt need our help.

We havent had any luck contacting people from our area book. They just dont answer or arent home when we go. So tough luck there. But on ther bright side, we found a man whos is super less active.  Like he hadnt been to church in over 10 years. But he came to church with us and he even bore his testimony which was super sweet. In elders quorum, we were talking about families and he piped up and said "I dont have any kids, But my lady has 8!" the next class was a lesson on the law of chastity so that was quite the coincidence. All the priesthood got a kick out of him.

Still no luck on getting investigators to church so once again, dissapointing.

I went on divisions with Elder Mendoza for an afternoon. Elder Mendoza is from Utah but he speaks spanish. Our companions had to go to a meeting and so we had to do splits. Oh by the way, he is even newer than me (he has two weeks on the mission compared to my 8) so I had to be the senior comp for the afternoon. Which was a bit overwhelming especially because I still cant understand everyone. But It was actually a super good split. We taught some of my investigators who were struggling with reading the Book Of Mormon. They said they didnt read because they couldnt learn anything. So we read the first chapter of 1 Nefi and stopped every three verses and asked what they learned, They first verses they said they didnt learn anything, so we told them to focus on little things, like who was writing and their situatuion and stuff. And by the end of the chapter they were learning lots both about little stuff and they were starting to think about deeper stuff. So that was super Purete.

And then there was Halloween... Which means nothing down here but everyone knows about it. So no candy or anything for me. Just another day in the life of a missionary. But its ok, I can celebrate it in 2 years. Jaja

Thats all for this week. I love you all and love hearing from you!
Elder Jared