The week after Christmas

Once again, this week has absolutely flooown by too fast. I loved spending Christmas here. But the thing is, they don't really celebrate Christmas here. They celebrate the 24th more. That's when they have their big dinner and all of their fiestas, and then at midnight they launch off fireworks. We had permission from the president to be out on the street until 11 that night. I'll have to say that as 10:00 rolled around I was beat. But I only get 2 Christmases in Paraguay so naturally we stayed out til 11. We had Christmas dinner with the Bishop which was super fun. We had an Asado which is a ton of meat. But don't worry mom, I ate some veggies too :) they had this super yummy salad which is called Ensalada de Remolacha. Which Is sugar beets. I hadn't really eaten sugar beets before but I have to say that that salad was some of the best stuff I have tasted. I dont know what was in it but it was awesome!! So for Christmas Eve dinner I had meat and sugar beet (I think they made it rhyme on purpose!!)

But as for the missionary work this week, its been hard. Every one gets drunk. It makes it extremely hard to find someone that is sober enough to understand our message. So this week has been a week of on and off. With Tuesday being a regular day and then Christmas Eve and Christmas as awesome (because we just visited members and talked to our families!!!!!!) but then Friday, Saturday and Sunday were absolutely hard. It was extremely hot and everyone was still drinking. So it was a bit rough but it was expected. I also suspect this week will be similar.

We were able to have one good lesson this week with an investigator that had a lot of questions. You would be suprised how hard it is to find people that have questions about our church or anything. But he had heard that we worshiped Joseph Smith, and stuff like that, but he wanted to hear from us what we believe in so it was super cool. He also had lots of questions about the Book of Mormon, and so we explained it to him and after we asked if he had any questions and he said "So if I don't read this book, will I be condemned to hell?" We were a bit confused at how he got to that conclusion but we told him that if he read the book and prayed to know that it was true, and followed the footsteps of Christ and be baptized, it would save him from hell. It was amazingly powerful and it was awesome to see someone excited about reading this incredible book.

I would love to hear how all of your Christmases were so write me!!

Elder Jared

He is the Gift

Hello family and friends!

This week has been incredibly fast... Like I dont know where time has gone! and now its Christmas! I love the christmas season soo much! everyone is happy!

Speaking of Christmas, the Church has come out with a video called Èl es la Dadiva, which in english is "He is the Gift" If you havent seen it yet, stop reading and go watchit. Right now. WE have been using to contact people. It has been working amazingly well. Sometimes we get to watch a video right there when we contact(they have smartphones but live in little shacks, dont ask my why they get a regular phone put the money to something else). and when we get to watch it with them, the people loooooove it. The spirit from the video is soooo strong and they can feel it. It has been a great way to get on the other side of the fence and teach a lesson.

We have discovered another thing thats hard about a Whitewash right before christmas. You dont have anybody to spend Christmas with. So In Kokuere, I had three dinner invites, and here we were thinking that we would have to spend christmas alone. To make things worse, the members didnt like the Elders before us and they didnt trust them. But luckily, the Bishop has invited us (Kinda) for dinner. I say kinda because he didnt say it to our face. He was talking with the Hermanas and invited them over and they asked if the Elders were going to be there and he said yes. So I feel like we have a family to spend christmas with.

I hope you all have a very merry christmas and hope that you can see the most amazing video (along with "because of him" (easter)) in the world.

Feliz navidad y enjoy the cool!!

Elder Jared

Whitewash Week 2

This week has been a wierd week.. It was going great the first half of the week and they its like a light switch was flipped. I'll talk about it a bit more later. 

We had zone conference this weekend and things are changing in the mission. It's great changes! So right now every week we have to send in 14 things to the president. It's baptisms, confirmations, investigators with a date, investigators that went to church, lessons to a investigator with a member, other lessons, progressing investigators, references received, contacted, new investigators and lessons to a menos activo or a recent convert and the number of contacts, menos activos at church and total at church.

But now we only have three things, and that's baptisms and confirmation, % of the recent converts that went to church, and total at church. So that takes a lot of pressure off of us and we can focus on teaching investigators and not trying to reach a number. 

So that was on Wednesday. and something big happened on Wednesday also. I had divisions with the APs. It was tons of fun and I learned soo much. I went with Elder Caldouron. He is from Logan but was born in Colombia. He's been the AP for 6ish months. But at the end he told me that my spanish is great and gave me stuff to start perfecting my accent. So that made me feel awesome!

But Wednesday was when things started to change. Monday to Wednesday we didnt have any trouble getting into houses and finding new people to teach, but from then on it was seriously nothing. All of our contacts were rejections and we had tons of trouble finding and teaching. I'm sure this week will be better!

It's mango season right now and they are everywhere! There are tons of mangos on the ground and are starting to rot so it smells bad. But when you get a good mango it's awesome! I've started eating a mango for breakfast and when we are walking you can just pick a mango and eat it. So everyday I eat like 10 mangoes (most of the mangoes here are small and fit in the palm of your hand). I love them so much!

For this week in studies I spent a good part of the week studying 3 Nephi 11. I have to say that it might be my favorite chapter in the whole book. It is absolutely amazing. But I left my study book at home so I can't share in detail. Basically the doctrine of Christ is to have faith in him, be baptized and repent. The rest of the doctrine is based on those three things. They are crucial and I loved studying them.

I have a question for you all, I would love to hear your responses next week. It will take some studying and research, but I'm sure you will learn a lot. In 3 Nephi 11:21 Jesus gives Nephi and the 12 the power to baptize. But they had been baptizing before, so were those baptisms invalid? I would love to hear your thoughts. Next week I will post my thoughts. I hope you have fun studying this!!

With love from Paraguay,

Elder Jared

Transfer 2

Heyy Heyy!! It seems like forever since I have been able to write! This week has been absolutely nuts. First of all I'm sure that y'all are curious where Elder Torres is now. He is still in the same place. But first I need to explain some missionary Lingo. All of this has to do with family history because it is incredibly important.

Father: Trainer
Son:Trainee
Mother: The last companion of your father in an area
Brother: Someone trained by your trainer
Grandfather:trainer of your trainer, etc

So that means Elder Torres is my "Father". And in this transfer I learned that I have a brother. And I am a mother... You put it all together and I am the one that left while Elder Torres is still training in Kokueré. So my new area is called Juan de Salazar. It's In between two cities called Luqe and Limpio. Basically my area in GIGANTONOURMAS! Like it is incredibly big. And we live like a mile away from it so every morning and night is a mile walk. To add on top of a giant area and huge walks to get to our area every day, we got whitewashed. So we are both new to this area and know where nothing is. None of the investigators, less actives, or the members. And with a new area and new comp. It's been pretty rough.

My new companion is Elder Breton and he is from Orem and is awesome! So I have an american comp! He has like 15 months on the mission and he hasn't been whitewashed before. So this is new for the both of us.

We had quite the shock when we first saw our home, I have pictures but this computer is not accepting my USB for some reason. Elder Breton discribed it prefectly when he said "Its your classic Paraguayan home. This is something you contact." Basically it's four walls and a bathroom. It does have AC which is a HUGE blessing you'll understand later.. But it smells like mold and the Elders before didn't clean it at all... There was a half pot of rice on the stove and a bunch of dirty dishes on the sink. And don't even get me started on the floor. Lets just say we spent the better part of a day cleaning. Also the area book was basically worth nothing. It had stuff from 09 and there was basically no info. So we really were starting from nothing.

Just one more paragraph and then I'll get to the blessing that I have felt. Our area basically has nothing. There isn't any supermarkets and only one paved road. The rest is dirt and it absolutely kills your feet. and it is the weirdest thing, you'll see a community of like 5 houses, then there will be nothing. absolutely nothing for half a mile. Its odd.

Now it's blessings time:
1. I love my comp and he is working amazingly hard.
2. Something switched in my brain and I can understand people and converse with them. I'm still not grammatically correct, but they catch my drift
3. Is the ward. They have helped us soooo much. We met with the bishop the first day we were here and EVERYONE, was like, hey-your new. I want to help you. Call me anytime and we will work with you" people young and old, male and female. I guess the other elders didn't work with the ward that well, and they were excited for new people that would work with them. So every day we have had a member with us to show us where people live. I dont know how we would have done it without the ward. They are amazing.

They also speak alot more guarani here so here are some phrases:

Che uhei (shea uh hey) means im thirsty-which we use often because we saw a sign and it said 51 degrees. thats like 124 degrees. So its baking here
Che vare´a (shea varey ah) Im hungry
Che kane´o (shea can eh oh) Im tired
and Che akese( shea ah case eh) I want to sleep

Basically we use all of those alot. haha

But for reals the biggest thing I have learned this week is that all things will fall into place if you do what the Lord wants you to do. No matter how hard the task may seem, It's all possible. We have been teaching so many lessons and people are accepting our message. Its all because we are willing to forget our will and desire and do the Lord's work.

I hope you can find an application in your life somewhere

With all the love in the world,
Elder Jared

Thanksgiving!

So I'm sure y'all are curious of how we celebrated Thanksgiving. Basically, we didn't do anything. But we did have a super fun Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening) with a family that is menos activo. We played the flour game. It's where you build a tower out of flour and put a coin on top. Then you take turns cutting the flour untill the tower crumbles. Once the tower crumbles the coin is lost in the flour and you have to find it and take it off the plate with your nose! It was super fun! And to take it a step further, if you made the flour fall, you had to answer a question about someone else that was there. If you got it wrong, we would pop a water balloon on your head, If you got it right the person who the question was about got the water balloon. It was a pretty great night if I do say so myself. And naturally we shared a spiritual message and we decided to share the first lesson again. It was the most focused I have ever seen that family. They said that they wanted to go to church but they had other commitments on Sunday. Tough luck.

Last week I mentioned Black Friday here, You can already get stuff for super cheap here compared to the states, and with the deals it would have been a killer opportunity to grab some Paraguayan gear but we weren't allowed. No biggie for me because my mom will tell you I'm not much of a shopper!

There is another family (a mother and son) of menos activos who we have been working really hard to get to church. We have been trying forever to get them to church. They said they had troubles waking up in time, so we gave them an alarm clock. Promising eternal blessing also wasn't enough to get them to church so we had to stoop to chocolate. They didn't have any excuse to not come to church this week. and did they come? Nope. I seriously don't know what else to do with them.

We haven't been able to visit the family that is super close to baptism this week. Because the kids are in finals getting ready for summer vacation. Funny that while you all are in the snow and school, I am in summer and the kids are on vacation!

In other big news, I gave my first talk in sacrament meeting yesterday. I had to talk on prophets. It was super scary because I struggled giving a 10 minute talk in english and now I had to do It in spanish (which is a ton better than my first week). But I felt like I did a good job I was able to fill my time and the Branch was very nice to me and said I did great.

Also, we have changes on Wednesday and Elder Torres feels like he is going to leave. He has been in this area for 4 changes and has been in this zone for his whole mission. We figure out tomorrow for sure what happens.

One last thing. As you know, my area borders the south mission. And our stake is probably going to change boundries. That means that my branch may become a part of the stake that is in the south mission. I don't know if they will send us to another part and whitewash our area with missionaries from the south mission, or if the missionaries already in our branch would just switch to the south mission. So a bit of uncertainty in Rama Kokueré.

Con Cariño
Elder Jared

Ps: The offical name of the other mission is just Paraguay Asunción, but to me, they are the south mission

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

What? Three Months?!

I have recieved many emails reminding me that it was my this week has been three months... I think that it has gone by too quickly!! I swear that everytime I blink its a new day!!
So we had our first changes and I know your curious to know how it works (at least my mom is :))
But we met on a tuesday during our time for district meeting as a zone together in a chapel. We then have District meetings and after we get together as a zone. The zone leaders have a list of all the changes and stuff. So they call each companionship to stand up and they tell them if any are changing, what area they will be in, who their new companion is, or if their training. Then on wednesday If you have changes you go to the office. But I didnt have changes and Im still in the great branch of Kokuerè.

The work has been pretty slow. We are having trouble finding new investigators, having trouble with investigators not keeping their promises, and getting menos activos back to church.

Theres not much we can do about our investigators not keeping promises, they have their agency and they have chosen not to do it.

For the menos activos is a bit frustrating. theres a family that they know what they have to do (go to church) why they should go (The sacrament) and what they have to change to get there ( wake up earlier) and they still dont go! We are trying everything to get them there but once again, they have their agency. And we will keep trying.

The New investigators is a bright spot. I was looking through the our area binder and I found like 7 people that I thought we should contact. most of them have read the Book of Mormon and believe its true.. they just lost contact form the missionaries it seems. So we have a plan to contact them this week and I have high hopes of catching one.

On Saturday, we got a call from our branch president saying that a littler girl wanted Elder Torres to baptize her that night. So rushed to find a baptismal suit for her which was crazy fun. You would think that the missionaries would have the stuff, but we dont. haha. But it was super cool to see another baptism and confirmation.

For those of you that dont know, Paraguay has some way cool leather works, and so we bought some scripture Tapas (Cases)! I absolutely love mine (pictures attached) but the zipper already broke, so we are meeting the guy that made them on thursday and he will fix them. But they are so cool!!

One weird thing I have noticed about Latinos is that they smell everything! Like we had some lady come clean our house and she smelled our dvd player our tables, our freezer, even some dirty socks air drying. When we showed our Tapas to our investigators and other people they looked at them for a second and then they smell them. I dont understand it!

As for the weather, It keeps getting hotter and hotter. I have heard that it gets to around 120 in the summer... soo please pray that we can have our AC fixed soon... We are working on getting it fixed but not much has happened.

I love it here and wake up everymorning excited for a new day!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Jared

When Trials Turn to Blessings...

My goodness it is getting hot here. Like i think it was friday, we hit over 41 degrees. Celsius of course. so in farenheit it was like 105 with over 70% humidity... ouch. Its super hot and everything is sticky. But thats where the subject line comes in. Right now I am not to sad about the cold water for showers. It feels soo good after a hot night. Haha all we need now is some AC and we will be set!!

So, this week as been fairly good. The other Elders in our area had a baptism on saturday and we were able to bring our investigators (the ones with the date) to it! Im not exactly sure how they felt though, because they started speaking super fast and using words that I didnt understand. But anyway, we invited them to the sacrament meeting the next day for the confirmation and the recieving the gift of the Holy Ghost. But once again, they didnt wake up when we passed by. We seriously tried everything we could to get them there but they chose not to wake up. So Once again we were dissapointed.

But at that sacrament meeting, I realized how special reciveing the Gift of the Holy Ghost is. I havent heard someone on this Earth be confirmed and recieve the Gift of they Hohly Ghost since it was me reciving the gift. The gift is soo special, and so I have a challenge for you, when partaking of the sacrament and the preist says "that thy spirit may always be with them" i want you to take the place of someone that has just been baptized and is getting confirmed. What would you think and more importantly feel? Its a special gift that we have recieved and continue to recieve.

Another awesome thing about thos week was we had the primary program!! Although our Branch primary is a lot smaller then mine at home, It was still special to see them sing and bear testimony. And of theres always the kids that shout. Haha they made me laugh so hard...but the spirit of the little kids is so sweet.

So some new investigators, the situation is really strange. Techincally the family lives in the south mission, but each weekend they come to Kokuerè. They stay with a member and they all attended church before reciving the first lesson (4 in total) but the odd part is that the other elders in our branch are teaching them with us... but its awesome because they get to hear the testimony of 4 elders and 2 converts.. Its extremly powerful. There was a point in the lesson after we talked about the Book of Mormon, and each of us pulls out a copy for the investigators. I swear it could have been like a movie it was so perfectly timed and the best part is that we didnt plan it. So that was 4 missionaries tuned into the spirit. oh and PS, they have a date for the 15th of november. They seem alot more ready then our other investigators.

So thats how my week has been. and I would love to hear from each of you if you have the chance!

Love,
Elder Jared

Elder Jared meets a friend of Kimball's

The scripture case engraver!

Family note:  This picture came from Kimball -who is in contact with his friend via facebook.  We believe that Brandon contacted this friend of Kimball's who engraves beautiful leather scripture cases.  We think that Brandon realized this would be the farthest south he would get (which is where Kimball was) and that he wanted to get a scripture case for himself.  Wonder if he did!

Another Quick Week!

I seriously can’t believe another week has come and gone. It’s going by to fast!! We have changes next week but I’m 99 percent sure I’m staying put. I am glad that I am practically guaranteed two changes here. The work here is finally starting to progress a little bit. By progressing I mean we found another family that we have started teaching. But we can only meet with them once a week because the dad actually works. But other than that there haven’t been any major changes. Minus the fact that we got a DATE FOR A BAPTISM! The people we challenged haven’t even gone to church yet and they have a lot of doubts and they say that they haven’t gotten answers to their questions yet. SO we promised them that if they did everything they could to prepare for baptism by praying and reading, then God would answer their questions. So they just have to do their part and God will do the rest. Oh by the way, its two sisters that have a date and the date is November 8th. We have taught more than the two sisters, but some just aren’t as interested in Eternal Salvation. But the two that have a date are always there. 

That’s really all that’s new according to the work. But in other news I was pretty sick Saturday with a fever. But it passed quickly and I am completely fine (seriously mom, no need to worry I am all good. I still take the giant nasty multivitamin so it was just a freak thing) Ha-ha. Our little branch swelled up to sixty five this week. Usually we have like 50, but a giant family came and boosted our numbers. 

Here’s your word for the week:

ñañembo´eta. Good luck pronouncing it because it is super hard but it means we are going to pray. haha so we use it every now and then. It’s the only one this week.

You know you’re in Paraguay when you’re walking down the side of a street (because they don’t have sidewalks) and a motorcycle passes seriously 6 inches away from you. Supposedly that’s how they rob people. They just rip off their backpack and ride away. But missionaries are safe because they believe we are men of God and don’t want anything bad to happen to them.

Also the weather has been super odd this week. Like on Friday morning, it was so hot. We had to walk to a zone conference in it. With a suit jacket it was absolutely miserable. But after the Zone Conference, we walk outside and it’s freezing. Like we were glad that we had our suit jackets. So it was cold all day Friday and Saturday. So on Sunday we all get in our long sleeves and sweaters for church because it was still freezing and after church it was seriously 100 degrees!! It was like it was back home with the weather changing oddly and quickly!

Another odd thing that happened during our Zone Conference. We were practicing extending a date for baptism and who de we get to role play with? that’s right, President McMullin. So I got to ask my mission president to be baptized. Haha. When you role play you feel sooo stupid but it helps out a lot!! You seriously only get better when you role play. 

I love you all and I hope you are enjoying the coolness of fall because it is starting to get super hot (if it’s not freezing its super hot) here.

con mucho amor. 

Élder Jared

Conference Weekend!!

Oh how great this weekend was! The best part was that they had a small tv in a different room with the conference in English for all the gringos! So I went on a ´division´with Elder Wheeler who is from Vernal! That made me soo happy! It was such a special conference for me. I learned soo much this weekend and It was a little bit odd being with many missionaries form the south mission, but it was fun to get to know them!

I hope you all had questions in mind as you listened in General Conference. I specifically had the question of "What do i need to do for my investigators?" There was something in every talk that I identified. But the favorite among the missionaries was Elder Bednar's. Absolutely perfect for Investigators. Speaking of investigators, the ones who promised to come didn't come. We even called them right before the last session and they said they were coming. So that was really disapointing because the last session was perfect for investigators! Talking about profetas and such (I forgot how to spell it in English. HAHA!) also the sacrament and ending with Elder Bednar's PERFECT TALK! But too bad for them, we will keep trying to get them to keep their commitments.

So funny story about recieving answers to questions, on Wednesday we were talking with a member about a movie called ¨Gifted Hands¨ and nobody could remeber the Doctor's name! As it turns out, Ted R, Callister talked about him! His name Is Ben Carson. So if God would answer something as trivial as that (which I hadn't even prayed to know), Why wouldn't he answer something that you had prayed for? Of course he would!! Man I love Conference.

Not much else went on this week. Elder Torres was sick and we didn't proselyte on Tuesday. but he is working though it and is such an inspiration to me. Always working and thinking of the investigators. so neat.

I just want to add my testimony to those that we have heard from our general authorities. I know that this church is true. I have seen the Gospel of Jesus Christ change lives. Including mine. I know that Joseph Smith saw God and his son. and through the priestood, restored the authority to baptize. I know that Thomas S. Monson is the profeta on the earth today. He cannot and will not leave us astray. I love this Church and I love my older brother Jesus Christ.

I love you all and pray for you constantly.

Elder Jared

This is the Collectivo. Super scary and fun!

Flies in my soup!

Yup the subject line doesn’t lie. We went to a member’s house for lunch and she brought us soup. And I look down and there are two dead flies in there. I know the member didn’t mean to put them there but still it was a bit shocking to see two flies!! So I just pulled them out and put them in a napkin. haha

I am emailing a little bit later than usual today, because we decided to have lunch with a family of investigators. After lunch we taught the first lesson. And they had sooooo many questions about the restoration and stuff. But it was awesome to see that our answers helped them!! Throughout the lesson I could see a change in the way they were thinking and I could tell that the Spirit was doing his job on them!! They still are a little bit skeptical about Thomas S. Monson being a prophet, but they accepted to attend a session of conference on Sunday!! And after the lesson we asked them to be baptized and they said if they felt that President Monson was really a prophet!! It’s always a safe bet to put your money on the Prophet so I am content with that. But seriously, we started the lesson at 2 and ended at 530. But hey, we answered questions and allowed them to feel the spirit.

 This week has been a regular week. Lots of walking, clapping, jumping on and off collectivos (Hopefully I can get a picture next week, I didn’t take much this week so I hope y’all will forgive me). We still haven’t had any success on getting investigators progressing (minus the Purete lesson today). For those that don’t know what a progressing investigator is it is an investigator that has kept all their promises and have attended church and have accepted baptism. So if the family we taught today goes to conference, they technically are progressing! Keep your fingers crossed!!

This is for my mom, you know you are in Paraguay when you are sitting on the sidewalk waiting for a bus and your face starts dripping sweat. In the springtime. It’s starting to get really hot. And humid. But bring it on!! I am so ready. haha

So its conference this week and I am super excited!! I don’t know how much I am going to understand so I will be praying for the gift of tongues especially hard this week. But hope you are preparing your spirits for the guidance of our leaders! They are called of God and have received inspiration of what to talk about, se we just need to listen! Not only with our ears, but with our heart. There will be something in this conference that will speak to you, and will help you in your life. I guarantee it. I hope life in the states is swell and awesome because it is sweet down here!!

With all my love, Elder Jared

The fruit is called mbycrya. I honestly dont know how to pronounce it or spell it right but it makes super yummy juice!! and it gives some missionaries odd dreams. I must not be drinking enough haha. 

Six Week Planner

What!?!?! Another week?!?!

My goodness. Time is absolutely flying out here. I seriously feel like it was yesterday that I last emailed. Things are moving so quick. I haven't gotten a picture of the Alligators yet because the lady hasn’t been home when we have gone to visit. So hopefully sometime soon!!

We still don’t have any progressing investigators so that’s a bit rough. We just had ward counsel and they challenged us to get a baptism in a month and a half. So we are working really hard on that. There’s this family that is sooo close, we just can’t get them to go to church!! But we won’t give up on them. Also we found this family that has been taught like five years ago. So maybe they planted the seed and it’s our turn to harvest. They have so much potential for baptism. I just hope they start making commitments!!

I have been working really hard on understanding the people. It’s very difficult to understand the sometimes. They really like to slur their words together. But I am confident that the Lord will bless me with the gift of tongues sooner or later. If not it is going to be a long two years, but I feel like things are going to start clicking here pretty soon. I am just going to study as hard as I can. And put my faith in the lord. That’s all I can do. After I have done my best, the Lord does the rest.

I have district meetings every Tuesday. I like them because I can understand their Spanish. So that’s tons of fun. There’s a companionship that lives just down the road that is in our district. Our district has three companionships and they are super fun. I. Love. My. District. They are too great.

We are fed by the members almost every day. Except for Monday and Thursdays. And the food is soo good!! It’s always a lunch appointment because the major meal down here is lunch. Right Before the siesta (I wish it could have a siesta too sometimes). And so we are always on our own for dinner. Good thing there is a store right across the street that sells the best Empanadas in all of San Lorenzo. So for dinner we get one or two. Maybe three. Just depends. Ha-ha.

The lease on our apartment ends in October. So we have to find another place to live ASAP. It’s stressful because we don’t have enough time to go house hunting! Hopefully we find a place with AC (the one we have now doesn’t have it.), Hot water and a Mirror. I don’t know when we are going to find time to apartment search so it will be an adventure!!

Pdays are my favorite days, it’s a nice little stress relieving day. The morning is all the same. until 10 when we start doing fun things. Like today we went to the office and ate at burger king which is chuche (slang for rich people things). And it was so good. I didn’t realize how much I missed it. Haha. But for Pdays there are fun things that we are going to do. We have a list on the fridge. There’s a soccer museum that we are going to visit. stuff like that. So Pdays are the best.

I was reading a conference talk my Russell M Nelson and he said something that is very applicable to all of us. He said that ¨Faith is the Antidote for fear¨ if you have faith you need not fear. So I hope this week’s spiritual thought helps out a bit!!

I love you all and you are constantly in my prayers,

Elder Jared

Pics of the sun!! So pretty!

It was the chilean independance day this week so we made legit Chilean hotdogs

Look at the size of the avacado we bought!

We had a noche de hogar (FHE) and we made brownies! Soo good!

Oh How awesome my mission is

Hello family and friends!!

So much has happened in the past week. it has been quite the expirience. Ill start from the beginning of my Paraguay expirence. The airport in Asuncòn is absolutely tiny. Like a little bit bigger than the provo airport. No joke. But as soon as we steped out of the airport, it was like getting hit by a wall of heat. I have never been more sweaty or happy in my life.

Next we had orientation at the mission home. just things about budgeting, healthcare boring stuff like that. But the really cool thing about that night was the APs had a baptism so we got to attend which was really cool. That night soo neat!! We didnt have enough time to do all the interviews so we stayed the night in the mission home and had to wait to meet our trarners. That happened the next day in the morning at like 10. So that morning we woke up and did our studies and all that stuff and then we met our trianers. to do that they had our pictures up on a powerpoint. they would show the trainer first and the the greenie. And I was the first one shown!! It was such a relief to not have to wait. My trainers name is Elder Torres and he is from Chile.  My trainer has been out 6 months so he is young. But he speaks some english. So the shock was dampened. just a bit. haha. But he is super nice and is a real hard worker! so we have been doing real good together.

Brandon with mission president and wife and trainer, Elder Torres

So after we talked for a bit we went to our area which is called Kokuerè. The zone is called Capital A and the City is San lorenzo. (see "Where Am I?")  which is just like an hour east of asunciòn. But my area borders the south mission and the Capilla (chapel) that we attend is in the south mission! so I get to go into kimballs mission everyweek. How Cool is that!!!! but I love that area. Its so neat. My fist view of the apartment was a bit of a shock. I will send some pictures. but its small, There is no mirorr which makes shaving quite interesting and there is ZERO hot water. So showering makes you wake up real quick. But I absolutely love that place for some reason. its quite endearing. Haha never though i would use that word but it fits the place perfectly. And Its only my companion and I so we get lots of bonding time. good thing I love him already.

Brandon - from the balcony of his first home in San Lorenzo

Study Area in San Lorenzo

Kitchen in San Lorenzo

San Lorenzo skyline

So after i got all situated in the apartment we went and visited some investigators. We visited this lady named Gladys and she had really small crocodilles for pets. 4 of them! and she had a pond with fish so we caught some fish and fed them to the crocs (which by the way in Guarani is Jakare. I didnt know how to spell it so its say it how it sounds. And remeber the j is spanish sounds like an H!!)!! They make the absolute oddest sound while eating. Its quite terryfying. I wish i Had a camera to send a picture but i had left it!! I was so disapointed! but whatever. Ill ask to see them someother time. That was maybe the coolest thing that has happened to me.

Investigator's pet Croc!

Heres a list of words that I have learned. I will put a G next to the ones that are Guarani. And I am typing it how it sounds

Chivivi(G)-Diarreah
Panaway(G)-last child
Jakare(G)-Crocodille
Purete(Paraguayan saying)-cool. I use this one a lot.
Macanas(G)- stupid things.

I know they are kinda random but I just wanted to she with you what I am learning!!

In my area there are alot of less actives. so we focus on them alot. The people are just soo non commital. they just want to sit around and drink their terere (its like an herbal tea). So we dont have a ton of people in our area that are active. Actually just one family. But that family is so great. We do have some investigators but none of them are progressing. So we just keep visiting and letting them take their time. I feel like we might be getting close on two. but we will have to see. I hope next week ill be able to tell you more.

The next thing I wish to talk about is the food. Its AWESOME!! Empanadas, Chipas, Lomitos Arabe.... sooo amazing!! Empanadas are meat wrapped in dough and fried or baked and they are soo amazing!! Chipas is like bread stuffed with cheese and that to is amazing!! but my favorite has to be Lomito Arabe. Its hard to explain..... but i heard its like Schwarma (from the avengers anyone?). its like a burrito and is absolutely delicios!! then theres the soda. They have this brand called Niko. and its cheaper than water here. and its really good!! we get it for like 2 mill which is like 50 cents.

I have been spat on, been cussed out by drunk people, told that i was too young to be doing this and all that stuff. but for some reason i love it here and am working hard. Its tricky to understand what the people are saying, I can pick up`just a bit. But whenever I bear my testimony and I cant really understand what the lesson was about, I just testify of the spirit. It made a lady cry once... which was cool that she felt the spirit when I testified. (Ps that lady was the croc lady) but it was soo awesome.

I absolutely love it here and am looking forward to the next two years.

Love Elder Jared

Plans!!

Hey! so I just got my flight plans like an hr. ago. My flight leaves at 715 arg. time. I have to leave the CCM at 430 in the morning! ahh too early! haha! my flight is AR2260 in case you wanted to know. haha. I will send a longer email from out in the field!!!

Arrival of Elder Jared

Dear Family of Elder Jared:

We are so happy that your son has joined us here in the Paraguay Asuncion North mission.  We know that as he commits to work hard and be obedient to mission rules, and continues to study and seek the guidance of the Holy Ghost, he will have a great experience on his mission.  He will grow to love the people, he will be willing to pass through difficulties, and he will come to know and love his Savior in a more profound way than he has ever known.

During their first day, all of the incoming missionaries received some training on staying healthy, finances, mail, etc. We also learned some of the history of the Church in Paraguay,  toured the temple grounds, and witnessed a baptism.  Your son was also interviewed and met his trainer, Elder Torres, who was specially chosen for him.  His trainer has proven himself as someone who can help your son develop the skills he will need to be a good missionary.  We hope you will enjoy these pictures that we are attaching as well.

Thank you for raising such a fine young man who is so willing to serve his Father in Heaven and be a blessing to the people here and to his fellow missionaries.  We truly pray for them every day and are also committed to working diligently to help them in whatever they need to be happy and successful.

May the Lord bless you, and your son, for the sacrifices and the love that you are extending to the people here.  Thank you for all of your support.

With much love,

President  and Sister McMullin

Meeting President and Sister McMullin at the Asuncion Airport

I am Finally Here!!!

AHHH!!! Im In PARAGUAY!!!!!! It is absolutely beautiful here and I am Taking lots of pictures!! everything is sooo green and pretty. I love Asunción a ton more than Buenos Aries. Buenos Aires was Dirty, like there were piles of rubble everywhere. It wasnt very beautiful. But here the people really take care of their property, they were outside working in the hot hot weather to make their house better. I can already tell that i am going to love it here. I will be assigned my companion tomorrow and then hit the field!! SOOOOO pumped! I love my mission president and all the office workers. they are soo Cool!  Ill write you more on monday!!

Faith

This is a poem an Elder in my district wrote. I love it. And this weeks phrase is nunca darse por vencido. Or never give up. I have applied it and i hope you do to

Faith
Pondering faith as it pertains to needs
I remember how young Alma taught about seeds
I remember the Ammonites who buried their weapons of war
And Alma the Elder who believed on the testimony Abinidi Bore
How can I have faith like unto them
to wade through afflictions and guiles of men
could I have my savior to guide
My thoughts, my actions and stand by my side
But Ammonites were slaughtered as the scriptures told
Well the savior beckoned come into my fold
Alma the Elder was laughed at and fled
Down to the wilderness to lie with the dead
Still Alma the younger talks about seeds
And how one day they will grow into tall trees
So where is the faith and how does it work
How in in the sight of these terrors can I not shirk
Nevertheless the though comes to me
That faith never was the seed or the tree
Faith is to plant and to take tender care
reaping the fruits that will someday be there
For the Ammonites sons fought with great force
Because their mothers had known and then the course
Once again I look to the past
As Alma the Elder did pray and did fast
His son was the younger and now I can see
How faith now relates to a beautiful tree
From the faith of our fathers we see the reward
The fruits of their labors to bury the sword
Then comes our faith and the fruits of our tree
It goes to bless others not just you and me
From here I see the original tree
Christ the savior our lord, who saved you and me
kneeling down in Gethsemane
He went forth with faith putting down this first seed
Now let us go down and take of his fruit
And start sharing seeds not being a mute
For as Missionaries we stand faith firm with no fear
Declaring the good word to all that will hear
For this is how faith pertains to our needs
When we follow the savior where e'er he may lead
And then we fill all with that blessed seed
And give of our fruit to feed all of their need.

Almost there!

This is my lasts group email until I am out in the field!! its the moment I have been dreaming of since i was a wee little niño! Seriously though. I am SOOOOOOOO Excited to get out there and help people come unto christ. Its been an amazing expierence here at the CCM. There is no better way to learn a language then to be immeresed in the culture. Its also amazing how much the lord blesses you! I feel like I have recieved the gifts of tounges It is absolutely wonderful to beable to speak with the natives. its wonderful.

Not much has been happening this week. Its been the same everyday. But we did ahve a cool expierence on saturday. It was almost time to get picked up and we just wanted to talk to this one last guy. He saw us walking down the street, cigarrette in hand, and he just stareted running for us. As it turns out, he is taking the lessons from other missionaries. once we started talking with him, he put out his cig, and started to tell us how the lord has blessed him. My favorite thing that he said was << before the lessons i was smoking three packs a day, But now I am down to one!!>> It was so cool that he recoginzed how much the lord has hepled him. And you could see the light of Christ in his eyes. It made a hard day of proselyting so worth it.

the next email you get from me may be from Paraguay! and I am so excited!

Love you all,

Elder Brandon Jared

Just for mom - 9-4-14

I have been super confused about who is sending out the group email, and the big email that i send is the one i send to everyone but I dont have everyones email, so if youre forwarding my emails it would be great if you just keep doing that. It would be a lot easier on me. Thaks for doing that! And I dont have trevins email. so i havent emailed him! and I have been emailing Emily so I have that one :) haha

to answer questions. For proselyting they load us on a bus and give us a map. drop us off at a point in our area and tell us to be back there at a predetermined time. Its just me and my companion in the area and it is super fun to try to talk and understand the natives.

I am doing all of those things like meds and stuff, but I am not doing multi vitamin because they always have a salad bar and I feel like i get good nutrition. haha. One thing i learned is that if you massage you head once a day it will help with baldness. someting about increased blood flow.

You know when you are in argentina when you and the only other car on the road are inches away from eachother. Seriously, the drivers here are insane. Its scary. haha im glad my mission is a walking one!

More to come in a big email,

Love you!
Elder Jared

One last email

Dand C100 Read it love it

I love It I Love It!!!

Man! a whole other week has passed my! how lucky is that?? I have been asked to share more details so i will try my best today!

First off, the weather, Its usually like 20 degrees or something. Remember thats Celsius, we had a rain storm the past few days but that didnt keep us from playing soccer!! Right now at the CCM there are only 20 missionaries, because a lot just left on tuesday. But we are getting a ton more today! like 60 more and 40 of them are from Los Estados Unidos, Which is going to be fun! There are usually latinos in my room, last week whe had two companionships, so that was 4 latinos, and another Norte Americano companionship, so our room was absolutely filled to the brim!! Its tons of fun though!!

The CCM Is awesome, Its all the same everyday though, but we have tons of fun studying. My district is the greatest district in the world. We have already started planning a reunion for after our missions!!! so we will see how that turns out! Most of the people in my district are from Utah, but we have 2 from Idaho,1 from Cali, Illinois, and Canada. It has been soo much fun getting to meet everyone. The studying does get hard but thats when I work the best. I just focus and get to work. Its amazing how much the Lord blesses our lives and all we have to do is look for them and they will be there! So I challenege you all to take a look and count you blessings.

Prosyleting was a little bit slower this week, a lot of people werent interested but we tried our very best, we got really good at giving out pamphlets and Libros de Mormóns. We them all out this time! It felt so good because our numbers were a bit low but when we made a contact its was a quality contact. Our ratio of contacts to lessons is pretty good :) so I can Handle that. Haha

We are all dying to know whats going on back in the states. So if anything major happens, let me know! Ill keep you all in the loop on my mission if i get some news every now and then! Deal? ok good :)

I am doing so well here, I know I was supposed to go to this CCM. I have felt the lords presence in my life more than ever and its the greatest felling in the world. All I can say is that I am in love with my mission.

Love,
Elder Brandon Jared

Buenos Aires Argentina Temple

CCM

Halfway through the CCM already!

Well a bit past half way. 2 weeks and 5 days to be exact, not that anyone is counting or anything. Everything is moving so quick!! It feels like I was emailing y'all yesterday! The days are like weeks but the weeks are like days. 

This week has been quite the week! I am able to understand the latinos and keep conversations going! What made this week even better is that we went out in the real world! We got a piece of the mission field which was wayyyyy awesome. 80% of the people we contacted had no interest at all but there were 20% that listen to us which was awesome! The  best experience was when we were talking with this girl and she said her mom would like to talk to us. So we got the address and talked to her for like 45 minutes or a 1 hr! It was soo cool to see someone have the light of Christ uncovered in them. She even accepted a Libro de Mormon and said she wanted other missionaries to come! Soo cool! It made all those 80% of people rejecting us worth it. It was easily the best experience of my life and I know there is more to come. 

So my mom wanted me to include a word or phrase everyweek so this week it is 'Santa Cena' which translates to Holy Dinner or Sacrament. Speaking of sacrament, ours is at 7:50 in the morning and you thought staying awake in 9:00 church was hard!!

I am learning so much and I wanted to share something I learned in my studies. I was reading in 1 Nefi 3:6 and there was a footnote for ¨not murmurring¨ and the footnote said stuff about sustaining church leaders so I was confused but I came up with this conclusion:

Lehi was the prophet, and by not murmuring agaisnt the prophet you are sustaining them. Sustaining is more than raising your hand. It's supporting those who have been called to serve you and promising to be obedient to them.

Just some food for thought there, hope you enjoyed it. I wish you all the best of luck!!

Love Elder Jared

Elder Fonnesbeck's Mom Sends Pictures of Brandon!

Elders Quayle, Fonnesbeck & Jared at the Buenos Aires Temple

{Guest Post}

Hi!

I haven't been able to friend you on facebook so I thought I would send you a picture this way. My son mentions Elder Jared every week so far. It sounds like they are having a good time together. I have a blog for my son if you would like to read up  on their adventures. It is fun to get different details. Have a good day!

~Shelly (Fonnesbeck)