Pictures today!

(No letter today due to the Mother's Day phone call yesterday! But we did get pictures!)

Oh the Rain

My dearest family and friends,

We have had another beautiful week this week. Well that is up until Sunday morning, when it rained buckets... Yeah seriously. I don't know if I'vve told you this but if its raining, or the ground is wet, it's super hard to get less actives to church. Because nobody wants to leave if there are rain clouds in the sky, Because seriously the streets flood here in minutes, So that was pretty hard, not getting many people to church, especially because it was our ward conference. So it was kinda hard having low attendance for such a special conference. We were focusing a whole lot on our less actives and trying to get them to church. Kinda feels like a whole week of work was lost... But I know it wasn't, it was just a week of planting seeds.

Like I said, it was ward conference and they asked the missionaries to do a choir (because there are 10 of us and si o si we would be there). But they just asked us to do one number. and I think we did pretty good, we sang 'I Need Thee Ev´ry Hour (or in Spanish Señor te Nessecito) we sang the first verse in Spanish and they we decided to shock the congregation and sing the second verse in Guarani (yes the hymns do exist in Guarani). It was a super powerful moment for me because the Lord has promised that every person will have the opportunity to hear the gospel in their own language and there are a lot of people here who speak more Guarani than Spanish.. So it was a great way to fulfill that promise. It made some of the people cry. So it was a pretty special moment for me. I really enjoyed it even though I can't sing very good. haha

Other than that, Wednesday was Elder Gladamez´s birthday, and Fransisco's family invited us for dinner. They made something called milanesa napolitana, basically its chicken fried steak with some type of special sauce. It was super yummy!! As for dessert, It was an adventure. Fansisco's aunt had me teacher how to make banana cream pie ( I made if for the baptiim and it was a success). We planned to throw some in his face after singing Haha! It was hilarious! But somehow we all ended up with banana cream pie faces.. haha! It was awesome!!

love you all

Elder Jared

Baptism

Hello!! Man this week has been a great week!! For starters, Fransisco did get baptized. He was super excited and he felt amazing he said. And when he got confirmed the spirit was super strong. It was absolutely amazing!! Man, I love the feeling when someone accepts this Gospel.. yeah It may be the greatest feeling ever! Man being a missionary is the greatest thing ever!

Not much has happened this week. Every night we went to Fransisco just to help him prepare for his baptisim. But other than that, just the same reactivating work. Sometimes it's super awesome because you'll reactivate a family and you can see the joy that comes with activity, but on the other end i'ts kinda frustrating too, you'll have people say they know they should reactivate but don't do anything... But I love them anyways. we get some really great lessons there. it's kinda like a puzzle, you just have to find what they are missing to complete the picture. Someday they will understand!!

Something funny happened this week... I was on divisions with Elder Shoemaker and we visited a family that is less active but reactivating and they lived in a ward in the south mission, the same ward as some of my friends in Juan de Salazar! It was funny because sometimes the world just seems so small.. haha

Spanish is getting better as always, It's fun speaking spanish 100% of the time. I really love the spanish language even if sometimes it is mixed with Guaraní. Haha

Love you all

Elder Jared

Talking with Spain

This week has been a good week for me, We haven't gotten out much because Elder Galdamez got the Flu on Wednesday and Thursday. but Friday he was fine, After weekly planning and lunch on Friday it started to rain super hard and our house leaks.. so we had to spend a good part of the afternoon cleaning up water.. there wasnt to much damage and we managed pretty good.

So talking with Spain... it was an interesting situation thats for sure... But we were at a less actives (but reactivating) house and Its a grandma and her granddaughter named Floriana.  Floriana's mom lives in Spain and we are preparing the granddaughter for her baptism in june. when she turns 8. But right as we were about to leave and Floriana's mom calls. And Floriana tells her that the "Elders are here teaching me, want to talk to them?" she then hands the phone to me.. It was kinda awkward if you know what I mean. But hey, It's not every day that you get to talk with Spain.

Fransisco is doing really good. I don't know if I filled you in on his situation but basically he's golden. He lives with his aunt and uncle who are active members. They have been teaching him a lot about the church and stuff. He knows that its all true and loves reading the Book of Mormon, Which is rare for a 15 year old, but he's awesome! Yesterday we were teaching the Word of Wisdom and he already knew everything. His aunt and uncle really have prepared him really well. He is super excited for this Saturday.

Other than that not much else has happened this week.. just a bunch of rain. I hear that we are getting into the "wet season" but it seems like its always been "wet" haha

I love you all!!

Elder Jared

Me fui!

Translation, I went or I left! So we had changes this week and we were pretty certain that we were going to have changes, It was a matter of who. And President chose me to go, To a city called Aregua. And would you have it, Its like 10 minutes south of Luque, so yeah still stuck in the warphole. But it's a really pretty place. Our area is super far away from the main road so there's basically nothing. Just people and Jungle. But honestly its a really pretty place. I'll send some pictures next week. My new Companion is Elder Gladámez, He is from El Salvador. He has one more change than I do but will go home with me (Spanish speakers have more time in the field, because less time in the MTC). He doesn't like some of the rules, but that's something we are working on, at least I don't have to motivate him to work. There's always a bright spot.

As for Aregua, There are a ton of menos activos. supposedly the ward has over 900 members but only 100 are active. There are also 8 missionaries in the ward. Its a ton. It feels like without the missionaries, the ward would crumple. Supposedly they rely on the missionaries a ton, have them give talks and be in charge of a lot of stuff, But we are working on that. Other than that, We do have one really cool investigator, His name is Fransisco and lives with a member, So yeah, He has a date for the 25th and he is super excited for it.

Also, Aregua has a ton of little hills so its a lot of up and down. Our area also has one of the tallest points in Paraguay, Its nothing like the great mountains of Utah, but it's something :)

All In all, I feel good about the change. There are always difficulties in changes but it's nothing I can't handle. It was rough leaving an area where you have worked so had and had started seeing the fruits and then go. I feel like 'Ive left a little destiny in Juan de Salazar, Some members that we reactivated renamed their cats after us. So one is Breton and the other is Jared. So I feel super happy about the work I was able to accomplish here.

All the love,

Elder Jared

Stuffed to the brim!

Sent: Monday, April 6, 2015 2:38:47 PM
Subject: stuffed to the brim

What a week its has been!!! It was an awesome way to end this change. We are notified tomorrow about changes, so you get to wait a week to know!! But seriously. I have been stuffed to the brim this week. Physically and spiritually. But for starters, I'll start with all the yummy (mostly yummy that is) and unhealthy stuff I've eaten and I'll tell you about the adventures I've had this week!! This week will have to be a day by day type of thing.

Tuesday: yeah, We killed a pig,  Well, we didn't actually kill the pig. We more just watched, but still it was awesome!! The family that killed the pig told us they would start at 5 in the morning. We decided to wake up early to help! We get there around 5:15 and the pig is killed and skinned... They told us they had to start at 4 in the morning. Because the person that knew how to butcher the pig was called in to work so yeah.. still got some great pictures! Then we ate pig for breakfast. It's Called Kure shoruru. Its pretty dang amazing but to make it good you have to make Chichirron. To make Chichirron, you put a bunch of pig fat on a fire till it renders some fat and eventually fries itself. It yummy also. And to make Kure shooruru (It means fried pork in Guarani) you just throw it in the chichirron while its frying! Yeah that was breakfast..don't worry mom,, I'm eating fruits and vegetables too.

Wednesday: We made chipa! It takes a tooon of work and is super hard to explain, but basically you have this mixture that is super lumpy and dry, and you have to knead it forever to make it into a dough. It takes like 10 minutes and you get tired really quick. So we ate a lot of chipa.

Thursday: This is the day we ate and ate and ate. We had a super big lunch of duck (Its super yummy! one of my favorite meats here!) and pork with rice and cabbage salad. And then it was the national day of chipa so every house we went into, we ate chipa. and you cant say no!! so we had to eat a giant lunch and chipa through out the day. We also had a mystery dinner appointment that night, what was it? Pig head... Yeah I hate some pig head, most definatly not my favorite thing. They served it cold and it took forever to chew.. also, they didn't take the hair off.. so you end up chewing for like 3 minutes on cond hairy meat.... yeah not super appetizing especially when you are stuffed to the brim already.. My favorite part was the tongue because I could chew it and it didn't have hair... yeah. But after the lunch appointment we visited a less active family and as we get there, they are like, Oh we prepared and asado for you!! Yeah I was absolutely stuffed. It was to the point where the food didn't taste good, which for me, It means I ate A LOT of food.. 

Friday: Paraguay basically shut down for the day. It was the day of the crucifixion of Christ so everyone got the day off. But for us it was a regular day, working, and eating more chipa. I was still full from Thursday. haha

The weekend!: Now it's time for the spiritual side of things, which means General Conference!! It was fantastic, even if the rain made it so we couldn't watch the first session. As Elder Eyring was about to tell us a story, The satellite cut out and didn't come back till the closing hymn. So that was kinda disappointing but whatever. Thank goodness for LDS.ORG.  But Saturday afternoon was maybe my favorite session ever! Elder Bednar and his talk about overcoming fears with faith in Jesus Chirst was amazing, Elder Christoffersons talk Blew me away, I still have "Marriage is not a human invention" ringing in my ears. Then the dancing to the music. That one will be a classic. Haha I love that one too!!

Sunday was also really really good. But Elder Hollands talk really struck with me.. That story helped me realize the importance of faith and trust In Jesus Christ. It made me realize, That Christ will always be there for us. He will never go looking for a fictionary tree branch, he is waiting, waiting for us to take a leap of faith, a leap into his outstretched arms. He will catch us, he cannot fail in catching us. This talk was a favorite of mine. I will never forget the image of us hanging on a ledge, slipping to utterdoo, and then a pair of hands reach out and save us, the hands and wrists pierced. pierced just for us.

I hope you all had a great weekend too!!

Love, 

Elder Jared

 Surrounded by banana leaves making chipa. It is cornmeal dough, and you cook it in whats called a tatakua but its like a wood fired oven.

Oh the people you meet

Another week already??? wow!! its hard to believe that we are on week 6 of the change. so that means that changes are next week. Right after conference, What a perfect way to end a transfer! We don't know who will stay and who will go, because we both have the same time here. It's very likely that we have changes, because we have been here a long time together, 3 changes now!! But its been a great three changes!

We had another good week number wise. We had 111 people at church, Now I know what your thinking, that 111 isnt close to 140. But it's a lot considering the challenges we had this week. The first challenge was that It was super rainy right before church, and most don't have cars and its really difficult for them to attend. The second problem is that we have a mini bus that goes and picks up the families that live far away and it got stuck in the mud!! So there were a good 20 active members that couldn't make it this week, bummer but still it was good to see that many people there despite the challenges.

Weather wise it was a tranquilo week.. rainy but not too rainy, so it was awesome, and for Grandma, there aren't any gutters, so when it rains, the streets turn into mini rivers, It's always fun crossing the street and avoid getting water in your shoes.

We had quite a funny experience this week. It happened Saturday night as we were walking home. We were passing a gas station and there was a guy that wanted to "talk" with us. We knew he was probably drunk so we just said we would go give him a chance. We under estimated how drunk he was the first thing he asks us is"Do mormons drink soda?" when we said yes, he was super surprised  and he was like "well lets get some soda then!!" We tried to explain to him that we were in a rush to go home but his mind was definitely focused on soda with the missionaries. So a drunk man bought us soda this week! It was a pretty funny experience because he was absolutely wasted.. It was hilarious.. Good times!

This week is called Semana Santa or Holy week, because its Easter week! and there's a Catholic tradition to not eat any meat from Friday on, but chicken and pork is ok to eat. Also they eat a ton of chipa. I don't know how to describe chipa, but it is easily one of my favorite foods. So for that I am really looking forward to this week.. But it only gets better from here.. Tomorrow morning we get to help this family SLAUGHTER A PIG!! haha definitely something to look forward to!! haha too pumped!! Then Wednesday, we have an appointment to help a hermana make chipa (which means eat chipa :)). and then Thursday a family invited us for dinner. and it's going to be awesome :) Ill tell you what it is next week. I just can't go around telling you all my plans right?? There has to be some suspense right?? haha so yeah, its going to be a pretty awesome week!!

On a spiritual note, I have been studying in 2 Nefi 28-29 and there are some things that I love here. They both are about the restoration and the Book of Mormon, But some of my highlights are

Chapter 28 vs 20-22 Which Nephi states are three ways that Satan traps us, I think the most interesting one for me is in vs 21. Nephi tells us that Satan convinces us to be lazy. That everything is good in Zion and we don't have to do anything. Always remember D&C 58:27. So that settles things. I hope you read those versus and study them

Also, the Church released another awesome video for Easter. Its similar to those of "Because of Him" and "He is the Gift" this time its called "Gracias a que el vive" which translates to "Because He Lives" They are super awesome and You can feel the spirit so strong from the videos. I hope you spread the word and post it on facebook, twitter or instagram. It can help Millions of people feel the love of God. And makes everyone happy!!

Con amor and felicidad,

Elder Jared