Week 2: Ciudad del Este

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciudad_del_Este

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2010/01/19/paraguay-the-chaotic-ciudad-del-este/

Hola, Everyone! 

     Hope everyone is doing well getting adjusted to school and work and whatever else! I'm doing well down here! It`s definitely an adjustment for me to wake up at 6:30 everyday, study for four hours, eat different food and then walk and teach and speak Spanish for another nine hours. But it's going well! I`m sure I'll get used to it soon. My companion got super sick this week so I went with another elder in our district to teach in his area. So for those who don`t know, there are a bunch of missions in the world for our church, like more than 200, but I can't remember how many (405).  The missions are regions in different countries. So within each mission there is a president who directs the work of 150 to 300 missionaries. The missionaries are divided into companionships and there are about three, four or maybe five companionships in a district. Then two to four districts make up a zone. And then there are several zones within the mission depending on its size and the number of missionaries. So I went with our zone leader (super smart guy) for two days while my companion was sick; he's from Utah, so it was nice to be able to speak in English with someone.  That was fun. I got to eat some horse meat while I was in his area... not my fave. But I have eaten some realllly good food, so it balances out. And I'm starting to like the tree roots that they eat down here. They're called mandioka (mandioca, manioca, cassava, manioc, yuca, etc)...not sure about the spelling on that one. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassava

     But anyway we've been doing a lot of walking, a lot of teaching and a lot of finding people to teach... and I guess that`s what I'll be doing for the next 22 months! But it's fun, and I'm excited to learn more Spanish and to get better at teaching in Spanish. It was cool yesterday and rained a tonnnnnn, and the roads here are either dirt, or crushed up rocks with dirt on top of them. So when it rains, the roads are suuuuupppper muddy. So yesterday we walked and walked and actually got lost, and it was really dark and I had like five pounds of mud stuck to my shoes. I was slipping and sliding and all that good stuff, but some guy helped us get back to where we needed to be.  So we went back to our apartment at around 7:30 to drop off some food a member of the church had given us, and we wanted to just sit down and plan out how we were going to find new people to teach...which is not what we`re supposed to do...we stay out till 9 or 9:30 every night teaching. We almost quit early, but we felt a little voice tell us we should go out even though it was dark, muddy and we were exhausted from walking about five miles through the mud.  So we went out and tried to talk to some people and got denied a few times, but we found this really nice guy who was super receptive and seemed excited about learning more and he gave us cake! So that was a plus, and it was a cool experience. So I'm doing well! Still struggling to understand people and I'm still struggling to speak, but that will come. It's all good! 

     So I'm in Paraguay and not Argentina because my mission area covers Argentina and Paraguay, but the temporary visa I have that allows me to be in Argentina actually doesn't let me proselytize (work as a missionary) in Argentina. So I can be there but  can't be a missionary there. So I'll be in Paraguay until I get my real visa, which is I don't know when. But I could still be in Paraguay even when that happens. So I'll just have to wait and see. 

     Also, I forgot my camera at our house... so pictures next week! Sorry!

But anyway, till next week!

Elder Roberts

                                    

                                    Ciudad del Este, Paraguay