Week 9: Ciudad del Este

Hollaa Everyone,

     This past week has been pretty good. It rained a lot. We got caught outside twice while it was pouring and got totally soaked. But it was fun haha. The weather in Paraguay is so weird though; we wake up and it's hot and cloudless and then 6 hours later we are walking around and this huge storm rolls in and the temperature drops 30 degrees and it pours and there's some crazyy lightning and thunder. We were teaching a lesson on Friday and there was just lightning flashing all around us like every 3 seconds. Cool stuff. 

     But I was lucky enough to eat some wild meat this week. Not really sure what they mean by wild meat, but I guess it's just meat from different wild animals? haha I just don't want to eat it again, that's for sure. We had it once and it wasn't bad, and then I found out what it was after my companion threw it up... and from then on I wasn't too fond of it. So I wasn't really excited when we had it again this past week. But hey, I'm still alive. 

     And on Saturday we were coming home, and there was a guy whose van got stuck in the mud. So we ran over and helped him and were pushing it from the back and the tires starting spinning, and I just got attacked by a tonnn of mud. Haha,  it was pretty funny. Just a hugeeeee streak of mud up both sides of my pant legs. Came home super dirty, but it was fun! Anyway, hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Roberts

Week 8: Ciudad del Este

Missionaries of the Argentina, Posadas Mission serving
in Paraguay, with Elder Gonzalez of the Seventy and his wife

HOOOLLLAAAAAA

     What's up, everyone? I'm sure it's starting to get cold in the States and here it's warming up aloottttttttt. I'm kinda dripping sweat right now writing this haha. But it's cool. Sweating is a lifestyle in Paraguay when you have to wear dress pants and white shirt and tie all day everyday. Buttttt this week was actually pretty good for me. 

     On Monday I found out that I was going to Asuncion at like 645 and that I would be leaving at midnight that night and so we did, got on a bus at like 1000 and arrived in Asuncion, the capital, at about 6ish in the morning and went to get our visa paperwork finished and all that fun stuff. But it was really good actually, got to talk to all my friends from the training center and we have a good time hanging out that day taking a little break.  

     But the rest of the week was good as well! Found some good people that we are teaching and everything is getting a little bit easier and little bit more normal haha! I'm adjusting. But I am sleep talking in Spanish, so my companion says. So I guess that's a good thing! Haha I guess I sleep talk allottt. 

     And it's reallly funny, sometimes we will go up to people's houses and clap, which is like knocking on the door in the US, and a little kid will run out and then run back in, and then run and tell us that his parents aren't home, without us asking. And then we ask him, "Well, can you ask your parents when the best time to come back would be?" and he runs back in to ask them........ so obviously they are home but they just told their little 5 year old to come out and tell us they weren't. hahahaha It's pretty funny.

      But nothing too exciting happening, just some warm weather and some weird bowel movements. But anyway this past Sunday we were expecting some people to show up to church, some of our investigadores and we had worked pretty hard to find them and teach them and stuff and were really hoping they would come. I was praying they'd come and all that good stuff.  We showed up and waited for a while and  no one came...and I was super disappointed and sad and stuff, but then all of a sudden, 3 people, friends of members, came, just randomly and it was really cool. We just found three new people to teach, and they're all excited to hear the message, which is kind of rare... being excited about it hahaha, but it was pretty cool! 

Anywayyy hope everyone is doing well! talk to you next week!

Elder Roberts

Some photos courtesy of Sister Stephanie Craven and Sister Camille Anderson

Sisters and elders from the MTC group

At the Asuncion, Paraguay Temple

Just waiting

Week 7: Ciudad del Este

Hello Everyone!

     I don't have too much time this week, so I'll have to make it short. Sorry! But hopefully everyone is doing well. The weather was actually superr nice this past week, but it's going to start getting reallly hot.. not looking forward to that haha. Supposedly it gets up to 110 or 115... with humidity. Ahh, so yeah. The seasons are switched around,so December through March is summer. 

     But.. I'm doing well, always learning new Spanish words and phrases and always trying to talk to people. It's pretty weird to go up to people in the street and start talking to them in Spanish but really cool because I couldn't do that 2 months ago. I always feel like I don't know very much but then I compare it to how much I knew 3 months ago and it's pretty weird haha. But yeah same old same old, walking around talking to people, teaching people and helping people. I helped a lady for a few hours this past week build her house, well part of it haha so that was fun. But I'll talk to you all next week! 

Elder Roberts

Week 6: Ciudad del Este

Holaaa, Everyone!

     Hope everyone is doing well. This week wasn't super eventful but still a good week. It was cold and then hot and then cold and hot... the weather here changes super fast; it's crazy. And it did rain allll day Thursday and walking through the mud and rain was... I guess fun in a way haha. Almost slipped about 100 times. 

     But we have some good people that we are teaching at the moment. I'm thinking my current companion is going to get transferred this Wednesday and I'll get a new one. But unfortunately we don't find out till the day of.. So I'll miss him, but life goes on! 

     This past Saturday and Sunday was General Conference, and for anyone that's reading this who is unfamiliar with the church I attend, it's a big conference in Utah where the prophet and 12 apostles and a bunch of other people speak to the whole church and everyone in it about all sorts of things. So that was really cool to watch that through a satellite broadcast. Also a nice break from walking around all day haha! But it was really good!

     But some funny stuff that happened.. so we unplugged our refrigerator to plug in a fan and forgot to plug it back in.... so when we got home that night, our floor was covered in water, and our refrigerator didn't smell so great. And the same night I went to the bathroom and thennnnn realized we didn't have toilet paper.... and theeeeennnnn as I was trying to decide what to do while in the bathroom, I discovered our cockroach problem as a few scurried across our bathroom floor... haha! It sounds terrible, but for some reason it's just kind of funny that all that stuff happened in the same night. I'm convinced that during the mission and while serving the Lord, bad stuff happens, but it's really not all that bad. I'm still having a great time. I feel like if I was just here as a regular person, I would not be enjoying myself, but since I'm preaching the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and helping people develop their faith, it's a cool experience and that's really what the gospel does, makes people happy even when they're experiencing things that are not so happy. But yeah! I'm doing well and hope all of you are as well. Talk to you soon!

Elder Roberts