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

Week 5: Ciudad del Este

Hola everyone! 

I hope everyone is doing wonderfully in school or work or whatever everyone is doing!  I'm doing well! This week was actually pretty uneventful; nothing too exciting happened. But I did eat some realllly good food.. and some not so good food, but this week was definitely a good food week. 

So yeah, there wasn't anything super cool this week so I'll just run through what we do on an average day. So we get up at 6:30 every morning and pray and work out for 30 minutes. Then we shower and eat breakfast and then study at 8:00.  From 9:00 to 11:00 we have study as a companionship; we talk about what we are going to teach that day and we do role-plays and just study about how we can be more effective.Then at 11:00 I study Spanish for an hour, and at 12:00 we go get lunch. From 1:00 to 9:00 we go out and teach people and find people to teach. 

We have investigadores (investigators) whom we teach, but sometimes our appointments fall through so we visit their neighbors or just walk around and talk to people and try to set up more appointments. And most people have gates and fences around their yard, or patch of dirt, because there are so many stray animals that could easily walk right into their house. So instead of knocking on doors we stand outside their gate and clap until they come out. Kinda funny, but it makes sense here. And yeah we just teach people about our religion,  prayer, reading the scriptures and profets (prophets) and all that good stuff.  We just help them develop faith in Jesus Christ and our main goal is to baptize people. But that's not our total focus; we just help people develop their faith and talk to them about their problems or trials and help them recognize that God is really there and that he really can help. 

We are teaching a guy who has a terrible smoking problem, and we are just trying to help him overcome that. We are working with him a lot to help him overcome that addiction, so it's really cool just helping people and as they follow Jesus Christ and begin to live a more spiritual lifestyle it's cool to see how they change, how their attitude changes and the person they become. It's usually not super dramatic, but it's evident and awesome how the gospel can change people. 

And let's seeeee, on Tuesdays we have a meeting with our district and discuss how we can do better and share ideas about how to teach more effectively and stuff like that. On Mondays are called p-days, preparation days, where I get to write to family and friends, relax a little, do laundry, and best of all take naps. I'm a huge fan of naps. Also something cool about Paraguay...the weather is crazy. Like when I woke up this morning it was hot and muggy and not raining; now it's pouring and kind of cold. This past week I saw the coolest lightning storm ever. Just lightning that lit up the sky every half second. Super fun to watch. But yeah, that's my life in Paraguay in a nutshell. Sometimes easy, sometimes hard but always a good experience. So, adios! 

Elder Roberts

Week 4: Ciudad del Este

Hola, Everyone!

     Hope you're all doing well. I feel like there's tons of stuff that happens to me every week, so I'll try to remember all the intersting, exciting stuff haha. But this week has been good. My Spanish is improving and I'm starting to adjust and get into the swing of mission life. 

     I ate some pig liver.... which wasn't a good experience. But I'm still alive so can't complain. And I've actually had some really good food. The meat is really good, and there's this pumpkin milk dessert stuff that's awesomeee!!  And these little cakes that you can buy in packages called alfahors (I think), but they are amazing and they´re only 1 mil guarani! Okay so in Paraguay they use guarani as their money, and one thousand or 1 mil guarani is 25 cents... so 4 thousand guarni is a dollar. It's weird but it works haha!

     I did go to this lady's house and asked her if I could use the bathroom and I really had to go. She told me it was really dirty, and I was like.. okay all the bathrooms in Paraguay are dirty, whatever. So after she took a notebook and ripped out 5 pieces of notebook paper for me to wipe with...... I went in and for real, when the Paraguayos say the bathroom is dirty, oh my!  Literally the most disgusting 6 by 6 square foot room I have ever stepped into in my life. I feel for the people. I decided not to use that bathroom though anyway! 

     It's actually been really cold this week. It's ridiculous how fast the weather changes. Tuesday it was like 85, and then Wednesday it was like 45. When it rains, it really cools off and it's been raining off and on all week. But I think I like the cold better than sweating to death. haha! 

     So we tried to visit one of our investigators yesterday, and there was actually a flood and a river was created, so we couldn't get to his house.... kinda funny. But Friday at midnight all the people in my zone got on a bus and we went to Encarnacion, Paraguay for a conference with our mission. So after a six hour bus ride we got off and listened to a guy speak and it was really cool. I learned a lot and got to see all my friends from the training center. So that was fun. And we ate pizza... that was probably the best part...aside from the spiritualness and stuff ya know. Anyway, there's a brief overview of the week haha, but really something I'm learning is that the Holy Ghost, spirit, is super super cool. We are promised by our apostoles (apostles) that if we listen sincerely to our investigators talk and not try to think about what we are going to say next in our head, which is super hard because I'm always scared I'm not going to know what to say, but if we sincerely listen then when we need to speak, everything will come and we will be able to say what we need to. Which is crazy because it would be one thing if that happened in English, but with Spanish it's super cool when I just listen and then speak and everything kind of just flows out. Super cool! But anyway, hope everyone is doing well! Miss all of you!

Elder Roberts

Week 3: Ciudad del Este

Hola, Everyone!

     Hope all of you are doing well. This week has been good! There are ups and downs pretty much everyday, and I'm still getting used to waking up at 6:30 and walking around a lot.  But it's fun, and my Spanish is getting better, but I'm definitely still not comfortable. So I'm learning everyday and looking forward to the day that I can speak and understand really well. 

     But anyway, we had our first baptism on Friday which was super cool. A really good experience. And so far it's been a really humbling experience, and I'm really grateful for everything I have back home. Some of the people here live in tiny little shacks and live paycheck to paycheck just to be able to feed their families. And it has been really humbling because they´re some of the nicest people ever even with how little they have. But then there are the people who come up to you on the street or pull over and talk to you that are super drunk hahah! But it's funny. Theyll come up and start praying or asking us to preach to them while they're plastered, so we just kind of give them a little card with a picture of Jesus on it and go on our way. 

     There are these donuts that make my life; they're called bollos and they're amazingggg. I think the water here definietly got to me. The food is good and all the weird fruity drinks we get are good, but the explosive diarrhea that comes with it.... yeah sorry if that was TMI (You can delete that out if you want, Mom!). Haha! But it's all good. Lots of fun, some hard times and some good times, but all in all it's about serving the people, teaching the people and serving the Lord Jesus Christ. And no matter how hard it is sometimes, our purpose is to invite people to come unto Christ through faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end, and that will never change. And spreading that message will always be a privelege whether I'm drenched in sweat, freezing from the cold rain, covered in mud or having weird bowel movements. So hopefully everyone is doing well!

Love, 

Elder Roberts

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