Week 15: Ciudad del Este

(Portions of a letter from Elder Roberts to his family) 

And I think we are going to have a Christmas party this 19th of this month. And yeah on Christmas, I thihnk we are going to be a ble to Skype. There are cameras and my comp and I are going to test them out; I think it will work. And can you figure out if there is a time difference. I'm not sure if there is and all the other missionares are from Utah or other countries and aren't in our time zone. So I'm not really sure how much it is.

…and today, we went shopping  I bought some ties and a little stereo where I can put a little pen drive memory in and it sounds a lot better than our portable dvd player we use. So I can put all the music on the pen drive from the cds and then practice the song we are going to sing with our district for a Christmas devotional thing we are going to have with the president. I didn't get to see the church's Christmas devotional however. 

...and my companion is good. He's a really good teacher, and we are finding people to teach. The people here are probably a lot easier to talk to, like we find people on the street really easily and people let us into their houses really easy but they mostly just want to talk, not really fulfill commitments. Tell the missionaries in Hagerstown that they can bring a little stool in downtown Hagerstown and stand on it and preach to people! hahaha! I'm sure they will find a bunch of people. But it's hard here because there are no addresses, so when we contact someone in the street and they tell us, yeah I live 3 blocks down to the right under the mango tree, it's kinda hard to find their house. But it works, and we have a few good investigadroes but it's constantly teacfhing 3 or 4 lessons and then dropping them because they never do anything and finding new ones. 

My memory stick in my camera has a virus I think and right now I can't send anything, but I'm going to try again. I can see all the pictures on my camera but can't load them on the computer. So I'll use the other memory I have and send some next week. But if you can, can you send a letter or something with some more pictures of the family, and one of me when I had really long hair haha?

But thanks for everything!! Love and miss the fam. 

Ben 

Week 14: Ciudad del Este

Hola everyone! 

     This week was pretty good. Definitely missed out on Thanksgiving, but it's all good; there are many Thanksgivings in the future that I´ll be able to participate in. But lots of heat, and lots of rain here in Ciudad del Este. I did have the oppurtunity to go the Zoo here and then Pizza Hut, which was a great experience and Pizza Hut today was somewhat of a replacement for missing out on the Thanksgiving meal haha. But yeah lots and lots of rain; we got stuck in a storm last night and the streets were basically rivers so we were kinda were walking through a flowing river in the streets and our shoes and pants and basically all of us got completely soaked. But it felt good, a lot better than 105 degree weather. 

     But also, my companion got pretty sick this week and we had to stay in the house for about 2 days, but that gave me the oppurtunity to read the Book of Mormon a lot in those two days. And that was actually a good experience for me. Before my mission I read it but I didn't really actually read it. I read it but never got a lot out of it. And thus far on my mission I've been able to read a majority of it and really take a lot out of it and learn a lot as well as help other people learn about it and how it can help them. So it's been a cool experience for me. Anyway, I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving! 

Talk to you soon

Elder Ben

Week 13: Ciudad del Este

Hola everyone!

This week was pretty good for me. I got a new companion, Elder Aguilar, from Argentina who is really cool, but he's pretty new to the mission like me. But we are doing really well actually. I've been eating some more wild meat and some other interesting stuff and also been meeting some interesting people. 

We are teaching a lady that has schizophrenia... and she's really nice but really interesting. The last time we visited her, she came and gave me a giant bear hug and kissed me on both my cheeks...so I really enjoyed my first hug from a female in 5 months being from a 300 pound schizophrenic lady.. super fun! Haha! But we had a conference with a mission president yesterday which was fantastic, a really really awesome guy our president. But anyway, I don't have too much time, but hopefully everyone is doing well!

Love, Elder Ben

Week 12: Ciudad del Este

Helloooo everyone!! 

Hope everyone is doing well! This past week was pretty good for us. It's getting pretty hot, but it's not terrible. 

We had a lady get baptized on Saturday which was pretty cool. Anddd my 12-week training period ends this Wednesday, so I'll just be a regular missionary. So I'm kind of scared but not really. I feel pretty comfortable now, and I can communicate with people in Spanish haha, so yeah everything is going well. 

Well except for that we don't have a light in or bathroom at the moment; it burned out, so we have been showering in the dark and going to the bathroom in the dark... but it's not too bad haha. It's…interesting! 

But I also had the awesome privelege to eat cow heart this past week which was...not terrible but I don't really want to have it again haha! And some lady offered her daughter to me and asked if I wanted to marry her.. which was kind of awkward.... hahaha, but pretty funny. I declined...just for the record though. 

But yeah, other than that, nothing too exciting is happening. Hope everything in the States is going well!!! Miss everyone!

Elder Ben 

Weeks 10 & 11: Ciudad del Este

November 4, 2013

Hola everyone,

This week wasn't all that exciting, more rain, more sun and more teaching. Halloween wasn't all that exciting because the people of Paraguay don't really celebrate it; it's more of a superstitous thing here and they call it the day of the witch. And a lot of people think it's kind of evil. But all I did to celebrate was eat cake and drink fanta for breakfast which was pretty awesome. But anyway, I really don't have too much to say this week. Hopefully next week will be more exciting. Aside from the food, I've also been receiving some very tasty drinks like lots of carrott juice with lots of carrott pulp, tomato juice, and some other weird stuff that I honestly don't even know what it is. There was one that was green and smelled like grass and kind of tasted like grass... But it's always nice when we have something gross to eat and get to wash it down with some thick carrott juice. Haha! Fun times. Anyway, talk to you all next week!

Elder Ben Roberts

November 11, 2013

Holaaa everyone!

Hope everyone is doing well! This week was pretty good for us. I'm having a good time and starting to enjoy everything more. It kinda hit me that I'm in the mission. I mean I always knew I was, but now it's more real. Don't really know how to explain it haha but it's cool. And I'm also starting to enjoy it more because my Spanish is getting better and I feel pretty comfortable talking to people. I'm not where near perfect and I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to perfect my Spanish, but it's coming a lot. 

I also had a good week because I found a Burger King last Monday and had a strawberry milkshake. Which was awesome. And also received a package from my wonderful parents and grandparents with some candy and such in it, so it was nice to taste some stuff from America. But yeah, it's really hot here. Really hot. I bought a sombrero which helps and we basically sit in front of a fan any time we are in our house in the morning and when we come home at night. But no weird foods this week, well possibly because a lot of times I don't really know what I'm eating, but everything tasted pretty good so I can't complain. And I'm still alive so I can't complain. 

But we have a lady that is going to get baptized this coming weekend and we are really excited for her. It's cool to see the progress people make and how they change for the better after we have taught them all of our lessons and they read the Book of Mormon and stuff. It's been really cool to see her progress and how happy she is to be able to get baptized and become a member of the church. 

And I also gave my first talk in church in Spanish in front of everyone, which was... interesting haha! I think everyone understood what I was saying. Well I can only hope. But yeah, also something that I always took for granted was not having to get our water from a well every time we needed it... totally take that for granted and seeing people do it is pretty humbling. And when we come to their house and ask us if we want water and then run to their well and scoop some out I feel bad, but it's really been pretty humbling. Anyway, hope everyone is doing well and hope everyone has a great week this week.

Elder Ben Roberts

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