5-28-18 - Wow what a week!!!

WOW WHAT A WEEK!!!

Okay this week was super crazy and I cant believe it. It flew by and we didn't have a minute to spare. Let us start first with Monday. Monday we wanted to print some pictures we had and finally found a place to do it in Paraguari. So we went but it took us like 4 hours to do it. The lady told us it would only take a few minutes. We also visited the familia Cespedez to get them ready for their bautismo. They are so great. 

Tuesday we had their entrevista and the Elders said that they did great. That they have testimonies super grande.

On Wednesday, this is where it gets crazy. We had to wake up super early, 3 in the morning, to go to Asuncion. We found a colectivo in minutes and it was super fast. We got to San Lorenzo, which normally takes about an hour and a half, in 50 minutes. So we waited outside in the cold. It was freezing. But there was this kitten who was freezing and Elder Pedersen tried to catch it. He tried for like 40 minutes to gain the trust of the little kitten and finally got to hold it. It was so cute and it was purring in his arms. Pictures are included of this. We waited for the rest of our zona and took a colectivo to Asuncion. We had our conferencia de zona and I got to see Hermana Varga and Hermana Ostvig

. Also a lot of people from my group my missionaries that came with me. It was a lot of fun. But going home was an adventure again. This time we wanted to make sure we had a colectivo so we went to a place called the terminal. Its like a huge bus stop where all the colectivos go. SO we went there. We found a colectivo for Paraguari but it was super small. And it turns out that it was the slowest colectivo in the planet. Goodness. It took like 4 almost 5 hours to get back to paraguari. It was so slow the colectivo. Ugh goodness. We left around 3 o so in the afternoon and got back to Paraguari around 9 in the night. It was a long trip again. But we got to celebrate and open our packages from our awesome families!!!

Thursday we had to get up early again to go to Yaguaron. Another city to have entrevistas con Presidente. It was so much fun to go, but it is kinda sad because it was our last entrevista con Presidente Wilson. He goes home soon and we are getting a new presidente. It is gonna be interesting to see how different he is. But I am excited. Thursday we had no time to work either because we still had to do weekly planning which is 3 hours and then our studies which is 3 and a half hours. SO ya fue nuestro dia. Friday we had intercambios. I got to go to San Lorenzo with an Hermana named Hermana Cardanas. She is super sweet and it was fun to go back to San Lorenzo. It was kinda weird to be back in the city. But it was so much fun to work.

On Saturday we returned to Paraguari and also had no time to work by the time we got back because of our studies and our BAPTISM!!!! Oh my goodness it was so great. We had a baptism TUICHA!!!!!! 7 people were baptized including the Familia Cepsedez!!!!! It was so amazing. It was so spiritual. I am so excited that they got to enter into the waters of baptism. As everyone of the 7 people left the water, they just glowed. They were wet and cold jaja but they were so happy. I wanted to cry. It was so cute to see familia Cepsedez enter the water. They are such a special family and now their goal is to enter into the temple and be sealed for time and all eternity. They are such a blessing in my life, La Familia Cepsedez. And Sunday, wow Sunday. 7 people received the spirit and were confirmed members. It was so amazing. This week was so crazy but it was so spiritually filled and so great. We have cambios next week and I am really nervous with what's going to happen. I have no idea but I am excited to see. I love you all. The church is true. There wasn't a lot to write about but it was a jammed pack week. Thank you for everyone for your support. I love being a missionary and helping people to have better lives and to receive the blessings God has for them. Keep being awesome! Love you

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To Heaven and Back!

Hermana Davis

 

5-21-18 - Post Mothers Day! - 2 weeks to Talk about

Awe, Yay! hey everyone!

So we got to skype last week so we weren't allowed to write and email so there is a lot to catch you all up on. First Happy Mothers day for all you moms out there. I hope your day was fantastic. Mothers Day is the 15 here so we got to celebrate it twice. But there is so much to tell you.

Okay first lets start with last week. P-day, on Monday the 7 was really fun. We made homemade cookies and it was so great. Then we went and gave them to Ronaldo and Flia Cespedez. There is nothing like a homemade cookie here, solamente like cracker cookies so it was really good and they loved it. This last week was really crazy because we were preparing for our baptism and so we didn't have a full day to work. For example on Thursday we had to fill up the pila baptismal, the font, and the water pressure here is super awful. So we cleaned it and started filling it up and it took about 5 hours. So we were stuck in the capilla because we couldn't leave. But luckily we could do our studies and that took up some time.

But then we went and taught Ronaldo again before his baptism. It was one of my favorite lessons. He is such a cute kid. So we taught him how to mark his scriptures last week, and when we got there he was so excited to show us that he marked a verse in his scriptures. So we saw and then we had a really deep conversation about how Moroni saw God face to face but it the Bible it says that if any man saw God face to face they would die. It was such a good leccion and Ronaldo is such a great kid.

Then Friday we had his baptism!! It was so great. We had more investigators then we did members so it was so stressful to try and go around and talk to everyone. But still it was a really great experience and super spiritual. Ronaldo after was shining so bright and he was so happy. It was so cute. Then on Sunday he was going to receive the Holy Ghost. But he didn't show up. We were waiting and waiting and starting to get really worried. Church started and we were trying to call him but his phone was off. We thought for sure that he had slept in and forgot. We had to give talks and so we had to go enter the church. Hermana Fife gave her talk first and while she was giving it I was praying so that Ronaldo could come. I felt a sudden peace and knew it was going to be okay. Suddenly Ronaldo walked in, in his nice shirt and tie and sat in the front. We gave talks they were great, and he received the Holy Ghost. It was so cute. He was smiling so big and he just shined with happiness and light.

Also on Sunday we SKYPED, Wuhoo!! It was so fun to see the fam and I hope all you out there with missionaries enjoyed seeing your loved ones. It was such a great time. On Monday it was Dia de la Independencia here so there was a huge parade and lots of different activities. We got to watch it for a while. It was so cute all the little kids who went through. Also I hit half way on my mission. WOAH IM HALFWAY THERE, WOAH LIVING ON A PRAYER! I hope everyone sang that part in your head.

So Monday I decided to do something a little different and I cut off my hair. Crazy!! It was a lot of fun. Kinda sketchy because we didn't know where to go to get it cut but the Elders said there was a chuchi hair place and we went there. On Tuesday it was mothers day in Paraguay. We baked cookies on Monday and so we went to a few of the moms here and gave them some. It was super fun to see them enjoy American Cookies.

On Wednesday we had a good experience about listening to the Spirit. So we were doing our studies. We can only buy water on Wednesdays so we tried to coordinate when the water guy would be here but they didn't show up or answer there phone. So we decided we were going to put the money outside of our house and the water buckets. You might be thinking that's a stupid idea, but our house has a gate so no one could get in. So we left to work and got to the area we were gonna work in and realized we had made our plan but forgot to actually put the money and buckets out. Now normally I would say its a waste of time to walk all the way home just to put the money and buckets out because we were pretty far. But I had a very hard impression we needed to go home. So we tried to visit our investigator but she had left so we thought okay we are gonna walk home and talk to everyone in our path. So we started and when we got there we realized Hermana Fife had left the keys in our door. Now nothing would have happened, maybe, but I learned that you should always listen to the Spirit because you never know what could have happened if we hadn't.

Also we left the money and buckets and got more water. It was great. We also taught classes of English again. I taught it this week. It was a lot of fun. I think the kids really enjoyed it. Oh so for a long time there hasn't been any rain. We have kinda been in a drought. But that all ended on Friday. Ndirachori did it rain on Friday. We had plans to go to a new area we haven't really ever worked so we could find new people. We wanted to make the best of our day. It was the first day we had to be able to just work. So we went to try and work but it started raining really hard in the morning. It was raining and raining and when we left to go work it kinda died down. So we thought wow this is great. We went to lunch and during lunch it started pouring again. Now normally when it rains it is such a hard day because no one wants to talk to you and because everyone is inside asleep. But I don't know what happened, but Hermana Fife and I were in such a good mood. And we kept working and working and we had one of the most successful days. We taught a lot of lessons and hit almost all of our goals we had set. It was such a great day. It was so much fun too. We were soaking wet and it was freezing but it was so much fun.

Saturday was good too. All of our lessons fell through and we still had an hour to work. Everyone was in their house asleep already because it was cold. So we were walking around trying to find people. We ran into the elders in the capilla and were talking to them for a minute but told them we were going to go find a miracle. So we left again and felt the impression to go visit a girl we had only met once or twice named Catia. When we got to her house it was really dark and a lady came out and was super nice and told us to pass and to sit and was really excited to listen to us. She didn't look like Catia but the truth was we couldn't remember. But when we turned on some lights and it wasn't her. It was her sister Vania and we started sharing with her and we asked her why she let us in. well it turns out we had talked to her one other time but she was in the middle of showering so we left. But she told us that day after she talked to us she instantly felt better. She wanted to share with us but didn't know how to find us. Then Saturday we showed up. We started teaching and she started to cry. She cried through the whole lesson and accepted a day to be baptized right away. I don't know what she is going through but I do know without a doubt that we are going to be able to help her. We definitely found our miracle though. Sunday was great. We announced 7 baptisms!

This Saturday we are going to have a baptism tuicha which is guarani for super big. The Familia Cespedez are getting baptized and 3 of the investigators of the elders. It is gonna be so dope. I cant wait. Also this week we tried to hit every single one of our goals. And on Sunday we had to get 5 more nuevos to hit our goal of 20. All of our plans fell through again so we were trying to find people and we prayed really hard to be guided to the people who would listen to us and who would let us teach them. And I know God hears our prayers and like it says in Moroni 7:33 anything can be done with our faith according to the will of God. At times we ask for things and we don't get them so we think that we didn't have enough faith or God wasn't listening. But its the opposite. He heard us and knows us better than we know ourselves and He has a plan that is perfect. I know that I am on the Lords errand and that we are here on the Earth to become like Him. To learn and trust in Him so that we can return to Him better than we were. I love each and everyone of you. I know that God lives and loves you. Sorry this email is so long but there was so much to catch you up on. This is the work of God and I cant wait to have another great 9 months in la gran mission 

Paraguay Asuncion!!!!!

Also shoutout to Skyler and Yaya for getting married. Congrats you guys and I love you both so much!!!!! 

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To Heaven and Back!

Hermana Davis

Family email addendum which explains some of these last photo's

Hey fam!!

First I loved talking to you guys last week. It was so much fun. I miss you all so much. Second how is the craziness going. So Skyler and Ya are married and now yall are going to San Diego or are in San Diego. I cant wait to visit San Diego and Kelsey and Avery...and Zach I guess jaja ;) jaja jk I love you too Zach. But I am super excited............................................

. What else. This week we dont have a normal day to work. Tuesday we have the entrevista for familia Cespedez to be baptized. Wednesday we in Asuncion. I should be able to get my package if its there. Thursday we are also in Asuncion for entrevistas con Presidente. Friday we have intercambios and I get to be in San Lorenzo and Saturday our baptism Tuicha!!! I am so stoked!!! It is going to be so great. I love this work. Oh also it has been super cold here. So its winter and it has been like 7 degrees celsius. I think that is like 40 degrees fhrenheit . But normally that wouldn't be cold in Utah. But I am so freezing cold. I am Paraguaya now. What's gonna happen in Febrero when I come home to snow? I am going to die. AHHH. But thats a long long ways away so no hay problema. How was the wedding. Cute? We had our own little reception here. Hermana Fife was my date and Ya we didn't know your colors exactly but we guessed from your bridals and so we dressed up and I caught the bouquet but she took it from me. Also I gave a really nice toast. It was cute thanks for inviting us jaja. It was a lot of fun jaja. Any ways. I love you guys so much. 

5/7/18 - What A Week!!!

What a week...

Literally just a week of miracles so let me try and fill you all in...

Fist we had a baptism! It was so amazing. But lets just talk about how there is always something that happens on the days of baptism to make sure that it doesn't happen. Paraguay has been in a little bit of a drought. It hasn't rained for almost 3 months. And the morning of the baptism it poured and poured and poured some more. It was crazy. It always rains when there is a baptism but that doesn't stop it. But it was raining really hard. So when we were doing our studies we prayed that it would stop raining until tonight so that way people would come to the baptism without a problem. Almost immediately the rain stopped and it became really sunny and really warm. I know God answers prayers. So much happened this week.

Monday, it was p-day. We decided to try and relax and catch up from our busy week last week. We also celebrated Hermana Fifes 3 months. So we were relaxing when some recent converts in Acahay, another city, called us. An elder in our district gave them our numbers and they really wanted to meet us.

So we got all dressed back in our proselyting clothes to go meet the fans jaja. One was named Camila and the mom Lucy. They had seen Hermana Fife on Instagram and so they wanted to meet her. So we took pictures and talked to them. They were really nice. Literally when they saw us they came running to us. It was really nice to meet them. On Tuesday it was a holiday. And so everything was closed and everyone was super drunk. It was really hard to work. We tried to contact people but it wasn't working. We tried to visit the people we had in planes but they were all out festijando. It was so hard to find anyone but we found a super good lomito place here and had dinner since we didn't eat lunch. Super Rico. Wednesday we taught familia Cesperez again. They are great. We taught about baptism and they are so excited for their baptism. We had planes to teach Ronaldo tambien but poor thing was super sick. So we couldn't teach him. We also taught classes de Ingles again. It is so much fun to see the kids enjoy learning another language. Thursday was craaaazzzy.

So on Thursday we do what is weekly planning. We sit down for three hours and plan for what we are going to do throughout the coming week. We think about each one of our investigators and the lessons they need, how we can help them, what we as missionaries can do to work more in unity and strengthen the ward and our companionship. It is so great to be able to think ahead of time about everything. But also we had to do our three and a half hours of studies. So on Thursdays we only have about 3 o 4 hours to really work. And had planes to visit every one of our progressing investigators, the investigators that are preparing for baptism in the coming few weeks. First we had plans to visit Andrea, then Ronaldo, then Familia Cesperez. Oh man was it crazy. First though an hour before we were going to leave Ronaldo's mom called us and said she had to go and couldn't be in the lesson. So we started panicking. We needed to find someone to help us with the lesson and somewhere to teach. We prayed and our branch presidents name came into mind. So we called him and he and his wife were going to be in the capilla and said they could help us. So we called Ronaldo and told him to meet us at the capilla at 18Ñ30 horas. He said he would be there. So we felt a bit more calm.

We taught Andrea and she is super great. She wants to pay her tithing and follow the commandments. Then we basically ran to the capilla to be there on time. We got there exactly at 18Ñ30 horas but Ronaldo wasn't there. We waited a bit and then called him mom. She told us he left already. We were waiting and waiting. Soon it got to be an hour we were waiting. We were worried something happened or that maybe he wasn't coming. I was very stressed and I didn't know what we were suppose to do. I said a prayer that I would be able to have the faith sufficient and that everything would work out to how it needed to.

We needed folletos for our lesson with Familia Cesperez so we decided to go around the corner to the house of the elders and grab folletos from them and as we walked around the corner we saw Ronaldo running towards us. When he got to us he was dripping sweat and looked extremely tired. It turns out he didn't have his bike so he ran to the church. After I felt so bad for him. He is so great and he didn't want to disappoint us. He came and we had a great lesson about the priesthood and how he will be able to bless his family through his priesthood duties. It was so great.

Then after we went straight to Familia Cesperez. We were going to teach the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity. We knew the dad smoked so we were a little worried about teaching it. But we shouldn't have because when we taught it the spirit was so strong and the dad said that he has been wanting to quit and his wife really wants him to. We bought him a bag of candy and every time he has the desire to smoke to eat a piece of candy. So we taught it and it was so great. They know the church is true and they want to do everything they can to be able to be baptized. They are so great.

We also visited them on Friday with a recent convert named Marley.

 Marley is super great. She just got baptized last month and her testimony is so strong. We taught the 10 commandments and the dad asked Marley about her decision to be baptized. Marley gave a strong and spiritual testimony about how she felt when she was baptized and how she couldn't deny that the church was true. It was so amazing. After the lesson she was so pumped. She wants to serve a mission and she was talking about how she was so excited that one day her family will have the desire to listen to the missionaries and that she knows her family will be eternal one day. It made me want to cry. She is so great.

Also we contacted Javier. I don't know if y'all remember how we have that joke with the elders about ·Team Javier. But it definitely is becoming a reality. He asked us what we do. I told him about how we are missionaries who teach a message centered in Christ that brings joy and peace to peoples lives. He was very interested and we told him we could visit him. He gave us his directions. The elders freaked out when I told them. We spent all of Sunday trying to find him but his directions weren't super clear so we are gonna try again Tuesday to find him. We definitely freaked out though once we walked about from him.

Saturday was the baptism and Familia Ceperez came and they loved it. They said it was so amazing and they could feel the spirit so strong. And all the members were so great. They talked to them and made them feel so good in the church. On Sunday Ronaldo came to church in his shirt and tie we got him. He looked so good. It was so cute. He is so great and we announced his baptism! He is gonna get baptized Friday!!!!!! I can hardly wait. He is so amazing. Also the parents in Familia Cesperez came to church and they looked so good. We taught them after and they were so excited. They told us they were basically members already. Which they are. They are like more fiel than a lot of the members here. I am so excited for them too. They should be baptized the 26 of May. AHAHAHAH Mayo de Milagros. 

This week I finished the Book of Mormon in Spanish. It was an amazing experience to read the word of God in a language that is so dear to my heart. I want to testify once again, that the Book of Mormon IS THE WORD OF GOD. It is the keystone to our religion and it is the map to return to our Father in Heaven. I encourage anyone and everyone to read from cover to cover, everyday, and after pray for yourself to know the power of the Book of Mormon. If you are struggling, the Book of Mormon will help. If you are doubting, the Book of Mormon will answer. If you need more time, read the Book of Mormon, you will get more time. If you are tired or bored, the Book of Mormon will give you strength. There is nothing this testimony of Christ cannot help with. And I testify to you all that it will help you with whatever is going on in  your life. I love it with all my heart and I love each and everyone of you.

Hope everyone has a good week and a great mothers day next Sunday all you lovely moms. You are so great.

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To Heaven and Back!

Hermana Davis