PaTeo!
Haupei!! Wow what a couple of Days it has been, since I wrote home just this Wednesday I will do my best to keep this email short but my oh my have things been moving since then.
We left Thursday Night at 9pm for Paraguay. It was´nt an awful flight since I had an open middle seat next to me and I was a window.. so I sprawled out and got some sleep.
We landed in the Morning in Paraguay and were meeted by President and the Secretary of the Mission. They made sure everything went smoothly getting into the country and we were driving and at the Mission office by 9a Friday. We all took naps at some bedrooms they had upstairs at the Mission Office and then we came down at 11:30 ish for our orientation. We also got to meet our comps for the first time and holy cow is Elder Webb (or Pa Teo as I call him (since he is my father/trainer out her on the mish)) is an absolute legend even after only living with him for two days I have grown to love and appreciate the man. He really has this genuine desire to watch me grow and succeed and has proved it by word and by deed.
We got assigned to Zone 7, in a city called Pitebury. You can look it up on your maps but it is litterally the MIDDLE of nowhere and I love it. This little town in the Parguayan hills and it is goregous. We are somehow in a Jungle, Savanna, and Desert all at the same time and we came across Palm trees and all sorts of life and beauty as we have been exploring this town this last couple of days. It was also a White Wash for me and my comp, which basically means that the old pair of Elders for this town get taken out and me and Elder Webb get sent in fresh without any clue what the Area is like and we both adore Piribebuy already.
The way there, we got stranded by an Uber at a gas station because he did not want to drive us the 2 hours out of Asuncion to get there so my first real experience was sitting with my comp talking for 2 hours getting rejected by Uber after Uber. Finally, we called this awesome member from our area and he agreed to drive out of his way 2 hours and come and get us. KUDOS to him.
Saturday was the first day. WOW. We spent the whole morning contacting (I think in the States they call it Tracting) door to door. When you go up to a Parguayan house you clap to knock on the door, up to 3 ish times and I just watched my Comp get to work. We don´t have a lot of really progessing people/friends right now so were doing a lot of brief conversations getting to know people. In the afternoon, (after a fire lunch from one of the members (Hermano Meza my primero amigo en el campo)) we had a sit down lesson with a man named Pablo who had basically been taught a lot of the lessons but was a really a little crazy and did not have a great attendence at church. I did my best to follow the conversation haha and afterwards I shared my testimony about baptism and gave the closing prayer. Turns out, since Elder Webb is the guy, he speaks really amazing Spanish and English, he translted for me and turns out the guy was saying he was getting possed by spirits and some other really wack stuff. What a first lesson, huh? jaja. After that, we walked around looking for friends and we had a sit down lesson with a women named Maria. Her mother was recently baptized and does not have a leg. Her faith is remarkable. She told us how painful the night could be and it was really hard to see the poverty and pain she was in, but inspiring to see her faith. There was one other guy, Carlos who we were trying to find at like idk 8:00ish and we were asking around and then this guy we were talking to was like ¨hey that´s carlos right there¨ and he came around a corner and saw us and then just did a full 180. RIP for the missionaries I guess. That´s the thing that is sad is that there is so many people to teach, by golly we have this entire town of who knows how many people for just me and Elder Webb to teach, that sometimes you have to let people go, or not immedietly pursue everyone. Your looking for the people who are and have been prepared by the Lord and you have to trust in God´s timing in it all. Anyways it was an awesome, adventure full day!
Sunday was fire! We had a chill morning since you don´t do studies or whatever till after church, and I got to get up and speak in the little branch haha wild. We went to find members in the afternoon and did not speak to a single one haha which meant just lots of walking all over and by the time I got back to our place I was toasted more then I have ever been.
Fridgett (my new favorite filler word haha, that and D´ochore which is Guarni´s dang it), I love this gospel! This is a long email haha I will get better but dang the first couple of days in the mission are magical. I know this is Gods work and this is God´s church. Stay the course!
Love you all,
Elder Ralphs
Google Photos:
Comments
Post a Comment