¡¡Hola a Todos!!
Well this week was probably the most exhausting week of the mission so far. Oh not probably but WAS the most exhausting week of the mission so far. All I know is we need to get better at delegating because we can´t plan a wedding, baptism, teach lessons, and try to plan another baptism all by ourselves. But I´ll just start with the stories of the week.
Monday: We had FHE with Antonela and the Familia Sanabria (the bishop and his family) it was really fun and it really felt Antonela feel involved in the ward. The bishop is so sweet and just took care of her little girl and everyone was great. It was funny at first because the bishop and his wife have all their kids grown but non of them are married yet and so they are not used to having little kids in their house. The whole family was running around chasing after Antonela´s little girl trying to make sure she didn´t get hurt or didn´t break anything. It was quite entertaining to watch. But we taught the Word of Wisdom and we used a little example that someone used in Relief society back in my student ward at BYU-Idaho and it went over great. Antonela´s already has a strong testimony of this has she has watched it destroy her brother´s and her husband´s life. But then we had a funny moment too of course. Well me and Hermana Knapp think the hymn "In our Lovely Deserte" (I think that is what it is in English) is hilarious and we talked about how we would never sing it with investigators just because it is a little frank. Well We asked one of the Sanaburia boys to pick the closing hymn and what did he choose, yes this hymn. Me and Hermana Knapp had a really hard time holding it together, we were laughing so hard. But we made it through the song and it was good and Antonela didn´t get too freaked out.
Thursday: Our investigator Yvonne, I think I´ve mentioned her before but she is amazing, very smart and is a lawyer and works a lot by logic. But this week we taught her the last part of the Plan of Salvation. We explained the Celestial Kingdom and what that means and for most people the fact that we are going to live with God and Jesus Christ and our Families forever is enough and they don´t question any further. Well for Yvonne this wasn´t enough. She was like "oh so you guys believe the same as every other church out there that we are going to sit in heaven and sing and just be happy. I don´t know about you guys but that doesn´t sound very fun to me, I would like to go to a place where I can continue to do more and to get better everyday" Well we were really tempted to teach her the deep mormon doctrine of that we are going to continue to progress until we become like God but we didn´t, we just told her we know that we are going to continue to progress in the Celestial Kingdom and work, this kept you satisfied for now. We love Yvonne and being abel to teach her deep stuff and such we are just worried that she isn´t feeling it spiritually and so this week we are going to try to move off the facts of the church and how it make sense logically and move into how she needs to gain a testimony spiritually as well.
Friday: This was a miracle this day. So we found an old investigator name Maria Ester. She is a widow and all her kids live in the States or way way far away and so she is super depressed and just hates life. She told us the last time that the only reason she liked us coming was because it was someone to talk to because she was so lonely. Well at the end of that lesson we challenged her to read and pray. Well we went back on Friday and she had read but hadn´t prayed, but she read. Both me and Hermana Knapp were in awe, we couldn´t decide if it was the same person, she had completely changed. She participated in the lesson, she prayed at the end, and actually told us all of her feelings and how the Book of Mormon made her feel and then said she would come to Antonela´s baptism and to church. Well she didn´t come to church or the baptism but hey we are making progress with her.
Saturday: This is the reason for the title, because this day we were literally drowned rats. Well we woke up to rain, which is a blessing because it means it´s not roasting hot and so we were excited. Well we have one problem with the rain, we don´t have an umbrella. But it was just a light drizzle so we thought we would be fine. Well One of the ward members had made the baptismal program paper thingy and such and it was like a 7 to 8 mile walk from our house so we left early and headed on our way. Well we got like a mile into it and it wasn´t raining anymore and it was a little hot so we took off our rain coats and we were stuffing them in our backpacks and Hermana Knapp was like watch as soon as we start walking again it´s going to start raining. Well sure enough this is what happened, it started pouring, like POURING!!! IT was crazy!!!! Well we got to the house all of our stuff was soaked we were soaked and then we had to get the baptismal program and hope that it stayed dry until we could get to a photocopy place to photocopy it. Well we get back down to the main road and it was completely flooded, like a torent river was flying down the road. We couldn´t get across it or walk along it and so luckily there was this young kid that was walking in front of us so we just kind of followed his actions. He just climbed onto a chainlink fence and climbed along it until you could get somewhere where the river wasn´t raging as bad. Well we did the same, I haven´t climbed on a chainlink fence like that ever in my life, it was crazy. we were just hanging on because if we fell of there is a giant pit of open sewage that was below us. So we just hung on for dear life and climbed. Finally we made it to the other side of the road where the water was drained off of it a little and such and headed on out back to the chapel. Well we are walking, it´s still pouring, we are laughing because it was quite enjoyable. I found out my coat works great and Hermana Knapp found out her 20 dollar raincoat doesn´t really protect against Paraguay rain storms. Well we are walking we had a police car stop and all sorts of people stop to give us a ride but we aren´t allowed to so we didn´t. We made it to the chapel and started filling up the baptismal font and decided to go find a photocopy place while the font was filling up. Well the rain had gotten worse and all the streets were super flooded, all the people on the streets had just given up and all were just walking through the water. We tried to avoid it for awhile but finally we just gave up. We ended up walking around for like 40 minutes trying to find a photocopy place that was open, in Paraguay when it rains EVERYTHING shuts down, including schools, stores, and basically people, no one does nothing!!! Well we found a photocopy place and then started running back because we were worried about the font overflowing. We then got the font turned off and headed off the lunch which some ward members. We ate at their house all wrapped up in towels trying not to get everything super wet. We then headed up to our house to get changed into drying clothes. Then one of the people that was supposed to bring food for the wedding canceled on us so we had to run to the grocery store and get buy pizza and make pizza for everyone which was super stressful. We told Antonela that we would be at her house at 4 to help her get ready for her wedding. Well at 4 it was still raining and we were having a hard time getting there on time. We were worried that no one was going to show up if it was raining and we were really worried because Antonela is the type of persone that needs a lot of support and she doesn´t have any family around here so we really wanted all the ward to come to show her that they are her family now. Well we knelt down and said a prayer for the rain to stop. We walkd outside and 5 minutes later the clouds cleared and the rain stopped. We were so happy, I tell you we are so so so blessed!! The Lord is so good to us. Well we headed off the Antonela´s and got there and her and her boyfriend were fighting and we were freaking out because she was supposed to be getting married in less than an hour and their little girl was coughing up a storm and everything just seemed to be going wrong then. We were quite paniced. Antonela came out and hadn´t even started to get great so we started to freak out even more because the Judge would not wait for us. Well we said quite a few series of prayers. Then they ahve to have a copy of their birth certificate for the wedding and they never went and got one and the only photocopy place that was open was probably about 3 miles away and we don´t have a car and neither does Antonela so we started freaking out even more. Well Anotonela went in to change and such and we prayed a couple of more times then made some calls. at 515 (the wedding was at 530) we got ahold of the bishop and he said that he could come by with his truck and pick us up and take us to get the photocopies. Then we realized that we didn´t ahve the money to pay the judge, the pop for the wedding, toys for Venus, a knife for the cake, or the shirt for the top of Antonela´s dress, it was all at our apartment. Well the bishop came and Richard (the boyfirend of Antonela) said that he didn´t want to ride with us that he would just walk there. Well this worried us, we were like is he going to ditch like what is up?? So we headed off anyways saying prayers in our hearts that he would show up. Well we had the bishop stop by and I´m quite impressed with ourselves we were in, got all the stuff and back in the truck in a matter of 2 minutes. We got the photocopies and got the wedding like 5 minutes late. Oh and we even said a prayer that the judge would be late. Well we got there the judge wasn´t there yet got everything set up and everything went off very smoothly. A lot of the ward members came and Antonela had a lot of support. After her baptism she was sat in the bathroom and cried, she was so happy and so relieved. It´s just amazing the joy and love the gospel brings to the lives of people. We are really happy and so is Antonela. Her confirmation was great also, and we had a great lesson with her last night and she is just amazing we are excited for her!!!
Well I´m out of time but I love you all
Love
Hermana Hubbard
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