Hola Everyone!!!
What a week!! Let´s just say it was kind of hard and then we saw the hand of the Lord work miracles in front of us. So Monday through Friday I think we had all of our appointments but 2 fall through, plus all of our back ups. So it was difficult just everything seemed to be going wrong and we couldn´t find anyone to teach and we were really discouraged. We thought last Sunday was going to be the end of our trials but little did we know that this week was going to be way hard. Well after getting home Friday and just being straight up upset about the day and everything that had happened and all of our appointments falling through we sat down and prayed and made some different goals. We decided that Saturday we were going to teach a lesson to everyone we contacted and leave them with a commitment and that hoepfully that would show Heavenly Father that we were working hard and trying to find people the best that we knew how. Well that day we received a bunch of new people to teach and a lot of amazing families. First we had this lady that we talked to talk to us about her religious life and how she just wasn´t happy in the Catholic religion that she felt like she didnt have any hope and happiness, that she felt like this life was to be happy not to be sad all the time. So she has started attending the buddist religion because it is all about being happy. So she feels like she is a lot happier in her life and everything that she does. I taught her the Plan of Salvation (yes i taught it in Spanis) and then my companion backed me up and fixed somethings I had said that made sense to me but not in Spanish to other people so yeah but she got really excited about it and everything. She has an adorable little family and we teach her later this week andf we are really excited!!! Then we found a cute little newly married couple that has a little gir and they are great and we are really excited to teach them. Well we got home Saturday just excited and everything had just been great even though most of our appointments had once again fallen through but its ok because we really felt like the Lord was guiding our paths and sending us where we needed to go. Then that night we decided we were going to do it again all day Sunday and see what happened. Well we did and we tried to contact some of the people we had contacted on Saturday especially this family called the Senturian family and we searched and searched and searched because they gave us their address but we must of misunderstood or they made up their address because it didnt exist. After asking around 6 to 7 people if they knew them and getting sent to a lot of random houses and having these two drunk guys yell after us for awhile we decided to say a prayer because we were depending on the arm of the flesh instead of the arm of God for help and it didn´t really work out that well. So we said a little prayer and we started down the same street and one of the guys that said he knew them told us the type of tree they had in the front yard so we decided to start knocking of the doors of people that had that same tree. The first door we knocked on was a miracle. It wasnt the family Senturian but it was better. It was a dad and his little girl that came out and we taught him a quick lesson of the Plan of Salvation and he got really excited and then explained to us that he would like us to come in and teach them but that his wife was starting into labor with twins and they were just packing up to head to the hospital. So we set up an appointment for next week and we are really excited to teach them!!! The week started out rough but the Lord definitely made up for it ten fold.
Another way we saw the Lord direct us is that we were looking for the granddaughter of one of the members that was less active named Mariela. Well we couldnt really remember her name that well and when we got to the door my companion asked if Marianna was there. The girl behind the gate was like Im marianna and so we thought it was her. But once we got inside we realized real quickly that it was not Mariela. Because Mariela is kind of short and a little big heavier and Marianne was tall and very skinny with a baby. Well the little name mix up lead to an amazing lesson and we are excited to teach her this week. We dicided that someone in her family needs to te gospel because while we were teaching her we found out that she is the older sister of one of the girls we are teaching all the way across town. So it was quite interisting and we really feel like the Lord was guiding us in finding her.
So Tuesday the reason we didn´t get many lessons that day is actually because the relief society president called us during our lunch and siad that she had an emergency and that we needed to get to this street and her husband would come find us and take us. Wel we headed out and we ended up at this young mom´s house that had wanted to commit suicide just a little bit before and had called the relief society president to help. So they had us come so we could clean their house and just talk with her and help her with all the things she needed help with. Her name is Lela and this is her story. She grew up in the church and her family is really strong members. She grew up near the Paraguay Temple and loved studying on the grounds. She met another LDS guy and they were married in the temple. Soon after they got married he started doing ¨bad stuff¨ (she never told us what) and then soon after that he started beating her. They had two kids and this last week she left him. She had bruises all over her face and it was just sad. her kids are really messed up from the situation too. Her 6 year old son thinks he is a girl and he gets really mad when you try to tell him his name is fransisco and he is a boy because he thinks his name is snow white and he is a girl. Then the little 4 year old girl is just a terror she kicks and screamed and bites, and attacks if she doesn´t get her way. It is sad what growing up in a bad home and do. So we helped her and have tried to help her throughout the week and we were realy ahppy when they showed up to church on Sunday because she hasn´t been to church in like 4 years. She even stayed for all the meetings.
Another miracle of the week. So there is one of our investigators named Fabiola. She is basically amazing. She was found in May and has had like 5 different baptismal dates but she just can´t seem to wake up in time to get to church. Well this week, much to my surprise, she came with her little boy and her husband!!!!!! it was super happy and they loved church. They were funny becuase they were so worried about their little boy doing something to disrupt that if he moved they were like "oh no make him stop" it was quite funny and we were trying to help them realize it was ok to let him get off the bench and to move around a little in the bench line. But they had a way good experience and we are teaching them tonight to talk to them about what they felt and the things they have questions about.
So the Paniagua´s, I talk about them every week but they are a very large part of our life. Number one is Ramona with her son Pablo talked to their padre at the catholic church this week and he told her that her daughters were condemed because they were baptized twice, once when they were babies and then again in the church. Well their went our opportunity to help and teach Pablo becuase he is kind of freaked out about it and won´t even meet wit hus anymore. We will see what happens. Number two is Ramona´s food. everytime we go over there she makes us something and this something is ALWAYS fried . . . .ALWAYS. I swear she finds some way to fry everyting. My companion was telling me that she didn´t gain very much weight until she got into this area and she started eating at Ramona´s all the time. But we cant refuse it because we already almost lost the trust of hte Paniagua´s this week which leads to the funny story of the week. So we felt like we were loosing the trust of the Paniagua´s and so we were just going to try to start serving them and helping them in anyways we could. Well they asked us to come to the cumplianos of their God Daughter. Well we said that we could come for 10 to 15 minutes and then we had to leave. Well they told us to meet them there around 8:45 at night and then we can go together. So we got there at 8:45 and this was supser super chuchi party and it had been really hot all day and we were realy sweaty and our clothes were drenched in sweat and both of us have curly hair so our hair was out of control and so we felt great about our appearance. So we walk up this read carpet into the part and there are these to butlers there that give us a weird look and tell us to go in anywyas. We just thought we would walk in and see the family Paniagua go say hi and then head home for the night. Well we walk in and it hadn´t even started yet and all that was there was the birthday girl and her sister and they were like what are two LDS missionaries doing walking into our chuchi party. So we awkwardly said hi and turned around and left. We called the family Paniagua and they said they would be therei n 5 minutes so we just waited. They finally showed up at like 9:10 and we were supposed to be home at 9 and you can stay out until 9:30 if you are teaching a lesson so we decided that we would walk in to make the familia Paniagua happy and then after we would just leave. Well we walk in and the butler tries to come and give us some wiskey and wine and we refused that and then we said that we were leaving becuase it was like 9:20 and we needed to get home and we stil had like a 5 minute walk. So we were saying good bye and they were like you haven´t eaten yet you can´t leave and so they made us a plate of food. And it was A LOT of food. I´ve never eaten so fast in my life. They were party size which was nice but we had two Melanesa sandwiches, an empanada, and three slices of melensa and a glass of sprite. Both of us ate it in like 3 to 4 minutes and drank all the sprite. We were both ready to throw up and we were late. So we are trying to run without throwing up and it was quite hilarious. It was a fun experience and now we realize that we just have ot tell the Family Paniagua no sometimes.
So i thought I would share some weird things about the Paraguans. Number one, there are a TON of KOREAN´s here!!! Yeah I know crazy. All the kids have to learn Korean in school instead of English which I think is weird. Everyone in school studies Korean, Guani, and Spanish. But whatever I guess, it´s just interesting to me that there is a little Korean colony here. Number two The Paraguay people think you are literally going to die, like leterally if you eat WAtermelon and milk together. So weird. . . . . I don´t quite understand it but it´s funny to do it in front of them becaue they just marve that we didn´t die. Number three is they will not have sweet things and salty things together. Like if you go to a party it will either have sweet food ONLY or salty food ONLY. Just some random facts about Paraguay.
The language is coming. It´s frustrating at times but I´m trying and I can feel the help of the Lord in my life. It´s difficult here to try to pick up on the langauge because when the people are talking to eachother they generally talk in Guani and so it´s hard to practice listening when I don´t know the language they are speaking. But Im catching on and the people are pretty slow speakers at Spanish anywyas because they arent as good at it as they are at Guani.
The mission is great!! I love the gospel!! This week I´ve gained a new appreaciation of the Plan of Salvation. NEVER take it for granted we are truly a blessed people to have it in our lives and understand our purpose and what we are doing here and what our goal is. Share the gospel wherever you are and remember that through Jesus Christ anything is possible!!
Love
Hermana Hubbard
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