Hola! Letter and week #4, August 22, 2011

So I have some funny stories this week. So first I busted up during a lesson, well I guess before but it was still pretty funny. So we went to this ladies house and it was our first time teaching her. She had a big rabbit as a pet and it was being super annoying. Well Hermana Knapp HATES rabbits and was having a hard time with this thing. Well we started the lesson by singing a hymn. While we were singing this rabbit decided that hermana Knapps backpack looked pretty entertaining and the next thing I know it´s like climbing all of her backpack. I started to get the giggles and had to stop singing wich meant hermana Knapp was singing all by herself because the people here dont like to sing. Well I´m trying to get my laughing under control and I started singing again and made it through maybe two words and the rabit started chewing on the packback and you could hear it. I was cracking up at this point but was trying so hard to not laugh out loud. Hermana Knapp keeps on singing and moves her backpack so the rabbit wiould leave it alone. Well then the Rabbit decides to move to my backpack and I moved my backpack multiple times trying to get this thing not to chew on it. I worked hard and it still tried to chew on my backpack so I just gave up and was still laughing. Then the thing crawls inside of my backpack and I was gone I was laughing out loud and then hermana Knapp started laughing and it was funny, then the lady comes over and picks up her rabbit and walks in the house. I was laughing so hard that i was crying and I couldn´t get things under control. I was worried at the same time that I had offended this lady. But I got myself together by the time she came out and we had a way awesome lesson with her and she commited to being baptized wich was great!!! I´m glad i didn´t offend her but it was a fune experience and one me and Hermana Knapp still laugh about. Well then later that day I had forgotten about the rabbit incident and I was telling hermana Knapp how we hadn´t had any adventures that day and such. Well a few minutes later we were talking and my foot got stuck between to rocks and I went down hard. I was standing one second and the next second I was flat on my stomach with my backpack over my head, my knee bleeding, My planner ripped up from the rocks, and laughing to death. I got up and both me and hermana Knapp were laughing hysterically. I had to pee really bad so I was yelling at her to stop. We got under control and then this guy that had watch it happened walked by and trying not to laugh said "hola". This made us break out into another laughing fit. Well we got ourselves under control and we headed to our next lesson with my knee dripping in blood it was quite entertaining. I´ve been here for three weeks and I have already had to major wipe outs, I think this proves to the world that I am officially a CLUTZ!!!

The next day was another day filled with adventures. Number one we are walking out of the apartment and we run into this guy named Domingo that we had never met before in our lives. Well he was very forward and just wanted to talk and talk and tak to us about absolutely nothing and then he asked for our number and Hermana Knapp just because she has a hard tiem saying no to people gave him our phone number just in case he wanted to call and we could talk about Jesus Christ and the gospel. Well we ran into him three more times that day so to say the least it was a little creepy. He hasn´t called us yet so hopefully he has forgotten about us. Then we had a massive downpour that day (I sent pictures of this). We were in Yukyty which you are ´not supposed to be there in the rain because there are these white worms that come out of the ground and will burrow into yoru feet. So we got there when it was just sprinkling and we had to turn around and leave becvause it started to rain really ahrd. Well then we got stuck in a down pour, it was crazy, the streets were flooeded in a matter of minutes. Then it started hailing really big peices of hail. Itwas really fun we had a lot of fun getting drenched. WE just aughed and laughed and laughed and had a lot of fun!! We got home and changed really fast and went and taught this lady named Yvone. She had the craziest perception of Mromons. I have never heard this one before. But we got there and she was like tell me about this Joseph Smith. And, she knew his name, so we asked her what she knew about him. ANd she said that she heard that we believe that Jesus Christ suffered and died from the people over in Jerusalem and that Joseph Smith suffered and died for the people in America. It was quite funny. I was laughing to say the least!!

This week we have also had some very special experiences. So this Sunday we woke up not very happy becasue we didn´t have anyone commited to church this sunday so We were disappointed in ourseves. So we got up said a little prayer that we would have a miracle and someone would show up to church and then took off to go get a less active family to church. Well we show up at the familia Arguellos and Sister Arguello has her older sister there with her daughter and she came to church with us. We found out that she lived just down the road and has investigated the church before but she just doesn´t want to get baptized even though she knows it is true. So we found her. Well we get to church with Paola and her sister and their kids and we walk in the chapel and we saw another less active women that we have been working with named Clotilde and I was saying hi to her and didn´t realize there was a whole row of young girls that we had tuaght last week that had come to church. It´s three families of girls that range in age from 7 to 15 and there was 6 of them. They had all come to church on their own. IT was cold and they were from Yukyty which is a ways a way from the chapel and it was cold. It was just amazing. Then one of the member grabbed us and introduced us to a young man that they had brought that they want us to start teaching. I tell ya, this is the Lord´s work, we didn´t do anything, literally just a little prayer asking for a miracle and we got over 10. It was just amazing. Everyone stayed for al the meetings too which is aso another miracle. But the Lord really does help us and tries to help us realize that he is guiding this work.

I love this gospel and I am so happy to be a part of it!! Everyone be MEMBER MISSIONARIES!!! They are were the success is!! Love you all . . .. write me!

Love

Hermana Hubbard

Feliz Dia de Nino!! August 15, 2011 3rd week and letter in Paraguay

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

Semana Dos! 2nd Letter and week in Paraguay August 8, 2011

Hola Everyone!!

Well lets start out with this. I have the crappest keyboard I have ever touch in my life right now and it is horrible to try to type on so I don´t know that this is going to be to long of a letter.

So this week we worked hard. We tried really hard to meet all of our goals and to find new investigators and to help people on their path to Christ. On the other hand it was difficult because I think almost everyone of our investigators didn´t keep any of their commitments which is hard and we are going to try to figure something else out to do different this week so that we can better help our investigators meet their commitments. So I´ll start out with the not so happy and then move into the miracles of the week.

The Family Paniagua I think I talked a little bit about them last week and how they have so much potentiontal and we are really working hard to help them on their journey. Well this week has been really really rough with them. We love them to death and because of that we haven´t dropped them yet even though we probably should have by now. The ones that aren´t baptized just won´t keep any of their commitments and the 18 year old boy, Pablo who we thought had the most potential told us this week that he has no interest in finding out about our religion which was quite hard to hear. We are going to teach him one last lesson and see what he has to say afterward and if he still has no want then we will just have to let him go. The mother, Ramona, has just been rude like yesterday she was not saying very nice things about me because she really liked the hermana that was here before me and she was upset they transfered her. Well I could understanda nd her daughters were like ¨mom you need to stop that isn´t very nice¨ and she was like ¨she can´t understand anything that is going on anyways¨. But we are really frustrated with her and have just basically given up on her. Celso, the dad, is still showing a little bit of promise. He sat us down this week and said he is sick of doing bad things and wants to change so we are going to try to help him do that.

The next not so happy thing was yesterday. Sunday was a really rough day for us. We had 9 investigators commited to coming to church and 3 less active families and so we were really excited about church and about all the experiences these people were going to have. So we made a plan for each person individually and let the person know what was going to happen Sunday morning. Then we were originally going to get 4 cars to drive around town and pick people up but then we didn´t have time so we just got two cars. Well I went in one car after 5 of our most promising investigaotors and Hermana Knapp went in the other car to get two families of less active and the other 4 investigators. Well all of mine I stood and clapped and claped and clapped outside their doors and called them and called them and called them and none of them would answer and so we just headed back to the chapel. When we got their hermana Knapp was there with just one investigator and everyone else just hadn´t come and it was really really sad. The investigator is one of our miracles and I¨ll talk about her in a minute. But she ended up leaving half way through sacrament meetingbecause she just couldn´t stay awake any more because she had owrked all night long at a hotel the night before. So we were really grateful she at least came for a little bit.

now for the miracles.

#1: Maria Gloria: This lady is amazing. Hermana Knapp and Hermana Little had contacted her like two weeks before I got here and because she is super educated and works hard iwht her girls and everything they really wantead to teach her. Well since I¨ve been here we have stopped by her house almost everyday and she is never there or she is helping her little girls practice the violin or do homework and never had time to talk to us. Well FINALLY this week she was there and we could talk with her. She is an absolute miracle in our lives!!! She was for sure prepared by the lord. Before she wouldn´t let us in becuase she wasn´t intersted but lately her daughter has been asking a lot about the chapel they pass everyday as their are pulling out of their neighborhood and why there are so many churchs and why people believe different things and such. Maria Gloria said that because of these questions she has been trying hard to figure things out. So she let us in. We explained everything that we usually explain which is the bare minimum because most of the people down here don´t understand much past that. Well she then asked how we know that we have the true church. What makes our church different, what makes us think that our church is lead by God and such things. Well that was perfect we showed Amos 3:7 and then talked about prophets and Joseph Smith. We then shared the first vision and afterwards we asked her how she was feeling and she said that she felt wonderful and a sense of peace that she had never felt before. She said that was happened to Joseph Smith was marvelous and amazing!! Then we talked to her a little about the Book of Mormon. And once again, how did he have the power to translate this, who is Mormon, How does it work with the bible, What does it teach. All the perfect questions and we explained the restoration of the priesthood and the authority of God and then talked about the Book of Mormon and all the prophets there. She then left to get us some water and we decided to give her a chapter to read. We aksed if we could see her book of Mormon to mark some chapters and she said, why are you going to mark some chapters? I just want to read the whole thing. How about you guys give me two weeks to read it and then come back and we can talk about it, I want to learn all the prinicples and all the things it teachings before we talk about it just so I can better understand. We were like yeah you can read the whole thing!! Then we sent up an appointment for this Tuesday just to see how everything is going and answer any questions she may have and such. She was an absolute miracle in ourl ivesa nd we are quite excited to have her has an investigator!!!

Next we have Mary. We were teaching one of our investigaotrs Laura and Mary just came over because she saw a goup of people gathered, this was actually a cool lesson because people just kep coming and joining in. But then we set up an appointment with her Saturday and we had a really good lesson with her. She lives in Yukyty which it a little super super super poor village we have in our area. After the first lesson on Joseph Smith she shared with us that her husband left a month and a half ago to work somewhere else in the country and she hasn´t heard from him and she is sick and she doesn´t have any money and she has her two kids that she is really worried about and how she needs something like this church in her life to help her and to make her happy because she really does feel that what we taught her really did happen. She is so humble and her kids are the cutest things in the world!!! She alreadfy has a strong testimony and tries really hard. Sunday Morning she came home slept for 45 minutes and got up and bathed her kids and got them ready for church and she came for as long as she could stay awake. We have a lesson with her later this week so hopefully things go well!!

Next we have our less active families they are amazing. We have the Familia Gauna and teh Familia Petruchelli who are just amazing. They have both commited to coming back to church and to owrk toward being sealed as a family in the temple. WE had a lesson with both of them yesterday and they were amazing strong lessons!! I really think they are going to change. And Hermana Gauna made us lunch and we had raost beef, mashed potatoes and salad and I felt like I was at home it was just great!!

Well the language is ok. I´m understanding more andm ore every day and my verb conjugations are getting bette. I¨m acutally understanding when to use them and such., I can definitly feel the Lord´s help in this. Everyone always asks us how we learned SPanish so fast and we just tell them it´s a gift from the Lord, because it truly is!!

Love

Hermana Hubbard

Primera Semana First full week in Paraguay 1st Letter August 1, 2011

¡Hola! Everyone

I´m in Paraguay and I just love it here!! The church is true and the owrk is moving forward!! It´s just amazing.

Well traveling down here was hard. It was long and I didn´t get much sleep. But it was fun to try to listen to all the Spanish and try to get a little bit of it. I keep expecting it to be like over in Israel where people were speaking in a different language but the minute they realized that you spoke English they would speak in English. But after a week I´ve realized that people just don´t speak English down here!! It is slightly crazy and way awesome. Well we flew from SLC to Dallas which was a pretty chill fast flight. Then from Dallas to Buenos Aires which was a long flight through the night. There was a little girl that kept passing out so I offered to help but I really couldnt do anything because I had had all of my nursing stuff with me but they said my carry on was too big so they took it away from me so I actually didn´t have any of it so I was just not a help at all but it is ok. It was entertaining and a great thing to distract me from the fact that I was super tired. I really like the fact that I am small because then I can sleep on a plane quite well when I´m not between two elders that I can´t touch or they freak out so I didn´t get much sleep but it was a good experience. So half of my district from the CCM (MTC) left the night before the Paraguay people because they were going to Argentina but we ran into them in the Buenos Aires airport which was super happy, I loved it oh so much!!! I miss my district they are all so awesome!!

So the country is just awesome. The first two days I was here it was quite hot like in low 80s with humidity so it was warm and we sweated a lot. All the people were saying that it is super weird for this time of year to be that warm. Well then we woke up and it was freezing. I mean it´s only like 55 degrees which isn´t bad but with the humidity and all tile floors and windows that don´t hold out the cold it is quite cold. The country is tropical, kind of, there are a lot of jungle trees but I´ve heard that a lot of the jungle has been chopped down and the trees we see now are just the reminent of it. But basically it´s like any other south American country. It reminds me of Peru but cleaner (well in some parts) I love it here, that is all I have to say!!!

So daily life is pretty awesome. We work really hard and run a lot between appointments because we like to chat until we realize we have to be to another appointment across the area in 5 minutes and so we will run!! It´s fun but at the same time hard because the roads are all made out of a type of sand rock type rock that is just laid there it´s not really paved down or anything os it is really ahrd to walk on let along run on. I´m amazed I haven´t broken an ankle yet. But we wake up every morning and go running for our exercise in a little park about a block away and then we come home do our daily study sessions and then it´s off to work and at 9 we run into the house hurry and plan and then drop into bed dead tired and talk about life and it is really awesome.

So my area is called Ita Enramada it is part of Asuncion but is quite beautiful. I´m on the part of the city that borders Argentina and we can see Argentina all the time from our area. Our area is a good mixture of people. I think it is quite interesting. So part of the area is what we call . . . chuchi (or fancy or rich) and then the other part is like the poor of the poor so we have a really good mixture and it´s fun to be able to switch from teaching on a dirt floor sitting on buckets right outside someone´s outhouse to teaching in a super nice house that makes me feel like I´m in America. It is really quite awesome. We have a lot of investigators from both areas so it is fun!!

Now for my companion . . . . SHE IS AWESOME!!!!!! Her name is Hermana Knapp and she is from Manhattan KANSAS. She is about my heigth and has curly brown hair. She is super fun, oh and she went to BYU-Idaho and we are pretty sure we have seen eachother because she has workeda t the writing center for the past 3 years and I´ve worked there and been tutored there as the Anatomy and Physiology tutor. So it is fun. She has been in Paraguay for 5 months and speaks the language amazingly. She is a way hard worker and we have to be going going goin for both of us to be happy. She makes me run every morning which is an adventure for her. Oh funny story of the week. We were running like two days ago in the morning and we were trying to make it across the street before the bus that was coming would get mad at us for getting so close to us and I stepped on the curbs with quite not enough of my foot running as fast as I can and fell HARD. So hard that my knees, my ankles, my arm, and my CHIN all were scraped amazing well. It hurt really bad but I didn´t have time to think about it because if I stayed there for very long the bus was going to kill me so I had to jump up and we just kept running to the apartment with blood flowing quite rapidly from my one knee. It was quite amusing and me and my companion laugh about it almost every day. But anyways my companion awesome. Al of our investigators love her and all of them have just joined in and taken care of me.

Our apartment is what you would call Chuchi. Hermana Knapp was telling me we had a super chuchi apartment and we were driving from the mission home to it and I expected you know American like style but you guys would definitely not call it Chuchi. It´s two bedrooms (one of the bedrooms the light doesn´t work and so we don´t use it. One bath a huge living room and good sized kitchen and a storage room and a laundry room with a sink and wash board for our laundry (but dont worry one of our ward members does our laundry) but it isn´t very chuchi I mean it´s nice and we have warm water which is happy but it isn´t as chuchi as I though it was going to be. I´m emailing pictures to don´t worry.

The food here is let´s say . . .. greasy . . . they fry everything!! And I mean everything!!! But I´m still losing weight just because of all the working and running and walking. It´s really bland because they don´t use any kind of sauces and they barely use salt so it´s interesting. They love their bread. They have this stuff called Sopa which is like corn bread with onions in it. I hated it at first but it is growing on me. It´s really hard because they give us HUGE portions and if you don´t eat it all they are super super super super offended. I´ve walked out of a lot of houses ready to throw up becuase i was so full. My stomach is stretching though and I just don´t eat antying excpet at the people´s houses.

Our investigators, for the most part, are awesome, We had one pull the whole we saw them in the yard and they ran inside when they saw us and sent her husband out to tell us she wasn´t home. It´s just not her time to hear the gospel even though she showed a lot of promise. But we do have a few amazing ones and we work a lot with the menosactivos and they are awesome as well.

Miguel. Miguel is 19 years old and is the most amazing kid in the world!!! Holy Cow he reads the book of Mormon and really wants to find out if this church is true. We taught him my first day and my companion tried to have me speak, and I¨m nt very good so she had to translate everything I said into Spanish taht actually made sense. But the spirit was strong in that lesson. Sadly we missed the next lesson. We were at a lesson on the opposite side of our area and the lady just talked and talked and talked and so we were late by like 30 minutes even though we ran as fast as we could to his house and he had left to work by then. But we teach him tomorrow so we are excited.

Rocio. Rocio is 31 years old and has a little one year old boy that happened from a one night stand. She feels like she made a huge mistake in her life and even though she loves her son it´s really hard. She really wants to change and has the best spirit known to man. We had a great lesson with her yesterday and we were all crying because she can speak English so I can actually participate and such. It is quite awesome.

Familia Paniagua. They have 3 kids and then the parents. Elisha was baptized like 6 weeks ago and is doing so well in the church I swear she knows the scriptures better than me. Then I had my first baptism Saturday which was Erika Paniagua who is 11 and is amazing girl. She also knows the scriptures amazingly!! Then their brother Pablo is 18 and we got him to church yesterday which was great. He promised us Saturday that he would come and when we got to their house Sunday morning he was stil asleep. My companion is really good friends with this family because she has been teaching them for like 4 months or something like that and so she marched up the stairs and knocked on his door, woke him up, and he came to church were he had a great experience and got ot see Erika confirmed. It was quite awesome. Their whole family is amazing. They live in basically a giant garage that they have build rooms on like stilts that goes about the garage where they work and it is quite scary walking upa nd own there I felt like I was going to die and the whole thing was going to fall over. They feed us all the time and we teach them and slowly the family is getting baptized. Next is Pablo and we are hoping in a couple of weeks.

Familia Gauna. They are menos activos and they are amazing. The reason they dont go to church anymore is they ahve a 7 year old son that is severely autistic and so it is hard to dea with him. It was hard just to teach them a lesson. But they are awesomea nd ahve a strong testimony of the gospel and they have now committed to switch off every other week coming to church so we are excited about that.

We have a lot of other investigators and menos activos we are working with but those ones are the ones that I feel like their family and I just love them to death.

Well I love the gospel, I love the people, and I love it all. All friends sorry you can´t write me on my email you have to write me through dearelder which actually gets here in like 2 weeks so just keep writing me!!!

Love you all

Hermana Hubbard

I'm Here!! July 26, 2011 1st Day in Paraguay

Hola familia!!! I´m here in Paraguay and it is absolutely beautiful!! The people are super sweet and everything is wonderful. My mission president is amazing and I´m haning out with him and his wife today and tonight and then I get my trainer tomorrow. I love it already and I´m glad to be serving!!! My P-day is on Monday so I can write more then but this was just to tell you I made it safely!!1 Sorry for not being able to call everyone today, all of my calling cards wouldn´t work. I hope Dustin told you!!! Love you all and say some prayers for me!!!

Love

Hermana Hubbard

Paraguay, Her I Come Letter #8 two days left in the MTC July 23, 2011

Well Everyone I leave in just a few days!! Like two days I guess. I have today which is P-day and packing all day and then tomorrow which is our last Sunday and just hanging out with the district. Then Monday morning I'm off at 8 so i'm quite excited. I've loved the MTC oh so much but I am so so so so ready to get going and to get to Paraguay. I've learned a lot made a lot of good friends and learned some Spanish that will hopefully help me out in the coming days but I don't know. I"m kind of worried about the SPanish but hopefully it will be good enough to talk to some people and share my testimony since I guess taht is all that is really important. I'm really excited to find out who my trainer is. There are a lot more American girls down there than I had previously thought so now I may have a non-native companion which I'm fine with. So the last few days have been a little sad just from saying good-bye toeveryone. We had to say good bye to our teachers. Brother Martinez was really hard to say good bye too he has become like part of the district. He loves us enough that he is coming in today just to spend some time with us before we leave. The other teach Brother Gamez was ok to say good bye to we haven't gotten along with him too well throughout the time here but he is still a great teacher!!! I love my district and I'm really sad to be saying good bye to them. They have all become like brothers to me and we are the best of friends. It's fun because everyone tells us that they ahve never seen a district be as close as we are. Our teachers all say it and our little districts below us all say it, that they all wish their districts could be like we are. WE do truly love eachother a lot!!! I'm glad that I get ot have at least half of them coming with me to Paraguay and my favorites are in that group so I'm happy. Even though I'm going to mission my elders that are taking off to Argentina but we plan on having a big party when everyone gets home and we will see how that works out. But yeah that was my week nothing too awesome. We finished all the teaching stuff like two weeks ago so our teachers have been working hard to try to find something to teach us, they told us that we were ready to go about two weeks ago which is cool because I guess we are really prepared now. We all tried to speak Spanish 24/7 this last week and we all did really well until yesterday so we were quite happy with ourselves. We just have laundry and packing and then we are off. The baby district in our zone asked us to have a testimony meeting with all of them tomorrow because they love us so much and they look up to all of us so much so I think that is way cool that we have made that big of an impression. We have tried hard to be good missionaries and good examples. If everyone wants to write me write me through dearelder.com because that is the most reliable and fastest way that mail will get to me. And don't freak out if I don't write you back for a coupleo f months because it takes mail a month to get down there and then another month to get back up to America. So corrispondance may be a little slow from here on out. Well everyone next time you here from me I'll be in PARAGUAY!!! Adios America!!

Love,

Hermana Hubbard

Almost There! July 15, 2011 Letter #7 still in MTC

Hey Everyone!!!

TRAVEL PLANS this week!!! I got them and I know when I leave and everything!!! But anyways this week was great for many reasons!!!

1. I got to call my mom!!! I realized the other day that my debit card expires in a couple of weeks and so I had to make a call to my mom to make it so I could maybe get it in tme. so hopefully it gets here bfore I have to leave.

2. I've got to plan nurse again this week and now it's fun to get to bounce ideas off of jack since she is here. But we had an elder in our zone have surgery this week and he is not doing well after it so I've got to plan nurse a lot and get practice on the not bing able to see but hopefully to be able to help a little. I'm doing assessments through having tyhe elderds doing them and then them coming back and telling me about it nad it's been quite great!!! And I had my teacher argue with me because he doesn't believe me that there is such a call as a mission nurse specialist. I argued and argued with him trying t make him believe me because they wanted me over when they were pulling him out of the sick bay so I could explain somestuff for him to do throughout the night. But my teacher wouldn't let me go. Well luckily I happen to ave my call with me in my scriptures so I had to pull it out and show it to him and he finally believed me. I thought it was quite amusing and he was quite embarrased he had argued with me that much.

3. I got a letter from Tanner this week. He wrote it clear back on the first week of June and i just barely got it. But it was way good to hear from him and i can't believe that he is going to be home in just 7 months!!! his mission has gone way way way fast it just seems like yesterday when he left. But he wrote to me in spanish thinking that it would get to me only by like my 4th week or something but it was fun to actually read and be able to understand it.

4. I leave in 9 days to Paraguay!! Can I just say I'm so so so excited!! I have a 25 hour flight, so just as bad as my one to jerusalem but it is quite amazing. I get to sleep . . . . in a skirt . . . i don't think therei s going to be much sleeping on the way.

5. My companions got clearance to go with us by the surgeon, the physical therapist, and the district presidency but the MTC doctor won't let her leave so i'm quite sad about that but hopefully everything will work out.

6. Live is just perfect. I've had fun this last couple of weeks being a progressive investigator for a coupleo f the elders in my district and it's been way fun!!! it's been fun to realize the things that are somewhat annoying to investigators and such so it is so fun!!

7. Package from Alex! That's right I have THE bestest friend in the world that sends me packages all the time and the greatest letters that seem to help me with the problem I've been having that day!!!

Well yeah that is about it so this is my last week!! if you want to write me it better be this week because mail to paraguay is kind of horrible. like I only get like 20% of it. so if you want to write it better be this week!!

Love

Hermana Hubbard