Hmmmm...what to say..... October 17, 2011, #12 Letter in Paraguay

9:29 AM (1 hour ago)

What a week, that is all I have to say . . .this week was one of the hardest, funniest, interesting, and nerve racking weeks of my life so I´m just going to go through it day by day.

Monday: So I was super sick all day this day, we weren´t sure if it was Dengue but it really felt like it. I slept until almost 6 and then got up got ready, took some Ibprofen and some Tylenol and headed out to work. It wasd a good night I was kind of just concentrating on not crying the whole time but it was a good day. I ran a fever all day and my body felt like it was going to explode but it got better. That night we recieved some great news though. Sunday me, Hermana Knapp, and Antonela fasted for her to be able to find a good job that worked with the hours of Venus´s day care and paid well. Well we showed up to Anto´s house and she met us with a big smile and said that she found a job that is from 8 - 5 and is right up the road from her house. She didn´t know how much they were paying her so we worried about that for the whole week and Anto has quite a lot of jobs before just because she doesn´t like it or doesn´t think that they pay good enough so we were really worried that we were going to show up the next day and have her tell us that she was going to quite her job because she didn´t like it. So that was the great blessing and the great worry of Monday and basically the rest of the week.

Tuesday: Guess what I woke up sick, with what i had the day before, and then on top of it a super bad soar throat and a bad cough and I didn´t have a voice. IT was really entertaining. Actually I felt really bad for Hermana Knapp, we went out and worked all the same but she had to do everything, she had to teach all the lessons, do all the contacts and everything. I couldn´t help her a bit I just kind of sat in the corner in a ball. We showed up to Anto´s house around 730 and she met us at the door with another huge smile and said "my job is perfect!!!!" we were so excited, she loves her job and the people. They feed her lunch everyday and everything and they are just a sweet family that have a family business and they are super good to her. We are excited for her. At this point we were just hoping they paid well. because we were worried that with Lunch and only working 8-5 that it wasn´t going to pay that well.

Wednesday:My voice was starting to come back a little bit that day but Hermana Knapp still did a lot of the work and everything, i just mostly bore my testimony at the end of lessons because that is all my voice could take. But we did have a fun lesson that day. WE were out knocking doors and here there are a lot of houses that are set up for the neighborhood to come and pray to Mary type deal. Well we clapped this house (and yes dad we clap outside the gates instead of knocking) and this guy came out and was like come in come in. Well we went in. We walked into the room with and realized that it was a small Catholic congregation praying to a giant Mary in the middle of the room. We didn´t think that were going to be very nice and we didn´t think that they were going to let us share but we thought we might as well ask and they accepted. So we sat down right in front of the giant Mary satue and began to teach lesson one to a small congregation of like 10 Catholic's. It was really interesting. The spirit was there and they let us talk and teach and they were really kind. At the end most of them said that they weren´t interested in listening anymore but one guy, Ceasar, said that he wanted a Book of Mormon and wanted to read it because if there was more scripture and more sources that teach about how to follow Christ he wanted it in his life. The only problem is he is so poor he doesn´t have a house and he just goes from friend´s house to friend´s house to sleep so we couldn´t get an address which was sad but oh well, he will join the church someday. But that was our adventure of Wednesday. oh and one more quick story. So we have been contacting old investigators this week and stuff and we found a guy that has like 6 assists to the church and such and so we thought we would contact him. Well we did last Saturday and we came to the church to set up an appointment with us for Wednesday. Well we went to pass by and we met him . . . so we thought. . . outside his house and he said that he was the twin brother and that both of their names were Jose and such it was really interesting and so we thought that this guy was crazy or something. We decided that we weren´t going to pass by again because we seriously thought he was crazy. Well Hermana Knapp was speaking on Sunday and who walked in. The twins José it was really funny and we talked to them and we are teaching both of them tomorrow.

Jueves: This was day of a rejection and we just aren´t going to talk about it. I was still sick and Hermana Knapp was getting sick and everyone . . . almost everyone rejected us. Our girl that was supposed to be getting baptized hid from us and itw as just a hard day so let´s move on to the adventures of Friday.

Friday: Well it was a pretty normal day excpet for the fact that we didn´t eat all day. We both woke up sick and didn´t feel like eating and so we didn´t and then it got to be like 6 and we were hungry. So we stopped and bought soem stuff to eat, we ate it. Then we went to Antonela´s and she fed us dinner. . . . everything was fine and dandy until we went to the birthday party of Erika Paniagua. We thought maybe we would have a little piece of cake or something but no Ramona Made a HUGE meal. We were already super full from Antonela´s and so we really didn't want to eat!! Well we went in and started eating. Both of us praying that we would be ok and would be able to eat all the food in front of us. I took a break half way through dinner and went to the bathroom and emptied my bladder trying to make just a little more room. Then I finished dinner. Thinking that was it. But then out came the cake . . . yes cake and we both looked at eachother with looks of death on our faces. Well they dished us up a piece and there we go. I took one bite and my body said, "nope, sorry not taking one more thing in!!" I asked very quickly if I could us the bathroom ran to the bathroom that is to the side of the kitchen that has a thin little door and where the light doesn´t work and puked my guts out. I have never thrown up so much in my life. The toilet was completely full. It came out my nose and everything. But man it felt so good at the same time, I hate being full to the point that I am sick and then I was really really sick!! Well I got up off the ground from throwing up and went to go flush the toilet but to my great delite the toilet didn´t flush. I didn´t know what to do, it just wasn´t working (which is pretty common for here) so I just left it, I really didn´t have a choice. I was really worried that it was going to offend Ramona, because she would totally get offended over that. She already didn´t like me much and so I was super worried but I couldn´t do anything. Well we got home, Hermana Knapp was sick just because she was so full and we just went ot bed because we both didn´t feel well.

Saturday: this was probably one of the best days of my mission, it was just so fun and had a lot of great memories with it. So we were at the chapel waiting to teach the English class with the Elders, just there waiting for people to show up and then all of a sudden Ramona Paniagua calls us (oh the story with them is their dad won´t let us come by anymore because he doesn´t want his girls to be part of the church, but basically he is a control freak and doesn´t want his family in anything that he can´t control). She tells Hermana Knapp that her husband isn´t there and that she needed to talked to us right then, like right then. So we told the elders that we had to leave, packed up and started running toward the Paniagua´s figuring somthing horrible had happened. well we show up and Elisa is like hey can I talk to you. I thought she meant both of us but she wanted to only talk to Hermana Knapp. I thought I was dead, I was in a room alone with Ramona and I had thrown up her food in the toilet that Í was positive she had cleaned up that morning. I was so nervous, I seriously thought that she hated me. Well we started a normal little conversation and then she asked me how I liked the food from last nigth and I told her I liked it and then she was like but you threw it up, then I explained to her that I had been sick all week and my stomach still wasn´t feeling the greatest. She was satisfied with that answer and just let it go and we just talked about her day and such. Well then Hermana Knapp comes out and we head off, we get outside and she was like "the Paniagua´´s all think you are bulimic" Romana kept telling me how skinny i was and how I was getting skinnier and skinnier everytime she saw me and such but I didn´t know she was hinting toward that. But it was really funny we laughed about it for the rest of the day. We calmed their fears though by telling them I was sick. The rest of that day we went contacting references. We were trying to contact this guy and all of us a sudden they shut down the street and we were wondering what was going on. The other side of the street was still open just not the side we were one. Then all of a sudden there were a bunch of bike racers so we watched this bike race for a couple of minutes and then we headed off to go knock some other doors, the guys that were giving water to the bikers stopped us and gave us water and just thanked us for doing the work of the Lord and teaching about Christ, that was really good to hear after having kind of a rough week, but it was nice. Then we saw Richard (Antonela´s husband) and we freaked out, he had no reason to be here, his parents live like an hour away and so we were worried, and then we got even more worried when Antonela was like an hour late from work. but everything ended up being ok.

Sunday: Well it was a normal Sunday . . . not really, I taught gospel principles BY MYSELF in Spanish. I was a little upset after the class just because i didn´t feel like it went very well but it´s ok the Lord was preparing me for what was going to happen later in the day. So that class was hard, I almost cried, and it was hard to teach a whole class in Spanish by myself, I was petrified but you know it gave me the confidence that I needed. I taught a whole lesson in Spanish, for an hour, by myself and I needed that. I will now tell you why I needed that experience. So we were on the phone with our district leader telling him our numbers last night and then all of a sudden Hermana Knapp starts freaking out because president Callan was calling (he never calls, only if something bad happens in the family or something big in the mission) Well Hermana Knapp answers and he talks to her for a second and I decided that it had to be her family but then I heard president say "is Hermana Hubbard there, I need to talk to her" I started FREAKING out!!! I thought something had happened to someone in the family, I was so so so worried. But then he siad that he needed to talk to both of us and to put it on speaker phone. Well we put it on speaker phone and this is what he told us.

Big news . . . it´s at the end of my email but I want to know your reaction, but I¨M OPENING AN AREA in the jungle with a latin!!!! I´m super excited!!!!

Well I´m out of time, love you all, oh and you can put this on the blog if you want to it´s not necessary.

Oh and I forgot to mention that Anotnela got paid really well and they paid for her passage to the day care and everything. We are so blessed and I love how loving our Heavenly Father is. It is such a testimony to me if we do our part the Lord will always do his!!!!

Oh and the last picture is of Ana and Pablo with their son Andreas. She is a member and we are working with Pablo.

We made the comment to be extra careful in the Jungle and Hermana Hubbard responded like this:

Everything will be great, president says that it is a really secure apartment and that all the members are really excited for us to come and it should be good, we are always safe. . . tell Dad to have a little faith, I know how to follow the promptings of the Lord and he will never lead me into a dangerous situation.

Love ya, Hermana Hubbard

DENGUE!!! Yes I'm sick! No Blog this week, just a family letter September 10, 2011 #11 Letter in Paraguary

Hey family,

First off mom don´t freak out and start calling the mission office and everything, I am completely fine and life is good just a little sick. So yesterday I wasn´t feeling the greatest in the world. Then last night around 2 in the morning I woke up with a 102 temperature that stuck throughout the night and it felt like my bones were crushing under my skin and my joints were about to explode!!!! I hurt so bad, I have never experienced anything like this, take like really really really bad body aches, times it by like a 1,000% more pain and you have Dengue!! It´s not super fun but I´m super druged up on Tylenol and Ibprofen and we are going working today, I am determined!!! At least to one lesson tonight with a great little family we found!!! But anyways Paraguay is great, and I love their random sicknesses.

Well this week was a little bit of a difficult one. We woke up Monday with the determination to have a baptism every week because president said we could do it, so we were going to do it. Well we found a girl of a menos activo that has been to church a million times and love hte gospel and was going to get baptized like a year ago and then moved and now she just moved back in wth her mom, we got a baptismal date set up for saturday and we were really excited. The lessons were going great and we were all really excited. Well Thursday night at around 1030 we got a call from Paola (the sister of Antonela, our recent convert) that said that Antonela´s house was packed with police and she was scared to go down there because she didn´t want to see anything. Antonela´s husband has a bit of a problem drinking and so we were really worried. We wanted to go down there ourselves but we knew that the district leader wouldn´t let us but we decided to call him anyways. We asked and he said no so we called the bishop to go down and see what was going on. We were worried that Antonela was dead or something, Richard is big guy and we were sure that he beat the crap out of her. Well the bishop and his wife headed out and said that they would call us as soon as they knew anything. Well we stayed up until around 1130 singing hymns and reading the scriptres and praying like mad. We then decided to try to get some sleep before the bishop called. Well the bishop called around 1230 and Hermana Knapp answered and didn´t understand a thing that was said and hung up the phone. I was kind of irritated because she didn´t understand because i was really worried but we just ended up going to sleep and decided to just head there at like 9 the next morning. We knew that shew as alive and that the bishp asked us to stop by so that was what we were going to do. So the next mornin we got up studied a little bit and then headed out. Expecting Antonela to be beating up pretty bad and their house to be a little bit of a mess. (And what I mean by house is a little 15X15 foot room) Well we get there and Antonela is beat up with her face and head a little swollen and a few bruises on other parts of her body. She told us that Venus was in sleeping still and so we went in to see if she was ok. We walked into their house and there was motor oil everywhere!!! Antonela began crying and telling us that Richard and tried to start the house on fire last night with them in it. It was super scary and we all can see the hand of the Lord in this because all he had to do was light a match and they would have been gone. So Antonela started crying and was really upset talking about how she didn´t have anythings, which she doesn´t because almost all her stuff got ruined by the oil, then she showed her faith, she just kept saying over and over again, I have my faith, I have my faith, I have my faith and that is all the matters, I have my faith and I still have Venus. She is such a strong woman!! We just love her to death. Well we called the elders that work in the other half of our area and they immediately dropped everything and came running to give her a blessing and to help clean. We grabbed a bunch of cleaning supplies from the church, moved everything out of her house and started cleaning up oil. We worked from aroun 1030 to 2 and got a lot of the oil pulled up off the ground. We got all the clothes and blankets and pillows but in piles to be washed and just tried to help her as much as we could. We sat on a blanket for awhile and sang hymns and read the scriptures and then the elders gave her a beautiful blessing!!! Anotnela had like 3 pieces of bread to her name and so we called a ward member and they made all of us lunch and so that was really nice and then Antonela (while we were walking her back to her house) sat down and just started talking about how all she really wants is a strong united family. She has never had that with her family and she definitely didn´t have that with Richard. She just started crying and talking about our families and how they are so united and loving and how she just wants something like that in her life. It made both me and Hermana Knapp step back for a moment and realize how great both of our families are. That we have parents that are strong in the gospel, have taught us what is wrong and right, and helped us because great people. It´s just amazing tyhe blessings that coem from having the gospel. Me and hermana Knapp were talking after wards about how big of a blessing it is just to have a dad that has never come home drunk at night, that we know is faithful to our moms and doesn´t look at pornography and such things, we are so grateful for number one having the gospel and the doctrines and principles that are taught and then number two to have faithful dads that have tried to hard to live by those doctrines and principles and by doing so they have been great examples for their kids and for generations to come. So thanks dad for being so great, thanks for living the gospel everyday, thanks for keeping the commandments and trying to follow the will of God, thanks for raising me in this gospel. It is the greatest blessing in my life, I´m so grateful that I know what a healthy relationship is, that I can have a husband that is faithful, that doesn´t drink, and I don´t have to worry about him beating me. Because of the gospel and being raised in a wonderful gospel centered home I have this hope in my life!!! But anyways the next day we headed out in the morning again to go and help her clean the piles and piles of clothes that she had. We called our district leader this time and his companion to come and help. We had them bring bleach because even thought we had gotten all the oil up there was still a really nasty oil smell in their house, which has no windows to air it out. It´s just basically a cement box with a door. so the elders came and cleaned up the floor again with bleach while we sat and did laundry (by hand) for about 2 hours. I do have to say that I am an expert at hand laundry now and getting stains out. We played with Venus, the ward went and bought Antonela food for the next week and we had the relief society president come and visit her and give her some advice. We were happy that someone had the guts to give her a frank talk about how if he does come back (even though Antonela doesn´t think he is) thtat she needs to request that he goes into a alocoholic rehab place down the street before she lets him back in. The ward ahs been so great everyone is looking for jobs and houses for her and it is just great, everyone has just pulled together. The best part has been watching Antonela´s testimony grow, it has grow so much in the past two days it´s incredibule. We gave her a lesson last nigth about the power of the Book of Mormon and how it helps all the aspects of our lives and she was like, "yep, I´m good at praying everyday multiple times a day but I suck at reading the scriptures so I am definitely going to do better at that" we are really happy that she is working hard toward becoming better and I know that someday she is going to get that happy strong family that she wants, if she just keeps doing waht she needs to do and being faithful in the church the Lord is going to bless her. But that was the experiences this week, a lot of my clothes have oil all over them but it´s ok it just made them less chuchi and my clothes were a little too chuchi for Paraguay anyways so I´m cool with it. but that was the adventure this week and it made me so grateful for the gospel, for repentance, for the Lord, and for a strong eternal united family!!!

Now to answer some questions real fast. So transfers are the 19th and I really think I´m leaving even though I don´t want to because i Love Antonela so much, we get instructed by our mission president about twice every six weeks in person and then a letter from him every week, Mom pray for the Lord´s help in your class and teach pure and simple doctrine. Speaking of which will you send me the talk "teaching true Doctrine" by presdient Eyering from the April 2009 ensign and you should read it too for your class because it´s awesome!!! We see the elders that share our area probably every other day, we have district meeting every week and so one. oh and conference was amazing, and I understood a lot of it!!!

Well that is all the time I have, keep Antonela in your prayers please she needs as many as she can get!!! Here is a cute little picture of Venus, she is a cute little stinker!!

Love you all, oh and the girl we were going to baptize we missed our lesson with her because we were with Antoneal so she couldn´t get baptized because we hven´t taught her everything yet but this Saturday she has a baptismal date so we are excited!!!

Love ya

Hermama Hubbard

Where did they send me......I believe the surface of the SUN!!!!!!!!!! October 3, 2011 #10 Letter in Paraguary

¡¡¡HOLA EVERYONE!!!

This week has been pretty chill not a whole lot of progress with the investigators but a lot of progress with me and my companion. First of all this week was ROASTING. I didn´t know that the sun and the air could make my skin feel like it was laying on a stove, but it can here, I was surpirsed I wasn´t getting blisters in my skin just from walking. It is so so so so hot. It was 100 degrees with 80% humidity on either Tuesday or Wednesday. We thought we were going to die, the other days were close to that but not quite so hot and sadly the natives told me this is nothing compared to summer. We are just in Spring . . . .YAY!!!! One of the elders was telling me that you knocked on every door you walked by just ot get a glass of water and by the time you make to the next house 10 feet away you have sweated off twice as much water as you just drank. Then he said that you don´t walk in straight lines in the Summer, you run from tree shade to tree shade. All I have to say is I´m excited!!! We went home and changed three times on the really hot day just because you could wring the sweat out of our clothes!!! Well yeah it´s hot . . . anyways on with my life . . . this week was a week full of AMAZING and I mean AMAZING meetings!!!

First meeting: We had a leadership meeting for my companion that they wanted all the new missionaries to come to too and so it was really good. We talked about the Book of Mormon and how the mission needs to up their baptisms. President Callan gave a really great 6 hour class and we learned a ton, were quite humbilied and have a whole new drive that we are really excited about. I just love President Callan, he is such an inspired man. He said everything that we needed to be working on and he is just great. President Callan sends out a letter every week of something to work on that week and then we have a zone conference every other change and then interviews every other change and now there is this leadership meeting for all the trainers, Distric Leaders, and zone leaders every other change and so we get to receive a lot of help and a lot of inspiracion from this amazing man!!! At first he seemed really quiet and timid but I have found that he is very funny and just amazing. I´m blessed to have such a great mission president.

Next is General Conference we have a couple of amazing and scary experiences with General Conference. I know dad has warned me about the rain but when you have investigators to get to conference then you have to push through. Well Saturday we wake up to a cloudy sky and then we call the Paniagua house to see if we were still going to eat lunch with them. Well Ramona answers the phone and tells us that a huge storm is coming and we need to stay inside. Well we just assumed it was being Paraguan paranoia about the storms but it was actually pretty bad, like we were in life danger but we were definitely wading through rivers and soaking wet within a few seconds. So I´ll start with the funny story of Saturday and then I´ll end with the spiritual one. So first of all it was like 9 and we headed out of the apartment to go find investigators for conference at 12 well we walked out the door of our apartment and there was a naked lady running our in front of our apartment complex. Both me and Hermana Knapp were really surprised, we live on one of the most public roads in Asuncion and the most public road in our neighborhood and there was this naked lady running around and washing her clothes in the gutter water coming off the roof. It was quite the surprise and we were laughing pretty hard. Then we spent the rest of the day with water up to mid-calf trying to get different places. Well we got to conference and they were trying and trying to get the satelite to work and it wasn´t working. Well no one showed up to conference because of the rain and so it was 14 missionaries and like 5 of our ward members sitting in the chapel. Well 12 came and went without the satelite working then 1230 came and went, we started calling around to the other chapels to see if someone had it working but no one had it working in the other chapel that was showing conference. Well we sat there until about 1 and then the zone leaders gathered up us missionaries and we headed into a classroom. We all knelt down and said a prayer that conference would work. We got done with the prayer and we all headed back to the chapel and the second, literally the second we stepped into the chapel, conference turned on. IT was such a miracle and we are so blessed to be able to hear conference and get the learn from the living prophet and apostals because they teach us what we need in these days, and what is important. We are truly blessed to be a part of this gospel and have the joy and happiness it brings, it doesn´t bring a temporary joy it brings a lasting, eternal joy. There is so much confusion in the world and so many problems but as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints we have the blessing of saying that we know who we are, we know where we are going, and we know the purpose of this life which is to have faith in Jesus Christ, repent and change those things that draw us away from Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father, come unto him through baptism, receive his guidance in this life through the gift of the Holy Ghost and then work everyday, try everyday to be better and read the scriptures, pray and keep the commandments of God. I testify this is where the peace and the joy is, this is what life is about, nothing else will bring that peace or that joy, NOTHING ELSE!!!

Love you all

Hermana Hubbard

September 26, 2011 #9 letter in Paraguay

show details Sep 26 (4 days ago)

Hey Everyone,

So there wasn´t much this week. A lot of dropped appointments and a lot of trials but we are starting fresh today and going to start with new investigators and everything and we are really excited. We are going to be bold and find people that are willing to run to the gospel with us. We know that as we make these goals and keep them that the Lord will bless us and put people in our paths and we are excited and ready!!

So we do have one good investigator that we found this week. Last Saturday (the day of Antonela´s batism) we ate with the Familia Leneri and they were like you can visit our next door neighbor we don´t know them at all and haven´t talked to them at all but they seem like nice people. Well we go there and we talk to her, her name is veronica. She tells us when we had just contacted her that her mom and a couple of her siblings are members of the church and we were really excited. Then we found out who her mom is and she is one of the strongest members in a different ward that the elders work in. Then we got really excited. Well we then set up an appointment and the first appointment she wasn´t there and we were a little upset but it´s ok. Then we just decided to go back the other day and she was there and we had a great little get to know you lesson. We just talked a little bit and got to know her and she is great. She has three little girls and is ACTUALLY married!!!! (that is really rare in Paraguay, hardely anyone gets married here). So we got excited about that. Then we were talking to her about her religious beliefs and she said that she is Catholic. We asked her why she likes the Catholic religion and then she was like, I´m just going to be honest with you guys. "I hate the Catholic religion. The worship Mary and Saints, not God and Jesus Christ. The Bible says to avoid worshipping idols and that is exactly what the Catholic church does." We were like ok well do you ever attend, "oh no, I would never attend their church!!". Us . . . "Well you read the Bible then?" Her . . ."Yeah I love the Bible I read it almost everyday, oh and I gues I have to add in there that I love the Liahona and I read it every month." (the church magazine the Liahona) Well after that we got really excited. We are really excited about her. We have another appointment with her tonight and we have really high hopes for her and her cute little family.

This week we started teaching English classes. We didn´t make it very well known so we didn´t have anyone show up for the first 30 minutes of class. We were about ready to leave and then one guy showed up and we let the Elders teach him while we listened and kind of helped him. Hermana Knapp is a English major so she is kind of good at it.

Then the last experience was the baptism that the Elder´s had. His name is Jorge and he is amazing. We are really excited for him. He used to be a massive achololic and such and had some pretty bad stuff on his sin list but he is realy good now. He is absolutely dirt poor, doesn´t even have a place to live and his third Sunday to church he had bought himself a pair of church pants and he was just beaming. His baptism was the most spiritual experience I have had yet on this mission. You know that he knew what he was doing, he know that he was making a covenant with God and that it wasn´t a joke. He already has a strong testimony and he strengthened all of our testimonies of the power of the Atonement and Repentance. We are really excited to watch him continue to grow and become better and better. Oh and he has not touched beer in like two and a half weeks and is doing really well. Now with the help of the Holy Ghost I think he is going to do well!!

Well nothing much more so I hpe everything is going well for everyone and I hope that everyone has the desire to write me . . . . hint, hint, hint. Oh and we have no money, literally so I have written a lot of people (Alex, Sari, Elder Kraus, and Elder Davis, Angie and Dustin) but I don´t have the money right now to send them out. But now that I wrote you guys!!! I´ll send them out next week when I have money.

Love you all!!!

Hermana Hubbard

P.s. These are pictures from last week (the baptism of Antonela) and some from this week.

Drowned Rats, September 20, 2011 Letter #8 in Paraguay

¡¡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

Antonela Petrocheli Letter/week #7 in Paraguay, September 13, 2011

¡Hola Everyone!

This week was all about Antonela. Antonela is 24 years old and has two little girls. One lives in Argentina with her mom because Antonela had her when she was like 16 or something. Venus is 1 and is the cutest thing known to man!!! Well the reason this week is all about Antonela is because SHE IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!!! We are super excited. We found her by obsolute miracle and now it is a miracle she is getting baptized. So we found her when she was staying in the house of her sister Paola who is a member and we were picking Paola and her kids up for church and well Antonela was there because her boyfriend was super drunk and went crazy. Well we invited her to church and she came and was super happy to come. We later set up an appointment with her and then realized who she was and that she has been taught by the missionaries for over two years and has never wanted to get baptized. Our first visit with her we found out that when she is in Argentina and other places in Paraguay that she likes to go to church when she is feeling a little down and she has come to our ward like 5 times already. We were excited until we read her old register and it said that she was super receptive and really enjoyed learning from the missionaries but when it came down to it she did NOT want to get baptized. Well we decided to approach her from a little bit of a different angle and try to help her teach herself and help herslef realize why she needs to get baptized. Well last week we asked her to be baptized and set a date for the 17th of September and she was quite hesitant. saying "that is really fast, and too soon, and I don´t think I´m ready" We were nervous about that answer. Well we didn´t see her all weekend, except for church, and didn´t really get to talk to her until Wednesday. Well we get there Wednesday and she tells us that she has been praying and she is really excited to be baptized on the17th and knows that she is ready to be baptized. We were so so so so excited, like me and Hermana Knapp walked out of that lesson freaking out about it and really excited. Then we realized that we had to teach her the Law of Chastity and ask her to be married. Well we taught her the next day and she said she would talk to him and see but she didn´t know if he would agree. Well she talked to him and on Saturday we stopped by her hosue and she said that he wouldn´t give her an answer. We were kind of freaking out, like a lot!! Well we prayed really hard all that day and that night. We stopped by Antonela´s house Sunday morning to walk with her to church and as we are walking she says "hey I have some news for you guys . . . . he said YES!!!!!!!" Both me and Hermana Knapp were on the verge of crying and we were just so so so excited. We jumped up and down and everything, it was quite mature of us. But man the lord sure does answer our prayers, And like it says in 1 Nephi when the Lord commands something and when we are willing to follow that commandment he will prepare a way. Well the Lord definitely prepared a way for Antonela and we are really are grateful and excited about it!!! So we have a wedding and a baptism to plan this week and we are excited. We are having her wedding Saturday at 5 and her Baptism at 6 and we are super super super excited!!!!

The rest of this week has been pretty normal. A lot of appointments a lot of them falling, finding new people, and the usual adventures. Me and my companion have become really good friends and we have a lot of fun together. The language is slow but it is coming. I´m getting more and more comfortable with trying to share experiences and trying to teach and I´m getting better, i¨m not super great but I´m get better.

I´m sending some pictures of one of the less active families we are working with. I only have a picture of the mom, Estella, and one of her sons, Manuel (he is autistic). Hermano Gauna and Ezekiel were sick and sleeping when we were there so we didn´t get pictures of them. But we love the Familia Gauna and they just make me happy!!! They are trying to prepare to go to the temple as a family but we are having a little bit of a hard time getting Hermano Gauna to church but we are wroking on it and hopefully he will start coming because I would love for them to go through the temple!!!

Well that is about it this week. I hope everyone is doing well!!!

Love

Hermana Hubbard

Fleas...I believe! Letter/week #6 in Paraguay, September 6, 2011

Hey EVERYONE,

So this week was a good week. We had a lot of lessons and we have had a lot of success. We have a baptism for this Saturday of a 13 year old girl that just started coming to church on her own and we just barely started teaching her this week and she asked us if she could be batized so we are quite excited about it!!! And then we are still teaching Antonela and she is progressing and has a baptismal date for next week and so hopefully that happens we just have to get her married first.

Miracle of the week: So yesterday all of our appointsments fell and we were kind of disappointed but we were walking and we saw this mom and daughter sitting outside their house so we decided to go ahead and contact them. We ended up having the most powerful lesson I have had yet on this mission. When we first talked to them the mom was like "we are catholic, so we aren´t interested" We presseda little bit and asked them if we could sit down with them for 5 minutes and just share our believes with them. So we did that and then we come to find out she was born Catholic but hates the Catholic church and thinks they are ridiculous. So that was interesting to hear her beliefs and her opinions. She became very open to what we share because we believe praying only to God and she hates how the Catholic church prays through Mary or Saints. Then we had a powerful lesson about Joseph Smith and prophets and we ended up pulling out a conference issue of the Ensign and reading it with her and it was just awesome. Both her and her daughter are super excited about the gospel and when we left they said that they had never felt this good about something in a long time. So we are excited to meet with them again and help them come to the gospel of Jesus Christ because they are ready for it and prepared.

Another great experience: So out at Yukyty we have a less active older woman and we just started teaching her daughter. Well we love teaching them because all of Clotilde´s (the older less active woman) granddaughters adore us and they are just great. We taught the first lesson with them this week and itw as great to have like 8 or 9 little girls around us. You could just feel their simple faith. I love feeling their faith and it really touched Marianna (the daughter of Clotilde that we are teaching). The faith of a child is really waht all of us need in our lives because if we have the faith of a child then we will feel the love of Christ easily and we don´t let the stupid things of the world get in our way of feeling the love of God and that we are his children.

Funny Story of the Week: I have officially decided that I am the biggest clutz in the world!! So we were teaching one of our investigators Fabiola, she has been investigating the church for 5 montsh and she finally has a baptismal date and is coming to church os we are really excited. Well she is having a hard time recieving a yes or no answer from God about baptism and so I prepared an experience from my life to share with her. I spend one personal study writing it down in Spanish so that it made perfect sense when I told it to her and such. Well when we finally got to teach her I go to share this experience. I really wanted her to hear it and to feel the experience and realize that it could be an answer to her prayers. Well I leaned a little closer to her and the chair fell over. It was so funny all three of us were laughing our heads off. IT was quite entertaining.

Another Funny story of the week: We were getting ready for bed all those that know me know I have to sleep with ear plugs (the worst habit in the world by the way, never start!!!) Well I had my earplug in my hand and then I laid it down to go turn off the light and when I got back to my bed I realized that it wasn´t where I had left it. So I looked for it and then asked Hermana Knapp to had be the phone so I could have some light to find it. Well I leaned off the bed a little and reached out my hand and I see the telephone light go on and start flying very quickly toward me. Before i knew it, it hit me right in the middle of the forehead and bounced all the way across the room. We laughed for forever. We were both crying and our stomachs hurt and it was just funny. (this may be one of those you have to be there to think it´s funnystories but believe me it was super funny!!)

Oh this didn´t happen to me but I thought I would share. So one of the sisters here in the mission Sister Plumer. Well she was walking with her companion, you know tracking, and someone dumped a bucket of human fecal matter all over her from a floor up. She was quite tramatized to say the least.

Oh and the reason for the title, yes I believe our apartment has fleas, we are really excited!!!!

Love,

Hermana Hubbard