First Week In Paraguay

Ha estoy en Paraguay!!! Can you believe it?! Wow ok..where do I start?? My area is Maramure which is in Luque. Ah and I finally found out who my compañera is! Hermana Case…she is so cute! She´s actually from Provo and she hits her year mark on Dec. 24th. I already love her and we are going to tear it up and have a white Christmas! Oh and my second day here I saw Tyler!! And he says hi to everyone. He is now the AP and probably will be for the rest of his mission. What a stud. It was fun to see him! Oh my goodness..so we packed our stuff in the taxi and left for our area (it´s probably like 30 min. outside of Asuncion) and when we were getting ready to leave to go work, I realized I forgot one of my suitcases! Ha I would do that lol. So I still haven´t gotten it back yet…hopefully tomorrow! Lol it has a lot of my study stuff in it. But it´s all good. Ok are you ready for a description of mi vida in Paraguay?! Haha it´s awesome! There are chickens and roosters and cows EVERYWHERE! It´s hilarious..they just roam everywhere..and then there are occasional pigs and goats. Oh and they have their horses and wagons if they don´t have cars and a lot of people just don´t have any transportation..so they´ve got buses! Oh man..that is an experience!! We ride a bus at least twice a day (to and from our area) and everyone just gets packed in the buses and the drivers are insane! Mom you would die. Haha you like step in the bus or out of the bus and before you get your other foot off or on they´re already driving away. It´s so fun!  Let´s see..yeah my feet are probably going to fall off because the roads are crazy..I´m so excited to take pictures and send them to yall! They don´t really believe in trash cans so the road is covered and there will be like shoes and soda cans buried in the rubble. It´s great. The sunsets are gorgeous!! And the people, oh my gosh the people are so AWESOME! They laugh at me every time I speak in Spanish..I think it´s hilarious. And I just laugh with them. The kids are so awesome, too! They make me so happy. They get so excited everytime they see you and they totally look like little Lamanitic children. The big problem in Paraguay I think is probably that they are just so chill, so when you invite them to be baptized, they´re just like sure, ¿por que no? But I don´t think they really understand what that means because after they get baptized a lot of them don´t even go to church anymore. Ha and they are such big fat liars…it´s hilarious! All these people told us they were coming to church and only 5 did! I need advice people!!! What kinds of things can I do to help them actually desire for themselves to do these things? I´d love to hear what yall think! Aver… oh my first day we were teaching this family (oh by the way you teach maybe 2 or 3 lessons a week inside somebody´s house)! Let me paint the scene for what it usually looks like; you go to their house and clap in the front and then the little kids come running up and invite you in (when I say in, I mean into the yard); and then they go and gather chairs! Ha I love the chairs because they´re all so old and cute! And man they are so polite and nice and offer you the best chairs and everything. Ok so back to the family; we sit down and this was my first lesson with kids and we sing ´I am a Child of God´ and it was so peaceful and there was a nice breeze and I almost just started bawling!!! It was just so tender and I was just looking at this family and their humble situation and I just fell in love! It was so cool! We´re teaching this kid named Emilio and he´s definitely the closest to being baptized. Man, he is such a stud!!! He´s 19 and he would just make such a good missionary! He´s having a lot of doubts about Joseph Smith, but he is like a golden investigator (meaning he really wants to know and learn and he´s reading the Book of Mormon by himself and has kept all the commitments). He said his friends told them if he got baptized they wouldn´t be his friends anymore and wouldn´t go to his baptism or anything. For him, he would have to sacrifice a lot. But man, this gospel is so true! And I just know he´s going to get it! I can see it in his eyes. And I just know that Satan is working on him because when Emilio is baptized he is going to make one amazing member of the church. Paraguay needs more people like him! I´m so excited for him! Ha oh I forgot to tell you about the food…oh man! Speaking of food, how was Thanksgiving?!!! Tell me everything! Ok so we usually get fed by members once a day and when I say fed I mean they top your plate with a ridiculous amount of food…think of how much you ate for Thanksgiving..yeah they put that much on your plate for lunch! Ha and that´s just for round one! Everyone keeps telling me my stomach is just going to grow because of how much you eat…and yeah you definitely don´t say no. You eat it all with a smile on your face even if you feel like you´re going to barf! And then when your done they look at you and smile and say do you want more and politely say no and then they smile again and add another huge amount of food on your plate!!! I wish I was exaggerating..but I´m dead serious. It´s hilarious. Yes, I´m going to gain weight! Yikes! And yes we walk A TON and yes it is a MILLION DEGREES outside. I sweat like you wouldn´t believe…ha it´s awesome. It´s definitely hard but I know that I´m supposed to be here and I love serving these people. Oh and everytime I show our family picture to them (the one we took when yall dropped me off at the MTC) they always think dad looks so young and that Alena is like 19. And then once they realize who I am in the picture they´re shocked lol because I look so different now! But they think I´m beautiful and I´ve never been whistled at so much in my life lol and they call me a Barbie..I´m gonna miss that when I go back to the states haha. Ok and one last thing that I learned yesterday. There are 5 things that make a successful missionary in Paraguay. 1. Being bit by a dog 2. Getting picque 3. Getting robbed …ok I can´t remember the rest lol..I´ll send those next week  Oh and yesterday we had church. It was great! We meet in the stake center and it´s really nice. I bore my testimony in Sacrament meeting (at least tried to in my best Spanish) and then Hna Case and I had to teach the gospel doctrine class (I guess that happens a lot because the teachers just don´t show up) ha that was fun…she taught most of it and I just shard a couple scriptures and stuff. They are really patient with me and my Spanish; it´s great. I don´t know how I´ll ever learn Spanish but I know I will so it´s all good! Ok my time is up! Love yall all so much!!! Have a great week and pray for me and the people of Paraguay!!! Oh and if you haven´t sent me a box yet please include a spray fan!!!! And also ped socks (but not the ones with the padding…just the regular black ones that come to the middle of your foot more in the front!) Gracias!Love, Hermanita Nelson