June 14, 2010

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!! (On Wednesday) and HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM (Sunday) and HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!! (To all the dads)! And give Gpa Bill a HUGE HUG when you see him for me and tell him I love him and I hope he is still reading my emails. And whoever else you see from over there, tell them I love them! Oh man and I can’t believe dad is turning 50!!!! FIFTY!!! Holy cow!!! But don’t worry because everyone here in Paraguay things you look like your 35; lol seriously they all see your Picture and they’re like JOVENCITO!!! So you’re doing good!! And it sounded like everything was so fun in Logan with all the girls and the kids! I hope yall took lots of cute pictures so I can see them! And speaking of kids… I am still waiting for some kind of announcement from one of my sisters that they are pregnant! Get on that por favor. Ok so this week we had our last interviews with Pres. Wade! Que triste. Ha and mine was interrupted from a call coming from SALT Lake City UTA lol… one of the elders dad in my zone was calling to talk to pres. wade because apparently his son got robbed at gun point so the dad was freaking out, ha and it was really funny because pres wade was totally tranquilo (chill) and was like yeah that happens all the time. I’m sure in the status it might sem. Like a big deal, but here we just come to expect it. And then alter he hung up…he was like so Hna Nelson have you been robbed yet? YET?! Lol real nice. No not yet. Ha welcome to Paraguay. Don’t worry, I am completely fine and have only felt endangered maybe one time and that wasn’t even a big deal. Ha just continue to keep me in your prayers J Oh and today we got to watch the olymics because Paraguay played against Italia! We were so excited, because we never get permission for things like that, but Paraguay ended up tying…lame. 1 to 1. But it was still fun and kinda made me miss american football. Ok and I have to tell you about this family real quick. We found this one lady named Maria a long time ago (like it’s been 2 months) and we contacted her one day and we’ve gone back probably like 4 times, but she is never there, but her kids are always there (there are 8 of them). Anyways, so we went there on Friday and she was there, so we shared with her and a couple of her kids and it was fine, and we invited them to church but she said she couldn’t go because she had to work, but that her kids could go. So we went by the next day to verificar, but she wasn’t there and the oldest daughter (15 years old) had left too and so it was us with all the rest of the kids (the oldest of them I think has 12 years) and their house is just a disaster…bueno I don’t know about the inside but the outside is just a disaster. There are just these huge piles of dirty, moldy clothes everywhere and random dirty dishes in every corner and the kids are just dirty. LIke honestly, painted with dirt…and I’m sure they go dayS without bathing, because their mom doesn’t do it, so it’s just left up to the kids if they want to bathe themselves or not. ANyways we decided to do a lil servicio and help them out a lil bit and spent a good while washing, SCRUBBING all their dishes because they were just covered in left over food and then we decided we should help bathe the kids to get them ready to go to church the next day. And let me just explain this to you…you know like buckets we use to wash the car or something? That’s what they use to bathe. They fill the bucket with water (cold of course, because there is no hot water) undress the kid, wet them down, put some shampoo and conditioner in their hair, wash it out, wash their bodies with a scrub (ok no, they don’t use scrubs, it’s usually like another piece of clothing and wash them). Can you believe this is real life? So Hna Remache spent a good time washing these kids down, scrubbing all the dirt of their bodies. And then they didn’t have any clothes to put them in, so they just put them back into their dirty clothes that they’ve been using for like the past 3 days. It is so so sad. I almost just started to cry just thinking about their lives and how sad it is that they actually live like that and they just don’t know any different. But the next day we went by to take them to church and all the kids went with us menos one of the lil boys because he went to a friends house to watch the game. And they are actually all really well behaved and are just the cutest things in the World and most of them really liked church. And turns out Hna Rojas (we eat at the familia Rojas house every Sunday for lunch and they are just the coolest, humblest, most loving family in all of Paraguay) is the school teacher of a lot of the kids and so she was so excited they were there and was just welcoming them and loving them. And then she invited all 7 of the lil kids over to eat with us. And we ate chicken and potato salad and I almost just cried otra vez because I’m sure that is the biggest meal they’ve had in a really long time and just thinking of the generosity of Hna Rojas. Wow. I want to be someone like that. Her love just radiates along with everyone else in their family. Ah and just to think that the gospel is the ONLY way to have a better life for them. That is the key to a better life. Ahh I love the gospel and how really it has the power to change people’s lives for the better and to bring happiness and to really understand the love of the Savior. Incredible. I love yall so much! THanks for the emails!!! Have a great week!!!



Love,



Hermanita Nelson