Nov. 29, 2010

Ok ok ok!!! Well I hope everyone had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving!!!!! I heard that some of you just had a fantastic weekend...aka EMILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FELICIDADES!!!! Ok so Emily is engaged!!!! With a fecha and everything!!! Well now that ALL of my best friends are going to be married when I get back...awesome haha. Just kidding! I´m super super excited for you! Ok let´s talk about our Thanksgiving here in Paraguay, well first our lunch apt. called us and canceled haha, nice, so then we decided to go and get some empanadas and do it Paraguayo style. They were pretty dang good, and then we came home that night and ate PECAN PIE with VANILLA ICECREAM!!!!!!!!!! Oh man I´ve either been gone a really long time or that was one really good pecan pie! It totally made me happy! This past week also hit a lot of big dates for me!!! Let´s see Tuesday the 23rd was my 14th month in the mission, and the 24th was my ONE YEAR in PARAGUAY mark!!!!!!!!! Ha that is insane. And then Thursday, Thanksgiving, and Friday I started the DyC countdown. Ha I don´t know if all the missions in the world do this, but you start it when you have 138 days left (bc that´s how many sections there are) and you count down. Ha I still clearly remember when Hna Case started that. Crazy!!! Ok and ready for the really sad news, we only had 21 people at church yesterday. We left way early to go and stop by for everyone and it started raining pretty hard at like 7:15 and we hadn´t brought our umbrellas or anything, so we got soaked! and no one would come with us! it was so sad, ha and then we had to wait for 45min in the rain waiting for the colectivo and ended up being late for church, and we came in soaking wet. We did have 1 person come with us, and then we decided to go and invite people on the street because there was only 2 people in Relief Society-the teacher, and one of the hnas that we convinced to come to church even though it was raining- ha the thing is Paraguayos are scared of the rain, and when we passed by her house she was like no the weather is to feo, to ugly, I can´t come...we were like no no no you are coming with us and we are going to get soaked together lol, but she got her husband to take her in the moto- so bueno, we decided to go look on the street, and after inviting a million people to come and see the church, we convinced this man named Ricardo to come in with us. haha he was funny- apparently everyone in the ward knows him too and says he is crazy, but they were all really impressed with him and his behavior and he absolutely loved all of it. We also gave talks. It was a lot of fun actually. We were just so tiny and there was no microphone or anything, and it was one of those testimony builders. It´s like wow, why do we do all this stuff as missionaries? Go out and get soaked in the rain to pass for people to come to church and all of the other sacrifices, but it´s because it is all SO IMPORTANT! And that´s what I learned as I was giving my talk. God loves us so much! And how can we show our love for Him? It´s simple, we keep His commandments. And man I just know that brings the felicidad! That makes us happy! That makes us spiritually strong! Sacrifice brings us closer to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I just love this gospel and I just love the mission! Paraguay is great! It is crazy, but that is what makes it so great! I love yall! And I am so thankful for yalls examples and love and sacrifices! That is what makes it all worth it! Haha and other funny story, there is this kid that looks just like Payden!!! And he acts just like him. He´s 11. haha it´s great. Everytime I see him and talk to him, it reminds me of Payden. That actually happens all the time, I mean, we´ll be sharing with someone and it just reminds me of all of yall. There´s a lady that is igualito a Alisa and another one a Angela, and there´s this way cute lil jovencita that reminds me so much of Alena, and all the mother´s I´ve had here in Paraguay have reminded me of mom. And ha I just love showing my fam pics to everyone because they always say the same things-they always love dad and that he is bald and they just think you and dad look so young. And there was this Elder in my last zone that looked just like Ty! And there are always people that remind me of yall. Yall are always in my thoughts and prayers and that´s what keeps me going! love yall!!!

Hermanita Nelson