June 21, 2010

HOla my wonderful, beautiful family and friends!!! How are yall?!! How is grandpa and Harry and Mary Lou?! I hope you gave them all the love in the world from me! And I hope everyone had a wonderful fathers day ayer! And I hope dad and mom had great birthdays too!!! Man, this week was a good one! So we've still been working with this family and wow my heart just keeps expanding expaNDING and EXPANDING! We went to their house to do a service this week with the help of Divina and Emilio and we spent about 2 1/2 hours washing clothes...ha yeah lets just say I am SO GREATFUL for washers and dryers in the states. Ha funny that I used to hate doing laundry... it's so easy and convenient. Here they hand wash EVERYTHING and it takes days and you use all these buckets of waters and soap and WOW.. it's intense. I got these sweet lil soars on my knuckles from scrubbing the clothes. ANd you know what the sad thing is? We couldn't really get the dirt out of the clothes because it is just STAINED on the clothing and ya know how in the states if our clothes have a lil tiny whole we just automatically throw them out? Yeah it doesn't even fade them here, in fact I don't think they have clothing without wholes. I know this is like a really sad picture I'm painting but it's the truth. And then a couple days later a lady in the ward gave us some clothes to bring to the kids, and it was a sure lot better than what they had but it was really sad because there wasn't anything that would fit the oldest girl, Ruth (15) and I felt so bad. Because bueno, she is like practically the mom of all these kids and does everything and there wasn't anything. So the next day I just brought her like half my clothes and gave each of the older girls skirts they could wear to church. But I just told them, the biggest gift I could ever give you is the message of the gospel. ANd man it just coming back to me over and over, the gospel is the ONLY thing that can change their lives. It is the greatest treasure anyone could ever have. Money doesn't mean anything to me anymore, I know it's not important. WHat's important is LOVE...pure, kind, love. CHARITY! I love that I have this opportunity to be a missionary. It's like I am learning things, really learning and understanding things, that I could ONLY learn being a missionary..ha a missionary in Paraguay. LOVE IT! And then on Saturday, we had this HUGE ward activity and they came too! Alcides works in this balneario (it's like a swim place) and so he hooked the ward up. We didn't swim, we just used all the fields to play soccer and volleyball. It was so fun!!! Ah I just love these people! And holy cow these kids KNOW how to play soccer. THey were just running circles around us, making us look ridiculous. Ha no it was so fun and they did kick our trash..we played boys against girls and we lost everytime. But I did score a goal :) Brother Scott..be proud. And we ate chorizo. Yummy! Oh and also, Belen came to church yesterday! FOr the first time! IT was great! Bueno, her mom is so so stubborn, but I have so much hope for Belen. She's gonna be another missionary. But the problem is she says she doesn't feel anything when she reads the Book of Mormon.. which just blows my mind. So we just testified to her that she just needs to keep reading, keep praying and she WILL receive an answer. That's the beauty of it. I know that if ANYONE reads and prays sincerely about the Book of Mormon, they WILL receive an answer that it's true. THat's just how it works. It's wonderful! ANd also we found this kid named Gustavo a couple weeks ago (yeah, another Gustavo...the name is such bad luck, so we just call him by his full name...Gustavo Gabriel Gonzalez. But he's a stud too. He's 21 and the missionaries visited their family like 10 years ago, so he already had a Book of Mormon and had read it and was really familiar with it. ANd his parents loved their old missionaries so they like us too, and I'm excited for them and their family! But you know what is horrible?!!! We find out changes tonight!!!! And ahhh I DON'T WANT TO LEAVE! lol I know I've had my whole mission here, but this is like my Paraguay home...everything is just going to be SO DIFFERENT if I leave. New comp, new area, new ward, new house (with only me and my comp, whereas I've been living with 4 people since I've gotten here), and new mission president!!! Oh man! ANd I'm just gonna cry! We're going to do a noche de hogar (family home evening) tonight with some of my favorite people, but right now the weather is horrible (rainy and cold) so I don't know if they'll come... but hopefully! So yeah next week yall will all know what happens. Pray for me!!! Ahhh and what in the world happened to Ty and his teeth?!!! Poor guy...stick with football. lol love ya bud. ANd ANgela and Alisa where are your blog posts?!!! I know yall have a lot of stuff to blog about and I'm waiting to see all the pictures!!! Ahh and Emily every MOnday we jam out to WICKED and I always think of you! Trunky. Chiste. Ok bueno, I hope yall have a great week! Yall are always in my prayers!!! Oh and mom that is so crazy about your keys! I can't believe they were in your purse! That is a straight up miracle! THanks for sharing the experience! ANd thanks dad..or should I say ALena for the email lol! ANd wow you don't even know how chu chi panda express sounds to me! ALthough, we did go to Pizza Hut today. It was my first time going here in Paraguay... let's just say everything is better in the states lol but I did eat like 6 pieces of pizza, so I'm a happy camper. Or should I say happy tadpole :) Love yall!

Love,

Hermanita Nelson