August 29, 2011

So here´s my adventures this week,

     Monday we taught our favorite family, the Flia Cabañas. They are really our best family we got. They just need to come to church and get baptized. Ugh. For some reason that´s the hardest part. 

 

On Tuesday we taught Juan Karapuni. He is in his 20 and is known by others for being a delinquent, but the funny thing is he accepted a baptismal date and everything. Again the only problem is coming to church. That night we had family night with Flia Acosta so we could have a lesson with a member. Hna Presentación´s son Gustavo and his friend Hugo (somewhat rebellious) were both shocked when we told them that Juan Karapuni was going to get baptized. Nobody believed us. Even though we came that night to teach Hugo we basically did nothing. The whole time Hna. P and her daughter Bibi basically taught the lesson. They taught about the Book of Mormon and the Law of Chastity. An interesting combination, they used Alma 39.

 

     Wednesday we taught Jose and Gladis. This couple is very good, but they aren´t very good at progressing. If they still don´t progress after teaching lesson 2 we will have to drop them. The biggest problem, again, is going to church. This time the reason is a couple of years ago Jose got into an accident and now he is in a wheelchair. They don´t have a car and I don´t think that the wheelchair will roll very well on Empedrado. The hardest part for us will be carrying his to the second floor so he can get inside. It will be interesting if they go.

     

     Thursday was really great because it was a special Zone Conference with Elder Arnold from the 70. He taught us a lot of good stuff. Maybe one day you will be able to read my notes to see what I learned, but there is definitely not enough space, or time, to write it in an email. The biggest thing that impacted me was The Law of Obedience, Sacrifice, and Consecration; and what we have to do to live them and what impedes us. We ate legitimate Chinese food for lunch and there was even enough to eat two full servings. I was so happy :D. After we got back (We left at 6 to get there on time and we got back at 5) we taught a lesson to the Flia Cabrera. Last time we were there we only talked to Christian Cabrera and Victor, his friend. This time the entire family was there. Carlor, Silvia, Cristian, and Rosana Cabrera, plus Victor and his brother Daniel, and their friend Ronald. We taught them all and gave them Fecha.

 

     Friday we found some Antiguo Investigadores. They are totally ready to get baptized, but the only problem is the wife has to get divorced from her first husband, which is expensive, and then remarried before they can do that. Too bad because they went to the church for an entire year before they moved to Argentina. We also taught a guy named Silvio and we got him to say a kneeling prayer. That was cool.

     

     Saturday sucked because the dumb Catholic Church was hosting some kind of pary and everybody was drinking. There was also a Rally in another area and everybody was watching that. Then the Police were holding a special funeral "We´re sorry" service because a policeman accidentally shot/killed a guy and there were tons of people there for that too. So basically we only taught one lesson. Fortunately to Juan and Martina a couple we gave fecha once (It fell though). The lesson was kinda awkward and I didn´t really feel the spirit until Martina told us that she always feels good and feels joy whenever we come over and share the gospel with her. That made me feel the Spirit and I felt really good to know that the investigator recognized that she felt it whenever we came over. The lesson ended well, but they didn´t accept a specific baptismal date.

     Finally sunday really sucked because the Catholic party carried over and so did the rally. We didn´t offically teach anybody and all of our important appointments fell. It made me sad. Fortunately 42 people came to church including Hna P´s less active daughter Gabi, Gabi´s boyfriend Hugo (A different Hugo than the one previously mentioned), and Gustavo. Our Dueña had an Asado and gave us some for Lunch. Yay¡ From now on we can only eat at Hna P´s house 2 days a week max. :´(

Elder Zachary James Singson

August 22, 2011

Monday- We had Noche de Hogar with Hna Presentacion and Bibi and Bibi´s boyfriend, David. (Wow I can see my breath right now, it´s that cold¡) I don´t think people realize how torturous it is to act all "lovey dovey" around missionaries. The one thing we want most and can´t have, but it´s sitting in front of you taunting and laughing¡!¡ Thats not nice. It sucked that´s all I´m going to say.

     Tuesday- It was really hot and I had a headache, so to make it go away I drank 6 liters of water. All that ended up doing was make my Kidneys hurt, and increase the number of times I had to go to the bathroom. The headache didn´t even go away, not fair. That night we taught a family we contacted, Ana y Roberto. Roberto is a Mechanic and he has his "Taller" (Shop) at his house. They are neighbors and friends of Soraida and Ruben another great family we taught. They have three cute daughters Dihana (7), Daisy (3), and Analia (6months). Analia is so chubby and so cute it was hard to focus on the lessons. Plus she has more energy than the energizer battery and sqwiggles and squirms around so much that she is a distraction in and of herself. Anyways it was a really good lesson. They aren´t very good listeners, so we constantly were asking them questions to keep them involved and focused. We got up to about the end of Joseph Smith´s vision when a guy came in with an emergency repair, so we didn´t get to invite them to be baptized like we wanted. Sad day, we ended with a prayer and asked the wife to make sure he reads the pamphlet.

     

     Wednesday- We talked to a crazy guy named Selzo again. Last time we talked he started off the conversation like this,

Us- "Permiso estamos buscando alguien."

Selzo- "Konichi wah"

Us- "Si... Mucho Gusto. Usted Habla Castellano?"

Selzo- "Ustedes hablan Japones o no?"

Us- "no..."

Selzo- "Bueno, ustedes hablan Espanish? Solo un poco verdad. ¿De donde son?

     Basically from there he talked to us about a bunch of nonsense for half an hour, then he finally helped us out and gave us a return appointment to talk to him. I knew that teaching him was futile because he is so crazy, but my companion thinks he is super hilarious se we "have" to see him again. This time he started off the conversation the exact same way except instead of asking us if we knew Japanese he asked us when are we going to learn it. Weird guy. He predicted our futures for us. He says that I´ll be a psychologist and Elder Gillette a Lawyer. Also because he can´t say Elder to save his life he just calls us 'Psycologist' and 'Lawyer'. I could probably write about the craziness of this guy for hours, but I won´t. The biggest question in my mind was if you really were a personal escort of the Dictator President Strossner why are you doing here and why are you poor? He has proof, but I still kinda doubt it. He´ll have to tell us the story someday.

     Thursday- It started to rain, but we got 2 lessons in. Woo!

     Friday- It continued raining. But we gave an old sick guy a blessing and talked about the plan of Salvation. I doubt he´ll progress, but we wont find out till we teach him lesson 1. We also taught a Cool guy named Juan Karapuñe. Although he looks like a punk he is really receptive and he accepted a baptismal date.

     

     Saturday- The rain cleared up, but now it´s freezing cold again. We promised a member that we would visit him, so we went to Los Colonos an hour walk away. It sucked because there was a pipe that broke and he had to fix it, so he wasnt even there. We taught an antiguo investigador and tried to get him to come to church, but he didn´t. The rest of the day sucked because all our appointments weren´t there. How frustrating.

     Sunday- 40 people in church, but 0 investigators, so now we lost all 10 people who had a baptismal date. ¿Why doesn´t anybody go to church¡? It isn´t hard and it isn´t far and you PROMISED that you would come¡!¡ You will never make it to the Celestial Kingdom with that kind of attitude¡!¡ ¡!¡DAH¡!¡ *sob* now we won´t have any baptisms in this change either. ¿What if I get transferred? I won´t be able to see all my hard work pay off¡ **Double Sob**

     Silver Lining we did teach a really good lesson to our best investigators Luciano and Hermania and we committed them to going to church after showing them the importance of it. Commandment + Blessings + Consequences + Blessings + Testimony + Promising Blessings = Success. They also say they want to get baptized and go to the temple, so thats good too. =D

That was my week. I liked hearing about Youth Conference from Micah and Mom. Mom told the spiritual side and Micah told the funny side, so I got the whole picture. I really liked when Braden threw the Javelin and broke the light and Micah said that there was a *gasp* and *silence*, then Mom started laughing. Ha ha, That´s funny.

Anyways, Take Luck¡

Elder Zachary James Singson

August 15, 2011

Hey guess what¿ I got a letter from John and Tammy. I´m going to write them back because it´s my first official letter. I´ve gotten letters from Gma and Gpa, but they came inside of packages, so they still only count as packages.

     Anyways Elder Gillette saw the name Schroeppel on the front and he said "hey do you know an Emily Schroeppel¿"

I said "yes".

Then he said "yeah I went out with her once at byu, we went to 'Roscos Chicken and Waffles'. Also her mom went to my same school in California, so she came to my house once." 

'I thought wow it´s a small world after all.'

Here´s a brief of my week.

Monday: I mopped the house, Elder Gillette "Helped". The funny thing is that I didn´t even need to use water. It´s so hot and humid now that everything was just wet. It was really gross to see all the brown water, lint, and hair that I mopped up. I was suprised by how much water, lint, and hair came out from under our beds. Mopping in Paraguay is basically just using a squegee to push all the water down the shower drain.

 

Tuesday: We had district meeting. It was supposed to be my first time teaching it, but the Zone Leaders came to teach and do divisions. Elder Rockwood had a lot of important appointments, so we didn´t even stay for district meeting. We got to Encarnacíon around 12, but we spent 4 hours in an area that got reopened. Elder Rockwood was in that area just before it closed, so he was exited to work in it a year later when it reopened. I had to lug around me stuff the entire time.

     Basically we had 4 lessons with member and the members did all the teaching. I wish we had enough active members to do that. The only time we talked was to change the subject from one principle to another. I got and ate in one night the package Grandma Schroeppel sent.

 

Wednesday: Elder Gillette and I ate at burger king before we went back into our area, good; but all our appointments fell through, bad.

 

Thursday: We taught 4 lessons and found 7 future elders and 11 people in total. We invited them all to be baptized and 5 of them have a fecha bautismal.

 

Friday: We taught our progressing investigators Luciano and Hermania. Luciano´s sister recently died so we taught him the Plan of Salvacíon. The lesson went well, he wants to go to the temple and baptize his sister. Also now he realizes that babies can´t sin, so he needs to get baptized again now that it´s his choice. They won´t be able to come to church because the funeral for his sister is on sunday at the same time, so we´ll have to push their baptismal date back a week, but I´m almost posotive that they´ll get baptized before the end of this change.

 

Saturday: We taught English class. We changed the day again. Only Luciano´s kids showed up. Bibi, Hna P´s daughter didn´t come because she was with her boyfriend. We changed the day especially for her cuz she begged us and now she doesn´t even come¿ Ridiculous¡ David is a cool guy though I don´t know why they both couldn´t have come to English class. Oh well.

Sunday: Because of a District Conference we had 58 people in church and David bought meat for an Asado. So all is well.

 

TTFN,

Elder SIngson

August 8, 2011

Holas Familia,

This week was really quite pathetic. 

     

     On monday I bought a cell phone battery to put into my new music player. I later found out that you aren´t supposed to charge the player with the battery inside. You are supposed to charge it only in a phone. So the battery exploded. It didn´t brake it just expanded and when I pulled it out it started sparking. It was interesting and now I know that if something has instructions in English you better follow them.

 

     Tuesday we taught a part member family. The guy is like 20 and the girl, who isn´t a member is 17. They both are good, but what I want to know is why didn´t he marry one of the members. There is an overexessive amount of member girls and no priesthood, So why didn´t he just marry one of them? Anyways we taught Janet and she was really receptive. We didn´t invite her to be baptized though. Maybe next time. While we were out and about my companion felt prompted to visit a family who we haven´t seen in a while because of their crazy schedules. We found Aldo at his house with a broken wrist. He crashed on his moto on Saturday only two days ago. I hope our visit helped him out. Later in the week he had surgery and 5 screws were put in his arm. It´ll take about 6 months to heal, so he won´t be playing the guitar for a while. He hasn´t red the Book of Mormon yet and I doubt he´ll ever accept the Gospel, but I hope we can help him out for future reference.

     Wednesday the only lesson we taught was to a Less active family. We spent literally 2 hours of talking to people that basically want nothing to do with us. Man this area is tough.

 

     Thursday was better. We taught a lesson to a couple named Soraida and Ruben. Ruben was willing to "hear", but he didn´t really "listen" and he got absolutely nothing out of it. Soraida, even though she was taking care of a walking baby and a very demanding little girl, learned a lot. I´m pretty sure she understands almost everything except for the importance of the prophet Joseph Smith. She thinks his vision was a cool example of how God answers prayers. Which is good, but imagine how much she could learn if we had her full attention. She even understood how to pray just from looking at the pamphlet and helped her husband say the last prayer. It was cool. Later we found a family in a semi chuchi house. They look dirt poor though and only the dad speaks Spanish. It was interesting, but the other days when we passed by they all hid from us. So much for the baptismal date we gave them.

     Friday was interesting. So we taught a family who we contacted before, the husband wouldn´t and the wife wouldn´t commit. She blatently told us that she couldn´t give us a return appointment because that would be a commitment and she has her own religion, so she can´t do that. She said she would read the pamphlet, but she wouldn´t commit to pray about it. Because of that lesson we were 20 minutes late to another appointment with our Progressing Investigators, Luciano and Hermania Cabañas. They were waiting outside for us and I felt kinda bad that we were late, but I´m pretty darn sure that they are going to get baptized.

 

     Saturday sucked. It was another day of contacting people that dislike us. ¿What did we do? Anyways we got 0 lessons in.

     Sunday was better because we had 36 people show up for church. It´s funny because the one time the Brach President can´t come and we get good attendance. We broke fast at the house and passed up eating with Hna.P to get to work right away. We cranked out 3 lessons with Hno.Foltz, but unfortunately none of them were promising. The first lesson was to a lady who is an Eternigator from Encarnacíon. The second was with a Menos Activo family whose dad was drunk, and their grandpa (who is also an Eternigator) really only understands Guarani. The last one was to a family who´s mom had a cerebral hemmrige. We gave her a blessing and then taught the Plan of Salvation. It was my first time actually doing the blessing instead of just the anointing. The family listened, but it will be hard to help the dad progress because he believes all the religions are true.

     Unfortunately after 3 lessons with member all our other plans fell through. So I made fried Ramen at Hna.P´s house cuz we skipped out on lunch. Man this area is tough. We are basically reopening it.

Anyways. Love Ya´ll,

Elder Zachary James Singson

August 1, 2011

 Here are these weeks events. Monday I bought 60 eggs. Hna Callan said that's the best way to gain weight back because it´s cheap. Unfortunately after hard boiling 15 of them I put them in the fridge and 9 of them turned to ice. Strange because being hard boiled that shouldn´t have happened. Anyways we taught a guy who was drunk last week and his wife a nurse. They were really good (Being Sober) and we gave them a baptismal date. Because of the lesson we came late for Noche de Hogar, so the family was tired and boring. We ended up in a better mood towards the end, but everyone was tired when we started. I ate almost 20 empenadas by myself and then my birthday cake you sent me. 

     It was yummy, but especially the frosting. They have cake mix here, but nobody knows how to make frosting. You should send me brownie and brownie frosting recipe and cake frosting recipe because Hna Presentacion´s daughter always makes cakes. Elder Richards and Elder Yaringño came over at 11. Elder Richards was hungry so he ate some food and we all talked until 2 am. I say it´s justifiable because he´s going home. He´s probably still sleeping in his bed asleep as we speak.

     So because Elder Richards was really nervous about leaving he got up at 6 and made us an omelet of 4 eggs each. Good thing I bought those 60 eggs yesterday. I got up at 6:30 and talked to him about all his worries and stuff. Elder Yaringaño and Elder Gillette stayed asleep until 8. When they woke up it took forever for everybody to get ready especially because they were all messing around, so we had a really short District Farewell Meeting. Afterwards we ate lunch at Hna P´s and he said goodbye to everybody. Afterwards we basically just spent the day doing last minute things for Elder Richards.

     At 5 he went to visit his convert who moved here. The only ones who cried were Mirta (the convert) and Elder Gillette. Elder Richards and Yaringaño were sad, but they didn´t cry. Afterwards we helped him get all his bags to the road to catch a bus. Then he was gone. Now I´m the new District Leader and I now I don´t have a friend on my mission anymore. There have been a lot of cool Elders that I have met, but Elder T Rich is the only person, besides my MTC group, that I would hang out with after the mission.

     Wednesday sucked because my comp was (and is still) super depressed that Elder Richards is gone. He gets really attached and so it´s hard to let go. Probably because his dad died at 15. He is super empathetic with people because of that too. It´s a good attribute, something I definitely don´t have. We did service for Hna P and ate lunch, but Elder Gillette needed some sleep time, so I was sympathetic. We still taught 2 lessons. We even gave someone Fetcha, but we later found out that he might already be a member. 

     The next day we did Plan Guasu and then I treated my comp to Pizza Boom to try and make him feel better. We had to take the Mail to the Mailing office, so we were by it anyways, but when we got home he needed to rest again. We officially found out that Julio the guy we gave fetcha to is a member. Silver Lining is that his brother and dad are definitely not members, so he can help us teach them. My companion was upset that he was a member because he seemed like the golden investigator.

     Friday was fun because I did exchanges to do Baptismal interviews for Natalio. It´s only my second time going there. We got there around 11am and my comp went with the Elder Yaringaño´s new comp Elder Reyes to get some food and go back to our area. I went with Elder Yaringaño to drop off my stuff at their house and then we went to a Member´s house to get lunch. Even though Natalio 10 is still a Rama they have a Capilla and it´s because the members actually help out. The old couple we ate lunch with are awesome. They always help the Elders teach lessons and they give them references all the time. The Old man is the Elders Quorum President.

     After lunch I watched Elder Yaringaño clean the baptismal font and then it was time for the interview. The interview was kinda awkward cuz I wasn´t sure what to do. I shared Mosiah 18 and then talked about what a covenant is and after that I straight up just read the questions. I had to explain the meaning of a couple things, but she passed. We taught some lessons and it started to rain and it Lightninged like crazy. Every 10 seconds the sky lit up, which was good cuz it was dark and we didn´t have a flashlight.

     We taught a lesson with the Elders Quorum President at his house. He sure does like to talk a lot. It was good that he was involved, but it was bad because he used fancy words without explaining them like Apostasy and Melchezidek Priesthood. He was talking in Guarani the whole time to, so I have no idea what kind of other stuff he was telling the investigator. We made our way over to the second interview in the rain. We picked up an investigator on the way there so Elder Yaringaño could teach her and we could kill two birds with one stone.

     For the second interview I had a plan, but these plans were foiled by the fact that she doesn´t speak Spanish. She understands basic Spanish, but she can hardly speak. According to what the translator said she was saying she knows a lot about the Gospel though. She passed. Then I came out during the second half of the lesson to the investigator. By that time there was only an hour left till 9pm so we visited another investigator.

     This part was really interesting. His name is Julio, his wife´s name in Antonia, but he named his kid... Washington Kennedy. This guy is obsessed with the United States and he is really wierd. He is basically a Costa Rican version of Hollywood from the Mannequin. Seriously he acts and look the same. He even has the same job. He is an interior designer for rich people, so he makes bank. Everything in his house has something to do with the United States on it. He even has a Giant US flag outside. He knows more about the economy and polotics than I do. The funniest thing is his wife is normal, so How does she put up with him?

     Anyways after watching Baseball, Womens Boxing, BMX, The US stock market, etc. (All on PayPerView) while eating hot dogs and Orange flavored milk, we went home. It was a very hilarious experience.

     Saturday we finished the changes. We left Natalio at 7am got to Obligado at 8:30am. We met up with our companions and the other Elders pulled out money and left at 9. Just like breaking necks it was quick and painless. Unlike all the other exchanges I´ve done with Natalio where we waste tons of time and get very little accomplished. Unfortunately my amazing efforts be not be a Macanero were destroyed because of lunch. We made our own lunch at 12, but Elder Gillette forgot that Hna P invited us for lunch. So after she called us and asked were we were, we went to her house and ate there too. Elder Gillette didn´t feel well so he rested at her house while I talked with Hna P.

     Since it was Dia de la Amistad we had a party at the capilla at 3. Basically we didn´t get there until 4 because of messing around/ resting. Only the people who normally come to church on sunday came to the party, which is suprising, cuz when there is free food everybody usually comes. We invited a lot of people too, but I guess it was too "cold". After eating chorizo my comp needed to rest again. He still feels bad about Elder Richards leaving and talks about him all the time and thinks about what he is doing at home right now. Lately he has been taking my music player and sits in our room listening to music. I try to be productive. I got my District Leader Shades that I ordered. I wear them whenever I´m in District Leader mode. (Trying to be positive about my new assignment)

     Basically because it was sprinkling out side with rain only 14 people came. We even went out during sunday school and looked for people. They all promised they would come if it stopped raining. Well, guess what. As soon as we got back to the capilla it stopped raining and it didn´t rain for the rest of the day, but still nobody showed up. Liars. I made them promise and they still lied. Anyways at lunch we wasted a long time because Elder Gillette had to wait 2 hours for a pie to get done. I suggested we come back at night and eat it then, but it was "almost done".

     After lunch we went home at 4 and he went to bed. It was an "Accident". I would have woken him up, but I was listening to Motab and I fell asleep sitting up in my chair. Now that´s an Accident. Anyways I woke up at 6 because my battery died and we left and were blessed with two good lessons. Afterwards we went home and I took then passed numbers as district leader for the first time. I gave Elder Gillette a "Grace/Sympathy" period to mourn over the loss of Elder Richards, but times up.

Love ya,

Elder Zachary James Singson

July 25, 20101

Monday Hna P showed me how to make paraguayan style tortillas. They are good. 

     Tuesday we ate fish. It made me feel a little queezy.

     Wednesday it had been raining on and off for the last three days, but this time it rained all day without stopping once and it was as bad as the rain on Jumanji. We went through swampy mud to teach a family. The Flia Florentine is really a good family, but the husband isn't very sure about it though. They have 7 kids and the three youngest are just a gaggle of giggling girls. I want them to get baptized.

     Thursday it stopped raining, but it became freezing cold. I weighed myself. I am only 67kilos (147lbs). Two weeks ago I was 69kilos (152lbs). I find it strange because I am eating a lot more and my companion has been trying to lose weight so he gives me all his food. I weighed 71kilos (156lbs) when I didn't eat for two days and had Denge. So I think I might have some nasty worms, but Hna Callan says that I would probably have Diahrea and stomach pains if that were true, but still... I eat until my stomach is full, but I still feel hungry¡ I am definitely the envy of all the Anarexic and Bulemic people in the world right now.

     Friday we taught English class and had noche de Rama for the first time in a month. We talked to a member who is having marriage and drinking problems, and brought him to talk to the Branch President. While he waited he watched a cheesy For the Strength of Youth video about this years theme "we believe" and had chocolate milk and cookies. We left before we saw the outcome though. We taught Flia Florentine again and the husband says "If I don't see I wont believe" and "There is only one truth, I cant accept any more truth". Its funny because he says he has faith, but he isn't willing to read the Book of Mormon and pray for an answer. He didn't "reject" us, but hes not willing to accept us and progress either, so we had to drop him.

     Saturday we talked to Hno Vazquez (The member with the problem) and it magically has resolved itself. I wont go into detail about how bad it was, but the President is a miracle worker. They actually seemed like a semi-functioning family. We have to take members to visit him more often. We ate a crappy lunch at a restaurant called Austria. They didn't have any German food at all, just the paraguayan standard, but really expensive. Me and my companion bought something called "La Picada por 2". It sounded really good, but it just turned out to be crappy finger food. I tried a "Picada" at another restaurant and it was delicious, so I thought it would be good, but nope. Anyways on the bright side we found an awesome family and their friends were over too. One couple seems really anxious to read the Book of Mormon and here more of our message, so that is awesome. They are both good.

     Sunday we had 28 in church and everything was good again. Carolina's (member) brother, Aldo (not a member), came to church and he says he is going to come every sunday, so now we are teaching him. I gave a talk on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The spirit was really powerful, but the way that people were looking it seemed that I put them all on guilt trips or something. After lunch the rest of the day was kind of a flop because Paraguay was playing against Uruguay in the "Copa America". Paraguay lost by 3. We tried teaching Aldo, but a drunk guy ruined it for us and then demanded that we go to his house and teach him. His name is Luciano like Satan, but he probably wouldn't be so bad if he wasn't drunk.

Well thats my week. Love ya¡

Elder Zachary James Singson