January 2, 2011

Family!!!

¡Feliz Año Nuevo! At least thats all i have heard haha. Yes for your information, I was in bed by 10:30 on new years eve and didnt even have the desire to stay up because i am a perfect missionary. haha just kidding, but yeah i did get to bed on time but because i was wiped out and had no desire to stay up till midnight and then wake up at 6:30 like normal. If you miss sleep time on the mission it takes forever to get it back with the same 8 hours of sleep every night. But you dont have to send me new years eve stuff to give to kids, they ALL do fireworks. Every single child, ages 2 and up do fireworks at all hours of the day. A pack of like 40 firecrackers is about a quarter. Not american money but that is basically what they are worth. And they are so annoying! Haha on christmas eve they do fireworks too and those woke me up at midnight but on new years eve they didnt wake me up. But new years day was tough to work because everyone we talked to was still completely wasted or too hung over to want to talk to us. 

I miss Bulkogi!!! And sheen ramen. They have top ramen here but its kinda expensive. Funny how things switch here. In american money it would be like a dollar and 25 cents for one pack. Ridiculous. But we eat really well so dont worry about that. If you really want to send me some food, any kind of candy that isnt chocolate would be really good. Specifically Skittles and Starburst. Those are types i cant buy down here. I can buy a generic chocolate that is close to the same as at home. i am not a huge chocolate fan anyways. I was pretty ignorant when I was excited to go to paraguay and eat mexican food every day because the food here is nothing like mexican food but i really do miss burritos and stuff. and i wish they had horchata here but they dont. If you found a powdered horchata drink mix that would be awesome to send me. But basically they have every flavor of kool aid type stuff here. And its all pre sugared and cheap so i buy a lot of that. 

New years eve here was pretty cool though. We went to a new converts house for dinner and it was the exact same meal that she fed us on Christmas eve but its all good haha. Grilled chicken (cold), potato salad, some wierd salad, and a gaseosa (soda). They have good cheap soda here too. Guarana is my favorite flavor. But its a mission rule that i am not allowed to drink any type of Cola. Sadly. 

New years day we had church at 8 am and 40 people showed. Sad. But it is only 20 less than normal. But its ok. Everyone we tried contacting on New Years day was still totally wasted and didnt want to listen to us. We even went to a guys house who wanted us to come by and teach him again and he straight up told us that he is still drunk and that we should come back tomorrow. At least he was nice about it. He is a good guy really. But then finally at like 8:15 we made a last ditch attempt to sit down with someone and we decided to go see a guy that we hadnt seen in over a week. We had had 2 really good lessons with him before but he works all the time and is never home. So we went over there and luckily he was home and let us sit down with him. We sat down and asked him if he was able to read the book of mormon we left with him in the last visit. He jumped up, ran inside and got it and came back and was so proud to show us that he was already in I nefi 10! Me and my comp almost died of shock! hahahahaha it was awesome! So we talked to him about it and he totally was understanding all of it. It was really cool. Then we asked him if he had the chance to pray about it and he said yes and that he knows its true!!! Ahhhhhhh! So cool! So we immediately invited him to be baptized on the 28th of this month and he accepted. I cant wait to see how he progresses. 

Other than that, this week has been really tough. Lots of walking and not many lessons. If you (family and friends) would like to help out please pray that me and my comp will find people to teach. We have been praying every day just for someone to want to listen to us. And pray for Hermano Alfredo that he will be baptized on the 28th of January. But I was told to not ask you to fast for my investigators so dont do that but pray your hearts out! :) 

Sounds like you are doing great and I am glad that you are getting back to your normal self mom. haha. One thing i really would like you to send me in the package is a pack of colored pencils. Specifically "crayola twistables" but if you cant find those, any colored pencils will do. And maybe a little tiny manual sharpener so that i can sharpen them. And candy! haha. 

The pictures I added are me and my comp at dinner at the house of Hermana Eva Ferreira, Me and my district at our christmas district activity where we got to throw around a football and play some basketball ( I can dunk Paraguayan hoops super easy) and the last one is me and my 1,000,000 guaranis! hahaha i took out some personal money to buy some leather scripture cases. They are going to look super cool! 

Note to Mom:  Remind Vance to get his hair cut.