Highlight of the Week: Peanut butter. Manteca de Mani :) 

Apples and peanut butter is the best combination in the world. Why it took me 5 months in Paraguay to figure that out, I don`t know. But it`s fantastic :) 

We woke up to find a cockroach in the bathroom. Yuck. Not a fan of cockroaches. I thought about taking care of it. . . but decided it was more humane to let the poor little guy die of natural causes. . . I don`t want to touch him :) 

 

This is inside our apartment, with the Hermanas Lideres (hnas Cortes y Whitmer)

 

And this week we walked half of our limits - Our area is a big square, with 4 different main roads marking the boundaries. This is still a little new to me since most of our limits in Ypacarai were the jungle and lacked a certain amount of definition. . . :) But it was fun to get a bigger picture of where we`re at. 

 

 



me and Hna. Peña in one of our limits (calle Ultimo. . . creo)

We`re going to be busy this week preparing for a baptism this Saturday - Mario`s getting baptized! I`ll send pictures next week. And we actually have a font here - the only bummer is that it`s right before Fast Sunday, so we won`t be able to eat cake. . . but esta bien, almas son mas importante :) 

Mango season has died down a bit. Guayabas are still going strong. Certain types of citrus are on the brink of maturing (I think), and I can´t wait! Yesterday a certain type of small tree/bush/shrub with small white flowers all bloomed, so all the streets smell really good right now :) 

Oh! I made an avocado pie. . . 'tarta de aguacate' and it was gross. It was really bitter for some reason. I think it was the avacado`s fault. But the members ate it anyway - they didn`t believe me that it was gross. 

 

This is the view from our back porch/balc​ony

Another view from our front balcony on an almost rainy morning :)

 

 

 

 

Frio-Humido and Lomitos

Highlight of the Week: First taste of frio-humido. For nearly a whole day.

(we almost wanted long sleeves!)

This Domingo was marvelous! We had 4 investigators come to church, and we talked with an inactive member who told us she felt she needed to "get up and run straight to church". We agreed with her :) And one of our investigators, Mario, has decided to quit smoking (yay!) and so our mission for the next two weeks will be to help him follow through with that so he can be baptized. 

We had intercambios this week with the Hermanas Lideres - I stayed in my area with Hna. Cortez, and Hna. Peña spent the day in their area. We were only a little lost all day long.  

Not too bad for 2 weeks :) 

I made a banana cream pie for our Noche De Barrio (ward activity night) Miercoles - it was pretty great. More like sopa than pie, but that`s ok :) 

There are lots of cats in Monte Lindo. And not very many chickens.

I miss the chickens in Ypacarai. . . but not so much the vast amount of dogs. . .

there are definitely pros and cons to every area :) 

Oh! We got to clean the temple on Monday -  way cool. I miss going regularly. 

And happy Valentines Day! We celebrated by seeing off all the youth as they left for the big Valentines dance. . . and eating Lomitos :) 

Monte Lindo is HOT

Highlight of the Week: Completing Contactos EVERY DAY :) 

We have a mission goal to contact 5 people every day. Some days it`s easy and others not so much. But we made an effort this week to complete our contacts every single day, and we did it! It`s an important way to find new people to teach and to learn the area a little better. And I know we`re going to start seeing the blessings. 

Monte Lindo is HOT. I know I`ve said this before, but every day I`m surprised that people can live in conditions that are just so suffocatingly humid and hot all the time. And I now understand what heat rash is. It`s your body saying ' why!?!?!?' But supposedly there`s only a month more of it. So it`s ok. :) Another difference I`ve noticed this week is that I always have 'fan hair', because all of our lessons are underneath a ceiling fan going at full speed. So I`m always sporting the wind-blown look :) 

I`ve got exactly one year left in the mission. Crazy, right? Where has the time gone. . . 

New area: Monte Lindo

Highlight of the Week: Accidentally making butter. . .  

Well, I´m not in Ypacarai anymore. . . I feel quite like I`ve discovered a whole new Paraguay. I`m in an area called Monte Lindo. It`s only about 10 or 15 minutes from the Mission Offices, I`ve been told, and it`s all houses and neighborhoods and city. And it`s way nice. Some of the houses here are E.E.U.U. status. And the members have cars, and we have a chapel, and there are teachers who teach the classes every Sunday, and I don`t need to use bug spray, and there hasn`t been sand in my shoes for three days now. . . I kind of miss Ypacarai :) OK, I miss Ypacarai a lot. But that`s because I still don`t know anybody here, and I`m always lost. Give me another week and I figure it out. The people here are just so different. . . 

And nobody in Ypacarai knows where Monte Lindo is. Probably because it`s more known as Fernando De La Mora. . . I think. Mora means mulberry. . . or black berry, but I still haven`t seen any of either. 

My new companion, Hermana Peña, is from Columbia, and she is super nice and sweet and more patient than I ever will be. She`s also three months away from finishing her mission, so we`ll have to wait and see if she stays here for the next two cambios or if I only get one cambio with her. 

Oh! I made butter this week! Totally an accident. I had made a banana cream pie (totally possible without cornstarch) on Monday, and wanted to find whipped cream to top it all off. So I found what I thought translated to 'whipping cream' (it even had a picture of a bowl and a whisk and white fluffy stuff. . .) but when I started 'whipping' it didn't get fluffy. Just chunky. And it took me a while but eventually I realized that what I had made was a big bowl of butter. Oops. Oh well. What can ya do? :) Now I know what to do if I ever need butter, and I only have 'crema' :) 

Shopping for hamacas (hammocks)

Highlight of the Week: Teaching Lia Amarilla. . . is it ok to have a favorite investigator? :)



Hermana Weeks, yo, y Lia Amarilla

Bueno. We`re interneting early today because we decided to go to Caacupe early to shop for hamacas (hammocks) :) We`ll see. I might get one I might not. Most likely I`ll have a new area this week (ug. cambios. We find out tomorrow), so I`m not really keen on having more weight in my suitcases. . . (had a bad dream about suitcases the other day. Not kidding) but I`m determined to come home with one or two. And I don`t want to be in my last area and not have a hammock store available to me :) I really really really don`t want to leave Ypacarai. I love it here. But I suppose I should get to know more than one area. . . and Hermana Weeks tells me that other wards here are more normal. . . like United States normal. I still don`t believe her. It`s hard to after 4 months in the branch we have here :) But we had two baptisms this Saturday! Estefania and her brother Alix. They´re great. Totally prepared, as Hna. Weeks would say :) And we`re going to continue teaching their parents too, so we`ve got high hopes for them as a family. 

 

two conversos, Estefania and Alex

Bautismo!!​!

 

I`ve decided I WILL watch Hitchhiker`s Guide to the Galaxy en  Español when I get back.
Don`t think I`ll understand half of it, but it`s going to happen. You`re all invited :) 

 

Oh! And I realized something marvelous yesterday -  Because cinnamon, azucar, pan, AND butter all exist here in Paraguay. . . so does toast with cinnamon-sugar.
Best half-way-through-studying snack ever. 

Awkward Paraguayan Moments:  when your nose accidentally bumps the nose of the cute little old lady who`s giving you besitos (yea, kissing peoples cheeks seems so normal now
. . . it`s going to be hard not to when I get back. . . )



Hermana Emelia y daughter Emilce (miembros)

 

Lago Ypacarai (Lake Ypacarai)

Weedwhacking in front of their place.  Cobblestone road with sand.

Basilica de Caacupe

 

Pumpkin pie and mangos

Highlight of the Week: making pumpkin pie in Paraguay. piece of cake :) 

This week we. . . ate at an Alemanian restaurant (best p-day yet :), made chocolate cake and brownies (for the members, of course), AND pumpkin pie. . . was that this week? I think so. Yep. It was a pretty darn good pie too. Real ginger´s got a bit more kick to it than the powdered stuff. . . and we don´t have a grater, but I´m getting pretty good at using a serrated knife to get almost the same effect. And there´s this Brazilian squash in the supermercados right now that´s really

just a big, colorful pumpkin.

 

And mango season has begun!!! (don´t remember if I already  said that or not) I´ve learned a lot about mangos this week. The little ones are hairy. And hairy smoothies are not my favorite. But the big Brazilian mangos are pretty much the best thing on earth. Next to guayabas/guavas, of course :) We were in a part of our area that´s a bit far out there, and the first investigator we taught gifted us with something like 15 lbs of little mangos. And then when we passed by a member's house they saw our mangos and asked us if we wanted to try the Brazilian ones too. . . sure, 10 more pounds of mango, no problem :)

 

I learned to use a machete on Saturday, and I have the blisters to prove it! And my outlook on yard work will never be the same again. One of the first things I´m gonna do when I get back is get myself a machete. How Americans take care of their yards without one is beyond me. 

 

  And did I talk about reading Jesus the Christ last week? Can´t remember. But there's no better way to start out the day than to read Jesus the Christ ( in Inglés :) while eating your cereal and yogurt. 



A Harder Week

Aha! I`m going to send lots of photos! I think. . . if it doesn`t take forever. yea. . . I think it`s going to take a really long time. Well, this photo is me weedwhacking our "front yard", which is really just a bit of grass growing in the built up sand that used to be inbetween the cobblestones of our street. I was pretty excited. Nope. never mind. this is actually a photo of me talking to the elders while in the streets of . . . Cerro Guy I think. (pronounced serro gwee. . . or gwuh. depending) Ok. Sorry. It isn`t working. Next week. At a different Cyber.
 

Anyway. This week was a little harder. We walked a lot. And none of our investigators were ever home. (nooooo!!!) But all of the less active members we`ve been working with came to church, which was great because so did Presidente Agazzani (the mission president :).
 

And I discovered that potatoes don`t go black here! WHY!?! I have no idea. So strange. Maybe they have less starch. that makes them healthier, right? :)
 

 And it was almost a little cold one day this week. almost. Heavenly Fathers knows me well :) I was excitedly telling all our investigators all day long that this is what it`s like in Seattle in the summer. . . Now all the people of Ypacarai think that Seattle`s cold (comparatively) and rainy all the time, like they should :) 
 

Well, out of time. Really. The photos are going to work next week. I'm determined!