Transfer soon?

Mommy!


I miss hiking in the desert! Can you send me more pictures of the desert landscape? A lot of times I have to explain that my part of the US is different from the half that is FREEZING to death right now (btw, what are the details on that? I just here random things from the Paraguayans about it being -50 degrees or something), and it would be really nice to get to show them a picture.

There's another new movie for the temple? I don't know if I'll get to see it for a long time. In this mission we only get to do a session once every year, and we won't be going until June or July. Someone was saying that as missionaries our complete focus and dedication for 18-24 months is on the saving ordinances of the living, and after our missions we can worry about the work for the dead. I am really excited to get to go eventually, though, and even more excited to actually understand everything in Spanish!

As for the weather, man, you should see how tan I'm getting! I don't know if you can see it in the pictures because I'm still whiter than everyone else.... I have to make sure to use a LOT of sunscreen every single day, or I get scorched. Luckily the people here are incredible and are always willing to fill up our water bottles with cold water. There's a scripture in Matthew that says anyone who offers a cup of cold water to a servant of the Lord shall in nowise lose his reward. That is LITERALLY being fulfilled here.

As for transfers, we have one coming up next Wednesday, and chances are that I will finally be leaving my first area. I've been here in Ytororó 1.1 for 4 1/2 months (3 transfers) now, and I've really grown to love this ward. Then again, there is also the possibility that I'll stay for 1 more transfer, a total of 6 months here. We'll just have to see what happens next week! The sisters before were usually just in the more urban areas around Asunción, but we have SO MANY new sisters now that I think Pres. Agazzani might be sending more out to the rural areas as well.

P-days start out like any normal day at 6:30 am, and instead of working out we clean the apartment. We do our normal studies and then head to the cyber to use the internet so we can email our families, the mission president, and enter in our numbers for the week. Then we head to Ñemby to buy groceries (because we only have dispensas in our district and no real grocery stores), then come back home and SLEEP. I'll usually catch up on my journal, our teaching records, read, etc. Then at 6 pm we have to head out and get some proselyting in. Even on P-day we have to go out and teach! We never really get a "day off." Once every transfer, like today, we'll have a district activity. Today we'll be playing soccer. Again.

The rest of this week was pretty interesting. Beatriz is having some major doubts because her son doesn't want her to get baptized. Honestly, it's a little frustrating to see these people feel the power of the Spirit testifying that the message of the Gospel is true, and then tell us that they changed their minds and don't want to be baptized. We are planning on really working with Beatriz this week to figure out what her real doubts are.

We did have an amazing experience in the street two or three days ago, though. We visited a lady that we had contacted at her house way before to see if we could come in and teach her. Unfortunately she was busy at the time, but we stood there and talked for a little bit about her garden, family, etc. We shared couple sentences about how we know the Gospel really blesses families and that our families can be together for eternity, and then offered a small prayer with her outside her house. As we said "amen" and looked up, there were tears in this woman's eyes and such a strong feeling of peace. All she said was "gracias," and we said our goodbyes and went on our way. I don't know exactly what was going on in her head, but I know for a fact that she truly felt the Spirit in that moment. It was really humbling to see how we got to be tools in the Lord's hands just with a few sentances and a simple prayer. I absolutely cannot wait to go back and teach her more!

So that was my week. Ups and downs as usual. I wish I could send you pictures from this week, but I forgot my cable for my camera. Sorry! I love you all and hope you guys have a wonderful week. Please keep praying for me! You guys are in my prayers every single night.

With so much love,
Hermana Jeppesen