I prayed a lot on the taxi ride

November 4, 2013 – Paraguay

Hola family!!!!!!! I love you so much!

What a great week it´s been! Every week is great though. And they go by so fast. I loved the letters from home and also the missionary blogs you sent. It was such a great blessing and I learned a lot from your personal insights and from the other missionaries.

Our investigator L experienced the pride cycle this week. I´m not gonna lie, it was pretty rough. I think that´s just the way that the Lord works with the descendents of Lehi because almost every member has a similar story. So L is getting super blessed since coming to know the church. She got a new job as a vendor of clothes and has been super successful! But, she chose to go vend instead of coming to church. She made 1 millon guarani which is a tonnn [about $200]. That was last week. So we talked to her and explained the blessings of keeping the Sabbath and why we do it. “Ok, ok. I´ll be there at church next Sunday.” Nope. Goes and vends again. She made 500 thousand gaurani, then it gets stolen, then she gets angry, starts a feud with her sister, and her boyfriend leaves her. We receive blessings when we keep the Sabbath day holy. But now that she doesn´t have a boyfriend she can get baptized…

Also this week, with all the crazy rain, our attendance at church was down to 36. Our President gets up to the stand and welcomes everyone who is here. Then says, “Hopefully it doesn´t rain at the 2nd coming of Christ, because if so, no one will be there.” Some of them walked to church in the pouring rain and came soaked, but happy. Others couldn´t get in their car or moto and drive to church. I kind of understand, but not really, because I walked to church.

The other day it was raining and this man comes walking down the street with a giant beach umbrella and I’m like, “Nice.”

Also I ate at McDonalds as a last hurrah for an Elder that was leaving. Guess what I ordered? A salad. And guess what, it was the first one I´ve been able to find in S. How sad is that? I´ve been looking all over town!

My watch bit the dust. Got a super cool new one! Sometimes when I buy something they give me my money and then they give me candy. But sometimes no candy. I figured out why: they don’t have exact change here, so they use candy.  Alright with me! But some of the candy is soooo gross. You have to pay money for the good stuff.

Remember the bear-dog? He has a friend and they both follow us around now. We avoid that street if we can help it.

People always ask me where I’m from and I always make them guess. Top three answers: 1 – France, 2 – Germany, 3 – Italy. I feel super legit. Nope, ‘Merican.  If I don’t speak, they think I’m from Brazil. I’ll have to learn French, German and Italian when I get back. Learning another language is super cool. I get so confused when people talk to me in English though.

Questions:

Any progress with J’s family? He’s such a cutie!
No. His mom is always gone: at work or with her boyfriend. Also his grandpa hates us.  He´s veeeeery catholic. All of the kids love us though. I want his family to join the church so bad! This whole agency thing doesn´t really work for me.

Biggest chuckle for the week?
Saturday night we were headed for a FHE at a members’ house and it started raining. At first it was just a nice little sprinkle, then the winds picked up and it started pouring! I´m talking the street was a river and I´m getting hammered. So I think to myself, “I sure am glad I take my cute little rain coat with me everywhere and the plastic thing to cover my bag”, complacently extracting these said ítems. Put them on, look up, where´s my companion? She´s about 3 yards ahead of me BOOKIN´ it in the rain. She thought said she couldn´t run with her hurt ankle. Hahaha it was hilarious.

Biggest EWWW of the week?
I´m super grateful for the mary jane strap on my shoes, because if I didn´t have that, they surely would have been sucked into what I consider “quickmud”. It´s really gross. Also I have smashed an innumberable army of cucarachas. We sweep them (the bodies) in from off the door to sweep them out in the morning.

Biggest scare of the week? (do I want to know?)
Let´s just say I prayed a lot on the taxi ride to La Paloma. But we got there in half the time so that was nice.

Biggest hug from your Heavenly Father for the week?
Today we received our monthly money in the mission. I literally had the equivalent of 2 dollars for this week because I had to pay for the trip to Asuncion. So we had lunch before going to the bank and I asked how much the lunch cost. 10 real he says (4 dollars). I showed him how much I had and he took it and gave me food! 🙂 Just one of those little things.

You wrote that you’ve had so much success since you and Hna Chavez really had love in your companionship. Is it just greater abundance of the Spirit that’s felt in the lessons? yes for sure Greater unity of teaching? YES biggest difference. Greater blessings in the work? Yes. We´ve been so much more successful in the work since then. We´ve seen a lot of miracles. Combination, or something else? I´m a lot happier, I´m learning how to be patient, how to show love, how to find the good in people, and how to just forgive and forget. And I´m getting faster at forgiving and forgetting. Almost nothing offends me now. It was a super hard change for me to make, but one that I needed and one that I wanted as well.

I love you all so much! I think about you and pray for you!

Hna Cami Anderson