Semana 26!!!

Hola Todos!!!

Wow what a week!!! Soooo, we had a BAPTISM!!! Michael got baptized on Saturday and it was great!!! He´s such a cool kid!! He came to his baptism all by himself and was dressed in a white shirt and slacks! It was so cute! Everything went great, and Hermana Bennett was super excited which was the most important thing for me! The only sad part was his mom didn't come and we could tell he was kinda sad about that, but I know that if he just keeps being a good example for her she'll come around!  It´s sad that he's the one that has to be the example for his own mom! BUT I know she's already seen changes in him and will continue to see them and that's whats most important!

Let's see, we had Intercambios again this week!! This time though, Hermana Cheney went to her area with Hermana Bennett and I stayed here with Hermana Boley! Hermana Boley's awesome. We had a great day! We were in the poor part of our area and all of our plans fell through and I was just like "Bueno let's go visit Michel and her family.." So we pass by and start talking to them and Hermana Boley just wins their confidence instantly! It was really weird we were talking to them all like old friends. We set up a family night for tomorrow and I'm excited to see what happens! Hermana Boley told me we need to win over their confidence first, be their friends, and then she thinks the entire family will reactivate and Michel will get baptized!!

ANYWAYS, (haha) that's what happened this week. Basically, it was a pretty normal week here in the mish! (haha) I'm working hard, and life's good! Hope all is well with you guys! Have an awesome week!!!

Hermana Austin

Semana 25!!!

Hola Todos!

Wow what a crazy week it has been! (haha) First of all, Michael wasn´t able to get baptized this week because we found out he was drinking coffee sometimes in the mornings... WHOOPS... That´s what we get for not teaching him the Palabra de Sabiduria (Word of Wisdom) until last Monday... (haha) But it´s okay cause he stopped, so he´s getting baptized this Saturday si o si! He´s an awesome kid and his mom´s actually listening to us now. I think she´s been seeing the changes in Michael and wants to learn more. Her name's Graciela and we´re hoping to help her come to church this week so she can see Michael get confirmed a member and everything!  

Aside from Michael, we've seen a lot of other people start progressing! The one that really stands out is Karen's mom, Marisa started to really listen to us! She's stopped working on Sundays and told us that she's for sure coming to church this upcoming Sunday, which is AMAZING!!! We actually passed by earlier today to give Karen something for school, and her mom was there with her cousin named Jasmine, and Karen goes, "Do you guys have some time to share with Jasmine today? She wants to listen to the lessons and come to church!" We were just like "claro que si!!!" So we shared with all 3 of them and Jasmine and Marisa both accepted a baptismal date and said that si o si they're coming to church on Sunday!!! MILAGROS!!!  

One thing I've really learned is that the Lord is always preparing people for us to teach. We have no idea who they are but He does and He will help us find them! I honestly have never felt more guided in my entire life than I have on the mission! The Lord has a plan for us every, single, day here and if we pray and REALLY follow the Spirit we will find the people that he's prepared for us!  

We also found this 21 year old woman named Maria and she's amazing! (haha) We contacted her at her grandma's house this last week and she was like "Yeah, you guys can come visit me in my house tomorrow." So we found her house the next day and she lets us in and is like, "I know you guys were sent from God. I need to have more faith and I need help." And we were just in awe! She's from a CRAZY church down here called La Iglesia Familiar de Oracion, or something like that, and I've heard from past companions that people from this church are very closed... We invited her to be baptized anyways and she accepted! (haha) She was like, "So I have to be baptized again then?" And we were like, "Yep." And she was like, "Okay Voy a preparar." It was so cool! She's reading in the Book of Mormon and is progressing a ton!

So yeah that's about all that went on this week! Life's good here in Paraguay! I love and miss you all tons!! Have a great week!

Love, Hermana Austin

SEMANA 24!!!

Hola Todos!!

Wow, what a crazy week!!! First of all we had Changes again this last Wednesday! They called us on Tuesday night and our Zone Leader told us that Hermana McDougal was leaving and that I was going to TRAIN!!! Ahh! (Haha) I am training a new missionary, which basically means I teach her how to be a missionary... My companion´s name is Hermana Bennett and she´s awesome! She´s from South Jordan Utah and just came from the Provo MTC! She already speaks pretty good Spanish which has been a blessing, and she´s a really hard worker and I mean that´s all I could ask for right? It´s been really interesting watching her adapt to mission life! (Haha) I have been having flashbacks of my first few weeks all week long... She´s got some SICK blisters, and I´ve been wrapping them with medical tape! (haha) THANK YOU LISA AND SPORTS MED!!! (ha) Whod´ve thought that I would use my ankle taping knowledge here in Paraguay right? But yeah, Hermana Bennett´s great. She sang a lot in High School and is a swimmer, (haha) she´s been dying in the heat! I think she kind of had her eyes opened this last week to what the mission is like, but she´s doing well and I´m excited to help her learn how to do everything and be a good missionary.

Anyways, this last week was really great! I don´t remember if I´ve told you all about Michael. He´s an 11 year old kid we´ve been teaching, but he´s awesome and he had already been to church a few times when we found him and he came to church this Sunday!!! We talked to his mom after and she gave us permission so that he can get BAPTIZED!!! She also is listening to us as well she just has work on Sunday´s... But she told us that she wants us to help Michael so that´s what we´re doing! He´s an awesome kid and if everything goes as planned he´s getting baptized this Saturday. 

Let´s see what else...  Honestly I don´t remember much. (haha) It was a good week and we´re working with a lot of promising people! Life is good here in Paraguay! Love you all and I miss you like crazy, have an awesome week!!!

Hermana Austin

SEMANA 23!!!

Hola Todos!! 

Wow what an awesome, tiring week! (haha) First of all, for all of you that are wondering, KAREN GOT BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!!!! POR FIN TUVIMOS UN BAUTISMO EN ITA ENRAMANDA!!!! (FINALLY HAD ONE BAPTISM IN ITA ENRAMANDA!!!) (haha) But really, it has been a LONG six weeks...  It all went well and she brought her mom and grandma to see the baptism! Karen's amazing, we'll just leave it at that. Probably the coolest part about this baptism was being able to watch Hermana McDougal feel the joy that comes from baptisms! She's such an awesome companion, and WOW, she deserved this baptism. She started crying she was so happy. She hasn't had a lot of success in the mission yet and it was amazing to watch her experience a real, solid, convert baptism.

Let's see, OH we had intercambios again this week and guess who came to spend the day in Ita Enramanda with me? HERMANA CHENEY!!! (haha) It was so good to see her! We had the best time and she helped me so much with our area! She's an amazing missionary. I miss her a ton. She also had already done Intercambios with Hermana Hidalgo in Costa Bonita and was happy to tell me that almost all of our Converts are active! She even brought a letter from our convert Elsi and her mom! She told me that everyone in Costa Bonita misses us and that Hermano Flor even invited her to live at their house for a month! (hahaha) She said she actually thought about it for a split second... and I don't blame her I would've too! ANYWAYS, Hermana Cheney's the best, one of my best friends and it was awesome to see her and hear about the familia Flor and everyone else in Costa Bonita.

Things are moving along great here in Ita Enramanda! You all remember that contact I talked about Adrea right? Well she came to church yesterday and has a baptism date for the 28th of February! She's awesome. She works at a grocery store and normally works Sundays but she came to church this week and then we visited her in her house afterwards and she told us that she's going to make plans so that she can come to church every Sunday!!!! MILAGROS!!! (MIRACLES!!!) She's AMAZING! Si o si se va a bautizar... (If or if she is going to get baptized) We are also working with a 15 year old girl named Diana. She's been an investigator forever but we just never could manage to get her to come to church. Hermana Cheney and I passed by the day we did intercambios and shared with her, and she accepted a baptismal date and everything! The next day Hermana McDougal and I visited her with a member Samuel who is a teenager that's like 17 years old and he said he could pass by to pick her up for church Sunday! She came to church and is going to get baptized next saturday, February 21!!  Just has to come to church this week too!!!

 

One more thing... (haha) remember Karen's mom that we were so worried we weren't gonna be able to get permission from her. She wants to be baptized now!!! (haha) She loved Karen's baptism and told us she wants to be baptized to!! MILAGROS!!! I love the mission we'll just put it at that!  

Life is good! I love it here! One more thing we have Changes again this Wednesday and Hermana McDougal probably is leaving so I'll probs have a new comp next week so that'll be fun! (haha) Life's good! Love and miss you all!

Love, Hermana Austin 

Semana 22!!

For this week, there was a disclosure at the end of Amberly's letter stating that I couldn't reproduce or distribute the email. I'll summarize her letter for you all, and you can fill in the blanks!

Hola Todos!!

This week was AMAZING!!! So, this Tuesday, we were walking along in Yukyty (the poor part of our area) and a truck passed by... I've picked up the habit of looking in the windows of all of the trucks that pass by because Hermano Flor works with these trucks. So I look up to check, and there sitting in the passenger seat is RUBEN FLOR!!! (haha) He's the 16 year old son! So, anyways, just like last week I was super excited to see him and he told me they're all doing great!! He also told me that they are always working in my area so I'll probably be seeing them here and there for the next few months! How cool is that? Anyways, it made my day! (haha) I love the Familia flor.

So I have to thank you all for your prayers for Karen this week because, WOW we have seen so many miracles with her! On Friday, we passed by and shared with her and then she was like, "Hey, my mom's free for a few minutes, do you guys want to talk to her about my baptism?" We were like, "Sure." So we go inside to talk to her mom, and I was just like, "So, your daughter wants to get baptized next Saturday, and we don't want to baptize her without your permission, what are your thoughts on that?" (haha) One thing I've learned here in the mish is that you've just gotta be straight up with people! (haha) I'm no longer the beat around the bush, shy person I was when I left... Anyways, so her mom goes, "Yeah, that's fine, I don't have a problem with it." She then told us she's going to try to get work off so that she can come! We were dumbstruck, and Karen was too!!! All I know is that Heavenly Father answers prayers! We also had a mini problem with Karen this last Saturday. We passed by to visit and she was like, "So what happens if I can't come to church tomorrow? Could I still bet baptizednext Saturday?" We were like, "Well, you have to come to church three times, so no, probably not." She was really worried and told us she had another commitment this last Sunday and wouldn't be able to come to church... Anyways, to make a long story short, we organized it so that she could go to another ward at a different time, and left worried that it wasn't going to work out... We prayed and prayed and prayed for a miracle Saturday night, andSunday morning, like a half hour before church, she called us and was like , "Hey, I'm not going to my other thing, and I want to come to church. Can you guys pick me up?" MIRACLES!!! Karen is going to get baptized this Saturday!!!!!!

Anyways, that's about all that happened here this week!! Life is good! I love the mish, and I love all of you!! Have an awesome week!!

Hermana Austin

All that was left out of this letter, was that they had a special visitor come to their ward and teach Relief Society. I'll not give any details, but I did receive this picture from Amberly this week. I sure do LOVE my sweet missionary!!!

Semana 21!!

Whoa, what a week! So this week was nuts! We got rained on a ton! But it was awesome... So on Tuesday, I had to use some of my hunting skills! We woke up at 6:30 like normal, prayed and then I went to the bathroom like normal. When I opened the door to the bathroom, to my surprise, there climbing up the wall was a LIZARD!!! (hahaha) It was just a little guy, like two inches long probably, but I jumped so bad... (haha) I had to go get the broom and kill it cause Hermana McDougal doesn't do stuff like that! (haha) The things that happen in Paraguay! I love it here...  

Also, Karen is progressing a ton!!! And, besides that, she's just awesome! She couldn't come to church yesterday because she had to travel with her mom to visit some relatives, but she's for sure coming this week! She´s just like this golden investigator that everyone dreams about. (haha) We taught her the Word of Wisdom this week and she was like, "Wait, we can't drink wine?" And we were like, "Nope." And she was like, "Okay, sometimes I drink a glass of wine on Sunday night after dinner but I'll stop." (haha) It never gets old watching people change their lives for the better! I could be a missionary for el resto de mi vida (the rest of my life)! She's got a baptism date for the twins BIRTHDAY!!!February 7th!!!

Oh, and we had an INTENSE lesson on Saturday! (haha) So we contacted this lady named Adibe. She's probably in her mid 60's, and she was like, "yeah, you guys can come back tomorrow and visit me." So we pass bySaturday morning and start teaching her Lesson 3, which is The Gospel Of Christ. We start talking about repentance and she asks, "what do you guys believe about forgiving people that do bad things OVER and OVER and OVER?" The funny thing is that I've had people ask hard questions like this one before, but I always would just let my older more experienced companions handle them! (haha) But this time, I looked at Hermana McDougal, and she looked at me, and I realized that this time it was my turn to be the older, more experienced one and answer the question... I can tell you right now, the Holy Ghost helped me know exactly what I needed to say. I don't even remember exactly what I said, but I KNOW it was what she needed to hear. I talked about the relief that comes when we forgive others and things along those lines, I even remembered a scripture off the top of my head which was also nuts. Anyways, when it says in D&C that we will know exactly what it is we need to say, it's true! We just have to open our mouths!

We also had a MIRACLE happen this week! So, I was looking through our Area Book and there was a Ficha Bautismal (The paper we have to fill out when we have a baptism) totally filled out with a signature and everything. The only thing that was missing was her interview and baptism! It was a 9 year old girl named Yanina Ugarte, and we had no idea who she was... Sad thing was that the Ficha was missing an ADDRESS!!! Of all the things the missionaries could have forgotten, they forgot to write the address!!! Anyways, we decided we would try to find her by some miracle and started asking the members at lunches if they knew her, no luck... We weren't gonna lose hope though. On Thursday, we were in Yukytu teaching a Menos Activo family and there were a ton of kids sitting around us. After the lesson we were asking the kids their names and their was this girl that said "Soy Yanina." I did a double take and said "Que?  Usted se llama Yanina Ugarte?" She was like yeah... Anyways, by some miracle we were led to this little girl, and she's awesome! She wants to get baptized this Saturday!! All we have to do is talk to her mom about it! We're praying for another miracle because we know that we were led to her for a reason!  

Anyways, that's about it for this week! Life's good here in the mish! I love it! I love all of you! Hope you have an awesome week!  

Hermana Austin

Semana 20!!!

Hola Todos!!!

Wow what a crazy week! So first things first Michel...(haha) We´re not exactly sure what happened, but she kind of fell off the face of the earth! We couldn't teach her at all last week because she was never home! (haha) We passed by on Saturday and she was there, but she didn't want to listen to us anymore... Not exactly sure what happened to be honest, guess its just not her time!  

BUT really this week was awesome!!! We've been working with this 16 year old girl named Karen and she´s AMAZING! Literally a golden investigator. To start off this week, we taught her about the Book of Mormon and invited her to read and pray about it. She said she would and so we passed by on Saturday and were talking to her and she was like "Yeah Hermanas. I got my answer, I prayed and I just felt this awesome feeling of peace. I can't even explain it." That's literally the BEST thing you can hear from an investigator as a missionary! Anyways, she's really been wanting to go to church these past few weeks and hasn't been able to get permission from her mom, so we asked her about church and she was like, "I dunno wanna ask my mom for me?" (haha) I was just like "yeah why not?" So she goes and gets her mom and I'm just like, "Hey your daughter wants to come to church with us tomorrow is that cool?" (This entire conversations is in Spanish btw)  And her mom goes, "Sure, when will she be back?" (haha) We were just in shock, and her mom left the room, and I kid you not, Karen starts jumping up and down of excitement! I've never seen anyone so excited to go to church in my life! It was probably one of the coolest moments of the mish, not gonna lie! She came to church yesterday and loved it and ¡Si o si va a bautizarse el 31 de Enero! (She could be baptized January 31!)

We also had a Zone Conference last week and learned a TON!!! The whole thing was themed off of D&C 101:55-57 and it was awesome. The theme was "Toda la fuerza de mi casa" or "All the strength of mine house." We're really going to start focusing on working a lot more with the members! It was awesome, and I literally learned a ton!  

(haha) One more thing, this Sunday we contacted a woman named Norma, her mom, and her two daughters, and they all accepted a baptism date for the 31st of Enero. Anyways we set another appt and passed by on Tuesday. They let us in again and we sat down and they were like, "We have a question for you guys." We were just like, "Okay whats up?" And Norma goes, "We're just wondering what time our baptism's going to be on the 31st?" (haha) We just about died! This family is awesome, and si o si they're gonna get baptized. The sad thing is that their CAR, (yeah almost all the people have cars in this area... THAT'S been an adjustment from Costa Bonita) anyways, their car broke down Sunday and they couldn't come to church... BUT they for sure are coming next week!  

Anyways that's about it for this week! Life's good. I LOVE THE MISH!!!!  Hope you all have an awesome week I love you all!  

Hermana Austin