Tengo dos bautismos el 15 de marzo -- I have two baptisms on March 15!
Dear
Family
I
arrived in Paraguay and I really like it! The climate at the
moment is just like Newport, so it isn’t hot, and there is a lot of humidity
and a breeze.
My
companion is Elder Jace Gummersall, he is 19 and he is from Spokane – a place
called Liberty Lake or something like that.
I’m not sure if Bill served in his area.
I asked him if he knew Bill, but he was only nine when Bill was there,
so he doesn’t remember. My companion is
super cool! He keeps telling everyone
that I am famous because I was in High School Musical. (Side note: Jon was a
basketball player on the same team as Zac Effron). So apparently I am pretty cool within the
Missionary Crowd. I really like my companion and we get along really well.
My
Spanish is doing decent, but I have a lot to learn. I understand the people of Paraguay less than
I understood the Argentina people, but it is coming along – I can bear my
testimony in Spanish so that’s all I need. Haha. The people in Paraguay speak super
fast and super slurred and it’s kind of crazy, but I will get it, but please
keep praying for me. Also, please pray
for my cough and sinuses to get better. My
cough was gone, but it came back two days ago.
It’s funny because they use “Hauls Cough Drops” as candy down here, so
it is super cheap and they are all over the place, so I got like six packs
today. I think I have allergies, so I am going to buy
some allergy medicine and see if that helps.
I use Breathe at night and it works great, but during the day while we
are out, it wears off. My area is nice
we have water and the main street is gravel so that is pretty cool.
So
President McMullin sent Elder Gummersall and I into a brand new area of the mission,
a city called Luque in an area called Laureltyl (about 30 minutes away from
Asuncion). This area has been closed for a while because the last missionaries
that were there didn’t really work it and so nothing was getting done. Our President sent us there to open it back
up. My companion and I had no contacts
or anything to work with because the last missionaries there didn’t keep a
record. It seemed kind of crazy to me to
open a new area as a greenie, but my companion and I were up for the challenge
and we are on fire. In the last four days,
we have contacted over 100 people, have hit all our goals, and have committed
two people to baptism.
The
two people we have committed to baptism are a grandmother and her
grandson. The grandson told us that he
took the lessons a long time ago and wanted to get baptized, but his
grandmother said “no” and so he never did it.
When we met with the grandmother and grandson (side note: I wish he
would have told us their names), we talked to them about the Joseph Smith Story
and told them to pray about it, which the grandmother said she would do because
she was able to feel The Spirit strongly with my companion and I. When she did pray about it, she had a
spiritual revelation that Joseph Smith is indeed a prophet and said she would
be baptized. We are pretty excited about
it and are looking forward to keep working with them and seeing them enter the
waters of baptism on March 15th.
It
is really cool here in Paraguay, I like it more than Argentina. Everyone down
here drives crappy cars, but they have really sick sound systems -- like really
good. It’s funny because everyone here
sits in front of their house drinking Te Te Te, which is an herb with cold
water like a tea. I think I am going to bring some home because they won’t let
us have any down here because it’s passed around so much they don’t want us to
get sick. Most of the roads are dirt and
my companion and I walk a lot and we talk to a lot of people. A cool thing,
there are a lot of horses, dogs, and cows, just walking on the road every day.
We
are talking to another guy named Bruno right now. He started not believing in God about a month
ago, so we are trying to get him to believe again. Right now he is pulling that “I don’t want to
accept your message because I want to be right” type thing, which is kind
of stupid, but we are going to keep working with him because we both think that
this kid understands and that it is just going to take a little diligence.
My
first day in Laureltyl, we went to lunch at a family’s house who is pretty poor,
but they were super nice. They showed us
a video of the last missionaries killing a goat. Apparently that is a thing
they do on birthdays here, so looks like I am going to have to take a machette
to a goat’s throat in a few weeks -- I will
be sure to get photos of that and a video (side note: mom will not be watching this).
My
companion and I walk a lot and teach a lot of first lessons, but it is hard to
get people to commit to a second lesson.
I really like the people here in Paraguay, though.
I
live across the street from a Pizza Hut, so that’s cool. You can get like a specialty pizza with
breadsticks and soda for ten dollars. Everything is super cheap and I don’t think I’ll
have any problem living within the budget the mission gives me. The weirdest
thing I have seen is cow stomach. They
bread it like chicken in the states. I ate
some in the MTC, when I didn’t know what it was, but I haven’t eaten it here
yet, and am not sure if I will. But
Paraguay is pretty dope and I am glad I am here. There are always people playing volleyball
and soccer and having fun.
I
live on a main road and it is like a bunch of dirt roads. We are responsible for part of a city and the
area we have reminds me of downtown Los Angeles. My apartment is pretty clean. It’s two bedrooms with a bathroom and a
kitchen, so it is pretty chill – nothing too out of the ordinary. There are some mosquitos around, but I have
been using repellent so I haven’t been bitten.
The mission has us spray something all over our house so we don’t really
have many bugs, just some spiders, but they aren’t really a bother. There
are chalk marks all over our apartment walls, and I wrote my name on it, so
that was pretty cool. We have a dumbbell
and the weights are made of a steel pipe and two rocks on each side of them.
Pretty cool, HaHa. Our Church Building is nice. Sunday’s are cool. I had to bear my testimony yesterday, and a
guy came up and said that they have had missionaries who have been in the ward for
a long time who don’t talk as well as I do.
That was cool and made me feel pretty good. So something funny, the Sacrament started,
and I looked down and a dog had run in between my legs. Apparently if anyone leaves the door open,
dogs will come into the building.
Everything
here is super cheap. Apparently I can
get solid gold or silver rings and necklaces down here for $10, so if ya’ll
want something, let me know before I come home. Haha.
I
wanted to send some pictures but this computer is really slow, so I will for
sure send some next week. Well, I love
ya’ll. Thanks for all that you do for
me. You are amazing parents and I am so
grateful for you guys and all that you do.
By the way, mom, how are you feeling?
Read D & C 42 verse 40ish something.
It talks about how if you have faith, you will be healed in God’s time
if it is His will. In that scripture it
says if you die then that was God’s will, but don’t read that part because you
aren’t going to die. Haha!
Dad,
I love you.
Thanks for all you do for me you are the World’s Best Dad! ;)
I
love ya’ll, I will be praying for you.
CON
MUCHO AMOR
ELDER
TURLEY
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