March 3, 2014

March 3, 2014

Hi Parents –

This week was kind of a blur.  We contacted a ton of people -- it seemed like all we did was walk around trying to meet people, but we did find like eight new people we are working with and whom we think will be baptized, although they don’t have dates yet.  We found a family that is very interesting and we feel really good about them, so that was super cool.  The days all blend together but it is all so worth it!

Ilsa (the Grandmother) and Matnias (10 year old Grandson) are still on to get baptized on March 16^th, so please pray that Ilsa can continue to not smoke, she loves the Gospel, but smoking has been very hard for her to give up.

So something random, when I arrived in Paraguay, I received a packet and in the packet it said my release date is December 17, 2015, so it looks like I will be home for Christmas 2015.  I don’t know if I want you to come pick me up because I really want a Ps4 for Christmas. HaHa

One exciting thing we did this week, we went to a family’s house for dinner and they had cooked some “bomb” meat.  It was so good.  They also had a parakeet as a pet, and I was able to hold that, so that was fun.

Thanks for all the birthday messages and for the birthday package.  I actually set the presents on my window sill and then it rained really hard and soaked the packages so I opened them early.

Please tell Grandpa Turley thanks for the birthday message, and tell Nonnie and Grandpa thanks for the card and money.  For my birthday, I bought a couple soccer jerseys (soccer is huge here) and they are pretty sick.  Today I am going to buy a Rolex watch.  Where I am is similar to New York, in that you can buy stuff really cheap.  The Rolex watches are like $5 which is pretty gnarly.

Today we had a district meeting and that was cool.  I totally understood the Spanish from the Latinos and Americans, but not from the Paraguayans. Because Paraguay is a third world country, a lot of the people are not educated and have bad grammar.  On top of that, they slur their words together and talk super fast (comparable to if I mumbled a bunch of words together and talked so softly so you couldn’t hear what I was saying).  The Paraguayans also speak two different languages (Spanish and Guarani) and so when they combine those, it makes it even more difficult.  Each week, the language seems to get a little better, so I know that in a couple of months I will be just fine.  The important thing right now is that I can bear a strong testimony in Spanish, so that is good while I work to understand the language better. 

Last night we had a Family Home Evening and it was really good.  The dad, one daughter, and one son are inactive, but the rest of the family goes to church.  The Spirit was there so strongly that the inactive son cried during the prayer, so we have hope for them.

Hey, when you send me my next package, will you please include tortillas and spices.  They don’t have tortillas here and the Paraguayans don’t put spice on anything – they do have a form of hot sauce, but it just isn’t the same.  So like some hot sauce, taco seasoning, Cholula, and Lawry’s would be so great. Oh and please send some more candy, chewy candy is the best.  Also I need some hair putty, Axe Messy Putty is the best.  The hair gel I brought doesn’t work in this humid of an environment, so I had to trade a package of Alphajores for the putty I am using now. Haha

Here is a picture of a random horse just standing in a field. There are horses all over the place here.

Hey will you please send me some recipes?  They don’t have salsa here and so dad emailed me the recipe and I am going to try to make that.  But send me recipes like Tortilla Soup and Hot Fudge.

Well, that is all the time I have for this week.  I love you, thanks for being such good parents.

Elder Turley