I Am Here in Paraguay...

Monday, January 24, 2011

Hello!

It´s been loco here, I´ll try my best to fit as much in as possible!

Well, after a few long plane rides, I am here in Paraguay. We landed and were picked up by the office Elders and the President and his wife. Once we hit outside, I could not believe the heat wave, it is incredible that a place on Earth could be this humid! After a few days in the office and sleeping with a few nearby elders, we found out our companions and our area. My trainer is Elder Olson from New Mexico. He is an awesome guy, we have been getting along perfectly. We are in Bella Vista A, pretty close to a pretty big city called Luque, and only 20 to 30 minutes from Asunción. I love the area so far. I've been giving a lot of prayers, testimonies, and getting to know the people. Last night I gave a lesson on the importance of assisting the church every Sunday, and that same investigator we gave a blessing to as well.

In Bella Vista we live with 2 other elders, De Voe and Morgan, and they are really awesome as well. I spoke in church on Sunday...I thought it went pretty well, and the other elders said that my Spanish sounded well, which was a nice confidence boost, given that its practically impossible to understand anyone here. I can speak fine, but whenever someone asks me a question, I can rarely figure out what they are saying. Paraguayans speak pretty slow, (not slow enough) but they have interesting accents and always mumble so it has been an interesting week here.

I love Paraguay though, the weather is really hot, every single person besides the missionaries drink tereré, which is pretty much just grass called yerba and water. I am always thirsty and never hungry, yet all our meals we have they bring out a tiny glass of water and a mountain of rice, chipa, bread, mandoica, really tough meat. But the food hasn't been bad yet, I cannot complain. Our house is not bad at all, except there is no AC, and when there´s no AC every missionary is supposed to have a fan, yet for the 4 of us there is only 1. Elder De Voe bought a sweet classical guitar here, so i´ve been able to play a little guitar. I guess our area is famous for making great guitars, so it is definitely possible that i´ll be making a purchase in the near future. I´ll let ya know. There are animals everywhere, I've gotten a lot of sun and been rained on badly too. It has been the craziest week of my entire life, but I have loved every second of it.

Today is P Day and so we woke up early and took a bus near Limpio and went fishing in Rio Paraguay. It was scorching hot, but still great. While I was fishing, I thought back about a year ago... Who would have guessed a year from then (right now) I would be fishing in the Rio Paraguay...No one. It was an awesome morning.

We have 5 baptismal dates, and I am baptizing a 10 year old kid named Sebastian tomorrow. I am really excited, he´s an awesome little kid. The mission here is really strong and we have tons of investigators to teach. The members are incredible, and help us so much. My companion pointed out that with other religions, the churches are really different in their other countries. However, our ward in Bella Vista operates exactly the same as my home word. I´m thankful to be in the Bella Vista ward (Mora Cue is the name I guess of the town.)

Anyway, all is well here. Continue to pray for me and the people here. There´s still a long way to go, but I can honestly say I love Paraguay. It´s going to be hard at first trying to figure everything out, but I´m working hard and trying my best.

I think the best way to communicate with me is either through emails or letters. I only have an hour to email every week so I´ll try my best to read them. Letters may take longer but they are fine as well. The address for the letters is the mission office address for our mission. I´d love to hear from all of you at home!

Thanks for everything, love you all!

Con Amor,

Elder Babcock