Hey family!
it was so good to see you all on christmas!! I hope you werent worried when I had to say goodbye crying because I was happy! I feel like home doesnt feel that far away and it felt good to talk to you guys because it reminded me that things are still going to be the same with us when I get home! I also felt super grateful for our family! just like, wow, these are the people that I get to spend forever with! Im sooo thankful for that!!!! and nothing else matters, we dont need presents or anything to make the holidays special, its just getting to be with the people you love!
So I will some up how crazy this week has been and so not like any other week! so after christmas we went and starting working super hard on thursday but I had woke up not feeling super good and then the full heat of the summer has finally set in too! it was a 109 degrees yesterday! So we walked a ton on thursday but i started feeling just super weak with body aches and my head was pounding so we came home early at like 6 and i realized that I had a fever but I hadnt noticed because it had been so hot, and then I was super sick all thursday night and literally couldnt get out of my bed on friday, we had to stay the day at home. I cant remember the last time that I was that sick! I didnt know what it was from, the heat or the exhaustion had just finally caught up with me or the holidays, but then Friday the elders called and they were at home sick with the same thing! Elder Hunsaker says that there was an elder he found out who had been sick at our christmas activity and he blames him for us all dying haha
but the craziest news of all came friday night! We got a call from president McMullin and he has called hermana Tomco to be a sister trainer leader for our mission! This is such exciting news because this is the highest position a sister can serve in the mission! its kind of the equivilent of an assistent to the president for the elders! Shes so excited but we were shocked because im only halfway done through my training! so what will be happening is, Im staying in Juan de Salazar and getting a new companion tomorrow morning, Hermana Luz! shes latina by the sound of her name and thats all i know about her but shes going to finish training me! And hermana Tomco is going to be in Campo Grande so shes in the Presidents families ward and shes going to be living in the really really nice part of downtown Asuncion! we have to leave at 5 in the morning tomorrow for asuncion for changes! Im sad to say goodbye to her and a little nervous about the change but I know that president mcmullin is called to lead us and he is making the decisions that heavenly father wants for us! so starting tomorrow, no more english for me at all! haha It will be good, im going to learn a lot faster now.
I will tell you all about the change and my new companion next week! Its crazy how fast things change in the mission and you honestly never know whats going to happen! its a little stressful haha but it keeps us on our toes. And im just going to be here keeping on working hard! I hope you guys all have an awesome News Years! I love you guys so much! Ill talk to you next week!
Love
Hermana Meese
Monday, December 30, 2013
Monday, December 23, 2013
A week in the life of a missionary
Hola family!
This week honestly flew by! we have been working sooo much, we just never stop! right now hermana tomco and I have the highest numbers in our district for investigators and contacts and lessons taught. We were figuring it out the other day too, that we´ve been walking about 12 miles everyday in between visiting all of our members and investigators!
Anyways I will fill you in with some highlights of this week! Monday night we had noche de hogar, with the Lopez family and for the treat I made brownies using grandma albrechts recipe and they loved them soooo much! haha Yanina, the daughter asked me for the recipe and I translated it into spanish for her so that was cool!
Then tuesday we met with our Brazilian family thats super interested and the mom and her two daughters have baptism dates! but then Creosa the mom told us she feels like she cant get baptized yet because her husband Jose´ still hasnt gotten divorced from his first wife in brazil. and him and creosa got married in paraguay so their marriage is valid here but not in brazil but she feels like its not right until they have that done for her to get baptized. so we are praying things work out for them!
Then wednesday was our busiest day, we had sooo many lessons but as we were walking around, everything just was like beautiful to me! I was just noticing all the details of peoples houses and i was just picturing that these places would be like the backdrop for an anthropologie magazine haha me and hermana tomco were just pointing out every little thing we loved as we walked around that day!
oh, we also met this grandma, Liduvenia, and she definitely has a pet parrot that talks in spanish haha and it knows how to chant the chant for Olympia the futbol team! haha it just sits there and goes Par A Guay! ya! ya! ya! and then whistles! haha she lives in like this old farm house, and there are chickens everywhere and she has a well out in front of their house, oh and she has cows that just wander around the house too haha
Thursday, was fun, we had lunch with hermana Limpia, shes a recent convert and guess what we got to eat... rooster haha I didnt know it was until after I ate it, I thought it was like beef but now I can add that to the list of weird things Ive eaten in my life haha
Saturday we hit the wall and were soooo tired. and when we were going to bed that night our neighbors were just blasting their music. Everyone does that here, they have these huge sound systems in their tiny houses haha but when someone listens to music that means everyone else gets to listen too! and the funny thing is they are really into 80s american music here! so saturday night we fell asleep listening to 80s rock haha and they were playing some beatles music too haha
yesterday we got to speak in church again! we have like an average of 60 people in church each sunday and it looks like the missionaries get to speak a lot haha we have soooo many less active members. I think theirs supposed to be about 150 in our ward but everyone is just lazy, they dont feel like walking so they wont come or if its too hot, they wont come or if its raining then no one does anything! haha we are working on just getting people committed. One lady we met with thats less active told us she´d come back to chruch if they dont give her a calling haha so that pretty much sums up what Ive been working on here!
Its crazy how time flies! I cant believe its already christmas! I hope everyone has a wonderful week! love you all! and merry christmas!
love
hermana meese
This week honestly flew by! we have been working sooo much, we just never stop! right now hermana tomco and I have the highest numbers in our district for investigators and contacts and lessons taught. We were figuring it out the other day too, that we´ve been walking about 12 miles everyday in between visiting all of our members and investigators!
Anyways I will fill you in with some highlights of this week! Monday night we had noche de hogar, with the Lopez family and for the treat I made brownies using grandma albrechts recipe and they loved them soooo much! haha Yanina, the daughter asked me for the recipe and I translated it into spanish for her so that was cool!
Then tuesday we met with our Brazilian family thats super interested and the mom and her two daughters have baptism dates! but then Creosa the mom told us she feels like she cant get baptized yet because her husband Jose´ still hasnt gotten divorced from his first wife in brazil. and him and creosa got married in paraguay so their marriage is valid here but not in brazil but she feels like its not right until they have that done for her to get baptized. so we are praying things work out for them!
Then wednesday was our busiest day, we had sooo many lessons but as we were walking around, everything just was like beautiful to me! I was just noticing all the details of peoples houses and i was just picturing that these places would be like the backdrop for an anthropologie magazine haha me and hermana tomco were just pointing out every little thing we loved as we walked around that day!
oh, we also met this grandma, Liduvenia, and she definitely has a pet parrot that talks in spanish haha and it knows how to chant the chant for Olympia the futbol team! haha it just sits there and goes Par A Guay! ya! ya! ya! and then whistles! haha she lives in like this old farm house, and there are chickens everywhere and she has a well out in front of their house, oh and she has cows that just wander around the house too haha
Thursday, was fun, we had lunch with hermana Limpia, shes a recent convert and guess what we got to eat... rooster haha I didnt know it was until after I ate it, I thought it was like beef but now I can add that to the list of weird things Ive eaten in my life haha
Saturday we hit the wall and were soooo tired. and when we were going to bed that night our neighbors were just blasting their music. Everyone does that here, they have these huge sound systems in their tiny houses haha but when someone listens to music that means everyone else gets to listen too! and the funny thing is they are really into 80s american music here! so saturday night we fell asleep listening to 80s rock haha and they were playing some beatles music too haha
yesterday we got to speak in church again! we have like an average of 60 people in church each sunday and it looks like the missionaries get to speak a lot haha we have soooo many less active members. I think theirs supposed to be about 150 in our ward but everyone is just lazy, they dont feel like walking so they wont come or if its too hot, they wont come or if its raining then no one does anything! haha we are working on just getting people committed. One lady we met with thats less active told us she´d come back to chruch if they dont give her a calling haha so that pretty much sums up what Ive been working on here!
Its crazy how time flies! I cant believe its already christmas! I hope everyone has a wonderful week! love you all! and merry christmas!
love
hermana meese
Monday, December 9, 2013
Firstborn in the Wliderness
so the title of this week is what my trainer calls me haha because im her first ¨daughter¨or sister thats shes trained haha I thought it was pretty funny!
anyways! this has been quite the week, its been super physically exausting. I think its safe to say ive never sweated so much in my entire life. Like living in paraguay you just have to be used to sweat running down your face from 6 in the morning until 10 at night.
but anyways i will just start with the first of the week and tell you about everything! last monday night we had family home evening with the acosta family and they live in this huge field with nothing around them and when it got dark, there were fireflies! i died! ive never seen them before and it was so cool! but then the other bugs started to come out and i had like a mini panic attack because they were flying down my shirt and up my skirt and getting stuck in my hair and i couldnt escape! it mustve been quite a sight to see!
Tuesday we had a fun lunch with hermana gomez and she has all these friends that are probably about 80 and 90 and only speak guarani. but this one grandma was sitting there talking to me and pinching me and telling me she wants me to date her son haha I didnt completely understand what she was saying and i heard her say paraguayan and i just replied, i like the people in paraguay theyre really nice! and then she was like my sons paraguayan! you need a paraguayn boyfriend! haha it was so funny! it was also elder hunsakers birthday that day and so we decided to make him chocolate chip cookies! but chocolate chips dont exist here so we went and bought all the packets of rocklets they had at the dispensa. haha rocklets are kinda like m&ms but then brown sugar doesnt exist either but hermana tomco is genius and we made our own with regular sugar and molasses! haha
okay so wednesday we died. it was soooo hot. elder hunsaker got mad at us because we got sunburned because we didnt have hats but you have to have a hat because the sun can make you physically sick here. but wednesday was one of those days that every single one of our investigators appointments fell through. and we had a girl in our ward who was going to take us to the bishops house but she didnt know how to get there so we ended up getting lost for about 2 and a half hours and then on our way home i stepped in an ant pile and i never knew getting bit by ants hurt so bad! they got my whole foot and leg! and then we missed the bus to get home and it was dark so we ran the 45 minute walk home! once again, physically exausted.
but it was all worth it on thursday because we had a conference in asuncion and i finally got your package! thank you so much for all the pictures and notes! it made my day! and mom i dont know how you knew but it is soooo hard to find notebooks here and pens! and i needed some so thank you! on the bus ride home from asuncion all the elders were looking at cades chart of sports stuff and it was so funny some of the elders were like what? the world series already happened?! haha I also got a letter from aunt becky and i was so thankful for that! its exactly what I needed to hear! she just told me her experiences on the first few months of her mission and they were things i had been feeling and it was comforting to know she felt the same way! so that was special!
we met with our super interested family saturday night! we taught them about the plan of salvation and they are so excited about learning! this is what makes it all worth it. the daughter ana victoria, when we walked in started telling us she read like 12 chapters last night out of nephi and then went back and read the intro and testimony of joseph smith and the three witnesses and then the daughters came to church with us again yesterday! they have a baptism date for december 28th! we just need to get the dad interested in learning about it now too so the whole family can do it together! also saturday night they had us eat dinner with them and she made us brazilian food with like rice beans and chicken and pineapple juice and it was soooo good! im so thankful for the people that feed us!
then yesterday was another physically exhausting day. we woke up at 5 so we could make the hour walk to meet an investigator that was going to come to church with us but when she showed up she wasnt home so we made the hour walk back to the church and we just walked and sweated and sweated and walked. haha this weekend here is kinda crazy! yesterday was the day of celebration for Caukupe, shes like a virgin they worship here and in the city of Caukupe is this statue that everyone pilgramiges too and shes supposed to give you a miracle, but its more of an excuse to party. firecrackers go off all hours of the day and everyone just blasts their music and drinks! there were sooooo many drunk people while we were walking home last night haha oh but the best was last night we were like out of food and gonna make some rice for dinner when we got home but as we were walking down the ruta, norma and angels family (the family we baptized) got off the collectivo and were going to anothers members house for family night and norma pulled out some empanadas she had just made and gave us each one! it was honestly a miracle! once again so grateful for the members that keep us fed! she is such a sweet lady!
so thats a week in the life of a missionary in paraguay haha i hope everyones doing good! love you all! the gospel is amazing! especailly seeing how it changes peoples lives! the church is true and the book is blue!
love you all so much!
love
hermana meese
anyways! this has been quite the week, its been super physically exausting. I think its safe to say ive never sweated so much in my entire life. Like living in paraguay you just have to be used to sweat running down your face from 6 in the morning until 10 at night.
but anyways i will just start with the first of the week and tell you about everything! last monday night we had family home evening with the acosta family and they live in this huge field with nothing around them and when it got dark, there were fireflies! i died! ive never seen them before and it was so cool! but then the other bugs started to come out and i had like a mini panic attack because they were flying down my shirt and up my skirt and getting stuck in my hair and i couldnt escape! it mustve been quite a sight to see!
Tuesday we had a fun lunch with hermana gomez and she has all these friends that are probably about 80 and 90 and only speak guarani. but this one grandma was sitting there talking to me and pinching me and telling me she wants me to date her son haha I didnt completely understand what she was saying and i heard her say paraguayan and i just replied, i like the people in paraguay theyre really nice! and then she was like my sons paraguayan! you need a paraguayn boyfriend! haha it was so funny! it was also elder hunsakers birthday that day and so we decided to make him chocolate chip cookies! but chocolate chips dont exist here so we went and bought all the packets of rocklets they had at the dispensa. haha rocklets are kinda like m&ms but then brown sugar doesnt exist either but hermana tomco is genius and we made our own with regular sugar and molasses! haha
okay so wednesday we died. it was soooo hot. elder hunsaker got mad at us because we got sunburned because we didnt have hats but you have to have a hat because the sun can make you physically sick here. but wednesday was one of those days that every single one of our investigators appointments fell through. and we had a girl in our ward who was going to take us to the bishops house but she didnt know how to get there so we ended up getting lost for about 2 and a half hours and then on our way home i stepped in an ant pile and i never knew getting bit by ants hurt so bad! they got my whole foot and leg! and then we missed the bus to get home and it was dark so we ran the 45 minute walk home! once again, physically exausted.
but it was all worth it on thursday because we had a conference in asuncion and i finally got your package! thank you so much for all the pictures and notes! it made my day! and mom i dont know how you knew but it is soooo hard to find notebooks here and pens! and i needed some so thank you! on the bus ride home from asuncion all the elders were looking at cades chart of sports stuff and it was so funny some of the elders were like what? the world series already happened?! haha I also got a letter from aunt becky and i was so thankful for that! its exactly what I needed to hear! she just told me her experiences on the first few months of her mission and they were things i had been feeling and it was comforting to know she felt the same way! so that was special!
we met with our super interested family saturday night! we taught them about the plan of salvation and they are so excited about learning! this is what makes it all worth it. the daughter ana victoria, when we walked in started telling us she read like 12 chapters last night out of nephi and then went back and read the intro and testimony of joseph smith and the three witnesses and then the daughters came to church with us again yesterday! they have a baptism date for december 28th! we just need to get the dad interested in learning about it now too so the whole family can do it together! also saturday night they had us eat dinner with them and she made us brazilian food with like rice beans and chicken and pineapple juice and it was soooo good! im so thankful for the people that feed us!
then yesterday was another physically exhausting day. we woke up at 5 so we could make the hour walk to meet an investigator that was going to come to church with us but when she showed up she wasnt home so we made the hour walk back to the church and we just walked and sweated and sweated and walked. haha this weekend here is kinda crazy! yesterday was the day of celebration for Caukupe, shes like a virgin they worship here and in the city of Caukupe is this statue that everyone pilgramiges too and shes supposed to give you a miracle, but its more of an excuse to party. firecrackers go off all hours of the day and everyone just blasts their music and drinks! there were sooooo many drunk people while we were walking home last night haha oh but the best was last night we were like out of food and gonna make some rice for dinner when we got home but as we were walking down the ruta, norma and angels family (the family we baptized) got off the collectivo and were going to anothers members house for family night and norma pulled out some empanadas she had just made and gave us each one! it was honestly a miracle! once again so grateful for the members that keep us fed! she is such a sweet lady!
so thats a week in the life of a missionary in paraguay haha i hope everyones doing good! love you all! the gospel is amazing! especailly seeing how it changes peoples lives! the church is true and the book is blue!
love you all so much!
love
hermana meese
Monday, December 2, 2013
My second week in Paraguay!
okay i like wrote notes all week to remember everything! haha so i´ll start with last pday. we spent the day in Luque and went to the grocery store which is soooo different! haha you have to check in your backpack at the front door before you go in and there are guys guarding the doors with guns but then to get anything like hygiene like makeup or toothepaste its all behind a counter and you have to get a number and then you tell the lady what you need and she puts it in a bag that has a lock on it and then you take the bag up to the checkout where they take the lock off when you pay haha also, you can pay like half the payment of the groceries and then come back like a week later and pay off the rest haha i was so confused when they asked me how many checks i wanted but thats what they were asking.
so after we had family night with the ayalas, and since their baptism you can totally feel the spirit in their home! i love them so much! i feel at peace when we are there. we sit on their front porch and hermana norma always makes us this yummy smoothie juice thing haha
so then tuesday, we have district meeting! there are 6 of us all together, 4 elders and us and we have to take the bus to the city of Limpio for it. and at it our district leader teaches us things to help us be better missionaries. this week we learned how to teach catholics about why we cant worship the virgin mary. soooo helpful! everyones catholic here and so we talk about this almost every lesson. also we went out proselyting with Clara a girl from our ward thats 15 and she helped us to get to know our area better. this is the only way to do it because some places its just like a trail through the trees and theres no addresses or street names at all so its like go to the yellow house then turn right and then go far until the big tree and turn left haha
the youth in our ward are so awesome! they are friends with us missionaries and always want to help us out!
so wednesday we had rain and oh my gosh. the thunderstorms here are insane!!!!! the thunder is so loud it honestly makes you vibrate and it makes the windows shake! and it just pours! me and hermana tomco are going to go buy some rainboots today! because when it rains its deep mud. all the roads are like sandy dirt so when it rains theres soooo much mud!
on thurdsay hma. tomco got really sick from something she ate so we had to spend the day at the house. she was too sick to get up but i just scrubbed the house so clean the whole day! haha its so old no matter how much i cleaned anything it still looked dirty but at least now I know its like sanatized haha and then about 3 in the afternoon i remembered it was thanksgiving so i make a cake mix we had and later that night we brought it to the elders!
okay now for friday. highlight of the week! we found this family and they just recently moved here from concepcion but before that they lived in brazil. the mom like speaks a mix of spanish and portuguese so its really hard for me to understand her haha but anyways its a family of 6 with a mom and dad, who are married which is a miracle here! and 4 kids that are 18 16 12 and 1 two boys and two girls and they were so ready to hear our message. right from the beginning they asked us, why are there so many churches and the bible says theres only one god and how are we supposed to know which one is true? and the mom told us about how even though they went to the catholic church she didnt have her children baptized when they were babies because she doesnt think theyve sinned and it should be their decision. (this is by the way one of the hardest things for catholics to get past is that theyve already been baptized) so we explained to her the restoration and she was like si o si, este es verdad. yes this is true, definitely true. we gave her a book of mormon and said she would read and pray and then yesterday the mom and daughter came to church with us!!! the dad and son didint because they were pouring the cement for their driveway. they live in a newer house they built themselves. here they are considered chu chi, which means theyre rich. this is especially true becuase they have a car! first person ive met with one here so far! but the mom loved church and she said the whole family is coming back next week!
so after that we went to coordinacion misional at hermanos flors house and oh my goodness, people live in the most humble places. hno. flor is the ward mission leader, has been a member a year now and lives with his wife and 2 kids that are 2 and 6 months. but theyre house is a lean to kind of thing. it has dirt floor and its made out of pieces of thin wood that look like they came off of some packaging for a fridge or something and there roof is made out of pieces of tin and tarp and they have one bed they all sleep on and the house is so small thats all that fits in it. but we sat there and his wife made us matte dulce. matte is this herb drink they drink here we arent aloud to drink the real thing because it can make us sick because were not used to it but with matte dulce they put coconut shavings in the cup and then pour hot milk on it and you take turns passing around the matte cup drinking it, I think its the coolest thing! haha and its delicious!
so then friday we met a menos activo familia, a family thats less active and the moms name is hermana cabrera, they live out in the middle of nowhwere and they speak more quarani then english but hma. cabrera doesnt know how to read so we are going to teach her so then she can read the book of mormon with her family!
so that was my week! time goes by so fast here! i feel like ive learned so much this week and i wish i could record everything for you like the sounds and smells and the feel of the heat for you guys to experience! i will just have to bring you all back here one day! haha love you all so much! i pray for you everyday! talk to you next week!
love hermana meese
so after we had family night with the ayalas, and since their baptism you can totally feel the spirit in their home! i love them so much! i feel at peace when we are there. we sit on their front porch and hermana norma always makes us this yummy smoothie juice thing haha
so then tuesday, we have district meeting! there are 6 of us all together, 4 elders and us and we have to take the bus to the city of Limpio for it. and at it our district leader teaches us things to help us be better missionaries. this week we learned how to teach catholics about why we cant worship the virgin mary. soooo helpful! everyones catholic here and so we talk about this almost every lesson. also we went out proselyting with Clara a girl from our ward thats 15 and she helped us to get to know our area better. this is the only way to do it because some places its just like a trail through the trees and theres no addresses or street names at all so its like go to the yellow house then turn right and then go far until the big tree and turn left haha
the youth in our ward are so awesome! they are friends with us missionaries and always want to help us out!
so wednesday we had rain and oh my gosh. the thunderstorms here are insane!!!!! the thunder is so loud it honestly makes you vibrate and it makes the windows shake! and it just pours! me and hermana tomco are going to go buy some rainboots today! because when it rains its deep mud. all the roads are like sandy dirt so when it rains theres soooo much mud!
on thurdsay hma. tomco got really sick from something she ate so we had to spend the day at the house. she was too sick to get up but i just scrubbed the house so clean the whole day! haha its so old no matter how much i cleaned anything it still looked dirty but at least now I know its like sanatized haha and then about 3 in the afternoon i remembered it was thanksgiving so i make a cake mix we had and later that night we brought it to the elders!
okay now for friday. highlight of the week! we found this family and they just recently moved here from concepcion but before that they lived in brazil. the mom like speaks a mix of spanish and portuguese so its really hard for me to understand her haha but anyways its a family of 6 with a mom and dad, who are married which is a miracle here! and 4 kids that are 18 16 12 and 1 two boys and two girls and they were so ready to hear our message. right from the beginning they asked us, why are there so many churches and the bible says theres only one god and how are we supposed to know which one is true? and the mom told us about how even though they went to the catholic church she didnt have her children baptized when they were babies because she doesnt think theyve sinned and it should be their decision. (this is by the way one of the hardest things for catholics to get past is that theyve already been baptized) so we explained to her the restoration and she was like si o si, este es verdad. yes this is true, definitely true. we gave her a book of mormon and said she would read and pray and then yesterday the mom and daughter came to church with us!!! the dad and son didint because they were pouring the cement for their driveway. they live in a newer house they built themselves. here they are considered chu chi, which means theyre rich. this is especially true becuase they have a car! first person ive met with one here so far! but the mom loved church and she said the whole family is coming back next week!
so after that we went to coordinacion misional at hermanos flors house and oh my goodness, people live in the most humble places. hno. flor is the ward mission leader, has been a member a year now and lives with his wife and 2 kids that are 2 and 6 months. but theyre house is a lean to kind of thing. it has dirt floor and its made out of pieces of thin wood that look like they came off of some packaging for a fridge or something and there roof is made out of pieces of tin and tarp and they have one bed they all sleep on and the house is so small thats all that fits in it. but we sat there and his wife made us matte dulce. matte is this herb drink they drink here we arent aloud to drink the real thing because it can make us sick because were not used to it but with matte dulce they put coconut shavings in the cup and then pour hot milk on it and you take turns passing around the matte cup drinking it, I think its the coolest thing! haha and its delicious!
so then friday we met a menos activo familia, a family thats less active and the moms name is hermana cabrera, they live out in the middle of nowhwere and they speak more quarani then english but hma. cabrera doesnt know how to read so we are going to teach her so then she can read the book of mormon with her family!
so that was my week! time goes by so fast here! i feel like ive learned so much this week and i wish i could record everything for you like the sounds and smells and the feel of the heat for you guys to experience! i will just have to bring you all back here one day! haha love you all so much! i pray for you everyday! talk to you next week!
love hermana meese
One of the rainstorms this week. Jasmine says this picture doesn't do it justice at all though!
!
Hermana Tomco.
Making hot chocolate in a pan because they don't have any pots.
The brownies they made the elders on Thanksgiving.
Washing her clothes!
Hermana Meese and Hermana Tomco eating some street food.
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