·         Goodbye CCM..... Hello Paraguay!‏

Ok I have a lot to write like always. So I will be flying to Paraguay Tuesday morning at like....well way way early! haha So I will be packing on Monday and will only be able to give you a small farewell letter like the one you guys got when i arrived here. And then the next time you will hear from me will be when I am in the mission field! ISNT THAT CRAZY!!!!!! It’s about an hour to two hour flight from here to there. And I will be leaving with all the others. I’ll be fine and I will let you know how it went.

So I wrote last time about getting a new room. I have four new roommates. From Argentina, Brazil, Peru, and Columbia. They are awesome but they are kinda crazy. For example the Hermana from Argentina is constantly going around tickling everyone. And these girls sleep through anything!!!!!!! We try to wake them up in the morning, or when the alarms go off, and it doesn’t even phase them. Also the Hermana from Brazil came here speaking absolutely no Spanish. They say that you can still understand Spanish but i can tell she is struggling! She is so sweet though. And she is teaching us some Portuguese words. Super nice girls. And most of the Latinos that came in this time around are going to either my mission or the Uruguay, Montevideo mission. In this new room my window overlooks the temple. I sleep on the top bunk and literally I go to sleep looking at the temple and wake up looking at the temple. IT’S AWESOME!!!!!!

So last Thursday I had the cool opportunity to go through the temple again with my roommates and all the other girls. We went through with all the girls I came here with.  It was so super spiritual! I love these girls so much. And when we all get home from our missions we have plans to get together and attend as many of the elders homecomings as possible. They are so awesome.

Did I tell you that I would be getting a new evening teacher because my old ones contract was finished? Well last Friday my class got to be the guinea pigs. And we had three different teachers, applying for jobs here at the MTC teach us. All of them did well. One of them is from Argentina and served his mission in St. George Utah! He did awesome. Our new teacher though served his mission in Barcelona, Spain. He is an awesome teacher.

 Also guess what weird food I ate this last week. It’s called morzilla..........BLOOD SAUSAGE!!!!!! It is literally a sausage looking thing that is cooked blood. WAY DISGUSTING!!!!! It was like eating refried beans as far as texture goes, but it is super disgusting.

So this last Saturday we went proselyting in our new area. Hmmmm how would I describe it......... RICH!!!!!! It was way hard. Every door we rang, they would talk to us through their microphones, and some of the houses had cameras that they would look at you through. We really didn’t have a whole lot of luck and people were a lot more mean. We rang the doorbell of one house and literally the guy opened the door, gave us the death glare of the year, and shook his head back and forth as he slammed it on our faces. hahahahahahaha I will never forget the way he looked at us. We also had a guy who when we rang his doorbell said I don’t believe in god and am now asking you to leave my house. WHOA!!! At least in my last area as I was leaving or being rejected it was like, "Have a good day, Chica!" And they would smile. Well not this are. This area was rich, even for America standards. They had pools, and granite sidewalks, these huge gates that surround their homes. There weren’t even that many dogs in this area. Weird! Anyways I will have to let you know how it goes this Saturday in the same area.

Guess what my district did this last Tuesday? An English fast. We went the whole day without speaking any English. SUPER DIFFICULT!!!!! By the end of the day my head was killing me!!! But it helped me with my Spanish a whole lot. The teachers were telling us that we would be three months ahead of what someone from Provo would be on their Spanish right now! CRAZY! I can understand at least 70 percent of what people say to me and I can only say about 40 percent. And the only things I can talk about are doctrine things. Not hair dryer or cleaning or when to turn off the light in the room. hahahahaha well that was definitely interesting. I will and am getting better. Also we had an IP with one of our teachers and I pretty much directed the lesson, and said a lot of words in Spanish. It was awesome!!!!! It’s by far the best one that we have ever done. I bore testimony of the truths of the Book of Mormon and how if he would read it and pray about it he could know for himself. And I asked if he would follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized when he knew they were true. He said yes. It was awesome.

Ok last of all.... THE BROADCAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All right family! That broadcast you guys watched is now going to be applied to yours and my life. We, as a family are going to study Preach My Gospel together. Get out the Preach My Gospel, it may be in my room, and this is what we are going to do. Every Monday or Sunday night i want you to study something from it. This Monday I want you to study the first presidency message. I watched a devotional by Elder Holland that was given January of 2009 in the Provo MTC. He said that preach my gospel was designed to convert the missionary, not the investigator. Why do you think that is important? After you read the first presidency message I want you to turn to page1. What is my purpose as a missionary! Guess what guys... you are all going to be serving a mission right along with me. And with your studying of these things and your responses, you and I will be able to learn and grow in the gospel together. So this Monday I want each one of you to tell me. 1. Why is preach my gospel meant for converting a missionary. 2. Read, along with the first presidency message, about Dan Jones. Look on the internet about him. I don’t know who he is and I’m curious. 3. Memorize the purpose of a missionary. Specifically the boys. It’s super simple. AND DONT COMPLAIN BECAUSE I HAVE TO MEMORIZE IT IN SPANISH. I wish I would have known it before my mission. It applies to everyone. These things in the missionary purpose are things that we’ve done and will be doing. I am going to ask you why this is even important for us. Give me your answers. Read the scriptures together. I have a lot to learn being here on a mission. I hope you will do this with me. It won’t take very long. We in Utah take the gospel way for granted. When I go proselyting there are so many people that are lost and sad looking. The world is so dirty. When people ask me and my companions where we are from, we can say the temple and they know exactly where that is, even those who aren’t members of the church. Want to know why? Because, it stands out from the world. The temple grounds are clean, its white, and the people who are walking in and out of that building are happy. These people recognize the difference. It puts a whole new meaning in stepping out of the world. I never realized that before my mission. So, because you all know who you are and why your here, help those that don’t know or have seemed to forgot. WE can do that by making sure those people around us know we are children of God. That there is absolutely nothing that the Lord won’t forgive and that he never forgets us. I’m not asking you to go around living and breathing doctrine like I am right now but I want you guys to realize and remember that the joy and the blessings we have are never to be forgotten. I love the quote by David Burton...” Live in a way so that people that know you but don’t know Christ, will want to know Christ because they know you”. I know this church is true and I love you guys so so so so so much!!!

Love, Hermana Ross

 

Yo sé que este Evangelio es verdad y yo agradecido por  la oportunidad yo servir en este Evangelio. Amo este Iglesia con todo corazon. MUCHO AMO, Hermana Ross.