Semana de cambios.

 

Sent:	Mon 1/27/14 8:40 AM

I have had one whole transfer here in this area and not one baptism. But we´re working on it. I'm working on humbling myself and consecration. I think that's how you spell it. If I give up something that maybe is keeping us from being able to have a baptism, it will help us become better missionaries. I'm not perfect but I'm trying to improve. So things that I forgot to tell all you of you. The shirts fit fine mom. I love them. Thank you. And for Easter I would love if you could send me another thing to send photos. yeah it broke.....Gosh dang it. I have some awesome photos that I want to send to you guys. And you don't have to worry about sending something really big. Its hard to pack everything my bags for transfers. I'm finding that a lot of things that I probably didn't even need to bring with me to the mission. HA. So maybe photos of the family and a thing that I can use to send photos. And I need to find a way that I can buy some more garments.  So you know the mesh garments are my best friends here. I'm so grateful that I brought these two pair that I have with me here.

So this week was really a crazy week. On Wednesday we had to go to the mission home to have an evaluation of how our training is going. Our district leader told us that we had to be there at 7 in the morning. Well we live like 5 minutes by bus from the mission home. So we left our apartment at 6 45 to take the bus. There are like 5 different types of buses that we can take to get there. But every single bus was packed full with people. There is no way that they were going to accept us on the bus. So when it was five minutes before 7 I turned to my companion and told her, "Well, were going to walk"'. So my poor companion and I practically ran to the offices but walking took us a good 45 minutes to get there. We were so dang nervous. So we walk all the way to the office and nobody is there. Only the other sisters that are in our district. Well we had come to find out that we didn't have to be to the office until 8 30. It was absolutely crazy!!!!!!! My companion and I were seriously dying. And we are so blessed. During this examine President asked all of the new missionaries if they were OK. My companion came up to me afterward and thanked me for being a good trainer. She said that her first day in the mission she was praying that she wouldn't get a bad trainer.

But the cool thing that we had the opportunity to do this week was an open house. They have a new program that the mission is doing that they are opening the churches and turning them into a visiting center. They are giving the people here in Paraguay the opportunity to see what it would be like to visit the visiting center in Utah. They put up a large picture of Christ in the sacrament room, Where they are able to hear his words to them. Exactly the same that they do in Utah. Only in Spanish. All of the sisters in our district were able to give tours. So we would welcome them, have them listen to the words of Christ, and then we took them to another room where we explained about the church. There were big billboards all around. Then we would take them to the baptism font where there were two elders dressed in white. They explained about baptism, and then they had the chance to give references. We did it for another ward, not our ward but we will be doing this in Ettiene in four weeks. A couple missionaries are doing it in all of the churches in Paraguay. The Arnolds from West Valley, Utah. They are super funny. And the sister Arnold couldn't speak Spanish so I was her translator for part of the day. I didn't know that they are doing this but it is really cool. The Christus looks just like in the visitors center but it is just a painting. But the ward that we did this received 58 references and 15 were references from the people who weren't members that went through, saying that they wanted the missionaries to come and teach them. The gospel is spreading super fast. Its incredible. So many things are happening right now. So did you guys hear about the 10 sister missionaries in the Philippines? And Everything is super good here in the mission world. This week I completed 8 months in the mission. I will be half way done in one month. AHHHHHH. Well hope everything is going good. 

Love you all so much,

Hermana Ross

A Week of UPs and Downs!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Sent:	Mon 1/20/14 7:51 AM

Hello family. I will be completing 8 months in the mission this week. I really don't know how I feel about this.

So how do I even begin to tell you guys what happened this week. So we found the girl that was going to be baptized last week and had moved away in our area and we began to teach her again. She wanted to be baptized this Saturday but I didn't feel like it was really going to happen. I felt like she was playing us to get on the good side of the family of her boyfriend. The day after we taught her we found her black and blue. Her left eye was swollen and purple. Her boyfriend had beaten her for looking in his phone. I didn't understand really well because  a lot of the lesson was in Guarani. She is now living in another city with her family. I cant do anything about it. But this week we put 5 people with baptismal dates. Yesterday we had a huge rain storm. And my companion and I got caught in it. When we left the house it was sunny when we came back we were drenched and exhausted. But the good thing is that we were able to teach A new investigator. So this is an interesting story. She and her family of 6 were contacts in front of their house. We put   contact information the day that we were going to pass by. And she wasn't there. We passed by another day and she wasn't there. We passed by another day and she told us to pass by another day. I was getting super frustrated because the people we are teaching right now aren't completing their invitations. My companion has the faith of a new missionary because when we aren't doing anything she wants to pass by every single investigator. They hardly ever receive us and I was getting so frustrated. I was at the point yesterday that I told my companion that if new contact didn't receive us yesterday that it was going to be the last time that we were going to pass by for her. So we went to her house and she received us. We began to teach her and she told us in the middle of the lesson that she wanted to be really frank with us. She told us that every time that we passed by she lied to us. She could have received us every single time. But then she told us that every time almost immediately after we left her house someone in her family became sick. She wanted to know why. And she said that she prayed and felt that the reason why was because she didn't receive the word of god in her home. She made a promise with god to accept us the next time we came by. And she did. She didn't know that we were Mormons. She lived in another area before and received the missionaries but never could go to church or be baptized. But she likes the message. Her family is amazing. We are going to baptize them. They accepted a baptismal date in February. So those miracles really do happen. ha ha I need to have the faith that my companion has. 

I am so sorry that my letters are getting shorter and shorter. I don't know what I can write. I've become so accustomed to the life here that anything that happens to me has happened before or really isn't that interesting. I am working and we are praying to see miracles these days. I love you guys so so so much.

Love you all,

Hermana Ross

oh yeah I got everything in the packages. I pod and all. 

Feliz Navidad!!!!!!!! ( Yes I know it is January 13, 2014)

 

Merry Christmas from Paraguay. This girl got all of those packages this last Tuesday. It was interesting taking the bus back to the apartment with those boxes but thanks to the elders in my district we did it alright. So it turns out that the office has had these packages for a good long time. Since the end of November. But with the cambios and the changes, they didn't ever get around to sending them. The good thing is that my zone right now includes the offices. So we had zone conference, I asked about the packages, and they were there. And  I didn't have to pay one single thing for the packages. Tuesday we opened them with my companion. You should of seen her face. She was super super excited. I am so grateful that you guys sent her some things. She didn't get anything for Christmas. Did I tell you that her real name is Flor. So the flower necklace that you gave her was perfect. And she loved the sweedish fish. She ate them all in one day. So thank you all for the love and the gifts. It meant a lot to me. 

So this week was kind of a downer. I feel like I'm really not a very good trainer. I feel unworthy to be doing this. Our baptism fell through. She moved to a different house and didn't tell us anything. Yesterday we found her crying and she didn't want to talk to us. Its hard. My poor companion feels like the mission is a lot harder than she ever thought it would be. We don't have any baptisms lined up for January and I feel the pressure from the leaders. But I know that every time that something bad happens, something good is right around the corner. The good thing is that these members are super supportive. The family that I skyped you on Chirstams is amazing.  I love them. We eat those Sundays with them. We have like 20 young women that are in this ward and they are helping us like nothing else. The girl that went to Weber state is the president of the young women and she is pushing her girls to help the Hermanas in the ward. She is AMAZING!!!! But we just have to be obedient and we are going to see miracles. 

So in this area we have lunch every single day with the members. And sometimes with investigators. Fridays we have lunch and dinner. For dinner the bishop of our ward called pizza hut to deliver pizza and pop to our apartment. IT WAS DELICIOUS!!!!!! This week we will be doing divisions with the sister leaders. My trainer is in our district and is a sister leader. So we will be working with them this Wednesday. Life sometimes doesn't work out how we want it to. Satan is as real as ever and I can feel he's working hard to frustrate our district. But we are going to work harder and help the people in this area. Cool fact in our mission for the year 2013, we baptized 1,300 and more. HAHAHA,I don't remember the number exactly but it was a lot. And this year we are going to be baptizing more than that. I'm breaking out of the shell. Here I call people on the phone without fear and I'm speaking in a different language. In the first lessons i invite people to be baptized and yeah. I'm definitely not the same girl that I was before coming to the mission. I still have a lot that I want to change, I want to be a completely different person when I come home. And I know that I can do that if I apply the life of Jesus Christ to my life. Thanks for everything family. Sorry my letters are getting shorter and shorter. I don't know if that is because I'm forgetting English or I'm just used to the usual routine of the mission and have nothing to write. Sorry pretty boring. 

Loved hearing about the temple. hope all is well,

Hermana Ross

 

Yeah! Packages for Christmas!
Yes, I know it is January!

Christmas in January!

My Sweet companion with treats from her package.

I am feeling the love! These are notes from my family written on a
long, long, long roll of paper.

NEW YEAR; NEW BAUTISMOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sent:	Mon 1/06/14 7:47 AM

Hello family, so much to write.  Its weird to think that in less than a year I will be coming home to you guys. And right before Christmas too. I think that it really is a great blessing that I will only have one Christmas here. I'm dying of heat!!!!!!!! hope you all are freezing to death. hahahah jk. So This week was good. We are seeing a lot of miracles here. This Saturday we are going to have our first baptism. She is 16 years old. We found her this week she assisted church Sunday and will be baptized this Saturday. YAY!!!!! We have so many people in this area that are so prepared for baptism and are like one Sunday away from being baptized. The thing that is hard here in Paraguay is to get the people to come to church. But the best part of this area is that the members are so so so excited to help the sisters. we have references a full!!!!!!!! I don't want to leave this area. My companion and I are not a whole lot alike but she is a lot like my sister. We are super comfortable with each other. She's a worker. So something funny. our apartment is right next to a club. And every single Saturday we hear tons and tons of music. For example last Saturday I fell asleep to everybody was"kung fu fighting" and work up to YMCA. Well for new years they were dancing away. But at 12 we woke up to something totally different. FIREWORKS!!!!!!! It was so cool the two of us woke up, not intentionally, but from our fifth floor apartment saw Paraguay light up. It made me think about how this is a new year and that I will be spending it here in Paraguay. And how I never in my life thought that I would be in a place like this speaking a different language, living a totally different life. Its incredible, the mission. So to answer some more of your questions. I haven't received your packages yet. I will get them eventually. Don't worry about it. Right now we don't have anyone to wash our clothes so we are washing them in the kitchen sink and hanging them up in the living room to dry. The houses here in Paraguay are designed for the heat so the air from outside dries the clothes pretty fast. I will have to take some photos of the house to send to you guys. So the shower wasn't draining in our apartment and we have been bathing with buckets of cold water for the last 3 weeks. Friday I went and got a stick and lifted up the top of the drain. We took a spoon and scooped out a good 2 cups of rocks. The apartment is brand new. So the men who were building the apartment didn't do a very good job of cleaning it. They just left the rocks down there and put on the top of the drain. oh well it drains now. Right now my mind is totally in tons of different logares. WE have almuerzo every single day. Bishop  every other Friday will take us to dinner at a restraunt that we want to eat.Love you all so so sos so much. Say hello to family for me. I sent a letter for you guys for Christmas because II don't have the time to put together a package.  Love you all so so so so much! 

Hermana Ross

 

p.s. another funny story!

WE have a family that are new converts that have little girls that are super rambuncious. Well we have only taught this family like three times and yesterday in church they were running around the sacrament room durring sacrament meeting yelling HERMANA ROSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How come they can remember my name? The elder that was teaching them more than I was there and they dont remember his name but they remember me. hahaha they are little stinkers but they are super cute too. Love you all ,

Hermana Ross

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

 

Sent:	Mon 12/30/13 7:49 AM

 

So first off I'm sorry I cried a lot when we talked. I was so nervous. It was crazy to think that I hadn't talked to you guys in 7 months! But I will be talking to you guys again in 5 months and the next Christmas I will be home with you guys. Christmas day was good. We worked a normal day.  The people of Paraguay really don't put as much emphasis on Christmas as they do in the states. It was a great blessing. Christmas eve after we talked we ate with the family that let us use their computer to Skype.  They are so incredible The second day in this area we found them. They put us in their car and drove us to about 12 different friends houses and introduced us. It was incredible. They have only been members for about 8 years. They have a son that is in Brazil serving a mission. And dad the mom wanted to send you pictures of our Sunday dinner, last night. HAHAHA she added you as a friend.. She is super funny.  They are going to be a great help in this work. They are amazing. But anyways Christmas eve we ate ice cream and watched fireworks from our five story level house that the neighbors did. That was something that we heard all night long was fireworks. That is something that I hear in July. It felt more like the 4th than anything. So the Christmas party was awesome and super super hot. But they had it two different days. We had it Thursday and the other half of our mission had it Friday. There is no way that they could have every single missionary fit in the chapel at one time. We played volleyball and football and we climbed the hill it was super entertaining. President played soccer with us and his family came. They are so amazing. His son is hilarious. He has to be like 10 years old. They are wonderful. I haven't received my packages yet. But don't worry I will get them. I'm grateful that you told me you sent some stuff for my companion. Her family couldn't send her anything. She is so sweet. But she is mature too. She is 21 years old and we get along great. My last companion is in my last area with another Latin companion.  So time is flying by so freaking fast. I cant believe it. The area that I'm in right now is great. We are getting to know it really well. Just pray that I can do this. It is a little stressful because I know about the same as my companion and she is in training. But all will work out good. The elders in our ward are super angry because we have all the members in our area and we have all the almuerzos. I do feel a little bad because in my last ward we didn't have many members. But its a great area. I hope and wish that you all will have a great new year. This new year I will be here in Paraguay. Love you guys so so so so much! But I'm going to send you guys some pictures.

love you all.

Love, Hermana Ross

Some members from our new area and their new puppies.

My new companion and myself!

This is my nativity set that I hope to bring home.