150 Baptisms in our mission this week!!!

Hello family. Wow it sure sounds like you all had a really interesting week. Me too! But some cool news. Our mission baptized 150 people in the month of March. How cool is that? Maybe not one of them were my baptisms but its great to see that there are a whole lot of people who are accepting the gospel. Congratulations to the two boys from the ward who received their mission calls. Nate  will LOVE PARAGUAY. Rohihu Paraguay. That's I love Paraguay in Guarani. Just so you all know Guarani is really the language of Paraguay. Ive been lucky because the two areas where I have been are in the city and we speak a lot of Spanish. In the north mission you will see that it is a lot more poor and there is a lot more Guarani. When do they both leave?

 We´ve been having rain again. Hermana Hidalgo found an umbrella this week. Don't worry about sending one. But we´re all good. Just getting wet and trying to find new people. Ive seen a lot of happy and sad moments in this area. We have had to drop a lot of investigators that really weren't progressing.  Our 23 year old investigator is drinking again and doesn't want to hear from us. And we´re at a dead end again. But yesterday we prayed that the Lord would guide us to people who are ready...... and guess what he did. He lead us to a FAMILY!!!! Who have been to the church, who want to be baptized and who are willing to do the things the the lord has required them to do. Its a family of Five. (A mother.and a girl who is nine,  and a child who is 8 and and another child who is 7). They are amazing. The dad is a little less responsive to hear from us. Before he didn't like that the elders were passing by to teach his wife (girlfriend) the gospel. he is a little more responsive to us but they both need to get married. Tonight we are going to have a family night with them. Yesterday we also found a girl who is 15 years old and she told us. What do i have to do to enter into the church of Jesus Christ. We explained that she needed to be baptized like Jesus was baptized. She said.... When can i be baptized?..... She has never gone to church but she is going to be baptized on the 19th. I can feel it! I'm really excited for conference and that we are going to be able to take these people to hear from a prophet of god. Do you know how powerful it is to people who don't know the church to hear that there is a prophet who is guiding the people in the world like Moses or Noah. Ha ha Liz couldn't believe it! She is so excited to go with us Saturday and Sunday to hear the words or the prophets. But mom I didn't get to hear the women's conference. But it sounds like it was pretty amazing. 

Ha ha sorry I tried sending pictures with my camera and something else but it obviously doesn't work. We´ll have to see what happens. 

I can't wait to hear the conference talks. It is like my spirit is craving it. I wish i would have listened more to the prophets before i came on the mission. Because its not the same listening in Spanish then to hear and understand their actual voices. 

Hey if Nate has questions about Paraguay he or his family can ask me. but I think that I have told you guys a good amount of what happens here. Just prepare for the hottest days of your life! 

I'm so happy to hear from you guys and hear that you all strong and firm in the gospel of Jesus Christ. But i know that the church is true and that God is so aware of each and every one of us. I love to hear from you all. Thanks for the big letter. 

Love, Hermana Ross.

Crazy week.....y no bautismo,,,,

You guys know what. Satan sure loves to work when it means that someone wont be baptized. One sister wasn't baptized this week because her husband has yet to receive his license. We´re waiting for a miracle with them! But I can't do a thing about it and we have to keep going.

This week has been one of the craziest weeks of the mission for me. Monday we went to the offices to practice for a choir that my companion and I were in for a conference we had Wednesday with Elder Viñas. We sang, "I stand all amazed". but in Spanish...Asombro me da. Tuesday it RAINED!!!!!!!!!! NEVER IN MY LIFE HAVE I SEEN A RAIN LIKE THAT!!!!!!! We had to cancel our lunch because we couldn't cross the route because it was a river. Literally it was like the rapids. WE could have taken a boat to get to our lunch. I'm sure you guys could find on google videos of how CRAZY the streets are in Paraguay when it rains like that. And my poor companion really doesn't have clothing for the cold or for the rain. I gave her my umbrella for the day and I just used my rain jacket. But it was crazy. I have some pictures that I want to send you of how wet I was but I wish I could have taken a picture of how crazy the streets were. The water would easily been to my waist or above. Wednesday is the day we had the zone conference with Elder Viñas. He told us that the people we teach are our children. We need to treat them with love and care.  We have been teaching young man who is 23 years old. Sorry I don't know if I have told you guys this story yet but he has problems with the word or wisdom, but he really has a lot of faith in Christ. We didn't know what exactly we could do to help him stop drinking. So we took the picture of Jesus Christ where he is leaving the tomb. Its the picture that is on the pamphlet of the plan of salvation and told him that if he drank he would have to tear the picture in half. He looked at us in shock and straight up told us that he wouldn't be ripping the picture. We told him that every time he drinks it is like he is really denying Jesus Christ. And making him suffer for his sins again and again. When we returned to teach him yesterday the picture was there and it hadn't been torn. He told us that he skipped going to hang out with his friends to watch soccer because he knew that he would be tempted to drink and he would have to tear the picture in half. This worked really great for him and is a great idea for any other missionary!  But the conference was great with elder Viñas. Thursday we found out that our dear sister wouldn't be getting baptized this week. Friday was a normal day with lots of walking to get to know our new area. Saturday we had another opportunity to go to the hospital to help with operation sunrise. HAHAHA funny story of the week. We went to the hospital in normal clothes but with our badges. We entered a bus and the moment we entered two rappers entered after us. We sat down while these rappers asked the bus driver if they could rap on the bus. HAHAHA They were doing improv. Well the rap was about the lovely sister missionaries that were sitting in the front of the bus, the hermana Ross, and the Hermana Hidalgo, and something about José Smith, and Jesus Christ. Well the whole bus liked it and they earned a good tip from almost everyone. I never thought that I would see that in my mission but it was interesting. After they ended I couldn't get the drunk guy who was in front of me to stop asking me to marry him. He kept saying that he was always in love with the rubias con ojos azules. Blondes with blue eyes. HAHA I am an outsider here even though I've been here for a good 10 months. When we were going to the hospital we totally left the mission on accident and had to take 4 different buses to get to the hospital. Well to say the least it was an interesting day. Sunday we didn't have any one of our investigators that came to church! AHHHH frustrating. But we keep going. I'm going to be sending you guys some pictures to you guys today. so hopefully you will forgive me for the short letter. 

I ask God every day that you can receive the blessings for my work here. I love ya. And sounds like you all are having tons of fun. Well, Love you all,

Hermana Ross

Tiffany sent pictures but we could not download them. Sorry!

Cambios. Y 10 meses en la mision

Monday, March 17, 2014

OK first off its really weird to have you guys know what happened in the transfers before I tell you. The girl that you guys are talking to through face book will be leaving on a mission this next week. But.........We weren't transferred. It has a been a great blessing. This week we will have the wedding and baptism. Next week we have another baptism for the husband , and the next week another couple. But what happened is we are with a new area. In our ward there were 6 missionaries And now there are only 4. So we have to get to know the new part of our area. We have practically all of the members in our area. Poor elders in our ward. But we have lunch every single day this week and all of the young women live in our area now. So we keep going.....haha its a lot of work this gran obra. haha So many many many miracles we saw this week.

One sister was supposed to be baptized last week but someone had robbed the licence of her husband. They couldn't get married and she couldn't get baptized without getting married. We were praying a ton to hope to see one huge miracle because it is about one month waiting for him to receive a licence again. We only need a copy of the license and we were asking him to really truly think if he had one in someplace. So this sister was really sad because she really wanted to be baptized last Saturday she said I wonder if in his high school they would have a copy of the license. And they called, and they do. So God works in mysterious ways. We have been working with her since day one here in Ettiene, and 8 other elders have been working with her before us. 

Funny story. This Sweet sister has three daughters. The oldest one is 6 years old and she bit my companion on the hand yesterday because she wanted to drink from the water bottle . hahahahahahahahah I always joke with the Hermana Hidalgo about the dogs in Paraguay. SHE HATES DOGS. She always says I hate dogs because they have teeth......I always respond that those children have teeth too..... ahhahhahahaha and she has yet to be bitten by a dog but a kid....YUP!!!!!  

In our ward we have two elders from the states. Elder Jessop from California and elder Arrington from Farr West. We´re working hard in the ward. The family Britos wont be going to Utah in April because they want to wait for their son who is on a mission to come home from Brazil. 

I"ve seen a great change in my companion. This week we were teaching a ton of lessons. We have found a lot of new people and this same night my companion looked at me in surprise and said.... you know what...I haven't thought about my family one single moment today. hahaha that's how it is in the mission. The only time that we remember about the family is in the night time. Sorry my English is terrible and I don't know what else I can write. But everything is good. 

Mom I'm good with what ever you want to send. But i would love a journal. Ive written in all of my journal and don't have any more pages. My peds are a disaster. My feet are so ugly. I've gone through two pairs of shoes and am down to two. hahaha

I can see the blessings of the lord in my life as well in the life of you guys. I'm praying a ful for you dad. And for grandpa. And for all of you. I'm not the same person i was before the mission and the thought of coming home makes me sick..... haha I don't want too. but  I love you guys and miss you guys. 

HermanaRoss

Week of transfers.......I don't want to leave.

3/10/14

Sent:	Mon 3/10/14 8:34 AM

Dear family,

Sorry  I don't have much to write this time but I love you all so much. We have baptisms lined up for every weekend in the month of March. Its been a miracle. The only sad part is that we aren't going to be seeing the blessings of our work as a companionship together. We don't know who will be going but we know that someone will be going. And this week we have a wedding and a baptism. Who we have been working with for three months. Nothing is new. I'm just working, that's the only thing I can do right now. I love this area. I love my companion. I just don't like that things have to change. 

So I know that I can't just leave you guys hanging with just this little information that I have for the week but we had a funny experience that happened yesterday.

Yesterday we had a fast with my companion and I because we totally forgot to fast the last weekend. Well after church we had two families come up to us saying that we had lunch with them yesterday. My companion and I didn't know what to do because my companion had said yes to one family, and I had said yes to another family. We didn't feel good to cancel one of them when we had told them after church that we would be going to have lunch with them. So when we ended our fast we prayed that God would make a way that we could eat two lunches. HAHA My companion and i were laughing after this prayer but we went to one family, ate barbecue with rice salad and it was so delicious. But she gave us a lot of food. We ate all of it. Then we went to the other family...... hahahahahahah they had tried to do barbecue but it hadn't completely cooked yet so they offered to give us lunch for the next day. HAHAHA God answers prayers. 

I'm grateful to see the blessings that are happening in your lives. I'm happy here in Paraguay. I feel like I'm from Paraguay. HAHA I don't want to think about coming home right now, so I don't. I'm just working and praying that you guys can receive all of the blessings that you guys are in need of right now. Thank you for your love and support my dear family, and I can't find anything that will work to send photos.... and the reason the letter is a little short this week is because we have a district activity this week. Life is crazy. 

love you guys so much,

Hermana Ross

Me an Hermana Hidalgo in front of the temple in Paraguay.

 Barbecue and rice!!

I am pretty sure I have changed....

My dear family..... so much has happened this week. I don't know where to begin. After I read some of the letters that I got last Monday I went home so terribly sad. Never in my life have I ever felt so terribly sick. Physically and mentally. I asked the elders in our district if they could give me a blessing. The news that  I received really hurt.  Well it looks like God works in mysterious ways. So I was kind of a mess for Monday and Tuesday this week. But I have one GRAND TESTIMONY of the inspiration of companions. My dear sweet companion had received news like mine but when she was in the MTC. Wednesday I was still a big mess. And I finally got up the courage to ask her how she was handling things. She told me good. But that she was only handling it through the atonement of Jesus Christ. My dear sweet family.... I KNOW THAT CHRIST LIVES. Wednesday I prayed harder than I ever had in my life, for guidance, for comfort, I needed something that would help me go on because I couldn't do it. And never in my life have I felt such an amazing feeling of comfort. I needed to  have this trial, and its a blessing.  And I need to do the will of the lord here in Paraguay. I'm so happy, I can't express how amazing it is to be here doing something bigger than me..The lord is mindful of every single one of his children. I feel that he was especially mindful of me this week. So that you guys know. I'm fine. I'm happy. And I know that this is the true church. Immediately after I received this comfort Wednesday we saw miracles in our area. HUGE MIRACLES. There will be two baptisms on the 15th, and a wedding.  We are finally starting to see the miracles the only sad part is that cambios are in one week and that Hermana Hidalgo and I will not be able to see the baptism together after all of the hard work that we have done. But it was good. Friday we did divisions with the sister leaders I went to another area with the sister Cortez, my trainer, and this same night our district leader called us and told us that we were going to be going to clean the temple Monday. All week long i had been praying that i would have the chance to go to the temple again so that I could write down names and feel the spirit that is only in the temple. When we changed into white I was assigned to clean the sealing room. The moment I walked into that small room I was reminded of the plan of salvation. This work is so much bigger than just baptizing people. We are so much closer to the time when Jesus Christ comes again. I could feel it! And when I was cleaning the sealing room I felt the spirit super strong.  I was comforted in the temple. I never thought that I would have to face this trial in the mission but my dear family I am so amazingly OK with it. I don't feel anger, or sadness, or the desire to come home. And you know what, the Tiffany that I was before the mission, would have felt these things. I am not the same person I was before I came to the mission and I don't ever want to go back. So just know that I'm so good. I love you all so so so much. And that my prayers are with you, but my heart is here in Paraguay. Because when you take care of the Lords, The lord takes care of yours.

I love you all so so so much,

Hermana Ross