So.. I did the sticky note thing again and I have great things to tell you!
Tuesday.. rained ALL day long. It definitely it getting into winter here. It gets dark really early and the days are wet and cold. it's very hard to contact people and many of our appointments fall through, because people just want to stay in their house! But yeah.. it's okay! We're still working hard. A miracle that happened on Tuesday... our AP's called us and so we stopped and stood under this over hang right outside a closed shop. We talked to them for a minute, and right when we hung up a man poked his head out of the door and invited us in from the rain. He is probably in his 50's and very nice. Hermana Olvera made the joke that "we didn't even have to contact him.. and that he contacted us!".. anyways. We talked to him for a while about what we as missionaries do.. but we quickly found out that he had a difficult time understanding us. He only speaks a little bit of Spanish.. and mostly Gaurani. So we left him with a pamphlet to read and we want to go back with a member this week who speaks Gaurani. It's SO frusterating when we find these golden people who actually seem interested in our message.. and then we can't even speak to them. So yeah.. miracle contact. Super sweet man.
On Tuesday we also taught these toy boys who live with their grandma. They were both baptized when they were 8 and living with their parents, but their dad died, and after that the mom moved away and left the boys with their grandma. They are 13 and 14.. and remind me SO much of Luke and Tay. German is the younger one.. and is very outgoing and asks us a lot of questions.. and Oscar is the older.. and kind of quieter.. but both are very kind and sweet. Hopefully we can get them coming to church with us. They are darling.. and made me miss my little brothers!
Wednesday.. the roads were flooded and it was hard to get to some of our appointments so that was a bummer. Something so fun that we did that day.. we have an investigator named Pamela. She has been investigating the church for years now. Literally.. and has gone through SO many missionaries. The problem with her is that when she was a baby.. her mom never did any paper work for her.. so according to the government she doesn't exist.. which makes is very hard for her to get legally married to her less active husband. So yeah.. that's her story. She can't get married and therefore can't get baptized.. but most weeks she comes to church.. and is seriously awesome. It was her birthday this week! She turned 21 and Hermana Olvera and I went over to her house and taught her to make pancakes and I brought maple syrup. it was So fun! and they all loved the maple syrup. they basically drank it. haha.. it was awesome.
Friday we travelled to a city about 3 hours from here by bus. Elder Vinaz from the 70 came and visited our mission. It was awesome and so cool to meet him! The entire conference was in Spanish.. so I got the point of most things that he was saying.. but it was hard to keep up. the conference was 3 hours.. and by the end my head hurt. I sang for the conference.. and it was a super cool opportunity. When the AP's called earlier in the week to see if I could sing.. I told them that I only had one song in English.. so they asked President if it would be okay for me to sing in English.. and this was his response.."we'll just pretend she's a latina learning english and wanting to practice".. ahhahaha. we all laughed and laughed. President is so funny. but yeah.. it was a super cool experience and I feel way lucky.
So the place we were in is called Ciudad del Este.. and it's a big city.. and certainly MUCH bigger than my tiny little area. Haha.. we had to ride buses to get around everywhere.. and oh my goodness. These buses.. wow. I have never been in a more tightly packed space in my life. IT WAS SO FULL. and definitely an adventure. I had some good butt rubs with random strangers. It was great.
Umm.. what more? So the church in La Paloma has been under construction since October... so we have been travelling about 10 minuttes by car to another church. But this week was our last week doing that!!! This week we will be in our church!! I'm SO EXCITED. We have a lot to do. Many people have gone less active because they just didn't have a way to get to church. The walk is too far... so this week we will be going around and inviting everyone and their dog. We are planning to do an open house on Saturday! I can't wait! It should be awesome. Now poeple can come and I can't wait!
Also yesterday we met a young couple.. and I see SO much potential with them. He told us that his whole life he has wanted to follow God and be a good person.. but when he has gone to other churches he just didn't feel right to him. She also had the same opinion. I can not WAIT to see what happens with them this week.
We met some unreal people this week. We have been praying to find those who are READY to recieve this gospel. For sure we have seen miracles.
We ate well this week. The members take care of us!
When we were in Ciudad del Este Hna Olvera and I also found a SNICKERS for SO cheap. Like less than 1 american dollar. We split it and were in heaven for a few bites. haha.. it was kind of pathetic. oops!
Anyways.. sorry this email turned into a novel. I hope your week was amazing. The work is moving forward.. some days are especially hard but I'm working hard on not letting myself get discouraged. I still can't speak any better this week.. but I'm just working on having faith and knowing that this is where the Lord wants me.
I hope this week is marvelous for you all!
I LOVE YOU.
XOXO from La Paloma!
Hermana Ehlert
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