Another week!

Sorry I can't think of more creative subjects.. shoot. I'll work on it!

So this email.. I'm going to start out with two truths and a lie! 

1. My hymn book got wet from so much rain.. and it never dried because it is SO humid here and literally grew mold all over the binding on the inside and on many pages. 

2. Our shower water is heated electrically.. and we have power outages very often here.. and right when I had shampoo in my hair.. the power went out and the water turned ICY cold. 

3. One night this week we walked into our pension to find our ceiling completely COVERED in tiny little ants.

Okay... the lie is 2! The shower thing actually happened to my companion. haha.. I laughed and laughed. Usually the power only goes out for short periods of time.. like a  minute or two.. but sometimes it's longer. That morning it was out for 2 hours.. and she had to finish her shower in freezing water. We studied that morning with flashlights.

My hymn book literally has mold on all of the pages. haha.. so funny. But luckily I was able to get another one from the mission office. So funny. Literally.. it is SO humid here. Nothing dries. 

And yes. It's actually a long story.. but our pension has always had these tiny little ants everywhere. They grossed me out at first.. but now I'm used to them. We put every speck of food in the fridge.. because if not.. ants get them. Anyways.. so it rained the entire week.. like literallky non stop.. and and our walls leak when it rains like that and the inside of our pension gets humid. Anyways.. we walked in and turned the light on.. and literally.. the ceiing was COVERED in them. It was the most bugs I've every seen in my life all together. We didn't know what to do. It was aweful. We marched right over to our Branch Presidents house and he came over to check it out. He decided to spray them with this insect stuff we have.. and oh my gosh. Bad idea. he didn't really think it through very well.. but there really wasn't another option. He just started going crazy with the spray.. and then they started FALLING! Everywhere.. all over my bed and the floor. It was traumatizing. hahah.. it's reallky funny now.. but it wasn't very funny then. We ended up sleeping at the branch presidents house for the night because you literally couldn't breathe in our pension. It smelled so strong like the spray stuff.. and it was covered in little tiny dead ants. So yeah.. that was awesome. We cleaned the next day for a little bit and got it all figured out. They came in through the ceiling.. and we are getting the ceiling fixed right now as we speak! So that's good. Hopefully it doesn't happen again. Oh man you guys.. paraguay rocks so much. 

Okay.. spiritual thingst that happened this week. 

Dani and Tanya are still progressing. We passed by them twice this week! It's seriously incredible to see their change and growth and their testimonies slowly kindle back into flames. They are reading everyday and praying together. They are completely different people  than when I first met them. I'm so lucky to be a missionary and to help them! Dani came last week to church and we really wanted Tanya to come this week! We passed by with a member on Saturday and she told us she was coming for sure!! We were so happy. Everytime I leave their house.. ah. I just never EVER want to stop feeling like that. It''s so cool to see the spirit work in people's lives. But sundaycame around.. and NEITHER of them came to church. It was dissappointing and I was sad. We passed by Sundaynight and they didn't answer the door. We left them cookies that we made.. and we are going to try and pass by tomorrow. I hope everything is okay with them. I love them so much! They need the church.. and the church needs them!! 

We didn't see much progress with many other people this week. We are contacting and teaching a million first lessons. We are trying to focus on bringing the spirit instantly and asking everyone to be baptized. We are trying to work the hardest we can. We put a goal this week to literally talk to everyone. Everyone we come in contact with. We are trying our best to be the best servants for the Lord. We are trying different ways to contact and ask references from members. We haven't seen any big changes yet.. but hopefully they will come soon. We have faith. 

It's been really fun to work with Hermana Finlinson. She teaches simply. I love that about her. She tries to put herself in the investigators shoes. This week.. even though we haven't seen tons of success.. I haven't had a happier week on my mission. Evey day I'm just so excited to get out there and start talking to people.. and sharing this message. I am so happy and lucky to be a missionary. There is defintiely long and tiring times.. but I'm loving this work more and more. I'm lucky to be where I am. 

I hope summer is going well for all of you at home! I think and pray for you often. 

I hope you enjoy the pictures! Finally I was able to send a few! 

xoxox until next week! 

Hermana Ehlert

Also.. we do a lot of Family Home Evenings here!!! IF ANY OF YOU HAVE GOOD IDEAS FOR FAMILY HOME EVENING ACTIVITIES I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR THEM. Simple and fun games.. or activities. I'm open for anything! THANK YOU!! Maybe pinterest a few? Or ask around? Thank you so much in advance! 

those are the elderes in the offices. They are awesome. It was taken my first transfer I think. They rock so much. 

that is my old zone. It was taken last transfer too. We had a lot of changes.. and now my zone is totally different.. but it was really fun to work with all those missionaries. 

oh my word. That is Hermana Rosa.. she is a member.. and one of my favorite people in La Paloma. She has a big family. They are all awesome. She has two sons that are menos activos and her husband is crazy and doesn't go to church either.. remember me talking about dani and Tanya? Dani is her son. Anyways.. she is SO guapa. She runs a little store and butchers all of her own meat. They gets entire cows delivered to her and she butchers it right in the middle of her living room. Sometimes we do family home evenings with them.. and literally we sit right there. She is so awesome. If you look close.. you can see the tops of the HUGE chunks of meat hanging in the back. It's gross and super unsanitary.. like flies and dogs and chickens everywhere.. but it's how they do things in Paraguay. It's awesome. I love her so much.

these are some youth in the branch. The girl in the middle of Hermana Olvera and I is Claudelina. She was baptized a little over a year ago.. and is preparing to go on a mission. Her aunt is Hermana Rosa (the meat butcher in case you forgot). She lives with Rosa and her cousins. The other girl is Liz. Claudelina's sister. She just moved and is living with them now.. and isn't a member. We are teaching her and she is progressing well. I think she will be baptized in a few weeks! The other is Jose. He is so awesome. He's 14 I think? And he is their cousin.. Hermana Rosa's son. AH. I love them all so much. Sorry if you didn't want to know their entire life stories.. but I love them. AH.

This was actually on my birthday! Hermana Neli! She for sure has the nicest house in La Paloma I think. She is the Relief Society President and we eat lunch with her every sunday. I love her so much. She rocks.