Feelin' Stronger Every Day

Mom, I hope you got the Chicago reference*. It was great to hear your encouraging words and the news about Truman. Sorry that last week's letter was so short, and I forgot to mention a lot of things. My companion's name is Leonardo Izurieta, and I attached a picture of him. He is 24 and lives in Buenos Aires. He has only been out here 3 transfers (3 months being trained in Obrero, Asuncion and 6 weeks here as Junior Companion), but he is now District Leader and my trainer. He is a little worried about handling all that responsibility, but he does it well. It is just the two of us in the apartment, which is even dirtier than the Taj at Mack's Inn. But I am working very hard on cleaning it up. Our goal is to one day be able to walk around the rooms without flip flops. As I explained last week, this city has red dirt everywhere, so pretty much every floor in every building gets the bottom of your feet orange. I have also killed quite a few roaches, which makes me think of that Missionary Impossible game. I will have to play that when I get back. I am sure I will laugh a lot.

Elder Izurieta and Elder Morgan

Also, I think Paraguay is just always hot. It gets down to 70 degrees and these people put on jackets. I think winter just means it rains a little more often, but that has only happened twice while I have been here, and it was not very much. As far as food goes, we eat cereal or oatmeal every morning, and then we cook lunch or eat with a member. We do not eat dinner, which was hard for me at first, but I have adjusted to that (as has my belt). The food is great! I have already tried mandioca, a potato-like vegetable that they eat a lot, and and nísperos, some yellow sour grapes, among other things. Also, I feel like an important part of every mission is the street snacks. Have I already mentioned Alfajors? They had them in BA, and they are here, too. I love them so much. There is also Chipa, which is a cheesy bread you can get pretty much anywhere. I love it all.

Mandioca

Life in Paraguay is always an adventure. So far as I can tell, the word crosswalk does not exist in Spanish. We run across highways, hike across cobblestone roads, hitchike with crazy people, and ride packed buses. We really have run into a lot of weird people. Some other religions, who I will not mention specifically, have some messed-up ideas. This guy yesterday was sure that we were American spies, even though he has attended our church and seen that everyone in the ward is native. At the same time, we have also run into a lot of people who have definitely been prepared by the Lord, such as people who were baptized a long time ago or have read the Book of Mormon. I know that if you have faith and pray for guidance, the Lord will lead you to those who are ready to hear your message. Just don't be afraid to talk to them!



Welcome to the Paraguay Asuncion Mission!

Now, the most important part: investigators. Right now we only have one investigator who is truly progressing. His name is Anibal, and he is golden. He wants to come early to help clean the chapel, and he just loves everything about the church. He is married, and he might have some opposition from his family. Other than that, he accepts every lesson and is always feeling the spirit. We are lucky to have people like that. Joel and Dolly, our great family from last week could not attend church because they were moving, but they are building a house in our area. We would love to keep teaching them once they move back. There is also Sergio and Blásida, who did not attend church yesterday, even though they were sure they would. We will find out why and decide if we need to push their baptismal date. They have three little girls, so the church would be great for them, but it is hard for all of them to get there. We have a lot of people who could be ready for baptism in the next few weeks, so hopefully September will be full of baptisms! I attended my first on Saturday, done by Elder Dyer and Elder Bravo in our ward. They are really great missionaries. And that made me really want to help people get baptized! We are studying and working hard, so we hope to see some miracles. I love you all!

-Elder Wesley Morgan

P.S. Elder Hinton, who Daniel and several of my friends know, is in my district! He has been pretty sick, so please pray for him, as I hope you do for everyone I mention in these letters. :)

*The subject of Wesley's email/title of this blog post is the title of a song by the group Chicago.