What a week!

So, I had quite a few pictures to send you, none of which are working right now. I will try to send them next week. Grrr. I did take pictures of a Family Home Evening doing the hand signals lesson, me with a monkey, and a beautiful part of our area we went to for our ward party on Saturday. That was the infamous 8th of December, when many people travel (including walking) to visit the monument to the Virgin of Ca´acupé. It is a pretty big holiday, so members usually have an activity since the pilgrimage is obviously only for Catholics. Really though, we went out to that amazing part of our area twice this week, and it is gorgeous. This area is very big, and I do not think missionaries have been out there in a while. I am sure that field is white and ready to harvest. The one person we have been teaching out there is named Lidia. She is amazing. I wish I could tell you how many miralces and coincidences it took just to get to our first lesson, but I do not have time. In the words of Inigo Montoya, "I will sum up." She has come to church three weeks in a row now, and last Friday when we could not find anyone to teach we decided to go try to find the house of Hermano Brisuela, who told us about her. He is living here temporarily, but he is a returned missionary and has already taught her a lot of the lessons. She studied to be a nun but left because she realized it was not true. She has searched for the true church all her life and when we taught the first lesson she knew that the Bible supports everything we do. She has to come to this man´s house at nights so she can read the Book of Mormon and get answers to her questions because the people she lives with hit her children and have threatened to destroy any Book of Mormon they see. So even the situation at the beginning of that lesson was just a powerful testament that this is the true church. The Spirit got more powerful as we shared the story of Joseph Smith, and she easily accepted the invitation to be baptized THIS SATURDAY.

Unfortunately, Maria did not get baptized. We had an awesome lesson with her and the bishop where she said she would skip her meetings and come back to church...and then the night before her family said they would disown her. She said she will try to work with them. It was so disappointing. This has happened to me a few times in the mission, and it happened to two other missionaries in our district the same night. I still have hope for her, she has an incredible testimony. Unfortunately, she really wants me to baptize her, but that will not happen. We got a phone call yesterday from President Agazzani. Apparently I am going to be a Zone Leader*. I was shocked. I am the youngest missionary to be a Zone Leader as long as anyone can remember. I am thankful to the Lord for the experiences and abilities (like Spanish, which I did not have before the mission) he has given to me to prepare for this. I know that it does not make me any better than any other missionary. I am still very nervous to have so much responsibility, but a member we visited happened to give me exactly the scripture I needed--1 Kings 3:5-15. I also have Joshua 1:5-9, which helped me in the CCM as a District Leader. I don´t know where or with whom, but I am sure this will be quite the ride!

I have been reading those Christmas stories, which are quite nice. I definitely have a lot more of Christmas here than in many other countries: we still see the occasional tree, lights, or Santa Claus. I always love hearing about how the family is doing, and I was very excited to see that Jackie Clark is going to Indianapolis! That is so cool. I hope she gets sent to our Indy 2nd ward at some point.  Both of my companions have been great, but Elder Nielsen did work harder and was a little more obedient. I feel good about how I am leaving this area. He will be training a new missionary who gets to start off with an awesome baptism. There is also Alfredo and Fabiola, a great couple who has come to church a couple times. We will see what the future holds. Please keep praying for me, I am going to need it!

Love,
Elder Wesley Morgan

*In a mission, each companionship is part of a district, which is usually made of 4 to 8 missionaries.  (Remember when Elder Morgan was called to be a district leader in the CCM?)  A zone is made up of several districts, and Elder Morgan has been called to be in charge of one of the zones in his mission!  As he said, it is very rare for an elder this young to be called to this position.  But we all know Elder Morgan is awesome, so I don't think anyone is surprised.  :)

December has already arrived!

Time sure flies! It still seems like a few weeks ago that I was saying goodbye to you at the airport. Now I might be in the last week of of my first area. We´ll talk about that in a minute. First as always, the children of God that we are teaching. Maria is amazing to teach. We reviewed the baptismal interview and she will definitely pass it. She just has to find a way to get out of those meetings to get a house...or just not go to them. I don´t want to tell her to do that, because she has been going to them all year and it seems like she is close to getting one. But they seem like a scam to me and I know that obeying the Lord and being baptized (2 Nephi 31:11-12) will do her more good than anything else. We´ll see what we can do. We had FOUR people in church this week, two of which were actually in church last week, we just didn´t know! It is a lady who lives way out in the edge of our area, and a less-active member we did not even know has been bringing her.

There is also Alfredo and Fabiola Caceres who came to church. They are very intelligent, open people. I really enjoy teaching them. We just answer their questions and testify of what we know. It is awesome when people just understand. Pedro and Olga Caceres (they are not related so far as we know) are pretty similar. He always has a lot of questions about things like Polygamy and the Fall, but if we give him a scripture to read and a few days to think about it, he always feels the Spirit and gets to the right conclusion. He now understands the principle of obedience and revelation (how the Lord can change the laws of the church such as polygamy) better than a lot of members. We have one other couple, Ever and Perla, who could also progress. Our goal is to teach all of them with at least one member this week. We did not get our goal of 20 lessons with a member present, but that is okay. We are always learning better ways to work in this area.

Oh, I forgot to tell you about Vincent last week! He was my first lesson in English here in Paraguay. He was a Brazilian American who just travels around the world on his bike. He is pretty much a hobo, but he is pretty smart and loves nature. It was such an interesting lesson. I did enjoy testifying in English. I never realized that missionaries probably have to explain the language of prayer (thee/thou).

One thing we did to work more with the members was have a fun family home evening with the Portillo family (picture attached). I made snickerdoodles, which they and my companion loved (I gave him the recipe and he just made them again today). We had forgotten about Thanksgiving, so at dinner with them we all talked about things we were thankful for. It was a bit more comical than at home, but it is good to laugh with the members. I have been a bit disappointed with the lack of success so far with Elder Nielsen. I think I expected that when I got a missionary who was so obedient and experienced we would just baptize the whole world. But I have come to realize we may have been put together not so that we could have a lot of success now, but so that we could learn things to bring more success to the Lord´s work later. I do not know if I am staying this change, but I have decided to have the attitude that I will be here so I can keep wanting to help these people who are progressing. At the same time, I am trying to make sure everything is ready so that Elder Nielsen could stay if he has to.

We really have learned so much together, and I will sure miss him if he leaves. He sends a random request...could you send me that picture of me wrapping myself up for Rian that homecoming date? She was in a church music video, and he is just amazed that I know her AND have even gone on a date with her. It was really funny. He has been pretty sick, and we could not even go out to work yesterday (I did not enjoy that). Hopefully we will be raring to go tomorrow!

I still don´t believe the wrist-chip thing anymore than I believe the many people who are talking about the end of the wolrd (Matthew 24:36). Christmas does seem pretty big commerically here, though the people are not as wealthy. The 8th of December is an important day for a lot of Catholics who focus on Mary, but we will have to see how the rest of the season goes.

Now, the most exciting thing, MY PACKAGE!! I was so happy to get that. I only had to pay 15,000 Guaranies (3 or 4 dollars). I did decide it would be better to open it all because it would be hard to handle that if I leave next week (transfers are the 12th). I promise I will wait with the other one! I really did love it, even just getting a package was way exciting. I loved getting the things I had asked for: hymns, pedometer, and Peanut Butter, and you sent me some things I had been thinking about buying but did not ask for like scripture pencils and post-its. The mini-Predicad Mi Evangelio will be very useful for district meetings and Zone Conferences. There is a picture of how I translated the Plan of Salvation. Elder Nielsen also thanks you for the stocking. I love the decorations (except that crystal tree that did not survive), and I think out of the whole package my favorite thing may have been the motivational poster from the talk by Elder Uchtdorf. It means a lot to me that you remember that. We are handing out those pictures of the Nativity, listening to the Hamilton Singers, and loving this season. I would suggest you send a letter to any store that says Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas and read the December Liahona (Ensign). There are some great stories in there about Prophets and Missionaries at Christmas. Love you so much!

-Elder Wesley Morgan

P.S. You should know that one of the most common comments I get when I show people pictures is "Tu mamá es muy linda." :) *

*Your mom is very pretty.  :)

Every Member a Missionary!

Well, to overcome a tough week last week, we have tried to work a lot more with the members (one of the most important things you can do as a missionary). We decided to make it a goal in weekly planning, which we do on Thursdays, to try to have 20 lessons with a member present next week, which is the "Standard of Excellence. (Side note: at the beginning of my mission I was given the mistaken idea that those standards were expected of us every week...that gave me some pretty unrealistic expectations and was part of the reason the beginning of my mission was so difficult). Due to an explosion of lessons, we almost hit 20 THIS week--we were one short! So we will keep working hard and hope to reach our goal next week. Unfortunately we still did not have anyone in church or with a baptismal date...but there may be other ways to improve those things. That is the fun part about missionary work: there is alway something else to improve and half the battle is just finding out what it is.

Our two biggest hopes right now are Maria Villalva (still waiting for a miracle with her meetings) and Mariela, who we just started teaching this week. She has come to church with the members who live nearby a few times, and she seemed excited to get baptized this next week. But she did not want to tell us that she is living with her boyfriend, and I think that may have been why she did not come to church. We will see what we can do to resolve those problems and help her prepare to be baptized and confirmed the following week.

One other thing we are doing right now is teaching the members how they can do missionary work on their own. Preach My Gospel chapter 9 teaches 5 things they can do, and we added scriptures and hand signals to make it a fun lesson that they can remember. We have:
1. Pray and follow the Spirit (Mormon 9:21)
2. Give Service (Mosiah 2:17)
3. Make friends (Helaman 6:3)
4. Open Your Mouth (Doctrine and Covenants 33:8-10)
5. Invite others to strengthen their faith in Christ (Moroni 7:13)
That last part includes inviting people to come to church, talk to the missionaries, come to FHE, etc. I hope you all do those things, too! God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power. Just have faith. :)

The other thing we are focusing on is helping people feel more comfortable in lessons so they can learn by the Spirit. We had a lesson this week where that happened and the people just asked everything they had been worrying about. Elder Bednar did a great job of that in the conference we had--he made us feel like we could ask anything. He also taught us a few things we can do to help people feel comfortable. We do not want them to just say what they think we expect, because they will not progress. Really, I am learning that it is always worth it to obey, study, and everything else that helps us have the Spirit. There is just no way to help people change without it.

I really do not miss much food from home. My companion showed me how to make french toast sticks and maple syrup, and it was nice to have that again. We are trying to learn a lot of new things to make. Unfortunately, most of the things I made in college needed a crock pot or George Foreman grill, and a lot of the recipes you sent me with require many things I also do not have access to. But we are trying to make other simple things like pizza. I am teaching Elder Nielsen singing techniques, which is interesting. He is a super fun missionary. Side note for the blog: he is not really receiving any letters and he gets back in July, so if any girl wants to write an awesome future RM, his first name is Matthew and they can send letters the same way they would to me.

President Agazzani does not come out here that often (about every 3 months), so we were pretty lucky. And we are about a 5 or 6 hour drive from Asunción. I do pray for everyone in the family--especially Karen--and I will be sure to pray for Grandma more too. Glad to hear you all enjoyed Thanksgiving...I did not even remember it. But I am trying to be more thankful in my prayers! Thank you for all you do and have done for me. Love you lots!

-Elder Wesley Morgan

Visit from President Agazzani!

I love hearing about my fellow-laborers in gather Israel! Haha, I am sure Trevor is an awesome trainer, and I do feel bad for Makade being in such a tough mission. That is pretty crazy how similar Corbin´s mission is. The difference is that we do not get rejected very often. The people here are too nice to reject us directly. They just make up excuses or don´t do anything we ask them to....honestly it would just save us time sometimes if they just told us they were not interested. Every mission has its challenges and blessings. And we really do not have much to update about investigators, because we dropped even more of them after no one at all came to church. This was the first time in my mission that happened, but only because I have had a lot of miracles on Sundays. Ismael and Patricia, despite our best efforts, have lost interest. The Gamarra family is awesome and I would love to baptize 15 people, but they need to start coming to church. They have started to read the Book of Mormon, so we will decide when we stop by if we will really drop them. Our one hope is Maria Villalva, who is awesome! She always tells us about times she has shared her testimony or overcome tempation to drink coffee or alcohol. She has so much faith. Unfortunately she has to go to a meeting every Sunday for a few more weeks so she can get a house. We are praying often with and for her so she can be baptized, confirmed, and stay active in the church as soon as possible.



Elder Morgan, President Agazzani, and Elder Nielsen

Other than that, we are doing all we can to find new investigators. We had a day where we found 10 new people! It was awesome. We met with a juvenile delinquent center and the local army barracks (which Elder Nielsen loved) to see if we can start teaching classes there. We do need approval from President Agazzani for that. Speaking of that, you can see that he came to visit us! He and his wife came to our Zone training, which was amazing as usual. Then they stopped by our house the morning to do studies with us, which was quite enjoyable. That picture of the three of us would be great to put somewhere on the blog in a permanent place. Also, we talked a lot about rules and I have to ask you to inform people that I am absolutely not allowed to read or send emails to anyone who is not a parent, grandparent, or sibling. So please ask everyone else not to email me (I have to delete it), but to send it to me by Dear Elder (which would be more exciting for me anyway!).

"My shoulders have been getting pretty orange and dirty from my backpack, sweat, and this hot, dusty climate. So, to look more like a representative of the Lord, I bought a shoulder bag. I also cut and resewed the strap to make it into a waist-bag. (I still use my backpack occasionally). It would be a good idea for any missionary going to a similar climate to bring a large waist pack. :)"

I am always learning a lot as we study and put new things in practice. We came up with a great example to explain why people need to come to church to receive an answer. We love it because it forces the investigators to think and come up with the answer themselves, which we are trying to do a lot more. Here it goes: There is a blind and deaf man sitting in his house, and he wants to know if it is raining outside. What can he do? (Go outside). But how will he know if it is raining? (He has to FEEL it). I also have learned that it is so important to teach in a place where there is not a lot of loud music nearby (which happens often here), because if the Spirit is not there to teach we are wasting our time and breath.

Pretty landscape photo of Paraguay

 

A few more cultural things. There are always guys on motorcycles who ride around and sell chipa. I enjoy the Chipa, but they have these recordings of an announcer talking about how good the chipa is that you sure get sick of hearing. Also, Paraguayans think you will die if you eat milk and watermelon together. We have a lot of good laughs about that. Really though, I am learning to like/tolerate a lot of foods that I always hated: coconut, mayo, egg salad, fish. The mission sure does change you. I am sending this late because we have been helping Elder Martinez, who has been very sick with bronchitis. Please remember him in your prayers. And maybe me, too. ;)

Love,

Elder Wesley Morgan

"Jorgelina. Miembro de la Iglesia. Bautizada."

Well, I am still here in Ciudad del Este 2.2. Elder Izurieta left for Coronel Oviedo, where he will be companions with Elder Adamson! I love my new companion, Elder Matthew Nielsen! The picture attached is of him. He is a hard worker who walks fast, talks to everyone, and knows how to work with members. That is one thing we are trying to do more of. The more I think about it, the less it makes sense to work in an area where there are no members. People need the support and the friendship of members if they are going to come to church, commit to make changes in their life including baptism, and stay active in the church. Elder Nielsen has also already taught me a lot about setting achievable goals. I love doing that! I don´t know how long I will get to work with him, but I am sure we will have a lot of success and fun together while it lasts. Elder Nielsen has lived a lot of places, including Brazil (he speaks Portuguese), and most recently was in New York attending West Point. He was the mission secretary, and it is interesting you should mention the office because he says I am the type of missionary who will probably be in the office soon. I think I would like that! We´ll see.

Elder Morgan says, "My favorite part about these pictures is Hermano Benitez. He is wearing Sergio`s blue shirt because he and Elio Martinez, the ward mission leader, lent their clothes to Sergio at the last minute for the wedding."

More exciting news, as you saw from the picture in the emails with the pictures, Sergio and Blásida finally got married and baptized! It was very stressful because they were very late, even though we did a lot to get them there early. We also had to run and make copies of our passports so we could be witnesses, and then the font started to flood (for once we actually had too much water). Once that all settled down, it all went well and it was a spiritual experience for all. This was the first time I got to do the baptism...which is amazing. I cannot wait to do that again. It could happen soon with Ismael and Patricia, who are still waiting to receive an answer that the church is true. We talked about that in our district meeting and someone suggested that they might need to repent to receive that revelation. Sure enough, we talked to them about their situation and he admitted he feels really bad that he did not get married before moving in together. So they agreed to get married this Saturday! More weddings! They need to attend church at least once more before getting baptized, so hopefully that will be next week. The other people we are working a lot with is the Gamarra family, another huge family of mostly adults (the other one, the Villalva family, is looking grim right now. Their dad does not want us to come by, but Maria still tries to come to church). They always ask very interesting questions, and they are a little set in their religion, but I really have hope for them. If we can help them all, that would be over 15 baptisms! That would probably be the happiest day of my life.

Two more interesting experiences. First, I got to help the primary practice for their program by playing piano. Difficult, but a lot of fun. We also got to visit Jorgelina, a lady in our ward who is very close to dying of cancer. She has wanted the sacrament and a blessing from the missionaries for a while but her family has not let us come by until now. The title [of this email], which means "Member of the church, baptized," is about all she could say. It was such a touching experience. She is great. I read Alma 46:39-41 this morning and thought of her.

Now, to answer your questions. I never thought to compare alfajors to moon pies. They are usually a little crunchier and more delicious. Haha, and I was just saying that I got used to keeping my distance from girls, not that the girls in Utah are as bad as the ones here. Paraguayans do not play baseball, but I have seen them play something that looks like cricket, but two on two. It is suprising how well I can already communicate a lot of basic things in Guaraní. I can teach you a bit. Remember that in Guaraní, the ch makes a sh sound. "Mba´e" means how or what. So the three common ways to say hi to people (how are you) are "Mba'eichapa," "Mba'eitecopio," and "Mba'elaporte." I can kind of explain what each of those words mean...but it`s not worth it. What is your name is "Mba'aicha nde rera?." And "my name is" would be "Che rera..."

Great to hear about the cars, Steelers Game, Star Wars, etc. I keep praying for you, and I hope all is well. Let me know if there is anything else I can do for you or tell you about. Love you all!

-Elder Wesley Morgan

Missionaries waiting outside the church at 4 AM to go to the missionary conference Wesley mentioned in his last post.

The "beautiful landscape of Paraguay"

Elder Morgan and Elder Izurieta with the Baez family

 

"Seek Learning By Faith"

Before everything, I have to say that the conference was amazing. It was pretty fun riding on a bus with 40 missionaries and waiting outside the church at 4:00 in the morning. Not something you see every day. It was great to see missionaries I know from this mission, but I also got to see all the missionaries from the North mission that were in my group in the MTC, including my pal Elder Bayles. I also saw Elder Joshua Thomson from Orem High who is 2 weeks from going home. He is happy, spiritual, and seems almost Paraguayan now. I am sure he has been an excellent missionary.

Well, Elder Bednar really is an inspired man. He started off telling us we would not follow two stupid traditions people in the church have. 1. We should not write down every single thing he says ("Large Plates") because no one ever uses those notes. We should write down the inspiration we recieve ("Small Plates") so that we will want to apply what we learn. 2. He said he would not play the "Guess what´s in my head" game that teachers in the church, including us as missionaries, often do. He is right, we really should never ask questions like "What are the three things Moroni says we need to do..." because that is trying to get them to learn how we want them to. We need to ask questions to see their progress and then help them continue to learn by the Spirit. Most of the day was focused on treating people like agents who can learn for themselves, not objects who just receive lessons. He demonstrated that during the conference itself, as it was mostly a question and answer session about the talks he had given us to read: "Seek Learning by Faith" (given at a CES conference in Jordan in 2006) and "Ask in Faith" (given in conference, I think). Those are both about teaching people to teach themselves, and I encourage you to find and read them if you can.

The best part about it? We are already putting it in practice. We went to the Villalva family on Sunday for lunch and watched "Together Forever." That really touched their hearts. Maria said she does not care what her dad thinks, she will come to church and hopes that someday her whole family will get baptized. Her mom does not mind--she reads about 10 chapters a day in the Guarani Book of Mormon we gave them! Her sister Silvina said that she will come to church and support her. They also talked about their nephew who recently died, and we testifed of how you can find hope in Christ. We really did not have to do much more in that lesson than ask questions and testify. We let the Spirit do the teaching, which is a great feeling. I feel like I have gone up to a whole new level of missionary work.

As far as our other investigators, Sergio did not finish his paperwork, despite his wife and us reminding him often. That was really frustrating. He has a testimony, but I don´t know if he has truly been converted yet (putting what he knows in practice). We´ll see what happens with them. Ismael and Patricia did not attend church so it will be at least another week before their baptism. They believe it is all true, but he explained to me that he just does not have a testimony yet that this is the ONE true church. Nora, however, could be baptized this week. She is an investigator to whom we taught the first lesson, but then she moved into another part of our ward. The missionaries there taught the rest of the lessons (without knowing we had taught her), and then she moved back into our area. All she needs to do know is quit smoking. She is a funny one. And Reynaldo, our recent convert, is still going strong.

A few more things about Paraguay culture: We do have to watch out for "snakes" (women with bad intentions). Luckily I had a couple years of practice before my mission trying to keep my distance from girls. Now I am really glad I did that. Also, everyone talks to us. Even if they hate us, if we come up to them and ask for directions or something, it is almost like they are obligated to help us. It is just part of their culture to talk to anyone. Pretty funny. They are poor, but it is surprising how happy they are with what they have. We often ask them what they want in life, and they really don´t feel like they lack much. All they need is a job so they can feed their family, a roof and a few walls, and maybe a Bible or a TV to watch fútbol. Also, whatever they have, they are always willing to share. Great people.

I am so happy to get emails from all my siblings and hear about all the exciting things in your life! And the 4000 missionaries every week! Wow! (great to here that Eve, Maggie, and Bubba got mission calls!). I got the absentee ballot but I don´t think there is time to send it. I am sure you will vote for Romney for me anyway. Elder Hinton is doing great--he really knows how to teach well and his area is baptizing more than the rest of our district combined. It`s called Minga Guazú and thanks to their great branch president, it is growing very fast. Elder Brown, Elder Smith, and Elder Adamson are all doing well in their areas, and we will have officially been trained THIS wednesday. Who knows what will happen with transfers? If I don´t send an email next week...it is because I have been sent to a place where there is no internet access. Haha, that is very unlikely. Please pray for me in this time of changes, and know that I continue to pray for everyone in the family with their individual challenges. Love you all!

-Elder Wesley Morgan

P.S. I can sometimes understand Portuguese! How cool is that?

Bittersweet Baptism

First, to explain the pictures and the title. Remember Reynaldo and Rocío? Well, she finally decided that she was not sure about getting married and left to go live with her mom in Asunción. That was really depressing. We tried so hard, and she had changed so much. But she gave it all up. (Kinda like the Aguínaga famliy, who we visited again but still want to go to the Iglesia Belén instead of ours). Well, she says she still wants to get baptized...but she left her husband and her oldest son (he is the little guy in the picture, she took the two baby girls with her). This Gospel is about Forever Families. The Baez family, Reynaldo´s brother and family who he lives with, had more drama. Dariel, their oldest son (they have 7 kids, most of which could not come to the baptism), ran away from home and did drugs with his friends for a few days. But he came back and they are all doing much better (he is the one in the red jacket). I am sure having a lot of grown-up experiences for being 19. But I guess you have to enter the real world at some point. Well, in spite of it all, Reynaldo showed a lot of faith wanting to continue with the baptism and now preparing for the Priesthood. He is a champ! And maybe next week you will be seeing me in white...if Sergio finally gets his Cedula done. We really want them to get baptized before the end of the transfer and one of us leaves. Ismael and Patricia did not attend church, so it will be at least another week or so for them. We also have a new awesome family, the Villalvas. José and Aniana are very old but a lot of fun to talk to. He does not want to be baptized again, but they are both reading the Book of Mormon and loving it. Aniana recently had surgery and can´t come to church, but their daughter Maria is going to come to church this week with her kids. She will probably be the first in that family to be baptized. There are 12 kids in total, and apparently they all get together every Sunday for a big lunch. We are going this Sunday, and should be a lot of fun! (and maybe in a year we´ll be sealing them all together in a year ;)).

Now to answer your questions from this week and last. We do not hear much about the North mission, but surely we will this Saturday! Did Truman list any of the same girls I did as suggestions for missions? Glad to hear all about Daniel and Orem football. I did know about Ty and Shayne´s dad. He was the one who took all those pictures. Pretty sad to hear. Many people have wood or tile floors, but there also plenty with just dirt. Not many people have cars or bikes, they usually just walk or take the bus. I have no idea about gas prices. Milk would be about $3 a gallon, about $4 a pound for ground beef (it is hard to do the kilogram and guarani conversions in my head) $2 for a loaf of bread (but we usually buy a lot of rolls, which are cheaper and easier). We shop at the Gran Vía supermarket, but I actually think it would be more fun to be in a place where we bought food at street stalls.

This week I have gotten to do interchanges THREE times because of baptismal interviews and my companion´s emergency trip to Asunción to do with Elder Hinton, the Orem-ite, we studied and then really tried to apply focusing on the people, not the lessons. That really worked, such as when we taught a man who did not want to change religion, but loved the Book of Mormon. We read Mormon 7 with his family, and they asked US when we could come back! I still need to improve my listening and question-asking skills. I also learned to avoid contention while working with Elder Escoffre. At times people want to argue about doctrine, but I learned it is best to say, We understand what you are saying, but we just want to explain that what we believe is a little different. Then they will allow us to express our beliefs, and maybe something will ring true to them. Elder Escoffre is from France, and I spoke to him with what little French I remember. He taught me a bit, and was impressed with my accent. Guess it is in my blood. It has been a great week. Last P-Day we tried to play Piki as a district. It is like volleyball but without hands. So hard. Paraguayans are so much more coordinated than us. I also learned to make Reviro, which is pretty much fried flour. Cheap, good food. Loving life down here, and this week, with the baptisms (we hope) and conference with Elder Bednar should be awesome. Love you!

-Elder Wesley Morgan