July 28, 2014 - Week 30

Well, first of all... Another change down. 6 weeks just flew by and I have no clue where they went. This whole week, I have been just like thinking in changes. They have seriously been on the back of my mind this WHOLE week. And the worst was yesterday in church. Everyone was telling me that they don´t want me to leave Ituauga. They were all saying... ´´We are all going to pray that you stay!!´´ Also, I just really love my companion. So much! So I was just like a worried wreck yesterday... So, today comes and I am just like so nervous!! After our studies, the district leader FINALLY calls and...........

I am changing areas... I am going to an area called Aratiri and I am going to be companions with a latina. Hermana Pelicó. So those are the changes that are happening with me. I am leaving my beloved Itaugua. Really, I am pretty sad to be leaving. I mean, I have spent a third of my mission here and I just love the people. But, I am excited to learn and be in a new part of Paraguay. The thing that I am most scared for is my companion... She has a reputation of being really strict and ´´drop cane´´. But, also, they say she is nice and she is a hard worker, so I will probably learn lots from her ;) But, also, this is her last change in the mission. She is going to end her mission with me. So, for sure I will only have 6 weeks with her. (Not in a bad way, just a fact... haha) Good news is that this area, Aratiri, is like pretty close to Itaugua. In fact, it is in the same stake! So when we do stake activities (which is really just Zion to the Rescue--with the youth) I will see some of the youth from Itaugua and also Hermana Morales! Haha, also, I have been to the area (Zion to the Rescue from a few weeks ago) and it is really cool! It is a nice area. I am excited to get to know all the members and see what it is like. The person that is coming to Itaugua to take my place is Hermana Seeman. She was with me in the CCM in Argentina, so that is pretty cool! My companion is worried though, cuz I told her that Hermana Seeman is pretty shy--because she is. Something else that I found out is... Hermana Hunt got called to be an Hermana Training Leader! I totally knew it, too. I was not even surprised when I found out. She is going to be such a great hermana leader! She is like freaking out, though... She doesn´t feel like she is prepared. But, she totally is! So that is what is happening with changes. I am leaving... :(

Familia Maldonado - Saul is in pink shirt

But, now let´s talk about Saúl. So, he did not get baptized this week cuz when we went to talk to him last Monday, he told us that the 2nd of August would be a lot better for him. Really, he wants to find work so that he can buy clothes to look nice for his baptism (pretty sure). So, we gave him that date. When he said that though, my heart dropped, cuz I knew that there would be a huge chance that I would get changed and not be able to be there. And... Look what happened. But, really, the only thing that is important is that he is getting baptized. Hopefully! He really is so ready and I have seen him change SOOO much! But, yesterday at church, his sister, Sandra, was talking to me and was asking me if I was going to get changed. I told her that I didn´t know and that we would know tomorrow. Then she says, ´´And what will happen with my brother if you get changed??´´ ´´Well, he is gonna get baptized!´´... is what I was thinking. Apparently, Saúl is a person who doesn´t like change and really, he is very used to us--me and Hermana Morales--and doesn´t want us to change. So, I am pretty sure that everything will be fine and he will get bapized and just be so happy. But, that did make me even more sad! I honestly don´t know what I am going to do tomorrow with the members when I go to visit them. Seriously, it is gonna break my heart. But also, I know SI O SI that I will be coming back to Itaugua to visit the people. They are literally like my family here in Paraguay! But anyway, that is the news on Saúl. He will be getting baptized this weekend.

That is about all that happened for this week. I also went on divisions with Hermana Meese this week in her area cuz Hermana Francois was sick really bad for like 3 days and they couldn´t work in their area, so they needed help! Really, Hermana Francois got sick cuz of stress. She has just worked so hard her whole mission that now, in the end, she just got overwhelmed with stress trying to get everything ready to go. Like, school stuff, she is worried about her mom cuz she is sick... Stuff like that. So, Hermana Morales stayed with Hermana Francois at home and I went out with Hermana Meese. It was pretty fun! I had an American companion again for a day! ;)

The main thing for this week is changes and I am sure I will have a lot more to say in the next email cuz it will be a WHOLE DIFFERENT experience. I was like packing my stuff today and  I seriously feel like I am leaving on my mission all over again. I don´t like it! Plus, I am REALLY REALLY REALLY gonna miss Hermana Morales. She is seriously my sister. But, obviously the Lord needs me in Aratiri with Hermana Pelicó cuz if He didn´t.... I wouldn´t have gotten changes there! ;) So, everything will be ok. I hope you have a great week. I know I will probably have a pretty crazy one changing areas and stuff. Let you know about it next week! Love you! Also, can you believe that now it´s 7 months here?? Crazy! LOVE YOU!!!

Love, Hermana Whittaker

Kids from Cañada - Jeny & Damien

Hermana Whittaker in Cañada

Hermana Whittaker with Sandra Maldonado (she wants to become a missionary)

Hermanas Whittaker & Moralez - winter wear!

July 21, 2014 - Week 29

Hey! So this week was a good one. The best thing is that we have seen a lot of progress with Saúl! We are like so excited for him. So, I told you the last week that he totally said the prayer and it was such a mirales, right? Well, guess what happened this week! So, we planned on going to his house to visit him like 3 different times this past week... And 2 of those times, we had to cancel! So, we cancelled on Tuesday cuz my companion was feeling super sick (long story short...a member that gave us lunch on Tuesday also gave us this coconut water that was DISGUSTING. I drank all of mine-cuz it´s rude to not-but, my companion like almost threw-up at the table... Haha it was so funny! But, in the end, she just got sick from it...) so, we cancelled and his mom told us that it was totally ok... So then, we were supposed to go on Wednesday and we were at some other members house way too late and didn´t have time to take a colectivo to the Maldonado´s house. They live like way far from where we live. So, we cancelled again! But, when we called his mom (Lourdes) she told us that it was ok, again, but that Saúl has a surprise for us the next day. So we are like freaking out and we wanna know what this surprise is! So, the next day comes along and we are like si o si we need to go to his house. And we ALMOST didn´t cuz it looked like it was going to rain hard (and long story short AGAIN, when it rains like super hard, there are no colectivos on the street where they live... so we would be stranded...) But, we took a leap of faith and went! And no, it didn´t rain... So that was grand. But, we got there are..... HE WASN´T EVEN THERE!!!!! He was like in another city for work. So, we didn´t even get to talk to him! But, Lourdes told us that the surprise is that he wants to get baptized THIS SATURDAY!!! So I am like so excited and like really shooting for this week, cuz it´s before changes!! Haha and I´m not saying anything, cuz really only President McMullin and the Lord know changes, but, it is just a lot more sure if he gets baptized while I am for sure still in Itaugua! Haha, so that was the cool thing that happend. Also, he came to church on Sunday and told us that he would tell us the surprise when we visit him... HAHA he doesn´t know that we know the surprise... But, we are going to visit him tonight to figure everything out! Hopefully things go smoothly cuz seriously, I have seen such a huge change in him and I am so excited for him to be able to be baptized and receive the same blessings that his family has received! They are all going to be members! Fingers crossed and knock on wood that nothing changes! And that things go good... But, if it's true that he is gonna try for this Saturday... We are gonna have to teach him like the whole lesson 4 (the commandments...) last FAST. But, let´s hope it goes smoothly!

So that is the coolest spritual thing that happened this week. I can´t think about anything else that happened. We found a lot of new investigators this week... That was really cool. We went to a city called San Lorenzo today for p-day, just to explore. There were some cool things. I mostly wanted to go cuz I wanted to go to this music store that is there... And I may or may not have bought some drumsticks. Hahaha ;) But yeah... Not much for this week. There were some other things we did like yesterday, me and my companion made a few videos of us singing... Haha ridiculous. But, really... She is like my best friend! We have like the best times together! There is not a day that we don´t laugh at something dumb that happened or something hilarious that one of us did. I really hope that I get ONE MORE change with her. Just one! Haha also, cuz I love Itaugua and there are some cool people that we are working with right now that I would love to see where they go in the future. But, we will find out next week! You guys will know if I stay or if I go in ONE WEEK. Que LOCO! But, I love you so much and thank you for all you do for me! Have a GRAND week and just remember that LES AMO!

Hermana Whittaker, Veronica, Dahiana, & Oliver

Love, Hermana Whittaker

July 14, 2014 - Week 28

Well, this week was an adventure. So, Monday and Tuesday were pretty normal. Well, Tuesday, we had a zone conference with President McMullin. It was pretty good... BUT he dropped cane on us pretty bad. We need to be planning in our agendas better (because he has been looking through them and checking them off for like 2 months...) and we need to be contacting more. He told us that he had something else planned to teach just like with the other zones, but he decided to change what he was going to teach for us cuz we are lacking as a zone in those areas..... So yeah. But, it was still really good (cuz it´s President) and now we have even more of a desire to do those things! Haha but that was good.

Also, at the conference, I received my package with the card and chip in it! I was so happy! And you can bet that I have been listening to the new music I have everyday this week. I hope my companion doesn´t get sick of it!! She probably is... ;) But, anyways... I got the package and we had a great, 5 hour, conference. Also, another cool thing is that President announced something pretty cool. So, there is an Elder in our mission named Elder Gunther. I don´t know him personally, but a lot of people talk about him. Well, apparently he is a really musical person. Like REALLY musical and so President gave him permission to have a keyboard in his house and for like a few weeks or months or something, and he woke up early everyday to write a song for our mission! And so now our mission, Misión Paraguay Asunción Norte, has it´s own hymn! And they showed us a video of some missionaries singing it and then also have us the sheet music. And it is SO cool. It really is such a pretty song. Sounds like it came right out of the hymn book, too.

So that was the beggining of our week. Then, Wednesday comes along and we had a pretty good day, but the best was at the very end. We went out to the house of one of our recent converts, Familia Maldonado (those 3 girls that got baptized when I first got here) to teach their son, Saúl, who is an investigator. He is progressing really well and we are so excited to be teaching him cuz when I first got here, he wanted NOTHING to do with the church or the missionaries. And now, he has gone to church twice and is reading the Book of Mormon and we are hoping soon that he will get baptized! But, we were having a difficulty with him from LAST week. He told us that he ´´didn´t know´´ if he would pray to know if the church was true. And that kinda took us by surprise. So really, we came to the conclusion that he just didn´t want to pray in front of us or that he didn´t want to pray specifically to receive an answer. So we like brought it up in our district meeting and brought it up at the zone conference and some other missionaries gave us some suggestions. Also, last Sunday, we fasted for him. We just really wanted to help him and know what we should do so that he could realize the importance of praying. Cuz he is assisting the church and reading all the chapters that we give him in the Book of Mormon... He just isn´t praying. So, after all of that, we went to his house on Wednesday night and we taught a great lesson with him. We taught mostly about baptism from 2 Nephi 31 (because that was his assignment to read) and he really was participating and learning... Then, a miracle happened. We got to the end of the lesson and my companion asked him to pray. She just asked him noramally, and he said YES! And then he said the prayer! Not only the prayer, but a really good one! So this means he has been praying individually and stuff! And he wasn´t like nervous or didn´t know what he was doing or anything. And usually he is a shy person. But, he simply just said the prayer. It was seriously so cool cuz for like 3 or 4 times in the lessons he refused! So that was awesome. 

Oh, another thing... So BEFORE this miracle lesson, something happened. We were on a colectivo on our way to their house. And when we got off the colectivo, I checked my side pockets to make sure that I have everything (like I always do...) and I didn´t have our phone. So we lost the phone. Or... I lost the phone. We are guessing that it fell down when we stood up to get off of the colectivo and we didn´t notice until it was gone. So, what we did is we waited till the same colectivo returned (cuz it was on a route that returns) and checked. So like 20 minutes later, the colectivo came back and the phone was not there. We are like 99.9% positive that someone saw it on the floor and then took it. Cuz there is like NO chance of getting a phone back if you´ve left it somewhere. So, that happened this week. But, we were fine about it cuz we had such a great lesson with Saúl right after. And then, the next day, Thursday, we took a colectivo to Asunción and went to the mission office and got a new one! So everything is good and our new phone is nicer than all the others... So that is cool ;) 

But that was our crazy adventure.

And then, on Saturday we went to another area to do this thing (that I don´t remember if I have mentioned before...) called Sión al Rescate (Zion to the Rescue) and that is where all the missionaries in our Stake (so the 2 zones in our stake) get together with all the youth of the stake and we visit all the menos activo families in one area. So that was pretty fun. It´s like every 2nd Saturday of every month. This week we went to an area called Aratiri. Our group wasn´t able to find any of the three families on the list (none of them were home) so we just taught the teens how to contact people with us! Haha so we just contacted some people with our group of youth. It was pretty fun!

Souvenirs at Aregua

So, last thing... Today, for p-day, we went to an area called Aregua. It is pretty close to Itaugua so it only took like 30 minutes to get there by colectivo. It was so fun! Really, we went there cuz Hermana Francois is going home in like 2 weeks and she wanted to buy stuff for her family and her companion, Hermana Meese, has been to Aregua and so she knew where it was. So we went and there was like a ton... A TON of little shops with souvenirs. TONS. And then, we went to this house that Hermana Meese knew that sells real silver for cheap. And there were like tons of cute rings and earrings and stuff there. So beautiful, too. And the guy totally makes all of it! So that was pretty cool. Let´s just say that it is a good thing that my card got here this week...... ;) Haha but it was way fun. 

So, that is my week! Looking forward to another good week! Hope you guys have fun, especially cuz all of you guys are going to be at camp this week! LOVE YOU!! (Scott & Oaken were at Scout Camp, while Isabel and Joey were at Girls Camp - Jill was with Grandma!)

LES QUIERO MUCHISIMO!

CON AMOR, HERMANA WHITTAKER

July 7, 2014 - Week 27

Well, this week was pretty simple. I officially hit 6 months on Tuesday... That was cool. We decided to celebrate it with this delicious food called Lomito Arabe (you can look it up if you want...). So that is pretty nuts! But, this week was really just more full of service than anything. So first, on Wednesday, we went to the hosptial of Cancer with an hermana in our ward cuz she needed someone to accompany her. Her name is Juana and the doctors are pretty sure that she has cancer. So the whole situation is sad. She is single and is like 25-30 (somewhere in between there) years old. So it´s way sad. But, she was way scared to go and hear her results and really just wanted someone there with her. So we went with her and waited 5 hours. Yes, we were there for 5 hours. One more time... 5 HOURS. BUTTTT! It was totally ok, cuz she had someone with her. I was like so nervous for her. She is like our friend! She feeds us lunch every Tuesday and is just always willing to help us out. Anyways... After those 5 hours, she went in with the doctor and they told her that they couldn´t tell for sure if she had cancer, so she would need to come back again for another study. So that kinda sucked that they didn´t tell her after all that time. But, she was really relieved. She didn´t wanna know! But, they also said that for sure she is going to have to have surgery. So obviously there is something there. So that was close to pretty much all our Wednesday.

 

Then, Thursday comes. We were supposed to eat lunch with the familia Portillo and they called us to tell us that lunch would be a little bit later cuz they were in the Center of Health with their baby of 7 or 8 months, Vanellope (yes--she is totally named from Wreck-It-Ralph). Then, a few hours later they told us that they wouldn´t be able to make lunch at all cuz Vanellope has phnemonia (I don´t know exactly how that is spelled...) and might have to stay overnight in the Center of Health (which I am pretty sure is like the same thing as Pediatrition--maybe). Then, the hermana goes on to ask us if we could call someone in the ward to help wash Vanellope´s clothes since she didn´t have like ANY clean clothes. So, right away we said.. ´´No worries, hermana... We will do it!´´ So we went to their house and washed all the clothes... By hand. It took forever, but it is ok, cuz little Vanellope had clean clothes! So that was our Thursday.

Then, Friday comes along and we are eating lunch with the familia Lucas (hermano Lucas is the Branch President). Then, the zone leaders call us to tell us that an hermana in our ward (named Hermana Gabina) wants us to know that she was going to meet us in our area at like 3 to do visits. We didn´t have this planned or even knew that this was going to happen, but cool. We met up with her and she pretty much just wanted to know where all the hermanas in our area lived (because she is the president of the Relief Society). So for all afternoon we just walked around our area showing her the houses of all the hermanas. So, we didn´t have a lot of time for lessons, but she now knows where all the hermanas live.

So, what I am trying to get at is this week, we maybe didn´t get a lot of lessons in, but I did learn that it is more important to serve people when they need it than to worry about numbers! So this week was just really good in that aspect.

P-day was pretty different today. The hermana that trained Hermana Morales came to Itaugua to visit the families (because she was here before I got her--I actually replaced her...). Her name is Hermana Sanchez and the people here absolutely ADORE her. I remember when I first got here, everyone was just like, ´´HERMANA SANCHEZ! How is Hermana Sanchez?! We miss Hermana Sanchez!´´ Haha so they all love her, and she came back to visit today. And seeing as my companion was trained by her, definitely wanted to hang out with her, too. So we went to lunch with a family in our area and Hermana Sanchez with her companion, Hermana Moreno. It was pretty fun! Everyone was so happy to see her, but they also told her that they love the missonaries that they have right now, too ;) So that made me feel like I´m doing somethin right here! Haha... But it was good. We went and did quick visits with a few other families in our area and she got pictures with them and stuff. But that is all we did for p-day today!

Looking forward to a new week! Glad all of you guys had a great week.. Espcially with 4th of July and stuff. On Friday, everything that I would say to my companion had the excuse, ´´It´s the 4th of July!!!´´ For example... ´´Hey! Let´s go eat empanadas for lunch cuz it´s the 4th of July!´´ or ´´Let´s make a cake cuz it´s the 4th of July!´´ She just would roll her eyes and say... ´´Aye... Americana...´´ ;) Haha!!! So that was fun. I will be honest... I missed boating with you guys, but, still had a good Independence Day in a different country ;P HAVE A GREAT WEEK! LES AMOOOOOOO!!! <3

Con amor,

Hermana Whittaker