April 14, 2014 - Week 15

Ok... So this week was full of Awesome´s and No-So-Awesome´s. First of all... Let´s talk about how I got to go to the temple on Tuesday. Wow. It was so awesome! Did the session in Spanish (obviously) and it was WAYYYYYY easier! It´s crazy how much you can learn in like 2 months. Also... Let´s talk about how beautiful it was. It was LINDISIMO! (That´s super duper beautiful in Spanish...) Seriously. It was such a great experience. The spirit was just so strong and I just loved it. It was so great to get to do that. I only have to wait another year to do it again... ;) Hahaha but it was awesome. Totally took up our whole day though. It´s like 2 hours away from our house. 

So this week we had a lot of good lessons and stuff. Not too many new things happened. My companion and I have to teach District Meeting tomorrow. That´ll be interesting. Hahaha. Everyone is doing good. We still really need to work with Vivi on getting her marido, Roberto, back to the church and them married so that she can finally get baptized. It´s hard though... because he is literally never home. Every time we go over there.... Never home. So that´s frusterating. We are gonna really work on that this week, though. Then we have Beatriz. She is like 66 years old and a little bit crazy. But I love her so much. She is the funniest lady ever and sometimes has no clue what´s going on. She always tells me that when I first got here, she could´t understand anything I said... It´s hilarious. She was progressing and going to church for a while and this week, she told us that she now has to work on Sundays so she can´t go to church. Sad. But we are still going to visit her and stuff and work with her. But let´s talk about this situation now......

Veronica... So this week Veronica changed my life like 8 different times this week. And I´ll tell you why. So she has definitely been like feeling the spirit and stuff, right? So that is all just great and stuff. We had a lesson on the Plan of Salvation and stuff that went great. A lesson with some members so she could meet some other people and have some other friends... That went great. Also, we had a great lesson with her on Friday, though. We pretty much just answered a lot of her questions and doubts and stuff and it ended up getting really spiritual and serious. So she is a super like shy and timid girl, right? And also, she is kinda lonely cuz she´s living with her cousin... So she kinda misses her family (who are Catholic--of course)... (And also they won´t approve of her being baptized in the church and stuff... ) But she has really opened up to us and we just KNOW that the church is true. It´s just so obvious. And then she told us... On Friday... That she knows that the Catholic church doesn´t have the authority and that the authority is in the Church of Jesus Christ. I wanted to cry of happiness. It was just so great. She like was talking about baptism and me and my companion were just so happy. So things went super good. The spirit was so strong. Yeah. Then we went to visit her on Saturday to teach the 10 Commandments. That went good. Then we took her to a baptism with us (it was the baptism of the other hermanas) that night. She enjoyed it. She met a knew friend, a girl in the ward named Romina, so things are going great. Then on the way home... She starts telling us that she is feeling like baptism is a Yes and then a No and it keeps switching in her mind. Oh no, right?? So the next day (yesterday), we go over and have a lesson with her on Faith and talk about when Peter walked on water, but then doubted himself and fell... But then Christ was there to help him again... It was a really spiritual lesson and stuff. Then she just starts saying that she doesn´t know if she should be baptized and stuff and she hasn´t told her family and she doesn´t know if she has gotten her answer yet. So I tell her... well not really me, it was the spirit for sure... That a lot of the time, I think we don´t ¨receive¨ answers cuz we are scared for what the answer will be. Because we know what the answer will be. And she totally got it... She totally understood where I was getting at. Then I told her that it doesn´t matter what goes on... Just like with Peter, there will be a storm all around us and we will always have problems, we just need that one time, the one testimony that we have felt the spirit testify to us, to know what we need to do. Then she tells us.. Yeah... I feel like I know my answer.. I´ve had my answer. So at this point, we know she´s gonna say it... So we ask her ´what is your answer?´ and she says.... ´No bautizarme´.............................

WHAT?!?!?!?! I was so confused! It seriously threw both of us off so bad. It was the weirdest thing. And it completely broke my heart in two. Seriously. And the worst part about it is that she KNOWS the church is true. She KNOWS! She told us! But, she is just so afraid of what her family will think. She doesn´t want to cause problems in her family. So then we told her that we want her to tell Heavenly Father her decision and if she feels good about it, go with it... IF NOT... Maybe it´s the wrong choice. We had her say the prayer and tell Him in the prayer. She did and at the end you could just tell that she knew.... You could just tell. So that we left. Feeling so sad. Like SO sad. But we are going back there tonight and we are going to verify with her on how her prayer went and stuff. It´s so sad and I probably told that story horrible. Sorry if you can´t understand. But that is definitely what happened this week.  

That´s about it! I have been praying like crazy for Veronica... I´ll let you know what happens next week! This week is Semana Santa (Holy Week) cuz of Pascua (Easter) and they sell a whole bunch of chipa (this bread stuff that they eat here). So I´ll probably try some of that. That´s all I can think about that happened for this week.

LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

LOVE, HERMANA WHITTAKER

April 7, 2014 - Week 14

Ice Cream with Hermana Hunt before she leaves

Well this week was conference! It was so good, too! So I thought it was funny, but as missionaries, when it´s conference, everyone is just like soooo excited! It´s pretty funny, actually... Just that since there aren´t too many things you look forward to as being something exciting and different as a missionary, when it´s conference weekend, everyone acts likes it´s the Second Coming. Which actually, it´s pretty close considering the words we get to hear come straight from heaven! Hahaha this is me trying to be funny in a missionary-like way... ;) Anyway, conference was SO good though! The best part about it all was that I GOT TO WATCH IT IN ENGLISH! I didn´t know that this was an option for missionaries till like Friday night... So I was so excited! Especially because when we went to the Women´s conference (which for us was Saturday morning but for you guys was like a week ago) it was translated in Spanish, so we had to watch it in Spanish. It was good, but it gets really hard trying to understand everything for that long. Seriously, I was getting a headache trying to keep up with what was being said! So when we got to watch conference in English... Wow it was quite the blessing. So that was just really cool. Also, it kinda felt like I didn´t know any Spanish after cuz I had listened to all of conference in English and also talked to all American missionaries durning conference. So for two days I didn´t really speak Spanish and it was just really weird!

A beautiful sunset - Chloe says it was better in real life!

I loved EVERY SINGLE TALK. But I especially loved Utchdorf, Bednar, Anderson, Holland, Nelson and OF COURSE President Monson. So those are like half of the talks, but they were just so good! I can´t choose any favorites! Like I loved how Anderson said: Don´t let the wirlwinds drag you down! (Those could definitely be song lyrics, if they aren´t already) and Bednar´s talk on how we NEED loads in life you get back on the road to our Father in Heaven. That was soooo good! Plus Holland is just awesome at dropping cane on everyone and Ioved his testimony at the end about how he was ¨more sure that the ordinances and convenants that we need to make are restored and on the earth than he was sure that we were sitting in front of him¨. Then that inspiring story that President Monson gave about the boy on the flight and how we need to be more mindful and show more love to others. Wow. SOO great! I thought that a huge theme of this whole conference was that we really just need to be like Christ. We need to treat others like Christ would treat them. We need to look for Christ in all we do and we need to remember His sacrifice for us. I (of course) looked at this message from a missionary´s perspective because I AM a representative of Jesus Christ! I need to do everything like He would! It just made me want to be even better and work even harder and to just remember to be like Him.

An avocado a member gave - imagine the guacamole!

Anyways, as for missionary work.... This week was a really good one. We ended up meeting Lourdes Maldonado´s (our recent convert who is pretty much like a missionary now cuz she helps us find like everyone to teach) sister and her family! A family of 6! They are just the greatest. They seem really interested and just want to learn more! So we will definitely be working with them a lot this week. Tonight, actually! So that was really cool. Also, one of our investogators, Veronica, is progressing A TON! So she has been like reading the Book of Mormon and praying and stuff and totally came to the first session of conference on Sunday! She said she learned A LOT of things and really loved President Monson´s talk. She could really feel like spirit, too. She said she had like goosebumps throughout conference! It is just awesome. She just knows the church is true. Hopefully she will be able to be baptized soon. I know that it is a huge desire that she has. I love seeing her be so happy!  I know it´s gotta be super hard for her, cuz she lives with her cousin and is just going to the university and doesn´t have very many friends and stuff cuz she´s in a new place... But I have seen a huge change in her! We had some great lessons with her this week and she had a lot of questions for us and stuff. We answered them and she totally understood! Just super good. Also, her cousin´s (the member) little girl, who is like 2, now knows me by the name of Hermana Chuchi... Hahaha soon the whole branch will know. Also, this week we had some lessons with this kid named Hugo that we met at another investigator´s house. He seemed super interested and said that he was for sure going to conference on Sunday.... So it pretty much broke our hearts when he didn´t show up. But, that happenes a lot here. The mission (in Hermana Hunt´s words) is like a novio (boyfriend). The people lead you along for a while... Then they just take and throw your heart on the ground and break it when they don´t come to church. Funny... But so true. Things are going great though! Me and my companion are like best friends now and we get along great. We laugh at each other like all the time and we tried singing the whole musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat the other day... So things are good! I still love being a missionary! I cannot wait to go to the temple tomorrow! It is gonna be so great! HOPE YOU GUYS HAVE A GREAT WEEK! LOVE YOU!

Love, Hermana Whittaker

March 31, 2014 - Week 13

So the first major news is that we got changes this week. Of course I am in the same area with the same companion, so that`s cool, but I got to see what it was like! So everyone just waits until they get the call and then they go to the office the next day and get their new companion and go to their new area! Crazy, right?? Wonder when I`ll get my first REAL change...? Anyway, Hermana Hunt left. It was a sad day, but she was also really ready to see more of Paraguay. She`s been in Itaugua for like 6 months, so she was sad to leave, but ready at the same time. So she actually ended up going to Hermana Braunersrither`s old area. We had a going away party for her with the members and they were all SOOOO sad to see her going. They really love her. Also, Hermana Hernandez totally got cake in Hermana Hunt`s face and I got a picture of it. It was great. So now we have a new hermana living with us. Her name is Hermana Francois. She is from Haiti! Cool huh! She also speaks really good Spanish (she has been in the mission for like a year and 2 months--she`s close to being done!) and English and French (her native language) and Creol (?--which is like Haiti`s Guarani) and a little bit of Guarani and Portuguese (because her last area that she was in for like 7 months was Pedro Juan and that borders Brazil)! That`s pretty cool, right?? She is super sweet and a great missionary. So that`s the newest in our house. Also, me and my companion have become WAY more close this week. It really is because Hermana Hunt is gone. Haha that sounds sad, but it`s true! Hermana B and Hunt were super good friends and so when we were all together, they would be talking or whatever. Now, she only has me! Haha so we have become a lot better friends this past week.

Also, our zone got split in two this change, and our district leader is now our zone leader. They also divided up the elders area in Itaugua and put two new elders in. One of them is our new district leader. His name is Elder Chinchilla. So now we have 8 missionaries in our ward. That`s a lot, huh!

So as for missionary work, things have been pretty good this week. We went with two of the elders that are in an area that borders ours called Mboi`y (pronounced: boy-oo, but with a Guarani accent ;) to a reference that OUR recent convert, Lourdes (the mom of my first baptism here) gave us. She happened to live in the elders area, so we went with them and Lourdes to meet here. She is THE GOLDEN INVESTIGATOR. Seriously! She is just really interested and stuff. The lesson that we had with the elders was a super good one, too. They are just really good missionaries. The spirit was there sooooo strongly! Wow, it was great. The elders have also been visiting her and they told us that she ready like all of 1 Nephi chapter 1 and they didn`t even give her a BOM yet! Lourdes gave her one! So that`s good for both of our companionships cuz they have a great investigator and our recent convert is just out being an awesome missionary now! Plus, after the lesson with the elders, Elder Willes (who is almost done with his mission--he has like 4 weeks left and also lives in Sandy, Ut...Just a fun fact) told me that he was honestly super impressed with my spanish. He said it was really good for how long I`ve been in the mission. So that was cool! Also it`s good that he said that, cuz I have been feeling really down about my Spanish this week. It`s so weird, learning a language! Cuz one day I feel like really good about speaking and the next, I feel like I haven`t learned a thing! It`s pretty frusterating. But it`s ok cuz I will just keep learning and it will be easier!

 

We had some other really good lessons with the people this week. We have a really cool investigator named Vivi who is like all ready to just get baptized and stuff. She has a testimony and everything. She just needs to get married to her marido (which pretty much just means your ¨guy¨ that you have some kids with, but you`re not married yet--there are a lot of those in Paraguay... Pretty much everyone hahaha). He is a menos activo, so hopefully we can get him back to church, them married, and her baptized! Also, we have an investigator named Veronica. She is 17 and is living with her cousin (who is a member in our ward). She is really shy, but this week she really came out of her shell with us. She is such a cutie. Also, she came to church yesterday and sat with me! So that was fun. Church was really good, also. I don`t know if I have already said this, but our chapel in Itaugua has been under construction for a long time. I think like a year, but it is like almost done now. It looks really pretty and I can`t wait till it opens. They are just waiting for seats, I think, and then we can use our chapel. As of now we just all meet at our chapel and then we take a free colectivo, that the church pays for, to the chapel in Mboi`y. So anyway, on the whole ride back from Mboi`y on the colectivo, I had a conversation with two of the kids in our ward. They were being so funny! I don`t even know what they were trying to explain, but it lasted the whole 30 minute colectivo ride! I`m just loving it here. The people are awesome and I feel like I`m making better relationships with them. It`s great.

Also, we got some sad news. So apparently familia Portillo moved. They just packed up and went like last Sunday. Sad huh! We had no clue! We found out when we went to their house and Hermano and Hermana Portillo (the brother and sister-in-law who are the members) told us that they left. It was sad to find that out. I hope they will be able to find the church and other missionaries wherever they are, cuz I know that they have the desire to be baptized! We also had some good lessons with Sabrina this week and the best one was yesterday. We talked with her and her boyfriend, Nelson. It was a really powerful lesson and they both said that they are going to work towards coming back to church (for Sabrina) and baptism (for Nelson). I just love the familia Flores so much. I have become so close with them! Sabrina told me that she loves me the most ;) I just really hope for the best for them. I know that she has the desire to quit smoking and to change her life. She just needs to act on it! Her parents are just the greatest, too. The hermano can now say my name, so he always greats me by saying Hermana Whittaker now instead of Hermana W. He`s the funniest guy, too! And the Hermana told me that we can come over to her house any time that we want! Cuz her house is our house. Haha it was a lot funnier in real life.

Speaking of names though, here`s something funny. So we have a Presidente of the branch here instead of a bishop of the ward. He`s a super cool guy. He is like really young, too. He`s a returned missionary and he went to Argentina. His wife is awesome too and she`s the cutest thing ever. She is pregnant with her first baby. ANYWAY... We eat at their house every friday for lunch and they have a hard time with my name. SO... She decided that she is going to call me Hermana Chuchi. Chuchi means like expensive and fancy and stuff along those lines in Guarani. Apparently I`m chuchi cuz I put on makeup and wear earrings and stuff. Hahaha it`s so funny though. I`m sure that pretty soon the whole ward is gonna call me that. It`s now like this huge joke. BTW--being chuchi isn`t a bad thing. It just means I`m a little bit high maintainance is all.... ;)

Well.... That is it for the week. Love you guys so much! Glad you had a great week! Talk to you next week!!

Te amo muchisimo!

Love, Hermana Whittaker

March 24, 2014 - Week 12

It´s pretty crazy... That I have completed my first change. Wow it flew by. This week was really good though! We had a lot of lessons and found some really cool people.

 

Our Kitchen

Today has been a little weird. We cleaned our whole house really good last night so we could just get it done with (we always have to clean the house like SUPER good when there are about to be cambios) and so today we had a whole bunch of free time to just talk and do whatever at the house. So, the District Leaders WERE supposed to call us today telling us who was getting changed and where they were going and who their new companion will be... But they might not because the actual change day might be changed (haha) to Thursday instead of Wednesday... So we might just be finding out tomorrow what is going on. I am not worried at all because it´s pretty obvious that I´ll be staying with Hermana Braunershrither because I am only in the middle of my training.. But, Hermana Hunt is almost positive that she´ll be leaving areas because she started her mission in Itaugua and has had 4 changes here. So ALL morning we have been waiting for the phone call. And it probably won´t even come! Hahaha! I really am hoping that Hermana Hunt will stay...At least one more change! I love her so much. But, it´s really whatever the Lord wants. But today as been just really tranquilo.

So, for our week. So first of all, it was a rainy week. There was one day (I think it was Tuesday) where it rained really hard all day. We were supposed to have a service project in the morning at like 7 with the rest of our district, and as soon as we got on the colectivo to get to the chapel, it started POURING. So, when we got off the colectivo, we ran in the rain to the chapel and got soaked! Then, we didn´t even end up doing the service because it was raining! It was fun running in the rain though...!

So we visited a lot of our menos activos this week. We really focused on them and stuff. Had some great lessons. Then, we got a reference from the Elders, Laura, and visited her. She is like a golden investigator. She has already gone to church like 2 times. So we were super happy to meet her. She is great and has a really hard life story. She is a single mom with two little kids. Her husband left her when her youngest baby (who is like 1 and a few months) was like 5 months old. Sad, right? But she has gone to church with her kids one time and her other son (who is like 4) has gone twice. She has a friend who´s husband is a bishop in another area, so that´s why she has gone to church and that´s how she knows of the church. Anyway, she was totally going to come with us to church this week and we were all set to go pick her up in the morning and go with her and my companion was going to bring her a skirt.... And Sunday rolls around and she doesn´t answer her phone, doesn´t answer her door, so she ends up not coming to church. Wow. It broke my heart. I was so excited for her to come! Then she just didn´t... Missionary work is hard. You get your hopes up and then BAM! Someone grabs those hopes and tramples on them...... It´s ok though! We are totally going to try to visit her this week and see what´s up. Not worried about it :) But, also like none of the people in our whole area came to church this week. It was kinda sad! Even our actives didn´t show up! It was probably because it was kinda cold outside in the morning (that´s another thing, it´s starting to get a bit cooler because we´re going into fall here) and sometimes Paraguays don´t do anything when it´s cold or raining or too hot.... Yeah, I know. Also, Sabrina, was going to come to church this week FOR SURE... And she didn´t either. It was sad! But, still a great Sunday with a lot of great people!

So, on Thursday, we did divisions with each other. I went out with Hermana Hernandez and my companion and Hermana Hunt went out together. It was really great for me, too, because I we were in my area and I had to pretty much be the senior companion! I like had to plan everything and take us where we needed to go... Also, I had to speak Spanish the whole day...! Cuz Hermana Hernandez speaks Spanish. So, it was really good for me and I actually really enjoyed it! It kind of gave me a chance to build a better relationship with my member, investigators, and menos activos, since I was the one out of the two of us who knew them. It was good :) I felt super close to them. Also, Hermana Hernandez is a great missionary, so she helped me out a lot. She might be leaving soon.. :( Guess we´ll find out if her and Hermana Hunt stay together another cambio, or one of them leave!

Hermana Whittaker & Hunt with the Golden Dragon

Hermana Whittaker with Sabrina

Anyway, the day we went out, we visited Sabrina. It was really good. Shared a great scripture (Ether 12:27) with her about weaknesses. It was SOO good. Then, I just became like really close with her. We are like best friends now. She says that when I get done with my mission, she is going to come to the United States to my house for a vacation. Hahaha! I love her so much! She´s just a super cool girl. Anyway, that´s about it for the week! Can´t think about anything else!

I hope you guys have an awesome week and things go great for you! Be safe! LOVE YOU GUYS!

Love, Hermana Whittaker

March 17, 2014 - Week 11

So this week was full of ups and downs. I had some really good moments and (I´ll be honest) some mas o menos moments (that´s like alright/not too great in Spanish--more or less). So with the familia Portillo... Good news! I don´t think that they are moving super soon! Jorge found work close by, so I think they´re staying longer! So that´s good. Plus they are progressing, so that´s good. But, Angela (the wife) and the son, Joel, won´t be able to get baptized this week like we planned, because they don´t have the money to get married yet and they have to be civily married in order to be baptized. But, we are going to keep working with them and shoot for another goal so that they can be baptized as soon as possible, because they definitely have the desire! So that was good.

Then, we have Jenny. She is doing better, I think. So, as I said in the last message, she has like some issues--like depression and fainting issues--but, we visited her like twice this last week and she seemed like she was doing pretty good. We shared some cool scriptures with her and yeah! Then, we had a really cool lesson with Sabrina. So Sabrina is a less active member and she has a problem with smoking. These last 2 weeks though she did super good! She was smoking WAY less a day and then.... BAM! We had a lesson with her on the natural man. I chose (well the spirit DEFINITELY chose) to share that with her and it was so good! She told us at the end that she didn´t smoke at all the day before and she wasn´t going to smoke that day or ever again! So we´re all like super excited for her and it was a great great and spiritual moment. I also gave her a CTR ring so she could remember to Choose the Right, or Haz la Justo, in Spanish. We´ll see how that goes! Then, we had some super good lessons with this one lady, Mabel, who has some sickness problems and depression problems. Awesome lessons! She told us that only God can help her with her problems. Not a doctor.. No one but God. She could really feel the spirit and I think that she is starting to understand that baptism is super important. We´ll see how that goes this week too!

 

So then, the mas o menos stuff. First of all, my companion had lice. She had it right before I got here, but she thought that she got it out. Nope. She has had it this whole time. So she realized that she had it still, Hermana Hunt looked through her hair and confirmed that yes, she still did. Then she found two... Not one but TWO lice bugs! Ew! It was so gross. Then, Hermana B used this shampoo to kill it. It was an overnight shampoo so then the next day, Hna Hunt was going to go through and get the eggs out with this comb. The next day rolls around and guess what... They wouldn´t come out! So me and Hermana Hunt (the geniuses that we are) looked up in our oil books, Lice. We sprayed down Hermana B´s hair with water and Melaluca. And got another, BETTER, lice comb. And guess what. IT WORKED! The lice shampoo didn´t work, but the oils did! I´m a believer in oils for life now! Me and Hermana Hunt were so excited! Anyway, we got the eggs out and Hermana Hunt checked my hair..... I don´t have lice, so we´re good. I was really worried about getting it though. But, I think that since I have´t gotten it yet and my companion has had it for a while, and I mean A WHILE--there were TONS of eggs, that I won´t get it. It´s taken care of now... Hopefully...

Anyway, after that, we went to the Zone meeting. It was at like 2, so that was the first thing we did that day after getting the lice out. It was super good and helpful and really spiritual. It was awesome. But after, we didn´t get anything done. We had like no work that day and we just felt terrible. But after that, we did super good over the weekend and worked real hard. But, Saturday was a weird day. That´s the day when we usually get a ton of stuff done and we work with everyone, but NO ONE was home! It was the weirdest thing! Plus no one would answer their phone... It was just a weird day. But everyone in our ward was at the temple for Stake temple day, so that probably had something to do with it. So that´s what happened that was weird... Mostly good stuff this week! Also, me and Hermana B totally did Spanish workouts this week. We just did like all these jumping jacks and wall sits and planks, but we recited things in Spanish back and forth while we did it.... Super fun! And also hilarious...

So I GOT MY PACKAGE! It was at the Zone Meeting! I had a feeling I would get it too, cuz they always bring everything to the chapel that is for the area when they do zone meetings. So I got it! It was so cute! Thank you so much! My companion was like so happy about the card that she got as well. Super cute! And the shirt is adorable! And all that candy was great! I shared it with my companion and roommates, so they were glad about that... Hahaha it was just so cute and thoughtful! Thank you! So I was so excited about my curling iron, right?? So I plug it in with my converter (cuz it said it was only like 120 v, right..) And it doesn´t work. I´m just like devastated cuz I wanted it SO BAD! And I was so excited for it! I knew that it had to be something wrong with the iron too, cuz I didn´t blow it out with the power cuz I used my converter! So I´m like just so sad. Then, yesterday night, Hna Hunt is like.. just try it in the wall cuz it already doesn´t work now, so what´s the worst that could happen?? So I try that and IT WORKS! So I´m just super happy that it actually does work :) I don´t know why it doesn´t need the converter, but it works! So THANK YOU!

Also, one more cool experience I had that I just remembered... So yesterday we decided to visit Hermana Flores (Sabrina's mom--also she is the one who washes our clothes) who is active, but she wasn´t at church and she wasn´t feeling too great. So we paid her a visit and had an awesome little lesson with her about the baptismal convenant. So it was a great lesson and then after, she told my that she understood me super good and understood everything that I said. She then told me that I´m learning super fast and stuff. It totally made my whole week! It´s just a huge testimony that I know this church is true. It´s the only true church on the face of this earth. There´s no way that I would be able to learn Spanish if it weren´t for Heavenly Father and His help. And there´s no way I would have been able to speak so good to her if it weren´t for the Spirit. I just love this great work and being a missionary! Well that´s about it for this week. I love you guys so much! Thank you for the package! I loved it SO MUCH! Can´t wait for the next!!! ;)

LOVE YOU!

Love, Hermana Whittaker

March 10, 2014 - Week 10

One whole month in Paraguay! Wow. I`ve been in this beautiful country for a whole month tomorrow! Can you believe it?? It`s been such a good time though. I love it here so much. So this week was really good and super spiritual for me.

So we`ve just been working really good with some of our investigators all week and things have been going along smoothly. So there is this family (Familia Portillo) and they are members. Hno. Portillo has this brother though, named Jorge, who is not a member, but has come to live with them. He has a wife (not really though, because no one in Paraguay is actually married) named Angela, and four kids. We have been working with them since like the first day that I got here and I have gotten to know them so well. I love them and their kids are just like the cutest things ever. Also, they speak a lot of Guarani, so it`s nice to have his brother there to help his understand everything if they don`t quite understand. (BTW-Guarani is SUPER weird sounding! It sould so hard to learn! I only know how to say `a little` which is `mishimi`--I think that`s how you spell it.) So they are totally like preparing to be baptized and stuff and we`ve just seen this whole change come over them and stuff. Then, we find out that they are moving back to where they were before because he thinks he will be able to find work better there (Paraguayans and their trabajo..... It`s super important to them... As it should be I guess... ; ) ) So they are leaving! It makes me so sad, but we are going to try to see if they can or still want to get baptized before they leave... It`s a little bit confusing, but I was just way sad cuz I love them!

Then, we have this less active girl named Jenny. Her whole family are members, but they have just been a little bit less active lately, so we went to talk with her. She`s like 16 years old and has kind of been going through a rough time lately... So we shared Moses 1 with her about the part where Moses says `get thee hence, Satan` and it was really good! The spirit was just SUPER strong then! It was such a cool experience. She really got something out of it, too. I could tell. And it`s cool, cuz it was totally inspiration that I received to share that with her! Wow it was just so awesome. Moments like those.... Are just the greatest. Plus I just love her so much. She is just the cutest and she totally dyed her hair purple... It`s so cool. And she is in LOVE with my eyes (lots of people here are... They always say `Que linda su ojos!` or `Ojos azules!`--it`s really funny). So it`s relaly great that she is progressing. She came to church this Sunday, so we were so happy!

Everything else is going really good too. I had a super good Sunday yesterday. The classes that we had were just so great! And I understood all of it, for the most part. I just really felt the spirit. (I say that a lot... But, it`s so true!) And since it was Fast Sunday, everyone got up and bore their testimonies... Super cool. And I honestly felt like this Sunday I felt the most comfortable with everyone! Like I was just talking to everyone and trying to respond and it was all just really good! I honestly love the people so much.... I have just become friends with tons of people. Honestly, one of the hardest parts about having to learn Spanish is that sometimes I feel like my personality doesn`t show to people because a lot of the times I don`t know how to say what I want to say and stuff.... But, the more and more I try to just talk and understand.... The easier it gets! Haha I have been able to be myself and say funny things sometimes and just really relate to the people! It`s just super cool to me. Also, we taught a lesson to a new investigator we have yesterday and I said A TON in the lesson. It was seriously so awesome. I just was really calm and just said what the spirit told me to say. Sounds crazy, but it`s true!

So this week has been just great. We totally went to Asunciòn today and ate at this Chinese buffet that everyone wanted to go to. It took a while to get there, but it was fun! 5 companionships of Hermanas went. So that was cool! 

 

Hermana Whittaker & Hermana Hunt

I hope you guys have an awesome week! Love you so much!

Love, Hermana Whittaker

March 3, 2014 - Week 9

Wow can you believe that I've been out here for 2 months already?! Time sure does fly... It also seems like it was just P-day.. Crazy! Well anyway, this week has been really good!

Things have been going pretty good. Just visiting everyone and loving it. Spanish gets easier and easier to understand and to speak everyday it seems like. So that`s good. I love the people so much. Like they are all just super nice and patient with the fact that I don`t always understand what is being said and stuff. Super patient. And they all just wanna talk all the time! We seriously never have problems with finding people to share our message with because everyone is just so open and willing to let us share a MICHIMI (that is "little" in Guarani!) message with them! So that is just really cool. Paraguayans are just so chill!

Houses in Conavi - super cute!

So Tuesday was alright. We didn`t really get a ton of stuff done because we just had a lot of things come up.. Then Wednesday it rained and I got to wear my rainboots! We had to walk from this place called Cañada to this other place called Conavi (places in our area) and that takes about 25 or 30 minutes to walk, and it was all muddy... So it was a good thing that we had our boots! It hasn`t rained too hard since I`ve been here, but I`ve heard from everyone that sometimes the streets are like flooded up to your shins... So we`ll see how that goes when that happens!

So I had an interesting day on Thursday. My companion has been sick with a cold for like a week and on Thursday, it was just really bad. The other Hermanas and I told her that she should get some rest so she could start getting better. So she slept the whooooole day (which was really good for her). BUT I actually still worked that day. We decided that I would go out with Hermana Hunt and we would work in BOTH of our areas to get some stuff done and that Hermana Hernandez would stay with my companion at home. So we did that and it was really fun! I just love Hermana Hunt. She`s hilarious and such a good missionary. We went out and visited some of her people and it was just really spiritual and good. Then, we were going to just visit some of the people that live in this one part of our area that we don`t really visit too often. So we go and visit with one family--super good lesson. And then we both had this feeling that we should go to Conavi to visit with this menos activo girl named Sabrina (her family is active, and she`s trying hard to get her life together and be active again). So we go to visit her and she`s home! We were worried that she would`t be because she has school at night. Anyway, we have a super good lesson with her about repentance and how there`s all this cargo when we sin and if we have the help of the Savior, it`s a lot easier and feels so much better when you don`t have the weight of sin.... Anyway... Super good. So that was a great day. I learned a lot from Hermana Hunt that day.

 

Then, Friday comes along and we end up having divisions! So the two Sister Leader Trainers, Hermana Tomco and Hermana Owen, come out to Itaugua and we had like a double division in our area. (Usually, they come out and one stays in the area that the visit with one of the other companions and the other takes the other companion from that area and they go to the area of the SLT--make sense?? Hahaha) So they just both stayed in our area and I went with Hermana Tomco and Hermana B went with Hermana Owen. It was so fun! I love Hermana Tomco! I know exactly why she is Sister Leader Trainer, too. Cuz she is a DANG good missionary! She is SO good at teaching the gospel in such a way that everyone can understand it and everyone is involved in the lessons... WOW it`s just super good. Plus her Spanish is just amazing! But it was really fun to spend a day with her and stuff. It was also cool cuz I totally know our area! She was really impressed that I knew exactly where to go and how to find my way around for only being out here for the time that I have. So that was pretty cool! ALSO, she is just a cool girl. She totally likes The National and other good music, so we got along pretty darn well :) And at the end of that day we went to one of our members homes (familia Flores--the family with the daughter Sabrina who is trying to change her life around) and had a party for Hermano Flores cuz he was just released as our Ward Mission Leader. So that was really fun too! We made him a cake, hahaha. They are a really cool family and the Hermana Flores washes our clothes every week. They`re awesome.

Hermana B, Hermana Whittaker, & first baptism of three ladies

Then on Saturday we went to a baptism for some of the Elders in our district. They had like 3 people getting baptized. That was pretty cool. Then that night we had a Stake Conference meeting thing, so all of the missionaries in our zone and a ton of members went and also our Mission President and his wife. So they showed this video.... So on Thursday, they told our district that they wanted to videotape our Ward Council meeting so they could show everyone what a really good example of a ward council meeting looked like. So I was in it. At the end all of the missionaries in our ward (three companionships) are talking about why it`s important to have the members involved in mission work. So when me and my companion come up, it`s just hilarious because she is speaking Spanish and I`m just nodding my head and smiling! Hahaha it was so funny, but you had to be there to understand just how funny it really was...... Anyway... We had one of the Hermanas that Hna B and Hna Hunt knew come over to our house and spend the night because her companion went home early on Saturday and she needed to go to the same place the next day for Stake Conference, so we asked President if that would be ok cuz it would be easier and he said yes. So she stayed with us. She`s so cute. Her name is Hermana Buss and she was in the CCM the same time as Hna B and Hna Hunt. We ate these chicken wraps called Lomitos that night, after the Stake thing, and they were so good. But I totally was eating the paper wrapper of the Lomito and didn`t even know until Hermana B pointed it out. Then everyone laughed. Haha what an idiot move! Anyway, it was pretty funny.... ;) Then we had Stake Conference on Sunday. It was really good and there were a ton of people there.

Today, we went to this place called San Lorenzo and ate at Pizza Hut with two other Hermanas (Hermana Buss and her brand new companion that she just got) and then went to this frozen yogurt place! I totally felt like I was in the States again for a minute cuz it was just like a YogurtLand and it was in this nice mall! So that was pretty funny.

 

Me holding a turtle at a members house!
Then Hermana B and Whittaker getting ice cream
after the baptism.

Things are going great! I am pretty stoked about this week. We are gonna get stuff done and I am going to just keep learning the gospel and the language! Wow... Already been two months. I can`t believe it`s March already. Tht`s like the 3rd month of the year! Wow... Anyways, I love you so much!

LES AMO MUCHISIMO!

LOVE, HERMANA WHITTAKER!