Gira con el Élder Wilhelm

Photos are of her zone at a meeting with Elder Wilhelm on May 4, 2014.

Queridas Hermanas:

Queremos agradecerles por una semana muy especial con la gira del Élder Wilhelm y su esposa.  Ellos nos dijeron que son misioneros maravillosos y tenemos una misión muy buena.  Especialmente fuimos todos muy impresionados por la asistencia en las charlas fogoneras.  Más de un mil de personas vinieron a estas reuniones.  Los presidentes de las estacas nos contaron del trabajo de Uds.en llevar tantos y les aprecian mucho también.

Espero que disfruten de las fotos que adjuntamos.

Con amor,

Presidente y Hermana McMullin

Week 23! Toqué una vaca!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow, I can't believe how fast time goes by. It's already the last week of transfers, and so many things are making me go crazy haha.  I won't list all of them, but to name a few...

1. Mosquitoes need to die. NOW. all of them. 

2. The fish is returning to the ocean.

3. It's getting hot again.... so I'm going to melt.

4.MOSQUITOES NEED TO STOP EXISTING!

 Yea, that just about covers it haha.

So some fun stuff happened this week. First of all , for those of you who don't read Spanish, I touched a cow, tied to a tree haha. Oh! here's some fun information for the people of whereever you are, the dress I bought for the temple is a special kind of dress that they sell, for old lady pajamas! hahahahaha!  But, its super comfy, and if you put a belt on it and do your hair cute it looks like a nice normal American summer dress, so you know me, I have 3 now hahahahahahahahahahahaha and I will continue to wear them. :D

This is the dress that is Grandma pajamas ;)

And something even more funny, the day I was wearing one of my grandma dresses my district leader told me I have the personality of a grandma. I've graduated from mom to grandma here on the mission.  Maybe by the end of the mission I'll go full circle and end up back at normal 21 year old woman haha or something like that I hope....

Also, returning to cows, something that could only happen in Latin America happened to one of my investigators. We went to visit a few kids and they were all gathered around a bike. When we asked what they were doing they told us that they were fixing the bike because one of them crashed into a cow haha..... only in Paraguay do you risk crashing into cows when you are out on the roads. haha.

But really there are cows everywhere.

Week 22 - Baptism, Bopi and Baseball Bat

So, another week has passed and another young man has found himself in the waters of baptism.

So its been an odd week, because it was long but also super short, and I still cant believe that it was Easter. Here they have something called the Semana Santa, the holy week, and supposedly everybody eats a ton of chipa, but we hardly got any.  Sad day too, because it's yummy. It's a hard bread made with corn flour and yucca root flour. It's cool stuff. but we only got one piece this week. Sad day, but its less like a long Easter and more like a lazy week of doing nothing. Miraculously, we still had lessons and new investigators almost every day this week, so that was good, because most of the time on the holidays there is nobody. It's like the world after a nuclear bomb and a zombie apocalypse, only the most mangy, ugly, hairless, deformed dogs are out and about looking for a friend in the Mormon missionaries. haha 

So we have been visiting some kids that live out in the outer part of our area, and to get to them you have to cross a sketchy bridge, and there are these creatures called mbopis (Guarani word, pronounced boopees) that live in the trees on either side. One day we passed by the bridge and one flew right in front of me, so the kids started trying to hit one with a rock so we could see one. So basically long story short we came back the next day and they had a dead one in a little box to show us. It was pretty cool.

But yea, I definitely see the blessings we've received for our work here in Piro'y and we will be sad when the day comes that we have to say good bye to this amazing ward we've come to know and love. And to think that transfers are only a week and a half away... 

Week 21 - Pictures - But no group Email

Last Tuesday, April 8th, they went to the temple in Asuncion Paraguay.  The Hermana's are wearing matching dresses that they bought last pday for about $5.00 US.  I love how bright and happy they are!

I think this is the first week that Hermana Minks has not sent a group email since she left.  I did get a personal email from her and she asked me to tell you all ... "but just let everybody know that i love them and that im not dead, just freezing. "

One of the families they are teaching has a very sick child in the hospital.  If you are the praying sort, please pray for this child and her family.

Week 20!!!!!! 6 months and I Scored a Major Latina Point!!!!!!!

Hello hello we welcome you todayyyyyyyyyyyy!

So, this week was wonderful! 

We had my second baptism. his name is Enrique. he is 13 years old and his sister is the convert of my companion. It was lovely. The only problem is that I may have lost the baptismal clothes..... haha 

Also, something pretty exciting for me happened today haha! We went with a bunch of elders to a national park that's super pretty and whatever, and we played soccer with them, and guess who's team won¿ and guess who scored¿ against a Latin! So you know, I scored a point for women, white people, and my team today, all in one. haha. 

But really today was super fun. We went to a lake and took pictures on the docks, played soccer, and had pizza that was super yummy. And then I went on a hunt for a dress with yellow flowers, because I wanted a new dress to wear to the temple on Tuesday, and I found one for $5 U.S.D. so that was good. i had money for yellow nail polish haha........... I know, I cant help it. I haaaaaaave to be colorful haha. 

There is something kind of sad that happened this week though. My baby cat Elder ended his short life this week.Ii don't know exactly what happened, but we went to visit him and the converts who were caring for him, and he died while we were there. :(( sad face. but don't worry I didn't cry. I guess I'm not much of a cat person, haha, but I was sad, he was quite cute. 

Anyway, pictures!:

Week 19!!!!

Well, well, well, we meet again...

Haha, hello and welcome to Piro y where your district leader has the best grumpy face in the whole world, your converts are crazy, and your ward mission leader is crazier. Haha, that's right everybody, I didn't leave Piro y! And whats even more anticlimactic is that neither did my companion. Haha, and you were all wondering where in the world am I! Right here in the same spot as last week!

Anyway, so last week we were on our way to our lunch appointment, and found a kitten that was maybe 2 weeks old. So we scooped him up and took him with us and he lives with our recent convert/investigators house and his name is Elder Gato Balbuena. He's three-ish weeks old now and he eats bread and warm milk and he's quite adorable.

Also, we've had several close calls/miracles this week. Firstly, on Tuesday, we were leaving from a meeting, and we got off of our bus, I turned around and we heard a crunchy crash down the road. I looked up and saw the bus we just got off of turned to the side with a nice big truck crunched into the back end of it. The next miracle was similar, we were walking down the road all calm and normal, when out of nowhere a car comes flying down the road honking and flashing their lights, because I was supposedly in the way (the road was EMPTY) but anyway, right before the car hit me I managed to get out of the way and we got away without a scratch. And thirdly, we were sharing with an investigator, and she's rather hardhearted sometimes, and in the past she just kind of shouts and grumbles about the same old nonsense, but this time she actually shared her thoughts, and she spoke calmly and the spirit was super strong, and at the end we had a kneeling prayer, and for the first time she knelt with us and said a prayer and it was so amazing. 

Everybody, I want to testify of the power of the holy ghost. It is so real and it softens the hardest hearts. All you need to do is listen to what it tells you to do. 

I hope you all have a super mega awesome week full of miracles!

Love always,
Hermana Minks!

Week 16...... FIVE MONTHS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, ummmm, yea, I've been on my mission for 5 months already and holy cow moly does time fly or does time fly!

The answer is time flies really really really fast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So anyway now that I'm done freaking out about all of that nonsense. I have a few miracles for the week. yay! miracles!

Miracle numero uno!

I had my first baptism!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Uno because it's the most exciting. His name is Samu, Samuel, and he's 17. 

Milagro numero dos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Samuel's mom is super super super hard, and in the 9 months that Samu has been investigating the church she hasn't gone once, well guess who went with us to church this sunday.. yep you guessed it!!!!!!!!!!!!!! sooooo exciting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And the final miracle, miracle number three!

Supposedly it takes a billion years to fill the baptismal font, so we got there super early to clean and fill it and to bake some cookies for the baptism. and we got there and cleaned the font, and started filling it and guess what! It was more than full enough wayyy before we needed it.

So, this week has been pretty fruitful, and very exciting. and I understand the scripture in D&C 18:16 "and now if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me in the kingdom of my father, how great will your joy be if you should bring many souls unto me!" I knew that this work would be rewarding before, but now I really understand just how rewarding it is. I was and am so happy and full of thanks for my Father in Heaven who sent me here just in time to share my testimony and help Samu get baptized. That moment of seeing him go into the water and come up again all happy and clean is worth ever "my bus is coming" and "were catholic", every blister and sore foot tired day, what ever. It's all worth it to have a small part in the conversion of somebody.

I know with all my heart that this is true church of our savior Jesus Christ and that through the atonement and baptism we can all receive the joy of bringing a soul unto him in the kingdom of our Father.

Cleaning the font

Samu and the Hermana's

Hermana Betancourth & Hermana Minks

A bug in the water - - -