Dear Family,
NEWS! Lots of it. Oh gosh, it´s been an eventful week. Supes long. Supes *exciting*
CAMBIOS: Ok, so on Tuesday we had our zone meeting where they announce changes. Like I mentioned last week, it was kind of a 50/50 thing. Everyone said I would stay in Anahi with Hna. Pisco for another change, but I kinda felt like I might leave. Anyway, they announced that I would be leaving and going to HORQUETA! I know that doesn´t mean anything to you, but I gotta explain it. In mission culture, it´s CRAZY. Soooooo a lot of areas in the mish are closeish to Asuncion (cause the rest of Paraguay is just campo), and there´s only a few areas up north. And of those, most of them are just Elders on account of it´s more dangerous/super poor. But there are two areas that have a pair of hermanas each (ybi yui is one) and the other is Horqueta. I almost died when I heard. Legit legit legit. It´s eight hours up in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. That´s no joke. And it´s easily like the hottest part of the whole country. And the country is easily the hottest country on the whole continent. SO YEAH. Also, they speak hecka Guarani in Horqueta. Anyway, I was in tiny shock just cause the odds were super small that I´d ever get sent there, so I never really thought about it. They pretty much only send Latinas up here too on account of it´s a *teeny bit* dangerous (don´t worry, I´m sure it´ll be fine). Anywayyyyyyy. Actually, the last Americana they had up here was like over a year ago when they had Hermana Border, so that´s chill. Everyone in my district was cracking up when they announced that, because Horqueta was kind of like the "joke" place to guess someone would get sent on account of it´s so far away and SO HOT and super campo. Anyway, so that was super crazy and then I pretty much just said goodbye to everyone in Anahi all day and packed my stuff all night. It was trippy. It was honestly really sad to say goodbye to everyone in Anahi. Nothing can compare to your first area, ya know? And Hermana Pisco and I were low-key depressed on account of we wanted to stay together, so it was really sad to say goodbye to her and to my district.
Hermana Valdivia: So I also found out in this same moment that my new companion is Hermana Valdivia from Peru. Let´s be real, it´s always a little scary to get a new companion on account of you only know about them what you hear about them, and sometimes it´s not so great. But anyway, we got together on Wednesday morning and then had to take our eight hour bus ride up to Horqueta. Fun fact though, I found out what´s in the middle of all of Paraguay -- nothing. Literally, nothing. Palm trees. Campo. More palm trees. It was nuts. Anyway, so far things have been good with her. She has kind of an intense personality, but mostly I´m just really chill with most types of personalities. And I prefer intense to passive aggressive, obviously. She´s supppeeerrr cariñosa, which is pretty comical. She loves to hug everyone and everything, and literally like multiple times throughout every day she´ll just hug me and say "Te quiero muchooooooooo." Lolz. It´s gonna help me to be more "affectionate," so that´s good. She´s honestly a really good teacher though, and she´s pretty bomb in lessons. I feel like I´m going to learn a lot about how to teach from her. She´s direct, but in a good way, I think. For example, the other day we met this couple and were going to have a first lesson with them, and she starts off with the law of chastity (bold, let´s be honest). And then she says to the boyfriend, "Have you ever thought about marrying your girlfriend?" And he said that yeah, he´s thought about it and wants to. And then she asks the girlfriend, "And what would you say?" And she was like, "I´d say yes." And then she was like, "So there you have it!" Hahahahahaha she literally got a couple to propose to each other. I was dying. But yeah, I´m hoping things will just be tranquilo this change. I´m thinking they will be. Other funny thing that happened though was that I was asking her about stuff she knows about America (which is like literally nothing), and she´s never even heard of like 99% of American music/movies/etc. I asked her if she knows who One Direction is (yes, I know they´re British, whatevs), and she was like, "Yeah, I think so. It´s a TV show, right?" lolololol. So yeah, we´re going to learn a lot from each other this change. Bound to happen when two people come from really different cultures with really different experiences. Stoke!
La rama: Ok, so here we´re just in a rama because it´s super small and there´s not a ton of members. I really like it though, and the branch is good. There are more jovenes (youth) than actual adult members. But let´s be real, that´s perfect for me on account of I love the youths. There´s like four youth preparing for a mission right now. How exciting, amirite?! But anyway, I had to give a "short message" since it was my first week here. Ayyyy. But I "know Spanish now," so it´s ok.
Los Cranneys: Other exciting thing about Horqueta is that we have a senior couple here! The only one in the whole mish. Horqueta itself is super small and it´s only us and two other elders in the whole district/within over an hour, but Elder and Hermana Cranney are a senior couple called to the area for a year and half to help with the leadership. Honestly, it´s been a good time. They just got here about two months ago, and Hermana Cranney doesn´t speak any Spanish. It´s comedy. And they are just really nice and it´s good to have support. Also, turns out I for sure want to go on a couples mission in the future, cause they are HOOKED UP. Literally, I´m so jealous. They just bust out their smart phones whenever, talk to their families whenever, can wake up whenever and schedule whatever. Really it just seems like a sweet set up. And they have a CAR. Like, an SUV from the states. Today we had our zone activity in Conception (the closest city like an hour away), and they drove us home after and I was dying. I haven´t been in a car like that in 5ever. It was gr8.
The "house": So I´ll just describe a few deets of my living situation so you can get a feel for where I am. Bad news about the house is that it´s super small, ghetto, and falling apart. Worse news about the house is that there´s almost no lights, and so at night we can´t see anything except for where we study because there´s a light in there. WORST NEWS about the house is that there´s LITERALLY NO MIRRORS. Not a single one. My dispensa house was pretty ghetto, but we at least had a tiny mirror on the back of our dresser. But there´s literally nothing here. I have a pocket mirror that´s like 2" by 2", and that´s it. So I pretty much literally can´t get ready here at all. I´m not super vain or anything, but it´s been a weird adjustment. So yeah, by the end of my time in Horqueta I´ll for sure give 0 whats about anything in regards to physical appearance. So I guess that´s good? Probably when it gets to be 130 degrees I won´t want to look in the mirror anyway, let´s be honest. Ok, onto the other stuff. Good news about the house is that there´s hot water. Better news about the house is that there´s a fan and a teeny air thing. Best news about the house is actually just the best news about my adaptation to Paraguay. Which is that I literally can´t be bothered with the fact that the house is janky as heck (minus the mirror thing). But really, before I sleep I just check for spiders, kill any I find, and then get in my bed. Can you imagine? hahaha.
Ok, so overall I feel really good. It was for sure sad to leave Anahi, but I really like Horqueta a lot so far. I kept waiting to feel overwhelmed this week, but I just haven´t. I don´t know, I just feel super, super chill. They really do speak Guarani a ton here though, btdubs. I don´t really see myself learning that language fluently on account of it´s freaking NUTS. But it´s chill, because at the start of my mission I always had to have stuff translated from Spanish into English so I could understand it. And now I have to have everything translated from Guarani to Spanish so I can understand it. Which is fine with me because 1)I´m super used to not understanding what´s being said, and 2)Spanish is my new English! (not really, but it really is the greatest feeling ever when stuff is translated into Spanish from Guarani and it feels easy to understand). But everyone told me Horqueta was like campo campo campo, but TBH it´s actually just like a really small town. There are actually some roads, which is more than Anahi had. But they don´t have a normal grocery store, nor do they have a place to use computers. So the four missionaries here have to trade off during P-day to use the ONE computer in Horqueta that´s in the church building. But yeah, I like the set up of the city a lot, and it´s not even more campo than Anahi, per se.
So those are the happenings of my week here! It feels more like a month, but not in a super bad way, per se. I think I´m going to like this area a lot.
Have a great week! Love you tons!!
Con amor,
Hermana Ross
 |
No comments:
Post a Comment