Week 27

Hey hey hey! 

Welp, I survived another weakkkk in Paraguay. Spelled like that on purpose. Anywayyy, it was a good one, I would say. It´s a little hard to sum it all up right now, cause of what Rachel so aptly described as the "P-day funk" (that´s a real thing). IDK, things are chiller with my comp when we don´t have to make a lot of decisions together (lolz, we always have to make decisions together), but we have to make the most together on P-day. Soooo, that´s a little rough. But I felt good overall. When you´re in the literal depths of humility you can pretty much only go upwards, amirite? Right. 

I gotta keep this short because we don´t have a lot of time today on account of a slightly *exciting* and *dramatic* occurrence that went down yesterday. Sooo the E.P.P. (the Paraguayan mafia of sorts) bombed some huge electricity sources, and all the electricity and water sources went out for the whole northern part of the country. We were in the church having a mission prep class when all the lights went out, and it was nuts. The entire city was dark as heck. But actually the not having lights wasn´t as bad as the not having water. Turns out I´m not prepared at all for an emergency, cause I had like half a bottle of water with me, no mas. Bummer. But the good news is that it didn´t last for three days, like predicted, and the power came back on about an hour ago. But we also therefore don´t have that much time to write, because all four of the missionaries have to use this computer before P-day ends. Sucksssss. I´ll hit the highlights super briefly:

District meeting: We had a really, really good district meeting on Tuesday. Like the best one I´ve ever had. My new district leader is a freaking great teacher, and it was just really inspired. And then we had to do practices, which are not usually my favorite thing. But my comp and I were teaching the senior couple, the Cranneys, and it actually was like the best lesson I´ve ever had. Which is hecka ironic, because they´re obviously extremely active members of the church... I don´t even know, but I just really felt the spirit in the lesson, and Hermana Cranney was in tears at the end #winning #thespirit. It was good to have that kind of experience, because now I know it can happen. Now it just needs to go down with someone who hasn´t been a member of the church for 50+ years... lolz. 

Baptism: So Junior was baptized this Saturday! Pics to come, hopefully. It was precious. Also another lady named Laticia was baptized (in the area of the Elders). Exciting! Everything went well, relatively speaking, and it wasn´t overly stressful. My companion wanted to bake THREE cakes for it though, so that was a little more stressful. She´s really funny in the sense that she´s like a really typical wife from a sitcom or something. Always cooking, always cleaning, always 30 minutes late everywhere (literally, omgosh), etc. When I´m feeling patient, it´s pretty funny to me. When I´m not, it´s slightly more frustrating. But I´m trying really hard to NOT conform to the role of the husband of that type of wife in the sitcom (you know the type). Anyway, it´s pretty good preparation for my life, I´m sure. I try to look at it that way. Anyway, sorry this got off-topic from the baptism. Todo tranqui.

Other stuff: Well, we had a district conference for church yesterday in Conception, so that was cool. It was a broadcast from SLC, but actually it ended up cutting out halfway through Elder Cook, so we only got to see like 20 minutes of it. Bummer. In other news, we played ping pong last p-day and today, and I´m still reigning champ, so that´s a good feeling. TBH, sometimes ping pong is one of the only talents I remember I have. Gotta work on re-finding other ones... In the process todavia. 

Ok, well sadly I have to go. I think I might have like 20 more minutes after the Elders and I´ll try to send some pictures and respond to some stuff (hopefully, oh gosh. hopefully). I love you so freaking much. Honestly, I just want sibling trifecta to be my companion. Ugh, that would be much better, let´s be honest. I mean I know it´s good for me to learn more patience, but gosh it´s harddddd. Not fun, not fun. (Yeah, I also retract my comment about my comp being direct instead of passive-aggressive. It´s been rough, not gonna lie.) 

Alright, I love you a ton!!!!!!! SO MUCH!!!

Hermana Ross

p.s. I had a sweet spiritual thought, BUT I accidentally left my notebook at home... Bummerssss. Next week, next week.

p.p.s. Everyone´s been telling me it´s hot in Glendora. Not gonna get on my Paraguayan soapbox, but maybe a little, cause YOU DON´T EVEN KNOW. It´s hotter than heck. Today was over 100 degrees, humidity 4 DAYZ, and it´s still the middle of winter here. OH, and we didn´t have water, so I haven´t showered in almost two days. I look literally ratchet. It´s actually kind of funny. Kind of. 

The score of our ping pong tournament. Each crown represents a win against Elder Muños (who was former reigning champ.) He demanded rematch after rematch, but it just got worse and worse for him. Don´t hate the player, hate the game. 

Us at the baptism!

Junior's baptism

Us at the baptism!

This precious boy named Jorge (we call him Jorgito) who NEEDS to get baptized, OMGosh, he´s so cute. Unfortunately as of ahora, his mom won´t let him. Working on it. 

The sweetest church building in Conception that looks like a temple. 2 cool. 

When the power went out #art

Me at the end of the food table #yolo

A giant frog. So giant.

Us cleaning for hoursssss #service. Don´t know why I look like a freaking giant. Maybe cause they´re both just super tiny.

That´s a bathroom and also a trash pile where we were cleaning in Pastora´s house. If I liked science more I would for sure study something like how trash compiles itself into trash mounds. This is the before picture.

Below is the after picture.

Man, we literally raked leaves for hours and hours, and it was the worst. All I kept thinking of is when Stephen called picking up leaves "the Devil´s own chore." Truer words.

Fernando and Frederico (both recent converts). Baby Ray´s gotta accept their friend requests and tag them in this picture of FB. I told them you would, so plz get on it. Thanks a mili!

On the bus on the way to Concepcion.