Eusebio Ayala

Hello everyone and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year´s!

My second Christmas in Paraguay has come and gone which is just amazing to me. I can still remember in detail my Christmas from last year in good ole La Paloma. Now it´s a year later. Que rápido que pasa el tiempo! I really enjoyed talking to the family on Skype. That´s always a good time for all. The rest of our Christmas eve was pretty uneventful. Our landlords promised us a big feast a couple of days ago, but they didn´t deliver when the time came. We drank some cheap soda and ate some bread. Yeah! We went home after and I had a bowl of Trix and a grilled cheese sandwich with "cheese". I´m still in good spirits so it´s all good, but I hope everyone had a better meal than we did here haha. Then we went to sleep with the lovely sound of fireworks all through the night.

Christmas day was uneventful as far as Christmasy things go. Paraguay seems to have a Christmas Eve but they don´t do anything on the actual day. We went to church and an investigator named Antonio came for his second time in church which is sweet. He´s pretty much impossible to find so we haven´t been able to teach him anything pretty much, but he´s started coming to church and he tells everyone that he wants to get baptized. Now we just have to teach him the lessons. He´s our focus for now, and we´re working on finding some new people to work with.

Other than that, it´s just business as usual. For those that don´t know, I´m still in good ole Eusebio Ayala. I´ll be here until February probably, but we´ll see when that happens. I´m still with Elder Milne so this is our third change together. Now he´s tied with Elder Sperry for the longest time spent with a companion. Yeah!

I hope you all had a good Christmas full of greatness! We made it through and nobody got hurt or sick so it was a successful holiday I think. That´s all I´ve got for the week. I love you all!

Love,
Elder Morris

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Eusebio Ayala

Oh hello everyone!

Christmas time is almost here! That´s always exciting. Down here we get to eat mangos and sweat to death for Christmas, which is a little different. It´s weird how it´s really hot during December. I´m sure some of you would like that more. Yeah!

My ear seems to have gotten better. The problem is now that my other ear started hurting yesterday. Not too much, but it´s starting exactly how the other one started so I may be in for ear infection number two. Luckily I still have antibiotics that I´m taking so now I´ll just put some ear drops in my other ear and we´ll conquer it before it gets too bad. :D

I´ve received packages from the parental units and the grandparents so thank you everyone for those! Delicious American candy makes me happy. They only have Halls cough drops here for candy.

This week we had 2 christmas activities which was pretty exciting. The first one was with the zone and another zone in Santaní. We had some bus issues and showed up 2 hours late (our entire zone), and then due to other issues we had to leave early. So pretty much we had 7 hours of travel to not really do anything haha but it was all good. That´s where I got some packages so I´m happy :D We also had our branch Christmas party this Saturday. That was a little more difficult to pull off. We as missionaries didn´t want to do everything and we wanted to include the members in the planning and everything so we put the sisters in charge of buying and cooking the food and everything. They managed to make an argument from that and now we have a family that has declared they will never ever come to church ever again! That was not what I was hoping would happen from the party. : / Those that did go to the party had a good time and liked the food and playing pictionary and things like that. It was good. I also gave out the little present things that you all sent, and the kids attacked me like a bunch of wild animals. It was nuts.

We will find out changes tonight so we´ll see what happens there.

Other than that, it was a normal week. It´s hot and humid and it makes me tired but it´s all good. We just keep on going and trying to find new investigators and people that want to listen. I hope you all have a good week and Christmas! Make sure to help everyone around you and be nice to all. Try to make someone´s Christmas special. I love you all!

Love,
Elder Morris

Eusebio Ayala

Oh hey everyone!

I´m writing a little late today due to a magical day we had to spend in the Asunción doctor´s office. After 15 months of relatively good health, they finally got me. I have an ear infection which might actually be a ruptured ear drum, but also an ear infection or something. I don´t really know what it is, but it hurts really bad. But, no worries! I now have some good antibiotics and I bought some strong ibuprofen so I can sleep at night. It´ll all be better soon. :D yeah the mission!

Anywho, other than that it´s been a normal week. We had some members get some animo and they brought some of our investigators to church! Yeeeah! That was pretty nice. Now we´re in the planning stages of a sweet branch Christmas party which will be awesome. Parties always make people happy. In cool news, we have an investigator that was kind of cool, but didn´t really like to go to church or do too much, but now she made a new year´s resolution to change her life. I told her baptism can do that for her and she´s preparing for this weekend! Eeek! Now she´s been going to church and is much happier so that´s good.

We´re getting really close to good ole Christmas! This week we have a zone party in Santaní which will be fun, and then we have the branch one that we´re planning which will also be fun. Eusebio is a rollercoaster sometimes, and right now it seems to be going up which is very good. That makes me happy. :)

Other than that, nothing too crazy going on down here. We´re working hard and some members are starting to help us so that is good. Also, Norberto and Ines from my old area came to say hi here and that was awesome. They are going to get married in the temple on March 29th, just two days after the year mark of Norberto´s baptism! It´s going to be awesome!

But, that is all for now team. I love you all and I hope you have a good Christmas season.

Love,
Elder Morris

Eusebio Ayala

Hello family and friends!

How is everyone doing? Now we´re in December! Woah! That´s just crazy nutty! Nothing too exciting happened this week. We continue to work hard here in Eusebio and the results are kind of minimal :( It´s actually really hard here. We´ll keep on working and hoping for some sweet miracles to come, cause that´s what we need.

In other news, we´re just days away from the biggest day in Paraguay, Dia de la Virgin! That is when everyone that claims they are catholic actually participate for the year here. They all walk to Caacupe and there is a big ole church there and they have church and worship and there are tons of people and it´s just crazy. We´ve already seen people walking down the ruta here, so it´ll only get more intense. We´ll be there tomorrow for a district meeting so I´ll let you know next week how it is! Oh!

It keeps getting hotter, and my head has started it´s months of hurting so it´ll be a rough one haha. Good thing I have lots of pills to take. Yeah! Also, this week I got every single symptom of Dengue (ask dad if you don´t know) but then it just went away. So that´s good. I had a huge headache, and every single part of my body hurt, and especially my eyeballs hurt. But I struggled through a long night of not sleeping, and it was gone in the morning! Yay! So we went out and worked like champs. I´m happy it wasn´t Dengue. Whew.

We finally got to do some service this week too which was nice. I did some good weeding like a champ. Yeah!

I don´t really have too much to say this week. It was nothing crazy, but we worked hard and it was good. We continue to help the members here and try and make the land of Barrero a better place. I love you all, and I hope you have a good week. Remember that God loves every single one of you.

Love,
Elder Morris

Eusebio Ayala

Oh hey everyone!

Hakuetereí. It´s really hot down here now. Every time we talk about the heat with people they just tell us to wait until spring is over. I must have forgotten how hot it really got last year. I´m not very excited to start another summer, but we´ll make it through! We did buy another fan today because our old one gave up the ghost a week ago. We actually had to jump start it like a prop plane before which was always an adventure. But, now we have an intense "chrome" one. Gasp! The man tried to sell it to me for 140 mil, but I played the sad innocent card and got it for 125. Gosh I´m good. New York street vendors are nothing for me now. We also bought a little Christmas tree today so we´ll put it up really soon! Yay!

It´s almost Christmas which is just nuts! November just zoomed on past. I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving back home! I enjoyed a nice bowl of frosted flakes and some rolls. Hetereí che tembi´u. I also bought some delicious chocolate bon bon´s and ate them all that night. Elder Milne left his bon bon´s on the bus from Caacupe so he didn´t get anything fun. I shared my bon bon´s at least.

It was recent convert Ricardo´s birthday on Sunday! He blessed the sacrament for the first time like a stud and it was just awesome. He also finished the Book of Mormon for the first time in just over a month. He´s quite the reading machine. He just turned 18, so now he´s all stoked to keep preparing for a mission in a year! He´s just way too cool.

I had a division this week in Caacupe which was pretty fun. December 8th is the Day of the Virgin here in Paraguay, and the center of all the parties and worships and whatnot is Caacupe. There were already a lot of people there and there will just be sooo many more as we get closer. It´ll be interesting to see how it is now that I´m actually closer to the "city of the virgin". Last year I was 8 hours away in La Paloma. Anywho, the division was good and Elder Milne did a swell job in Barrero so everyone is just happy. We also talked to a real Mayan about the end of the world in 2012 with their calendar and whatnot. He says that the people making the calendar just died, and nobody else knew how to make it so they just stopped. So he says that´s all that happened. So there you have it! From a Mayan, the end is not 2012 :D

Also, the power went out yesterday for a really long time which is always an adventure. When I went to the bathroom with my flashlight, I spotlighted a big ole cockroach that was carrying away one of our matches from the kitchen! I dunno what he was going to do with a match, but now he´s dead. I got em good!

As far as missionary work goes, things are improving here. We had some investigators in church, and one of them is getting baptized on the 10th of December if everything goes well. Her name is Cynthia, and she´s been living with some dude but just kicked him out of the house cause he´s a punk and she wants to get baptized. I´m pretty stoked. We also have a cool guy named Luis that we´re working with, but he describes himself as "doubting Thomas" in hard to convince. He just has to read and whatnot, and all of it will fall into place. He came to church so we´ll see what happens now!

Other than that, everything is just normal and great. We´re just doing swell down here in the lovely heat of Paraguay. I love you all and I hope you have a good week. Remember to pray and read your scriptures! :D

Love,
Elder Morris