Eusebio

Well hello there everyone!

Here we are a week into my second year. But enough about that.

The cold has now gone. It´s super hot every day. My Peruvian comp is dying because in Lima it only gets to about 28 degrees. It´s not even spring here and we´re already at 33, so it´ll be an interesting first summer for him. The week was pretty good. We´ve already got some baptisms lined up here in Eusebio so I´m pretty stoked. We had a record 20 people in church because we rented a bus to go and pick everyone up. It was pretty cool. I was the presiding authority in sacrament meeting which is a first for me in my life. I´ve never been a branch president before, so something new is always exciting. All the members here are really stoked though, because we´re starting to get more people in church so hopefully they´ll all want to help us more and get even more people to come. It´s pretty sweet.

Right now I´m in good ole Caacupe because tomorrow morning we have to travel to Santaní for a training from our Area President, Elder Arnold. He likes to make crazy new rules, so we´ll see if something fun and exciting comes from our visit with him. The crappy part is that we have to get on the bus at 4 in the morning. We are all sleeping in Caacupe cause the bus doesn´t pass through Eusebio Ayala. Woo! Other than that, it´s all going well here. We´re finding lots of new people and good things like that.

We played some soccer today with all of the missionaries in the zone, and it was pretty fun. I bonked heads really hard with another Elder so I have a really bad headache right now. Probably a concussion, but I´ve had lots of those! Woo!

I think that´s all of the exciting news that I have for this week. I hope everyone is having a magical time now that school has started again. Pretty crazy stuff! They don´t really go to school here ever....I don´t really understand it. Yeah. Well anywho, I love you all, and I hope you have a good week.

Love,

Elder Morris

Pictures

Eusebio Ayala

Oh hello everyone,

There have been some magical changes here in Paraguay. I´m now in Eusebio Ayala! Woo! So now, I´m about 3 hours away from Asunción but in a different direction from all the other areas I´ve been in. Woo! I´m also only one town away from Caacupe which is the most catholic city in all of Paraguay. It´s where they have the huge basilica of the virgincita! The good part about it is I´m in the city that makes the best chipa in Paraguay! It´s super good. Gooooood. The less good part about it is the church here is tiny. We had 18 people in church on Sunday and that´s like a record high, because lots of the leaders of the district came. The norm is about 6 or so. Soooo yeah. It´ll be fun to work here cause there isn´t very much, but it´ll all be good! Another tidbit of info is I´m now the Senior comp here in Eusebio, so that´s something new and exciting. My new comp here is Elder Palacios from Lima, Peru. He´s been here for about 3 months so he´s already gotten a little taste of the magic. It´ll be fun to work with him to try and help everyone here.

As far as weather goes, it´s cold. Super cold. I don´t know what happened to the heat, but it´s all gone now and it´s just super cold. There is also kind of a magical drizzle that is always happening. Kind of like an icy mist. I didn´t think tropical countries got this cold. They say it should be over soon, which makes me happy. But yeah, that´s all of the exciting news of what´s happened. I´m in the same zone as my old comp Elder Sperry. I´m also in the same zone of the people I used to live with Elders Andersen and Claypool. I know lots of people in my zone so that´s pretty fun at least. Today we went to Caacupe for Pday and Andersen made us crepes. He´s so good to us.

Also, the next time I write to you all, I´ll be over halfway done with my mission here in Paraguay. Weird.

I believe that is all I have for you lovely folks for this week. I love you all and I´ll let you know how all of the work goes here in Eusebio Ayala. Pray hard for me por favor!

Love,

Elder Morris

Emboscada

Oooooh hey everyone!

Another week come and gone in good ole Paraguay. It's hard to believe that we're already halfway done with August! What is going on? Crazy stuff fo sho. So the good news of the week is that we had 2 baptisms on Saturday! We baptized a girl named Cynthia and a boy named Yildo. They are pretty dang legit. Yildo has been going to church for like 8 months but could never get permission from his parents to get baptized (he's 16). We fasted with him 2 different occasions while I've been here in Emboscada, and finally for some reason his parents said yes. It felt sooo good because right before we baptized him, he told us that we were the only two missionaries that actually cared about him enough to go talk to his parents. The secret of missionary work is work! We worked really hard to get him permission and God blessed us with the permission! It's like this stuff actually works. It was pretty dang awesome. Cynthia was actually a miracle too. I dunno if I've already told the story, but she actually sent her little cousin out to find us while we were working around her house. Two amazing converts, and two miracles. The mission is good :D I hope they keep on strong trying to make Emboscada a little bit better.

That's the cool news of the week. In other news, I got stung by a bee today on my knuckle. It kind of hurt, but I'll be tough and make it through. Tonight is when we find out our changes, so I'll let you all know next week what goes down. We played a little futbol today and I did something to my leg cause now it hurts, which is never good cause I have to walk a lot. I think it'll all be okay though. We're still working with Lilian a lot. She could get baptized next Saturday, but she needs to not smoke and all that good stuff, so we're working with her so she can make it to the water.

It's good to hear about all the fun things going down back home. I love you all, and hope you have an amazing week!

Love,

Elder Morris

Emboscada

Oh hey everyone!

Here we are in good ole August. It´s about 300% humidity right now outside and I want to die. That means it´s going to rain soon! The weather has more hot days than cold days now, so I think we´re getting out of winter here. We´ll see how I make it through Paraguayan summer number 2. At least it´s the final one. Eh ah! The exciting news of this week is we´re going to have some lovely baptisms this Saturday! We´ve solved the drinking issues of Lilian, solved parent permission issues of Gildo, and Cynthia is just super legit so they´re all getting baptized! Yay! It´ll be good to save some souls so I´m pretty stoked for the weekend. It´s going to be awesome :D

We didn´t really do anything for Pday today so no fun stories there. Argyle bought potatoes. Awesome.

We got a new mission leader here in Emboscada which I thought would be a good thing cause our last one said we didn´t have testimonies, but the new one is just as difficult. It´ll be an interesting time in this branch trying to work with him, but we´ll get something done hopefully.

It was finally sunny for Sunday so we actually had some people come to church and everything went well. We had a branch council afterwards and the high council from the stake came and dropped some fatty cane on all the members cause they don´t do anything. Everyone started blaming everyone and it was just awesome to see. Hopefully nobody got too offended haha cause it was pretty nuts.

We finally found Amy from the Peace Corps here in Emboscada. Everyone always talks about her and says how cool she is and whatnot, and we finally saw her. She didn´t even say hi to us! Not very friendly at all. Bad Peace Corps example I´d say. She also tried to tell some Paraguayans that she had some sort of "bug" in her stomach, but used the word lombriz which means earthworm. That confused everyone haha. I think she mis spoke. They were all like "why did she eat an earthworm?" Good times.

Sadly, I think that´s all I've got for this week. I´m not sure where the 7 days went, but nothing crazy happened. We´ve been teaching a lot and now we´ll start seeing some delicious fruits from the work. Yeah fruit! I love you all and hope you have a good Augusty week. We´ll keep working down here.

Love,
Elder Morris

Pictures from Emboscada

elder morris on the teeter-totter.

ready for the day

must be at their apartment

elder morris called this one "friends"

pig from Emboscada

elder argyle

friends for realz

Emboscada

Well team,

We´re in August now! My goodness where has the time gone? It´s pretty crazy stuff fo sho. The weather of Paraguay can´t seem to make up it´s mind and it switches randomly from blasted hot to freezing death. Right now we´re in the freezing death part of it all, so it´s not very much fun. There is also always like a constant misty rain thing that is just super annoying and makes everything wet and cold. I´m just praying for summer to come back. When it does, I´ll be praying for winter. My life is pathetic like that. But, I´m over it. It was another rainy Sunday which is soooo annoying, but we had 45 people in church. That´s pretty dang good for rain! Yeah members in church! The baptism for this week sorta fell due to severe lapses in judgement and boxes of wine and coke....but we´re all getting back on the wagon for another go! We also have more people getting ready for the big day, so there´s some good stuff happening here in Emboscada. The bad news is the bus fare went up! Boo! Technically there is a law here in Paraguay that uniformed clergy don´t have to pay, but of course us being white Americans overrides their law of us not having to pay so we actually get charged more usually. It´s bogus. They hate us :( A man actually kicked us off his bus today haha. He would not take a mil guaraníes for the ride to the supermarket. The next bus did though :D  Argyle is still doing well, and it´s still really cool to be with someone that I knew before the mission. We´re just too cool. I´d send pictures or something, but someone stole (or maybe I just lost, but I doubt it) my camera cable :( Sorry! One day I´ll go into Asunción to find another one. Saturday was national Day of Friendship here in Paraguay. Paraguayans tell us that starting next year, it is going to be a worldwide holiday...is this true? Cause I feel like they just make stuff up sometimes. Pretty much you just congratulate everyone all day long, so it´s pretty annoying. I hope it´s not worldwide. They get out of school early though I guess. I dunno. Weird stuff. But, I think that´s all I´ve got for this week. Nothing too exciting. We´re just trucking right along finding people to teach, and then teachin em! Yeah! I love you all. Have a good week!

Love,
Elder Morris