This is so weird

Well hello there everyone,

I really can't beleive that this is my final email home from Paraguay. It seems like only yesterday that I was trying to tell the difference between Spanish, Portuguese, and Guaraní and now I'm in my final week! Eeek!

It was a good final full week of work in Tayuasapé. It ended on Sunday night with the baptism of Carlita Rodriguez so that was pretty dang awesome. Only four weeks here, but I still helped someone get baptized! Woo! It was a really good baptismal service and I was really happy to be there. She was really happy too so there were good feelings all around.

Today I had my final interview with Presidente Madariaga and we talked about the mission and life after and marriage and stuff haha. It was a good interview so I think I can handle being a civilian again. I still don't really feel that it's all coming to an end so I can't really express what I'm feeling. It's all mixed and crazy. All I know is that it was an amazing two years down here in Paraguay. I'll be forever grateful for the chance I had to be down here to work in the Lord's vineyard. I've seen so many people change their lives for the better and I'm happy to have been a part in their conversion. This Church is true and Jesus lives.

Aunque tengo muchas cosas que escribiros, no he querido comunicarlas por medio de papel y tinta, pues espero ir a vosotros y hablar cara a cara, para que nuestro gozo sea completo.    (2 Juan 12)

I love you all and I look forward to seeing you soon. We have much to discuss. 8-)

Love,

Elder Michael Morris

I've fought the good fight, I've finished my course, I've kept the faith.

Tayuasapé

Oh hello everyone!

Well I'm now starting my final full week of work down here in Paraguay. It's a pretty weird feeling but I'll make sure to focus on the area to help it out before my time is up. Speaking of that, we had special changes in Tayuasapé and Elder Freeman got sent out really far to finish the last 2 weeks of his mission. Now I'm with Elder Bradley! He's actually one of Keenan Smout´s good friends so they'd be happy to hear that. So that means that after learning the area after 2 weeks I get to teach the area for the next little bit and hope that he knows enough to find our investigators and the members and all that. It's pretty intense. 

Today we went to the office to have a leader council meeting which was pretty cool. We got breakfast and things called lomitos which are really tastey. Then we played soccer and all was well. It was my last time playing soccer down here which was weird. I made a couple of goals so it was a day well spent. 

We had some new investigators in church so the area is getting better and we're finding a lot more people. If we have luck, we could baptize for the last time next Sunday. I'm hoping all goes well there. That'd be sweet! The work has been pretty intense because this is the fanciest area that I've been in so it's something really knew. There are a lot of people that actually tell us no. Crazy stuff!

Other than that, it's been a good week. It's getting a lot hotter so I might come home with a little bit of a tan! Maybe not. I dunno. Everything is going well and we shall work hard for the final week down here. I love you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Morris

Tayuasapé

 Why hello everyone!

We are about to end July! That month went by really quickly. That's just crazy talk. All is normal here in Tayuasapé so nothing too crazy to report. It's hot some days and colder some other days so I don't actually know if winter is over or just beginning or whats happening. I dunno!

We were out walking around this week and someone yelled at us in English and as it turns out it's a guy from Ogden! He's moving down here with his Paraguayan wife to do some landscape architecture or something down south in Encarnación. He was with his wife visiting some of his wife's friends in our area. It was really weird to speak english with him but it was a pretty cool experience.

We had a pretty good week full of good visits and all that, but then the rains came and shut down our Sunday. The ward normally has like 90 people come and only 30 came this week. I've said this before but I really hate the rain. The road in front of the church turns into a river during storms so at least that was pretty cool to see.

It was a chaotic Pday because we only have a few more so we had to do a lot of things today. We went to the office and sorted out some billing issues and then did some random shopping and getting lost in San Lorenzo. It was nothing too crazy but it was a good day.

Other than that, it was just normal stuff all week long. It's a good thing I'm almost done writing these emails because I'm really running out of things to talk about haha. Oh dang. I love you all and I hope you have a good week!

Love,

Elder Morris

Tayuasapé

Well hey family!

So I was expecting to finish my mission in Ysapy but alas it was not so. I've been transferred for the last 4 weeks of my mission to an area called Tayuasapé with Elder Freeman! He goes home the same day I do so that's pretty interesting. I manged to make it back into the same zone as my second and most favorite area of Posta Leiva! I'm pretty happy to be back in San Lorenzo because it's the coolest city in Paraguay.

Tayuasapé is pretty cool as well. It's the fanciest area I've been in and also the only ward I've been in so that's neat. I might be able to see how a real ward functions just before going home. That'll be real treat for me. But now I won't be able to say I never served in a ward. I would let you all google earth me to find out where it is but I don't even know where I am. On a big road that isn't anywhere near anything. Yeah! 

Because of the changes it was a pretty crazy week. Also even crazier is that President called us and told us that one of us is leaving on the 2 of August to avoid a whitewash of the area so I have to learn the area in one more week to be able to teach someone else in two weeks. Either that or I get changed again and that would just be crazy. I'll let you know what goes down. This is not a calm death, that's for sure.

We´re working with some cool people, but we really need to find some more so I suppose that'll be my task here. I'll prepare the area for other missionaries to do the good stuff but that's okay. Somebody needs to do it. It will be good. We've taught some pretty cool lessons this week and gotten lost a few times too. I'm still learning how to find my way around and so is Elder Freeman it seems. He's from Provo by the way. Anywho, other than that it's just all normal. Changes are crazy but we'll see what happens on the 2nd of August. Woot! 

I love you all and I hope you have a good week. The church is true.

Love,
Elder Morris

Ysapy

Oh hello to all,

The cold has finally come. I've busted out the sweaters and all that good stuff so winter is in full swing! That means it should be over in about 2 weeks haha. Yeah Paraguayan winters. 

It's still all just business as usual in good ole Ysapy. I've got one more week in this change and then I'll have 6 months here. Woo 6 months! 

The cool news of the week is that I finally got Píke! It's a teeny tiny bug that goes into your body and lays eggs. I got it in my big toe, but I don't know from where. Supposedly it comes from mango flowers and then falls on dogs and stuff and they track it around everywhere. I actually thought it was a blister or something but after 2 weeks of not going away, I showed our landlord and he busted out the needle and pulled those eggs right out. Yeah! So now I'm all good but I had little baby bugs in me for a little while. I think that was the highlight of my week.

Our search for cool people continues. We found some this week so hopefully we keep it up and baptize lots of people here in Ysapy. I'm learning how to plan better so now we don't have to walk all over the place all day long. Tonight we have a sweet family home evening planned that involves cooking chicken and chipa guasu in a cool Paraguayan brick oven! It's gonna be good. I think. Yeah!

For all the ex missionaries from Paraguay, Olimpia lost to Cerro in the classico on Sunday. That game also decided the champion of the tournament for this half of the year. Dang Olimpia...

Anywho, like I said everything is just fine and dandy down here. It's cold which I don't like but we'll just keep on going a little bit longer. I love you all and I wish you a good week!

Love,

Elder Morris

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Ysapy

Oh why hello there everyone!

I'm writing a little bit later than normal because we had some traffic disasters today, but now everything is well and we are all happy. It's winter here, but the sun refuses to give it up for the season. It's still just as hot as ever and it's awful. The cold should come soon supposedly but it's been unusually hot for this time of year. Global warming for sure. All the chilluns around here have a 2 week break in a week for their winter. The schools don't have heaters here and so the chilluns freeze to death during the morning, so to avoid that they just don't send them to school for the coldest part. Ahh yeah! 

The week was a good one and everything was normal. There are only two weeks left in my final change so that's pretty crazy. Elder Ardaya and I are just working and trying to find new people to teach. We found lots of people that would listen to us this week, but none of them will progress so that was pretty lame. My Spanish is getting loads better and I'll bet my English loads worse. I am teaching him English so thats pretty fun. He can say lots of things now and it's cool to see.

Today we played soccer yet again. It's fun so I don't complain. We play so much because there are a lot of Latins in the district and zone so they all like playing. After that we went to Asunciòn to buy some palo santo stuff. It's a rare tree that only grows in the Paraguayan chaco so it's pretty legit.

Life continues as normal and everything is going well. We're helping recent convert Alicia prepare for her Patriarchal blessing so that's pretty cool. He older sister is preparing for a mission! Woo!

I love you all and I wish you a good week. Don't do anything crazy! 

Love,

Elder Morris

Ysapy

Hello everyone!

Well first off it's pretty cool to hear that Paraguay actually made the news there. So yeah now they have a new President and Lugo is out like trout. He's done a lot of stupid stuff in his years in office, but that's all I'll opinionate there. I don't think anything too crazy went down. The last rumor I heard was that 100 buses were coming from the interior of the country full of indians with guns. I actually think the bus owners got threatened with their lives, so they never came. Supposedly it's all over, but some members said that this has happened before and the more intense political manifestations happened a little while after the actual switch. I dunno. We´ll see what goes down. Half of Paraguay did manage to get the school day off because of the fiasco so the students were happy.

Other than that, the work has been normal. It's kind of hard right now because now my area is huge after the merge so there are a lot of members that are waiting me to visit them. Lots of people!

Today for Pday we played soccer again and it was magical. I rolled my ankle and now it hurts but I did score some goals so it was a successful day for sure. Then we had to go to the office in Asunción to drop some stuff off. So we spent a lot of the day in buses which was no fun.

Everything just continues to keep on keeping on! We´re already halfway done with this change so time just keeps on flying by. I´ve noticed in my mission now that I've gotten less tolerant of false doctrine in lessons. Just an interesting observations. The Catholics and testigos de Jehova always say weird things and before I'd just let it slide by now I'm like an iron curtain. There´s no getting through. I only say that because I went to battle with a testigo this week. Victory to the true church! Have a good week everyone! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Morris

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Ysapy

Hello everyone!

I can't believe that another week has gone by. This was a good week for us in good ole Ysapy. We had 3 baptisms here in good ole Paraguay! Alicia Pereira, Belén Barrios, and Ricardo Adorno got baptized on Saturday and it was awesome! Alicia was the one that the missionaries have been working with for like 2 years, and she finally got baptized! And her mom came to the church for the first time ever so she could watch the baptism! Any who it was pretty cool. They all liked the cake I baked them. I'm pretty much pro.

Paraguay can never seem to make up it´s mind about temperature. This past week it's been really hot again, but today now it's super cold. I´ll get like 6 colds before I get home. Yeah crazy temperature changes!

Today for P-day we played some soccer with the district and zone. I represented the Americans well with 4 goals. Sometimes when they´re picking teams I actually get picked before some of the Latins! Any who, that was really fun and then we went to San Lorenzo and I bought a cool thermo thing. I don't actually know what it´s called in English. Water jug? 

Time just keeps going and we just keep on working like fiends. It's getting colder I think, so I'm in for some miserable nights of sleeping. I always feel tired which is really annoying but we just keep on getting through it and it´s all good. I love you all and I hope everything goes well this week!

Love,

Elder Morris

Ysapy

 Oh hey everyone!

Well I'm still in Ysapy. The crazy thing is that it is no longer Ysapy A. They merged the two Capiatá zones and in the process had to merge some of the areas. So now there are only 2 missionaries in Ysapy working both sides! My new companion is Elder Ardaya from Bolivia so most likely I'm going to end my mission with a Latin. I may not be able to speak English very well when I get home. Elder Ardaya comes from Santa Cruz in Bolivia and has 6 months in the mission. He just came from his first area in Posta Leiva which is where I was before so that's pretty cool. He tells me he's going to teach me real Spanish before I go home because Paraguayan spanish is awful. So maybe with his help all of the return missionaries from other countries won't make fun of me when I'm home. Woo!

It's been a pretty interesting week for us here. Because of the merging of the areas, we ended up moving to the other Elders´ house because it's better. We had to clean the other house so the dueña didn't freak out and it took us over 10 hours to get it all clean. It's had a lot of years of dirty missionaries living in it so it took a long time. And, it just so happens the day we went back to clean the old house, somebody stole the water meter so we didn't have water. The owner blamed us, but it totally wasn't our fault. She's just crazy! It's all sorted now I think so no worries there. It's been pretty hard trying to work both areas because I don't really know anything from the other side but we're getting there.

The cool story of the week is that we started working with one of the investigators of the other missionaries that hasn´t been able to get permission to get baptized for a long time. We went and taught her for the first time on Saturday, decided to do a special fast with her and her sisters, and on Sunday she got permission! Woo! So she'll be getting baptized next saturday. That's pretty cool. Fasting works!

Other than that, it's just business as normal. We just keep working and learning more things every day! I'm probably going to end my mission here in Ysapy so it's kind of a weird feeling but we'll make it through and keep on going. I love you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Morris

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Ysapy

Oh hey there everyone

Tonight is changes night so there is a lot of anxiety in the atmosphere. There isn't really but that sounded kind of cool in my head so I decided to write it. Elder Harward and I have 3 changes together so pretty much for sure one of us is gone. I could be getting my final comp in my mission! Gasp! If I stay in Ysapy I probably just end my mission here, but we'll see what happens. You won't find out until next week so whatevs.

It was a pretty uneventful week, so nothing too crazy to report. The other missionaries from Ysapy B are finally out of our house and live in their own house across the highway so that's nice. Elder Harward can't decide if an AK 47 or M1 Carbine is his weapon of choice for a zombie apocalypse. You can never be too prepared these days. The girl that's going to marry the ex missionary from the states has returned from her month long vacation in Washington and California. She said the States was awesome. Of course it was! She liked the "really big trees" in california. They will be getting married some time in september so I'm invited to their wedding haha. Woo! That's kind of weird.

We went to Itaugua today to buy a cool thing that I don't know how to describe, but I ended up not finding the right one so it doesn't really matter anyway. It was pretty much a pointless visit to the city of Ñandutí so whatevs.

Another crazy thing that we did this week was walk all the way from Ruta 2 to Ruta 1 which is probably about 10 km. We were exploring the area and contacting people because we don't have any new places to find people so we spread out. As it turns out we spread out a little too far and popped out at Ruta 1 Km 26 which is where my second area is. I popped out right in the middle of Posta Leiva. That was a weird feeling haha. That's the second time in my mission that we've accidentally wandered into some random area. I got my walking in for the day though. We also found some crazy people that told us they didn't think Joseph Smith was God so they could never be Mormon. Nothing too cool out there.

Other than that, just business as normal. I hope Todd's finger heals and all is well there. I'll keep working hard for the rest of the time I have left here and we'll find out tonight where that will be. Crazy! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Morris

Ysapy

Oh why hello there all of you,

May is almost over and that is just crazy nutty. I don't know where it all went. It goes like a rocket to the moon fo sho.

I know I talk about the weather a lot but it's just the topic of conversation here so I always have to mention it. It rained for a few days this week and it was kind of cool and nice, but now it's really hot and super super humid. It's awful. My hands are all clammy and icky. Someday it's supposed to get colder here. I think last year by this time it was somewhat colder but now it refuses to give up the heat. 

Business continues as normal so nothing too crazy to report. We have one more week in the change so it's full steam ahead. Changes are always a mystery so I'll keep everyone posted on what happens. As far as closing areas and whatnot, Ysapy A and B dodged the bullet so there will continue to be 4 missionaries in this branch which is cool. 

P day this week was nothing special. It's the end of the week so all the missionaries are poor. I'm happy to report that my budgeting skills are impeccable and I am not poor. Yeah budgeting! But anywho we didn´t do anything due to lack of monies. We did play super chess which requires two boards and 4 players which was pretty fun. My team lost because my teammate got checkmated which was unfortunate. 

It was a rainy sunday which always means less members in church so it was the lowest church attendance that I've seen since I've been here. Hopefully it doesn't rain next week. It's never good when it rains on Sunday. 

I'm happy and working hard so all is well in Paraguay! I hope you are all having a good time and doing all the things you need to do. I love you all!

Love,

Elder Morris