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

Eusebio Ayala

Hey there everyone!

My oh my where is November going? My awesome announcement for the week is that this week will be my third Thanksgiving in Paraguay, as both Elder Milne and I thought that Thanksgiving was last week. That´s embarassing. Apparently it´s the 4th thursday...ahem. I´ve been gone too long it seems haha. It´ll be fun to see Elder Milne suffer through his second Thanksgiving experience in two weeks. I even wrote in my journal about thanksgiving and everything. Dang it! Well, now we´ve practiced and we´re totally ready for the real Thanksgiving this week! Happy Thanksgiving!

In other news, the rains keep coming and ruining all our fun. Right now in the area, we´re trying to give our members some responsibility in bringing their friends and our investigators that live around them to church so that everyone already has friends in the church, but it´s slow going. This week was pretty rough in that the members that were assigned and prepped to bring some investigator friends just didn´t come to church which was not good. It was almost zoo status durning church as well, but I changed my talk really quick on reverence and the importance of member examples and so I´m hoping everyone got the message and is willing to calm down a little. It´s an interesting place to be and it´s really hard work, but we´ll keep on going little by little. I´ll let you all know how it goes :)

I already put up my Christmas decorations in the house because I thought Thanksgiving passed, so now I´m all sorts of prepared! Yeah! It keeps getting hotter so you can feel that Christmas is in the air. Weird.

We had zone conference this week which was really good. We listened to a talk by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland that he gave in the MTC in January of this year. It was sweet. You should all go listen to it.

And yesterday, a big ole double decker tour bus lost it´s front wheel on the Paraguayan freeway right in Barrero and flipped, so that´s sort of the talk of the town right now. It was pretty crazy. We didn´t see it flip, but we saw the bus and all that after. Scary stuff.

Other than that, it´s just business as normal. We´re working like champs, and Elder Milne will be on his first division with a Latin missionary this Thursday, the real Thanksgiving. Yeah! I´ll be in Caacupe. I love you all and I know that this church is true. :D

Love,

Elder Morris

Eusebio Ayala

Hello everyone!

November is just cruising on by! First off, thanks mom for the package! It arrived and I´ve eaten a lot of peanut butter things :D Yay!

As for 11:11 on 11/11/11, we could have used that wish...we were actually on a bus going to Asunción and what we thought was the office. As it turns out we took the wrong version of the right bus and ended up really really far away which was pretty unfortunate. It was a fun 6 hour adventure though! Yeah! We ended up getting the right bus, and I got us to Asunción without further incident. I´ve been far away from the city for a little too long I suppose, and I´ve already forgotten how to take the right bus. Dang it.

It´s been super rainy this past week which is always annoying when it comes to the work. It rained nonstop starting early Sunday morning until about 6 in the evening, so church took a hit. The magical part is that President Madariaga of the mission called on Saturday and said that he was coming to Eusebio Ayala for church for the first time. Yay! He still came even though it rained, and some members actually showed up so everyone was happy! I´m just glad somebody came to church to hear President speak. It was good. He gave his talk on how we need to focus on the simple things, and always keep doing them even though they´re so easy. Like the serpent thing that Moses made. All they had to do was look and they didn´t, and lots of people died. All we have to do nowadays is read the scriptures, pray, and go to church. Sometimes we don´t because it just seems sooo easy so that wouldn´t work for us, but it´s always the key. If we come to find that we´re having issues and troubles in our lives, we need to stop and think if we´re truly doing these simple things that God has asked us to do. I´ve also come to find that there is no substitute for the scriptures. They have everything! I´ll get off my soap box now, but keep reading, praying, and going to church!

Other than that, it was a normal week full of rain. We have zone conference this Wednesday so I get to try my luck again with the buses of San Lorenzo. We´ll see if I can get it right the first time on Wednesday.

That´s all I´ve got for this week everyone. I love you all, and I testify that this is the true church. The Book of Mormon is true and Joseph Smith was a true prophet. I´m really thankful for the opportunity that I have to be here in Paraguay to watch the church change people´s lives. The Gospel can always help us and make us better, but only if we allow it to help. Keep on keepin on family! I´ll try to leave the soap box home next time. :)

Love,
Elder Morris

Eusebio Ayala

Hello my people!

Another week gone. We´re already almost a third of the way through November! That´s crazy. All I know is that it just keeps getting hotter and hotter down here. It´s going to be a hot one. It also rained twice this week which is always fun, but not very productive as missionaries. We still got lots of good stuff done, and went out in the rain with jackets and whatnot this time, so we didn´t get Elder Milne sick. Go good parenting!

As far as the work goes, we´re sort of in a not fun spot right now because there aren´t too many people that seem interested right now. And lots of our members are having severe husband issues. We only had 2 adults in church and us and then some younger children so we´ve got a long ways to go to improve. It´s kind of overwhelming at times, but we can do it. It´s giving Elder Milne a good start into his mission though. He´ll be pro when he goes to other areas. Speaking of other areas, changes just happened but Elder Milne and I are staying together which we already knew. We have a training program thing and it has 6 weeks left, so when changes happen the 21st of December (crappy right) we might part our ways, but for now we´ve got a goodly amount of time to try and help Eusebio Ayala!

I´ve re committed my self to learning lots of new Spanish words so I can be a spanish boss one day. It´s pretty easy because Elder Milne is always trying to learn new words so I just look up a couple knew weird ones in the dictionary and write them in my agenda. Ardilla means squirrel! Yeah!

Also, something cool today is while we were buying groceries and whatnot, the cashier/owner of the market thing asked us if we wanted to eat with him, so we said yes cause I like free food and we went up to his house and ate a really really good soup made by his mom and it was awesome. His son is an athiest and his grandma wants us to help him. This son claims that God can´t exist if bad things are happening. I believe I have a couple of scriptures to share with him next time, so we´ll see what happens. At least the soup was good. Mmmmm

Halloween passed without incident. Someone claimed that Paraguayans kind of do a trick or treating thing, but I didn´t see a single person do anything so I think they were just confused. That is my report of that.

Other than that, I don´t have anything new and exciting to say to everyone. We´re still working hard and praying and trying hard to help this area a lot. I´m hoping we see some lovely fruit from our labors here pretty soon, but I can wait patiently and continue to work. I hope that everyone is well, and I hope you all have a great week! Love you!

Love,
Elder Morris