Week 16 (Jan 16, 2012): Hogar por los Niños

This past week I had my first "district change" meeting.. this new transfer all of the missionaries will either be trainers or trainees, which is abnormal for a district! It has been a great week. I will tell you about a few experiences that i had this past week...

In a lot of our lessons, we try and start off by singing a hymn. One day we chose to sing "I am a Child of God" or "Soy un Hijo de Dios"! No song brings the Spirit faster I think than that song. We first sang at Clara, one of our investigators homes. We were sitting outside with her mom and sister and as we sang, six little boys who had been playing football come running over and everything was silent as they just stood and the gate and listened... you could tell that they felt the Spirit. Later, we were at Anotnia{s with her kids. Her son, Axel, is three and durring the lessons, we are normally trying to dodge mangos that he pelts at us but as we sang, he could feel the spirit and just sat there quietly smiling and listenting.

We also found two really neat families this week. One familty has three little kids all under the age of ten and their little boy, Bruce William, is so beautiful he looks more like a girl! Anyways, we were able to teach them and the Dad, Alberto was really excited when we explained about the Apostacy and Joseph Smith. We are going back to teach them tomorrow. Another family that we found is a very young couple named Emmanuel and Jasminee. They have a two year old boy and accepted a baptisimal date this upcoming Febuary! But we still have lots to teach and a long ways to go! Teaching families is my favorite part of serving a mission.

Also, yesterday Hermana Plummer and I had a really neat experience. We had gotten a reference for this orphanage that is in our area and had the chance to visit them yesterday. It is called "Hogar por los Niños" and about 15 boys ages 8 to 18 live there. The lady that works there led us into the living room and one by one the boys came pounding down the stairs until all fifteen were sitting int the living room ready to listen! We opened with a prayer and went around and introduced ourselves... most of them are ages 8 to 12. Instead of teaching the first lesson, we just talked about stories from the Book of Mormon and old the story of Nephi and his family and then read some scriptures from Christ in the Americas using the picture that are in the Book of Mormon. It turned out that two of the boys, Marcos and Christian, had already been baptized two or three years ago before they had been separated from their families...they were really excited to have their own book of mormon again and that we could come and pick them up with a member the next week. A lot of the other boys want to come to church too!!

I love this work and I love my Savior. I love the words of the prophets and the direction that we recieve from them.

Love you all so much.

Week 16 (Jan 16, 2012): The Nativity

Another Pesevre... or nativity of our neighbors! This past friday was Dia de los Magos (3 kings) and so they are all starting to take down their mangers!

Week 16 (Jan 16, 2012): Team Olympia

Hna. Plummer and I outside of the chapel for a district activity the day after christmas. We bought matching jerseys to more fully embrase Paraguay...EVERYONE wears jerseys here from team "Olympia" and during games, whenever there is a goal, everyone and their neighboor sets off fireworks.

Week 16 (Jan 16, 2012): Clara at District Meeting

District Meeting with President and Sister Callen - After one of our district meetings, President Callen wanted to take a picture of all of us, one of our investigators, Clara, passed by and joined in our picture. I have never met someone that has been through more than Clara...she has a strong desire to repent and learn more about the Gospel.

Week 16 (Jan 16, 2012): Areseli's Birthday

Hermana Plummer and I with Areseli for her birthday. We have been working with her.

Week 16 (Jan 16, 2012): Assorted Fruits

Fruit is so cheap here! I live off of smooties and cereal! And the occasional deep fried chicken and sopa paraguaya (kinda like cornbread...with corn) that the members feed us!

Week 16 (Jan 16, 2012): Candy for Vinciente

Dear family,

I hope that all of you are happy and doing well! I dont have a lot of time to write today because something happened with my email to President Callen and need to rewrite it...ah! But here are a few pictures for you from this past week. It has been a good week... we are still working with Salvador Aquino. He loves the book of mormon and frequently sends us texts with his latest favorite scritpture. Vinciente Francisco is doing well...his attention span though is about five minutes long. Our plan is to buy a bunch of candy at the Super today...we hope that will help him pay attention during the lessons. Because of his work we have had to continually move his baptisimal date. So many other people to tell you about...they are so humble and love to talk about the Gospel...or anything that has to do with Jesus! This is not saying that they dont have their problems and struggles...but that they are quick to recognize blessings as blessings from God.

I love serving as a representative of Jesus Christ. I love this Gospel. I love the people here...I love the scriptures and love the seeing how the scriptures and the truth changes people as they feel the Spirit.
I love you all so so much.

Les amo,

Hermana Natasha Jones