May 5, 2014

manuel got baptized wooo! we were only able to teach him twice after his previous failed interview (once immediately after and once immediately before his second interview this friday) but we printed a sheet that has all the commandments with pictures and stuff to help him and it seems it worked. his baptism went pretty well, and it was combined with the other ward so there were 3 baptisms in total.

we didnt have any investigators in church on sunday, but we did have a pretty stellar week, especially on sunday after church. we werent able to work much on wednesday (elder Ruiz has a prosthetic leg and when it's raining hard his leg gets full of water and is really heavy) or on saturday (because of the baptism and something else that i'll be explaining shortly) but when we were working we were working a lot.

on friday we went to do service with derlis (former investigator). we cut down a bunch of weeds that he had near his house (thick weeds 6-8 ft tall; in guarani its called jujal (pronounced you yall)). Elder Ruiz brought his machete and derlis has a machete which has basically two feet of handle and one foot of blade, you swing it in wide arcs and just mow down the weeds. that was pretty fun, and pretty incredible how fast i could cut down thick weeds. i also used Elder Ruiz's machete to cut down some branches (like in the movies where people cut their way through the jungle - thats basically what i was doing) and i got and broke open multiple blisters on my hand, and there were a bunch of thorns too so my legs and hands got all cut up but anyways it was pretty fun. but on saturday Elder Ruiz was super sore and his leg was hurting so we couldnt go out to work as much as normal.

on sunday after church we found two awesome families that accepted a baptismal date and that really seem to have a lot of potential to progress so things should be going pretty well in the next few weeks.

today we're gonna go do service in the temple (cleaning and stuff). every monday the different districts of the mission rotate doing service and this is my first time (and it will be my first time being inside the temple in paraguay) so i'm pretty excited.

May 19, 2014

this week was pretty swell. we taught a ton and found a ton of new people to teach, but we didnt have any investigators in church this sunday or the last sunday. last sunday we didnt have anybody and i was feeling a bit discouraged in the night but ivan (a recent RM) called us and said his aunt wanted to get baptized. (his uncle has been a member for 8 years, but she never was really interested. she came to the stake conference in april and one other time and Elder Pacheco and i went to teach her a couple times but then she had a problem with her spouse and we didnt go any more. apparently things are better now and she wants to get baptized. also her spouse went through the temple on saturday and afterwards told her that he wanted to be with her forever and that helped a bit too). she couldnt come yesterday cus she hurt her back last week but igual she's gonna get baptized this saturday.

Diego went out of town on sunday so he couldnt come to church either, but Elder Ruiz and Elder Ramirez talked with his mom on tuesday (we had divisions) and she said she didnt have any problem with diego getting baptized and that she wanted to come to church too, but then they went on a trip. his dad gets home from a work trip on thursday so we're gonna talk with him to get permission so that diego can get baptized and pray that he can go to church this sunday so that he can get baptized before i leave (this saturday and next saturday are likely my last saturdays in reducto)

on tuesday we did divisions with the zone leaders, and i went to their area with Elder Villar. he's from chile and is three days older than me, but goes home in july cus in chile missionaries have been able to leave at 18 since 2011.

this week we did and last week we did service too. here in reducto the majority of the roads are dirt, and when it rains they get destroyed, and both times we fixed up the road going to/in front of a members house.

also sebastian is gonna start school again tomorrow so that he can go on a mission woo! he dropped out a while ago and is gonna do accelerated courses so that he can finish fast and go out sooner.

i know that this church is true and that God loves all his children and that He wants all his children to get baptized in the true church in the correct manner.

love Elder Woodfield

after cleaning the temple

doing service (machete and hoe)

me and angel teaching sebastian

April 28, 2014

i'm in reducto still, with an Elder Ruiz (which is kinda funny, cus there was a different Elder Ruiz here before Elder Pacheco), a Peruano. this is gonna be his last area (he has two transfers left in his mission) so it's almost guaranteed that i'll only stay here one more transfer. but anyways manuel didnt get baptized this week cus our district leader who did the interview said he needs a bit more preparation, so he should get baptized this saturday. he's a bit shy though so even though he knows all the stuff, he doesnt like talking to people he doesnt know so even after reviewing everything the interview will still be a bit tough for him, please pray for him so that he can have the courage to do well in his interview!

also we finally found hector and elizabeth again this week, after almost a month of not being able to find them. their biggest difficulty is hectors work schedule - he works night shift so it's hard for him to go to church in the normal schedule (the one time they went was general conference, in the afternoon) and elizabeth doesnt want to go to church alone, so i'm not sure if there's really a lot we can do to help them in that situation, unless hector finds another job.

angel and his family are awesome, we had another mini MTC on saturday and angels sister (belén) went and loved it, and on sunday they brought one of their neighbors to church, and we're gonna go by this week to see if we can teach their neighbors too.

on saturday after the mini MTC i was feeling a bit sick, but we went to teach sebastian in the house of a member cus i didnt want to just go home. i ended up needing to use the members bathroom and i had some vicious diarrhea, and then we went home and i puked twice that night. we went to church for sacrament meeting and i was still feeling sick so all yesterday we just rested. i havent had diarrhea or vomited since saturday, but i'm still not feeling super great which kinda sucks cus we had to miss a ton of appointments.

the weathers been pretty tranquilo, it hasnt really been super hot or super cold at all this week.

the place where we usually eat on mondays in san lorenzo has two toucans and two parrots

 I got a double decker cookie!

 Elder Ruiz and I

April 21, 2014

hola! this week we had a ward activity on friday for easter (catholicism is a big part of the paraguayan culture so they consider the whole week a holiday - mainly jueves santo, viernes santo, and sunday) and we had a miracle! there's a recent convert (pablo) in our ward who got baptized and a bit later his little brother (daniel) and sister (mariela) got baptized. his brother has a fraternal twin (manuel) but he didnt want to get baptized cus he was afraid of the water, but he came to the activity on friday, we visited him on saturday, he came to church on sunday and now he wants to get baptized! his baptismal date is for this saturday. on friday in the activity we ate caldo ava - a traditional paraguayan food. it's basically a big stew where you put everything from the cow thats not meat or bones (heart, intestines, tongue, kidney, liver, etc.) and a bunch of vegetables. the activity was combined with the other ward in reducto and a family from the other ward brought stuff to make tacos for all the missionaries, but i still had some of the caldo ava just to try it. i thought it was pretty good, and so did elder yamberla (from the other ward) but our district leader and the sister missionaries in the other ward (all from the states) ate a tiny bit and couldnt finish. it smelled pretty horrible but the taste was pretty good, although the texture of some of the innards was a bit off-putting.

on tuesday we did divisions, and it was my first time doing divisions where i stayed in my area. we found a couple teenagers (victor y jose) who had awesome questions and understood everything super well but they were out of town on sunday so they couldnt go to church but they're super calidad

on thursday we had interviews with pte agazzani, which went well. he hinted to elder pacheco that he was gonna leave reducto, but he also hinted that he was gonna stay another transfer in reducto, and he didnt hint anything to me, so we're not quite sure what's gonna happen this transfer (we find out tomorrow, and change wednesday). the district should change quite a bit, as everyone in the district has been here at least two transfers.

angel is still a capo and his mom got called as the second counselor in the relief society yesterday. angel brought his stories from the book of mormon book to church on sunday, and all the kids in primary wanted to know where he got it, and after church a few kids came and asked me to give them one too. i had bought three, as we had originally planned to give them to juan's kids, so luckily i was able to give out a couple more, and more or less satisfy everyone (i gave one to manuel and daniel and mariela to share, but they're not really super into sharing).

elder pacheco's birthday is a week from tomorrow, but we're gonna celebrate tomorrow in case he gets transferred cus having your birthday the first week in a new area is pretty lame, as you dont know anybody and nobody knows it's your birthday. also in about a week a missionary that's out from this branch gets back, so he should be able to help a lot with the work and pte agazzani gave us some suggestions that should help quite a bit too, so the work should continue progressing well here.

i cant think of anything else so here you go

April 14, 2014

angel got baptized on saturday! and christian (who got baptized in march) and tamara got married! there was a ton of food and cake and ... i was fasting. but anyways we got to take the leftover cake from the baptism home so i had cake for dinner last night. angel is a capo ité, we gave him one of those books of mormon with pictures and he's been reading it a ton, and reading to his mom and explaining the stories to her and with his sister. we had to teach a ton this week to get him ready for his baptism but he understands everything really well and was super prepared. even before we got there, he always said his prayers and wanted to get baptized. but anyways the baptism went well and the confirmation.

we didnt have any investigators in church, but angel's sister bore a super powerful testimony in testimony meeting (her second sunday back and her first time bearing her testimony) which was awesome. they said they're gonna bring another one of their sisters to church too, who's not a member.

on tuesday we had a zone training, and the zone leaders asked me to direct and said they were training me (normally a district leader directs). we also did divisions with the zone leaders on friday, which was pretty sweet. i went with Elder Rhodes to Tayuasapé. around 8 or so he had to do a baptismal interview in san lorenzo (for the sister missionaries) so we went, but we couldnt find any male to accompany us, so we werent able to start until quite a bit later than we shouldve. she still had a bit of doubts, so Elder Rhodes was trying to help her clear those up so she could get baptized on saturday, but we didnt really have much time. we didnt end up getting out of the interview until 9 40 (we have to be home before 9 30) and we were in san lorenzo, quite a ways away from tayuasapé, and all the buses had already stopped. as we were walking to one of the main roads in san lorenzo to start the walk to tayuasapé, a bus passed us and stopped at the intersection. we ran up and asked if they were going to pass by where we needed to go, and they said that they could. turns out the bus driver was a member, and he dropped us off a block from the house with no charge! God is real and protects his missionaries.

sorry this week wasnt super exciting. it's starting to get a bit colder though.

pictures: angel

angel, his sister, his mom, and his nephew

April 21, 2014

Hola! this week we had a ward activity on friday for easter (catholicism is a big part of the paraguayan culture so they consider the whole week a holiday - mainly jueves santo, viernes santo, and sunday) and we had a miracle! there's a recent convert (pablo) in our ward who got baptized and a bit later his little brother (daniel) and sister (mariela) got baptized. his brother has a fraternal twin (manuel) but he didnt want to get baptized cus he was afraid of the water, but he came to the activity on friday, we visited him on saturday, he came to church on sunday and now he wants to get baptized! his baptismal date is for this saturday. on friday in the activity we ate caldo ava - a traditional paraguayan food. it's basically a big stew where you put everything from the cow thats not meat or bones (heart, intestines, tongue, kidney, liver, etc.) and a bunch of vegetables. the activity was combined with the other ward in reducto and a family from the other ward brought stuff to make tacos for all the missionaries, but i still had some of the caldo ava just to try it. i thought it was pretty good, and so did elder yamberla (from the other ward) but our district leader and the sister missionaries in the other ward (all from the states) ate a tiny bit and couldnt finish. it smelled pretty horrible but the taste was pretty good, although the texture of some of the innards was a bit off-putting.

on tuesday we did divisions, and it was my first time doing divisions where i stayed in my area. we found a couple teenagers (victor y jose) who had awesome questions and understood everything super well but they were out of town on sunday so they couldnt go to church but they're super calidad

on thursday we had interviews with pte agazzani, which went well. he hinted to elder pacheco that he was gonna leave reducto, but he also hinted that he was gonna stay another transfer in reducto, and he didnt hint anything to me, so we're not quite sure what's gonna happen this transfer (we find out tomorrow, and change wednesday). the district should change quite a bit, as everyone in the district has been here at least two transfers.

angel is still a capo and his mom got called as the second counselor in the relief society yesterday. angel brought his stories from the book of mormon book to church on sunday, and all the kids in primary wanted to know where he got it, and after church a few kids came and asked me to give them one too. i had bought three, as we had originally planned to give them to juan's kids, so luckily i was able to give out a couple more, and more or less satisfy everyone (i gave one to manuel and daniel and mariela to share, but they're not really super into sharing).

elder pacheco's birthday is a week from tomorrow, but we're gonna celebrate tomorrow in case he gets transferred cus having your birthday the first week in a new area is pretty lame, as you dont know anybody and nobody knows it's your birthday. also in about a week a missionary that's out from this branch gets back, so he should be able to help a lot with the work and pte agazzani gave us some suggestions that should help quite a bit too, so the work should continue progressing well here.

i cant think of anything else so here you go

April 7, 2014

i had more time and remembered more stuff i wanted to write.

we had conference in our chapel, but as there are only one ward and one branch in this chapel, there were only six missionaries, and only 4 americans, so we ended up watching the conference in spanish. i understood mostly everything and didnt have a problem, but the sister missionaries and the district leader in the other ward had wanted to watch in english. people in our stake translate the talks from spanish to guarani for the sunday sessions, and get the talks a week before. the second counselor in the stake presidency was telling us about it and said that when he's translating, sometimes it's a bit tough especially when the talks are changed in conference, but that while he's translating and reading he feels the Spirit incredibly strong, and it sounds like translating anything for the church would be an awesome experience. before the priesthood session, he was telling us a bit about how Elder Ballard's talk was gonna be on sunday morning. if you want to hear, it's not under guarani, the language is natively called avañe'e (or something like that). i personally know a few of the people who translated on sunday, but the only one i know specifically is that the second counselor in the stake presidency did Elder Ballard's talk on sunday morning (and Elder Ochoa's talk in october)

also i tried mondongo again, and it wasnt so bad this time. we went to a members house to ask for her help with an investigator, and she asked us if we wanted to eat tortillas (not mexican tortillas). she brought them out, and i started to cut into one, but it was a bit tougher than normal (tortillas are normally really easy to cut). i got it into my mouth and knew something was wrong - it was super chewy. we realized that it was marinera de mondongo, but it actually didnt taste half bad and i was able to eat the whole thing. marinera is a piece of meat dipped in a batter (of eggs and some other stuff i think) and then fried. 

but anyways thats all chau