its not actually my 3rd week in this area but its the 3rd week of the changes so im gonna go with it. this week was great! there's a real challenge here with getting any baptisms. every person here above 25 years old is either too poor to marry the person they're living with, and in so can't be allowed to be baptised, or they once were married but seperated but dont have money for divorce so they're living with their boy or girlfriend whilst being married. when that happens they calle their significant other their "concubino" haha like concubine. isnt that terrible? so its really hard to get people to commit to baptism because its out of their control becasue everyone is so poor. when i learned this it really got me down. i wondered what the point was to even be here teaching. but the next day, we found 3 different boys, all about 18 years old, contacted them on the streets, taught a single lesson, and committed them all to baptism. which all 3 accepted. it was really amazing. i felt it was just God's way of telling me i do have a purpose out here.
this area im in is called Moroni A. our ward is called moroni and its split into two areas because its huuuge. our area is the most chuchi area in the whole mission. chuchi means fancy in guarani. we have a Mcdonalds here, a burger king, and dominos pizza (where we ate today), and a pizza hut. we're pretty spoiled haha. oh yeah, did mcdonalds just come out with a new mcflurry?? theres a bunch of signs here for kit kat mcflurry's! they look so good. we're gonna pick some up tomorrow.
they have a food item here called a Lomito. you can buy two kinds, one thats like a burrito, one thats like a hamburger. they're amazing. they're on par with chipotle, for reals. its like a steak hamburger with eggs and tomatoes and i dont know what else but it might be the best food i've ever tasted.
everyone in asuncion wears crocs. i guess its either the only thing they sell or its the easist thing to wear here. if i come back wanting to wear crocs, someone better slap me. haha
we teach a little girl named Lara. she's 9. she lives with her mom and little brother, Dani. i love going over there because Danny is a little devil. like a Paraguayan Dennis the Menace. hes crazy. and everytime he does anything wrong his mom yells at him "asi no!" which pretty means stop doing that. its like the only thing she every tells him haha
well, the mission field is great. im probably the most spoiled missionary here. i live in a nice area but one that has poor people who will still listen to us, i have a latino companion that speaks perfect spanish to learn from but also speaks english. and my apartment has a budet. those fancy toilets that spray water instead of needing to wipe with paper towels. im pretty spoiled haha
nobody here speaks solely guarani, but most are fluent and all throw in random words into their español all the time. i've learned a couple of phrases so far. i want to study it after i get fluent in spanish so i can bear my testimony in my homecoming talk. apparently its a pretty difficult language.
my companion is great. he knows a lot of english, and even more english slang haha becasue he learned english by watching comedy movies and listening to american music haha he's awesome. he's so righteous. he has the spirit of God in him. i've seen the gifts of the spirit in him countless times. i really look up to him.
summer is so hot here. haha but yeah, people celebrate christmas. everyone does. no one has trees, they just put tinsel on their fences or buy santa claus signs for their doors or what not. all the shopping centers go all out like in the states. i dont know if its very religious here. but on the 8th theres a pilgramige kind of thing for one of the catholic virgins? dont know much about it but everyone celebrates it. the ward's even having a luncheon that day. not that we're celebrating catholicism haha i think its so the members have something to do while the city is pretty much empty. everyone travels to some huge cathedral in downtown asuncion that day where the statue of the virgin is. most poeple here are catholic. like all of them are haha
love you all, thanks for writing
-Elder Glasgow
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