Happy New Year!! Well... almost!

Hello Hello!

So let me start off by telling you how Christmas went. We visited members and investigators and every house that we went to fed us. Like a full on feast!!! I have never eaten so much food in my life! We went everywhere with the other sisters so that was fun, and it got to the point when we could not stuff any more food in our mouths that we just had to bring the food with us. We still have bowls full of different meats, sopa, and chipa. (we actually ate none of it and gave it to other families with not a lot of food) We also had permission to stay out till 11:30 so we were able to visit a lot of people, and take a ton of pictures! I will send some later. Oh something different that I experienced is that our companions from Guatemala stay up at till mid night and open there presents then, I don't know how Santa gets them their presents without them knowing, but it was still fun! I also made cinnamon rolls for the morning! Oh and it was really hard to sleep Christmas Eve because there were fireworks going off all night, but overall it was a good day! Mostly because I saw my FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And JAKE AND STU!!!!!!!! That was the best Christmas present that I have ever received. I sure love all you guys sooo much! Oh and Christmas day I opened my package and we all ate cinnamon rolls, then visited members and ate some more! It was awesome and SUPER hot! 
 

 A couple days later we received a late Christmas present... Our NEW HOUSE!!!

 

Man.. it is so much better than our old house. We have a shower that actually works, we have a sink for washing clothes, we have all new stuff, everything is clean.. ah I love it! The only thing it is missing is the family of lizards that was in our old house, oh and AC! We have an AC unit, but it is not installed yet... so the nights have been somewhat miserable. But who needs sleep, right? I took pictures of our new house too, and will send them soon! It is such a blessing!

 Now for some random things, the other day I saw a kid with a BYU shirt on! WHOOT WHOOT!!Kinda random, huh? Oh and the members love adding us on facebook, even though we can't use facebook for another year and a half... but they still do it! I don't even know how in the world they find me, but they have some mad facebook skills here! They always think that Jessica is my mom for some odd reason, and they all tell me that I look younger in my pictures?! It is a little strange that they can facebook stalk someone half way across the world, but yeah. But they love seeing pictures of my family, so I bring my album book with me almost everyday (Because if I don't they get mad)

 

We have changes this Tuesday, and sadly Hermana Willis is leaving. Her companion is getting a Hermana from Ecuador so there is going to be a WHOLE lot of Spanish in our house. yay.. Oh and Hermana Willis is going to Juan Pablo which is even hotter, which is hard to imagine, and on the border of Brazil, oh and 8 hours away! But the point is that some of the ward members wanted to throw her a surprise party sort of thing Sunday night, and I was told to bring the dessert (It is probably because I am so good at baking desserts ;) ) So my companion and I had to go to our old house to make the dessert so that Hermana Willis would not know. I made Peach cobbler, and I thought it was delicious! But I don't think the Paraguayans liked it very much. Bummer... Oh well! 

Oh today we went to the house of the people who saved us from the rain! We went with all the sisters and ate lunch, and ate the brithday cake that I brought them. It was really fun! It is really cool how the Lord places these people in our lives, and I absolutely love teaching this Gospel to them. I know everything that I have experienced and everything that am and will experience is for a reason! It is amazing how much I am understanding now and how I am able to communicate with these people. Even though they live so much differently than I do, I know that they are all children of God, and I feel His love for them! I love being a missionary, and I know that even though most of the times it is really really really hard for me, I am suppose to learn something here. And let me tell you I have never been happier, which is weird to say. I have become mentally and spiritually stronger. I bet I won't even scream when I see spiders back at home. Anyways I love you all, and you are all in my prayers. Have a good New Years, and be safe! 

Che Rohayhu! (I love you in Guaraní)

Hermana Sanders 

FELIZ NAVIDAD!

This week was a little interesting because the companionship in our house has been fighting. We did divisions twice this week. It is really stressful being a missionary, and Hermana Puac is really feeling it right now. We got permission from the President, well I should say my companion and the other Hermana got permission and after I found out not knowing before hand their plans. It was an interesting day, all I did was listen to all her problems...and Heaven forbid that I give advise! I almost got my head chewed off. But we taught lots off lessons which was really good. After the day ended we thought that Hermana Puac would be okay, but we were wrong. In the morning she desperately wanted to go home, which was really sad. Eventually they ended up in the Mission office talking to President. I believe that helped them a TON! It is sad that they were letting little things bug them and bring them further from the Spirit. So that was the drama this week. I am so grateful for my companion and that we get along. It is so much easier to teach with the Spirit when you have companion unity.

Remember that one family who saved us from the rain? Well we went back to visit them, and boy do they like to feed us! We ate dulce tarte, which is just a sweet bread, and soda, and everything else they would shove at us. They also gave us a bag full of mango's, which is awesome!!! I Love mango's! Here is mango season so pretty much every tree has mango's! They are a little different, but delicious! We are going to celebrate the husbands birthday with them on the 27 and teach them a lesson. The people here are great!!!

Friday we had our zone choir, which turned out really great. We all met at a public park, all dressed in red and green and white. They had a short movie about Christ's life playing and narration in between each of our songs. There were a lot more people that came than I thought.

Saturday we had our FIRST BAPTISM!!!!!! We made banana bread in the morning and after went to check if we had water in the church. We checked the font and I was shocked!!! There were these GIANT spiders floating in the font. And I mean GIANT spiders!!!! UGH... and all sorts of bugs in the water. We had to wait for the other Hermanas to come and show us how to drain the water. Unfortunately it was not working very well so we grabbed buckets and poured the water in the toilets. It took HOURS!!!! But luckily it was all prepared in time for the baptism. Jorge was so excited, and we took a ton of pictures! His uncle was super excited as well, because he had the wonderful opportunity to baptize his nephew. A few of the members came, and gave wonderful talks. When Jorge came up from the water I felt the spirit so strong, and felt such a strong love for this Gospel! Everyone in the room had huge grins on their faces. The next day he was confirmed, and yet again I could feel the Spirit. Later on Sunday we brought him to a lesson with us, and he bore his testimony. He testified how the Gospel has changed his life, and he notices the difference. I know the Lord prepared him for baptism and really does love and thing of ALL his children. Jorge can't wait to be a missionary in 2-3 years!

So Christmas here will pretty much be just like every other day. On Christmas eve we have 2 invitations to visit their houses. One is a members house, and the other is our investigators house! Other than that it will be a normal day. Christmas here is really different. Everyone paints their houses crazy bright colors, but mostly lime green! and everyone gets new clothes and EVERYONE has nativity scenes in their yards and in their houses. On Christmas everyone makes a ton of food, but it is the traditional food of Paraguay, like sopa paraguaya, chipa, ensalada de frutas,{fruit salad} and other foods. You guys will have to look them up. Then I believe New Years will be big here, and there probably will be a lot of drunk people. We will have to see. It is 90 degrees... or higher... everyday and night. It's awesome!!!! {sarcastic} But it's all good, we just keep doing what we do best.

Well I love you all so much, and wish you a Merry Christmas! I think about you always, and feel your love and support! Stay warm!

Love, Hermana Sanders

 

Paraguay Asuncion North Mission

Hello Hello!

 




The Christmas Story
 

Let us make Christmas a time of rejoicing and celebration, a time to share the marvelous truth that Almighty God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem the world! May the joy of that knowledge be with each of us this Christmas season and throughout the coming year.
Sincerely, Thomas S. Monson
Henry B. Eyring
Dieter F. Uchtdorf



Me and Hermana Santos
Merry Christmas!!!

 

This week nothing too exciting happened... except we have a BAPTISM this Saturday!!!!!! Yay! It will be my first baptism, and it is someone who I taught with my companion, if that makes sense. It was really quick, but awesome right? His name is Jorge and he is 16 years old. His uncle who is 19 is a member, and we have been working really hard to prepare him to baptize his nephew. I am so so so excited! Our other 6 baptisms fell through, but we are going to still work with them. We have these awesome investigators that have so much promise, the hard thing is getting them to come to church. too bad, but I know they will get baptized, there is no way that they won't be! 







Our House we live in

So after Christmas we will be receiving new missionaries in our area. Right now our area is HUGE and takes us a hours to walk house to house. And to be honest with you we haven't even ventured to the far parts of our area. So we split our areas into 3 areas now, the hard thing is that we need to find a house for the new missionaries. There is absolutely NO houses here for rent, or sale, or in all reality houses. We spend hours just walking around asking people if they know of a house for rent. And... well they aren't very helpful. Oh well. We still have a couple days ha ha. 





Yesterday we practiced with our choir, and it has been a miracle! We actually sound decent. It is really hard because most people here have not had any music classes, so everything needs to be very basic. I really hope that it will sound wonderful for Christmas so the people in the community can feel the sweet spirit as we sing. I know that the Lord will help us, and it is going to be a great experience. Also with my district on Christmas day we are going to the hospital to sing to the people there. It should be a really neat experience. Also for church 3 other sisters and I are singing Noche De Luz, but in English, Spanish, and Guarani! Should be interesting! Especially for someone who does not specifically love singing. But people love to hear music here, so I am glad to be apart of it. And it will fun to do something a little different! 

 

It is raining again!!!

 



On Saturday my companion was able to enter in the temple with a family in our area. Unfortunately I was not able to go in because President only wants 2 missionaries to attend the temple at a time. And the other sister who was in my area previously really wanted to go. Which seems fair since she has been here 8 months and has not been in the temple yet. Still I was a little disappointed, but it's alright. I was able to do splits with other sisters in the area of the temple. I was with this adorable sister from Guatemala. I am surprised how much spanish I can speak. We quickly became friends as we walked around her area. She lives in a very rich area, which was such a nice change! They actually had roads, and the people had more of an education and understood what we were saying. I really enjoyed being in the city with her, and learned lots of new ways to teach. It was really good experience. Unfortunately it was really HOT and I received a heat rash. Now with a heat rash all over my legs, accompanied with my mosquito bites... my legs look lovely! What can you do? 

Anyways I love you all, and think about you all everyday! Thank you for all the prayers and support! I can't wait to call home next week, I am so excited! I LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU!! Have a great week! 

Love, Hermana Sanders

 

Hello!!!

Today at 10:41 AM

Well... I don't have my journal... so I will have to try and remember what happened this week.It rained a lot. It is really crazy how it can go from blazing hot to a rainstorm in a matter of minutes. In fact right now we are experiencing a rainstorm. I carry my umbrella everywhere with me, and plastic bags. We never know when it is going to rain. Pretty awesome haha.

This week we got together with all the zones at the mission office. I got to see all my ccm family! We listened to our mission presidents and some old mission presidents. it was really good. Oh and guess what? there is another Hermana Sanders from Lehi, Utah! Her dad's name is Scott, I don't know if we are related, but pretty funny right? Oh I also received my packages! THANK YOU MOM AND DAD!!! You guys are the best! I got my scriptures and a Christmas package! Oh my goodness mom, you are adorable! I was so excited and put up our stockings and Christmas calender right when we got home! oh and it really meant a lot to my companion that you sent her something as well. Her family is really poor, and they can't send her a package! She about cried she was so happy, and couldn't believe that you guys sent her something! Oh and the testimonies that Dad sent me, I can not wait to use them! they are really awesome, and a fantastic idea! I love you guys! thank you for all that you do! Oh and speaking of Christmas, we get to skype on either Monday Tuesday or Wednesday, for 30 minutes. Which day works best for you? It will be right before Christmas.

this week we also met with just our zone and practiced singing hymns for Christmas. I guess we are going to have a Christmas program, which will be fun! It is strange to think that I am going to have a warm... correction HOT Christmas. I sure miss all of you! Oh and my investigators and members are loving seeing pictures of my family. they all think it is strange that Maddy is really blond, and they always ask if she is going to go on a mission! And yet again no one believes that mom is my mom. they all say that my parents are sooo young! What can I say? I have a pretty good looking family! haha

Our investigators are having some problems. Sandra and Fernando are so ready to get baptized but for some reason things keep happening to stop them from getting baptized. Right now they are trying to save up money to get married, but Fernando just was in the hospital for his surgery. Hopefully they will be able to be ready next week, but we will see. Vanessa and Gabriel are so awesome! I always am so excited to teach them. But this week they told us they were busy and couldn't meet with us. so two days later we surprised them and just showed up. Vanessa was the only one home, but we met her mom. She is crazy! But their whole family is great. the only bad thing is they didn't come to church like they said they would. I don't know what is going on with them, but I hope we can continue to teach them!

So Saturday, they have this thing here called dia de caakupe. It is were all these crazy people walk all night to this church to worship their version of Mary all day Sunday. So the streets were crowded all night Saturday. the next day the city was like a ghost town. It was really hard to find people to teach, because no one was in their homes. So we just visited members.

Anyways I don't remember if there is anything else that I forgot. I love you all so much, and I can't wait to talk to you. I hope everyone is doing well. I miss you sooo much! Have a great week!

Love, Hermana Sanders

DECEMBER!

Today at 10:58 AM

Well... This week was interesting. We have some really awesome investigators! I have felt the Spirit so strong with all of them, it is amazing. I also got to meet my district last week! Most of them are Latins, but they are all super cool! There is only 4 North Americans, and 2 of them have been here 6 weeks. They speak really well, and it gives me hope! My city is called Ysapy (Ee/sa/puh). It is in the country, in the middle of no where. I get to email in an Internet cafe on P Days.

So this weekend it rained... HARD! I have never seen so much water in my life! The best part is that you can not tell when it is going to rain! On Wednesday it was as hot as ever... and we were walking down the "street" when all the sudden it just started pouring! Like huge drops of rain. Then the thunder and lightening came. I have never heard thunder as loud as I did in that moment. I now really know the meaning of a crack of thunder. But my companion told me that we have to keep working. Eventually my companion became afraid and we started searching for shelter. Luckily we heard a shout from a house. Some kind old man let us in his house, and he had a nice house for Paraguay. He lives with his wife and son(?) anyways we ended up staying there for 3 hours while the storm got worse and worse. They were very nice though, and fed us lots of food. We became really good friends and hopefully we can start teaching them. 

I want to tell you a little about our investigators. We met one lady who was very sweet. We taught her the Plan of Salvation, and had her pray at the end of our lesson. While she was praying I was hit with the Spirit. She told us after that her mom had just died 3 weeks ago. God really does love his children! My favorite investigators we have right now are 2 young adults, who are also siblings. They know a lot about God, but are so willing to listen to us. The boy speaks a little bit of English, so that is fun! We invited them to come to church, and this Sunday they came!!!! We were soooo happy! We also have a member that has been coming to lessons with us, and he brought a member to church! it was a real exciting day! Back to the 2 young adults, their names are Vanessa and Gabriel! We taught them today for 2 hours about the restoration and gave them Books of Mormon! They were so excited! I love our investigators, and the feeling I receive as we teach them! I know that God loves ALL of his children! 

So about that rain that I was telling you about, well everyday it rained really hard! It goes from being really really hot, to pouring rain in a matter of seconds! Yesterday we got stuck in the road, and hit under a small cover of a shop. While we were running to cover right behind us this 40 or 50 foot tree fell! It was sooo loud! It felt like we were in a mini tornado! We sang hymns while we waited for the storm to end. Right after we finished singing the hymn "there is sunshine in my soul today" the rain stopped in just enough time for us to run home. It is really cool seeing the Lord's hand in our lives every day! So one of the down falls of the rain storms here is there is always a huge river that we get to walk in, we lose electricity, and we lose access to water. So for the past couple of days we have not been able to shower, but luckily it rains so hard that we "take showers outside" if you know what i mean. I don't think i have any dry clothes left. We took a shower in a members house today, and that was an experience. We had to fill up a small pot with freezing water and use a cup to shower ourselves off. Wow, I sure miss America. 

One last thing, Thursday I got really sick. I don't know if it was a bug, or from the food. But for 5 hours I threw up and all that fun stuff. I really was missing my mom. But the sisters in my house are very kind and took very good care of me. I got to sleep for more than usual, but then we went back out to work the next day. It was a little hard at first because I had no energy, but I know the Lord is giving me strength. I am slowly starting to adjust, I really love the people here. They make everything worth it. Most importantly my family and loved ones are one of my biggest motivations. I love you all and think about you always! Thank you for all the prayers and support! I can't believe that I have almost been on my mission for 3 months! I Love you all, and can't wait to hear from you! 

Love, Hermana Sanders