first baptism!

Hola Familia!! yes as you read in the letter heading, i baptized my first paraguayan this week, but we will get there lets start from the begining...

Lunes: After writing you guys last week there was still work to be done, but because of soccer in the morning my legs were so tired. Our last lesson of the night was with pedro, i had met his sister once before in the street, she told me she loved my eyes, tonight she decided to join us, and totally took the spirit out of the lesson, she kept calling me daddy, or in spanish papacita, and it was horribly awkward and dificult the rest of the lesson.

Martes: we brought the Keyboard to our house so that we can get more practice in in the mornings, but we still get up at 6 each morning, or atleast i do, and my comp sleeps through his tie when ever its his turn to get up at 6. We had a very long district meeting today as well. about an hour longer than normal, it was a good one, but it through off our whole day, ecspeailly when after we had to spend more time on the computer than normal to input progression of investigators. after that we went and bought stuff really quickly, and made it to lunch an hour or two late. Its frustrating that my comp isnt punctual at all but we are working on it. We didnt have much time to do much teaching today, and for me i think it was the least productive day in the mission. I did use a machete to try cutting a lawn, super hard! im so glad we have lawn mowers. We started divisions tonight as well i went to mariano to be with elder sanchez, who has only been there for two weeks and barely knows the area. should be fun right haha.

Miércoles: i woke myself up at 6:29 this morning, so that was cool, also the extra 30 minutes was magical. Lots of the morning, and the day for that matter was language study for elder Sanchez. He wants to learn english really bad and has plans to move to the US after his mission so that was a little different. We ate lunch at the orange house today.. so many orange things in the house... including the house its self its awesome. It was super hot today super duper hot.. its not summer yet. At the start of the day there was nobody outside there house or willing to leave it to talk to us. All the house have a gate around them, we dont knock doors we clap hands. By the end of the day everything was good and we finished the day pretty solid. I did run into another guy who is from oregon, studied in pulman and has lived in paraguay for 18 years! he said he just wanted to say hi to his fellow countryman and then was on his way. Crazy to think that people live down here for such long periods of time. Dont get me wrong I love paraguay, but for me its not the best place to just hang out... Anywho we ended our divisions and went back to our home. Our airconditioning has been broken for a while now and tonight it was super hot!! i slept with out covers and with a fan on me all night and still woke up sweating... This is paraguay hahah

Jueves: RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN man there was rain allllllll day today and when it rains it means tuju ( mud in guarani) we had our meeting with our branch mission leader, something we havent been able to do for a month, that went really well, then we had weekly planning, we normally have that friday morning but my comp wanted to change it because we might have to do some service tomorrow morning. I thought it was a bad idea because it meant less hours of work but he insisted. We ended the days with bad numbers again... it was frustrating, but im learning to just deal with the fact that i am the junior companion and there will come a time when i will need to make descions. Although our numbers were bad we did have our best lesson of the mission i think. We had lunch with the familia sosa who is on the verge of inactivity, we talked about the importance of church, and mainly the sacrament, and were very direct with them. It was super awesome they said that they would come to church so we are hoping for the best! the reason for not going to church was that they are upset with the branch president, a common theme here in remansito and im not sure if its just culturally hard to accept someone else as the president, or if he really is bad to the members. I cant imagine that he is super nice and always talks about ways to help themembers.

Viernes: HUMID. It rains, theres mud, it gets hot, and instead of evaporating completely the moisture just stays in the air. Today wasnt hot, but i was sweating a ton all day. We have changed our approach to be more direct with all the people we teach, we have found that the spirit can testify much strong when we dont try to sugar coat anything, or make things seem not as important or something like that. It seems to be going well. We also had planned to have the baptismal interveiw of victor tonight, but had to teach him tithing, and couldnt get a hold of him. Just when it looked like we were gonna have to call the interview and baptism off, we were able to get all the pieces to work, it was a miracle, we taught him about tithing, and then he had his interview. afterwords victor confirmed that he wanted me to baptize him. So That means ill be having my first baptism this sunday. Crazy to think that, i definately am nervous and plan on reviewing the pray for that so i dont mess up, i memorized it my first week in paraguay but havent looked at it sense.

Sabado: Today was a super long day! i think this early morning piano is catching up to me but im hoping to be able to adjust soon. we started the days with studying and then had lunch with president oveido. after that we headed to the church to clean out the font. I made sure it was super shiny sense i would be the one baptism him, then we let the water start to fill it and left for the day whhile the font filled. After words we went to go do our plans but nobody was home. Then we made invitations for victors baptisms.. i think they were pretty tacky but the majority of the people enjoyed them so that was good. After that we continued our plans and no one was home, it was a tough day the one good thing that happend was that a guy came and fixed our air conditioning. We did run to the church after all our lessons to turn off the water. At this moment i realized we fill the font with river water which meant the font was full of dirt and there was nothing i could do to clean it.. hahah but hey im baptizing someone tomorrow and i dont think the cleaniness of the water is the most important thing hahah.

Domingo: Today was a super good day. Went to church and the first hour, my comp taught the preisthood class, then i taught the gospel principles class, i taught about the importance of scripture study and i thihnk that the people could understand me. when i say people i mean 3 people and me and my companion, but it was good. After that i played piano again, but only had two hymns ready to play called to serve, and praise to the man. Called to serve was a little rough, but to my surprise, praise to the man went really well with only a couple minor mistakes. It was really good. We had 34 people in church with two investigators and after for the baptism had 20. It was an awesome amount of people but very few men were there.... something we are trying to change. the baptism was awesome, i never had time to revieew the prayer but said it prefectly its... "Victor Ramon Ruiz Diaz Acosta habiendo sido commisionado por jesucristo yo te bautizo en el nombre del padre, del hijo, y del espíritu santo amen." 4 names is the average down here some people hae six or seven crazy. Today was our best day of the week, we had big numbers, and were able to make up for some of the bad days earlier in the week. We also had the best night. We taught Celia, our next baptism, she already has been to church three times, but she wants to pick her own baptismal date, she keeps all of here commitments, an understands everything so well, she is the most prepared investigator ive ever met. Also we went to teach brain ( 9 year old not Baptized) and his two brothers and grandma ( all baptized) last time we talked to them we said that they had to make a descion between soccer and keeping the sabbath day holy. They werent at church so we had assumed soccer, but their grandma was sick today and couldnt bring them, but they told us that they arent playing soccer on sundays anymore so that was super awesome! they are a great little family and i hope that they can be active soon, and that brain can get baptized.

Lunes: today has been an adventure and a half so far. we went to the dentist for my companion early this morning ( left the house at 7) and didnt get to her place until 10, she lives in the south mission. We got there and found out that the tool she needs to use to fix my companions tooth is broken, so she so kindly took us to the mission office, which is where we needed to go, and then our day continued. At the office i sent some letters home.. so look for them soon, also sent one to lithuania, hopefully it gets there intime. we then waited for elder sanchez and veizaga at the office to go to pizza hut with them. It is elder veizagas last day. He is headed home early, not exactly sure why, but he is a great missionary and im sure he will figure things out and get back in the feild. I just hope its paraguay. at pizza hut they played some great music, Neon by john mayor and Suburbs by arcade fire... so good to here some good music. after that we took a bus to the internet portal and then i rote my family which is you guys, and right now.

Well that was my life this week, crazy to think that during my next change it will be christmas and ill get to skype you guys!! cant wait!! love you all sooo much and wish the best for you. Loved hearing the update about The Texas Garners, and seeing the pictures of the cleverlies in spokane!! it certainly doesnt feel like its getting close to christmas down here as it keeps getting hotter and hotter, just think of that each time you shovel a driveway this winter haha...

Love you guys!!

Elder Jace Gummersall

notice the fly

fish, fish, fish

Remansito is right on the river, and is basically the only city where the people serve fish.. i ate it twice this week, and in a year my comp has only eaten it in remansito, 3 times. but for this week here we go!

Lunes: after writing last week we went and taught pedro, im thinking that his family my be my first in the temple in a year, so im really hoping we can convert him, not just baptize him, but actually convert him. We had fish at his house, he lves fish, and when i say house i mean its like a log cabin, but sticks vertical instead of logs, and garbage bags lining the inside to keep the wind and rain out, they also have two matresses, i cant believe the lack of culture shock i have here at times. I thinks its normal and the happiness that all people have its just so great as well. After Pedro we had a FHE with the family sosa and an inestigator, it went super well, oh and also i opened my package!!! i absolutely loved it!! all of it.. the candy is close to being gone but the other things should last me my whole mission. Also my comp loved his gifts he said thank you and wore his tie the very next day.

Martes: Today we started the day at 6 which is the plan from now on because we are practice piano in the morning... it never sounds as good though because its a keyboard and there is gaps between notes, since there are no pedals... but it´ll be better than nothing. After that we had our district meeting, but since our old zone leader went home last change, and we dont have a zone leader in the district, we had people from villa hayas, and our district come to our chapel so that was cool, it will be like that every other week so next week is in mariano. We went to the beis family for lunch and there kids were super crazy, they hae a similar house to pedros, just alittle bigger, it was also super hot today! got myself a second spanish study book that i think is better than the one the church gives out, apperantley it was given to the missionaries that went to the provo MTC 2 years ago becasue it was from elder eliason, but i love it and am learning lots from it. Tomorrow we are having divsions, or so i thought, until we came home and my comp thew up, he called it off and we called it a night, pretty great way to end the day ehh.

Miércoles: My comp slept in until 10 becuase he was sick, i decided if im sick im gonna get up at 6:30, i think its easier to get health faster when you obey the rules, just personal opinion. He also canceled lunch because he wasnt sure if he would be able to do much today, but by 10:30 he felt great, so thank goodness for your package i cooked potatoes and the gravy you sent me, and put some montreal seasoning on to, it was super delish!we went out to teach and nobody was home so that was frustrating and after that, we had a FHE with Froilan, and the familia beis. That went super good froilan was baptized in june and is on the verge on inactivity, but after he asked when and where the next FHE is, super awesome!, pictures from the game we played included. also we had the tortilla paraguay with potatoes inside, that was super delish for reals. we headed to mariano where i would be for divisions the next day with elder veizaga again. When i got there we went and taught a lesson to an inactive girl, and then headed home. He turned on his music or his comps music and ill follow you into the dark by death cab fir cutie came on! i loved it so god to hear music from home that i know, made me miss music alittle more than normal, so those keeping track of music that come out while im gone... dont slack off on your job. 

Jueves: Today woke up in mariano, but our lunch appointment cancled, so my comp invited us to the familia sosa in remansito for lunch, so their we went. I learned that if your latino,its totally fine to be like oh this is kinda hard, or just not eat aton of the food cause you dont like it. Im actually very glad my mother taught me to eat everything when im on a mission, i can tell that the people like you more when you do. Plus they are all so concerned about how skinny i am sometimes its not an option for me haha. I then had a meeting with elder veizaga and his ward mission leader, there mission program is functionaing better than ours, but we are teaching with memebrs more, im not sure which is better, im just hoping that the both can always be improving. It was super hot today and me and elder veizaga were not as "untied" as last time. i think it is because i could understand way more this time and was ableto have omre of an opinion because of it. At the end of the day we were lacking a lesson with a member. I told him about  atime in remansito wen we had the same problem but we went up to contact this group of people and one happened to be a member. We went over to this area of house where he thought maybe their would be a member, and sure enough the same thing that happened in remansito happened here it was awesome! then we ended divisions and headed back home.

Viernes: 3 MONTHS!!!!wooo time definately seems to be flying, each week is always a little faster and it feels like i am writting you guys more and more frequently. Today we had weekly plannign which went well, during it we got a phone call saying that we are going to be getting two new missionaries in remansito and that we need to divide the area, find a house for them, and yeah. But how awesome and exciting is that!! maybe ill get to go there after this change and stay in remansito!!! it will be so good for this area too as there is so much work to do and with two more missionaries people can progress way faster! Also at the end of plannign i found out Elder rodriguez only had 30 mil left for the month, basically nothing.... but that he has 100 mil in reimbursments in medicine, so he has 130 left for the month. Hard for me to understand because i have 330 left... he just spends his money way faster than me. We had a super good day today!!! taught 5 lessons with members!! im pretty sure thats our record, also we played phone tag with the AP all day, because he wanted to talk to me... i know him, because he went to lunch with us in limpio once and is my companions old trainer.. so in missionary terms he is my grandpa, and my grandpa is the AP. Nonetheless he called me but we werent able to talk... i have no idea what it could be about.... that was my day.

Sabado: Today we got up at 6 again to practice piano.. perfect because my comp decided he wasnt ready and that i will play all the hymns tomorrow, and this was only our second time this week. So practice we did. Today we taught a total of 11 lessons, also i think a record, really good day. We did find out this week that we had been counting wrong our last change. And that when we have a lesosn with a less active and investigator we have to choose between the two. So our numbers in some for less active went down, but thats not the importnat part since we are still teaching less active. That is all im concerned about. I also almost steped on a little snake today. It was the first one i had seen, and i realized that i actually saw one a while ago that a chicken was trying to eat. Crazy craze... i hate snakes. the misquitos are out and hungry for gringos!, thats me, i get about two or three new bites each day i think the majority of them come when im sleeping. We had a lesson with Juan Carlos and Lourdes (the young women secretary 16 years old) and her dad wont sign the marriage papers so she told us she is thinking about moving out! it was awesome to hear, i taught them about how martin harris lost the 116pages and how we need o always follow the spirit. After we decided that we are going to have an FHE where we have pizza, also the red hot chilli peppers are coming to paraguay early november. I WANT TO GO SOOOO BAD. hopefully ill be in asuncion that night some how, but something is telling me that that is impossible. Oh also i talked to the AP today. We chatted last pday when i was signing papers and he told me that he wanted me to keep my red tie in good condition because he wanted to trade. I told im love my red tie, but if there is something better on the table then ill consider. haha good day.

Domingo: ¡i played the piano! and i did horrible. I messed up a bunch and there were times when i wasnt playing but my comp said he thinks it was better then when its just the people. Also when its just the people it sounds super gross so i was glad i could only hear the key board. We had 48 people at church today!! it was awesome we also had the district president there, 2 investigators, and reorginized the callings. The 1st conselor to the president of the branch is elder quorom president and the secretary to the branch ( and branchmission leader) is also young mens president. Also the Relief society president is now primary president and the old 1st conselor to the relief society presidency is the president. Talkabout aton of reponsibility for these poor people! its becauswe we lack preistoohd, and but hopefully we can change that soon. WE had an investigator hit his third attendance today which means we just need to finsih teaching him to baptize him. We taught him after lunch and his member friend wants me to baptize him... we will see but i might baptize someone next saturday or sunday... Came home super tired to a super hot humid house.. that was the day.

Lunes: Today has been a great one!! we started by going to villa hayas to play soccer on this tiny little turf feild with the other district in our zone. It was awesome we played two games the first they barely one,m but the last one when it mattered, i scored three goals! it was awesome they kept saying how is the american scoring, im pretty sure it was just luck haha. After that it was extremely humid, i was sweating and anytime id wipe it off my arms legs, or face more would just pool up.. it would be so easy to cut weight down here haha. then we came back and went to lunch with the mariano elders, right next to this addidas store, lunch was so good it was like this burrito thing kinda like a carne asada burrito from avelardos.. amazing. I also bought shoes for soccer at the addidas store. The ones i really wanted were 80 US dollars, but then i found some better quality ones on the clearance rack for 30 that i like alot too. Andafter that i came to write you guys but i recieved an amazing email picture to come..... ELDER D. TODD CHRISTOFFERSON is coming to our mission!!!!! im am so excited i get to hear from an apoatle of the lord!!! i cant wait!!!!!

Well thats all from me... thanks for the package and hope all is going well in your lifes!! stay classy spokane!!

Love

Elder Jace Gummersall

mastering the language

Jace’s letter 10-14-2013

HOLA!!!!

Not much happened lunes after i wrote you guys so let the week begin with.....
Martes: I woke up with the best language improvement sign of my mission!! I had a dream in Spanish! All I can really remember is that we were teaching a guy in Spanish and the conversation got a little heated and then it ended with me saying ¡voy a golpearte in la cara!.... yeah I’m going to punch you in the face... but awesome… I dreamed in another language-- how cool!!! Then we had our last district meeting with Elder Ellison because he is home now( pictures to come) he really wanted to find a sombrero to buy but couldn’t and then thanks to the suggestion of my comp I gave him mine. It really wasn’t a big deal though because I have two more years here and can easily find another one I’m sure. Also we do get English Liahonna magazine here so you don’t have to send me them cause I should have them but I am never mad at having my own personal copies. We came home and ate in the house again, not a big deal though because I’m finding out that lots of people don’t have lunch with members a lot. Also at night we were teaching a lesson and there were two elders listening on the phone the whole time because my comp pocket dialed them.. They said my Spanish was good hahah but I think it was more just funny for them haha.

Miercoles: Today started bright and early with service that went really well because we had all the tools we needed that all functioned properly. I have come to learn that changes are one of the most exciting things on the mission. Everyone wants to know what everyone is doing, where they are going, and who their new comp is. Its an interesting culture to observe,.... that is ..the culture of a missionary haha. We went to San Antonio today and that was good. It’s the town out of our area that we have permission to go to. The lady we are teaching is progressing really well, and after our lesson we taught another with a family close to the road so we could watch for a colectivo. This family we taught though had a pet monkey on a chain!!!! It was so awesome! At one point it was spatting around with the dog. Its name was Monica. I want one..... After, we came back home and caught a ride again. My comp left his sombrero in the car and so now we are down 2 sombreros. Nothing special happened this night either.

Jueves: Last night it rained super hard and today the cleaning lady came! She comes every three months and spent 4 hours with us!! For about 2 and a half we were with her, and then she finished what she was doing for the rest of the time. She said she wants to know how much my sheets cost, and I think she wants you to send here some, but I just don’t see that being the most logical way of doing things. She was very energetic and all over the place, but our place is sparkly now so thats good. Then we had lunch with the family sosa and found out that they have a problem with supporting their local leaders. That is always tough to hear because I think it’s hard for them to forgive people, and I think they expect leaders to be perfect. We tried to help them understand different reasons of why it is important to support leaders and can only hope that they will understand soon. After we started to contact tons of people because a lot of our appointments fell through, but each 10 minutes my comp complained about a tooth ache he was having. Then at 6 we had out ward council which is just with the president ( something we are trying to do also is reactivate and strengthen the presidents of each organization) that went well, but after my comp said we had to go to the house because he couldn’t walk much because his tooth hurt. That was tough for me because all I want to do is work hard, baptize everyone, and exalt Remansito... is that too much to ask?? ;) We had 0 lessons with members because once we got home my comp took a nap, used some mouth wash and then felt good enough to go to the pharmacy to get medicine, and walk very fast, but not good enough to teach. It was a great test of patience that I am sure I failed, but I’m learning and working on it.Viernes: we had a super good weekly planning session this week. I’m super stoked for next week!! After we had lunch and headed to Mariana roque Alanson to do a baptismal interview for the hermanas, oh and in this last change there was a new Hermana, meaning I’m not the youngest in the mission no more!!!!! Or in out district! After that we were put a little behind in our plans for the whole day. We sacrifice language study a lot, but my life is like a language study right now. Yes I want more but when we are teaching instead of studying I cant complain too much. We did end up with some really good numbers, which was good and I came home super tired. Nothing too exciting happened today but there are tons of giant sapos out because of the rainy, wet, humid weather. I play kick the sapo at night—its fun. Oh also today I think I broke the mission rule. A Girl hugged me. It was my first time meeting her, I was talking to her mom and she hugged my leg twice.. She’s four haha it was funny but yeah it was a little strange for me because I didn’t know what to do--- haha that’s basically my Friday.

Sabado: We finally got up early to go and practice the piano. My comp thinks its best for us to split the time. I personally think its best for one person to learn right now so we can be ready but he wants to learn and I don’t want to rob him of that right. We got 20 minutes each and have decided to start practicing every day next week so we can play the following Sunday. After we came home and study until lunch, went to lunch and started our fast for Sunday. Still getting used to the full 24 hour fasting. Nobody was home and we spent a lot of the day just trying to find people. We did teach a lesson to 4 of our investigators at night and after words the 8 and 11 year old told me that their 16 year old sister wants to marry me when I am older... I said I don’t know… I have a bunch of future plans... mainly because I had no idea what to say and my comp was laughing the whole

time so yeah that was fun. Came home tired and hungry.. It’s totally like camping out here haha
Domingo: we woke up, went to church and taught the 4 boys in priesthood. We watched two quick little videos and talked about our priesthood responsibility to share the gospel. After that we taught the two kids in primary. We watched the testaments... super great video if you got an hour and haven’t seen it. I missed my old primary class. Primary is not the same here... hope they are all doing great!! After that we had our sacrament meeting it was super good!! Like the most spiritual meeting our branch has had yet, and we had 3 investigators there, which crushed our normal 1 or 0!! Not much to report after that. This week hasn’t been too exciting. I did get a phone call from president’s son saying that I need to head into the office tomorrow to sign papers and become more legal. I’m super excited because it means I get to see people from the ccm! It also means the alarm will be going off at 5:30 tomorrow morning but it is what it is -haha

Lunes: as stated above we did start the day very early and headed into Asuncion. It was a long morning of waiting to sign my name 10 times and get my picture taken. I did get to see tons of people though, including elder hall my mtc companion!! Also was elder hathaway, elder larson, elder luke, elder jordan, elder hatfeild, elder hilton, elder silva, and I think that was all, not 100 percent sure. Also while I went to sign papers in the immigration building of Paraguay, my comp went to the dentist. When I got back it took him an hour to return.. So I asked the mail man if he had my package and he did!!! I haven’t opened it yet but will when I get home. Also WE HAVE A WINNER: the first person to write me a letter and send it through the mail system goes to Tyler Woodburn!! It was a
great surprise and will be an event that goes down in history. All are welcome to write letters if you feel so inclined haha. After the office we went to lunch in limpio for my comps birthday at the same lady’s house. The food was super delicious!!! Then we came here and I wrote you guys so yup...
Language update.. I feel like I can say anything I want.. there are a couple things that I need to work on grammatically, the biggest being subjunctive. Also I am trying to expand my vocabulary. I am marking up my dictionary like no other and am making little note cards to help me. I am hoping to learn how to read in Guaraní soon, its tough but we are going to read a little of the book of mormon in Guaraní with an investigator so that should help if I follow along.Well that’s basically It for me. Nothing too exciting this week. We could have a baptism in about 2 weeks so that’s awesome!! And a couple more before the next change. Well, love you all so much!!! Can’t wait to hear from you next
week!!

Love

Elder Jace Gummersall

what dogs do when it rains

jokester

Like the title syas... i broke my front tooth in half... it is an extremely weird feeling and it looks like i wont be able to fix it... i just wish that i could see your face when you saw that.. i didnt break my tooth just thought mom would freak if i did hahah anywho...

Lunes: Last pday my companion decided we would buy groceries tomorrow, so we headed home worked hard until about 8:30 and then swung by the famila sosa. They were wrapping up family night but were more than happy to share with us there treat. Some sort of cake with a cup of super hot milk, like they brought it to a boil and then gave it to us in a plastic cup, it was hard to drink becuase it was so hot, and i only like cold milk but it was an extremely nice gesture so it was alright. 

Martes: District meeting today was good, but since it was the first of the month we had to spend extra time with the computers and it felt like it took forever, and then after we went shopping, i thought we were gonna make it quick but my comp bought a ton (enough for two weeks) and we got back to remansito a little later than expected. Lunch we ate in our house today because the hermana said that she could only make it to go because she wouldnt be there, it helped my comp justify shopping for so long but it was good. We then taught one lesson and after the first our next lesson went for 2 hours!! it was with a recent convert who hasnt been to church for a while. He started by talking about nah, and then the 10 tribes of isreal, and then we taught our lesson on the gospel of jesus christ and when we talked about going to church he brought up why he cant. Its because president of the branch talked to him about tithing and he said he doesnt think its fair. He thinks all the church leaders are rich, that 10 percent is alot, and that he can pay tithing by doing acts of service not paying money. I will admit that that has to be one of the cleverest ideas ive ever heard of for paying tithing but we had to let him know that only after he shows his faith he will recieve the blessings and he has to pay it first. its gonna be tough for him and its hard testifying about tithing when ive never been in the same situation of poverty as them. Its always sad when its too hard for people to take the first leap of faith. We have a goal in the mission where we try and make all of our daily goals and if we do its called 7 for 7. If we do it every day of the week we then have 7, 7 for 7. becuase we had this lesson for two hours it was really tough of the rest of our plan to reach our daily goal. we did recover and got to the point where we were only short one lesson with a member. which is something thats pretty tough to coordinate in paraguay. we were running out of time and decided to go contact a group of 4 kids about or age. Sure enough one of the kids was a member who hadnt been to church in more than 5 years, we were able to teach a lesson to the others with him there, and then teach his family later in the week. It was truly a blessing to run into him like that to reach our goals. Also just so you know most of our lessons with investigators that have a member present are with less active, cause we have so many less active and very few active that can help. we have found it to be very effective. Killing two birds with one bullet, as they say in spanish. 

Miércoles: I put together a super shnazzy budget.. im getting pretty good at budgeting my monthly money and am excited to see how close i can follow it. We went to go do service this morning. A sister in the ward works for a children's daycare in our city and they are putting dirt behind the building. We went to go help her at 9 liked planned and she didnt have a wheel barrow or a shovel yet, so we helped search for one until she called us and said she found two shovels and a wheel barrow. This pile of dirt was monstrous though it was about 4 feet high, 4 feet wide and 6 feet long, and we had planned an hour cause we had no idea how much she was gonna get. the wheel barrow ended up being for only light garden plants, so after 6 loads of basically filling the wheel barrow and carrying it to the back she said that we will try next week with better equipment, but those six loads we took were exhausting i am not looking forward to it hahah, but a good work out nonetheless. After we returned home to find out that we didnt have any water to take a shower, that was frustrating. We also called the hermana that was supposed to feed us and she was in the hospital with her daughter so couldnt. We called around but couldnt find anyone. For the first time in my mission we cooked something in our home. My comp had a soup and powdered potatoes he made the potatoes and added a little too much water but it was good and the soup was just made in the microwave, it was good but not the normal filling stuff, i ate a bowl of cereal to suffice. We then had another night where we were short a new investigator and all we had left that was planned was a meting with an inactive family that was all members, and a dinner with pedro and Raquel ( investigator living with less active, trying to get married but waiting to find out if raquels first marriage was valid or not.) We went to the ladys house and here kids were all members, here grand kids were all members, except for bryon a 9 year old who wants to be baptized it was perfect and we again were able to get 7 for 7. Also other thing that happened today a probably 25-30 year old lady yelled across the street that i was a beautiful blonde, we could tell she wanted more than the gospel so we just kept walking.. it was the first time that a paraguayan has just blurted out something from such a distance in public to me, strange in deed. 

Jueves: We went out to san jorge today a neighboring city out of our area that we had to get permission to go to because there is a lady we contacted that was very interested that lives there. We were walking towards the shade to wait for a colectivo and a nice car pulled over and gave us a ride. I wasnt sure if there was a rule against it but my comp said get in, he has to be a member. He wasnt a member but was extremely nice, respected our church, and his brother is young mens president in our ward. His car was so nice just cause it had air conditioning and padded seats, felt good and we were able to get there pretty dang fast. We then had a very good lesson with the lady there and are thinking that her and her daughter are baptism candidates for sure, if they can make it to church in remansito. We taught a 15 year old kid today who had no previous religious influence but believed in god and jesus christ. The easiest lesson ever, he believed every single one of our words it was super awesome!! and he has like 6 friends in the church. Also while we were teaching pedro tonight i had the realization that he could be my first family the i teach and go through the temple with in a year. it is now my goal for them. We are killing it now and taught 8 lessons today! the most we've taught before is 6. were working way more effective its awesome.

Veirnes: Weekly planning today was good, when went a little bit different route this morning with it but got it all done and should have a pretty good next week, on our way to lunch i got my second cat call from a girl who was probably 15 but looked like she was 10, i decided i dont like it at all, she commented on my eyes as she walked by... yup. after lunch we taught a lady who was baptized a little over a year ago, who hasnt been to church in a while. she started crying and said all the best times in her life happened in the church it was awesome, were hoping she can come back and go through the temple soon too! when then went and taught the family of the miracle guy from martes, he wasnt there but we taught his sister and her friend, Diosnel. What a name right.. being it that god in spanish is dios. He seemed super interested and wanted us to teach him again. after that almost every single one of our plans changed, but since we have so many people we can teach it all worked out.. it was good and we hit all our goals again. 

Sabado: CONFERNCE!!! wooooo we started the day by teaching a little and then headed over to rodue for conference. While we were waiting for a colectivo i watched a horse roll around and literally like a dog, and then stand up it was quite the site. We got there and i found out there was a room with conference in english!! i was planning on spanish all week, my comp wanted to listen to it in spanish so we started in spanish, but after the first talk elder bonzo, from my district in the ccm arrived and me and him went into the english room and my comp stayed there, It was soooooo good all of it!! in between sessions we taught in mariano, it was cool, and then the second session was the bomb too!! conference has never flown by so fast!! after the last talk we left the second session a little early because we went back to remansito to teach a lesson and then go to preisthood session with a less active member. We taught our lesson and then called the guy to find out he couldnt go, when then called another kid, and he was too tired but we were able to get his 14 year old brother to go so that was good! preisthood session to was the bomb!! literally this conference answered all my questions i had before with complete clarity it was magical. after preisthood session it was 10 oclock, we went to wait for a collectivo but it didnt come until 11 at night!! and to top that off when we got home, we found the bathroom floor and kitchen floor and outside the frnt door cause its all conncted, wet with water, cause we didnt have water again this morning and my comp left a facuet open, so when we got water, it filled up his bucket he set underneath it and a lot more. We are lucky that the house was designed probably more by luck to have most the water leave out the front door and drip off the balcony. and also one third of the electricty went out, the refrigrator and the room we sleep in, my comp was too tired to call any one or do anything about so we went to bed. crazy night ehhh.

Domingo: We woke up and the water had dried... and we didnt have water again making it 3 days in a row with no shower and 4 out of 5 this week. we did our daily routine and then headed out to teach. We did get our power fixed too, so that was good. We taught a guy named enrique. He has this giant komoto dragon that i thought was a snake at first cause i only saw its head, also he has a pet dove, and gave us this fruit to try that he claimed was super delicious, but it was just this little tiny orange ball, with a huge seed in the middle, and made your mouth really sticky, it was interesting, after we went to pedro, to teach him and then head to the conference. We got their and then got a phone call about the time change from our branch president saying we had 30 minutes until the colectivo left. It was a Crazy to lose an hour just like that, and to make matters worse pedro didnt feel like going but said next week when its here that he will go to church, i was so frustrated, it truly is heart breaking when investigators dont go to church after all the double checking and stuff we try and do for them. we made it to conference which was super awesome. In between we had lunch as a branch, ham cheese and mayo sandwiches, they kept feeding them to me and thought it was funny but i was super hungry and grateful to be the butt of the joke, they gave me 5 haha. We had 42 people and 2 investigators at the 1st session so i cant be mad at the out come but i really did think more were gonna make it this time. also in between sessions we taught victor again, that was good. Then we had the second session and headed back to remansito. when we got back there was a huge party going on in the middle of the town, we tried to go to 4 different peoples houses but they were all at the party. so we headed back home and called it a night. 

Lunes: today has been a good one i got to shower today which was needed haha, also we headed out to Luque to play soccer with other missionaries, there i was able to see elders luke, craig, goss, george, and stopper from the ccm with me. They are all doing good, our team had three latinos and me, and honestly we struggled immensely, the one game we did win i scored the goal it was awesome! it was fun to play something on pday, and good to see the other missionaries. i also bought my first 2 jerseys today, the away jersey for cerro, and the paragauy national team jersey ill try and get a picture of my in them for next week. they were 40 mil each so about 20 bucks in total it was awesome, i plan on buying more throughout my mission. then we headed back and i went shopping. my comp didnt need to go because he got so much stuff last week, we were in and out in less than ten minutes and now im writing you...

so that was my week, there wasnt anything special about paraguay that stuck out this week but i have come to realize that after these next six weeks its almost a guarantee that ill be in a new area and out of remansito. its sad because i feel like we are on the brink of having so much success and im gonna leave right before all the baptisms, i just hope i can return to this area later in my mission.

Ciao

Love

Elder Jace Gummersall

this is dinner each night.... dulce de leche and jelly.. boom!!