wedding!

1/27/14

sounds like an eventful week at home.. i dont have a ton of time to write you guys for this week, but while the pictures load ill get some things in and then for next week or maybe tomorrow ill get a little more in.... but heree we go..

Lunes: got my sefl a hair cut... got to we are having a wedding this week, it rained aton after words, so we tried to go out a little and my comp ended up cutting his hand, so we called it a night.. pretty uneventful. but a good day.

Martes: Today we had oursleves a district meeting here in remansito.. we did have a guy come and i order a sweet leather cover for my little hymn book i have.. ill send pictures and is you guys want these covers let me know. after that i had a division with elder barillias from guatamala, he is awesome and plans on moving to the states after his missoin he already has his visa and his brother lives there. it was a good day, we went and got a good lesson in with gabriel, who told us he would now if he was ready to be baptized this weekend by thursday so we would see what that leads us to.. we got a good lesson in with our recent convert lorena who is progressing a ton, and then we went and taught the familila vera, whos son is having a really hard time, ended up having to go to the hospital, and the mom is having some struggles now.. but we did have a good lesson and hopefully we will be able to see her in church this next week. Then we went and clebrated ariels birthday with him and his future wife and ate pb and j sandwhiuches.. they liked them alot, but said they think it would be a better breakfast item it was a really good night! thats tuesday in a breeze...

Miercoles: we did some t}studying in the morning, and then went to mariano to end our division. so that was good, then we came home and found out that we didnt have lunch with the member that day 

so we went and bought empanadas, that wasnt as good or filling as normal but sometimes thats how it is... it was super hot today!! like super hot so thats always fun to work in and we are hitting struggles in a lot of areas right now but we are working hard and im certain the lord will bless us soon if we keep that up, we also had to change the wedding to saturday so that ariels mom could make it, so that was good.. gave me an extra day to plan it.. but we did have a meeting planned with the couple and the branch president to work out all the details and he wasnt there and failed to tell anyone he wouldnt be able to make it so that was tough.. but everything will work out.. im certain. 

Jueves: WE had a really good meeting with the branch mission leader which is something we havent had in months so hopefully we can have more of those and more often. after we went and talked to lorena who is just super good! i just hope the ward can start visiting her, and be friending her soon... thats the next goal is too get her more involved. after that nobody was home.. including gabriel which was really bad because it meant no baptism for sure and showed us that he doesnt have the strongest desires to be baptized so hopefully we can fix that this next week... probably better though because i dont know how we would hof had a baptism and wedding the same day.... it would have been near impossible. then we found this less acitve who everyone in the ward who lots of people have told us about but is really tough to find at home and that was a really good lesson. after that we had a really good lesson with the hermano samiengo that ended up being about the attonement and about the fact that we go to church and do everything in the church because we love christ and what he did for us so that was super good. afterwards we went and talked to president and got everything squared away for the wedding. it was good meeting and relieved a littl stress from us so that was good. that was good ol thursday.

well thats all the time i got.. ill try and write tomorrow if they let me.. or if not ill get more next week... love you all so much... more wedding pictures to come.. love you all!!!

 

 

 

1/28/14

alright well i do get a little more time today to write so here we go...

Viernes: Today we had a good day, we have been having some struggles with getting lessons with members and less actives, so we took some good time during weekly planning and got some things linned up to hopefully have a better week with this number. after that we got off to a pretty good start to the day. We met with  recent convert named david and he is back strong in the church again. he told us that he would be able to leave with us and go teach someone for like an hour next thursday, and he offered us dinners every wednesday so thats super awesome! i love dinner :). then the night crashed a ittle bit when we went and visited victor... my first baptism. he said that he planed on not going to church annymore because he doesnt feel as good as he used to when he is there. We had a pretty good lesson with him and helped him, but he stilled seemed pretty set on stoppping going to chuch. so that was tough. then went and visited our couple thats getting married toorrow, they said that they are ready but dont have any rings, and that they were on their way to the hospital to pay for the brides sister to have birth.... so that they wouldnt have any money at all for tomorrow. so thats super cool, but the most important part is that they are ready and excited to do this so wooooooo!!!!!! 

Sabado: We had a good lesson in the morning with a less active, went and visited our recent convert lorena, and also got a lesson in with a less active member who loves saying things like, to jesus and the great grand god while she prays or just in the middle of sentences so that was a fun lesson to have. After we got a call from ariel the groom who said that his witness he needed couldnt make it and was wondering if we could find him one from the church. so we were able to get the hermano pineda to help us out which was awesome, then we ran home grabbed some stuff and headed to the church. We sarted setting things up for the wedding and that was awesome then the people got there.. i let ariel where my tie and suit and me and my comp were the photographers and then we got that couple married! i did the welcome and my comp said the openeing prayer, and then we let the wedding begging.. i filmed the whole thing from when the judge was talking and 9 and a half miutes later they were married!! it was awesome!! then a coupell people brought some food, we snacked and we called it a night. it was super awesome and they looked super happy!

Domingo: Today we had a big visit from people from the district which helped our attendance go up, so that was cool, we had 73 people and 15 were less actives coming back.. and we had 0 invesestigators also we were missing our newly weds... so yup. aftr we had personal study and that was cool, becuase i finished the book of mormon in spanish!!!! so that was awesome! we got a decent week in visited ariel and mercedes and found out that they had over slept.... honeymoon shananigans im sure.... hahah but we did get two reallt good new investigators today and so that was super awesome! hoping we get some good growth!

Lunes: Today was a good pday we went to luque printed some photos fo the wedding and from lorenas baptism, and also bought some rings for our newly wed couple s they could have there own! that was cool.. about 30 bucks for a pair of solid gold and silver wedding rings... let me know if you want something... haha then we made a quick trip to the office, and our way back to remansito.. after we started teaching.. found a baby monkey! that was awesome!! and then got a couple good lessons in... we have a division with the zone leader tomorrow so that should be pretty fun.. but thats that!! 

Love you all sooooo much!! hope all is well!!! 

Love

Elder Jace Gummersall

little bird

1/20/14

Well the title totally takes out all the suprise factor but this week ended up being amazing and here is why....

Lunes: After i wrote you guys i got myself a pretty good stomach ache. We made it home with 30 minutes of our pday left and i layed down, got a blessing from my comp, and then we headed out, it was a rough night and it hurt until the next morning, but we did go and try to teach david, a recent convert, and founf his sister with him, an old investigator that i taught with elder rodriguez who was sooo good but then just vanished, she is intrested in listening again so hopefully we will be able to get in to that house more this week. after words we went and taught a different lesson and had cake afterwords so that was super good. 

Martes: Today we had a district meeting in mariano that was good and after we went and talked to lorena and she said she felt really good while she was being confirmed which was awesome for me to hear. She enjoyed it a ton and its great to see the happiness she has since her baptism! Then we were able to stop by glayds gonzales house, a less active that we are trying to activate again, and her and her husband have started reading the book of mormon together because of the lesson that me and elder worsham taught on sunday, so that was nice that people actually listened to our lesson and nicer that someone started the homework! that was super cool. After that we went to ariel and mercedes, no the story doesnt get good yet, we had a really good lesson about prayer, we read 2 nephi 32:8-9 were it talks about how the devil teacheth a man not to pray, she told us she would pray before she was certain about anything and so that made us feel better, but it didnt look lie we would be having a wedding anytime soon. We ended the day by going to the familia veras house and that house also had news of reading the book of mormon and the kids were going crazy all the night so that was fun. haha. The highlight of the day would be the call that we got from the assistents saying that we had one of the best weeks in the mission. And as good as it feels to hear things like that, i would rather just hear the good things after the mission and focus on all the things that i can make happen but i thought id let you know :)

Miércoles: Today was a crappy day. our toilet hasnt worked for the past few days... a combanation of paraguayan food working on an americans body, and lack of water. Anyone we have had to skill fully use buildings to use the bathroom over the past couple days which is near impossible in remansito. We finally got the owner to come and fix it, which took him two hours and so that would be why the day was crappy. The pic of my comp with that stick is when he stuck his hand in it to try and fix it... it didnt work but after the owner came our toilet worked and so that was a huge relief!! hahah. we also didnt get lunch today so we ate some empanadas and then called it good. not a ton more happened today, our one planned lesson with celia didnt happen because she wasnt there, so that stunk. We did get some book ofmormon reading in with a less active but those are the main highlights. rough day and way to hot hahah.

Jueves: got ourselves another lesson in with lorena who is doing just dandy!! but that is basically the highlight of the day... lunch was good and we talked about sports for like the first time in the mission so that was cool. No on was home so it was a lot of walking around and trying to find people to teach which is always super hard. But at night we were able to put a temple goal with the less active family that started reading. The gonzales family. It was good, and they look to be making a return to church so that would be cool if they were able to progress to the point of temple but this goal will really help us see there desires. 

Viernes: WOOO let the states 6 months ago!! TOday was tooooo hot but as they say down here igual no mas. another tough day for us. We started a fast at the middle of the day because or zone or mission is doing this 40 day purfication thing, where we write a list of things we want to do better or improve on, fast for it for a day, pray for it for 40 dyas, and then end it with another fast. So it shouold be pretty cool! We did find ourslelves some potential people we found a possibly next baptim for remansito and we found a less active that could make a return soon! so hopefully we will be able to get some good work in there. after that we went back to ariel and mercedes our wonder coulple and no nothing juicy yet. They said that things hav been good, that they are living together again, and that they have been praying, but that she hasnt asked yet if marragiage is the thing for here right now in here life. so we did a breif repass of all we taught, and then read a scripture i found the other day that talks about how you cant enter the kingdom of god without going through the temple. we told them we dont really have much mre to teach them but planned to visit them tomorrow to cut there grass. so that was that. Our baptism scheduled for next saturday isnt not progressing rightnow and he isnt reading and praying and there fore doesnt now if the church is true yet. So hopefuly gabriel will figure it out soon and do that our we are going to have to move the date. 

Sabado: WOOOOOOOOOOOOO 6 months in the mission!!! today was super hot and a nother day of struggles. we ended our fast and got some good workin  but its pretty tough to do when nobody is home. we even had got ourselves ready to cut ariel and mercedes grass but an hour before we headed over there they called us and told us that they werent home, wouldnt be able to do it today, but they had some news for us and then the conversation ended. So we got our hopes up but with nothing else to do we got our selves out to work and got some more struggle no one home work in. It was a hard day, but overall alot of people said that they would be going to church so hopefully we have ourselves a good turn out in the church tomorrow.!

Domingo: today started out with a surprise. As we were getting ready i got a call from the mission president saying he was on his way to remansito to drop of a letter for arial and mercedes. I had asked him if maybe he had time if he could right there testimonies for them so that it might help them make this descion. I hadnt heard anything back from it until the phone call saying he had it and he was coming so that was fun, but it goes to show how great a guy our mission president is!! Church was better than the past couple weeks, we had 53 people which was awesome, but only 11 menos activos and 0 investigators, so that was tough. Right as second hour was starting the branch president came and got me and my comp and said he needed to see us. As we were walking to his office he said hey why dint you guys tell me about the wedding, we looked in the window and saw our ariel and mercedes sitting there and then started to talk about all the things we needed to do to put together a paraguayan wedding... for this friday!!!! a ton of the pressure is on me that it all goes through well cause ihave to schedule the judge and make sure it all works and so its going to be a party in myhead this week! but it was the best news içve heard all of my mission and just like that i hopefully will have my first family in the temple in a year!! But on the otherside gabriel didnt come to church and so we might end up postponing his baptism date, that stinks but oh well... .... we got a wedding!!!!!!

Lunes: Still hard to believe that its all happening this friday... and that we have a wedding. but such an amazing blessing from the lrd for us!! today we got started good. Did our studiedçs and headed into asuncion, where i got some help from the office elders with the wedding that looks like it will be at 5:30 this friday! i also order myself some leather scripture covers... ive seen acouple and they are soooo sick!! so i cant wait to get them and sanp some photos for you guys!! also in the office i got a letter from our ward!!! and letter from kelby!!! and a package from the claypools!! i have yet to open or read them.. but im so excited and grateful for the things that ive gotten!!! thanks to everyone!!! we then went to lunch with the assistants to chinese food.. which was a buffet, had a mongolian grill too, but was pretty dang expensive.. but so good, i got another pat on the back from them from our work weve been doing which as nice as it is i dont want to hear it yet.. i dont want to lose the motivation ya know? but yeah after that we made our way to the ciber... getting a hair cut after and then back to good old missionary work!!

This was one of the hard work weeks ive had on the mission, but thanks to sunday was the best moment of all of my mission and im sure friday will be better when its all said and done!! thanks for all the love and support from everyone!! i loveyou all so much!!!

Love 

Elder Jace Gummersall

 

six months

1/13/14

Hey I hit six months this week!! how crazy is that!!! it says 6 in guarani and months in spanish classic..

Lunes: Well we thought we were going to have two FHEs tonight but we didnt, becuase none of the kids were home for the first one, so we just shared a scripture and postponed the noche de hogar, so that was cool, then we did go have a super good noche day hogar where we learned how to cook this super good chicken sauce and its super simple! sooo awesome, i cant wait to make it for you guys. it was with the delgado family.

Martes: Hey I forgot to tell you guys but i got one letter that had moms awesome talk in it! and two christmas cards from mom dad and tanner, they were so awesome!!! my comp also recived a late christmas packge that had a stocking in it for me so that was super cool!! it was a second christmas!! after we celbretaded second christmas we got some studying in and then went and visited our investigator Lorena. It was awesome!! we went to lunch, and then headed into mariano for Zone conference with president. It was super good but went an hour and a half longer than normal, they focused on the obedience and the quality of contacts that we have. because it was so long though we lost some visits, so that was tough, but we got home and still got some good work in. we visited Victor, and then headed out to Santa Cruz, our wedding that is supposed to be happing this month, but she got cold feet, and doesnt want to anymore so we taught about chastity, and she said she would have a definite answer for us on saturday, we commited her to pray about it. that was our day.

Miercoles: we headed out in the morning a little bit so we could do a little studying during the ciesta when its hard to find people. Today the focus was to hand out the little invites we had to as manypeople as possible so we could get some to come to lorenas baptism. In the morning we did get some painting in, we went and visited a less active who was painting there windows and we got to help so that was cool, then we went and visited the hermana glayds which was super awesome she is someone that we are reactivating and she is giving the talkon the holy ghost at the baptism. After that we went and got lorena interviewed and shepassed with flying colors!! she is such a blessing!! after that we struggled a little bit because nobody was home but we got some good teaching in, at the end of the day we got invtied to the others elders house, who hada division with a zone leader to go eat some dinner so that was super awesome!! we had pasta and white sauce and it was real good!!

Jueves: LOONNGG DAYY but a great one at that! we got up and first thing we did was run to the church and clean out the font, after that we left the house in it to fill it up the whole day so that it would be ready. then we went home studied, and went to the sosa home for lunch. Diego got his misison call!! he is headed to Porto Alegro Brasil south!! he wanted to go to brazil so bad and is very content with his calling, Is there anyone form spokane there.. i cant remeber? i feel like there is.. let me know! after words we swung by the church to see how the font was doing and some gardiners were there and they had taking the house out and it was just running on the ground!! so that was really frustrating so we put it back in and told themthat they cant touch it and that it hasto be full by 7 so we left and but our faith in the lacking water pressure and gardiners that the font would be full. After we went to a couple people but the majority we planned for like normal werent home. we did get a good lesson in with the familia vera. After that we headed back to the church to have our baptism!! it was so awesome all of her family came and overall there were 8 investigators there!! it was so cool!! it ent aseome she had to be dunked twice but iqual no mas as they say here in paraguay. we taught gabrial after and heis our next baptism, and he felt way etter about a baptism after seeing that one. today was a good day always good when there is a baptism!! 

Viernes: We got some good weekly plannign in today and then we headed out to lunch where we had milonesa de kure (chancho) like a pig thing that was fried it was super good!! after we taught gabrial and lorena. Lorena absolutely loved her baptism and gabriel seems to be getting excited for his!! we also put a baptism date with a girl that needs to be rebaptized becuase her record was lost and her 8 year old brother which doesnt count as a baptism for the mission but for me it would.. its great to see baptisms after the long drought ive been through hahah. we did have a leson with victor the kid i last baptized and he is thinking about playing soccer on sundays in a couple months, which we told him isnt what god wants him to do but that its his descion and that he has to make it with lots of prayer... i really am hopiong he makes the right decison. 

Sabado: today was a rough one.. and for basically one thing.. we had our lesson with our less actives pursuing marragie and she has decided not to get married, it killed me almost, i just kept waiting for her to say she was joking or something but we got nothing, so it looks like we wont be having a wedding on the 21st but you best believe that we are going to work with them still, the worst part is that she didnt pray about her answer, she just thought about it... so thats really tough for me to be happy with it and we told her she has to pray to know.. so there is a small window of hope but if she doesnt know tomorrow (tuesday) then it wont happen and that really did just hurt. We also found out that a daughter from the sosa house moved out because there was an arguementand that the mom doesnt know where she is living yet,which would be the second daughter that would be come inactive in the church and that would be really tough on her. for the highlight of the day we had a really good lesson with almost a whole family and they had some pet badger or something and i went to pet it and it bit my finger.. no cut or blood but that was cool hahah.

Domingo: today was a decent day in the church we only had 44 people there 10 less actives from ourside,and 1 investigator.. me and my comp had to teach the class and we talked about faith in christ and how we can find it through the book of mormon, it went really well. then we had sacrament meeting and i confirmed lorena which was really cool and a good expierence, it went really well! we went to lunch and got these homeade HLJ (CTR) rings made out of real silver and gold, it was pretty sweet, im pretty sure im going to take it to a jewlrey store and get something engraved on the inside like paraguay or the mission or somehting, it was about 18 bucks so good deal for that haha. afterwerods we taught a super good lesson just by reading two chapters of the boook of mormon, and then we taught another one where the lady told us about her whole life story. It hurt to hear how much she has been through, from abusive parents, to getting kicked out of the house at age 15, to finding the church, falling away, and now coming back, really made me count my blessings. She is such a great lady though. that was our good ol sunday.

Lunes: today has been solid my comp got a football for christmas so we rounded up some americans and played ourseleves a god game of football.. the only problem was how hot it was, it was sooooooo hot.. way harder to catch the hard nerf ball he had.. but i still got it hahaha, it was super fun, then we went to burger king and i got the whopper extreme, so that was good, after that we came to the ciber and i started writing you guys.. so yup that was the day!!!

and the week!! a good one with some serious struggles and rewards, hope you guys keep doing well and killing it!!!

Love you all so much, i hope i get those other two letters soon!!! stay classy 

Love

Elder Jace Gummersall

Water! and Hugs From Strangers

Happy New Year too everyone!!! well i dont have a toooonnnnn of time today so hear goes nothing!!

Lunes: Today we had some good things happen. First we had a really good lesson with ariel and mercedes who are the couple we are trying to help get married, ariel is doing super good, but mercedes is having some difficulties and doubts so hopefully we are able to contiue helping them and getting them ready for marriage. After that we went and visited the hermana Vera, who broke down a little bit and told us she need to change but is just struggling, so we are really excited to help her get back into church!

Martes: Started today with a district meeting with just remansito... only 4 elders, its our new district this change, pretty small. It was good though we brain stormed some ideas for the ward mission plan and talked about the importance of commitments. After words we got some studying in and then heaed out to teach on this new years eve. Our next planned baptism as of right now is Lorena, a sister that probably is about 30-35 years old, we got to talk to her husbn today though and he drinks but he might be someone we can work with after she gets baptized, we changed her baptism date a little earlier so he could make it, its set for next thursday! after that we went and visited nancy samaniego whose husband died in novemeber, she has a boyfriend, and is still is asking us for lots of help, her family is defs still struggling but we are trying our best. We also got another visit in with merceds and ariel and that was good, they too need more support thatn ever. then we did some walking around to find who we could visit and were walking down the street when this drunk guy stopped his car got out talked to us bout how good of people we are, and then at the end told us that he ws goig to give us a hug. It ended up with him wrapping his arms around our wastes and lifting us... what a way to celebrate the new year right??? hahah. then we did get a lesson in with a less active and after that we headed over to the other elders house, had ourselves a little new years eve dinner and then went to bed exhausted only to wake up at twelve again to fireworks.. there ar soooo many here its awesomeish hahah.

Miercoles: WHAT A WAY TO START THE YEAR WE WOKE UP TO WATER!!!!! yes after three weeks of struggling to be clean, we got ourselves a real shower.. it was so nie! after that we got to work as normal taught our investigator Lorena who is beyond ready for baptism. We then ate a delcious lunch of hamburgers and hotdogs, and then hit the sterets. A ton of walking, drunks, garbage, and nobody home or awake to let us in.. we still got some good work in. but water.... what a great way to start the new year... i kind of forgot about how good it is to have it. 

Jueves: We switched things up a little bit today and did a little studying in the morning and then heaed out to teach early. Taught Lorena again, she lready knows everything e are just maing sure that she is good and prepared for her desision to be baptized. Then we ate lunh with the Sosa family, and after that meet with the other branch missionaries to put together the whole branch mission plan it looks really good, and more than anythign we are trying to help the ward actually have activities this year for the youth. that was good, then we got some studying in during the heat of the day, and headed back out when it was a little cooler. We taught the vera family and that went really well, and then called it a night.

Viernes: Today nobody was home... it rained a little bit and there was a tno of walking. we taught lorena agian and she is sooooo ready. we also got a phone call from the zone leader. he said that we were going to have a divison tomorrow and that i was going to mariano for the day with him so that was good. WE get a really good lesson in with ariel and mercedes right before the divisoin, but it went just a little too long and started raining during it. so after we had missied all the colectivos and had to walk and hour to mariano in the rain and over the bridge.. it was a fun time but sooooooooooooo tiring. not really to much exciting today.

Sabado: Today there was a ton of walking!!! we did eat a pretty dag gpood lunch, and my main man arial called me from remansito and we started a group fast over the phone so that his senora would want to marry him! it was soooo awesome. Me and elder snchez taught really well, and our lessons were full of the spirit it was soooo awesome!! Today was really hot but we got some really good work done. Elder sanchez did get a litttle sick by the end of the division but we got some really good work in before that.. nothing too exciting though. we ended the division and i made my way to remansito again.

Domingo: ¡BENDICIONES DE LOS CIELOS! we had two investigadors in the church!! and lorena is offially all ready to be baptized this week, and the other one is going to be ready for his date. We had 47 people in church today 14 Less actives, and our 2 investigators. after church we got right to work and visited vera, gabriel (our next next baptism) Lorena, and manuel and it was a great day! We ended theweek with some really good numbers, which is always a good feeling!, Lorena also told us that she wants my comp to baptize her so he can have the expierence which is exactly what i wanted and she said that she wants me to do the confirmation so that should be intresting!

Lunes: Today we went to Pizza Hut, and the office, and that was it, it was a good day but it always goes by way too fast.. got 2 FHE tonight that should be good.. we will see...

Love you all so much.. i think we will get a litle time to write tomorrow so thats when ill respond to the personal emails.. love you guys so much!!! hope te holidays were great for you guys!!! Love YA TONS!!

Love

Elder Jace Gummersall