Quédate de delante de mi satanas

4/28/14

Lunes: after i wrote you guys we went and visited evas family and were able to put a baptism date with her daughter for the 3rd of may so that should be a good day... we are trying to help her step dad realize that getting baptized doesnt completely change you. so hopefully thatll work so the other sister can get baptized as well. After we came home super tired but it was a good day.

Martes: We had a good distrcit meeting and then went to lunch, afterwords i went and did some sheeps and then we got to work we had a good lesson with the martinez familia who is now trying to prepare for the temple, and then we went and taught lorena and matías which went super well, and we ended the night with a noche de hogar with the family preto who we hae commited to more missionary work. it was super great we ate pizza it was sweet.

Miercoles: Today i started a division with elder ellefson, i had one with him while i was in remansito and then he came here and is now in my district so that was super sick! we had a super great day! We visited juana and her friend which went really well and then we visited with the dad of a less active family who is about to return, and after we visited or newest ward members the mfamilia florintine who are doing great, and then we meet with or boy ariel who is thinking a little bit more each day about returning to the mission so we will se what happens but we just keep workinh with everyone!

Jueves: Ended our division and then made the discion that we had to start contacting more in order to find more success, and so we spent some good chunks of time contacting today but it went really well we definately had more success in finding then we have had, after at lunch we drank some bad juice that was mixed together as a joke for us and we ate fried crocodile for lunch and it was soooooooooo good its like chicken but better, so imagine that un poco. then we did get some visits in. We met with the girl who went to moronis baptism whos not a member, she seems super awesome she just doesnt think that her mom will let her get baptized. then we had a lesson set up with ariel and his friend but he bailed on us, after that we went and visited eva and her fam and keep seeing progreaa there, overall a good day.

Viernes: Today we ran to San Lorenzo in the morning to go get elder turley some medicine. but we lived super close to it so we made our way back in a momentito no mas. After we studied, went to lunch and then kept contacting, its a struggle but something that ive learned is just too important to not do... at least fown here in paraguay. We foun a couple new investigators.. mario and his bro get it mario bros jajaja and then we visited with moroni and florintine and then we got a super awesome new investigator from hermana rafaela lopez, the member who told us about florentine.. shes super awesome. then we visited with Fabiola and then with lorena, it was a good super full day!

Sabado: Well we didnt have lunch today so we were in the house until one studied and eating i ate 3 grilled cheese... its the only way to combat the diaherria down here... struggles.... then we went and visited the galeano family and a few other people, but the coolest was when we talked to 4 18 year old guys and it was super sick iall i could see was 4 future missioanries.. im hoping we can get back there soon. after we went and taught a couple more lessons and after that nobody was home so that was cool, we went home and i ate more grilled cheese totalling it to 5.. had diaherriia still on saturday.. its a hard life.

Domingo: Well today was super good we went to church had 77 people there 9 less actives and fabiola. It was super good after we ate lunch studied un poco and then headed out and taught the soto family, followed by some investigators that are always full of questions, and then we went to meet some less active memebers that returned on there own that may have some relatives we can help out, and we ended the night by meeting with eva again and now fabiola is excited for her baptism, before she was kinda iffy but she is super excited and ill happen this next sunday so thats gonna be super awesome!

Lunes: Today was good we got up went to San Lorenzo and played some basketball with elder bristol and some other elders it was super fun but now im gonna be super tired tomorrow, its a tough life... but gotta love playing some basketball! Then we went to lunch and now im righting you guys!!!

Love you all so much next week i get to skype so cant wait to talk to you all!! love ya tons thanks for all the prayers and support!!

Love

Elder Jace Gummersall

Holy Week - temple, rats, and chipa

4/21/14

HAPPY EASTER! in paraguay its called holy week and technically is the whole week although friday everyone takes work of and no one does anything... but wow easily the fastest week in my mission.. and heres why...

Lunes: We got back and we had a really good lesson with ariel, we taught from the sermon on the mount about how jesus said in mathew 6 that in the old law it said not to kill but in the new law it says not to be mad at people. It was good he committed to come to church this sunday and we are really hoping so because his help would be such a blessing for us. It also was super cold tonight.

Lunes: Well started this morning bright and early by going to the temple it was super awesome and the paraguay temple reminds me aton of the spokane one! its beautiful. it was a super great expierence and awesome that listening in spanish doesnt make a difference for me now :) after that we had a zone testimony meeting that was super good! the spirit was super strong and almost everyone shared there testimony, even one guy preparing to serve a mission the was learnign spanish but spoke nivaclay. it was super cool because president had him share his testimony in that language and it sounded kind of like german but it was great! after we ate pizza with the mariano zone.. my old one and that was cool to be abkle to talk to those people and see them again. After that we made the trip back home. Got two solid lessons in with juana and her son, and with Matías and his grandma.. it was really good. 

Miercoles: Today we woke up and went on a division, i went to the area of elder menchaka and it was a good day, it started off by killing two rats.. he said the house was infested and that they hear them all the time so that was fun. he was a semi pro boxer befor ethe mission and wants to go pro when he gets back, and know the gospel really well we visited alot of less active families and he has a bunch getting prepared to enter the temple which is super awesome. There was one contact where this guy tried to bible bash us a little bit and so in order to avoid conflict we testified and left him a pass along card with a picture of jesus on it and he asked if it was joseph smith.. that was funny to hear after he went on about the savior and his teachings but we explained that it was jesus christ. and that was that. 

Jueves: Well ended my division with elder ellefson and elder menchaka and then started a second one with the zone leader elder yauney. It started by going to palma loma and doing a baptism interview. I did it for the hermanas and it was really good she was really prepared. after that we had lunch and taught a lesson to the familia galeano, and then we went to the lopez home to go maike chippa. That was an adventure... it reminded me of a grandma making pie project but chippa isnt as good as pie, its like a dryish bread, it took a while but was pretty fun we all got to make our own designs and stuff, so that was cool. afterwordswe went and visited ariel and got to meet with his sister who we havent seen in a while, and then we went and visited another investigator named mariela who could progress here pretty soon. After that when we got home it started to pour so that was fun becaue our roof leaks a little bit.

Viernes: Well we woke up and it was still coming down, also because it was holy friday no collectivos were running and we had to walk to the other peoples area to meet up with them. then we studied and hit up lunch with the family lopez because we couldnt find the other lunch family. afterwords we went and cleaned the baptismal font, it wasnt drained from the last time so we let it do that first. went and taught moroni made sure he was ready for his baptism on sunday and then had the zone leaders come back for the baptismal interview of the familia florintine for saturday. it was super good after words we ran by ariel one more time to make sure that he would be coming this week but he wasnt home so we went and closed the drain and called it a day.

Sabado: started the day by clenaing again and filling the font.. it looked beautiful. after we did our studies, and then we went to bishops for lunch.. it rained all day and scared us for the baptism. afterwirds we tried to get some lessons in but no one was home or would leave there house because it was raining, but we got in and talked to moroni one last time who has taking a liking to the book of moron although he currently doesnt understand much of what he reads. after we ran home prepared a cake and then brought eveything to the chapel and got ready for a baptism. an hermana helped elder turley use the building oven and completely burned the top of the cake, but undneath the cake was cooked at all yet. We had the baptism and it all went super well and then after that they decided that they would try the cake and they all seemed to like it. it was a great baptism afterwords we went and enjoyed some mate dulce with the lopez family and then we called it a day.

Domingo: We went to church and had a good turn out of priesthood. For sacrament meeting we had 67 people, 6 less actives, and 2 investigators. After church we had the baptism of Moroni and it was super awesome! He got really scared when he entered the water but it went really well anyway and he got the holy ghost right after. it was super awesome he is a great little guy. then we went home studied un poco, went to lunch with the family fernandez, and then studied more and headed out to teach. We got stuck in a less actives home and helped the son understand the importance of going on a mission. He is 20 and is super smart a great guy and doesnt have many problems besides 100% consestent church activity, but we had a really good talk with him and his mom and we are hoping that he puts a goal to leave on a mission here soon. We basically had to promise him that if he did that the lords would bless him. Its something i have totally seen here in the mission, as we do what the lord wants, we recieve numourous blessings, its a fail proof promise from the lord. The we went and tried to teach two more people but both couldnt attend us, we did get to contact a huge group of drunk people who loved us because we are white and have blue eyes, it was funny haha.

Lunes: Today we went and played some soccer, it may get cold at nights but it is super hot here still!! after we went to lunch, went watch shopping a little bit and then headed to the cyber to talk to you guys!

Hope all of you had a great week and an amazing easter! love you all thanks for everything you do!!

Love

Elder Jace Gummersall

A Wonderful Week

4/14/14

hey guys whats up! well we had a good week after that super great conference weekend... heres how it went...

Lunes: we went and visited a part member family. The daughter wanted to get baptized a month ago but recently changed here mind, so we are working with that, she goes to church goes to seminary and loves it all, but as of right now she isnt really meeting with us shes always busy but we are in the lucha haha, after that we made it home and realized that we didnt even eat lunch all day so that was cool..

Martes: We had a district meeting that went well focused on finding more people to teach and working more with memebers. after that we did a division with the zone leaders. I headed out with elder phippen and went to his area. It was really good i actually learned some good stuff that should help me have better contacts. hes a great missionary and is about to head home soon. WE had a couple lessons with memebrs one being a Noche de hogar and we drew pictures of eachother and what we looked like, the kid drew me as goku from dragonball Z that shows huge down here.. then we called it a day. 

Meircoles: well started the moring by switching back, it was a good divison. Then we studied went to lunch, and searched for a reference that i got from yesterday in the other area but couldnt find it!, after that we went and visited the familia soto which went really well and then we went and hit up florintine, they are looking really prepared for baptism. afterwords we went and visited eva, the part memebr family from monday and got to talk to the dada while he was sober, something no missionary has done yet and he seemed somewhat interested so that was super awesome. after that we got home and it started to pour... super hard rain and the power went out, so that was fun.

Jueves: Well last night was super loud storm... we were literally in the middle of it, it rained a ton and ive never heard such loud thunder in my life. fter we ate lunch we went and had a couple visits. first with the familia galeano who said they tried to go to general conference but went on friday.. so that was unfortunate.  Then we visited our boy Moroni who is super excited for his baptism, and after we had a super awesome and great lesson with florintine and the dad it ended with him syaing that he would be at church and then his wife calling him a liar and then him saying maybe not this week but if not this week then next week for sure so that could be a baptism to finish off the family here soon. so that was a super awesome blessing to be able to talk with him. That was basically the whole day, oh and this morning during personal study i finished the book jesus the christ! that thing is amzing and explains more thourough then anyother book ive read about the the ministry of christ. its incredible i encourage all of you to read it.. its huge.... took me about 6 months.

Viernes: Today was good we went to lunch (ate liver... yum) and a lady there showed us a picture of here house that had got hit by lightnening the other day when there was that huge storm. so that was cool, we offered help but she said the it just ruined all the electricity and that theyd be fine. afterwords then we went and visited the familia martinez who is reactivating person by person, its great, after we tried to visit the family soto who werent there so we moved over to the familia flortintine and finsihed teaching them all that they need to know for baptism. fter we went and visited eva and cant seem to be there when here daughters are home. after we visited ariel who seems to be really sruggling, but we are trying to do all we can to rescue him and are hoping for the best. 

Sabado: We had lunch with bishop today which was really good, we hadnt seen to much of him becuase his wife was pretty sickj the last two weeks, she has had cancer for 7 years but seems to be doing great and is always happy. afterwords we got to teach a lesson with the whole galeano family almost and that was super god the mom realized that she needed to find a neew job where she doesnt work on sundays so that was super good. after we went and contacted a lady that seemed super awesome and hopefully we can help her out here soon. Then we saw our boy moroni and after that the familia martinez. Then we went and visited a less active family that makes things out of apo´i which is this superr awesome material and they said they would make some stuff for us if we ordered it so that was awesome. and then we went and visted ilsa and matías which was a supe3r great lesson because ilsa´s nephew was there and she is detrmined to help him get baptized as well! ended the night and it was actually un poco chilly. starting to be like fall down here.

Domingo: well today was stake conference which was super good! but we werent able to get any investigators there becuase florintine had a birthday party to go to for there neice way outof town that they couldnt miss, after that we cooked ourselves lunch and did some studies and then headed out to teach we visited an hermana that was sick and she asked us to do a quick service project for her this week, then we went and had a lesson where alot of our veiw points and scriptures were actaked with bible versus but it went really well and we were able to defend ourselves very respectfully. then we went and visited eva, and got to talke to here daughter fo rlike 5 minutes but then had to peel after that we called it a night.. it actually got un poco mas cold and i pulled out the blanket you guys sent me with for the first time in all my mission. It ended up being a pretty dang good week for us and im excitied for this upcoming week! 

Lunes: today we went to the office i got my sweet tapas finnnaly and was super suprised to get three christmas cards from the family!! and a package from rhett and maria!! it was a super awesome suprise!!!!! then we went to burger king and after back to luque to write you guys. WE did start a fast because tomorrow we get to go to the temple!! our zone is going with my last zone so im excited to see all them but super stoked to go to the temple!!! 

Well that was my week it was a great one! hope all went well with you guys love you all so much!!!

Love

Elder Jace Gummersall

CONFERNCIA GENERAL

4/7/14
wow amazing general conference eh??¿¿?¿??¿¿?¿¿??¿??¿??¿???¿¿?¿¿??

Lunes: well tonight wasnt that good no one was there and we really couldnt teach anyone so that was really tough but oh well.

Martes: Well today i met my new district which is full of latin hermanas and four white people in total counting me elder turley hermana hunt and elder ellefson from my last zone so thats cool. then we went back home and got some studies in and afterwords i made a cake for a kid that just turned 8 thats is getting baptized soon, his name is moroni i think i mentioned a little bit about him the last time, he is super awesome! then we went and got to meet the majority of ariels family the return missionarywho is the only memebr. they seem pretty awesome and i tink that we can help some of them out here pretty soon.after there our NDH got cancelled so we tried to get nother visit in but itnever happned.. night lessons are supper tough now.

Miércoles: We had a good start to the day with studying and then went to lunch withthe yurt family. afterwords we got some lessons in with the familia martinez  family we are trying to help reactivate, after we got a lesson in with another less active family, and then we went and taught moroni a little more. he is actually getting really prepared for baptism and im really hoping that he will be able to make it through the tough circumstances that he lives with. after that we visited the familia florintine who seems to be doing super well and are getting very ready for baptism. and to end the night we went and meet ariels cusins and they seem like they could be a potential family here pretty soon so that would be super awesome!.

Jueves: well normal morning but then we got to have a great day of contacting and getting no where.. it was super tough no one was home and we tried to visit just about any and everyone. but then as night started to fall we found a few people to visit. Eva and her daughter which could be a baptism here really soon, and then we went and saw lorena and her mom and son and they seem to be doing great! they said theyve missed our visits but they seem pretty strong and it looks like everything is going well. after that we made our way home bien cansado.

Viernes: well woke up this morning and he double dragoned last night so that had to be tough. SO we studied and went to lunch. then we came back home and turley got some rest to try and heal up a little bit. we did head out and teach a little still cause elder turley is the man we visited moroni, and the florintine family, ad then went to visit ariels cousins and family but they hide from us so we learned we can only teach if ariel is there... that was tough but the we went home and called it a day.

Sabado: Well turley woke up feeling better so that was good, we went and did two morning visits and then headed out to conference! it was so good! The stake center i was at had it in enlish but the video didnt work so i watched it in spanish. It was so good though at the end f the day i didnt know how sunday would top saturday this had to be one of my favoriteconference weekened ever! i did go get some lo mito arabe with some elders before priesthood session which was super good but other than that it was just a great weekend.. im just waiting for uchtdorfs recharge yourself from preisthood session to blow up! i loved IT!!!!

Domingo: today we didnt leave because we had no noe extra to visit or bring to conference all said they would come nd we had memebrs assigned to bring them, but sadly enough only one investigator came.. it was still super good though. I watched the first sunday morning session in english but then went back to spanish to wrap it all up. i did make some grilled cheese for lunch that day in between sesions so that was really good, and ater that we had to walk home from the stake centre about 45 minutes.. it wsant too bad, we tried to visit two people but they both said they the couldnt meet with us and were busy so we heaedd home.

Lunes: got up studied, played soccer, got sunburnt, and got a sweet tie clip... then came and wrote you guys.. those paraguayan pdays though...

Pretty tough week number wise but we have a lot of success coming our way i think. Either way general confernce was amazing talks i loved and that you should read are President Uctdorfs from preisthood seesion, The faith one i think Scott from saturday, and hales from saturday.. but all are so could... maybe you guys can but some links from the blog to the church site.. 

Love you all sooo much!!

Elder Jace Gummersall