Teavy Aiteke

6/30/14

Well heres the week in a flash for ya!

Lunes: We contacted a drunk lady our more like a house hold very under the influence of many things and this lady sang us a song about jesus... it was intresting pretty good, but we invited her to church and see if we can come back in a more sober hour. Then we went and had a good lesson with an investigator that is really really progressing named karina, but she said that she doesnt want to get marrieed... so thats gonna be a struggle to work with. 

Martes: Had some good studies and then went to district meeting it went well, afterwords we had a good lunch and then got some contacting in... then we had a lesson in almost all guarani.. it was tough and with an old lady but it was good then we wenty and had a good lesson with jorge.. the boyfriend of an investigador who is pretty cool, it went well and then as we were on our way out the rain came down like no other! so we fleed to evas house and were able to have a pretty good lesson there.. her kids are aways pretty crazy though but it was alright. After that we went and had a lesson with this guy named isabelino he is pretty cool, and seems like he could e a pretty good investigador is he can get to church soon. After that we had a NDH with the familia prieto and cooked french toast, it turned out pretty good. then we called it a night. 

Miércoles: Started a division with elder ellefson today, hes a great guy, im trying to get him to go to byui but hew has wedding bells in his head so we will see what happens. It rained all day but we still had a pretty good one. We had lunch with the stake young womens president who is the first leader ive ever met in paragauy to take intiative and lead the youth like she does. Its a huge help to the stake and it is crazy to think of how far behind paraguay is to the states. after that we had a cople of good lessons with rodney.. a really cool 12 year old and his family that are thinking about baptism. and we had some good lessons with less active memebrs. After that we had a lot of time to contact before we enjoyed some delicious hamburgers that were super cheap. And to top the night off elder ellefson gifted me one of his 70 ties. he has a bunch of really cool ties becuase he worked at JCP before the mission. 

Jueves: Well switched back, but went back to my area with elder faucett on another divisoin. He came to the mission with me and is pretty cool as well. I never knew him too well until today. WE got some really good work in while it rained allllll day long! we did get a good visit in with the hermana serafina and with karina, who still isnt too excited about marriage. we are still workig with her though. The rain her is incredible! cant beleive how it just keeps coming down! it is actually causing some serious flooding damage really sad. We mnade the switch back and then called it a day.

Viernes: We had weekly plannign today followed by lunch while it was still raining! 3 days straight. We did get to visit a preist for a churhc who actually seems to be really close to coming to church and seeing how everything is, he is super cool and would be a great leader i nthe church someday! After that we went and visited another investigator.. i think people can see the importance of the message we have when we are out side in the pouring rain.. it was pretty intrestig to see there faces when w eshowed up to there houses.. but some people wwouldnt leave because it was just to wet.. crazy. 

Sabado: More rain all day long.. it is really sad actually it ruins lots of things in peoples house and there are lots of times where there is nothing they can do but sit on there couch or table and watch there stuff floating in there house until the rain slows down and the house drains alittle bit.. lifes just a little different down here then up there right haha. we started today by trying to get some good work in but no one let us in before lunch. We cooked it at our house again. bishops wife has been pretty sick these last couple weeks, she has cancer, and is such a champ for all the things she does while fighting it! we did get to visit karina joal and juana, a old dude named milano and then got to vistit veroncia and her family and it ended up being a pretty good day, got home cold and wet.

Domingo: Well today started cloudy but it wasnt raining, we had 61 people in church with 1 investigtor and one less active.. a little bit of a decrease from the last couple weeks, but we did teach the 5th sunday class on home and visiting teaching and then elder phippen had a talk in sacrament meeting it was pretty good. After that we went and ate a big lunch and then went and taught the family soto and then visited Gato a priest we are trying to help prepare for a mission and then we visited serafina, and then we swung by ariel. It was a pretty good day and a decent week for all the rain...

Lunes: Wait its my birthday today? hahah i got a ton of birthday emails! so thank you to everyone who sent me one.. i will respond when time allows it! we went to the ciber for an hour this morning and then to pizza hut and then to the nike store which ended up having lke nothing in it... it was kind of a dissapointment, but now i have knowledge for the rest of my mission of  what is there.. overall a pretty good, and beautiful day! cant wait to get working tonight!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes again and hope everything is going fine with you guys! pray for the flooding inb paraguay.... aparently there will be a huge rain storm frmo august until december... it happens once every twenty years.. hoping it doesnt happen...

Love you all so much!!!!

Elder Jace Gummersall

Buckets to catch the rain

11 Months Already!

6/23/14

Well this week flew by.. here it goes...

Lunes: Well after writing we went and hit some solid visits. First we went to gildo a kid who seems pretty cool but that whe may not be ready just yet. Then we went and visited eva which went well, we actually found out the the stateds won while we were there so that was super cool!! USA USA USA!!!... then after that we went and had some cake with the familia Lopez.. it was riquísimo.

Martes: Today we studied and then heraded out to district meeting all but three companionships had atleast one person leaving, so we will be seeing some new faces here in a little bit. but it went well and we said our goodbyes. Then we had a good lunch and got to work. We went and visited a les active memebr who said she really never had a testmony of the church and right now she is trying to find out if it is true. The best homeworj k we could give her was to read the book of mormon and to keep praying.. best guide there is to this life. Then we went and found some cool new people to teach and theat went well after that we went and visited ariel anwhich went well he seems to be doing way better! after that we went and visited an investigator named karina, who is doing super well and has recvied her answer from god that the church is true. She just needs to get married now. Then we went and had a NDH where we played Jenga. It went really well and was a good night.

Miércoles: 11 months today!!!!! crazy how that works right! weird to think how fast it goes and how im almost at the year mark time sure does seem to fly right on by! Often makes ya think of if your doing things the best way ya can be. Today we did get some real solid work in.  we went and visited the familia vera who mght just be ready to progres here prety soon. Then we went and visited Poala who if she could be blesed ith a more stable job would be able to go to church on sundays instead of work. Then we visited Lucy who as long as she goes to church this sunday will be baptized this next weekend.. really hoping nothing comes up. After that we had really good visits with Sandra and with the familia florintine. TOnight got prety dang cold! well not compared to up there in the winter.

Jueves: TOday we did weekly planning because tomrrow we are going on a division. It went pretty well. We had a good lunch with the lopez family and are trying to help reactivate the daughter atleast. After we went and found a new investigator that was alright, named juliana. After that we put together a lot of little lessons that didnt last to long but were still pretty effective. Then we had a super awesome leson with Karina and the hermana lopez. If you guys can please do visits with the missionaries.. it really makes all the difference. Overall today was a pretty good day. 

Viernes: Started a division this mornign with Elder Quintana from Peru. He is a good guy, seems prety cool and is about 2/3 of the way done with his mision. WEstarted the day off super well and had a great amount of stuf accomplished before lunch. then after lunch the day just fell through. We have been planning alot better as a mission recently and i have never had a day where no plan for 5 hours went through.. it made for a lot of contacting and finding new places to teach but it seemed like not that meany peopole wanted to listen to us for some reason. We did have a super good lesson with the kid of an investigador who nknew almost nothing about religion.. it was intresting to teach him but went really well. Then we visited the maritniez family and the swung by matías and Ilsa it ended up being a prety tiring and tough day but it was preety good. 

Sabado: Switched back to be with elder phippen and then we started to work. We had a good lesson with the wife of an old investigador who was very catholic. It went really well actually and then we headed home to cook our own lunch. After that we went and had good lessons with Christian a 17 year old kid who seemed pretty cool , and with rueben who was cool but travels a lot.. after that we went and visited sandra who just keeps getting stronger and strogner.  after that we went and had a good lesson with cecilio a new guy we are teaching as well, hopefully someone will be able to get o church of all these people we are teaching though. After that we went and visited Eva whose kidswhere going crazy!! it was insane but it was funny at the end haha. After that we went and visited Ariel who said that he would be in church the next day so thats super good!

Domingo: TOday was good we had 67 people in church with 1 less active and 1 investigator. unfortunatley it wasnt lucy who went so we will have to postpone her baptism again... its a strugle. I had to give a talk in church and choose to gave it on the importance of scripture study. It went well and i felt liked at least some people listened hahah. After that we went to lunch and then started teaching we went by alexadrias house and then had a meeting at the stake center with all ward leaders and our mision president. It went really well and hopefully we will be able to get a little more memebr support this upcoming months. After that we went and visitied a part active family and had a good lesson and then contacted until the time ran out. It ended up being a pretty good week.

Lunes: PDAY!!! we had a Zone activity today with elder phippens trainer elder negly that came down to visit (my great grandpa) for the first pday of the change and we went to a place called cerro koi. just a hill to hike up.. It was pretty fun and we were able to get some really good pics!! its pretty pretty and turned out to be a pretty good activity. Then we all went our seperate ways. We went to lunch and shopping and then made our way home. Thats my week for ya!!

Love you all so much hope all is going well with you guys!! 

Love

Elder Jace Gummersall

FELIZ DIA DE PADRE DADDY!!!!!!

6/16/14

Well this week has been a really good one and a really fast one.. and te truth is that i forgot my little note card that helps me remember all that happend and what we did so this email will probably not be that good... but hope you all love me still anyways ;)

Lunes: WEll we went and got some good visitis in the best one would be eva, who will be having a birthday this saturday and has invited us to have stake at her house on saturday so that should be really good!

Martes: We had district meeting the one i went to was real good, talked about how self esteem and faith go hand in hand.. the happier we are the more faith we have and show.. it was really good. After that i went on a division with elder Oncassi, from peru. I stayed in my area and it went real well we got alot of good work in and were able to teah alot and find some good news!

Miercoles: Started by switching our comps back and then me and elder phippen got some real solid work in.. We taught a bunch of people found some good newones to teach and really i dont remember much about what happened on wednesday.. this week flew by like a blur...

Jueves: WE did weekly plannign this morning brcuase tomorrow we have  zone meeting and then a division. It went well, we planned fo rthe start of the next change.. i dont hink im going anywhere.. bt there is always that uncertainty... after that we went and had a good lunch and then a good day full of teaching and finding more people.... if you cant tell thats what we do each day..

Viernes: Today started bien temprano and we had zone meeting. Me and elder Phippen had to help teach as it is our zone hahah.. i wasnt really nervouis but it did go really well... we had an open council first.. then the asssitants talked.. then we taught baout how to and when to stop teachign someone who isnt progressing, and then we had a great lesson from president about knowing the doctrine we are teachign and being teachable.. we then took a test one exactly where scriptures are at.. it went well i got 80% right.. out of 25 it was a really good test and had some good scriptures... after that i had to wait for elder Mundo to have his last interview with president.. he goes home in a week and then we went back to his area and taught some people, we had some good lessons but he is definately ready to go home.. hopefully i can end the mission a littl emore focused. Ended the night by switching companionships back and went to bed.

Sabado: we started today early as well, went to another wards chapel and had a ward activity of going out with the youth and doing a rescue activity.. it went really well.. they also are trying to plan on having a MTC for a day here which would also be a really good activity.. after thast we went home.. cooked lunch ourseleves, and then headed out and had a killer saturday.

Domingo: TOday we had 88 people in church because it was ward conference and the stake leaders came but it went well we also had 4 invetigators and 5 less actives so we are making some progress.. after that we went to lunch, but the people werent there so we just contacted the people next store just to invite them to church next sunday and without syaing anything they invited us in and feed us a littl ebit of food.. enough to count as lunch atleast.. and then they let us teach them a lesson which went really well.. .it was super cool!! after that we got some more solid work in and then we called it a day... we uput together one of the best weeks that i have had in my mission it was pretty cool!

Lunes: Today we kicked it solo.. ELder phippen only has 7 more pdays so im etting him take charge of them all... we went to itagua and i got 2 apo´i ties.. ill send pics next week, they also said when im close to going home from the missin that they would gift me one so that was cool.. hopefully ill be able to make it back there soon!then we ate lunch at mcdonalds, and then made our way back to the ciber to write you guys. pretty good day.

Sorry for the lack of quality in the email.. itreally is a struggle to rememebr all that happens here each week.. as for changes ill be staying here with elder phippen this change so another month and a half for me here.. and then phippen heads home so i think ill be here one more change after that.. crazy i know but its all good! love you all soo much and thanks for all that you do! stay classy!!

Love Elder Gummersall

Two Weeks in One

6/9/14

First off... tere vy aiteke che sy!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMA!!!!!! soo osorry that the weekthe i didnt get to write home happened to be the monday after your birthday... heres how my lifes been since....

Lunes: Well from the last wek we got home a little early and so we had time to take a 20 minute nap... it felt super good then we headed out and had a noche de hogar with the family florintine and lopez, it was really good we played the game with flour that i played abunch in remansito, after that we went over to the arza family, who is getting close to progressing they just havent came to church yet so we are planning on this sunday for sure.

Martes: Today we had a good district meeting and then came back after lunch and visited marta and edgar, who are leaning towards joing the testigos de jehova (jehova witness) we are making sure its very clear that its there descion but are trying to help them understand more the teachings of christ. Thenj we taught serafina and her grand daughter, who went to church this last sunday that went well. Aftrer that we had some time to get some contacting in and then we went and found some new inbestigatores. That was cool, they are a pretty cool group of people but it was hard to tell if they had real desires to follow chirst more in there life. After we had a Noche de Hogar with the fmaily prieto and with there cousins and uncle and aunt that arent memebrs. It  went really well we played telephone and then taught the restortation with it. It was real good.

Miercoles: Today we had a division and i went with elder Muñoz from peru to his area, it went pretty well, there wasnt the best plan set up but then we turned it into a pretty good day. WE did a ton of contacting but it was good. We did have a super great lesson with an investigador named hugo who hadnt prayed to ask god if the church was true and so we had him ask right then and there and and then sat in silience on our knees for 5 minutes and at the end he said he felt the spirit, and got his answer so that was super cool!! hopefully he can start going to church. At the end we had to wait for my comp and elder mundo to finsih up, and Elder Muñoz gave me some recuerdos from peru... its a super sweet coin pouch and a couple super awesome keychain thingys!! they are soooo sweet, Then we ended our division and headed home.

Jueves: Had another division today in m y area with elder Rivera, we found a great new investigaotr at the begining of the day, but he will be getting knee surgery really soon so we will see what happens with him. After we enjoyed lunch with the family lopez, and then went out teaching more. We taught josé and belén a less active (29 years old) and his (14 year old) girlfriend... aqpparently they want to get married but we will see what happens.. then we went and taught a less active who should be making her apparence in church for the first time in about 3 years this sunday so thats exciting. WE went and found another less active who said he would come back, but his family has lied to me before so we will see what he is like. and after that we talked to Juan Carlos an investigador who seems really cool and we are hoping to help him and his family out more. AFter that we went and visited Eva, that went well, and i got to see a book that had all the world cup groups in it, hope US can beat Ghana and portugal and tie germany.. that would be ideal.. we will see what happens. To end the night we got news that two people in our ward are trying to get married at the beginign of uly so thats always exciting.After that we ended the night by switching comps back.

Viernes: HHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPPPYYYYYYY BBIIRRRRTTTHHHHDDDDDDDDDDDAAAAAAAYYYY MOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMAAAAAAAAAAaaa!!!!! TOday was a great day because my mom turned 27 again! that was fun to celebrate, started the day off with some weekly planning, and then made some visits to a goalie named fidalino, and then met with lucy our hopefully next baptism, and then met with sandra who looks like she is making a pretty strong comeback. after that we went and visited a lady named marí who was pretty cool, and then we went and visited lorena and matías, and called it a night.. pretty good day.

Sabado: Today we got things soing by visting romina and then going back home to eat lunch. After that we went to juan carlos house and had a real good lesson, after that we went to serafina, and then the silvero famil, and then we went after that we visited luis who said that he would come to church and then we went saw the martinez family who is doing super great. after that we went and put a baptismal date with the familia arza, which was super good, and then we went and visited oscar who said he would do everything he could to go to church tomorrow.

Domingo: well we went to oscars house to bring him to church and he was sleeping so that was a good start to the day, but church was good, we had 76 people there with 6 less actives and 0 investigators. That was tough. After we got home and studied and ate lunch and then we went and toaught. Sandra sems to be doing better and better each day, and went to church so thats super awesome. We met a new person that sees super awesome. and then we contacted and ended our day. Overall it was prety good.. tomorrow get to wake up at 4:45 for concilio

Lunes: Woke up at 4:45 and got to the office at 7:00 went to the bathroom for 45 minutes (stomach/bowel probs), and then ate a quick breakfast and we had zone concilio. It was good just a big meeting of all the zone leaders trying to figure out what the best thing for the mission is. After that we all played basketball, and then soccer and then we had some real time collectivoi struggles and didnt get home until right at 6.. which i why i wasnt able to write you guys.. sorry about that again.. but we went and visited juan carlos, which went well, and then no one else was home, or awake to let us in so after a couple trys we headed home.

Martes: HAd a good district meeting and then headed on a division with elder ashcrat. He is a real great guy who just had a rough start in his mission with his comps. We had some lunch studied and headed out to work.. we found a super awesome less active family that is gonna try and come back to church and then we went to a family that had a super big snake( not the serpent.. but a 17 year old girl) she said many things including idll go to the end of the world for you.. it was pretty intresting, but the lesson we had with the whole family was super good. The parents are awesome and are old investigators and the snake daughter is a recent convert, but it went really well and hopefully they are able to progress soon.

Miercoles: WE switched in the morning and then me and elder phippen found a new investigator before lunch. After lunch we went and visited poala who is not a memebr and is beging to seperate from her less active member husband. They have a great daughter and are really just missing the church from haveing a happy and beautiful family so we are in the process of helping her get to church so we can have a good conversation with both the husband and the wife. After that we had another lesson with a lady who did not pay much attention or understand much, but we are tryin to go back soon when her husband is there, after that we went and visited lucy, who said wshe would definately be at church this weekend. Then we went and visited sandra, who let us now that her repentance process would be a really tough one, but we assurred her that it would be worth it and that we would be there to help every step of the way. then we went and visited our buddies we met from sunday which went really well and we put a baptism date for the 4th of july.. crazy how that works huh! its basically here. then we went and had a good lesson with the fmailia arza, and got some ice cream on our way home.

Jueves: Had a divions with ELder Menchacka in my areait went well we found a new less active we can start visiting, we had a decent lesson with andrea an investigador, and we had a really good lesson with alexandría who went to church but then called everyone theere hypocrites in her head.. we helped her understand that the people arent perfect and she said she did.. so hopefully that doesnt impide her from coming next week. After that we found a super cool new investigator who asked us why all the churchs dont talk about joseph smith since he was a prophet of god it was one of the best questions to hear.. unfortunatley she is rarely at home but we are going ot keep working with her and see what happens. After that we went and visited Eva that went well she lent us her world cup book so elder phippen could look at it a little bit and then we went and visited juan carlos who is the man and looks like he is growing more and mor eeach time we go by there. That was our night.

Viernes: We switched back.. i had my suit dry cleaned and got that back from the guy who did it. WE also got our shower fixed this morning.. about three weeks ago the heater element burnt out in it and we had to take freezing cold showers in the morning. THen we had weekly planning and went ot lunch. WE visited edgar and marta who seem to have choosen to go to the church of the testigos de jehova, and then we went and visited edith which actually went really well, she said she would come to church this week, and then we went and visite karina and hermando.. they are a really cool coupl and family of four that i really like they live in very humble cirrumstances but i just like them both aton.. i really hope that we are able to help them. Then we went and swung by rafeal who wants to fix theings with his wife poala that should be at church this sunday.. hopefully this super long letter is making since.

Sabado: Today started with a quick service project of moving some wood around and that went well, we got a quick scripture study in with them as well. after that we had to make som elunch in the house again. and then we went and visited lucy who said she would be at church on sunday. THen we swung by a old investigators house who said that unless her husband changed that she wouldnt be able to get baptized.. After that we went and visited Sandra and osvaldo, who seem to be doing well and trying to come back to church. After that we went and visited the familia arza who said for sursies that they would go to chuch. Then we visited juan carlos who said depending on what his wife said he would try to go to church. After we went and visited ariel who said he wants to make a comeback to church and get released but that he would really need some hepl so we had a really good lesson with him and are shoootig for this wedesday that he gets relesaed from being a missionary after 4 months. After that the huge catholic church right by our house had a huge party for the santo san juan.. it was cool. we didnt go hahah..

Domingo: Well today in church we had 74 people 3 less actives, and 3 investigators.. but none of them were the ones we were planning on.. shos the great blessings that we can get fro mgod, in ways that we dont plan on seeing them. It was tough not to see the people we were planning on there but col to get three youth there. After that we did some stdying and then ate some lunch that was brought to us. After that we went and visited ariel who didnt go to church because he didnt wake up to his alarm and got up at 1 in the afternoon, alexandría who didnt go to church because she was sick, and soto who dint go to church for health reasons as well. That was tough to hear.. we are trying to help the ward to grow up to 100 people before july 29th. We did go and find 2 new houses to teach at and then headed home cold and tired. yeah it can get a little chillly here in paraguay.

Lunes: TOday has been a good one, we planned on playing basketball at the office, but then i got talking to a guy on a collective and me and my comp both missed the street we were supposed to get off  on and so we just went to lunch at TGIFwith a bunch of people to celebrate elder bretons and elder halls birthday. after that we ran to luque did some shopping for the week and then got to the ciber where i could finaly write you guys!

Well thats my busy two last wek hope all is well with everyone!! thanks for all your love support and prayers!!

Love

Elder Jace Gummersall