Boom Boom Boom Boom

9/29/14

another week down... times just a flying.....

Lunes: Well today was good after i wrote you, we went and taught this guy who is trying to stop smoking.. weve been working with him for a while and today was the day to help him stop completely, so i bought his cigarettes off him and we all asat there and destroyed them, it was pretty cool, i think he might fall a time or two before baptism, but he is progressing a ton! After we went and visited Flor and gabreil recent converts, and then ended the night by talking to the familia medina. overall good day.

Martes: Today was super full.  we went and studied and then we went to district meeting, it was good. After that we went to the buen sabor for lunch, so that was good. Then we went and visited the family picinini they are cool and there is a baptism in the house if they decide to be active in the church again. After that we went and visited Arlindo who is a cool guy he just doesnt seem like he will be progressing anytime soon, but a good seed planted. Then we went to Mirna who was an intresting lady, shes kinda crazy, after that we went and visited the familia alegre, they are super cool part memeber family.  after that we went and had a good visit with cintia and then we went and started a division with elder acosta. he goes home with elder greer, is from mexico, and speaks super good english.

Meircoles: Woke up todya pretty sick in the stomach, but i was on a division so we went out igual. We studied and then we went and talked to this cool guy named fabio, went and ate some lunch, and then we went taught a couple more people, had a really good day and ended the day by going to english class, it was overall a real good day, i went to bed super tired and exhausted. 

Jueves: Woke up to start another division. I stayed in my area this time and Elder Aguilera came here with me. he is from argentina and is super cool as well. we found this cool new who plays goalie for a professional soccer team he was super cool though. After we had some lunch and then went and taught the hermana torres, folllowed by the hermana medina, and then we went and taught Dani and signed our selves up to help them dig a 15 foo hole so they could have a place to put there sewage.. so thatll be fun to do. Then we had a cool lesson with a jehova witness. We helped him start to understand that Jehova is jesus Christ, It went medio mas o menos. After we taught a fmaily that elder greer found once on a division, that was cool,. and then we went to the familia zapata, that went reakky well.

Viernes: Today was the most exhuasting day of my whole mision. I had chiviv, we ended the division and then helped Dani and his family start digging the hole, we had to take out 3 trees as well, and try to dig under them, or better said take the roots out as we kept going deeper, it was crazy exhausting. We worked for 3 hours and got about 6 feet deep, then they gave us some food, we ran home showered, changed our clothes, and then went to lunch, where we just got bloated with food. so that made it even harder to study and walk and stuff. But we got our studies in , went and used the kiosk for two hours and then went to the fmailia picinini and then swung by the familia alegre and wended the night by teaching the fmailia ovelar and helping there kids get active again.

Sabado: Today i woke up with staright up liquid chiviviguazu diaharreha-aite! it was bad.. but i took some meds and prayed and we headed out to work.. we had a pretty good day as well. We went and taught that medio crazy lady mirta, then ate some lunch, and afer that we had a joven davuid, who is preparing to go on a mission leave with us all day. We went and visited Justo who did fall into smoking a little bit but he is getting better and is soooo close. After we went and visited Maria Elena and it seems like her daughter is not gonig to progress, then we went Angel this super old crazy guy, but he is super cool and read the stuff we left him so we will probably be headed back. then we went and taught alberto who could be a really col invetigator as well. and folllowing that we went and found some cool new people. Then we went to the familia zapata who is super sick and said that theyd be going to church tomorrow and then went to english class. I had to teach a little, its weird to teach english but it was good. After that we went to Hermano Ortiz and shared with his family, it was good. Overall good day.. tough on the bowels though...

Domingo: and the chocaolate rain kept falling.... But we went to church. We had 104 people there 8 less actives and then 6 investigators it was super awesome! Looks like we should have baptisms soon. Then we went to lunch with the fmailia alegre, they are super cool, after that went and took the sacrament to an oler lady, studied, went and found this cool new lady named cintia, and then had a super awesome consejo de barrio, and to end the night we went and had a noche de hogar with the familia Villalba. Overall super great sunday.. minus the owel struggles...

Lunes: Well the struggles continue so the nurse prescribed me to an antibiotic... dope.. But we went and playd some soccer today.. my skills are getting better... hope you are all practicing.. i played with eler turley today that was good. And then we ate a small lunch and went to the ciber and im writting you all right now! 

well that was my week, by next week i think my stomach will be like steal again.. hopefully.. love you all so much hope all is well with everyone!!

Love

Elder Jace Gummersall

Let's Go Luque!

9/22/14

I really do like this area!! Heres how the week went!

Lunes: We ran to the office and got a new cell phone.. then after that we tried to go bowling but it happened to be closed for matineice so that was just one giant fail!! after that we got back home and got out to work.. We contacted a bunch until we found a cool new guy named joel and then went and helped a less active family prepare to cut out a griant stump of a mango tree.. ask dad how hard mango tree wood is.. but its pretty hard.. i got 4 blisters on my hands (apparently studying the scriptures really hard doesnt callus my hands..) and we ended up breaking the ax.. but we got a good start to it...had a good lesson there and then as we were calling it a night, got a call from the assitents saying that we had zone meeting tomorrow and that we had to prpare a 30 minute presentaion from the last zone concilio we went to.. so that was a fun scramble.. we threw some ideas together and then went to bed.

Martes: Had Zone conference today that went really well we all got our own 72 hour kits, and the parts that we had to teach went really well, overall a super tranquilo meeting. then we went had some lunch and then headed out and got some teaching done. We visited Franscico Torrs a guy that eler greer has been helping to get the temple and they are super close. After we went and talked to this super cool guy named reinaldo. He seemmed like he could have some potential. To end the night we went and talked to the familia ovelar, whose parents are active and the kids are not, so we are in the battle with the kids. Overall good day.

Meircoles: Today we used the kiosko, and in the city it works way better!!!!  it was a super sucessful morning. After we went home did some studying and then headed off to lunch. it was a good one with a reecent convert named ortiz. He is pretty cool. Then we had a lesson with the familia Villalaba that wnt well. After we had this super cool returned missionary named Benjamin, go around with us for the rest of the day. We went and visited Justo, a guy who is close to baptism, but has to stop smoking first, he is improving each day. Then we went and found a cool new named soledad with him, after we went to Dani, who is a super cool investigator, and we vistied him with Pablo as well, it was super cool , after that we went to the church and taught english class, and to top the night off we went to The familia Ojedashouse for dinner adn talked about here son that is serving in the spokane mission right now in moises lake. If you meet an elder Ojeda i know his family. That was pretty cool. After that we called it a night.

Jueves: Today it was rainnnnyall day long.. I also hit 14 months in the mission today.. so thts super crazy.. We went and had a visit in the morning with hermana medina. She was cool and said that shge would be at church on sunday. After we had a good lunch with the familia arza and taught there daughter who was almost baptized but is  afraid of water so didnt follow throght with it. After that we attacked the chuchi or rich part of the area.. it was super tough, required alot of walking and a ton of contacting.. rich people just arent as humble.... We did get  avisit in with the familia piccinini which was pretty cool, they have a little girl that needs to be baptized so we are in that struggle. After thatwe ent and found this cool guy named Arlindo he looked like a ptential promising new. after that we went and visited a recent convert family, the familia alegre. And at the end of the night we tried to go visit an investigator in the hospital, who had surgury, but she had already been checked out when we got there.. so we called it a night and headed home. 

Veirnes: Did some weekly planning and then we went and had lunch with the fmailia coleman that was good, we hda fried mandioca and it was really good! after thtat we let the game of contacting beging and then we did find a cool new named antonia. After that we went and talked to Dani who seems to be progressing although he has not gone to church yet, and then we went to a reference we had recieved of someone who went to the church years ago. It was a miracle family we found they used to be active, but never got baptized, and so we found a mom dad and two kids that loook like they will be getting ready to get baptized here pretty dang soon, that is if everything goes acording to plan. It ws super cool and a huge blessing!! after that we went and taght two different famillia torres, and then we went and had a lesson with the familia cubilla. It was a pretty dang good day that we had.

Sabado: Studied un poco this morning and then we went and visited the familia quintera.. they have somes serious family struggles. After that we went and had some lunch with the familia villalba, and then got to work. We went and had a good lesson with Oscarcito, who said that he would be going to church on sunday, we went and found this cool new named dora, who looks like a really promising investigator, then we went to soledad, met her husband and had a really good lesson with them, could be another family that goes to church here soon. After that we went to Carvejal and had a good lesson there.. they seem pretty awesome, then we went to Yanina, the one who had surgery that we couldnt find in the hospital, and we had a good visit with her and then set a baptismal date for the 18th of october. After that we went to The fmailia ovelar and had a good discusion and then to top the day off we went and met a less active family naed the famila rios who could make a come back in a couple weeks. It was a super great day!!!!!

Domingo: WOW WHAT A  GREAT DAY!!!!! 103 at church with 7 less actives and 7 investigators!! it was super cool that whole family went to church and three more on top of that being justo and part of the familia carvejal. it was great. Then fom the church building we were accompanied by a jjoven that is preparing to go on a mission. we went and gave the sacrament o an older hermana, then had some lnch, and then we did a diision with him and the another kid who is waiting for his mission call. It was super sick, his name is david, he is 20 and a chef. We went and set a baptismal date with the familia zapata, the one that all went to churhc, and then we went and got ourselves a little lost searching for a family we couldnt find for like an hour... finally we found them and they weret there but we shared a good lesosn with the grandma. After that we returned to the familia cubilla where we had a NDH. We played that game where you knot your hands up in a circle and have to undo it.. its a good one that paragauyans have never played, it went well. On top of that elder greer had three other super good lessons and it was a super good day and week for that matter!! WEnt to bed real tired

Lunes: TOday i finished making a 4 layer jello.. it turned out pretty good, but cori will have to sen dme her recipe of how she does it and makes it so the colors are off colored.. i want to try it her way as well.. after we played some soccer near my house with eldre goss and elder jordan and elder costa and there companions.. it ws really fun and hot. After that we had some lunch and headed to the ciber.. pretty tranquilo pday. 

Hope all is going well with everyone and that you guys are enjoying the weather getting colder because summer is getting started up here!! well hope that you guys have a great week!! 

thought of the day...

Always share the gospel, and when it is necessary use words _its from an apostle or prophet...

Love ya!!

Elder Jace Gummersall 

Wild Week of Changes

9/15/14

well got changed this week it was a pretty intersting week, but a good one at that...

Lunes: After we had concilio we made our way back to laurelty and then went and visited Richard and Mariana and followed that up by visiting an  old investigator, from the familia arza, it went pretty well. After that we called it a night. Pretty hard to focus not knowing if ill be gettig changed or not but igual no màs!! 

Martes: Well got all ready started doing studies and got a phone call with the changes. Got the noticia that id be going to Luque 1b, which is really close to where im at but in the other stake so still a change, and is actually part of the heart of the city of luque so that should be intresting to be more in the city, it was one of the first stakes in all of paraguay and im excited to go there, ill still be szone leader and will be companions with elder Greer, who trained elder bristol, he is in his last change so ill be killing him as well, call me assasins creed thatll be the second that i send home hahahaha. After that we went and had district meeting and then we went to lunch and let the game of saying goodbye begin. It was pretty stressful but i got to just about everybody.. crazy to think of how long i have been in Laurelty... 7 months, sure do love the people here, and really hope that things wil continue to grow. Hard to say good bye to everyone but thats just how it goes sometimes.... the photos and captions should explain all that happended with saying goodbye.

Miercoles: Today got up early and said goodbye to Laurelty, and headed in to luque centro.. my new chapel for changes. It was a l ittle heckdicht. Lots went home including my dad.. Elder Rodriguez.. that was sad but he is gonna kill it and go baptize his family. Also Elder Sprenger and Wolfgram went home.. two of the funniest missionaries i met, but its just how life goes, i got with elder greer, and then headed back to my new house. we studied and went to lunch and then let the new life beging. We found this cool new named oscar who hopefully we can visit more his family, after which i got introduced to the investigators that w have. One being yanina the daughter of an active mom, after that cintia the girlfriend of a member that is starting to reactivate. She seemed super cool, after that we talked to a different cintia, an investigator couple that could be a baptism soon. Afterwords we went and talked to Marta, she was cool a less active that is trying to reactivate, and then we went and taught eglish class, or better yet elder greer went and taught english class. It was cool i have never done that in my mission but it is one way to help find people. Then we went and i met some of elder faucetts converts from when he started the mission, they where super cool. After that we called it a day.. this area is pretty cool , i like it a lot, and it is WAY bigger than anypther area ive had so that should be cool. Pretty excited for this change.

Jueves: We went to the church and worked on the MLS list, which is something that every other ward ive been in has struggled with so its cool to have a wardthat seems to know how to work. After that we headed to lunch and then got a call from the assistence saying that we had to change some area borders with some areas from our zone so we went to the ciber and that took forever. after that we went to work and were able to get 4 lessons in.. it hard for me to remember eveyones names and how to get home and how the map works and all that but its all good itll come hahah. 

Viernes: Did some weekly planning. Then we ate lunch with the familia coleman, the dad there is a conselor for president McMullin so that was cool, after that we had a big day of visiting less actives, it went really well, we also found a really cool new named wlater who has family memebers that are memebers. After but thats the best that i can explain our day.. hahah sorry new area.. not as easy to remmebre exactly how the cookie crumbbled.

Sabado: Did some studies, went and did a service project of moving a bunch aof bricks and then after that we realized that my comp had lost his phone so that made life real difficult.. but its whatever. We went and visited oscar again, after hat we swung by cintia and enrique and then we went to yananina and then swung by founf d a cool new named luis, and ended the day visiting the fmailia ovelar. Sounds like church will be a good day tomorrow at church. Last week they had 72 people at church so looks like about the same as laurelty.

Domingo: WOW!! what a day!!!! we had 96 people at church!!!! 8 less actives and 3 investigators.. it was crazy how full it was!! i cant wait to help it grow!!! after that we took the sacrament to an older lady and then we went had some lunch, studied a little bit and then went taught a lesson to a cool new named vanessa, followed up by the best ward concil meeting that i have ever had in paraguay. Then to top the day off we went and taught a recent convert named Gabriela. It was a super good day.. we have 14 returned missionaries in our ward and im super stoked to be here!!!!

Lunes: HAPPY BIRTHDAY KELBY!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOO 22 dang shes old hahahWell got started early today, we got zone activity of bowling today, and we have to go get a cell phone from asuncion.. should be a good day..

Well new area new struggles, challenges and suceses.. but im super excited.. hope your guys week is going super well..  Happy birthdya to kelby again!! love you all a ton!!

Love

Elder Jace Gummersall

How did September get here?

9/1/14

wow time flies by sooooooooooooooooooo fast.....

Well heres how the week went...

Lunes: Well we got speacial changes today, so it looksl like ill be in a trio in my area until the end of changes... elder riveras companion went home, and so we will all be together, so i met up with him and then we headed into remansito, visited some people helped an old active lady that went inactive decide to go back to church, and said hi to a few more people, it was really good, and then we went home. Miss that place sometimes....

Martes: Today we woke up and moved a suitcase of elder Rivera into our house for the next two weeks. Then we did our studies and went to district meeting. That went well, after that we went to lunch and had a super good lesson with the owner of our house it was pretty cool. After that we went and got to work. We went and visited Lucy who said she would be going to church this sunday and then we went and found 2 cool news named wilfrido and cristina, after that we went cristaldo who is a super sick family taht we are helping reactivate and trying to helpthose who werent baptized get baptized... after that we got a call saying that elder rivera would be getting a new comp tomorrow so thats cool, then we went joel and alba and after that we called it a day. It was a fun trio while it lasted.

Miercoles: today we got up early and headed to zone capacitation. The zone was broken into two different groups and we had to be there for both of them as we did staitons with the missionaries, and had interviews with the president. It went really well except that it lasted 11 1/2 hours long... but it was good. After we got on a colectivo, i jumped on and almost fell off and died.. that wouldve been cool... and then we went and taught Eva, a Less Active Lady, and then we went and had a good lesson with Carolina and her kids, we are hoping to reactive and baptism the whole family, it would be super cool. but that was out whole day.

Jueves: Today i wole up with a sore throat.. tht wasfun to deal with all day. We did some weekly planning and then went to lunch with the familia lopez, it was a good one, oh btw elderGoss had a super running nose all day so as you can imagine we were the team of mr. sniffles, and boy going through puberty at age 20 today... but we did have agood day. We got to share with Alba, also wegot to share with a less active daughter who was pretty cool. Then we went Horetensia and that was a real good lesson with Mariana and richard, they want the daughter to get baptized while they wait to get married but we are helping them realize the importance of donig things as a family. After that we found a very interesting new named liliana, who let us in the house with the family without question or even asking if we could step inside. Then after that we had a super cool lesson with the familia cristaldo and a ton of there friends, it was super cool and we are hoping to see some reults out of it. After that we called it a night and went to bed...

Viernes: Went on a division today with elder gallegos from peru. it was really good we went to Alexandra, and then we went to lunch, after that we attacked the siesta we found this cool dude named lino, had a good visit with him and then we went and talked to jesus and his family... its kind of weird that thats such a common name down here. After that we went and had a good lesson with the familia borja and then we went and taught eva and her family followed by going to karina who is having probelms with her house and it going up for sale or not. After that we had some cool contacts of some kids that were hanging out outside there house, they asked abounch of questions and then said that they would be going to church on sunday so we wil see about that. after that we called it a day.

Sabado: Finshed the division today, did some studying, made some lunch then we went out and got some work done, we went and visited carolina who promised us that she would be at church this sunday with her kids. then we went and taught wiliam and his two brothers they were two really cool homies.. and then after that we went to cristaldo who told us that they all would be there tomorrow, and then after that we went to alba, ofllowed by the amiliy silvero and ened the night by teaching richard and hortensia and setting a baptism goal for them in january so they can do it all as a family.. it was really cool. we called it a night feeling really good about who we were going to see in church tomorrow.

Domingo: went to church only to be disappionted and to only have 52 people there with 3 less actives and 0 investigators was a tough one, but sometimes god teaches us patience right? after that we spent time talking to ech compaionship in the zone to help fix zone struggles as well. Agust just didnt seem to set up a super bountiful september. but that doesnt give anyone çany reason to stop trying or stop working. So we went and had some good lessons, we went and taught Osvaldo and had a good lesson with him, after which we went and talked to alba, and then we shared with Zoris family and also got to know juan carlos a ess active alot better, then we ended the day by haveing a sper good NDH with the familia lopez (or atleast the less active dad and some of his active kids and wife) and the stake youngs women president and her husband qho really came to help the less active daughter... it ended up being one of the best lessons that i have ever been a part of and we all felt really good walking out of there. Really hoping the teachings were undertood and that that family can lift itself up again completely real soon. after that we called it a night.

Lunes: Got up and went straight to the mision dentist, that was fun elder goss had to get his tooth partly fixed, then after that we went to the office and played some basketball with elder day elder caldaron, elder sprenger eldr wolfgram elder sanchez and some other latins.. it was good.. just super hot! after that we went to the bazillian bbq with elder fauset elder ellefeson the assistents and elder silva and it was super deliciuos.. only it was sad to find out that elder ellefson was on his way home sometime this week as well. But he is a good guy and i know that he will do good things. After that we made our way back to the ciber and now im wiritng you guys.. pretty fun day haha..

Looks like things are about to get real hot in paraguay again.. weird to think that its the last time that itll happen like this.. bring it on.. i hope i dont regret typing that... love you all hope all is well!!

Love

Elder Jace Gummersall