Hakù Tererèi (1/26/15)

This week was really, really hot. For the first time, we had to take several breaks in the shade just to not get heat stroke or something. Try walking 6 hours in 90 degree weather with what seems like a swimming 200% humidity. Actually it's pretty fun, and everybody always makes fun of my comp for having a bright red burnt sausage nose  because he doesn't use sunblock like I do. This week not much happened, so I'm going to explain some really weird random stuff.

First I'll talk about Goliath. Not the giant that David killed before he became an adulterer, but the pitbull that follows the missionaries (me) around every day! What a sweet guy. From anyone who's known me for longer than a few months, they'll know I'm not really a dog person. It might seem weird to find out that my companion and I hang out with a pitbull all the time, and it waits outside our house until we leave and follows us until we go home. It's a really calm dog, and protects us from other dogs which is cool. I'm just waiting for the day it snaps and eats my face off. Just kidding mom! Really it follows us maybe a few times a week and comes to Branch Night for the English classes and soccer. Totally a cool guy. When it follows us to lessons it always pees in people's houses. I don't really want to tell it to go away so we just sort of go along with it. 

By the way the subject of this email means "it's hot outside" in guaranì. Essentially the equivalent of Hace Calor in spanish, or RRRAAAAGHR in Wookie. Wow I'm a little crazy today. Please forgive me because honestly the sun is frying my brain. Probably. 

We're switching things up a lot, and I can already see the affects on the branches in Paraguay. It's a great place, and we're working hard all the time. Really, really fun.

Love,

Elder Wilson

Will try to send all of the pictures he can

this cool thing I bought for 70 mil guaranìes from an ex missionary in the branch. It's really cool and I'm totally bringing it home.

Goliath

(No Subject)

Another Baptism (in a river)

(but this time we had our ZL do it)

This week we baptized a 10 year old girl named Veronica. For those of you that have been keeping up with my weekly series of masterpiece epistles, this is the second young woman named Veronica I've baptized. Go figure! This time Veronica decided that she wanted our ZL to actually do the baptism, which was already kind of a plan of ours anyway because he's never baptized in a river. That really isn't the point, but it worked out anyway and was a cool experience for him and for Veronica. She's really cool, is in a part member family, and has friends in the church, so she has a support system with the members that will help her stay active. We did this baptism in a beautiful jungle area that had a really cool waterfall. I'll try to send pictures of that as well. 

Other than that, we did not have a sacrament meeting in Guazu Kua this week due to rain. Rain rain rain rain rain. We went there wednesday in the rain with some youth (which was super fun) but all of my paper stuff that wasn't laminated (planner, missionary manual) got destroyed. 

Really I can barely remember this week. I hit 6 months in the mission, and time is flying by. This week was filled with work stuff, I don't know.

Love, 

Elder Wilson

P.S. Chipa is actually super good I was so wrong

One Who Cries Out in the Wilderness‏

BAPTISM

of Simeon Jara Cantero 

(74 Years Old; Yes, I know. Another old guy)

IN A RIVER

So this week was just about the coolest ever.

On Wednesday I woke up at 3 and  walked the full 34 Km to Guazu Kua with Elder Greene (the other American living with us) for the baptism of Hermano Jara. It was worth it in every way imaginable. I got to baptize Hno Jara in a river! The spirit was extremely strong there and it was an experience I'll never forget. We also got some suuuuuper cool photos. I felt like John the Baptist. Super sweet.

After that, the week was pretty par for the course, lots of contacting, working, teaching, and a trip to Asunción for a Zone Conference. I did have to wake up at 3 AM two nights in a row, but it was super awesome so I didn't even really care.

We also had a Primary activity on Saturday that was really really fun because I love kids and they'r'e always super fun to be around. There was a bouncy house, they painted faces, and ate hot dogs. It was pretty cool.

On Sunday, I participated in the sacrament meeting in Guazu Kua as well. It was my first time blessing the Sacrament in Spanish, which went really well. We held it in the small wooden home of a family in the area. This week really I felt like I was back in the 1800s with the early saints. The spirit was with all of us during the meeting and sang with the spirit and talked with the spirit and ah man it was amazing. Everyone told me that it was always so strong there in the meetings but really I can tell you guys now that that's true. They asked me to share my testimony and during it I choked up a bit. Crazy. After that I used the Instant Snow I got in my Christmas package to show the kids what snow was like. They flipped out and had tons of fun with it. None of them had ever seen snow before. They kept laughing and shouting "ah man it's like in Frozen!" It was really touching. There were about 18 people in attendance.

Also fun fact about my area: There is a leper colony in my area! Don't worry- 1, we aren't allowed go there, 2- Leprosy isn't even contagious. The only reason that everyone thinks it is is because under Mosaic law Leprosy was considered unclean, so they put them in colonies. I really want to go there though... shame. I've heard it's gross, but hey, I'm a disciple of Jesus Christ, ya know? He worked with those guys like, 50% of the time! 

I'll make sure to send you guys some pictures too. Cool week.

Love,

Elder Wilson

 leading Hno Jara into the waters of what looks like Willy Wonka's chocolate river, but what is, in fact, river water (not populated with alligators or fat German kids named Augustus.)

 The sacrament table.

The tiny house on the prairie where we have sacrament meeting in Guazu Kua.

 The Guazu Kua Group.

 Santa Wilson giving the children a Snow day in Paraguay.

One of the kids with snow in his hair for the first time in his life (he lives hours from basically any civilization.)

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Jungle‏

People of Earth,

So my new area is even more beautiful and more of a jungle than I had thought last week. I'm going to try and include pictures if I can, because really this place is awesome. I'm glad I picked the most obvious title for my email as well. 

I'm having an awesome time in this area. Paraguarì 1.1 is about ten times larger than Coronel Oviedo 1.3, and requires a lot of walking. We have to get up at 3 am every Sunday to walk/hitchhike out to a group the missionaries recently opened in Wazu Kua. Church starts at 8:00 am. 

Speaking of Hitchhiking- We do it a lot. The nice thing is that 99.9% of the time, the people that pick us up are super nice and accepting and generally great people. The only problem is the 00.1% of the time. I don't want to freak anyone out, but next time you agree to get into someone's car, try to make sure they DON'T have a budweiser in their hands. You learn a lot on your mission. After a while of Señor Borracho telling us that hell doesn't exist while drunk driving, I forced him to stop the car and let us out. It was an interesting experience. 

Really it's a fun place. It's actually really safe (despite what I said in the last paragraph) and everyone is incredibly chill. My new comp and I are getting along really well along with the guys who live with us, and there are some great upsides to this area (like living above the place where we email). Paraguarì wooohooo!!!

Love,

Elder Wilson

Paraguarì‏

I moved out!

I'm now in an area called Paraguarì 1.1, which is the favorite area of my trainer Elder Arrington, and many, many other Elders here in Paraguay. Elder Arrington basically never shut up about it. He was absolutely stoked when he found out I was going here. It is a large, jungly area that baptizes a lot. (We also have a nice house). My new companion is Elder McDermott from Utah and my district in the MTC! Another American. That's technically my 5th if you count the two in the MTC. We are the two oldest missionaries in our district. I guess President wanted new blood out here.

In about 20 days or so I hit 6 months of my mission. Time flies. Technically today I only have a year and a half left. It's crazy to think about, but I must say it's been great so far, and it can only get better in my eyes. Experience!

Saying goodbye to my converts was extremely hard. When I went to go see Pedro for the last time, he started to tear up, took my hand with both of his and said "siempre voy a recordarle" which means, "I'm always going to remember you". He and Elder Henrie asked me to say a prayer for him and I literally almost cried during the prayer. It was really hard, but I feel so blessed to be able to serve a people like the ones here in Paraguay. I love the people here. I really do. I know that through the good works of myself and the other missionaries that I can help bring people unto Christ, which is an experience I wouldn't trade for anything. 

It's been a crazy, hectic week, filled with traveling and other strangeness, but Paraguay continues to be fun. My "Goats in Trees 2015" calendar definitely helps.  It was fun talking to my family on Skype, and the love from all of the family on Christmas was definitely felt by me here in Paraguay! Thanks for everyone's love, help, and support.

Love,

Elder Wilson

Cribs

¡Por fin!

I no longer live in the dumpiest house in the mission! To be honest, our new house is actually really, really nice. It costs about double what the other one cost, but now we have AC, we don't have roaches or creepy neighbors, and it's extremely clean. Also the faucet has a filter on it as well, so you're welcome, Mom. You can stop worrying about all the tapeworms I probably have. I'll try to include some pictures of the house. It's really great and it makes me super happy. What a christmas gift. Feliz Navidad.

Other than that, we had an interesting week. We had a lesson with a drunk man that ended with him saying ¡SOY EL DIABLO! and hissing at us like a vampire. What an intelligent gentleman he was. We have also been focusing a lot with the "El es la Dádiva" (He is the Gift) campaign. I have seen a surprising amount of miracles come out of showing this video to families. Even though nobody knows the word Dádiva and we have to explain that it means regalo every time. Still, it's a great program that is really working out for us.

In other news, the greatest thing of all time is coming to pass in Paraguay for the next few months: MANGO SEASON

That's right, kids, every tree on every property is bursting with mangos. They are also incredibly delicious. Probably one of my favorite things about Paraguay so far. We just pick good ones off the trees, put them in a bag, take them home, wash them, and eat them. Elder Henrie doesn't like them though. Qué lastima. 

Also I'm going to send the money for my packages this week because Elder Tripp sent the forms early last time and I didn't get to send the money. I'll have them before christmas for sure!

Love,

Elder Wilson

 algunas fotos de nuestra casa nueva. Este casa es muy lindo (yo se que es muy amarillo) y es mas grande que la otra. Voy a vivir aquí hasta el fin de este cambio y probablemente me voy después eso.

(No Subject)

This week was really, really strange. There is a little bit of a sickness going around this place between the missionaries after a lot of rain and cold last week. I'm okay now, and doing super great, but I was sick for a bit and my comp got it too. Don't worry though because I'm still just having a good ol' time here! I did get to experience a Paraguayan doctor's office though, which was an interesting experience. I don't have high confidence in the medical expertise of the Paraguayans. Ibuprofen and lots of water is apparently the cure for everything.

We've also been focusing on finding a new house, because my new companion absolutely can't stand it. He can't sleep and it's just a bad situation. I'm definitely on the same page as him about the house (it really is super bad) but I don't really enjoy complaining too much. We get along super duper well, but he's had some super hard and sketchy areas, so I can see where he's coming from, even if I think attitude is a lil' bit more important. We found what could be our new house, but it is connected to a house of some  girls that are studying in college, so it'll most likely get rejected by President. I'll be honest though, that sounds a lot less creepy than living next to the "girl" we live next to now.

Next week I miiight not get to email. There's a chance that the people that own the cyber cafe we email at won't be here because they'll be participating in the March of Caaucupé. The 8th of December March of Caaucupé is a Paraguayan/Catholic cultural event in which everyone in the country marches to a place called Caaucupé to worship a giant statue of the Virgin Mary. Seems legit to me. Obviously some people here only skimmed the 10 commandments, becuase I thought there was something about idolatry in there. Could be wrong, though. So if you don't get an email next week, that's probably why. Or weather. That's sometimes a factor.

Well, like always, this week I'm doing great. I'm having tons of fun working with helping people as we move closer to Christmas. Super excited for that, by the way. I've got a package sitting in the house and an absurdlyheavy one in the mission home right now, so I'll probably be fighting the temptation to open those for a while. I'm super thankful for everything I've been given and my opportunity to have all the fun experiences I'm having. I love my mission!

Elder Wilson

Can't believe they spoiled another lightsaber reveal in a Star Wars trailer

(But isn't that mad because it's super cool)