I LOVE THE TEMPLE!!

Hola hola! How is everyone? I'm doing great! Today was our temple day!! Yay! It had been over 8 months since I last went! Long time! We were in the temple from 8am until 2pm and basically I enjoyed every minute of it. I did see the Huffakers there...they are so nice! And also, I ran into Sister Griffith (know her mom?).....I walked into a room and Sister Huffaker and Sister Griffith were sitting in there and they both said "thats her!" and came up and gave me big hugs. So cute. Sister Griffith said she knows mom and dad from along time ago when Kenny was a baby and that you guys lived right by each other. Such a small world! I think all the other missionaries were just like how does Hermana Sargent know all the temple workers?! Ha! So funny. Who would have thought all these Arizonans would be in Paraguay?! Okay, we had the opportunity to do baptisms, sealings and then a session. It was great! After the session there were a ton of us missionaries in the Celestial Room and President Udall, the Temple President, came in and was talking to a young couple who were just about to be sealed. This couple only had like 3 people from their ward to be present in their sealing so they invited all like 30 of us missionaries to come. It was a really neat experience since I had never seen a live sealing before. So we were able to be a part of their beautiful sealing, then they brought in their 1 year old baby boy to be sealed to them as well. Wow, the Spirit was incredibly strong. As missionaries we are constantly teaching about how families can be together forever and how when we prepare ourselves and are worthy we can receive all the blessings our Heavenly Father has in store for us. So to see this cute young family be sealed really strengthened my testimony of the things we teach! and especially of the power of the Priesthood. I was thinking today without the Priesthood on the earth and without worthy men who hold the Priesthood, we wouldn't be able to take part in such sacred ordinances. We are so blessed! I am grateful for the temple experience I had today and the things I was able to learn and feel. I love the temple!

Asuncion Temple

So after the temple we headed across the street to Burger King! Okay, I never would eat at Burger King if I was in the States, but I was all up for a taste of America today. And honestly, it was really good. Chocolate shake, hamburger and fries! The place was packed with missionaries! So fun!

Burger King

This past Sunday we had stake conference in downtown. It was awesome. It was broadcasted from SLC and Elder Packer and Ballard both spoke as well as Elder Costa from the 70. It was super good. Elder Costas talk was my personal fave. He referred to the hymn "count your blessings" and listed off about 10 big blessings that we have as members of the church. The Book of Mormon, Temples, etc.. It was a really great conference. Okay. This past week we didn't have water in our apartment for three days. Disaster!! Something was wrong in our building and they couldn't fix it. To shower, wash dishes, flush the toilet, wash clothes and for everything else we had to carry 2 little buckets that we have down into this like parking garage area underneath our buidling and use this little like pump thing to fill up our buckets and then take them back up to our apartment and then go back down to refill them again. Oh Paraguay! It was crazy. Luckily, as of last night we have water!! So BG now. Hermana Machuca and I are teaching a 33 year old single man, David. I don;t know if I wrote about him or not. But the other week we were walking by an apartment building and we decided to see who lived there. So I rang each of the little door bells and David was the only one to come out. Ends up he has talked with missionaries before, often reads from the Book of Mormon...and knows a lot about it!, and has a cousin who is an active member in a ward nearby. He is definitely prepared and has a desire to be baptized. He does drink coffee but we are helping him to get off that addiction. We are excited about him and hope that he progresses more! Oh my gosh the other day we were making some contacts and we came across this older woman. She was not up for listening and said that we speak two different languages because all we do is talk about Jesus Chrsit and not Mary. I asked her who was it who died for us? She didn't answer the question but asked us "well who gave him birth?" It's interesting, the different point of views and beliefs that people have. Many people think us, as mormons, don't believe in Mary. We often have to explain how yes, we do believe in her, she was a great woman, we respect her, but as it says in the Bible, we only pray to our Heavenly Father. Many people here don't agree with us which is weird since they are such avid Bible readers. It's one thing to read the Bible, but we have to understand and apply what it says too!

Last Tuesday in district meeting I received a letter from the mission secretary........it was the dreaded trunky papers.....aka....release papers asking all about the nearest airport to my house, if my family would be waiting for me, etc. so, March 24th is when I'll be leaving Paraguay. Less than 5 months now. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.

Okay family.......gotta get going! So glad to write you and give you the update on what's happening down here in Asuncion. I love reading your letters and am very happy to know that everyone is doing good! I love you all lots and am so grateful for each one of you!! Have a great day! Hasta Monday!

Un Carrito

My trunkypapers...ahhh!