9 de enero, 2012
Querida familia,
So one of the most entertaining things about living in Paraguay is seeing the way that people react to the tall blonde foreigner, or in other words, me. I have never had so many references and questions about my heritage because where I come from light skin, blue eyes and blonde hair isn’t out of the norm, but here, it absolutely is. Take this “snake- moment” for example. (I usually choose not to include these moments because they are too numerous to count but this one is funny). My Polynesian companion (who grew up in Utah and everyone thinks she is a Latina) and I get on a collective/bus. We are speaking English and two guys start talking in Spanish about us, assuming that we can’t understand. Their conversation goes something like this: “Wow, how tall do you think that girl is? Two meters, easily. How does that Latina understand English? Do you think they speak Spanish? I don’t think so, let’s see.” So they try talking to my companion and well, in that moment we just happened to not speak Spanish. :)
Another moment: Walking home one night, we are speaking English a little too loudly and laughing in the street. A guy who is standing in front of his house starts speaking German? Dutch? Then I realize he just asked me if I spoke Dutch. He didn’t try speaking English, Spanish or Guarani to me, but Dutch. I responded in Spanish, “I speak English,” to which he responded, “Sorry” in English with a Spanish accent. It was pretty hilarious. There’s quite a mix of cultures here and people have misconceptions about us- like guessing where we come from, etc.
Well, I have been in Loma so long that I have watched babies be born, little kittens grow into cats, many birthdays happen, callings change, seasons change from winter to fall to summer and people move away. I’ve been here for almost all four seasons. This week we have still been working with the list of members and we’ve made a lot of progress. Unfortunately the ward list here hasn’t been updated in 30 years since the ward began. The other problem is that many parts of Paraguay don’t have street names or house numbers so locating a house is a huge guessing game.
We experienced a small miracle this week. We received a reference and we called out to her just as we were walking past her house (we had no idea which house she lived in). The recently baptized member, who gave the reference to the elders, just happened to be spending the day there from out of town. We gave her a Book of Mormon and will keep you updated with her progress. I love “coincidences” that are really miracles!
The members have really been stepping up and giving us references and inviting us to teach their friends. We had a cool lesson with Rosa and her two daughters. She understands a little Spanish but mostly speaks Guarani so a ward member had to translate everything. She read the entire pamphlet, which shows a lot of interest. We went to pick her up for church on Sunday but her husband said she couldn’t go. Don’t get me started on that! But we are going to keep working with her. Her daughters are cute and one of them, Cecilia, reminds me of my little sister, Jodie (she has brown eyes and giggles a lot :)) The funny part of our first lesson together was that we started singing a hymn, as we always do and all of a sudden, their neighbor behind us, starts BLASTING rock n´ roll music and I almost started laughing! The song was from the movie, “Remember the Titans”. Oh my gosh. Paraguay. So random. They LOVE old rock n´roll here- music from the 50´s, 60´s, Elvis, the Beatles, and Disco. All the while we are sitting on plastic lawn chairs in the middle of their yard, with their clothes hanging to dry in the background and chickens walking around.
We are working with little Josecito, the grandson of the Suarez family (Uruguayans who I spent Christmas Eve with). They are an awesome family and we are so excited for him and excited to teach him. He looks like a mini-Paraguayan Jacob Black, haha.
Three Kings Day was on January 6th. Instead of Santa Claus delivering the gifts the ‘three kings who visited Jesus’ show up on their camels and bring all the little kids bikes, skates, soccer balls... It’s pretty cool and I think I will be bringing that tradition home with me.
I spoke at the EFY (Especially for Youth) fireside and had 40 youth show up. EFY is coming for the first time EVER in two weeks and no one knows what to expect. So I explained the activities, bore my testimony about it, showed pictures, and played an EFY game. It was really fun and I enjoyed it a lot!
So it’s basically 1000 degrees here everyday. We work, live and walk in our sweat. At night it cools down to about 90 degrees. It’s SO hot! I think Paraguay has its own sun that is about 10 times hotter than anywhere else in the world. I walk around in sunglasses with my umbrella and I don’t even care when the elders call me Mary Poppins.
I love this work and I love the Lord- the restored Gospel rocks!! We are so blessed to have it on the earth today! God is so willing to help us if we allow Him to. He is always reaching out to us, waiting for us to come to him.
Until next week,
Hermana Brittner
PS. Laura Fernsten- LOVE the wedding announcement- you two are SO cute together and you look so happy and so pretty! Congrats!
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