April 25, 2011

hola familia. mom did you get my pictures? let me know if no. I am glad marilyn and willy lutz got to come visit. tell them I said hi and I hope they are doing well. I hope you all had a good easter. felices pascua. this week was full of chipa during la semana santa. it is a tradition here in paraguay to make chipa this week. chipa is a bread type food. kind of hard to describe. mom and dad you will have to try it when you come at the end of my mission! they sell it everywhere all year long but this week is way more. la semana santa is quite interesting. schools close wed thru fri and friday, everything shuts down. nothing is open. and I mean practically nothing. it was kind of hard to find people to teach since everyone traveled to the interior to visit family and such. but we worked through it and had a fairly successful week. it was interesting that on sunday, when we celebrate the resurrection of the Savior, they are all back to normal. they focus more on the day Christ died, friday. I was thinking how, shouldn't they be remembering the Savior more that he was resurrected on sunday and shut everything down on sunday? but it is a great part of tradition, they take a whole week out to remember Christ. a lot of people asked what we do in our church por semana santa, we would usually reply how we try to make every week like semana santa in our church and always remember Him. hermana knapp and I gave talks on sunday too. it was a great opportunity to get them excited about la obra misional. I based my talk on Juan 21:# I dont remember. but it is when Christ asks peter 3 times if he loves Him. and every time peter says of course. but Christ says that if he loves Him, he will feed his sheep. I was thinking of how everything we do as missionaries is because of our love for the Savior. I can't even describe how much my desire to share the gospel with others has grown as I have drawn closer to my Savior these past 6 months. (wow 6 months crazy!!)
Ruben is doing so well. He will receive the priesthood this sunday woohoo. he is so diligent. he read the entire book of mormon before his baptism and wakes up extra early every morning to study the scripture and his principios del evangelio manual. his mom that he takes care of, we are focusing on right now. she will definitely be baptized in mayo for sure. her 3rd baptism. but it will be the one that counts.
we have the greatest 14 year old kid that has a baptismal date for 6 de mayo. he attended another branch for a while, the mission decided he would have more support in my ward, so he began to attend leopardi. he is way excited to get baptized and is so great. the other day in a lesson, he asked if he could share a scripture with us from el libro de mormon that he read recently. that NEVER happens, that an ivestigator wants to share what they read in the scriptures. well, unless it is un Evangelico that wants to teach us instead of us teach him. anyways, the only problem is getting the permission of his mom. she doesn't like the church. we asked her if there was a reason why, and she just said that she doesn't like it. hermana knapp and I have been praying like crazy and thinking of what we can do to help her feel more comfortable with her son being baptized. Pray for carlos! (that is his name). I wish we could visit him more but he only has time after dark, and he lives in an area a bit peligroso, so we always have to find someone to come with us. but that is always good to have a member of course.
I can't believe this cambio is coming to a close. it has flown by. i still feel like I am just getting started. i still feel so new and have so much I need to learn and do better. it is kind of overwhelming. I really enjoy working with hermana knapp. we have fun together and there is always something everyday that makes us laugh. 2 americanas makin there way in paraguay. sometimes we just look at each other when neither of us understands someone and laugh. we have learned a lot together. she told me that when she was in the house of president callan, when her companion was sick, that he told her it was really amazing how strong he felt that we should be companions.
I really can't believe how fast time is flying by. people always ask how much time I have here in paraguay, and I hate being reminded all the time that my mission is already 1/3 over. I really miss you all, but really don't want this to end. everyday I am just in aww of what I get to do. ya there are ups and downs . we get a lot of people who yell ´´otro dia´´ , but the joy of sharing the gospel is like none other. well, got to go. love and miss you all muchisimo. I hope everyone is doing great. talk to you in a few weeks!!
love,
hermana plummer
oh mom, here is your phrase of the week, ´´que purete´´. everyone always says this as a way of saying cool, or great, or that something is good.