May 9, 2011

Our skype with Whitney was the best!!!  Can’t believe it is over.  She is happy, well and loves her mission!!   Very hard to say goodbye until Christmas and a tears on each side as we hung up.  This was Mother’s Day but I’ll share her with the family on the Christmas call.  There were a few glitches in the way that brought on anxiety and tears in Bountiful and Paraguay as we prepared for the call as well as trying to make the call.  Whitney was over 2 hrs late, but it all worked out in the end. 

hola familia, happy mother´s day mom. I realized I didn´t tell you on saturday. how awful. I love you so much and can´t believe how blessed I am to have you as my mom and have such an example to follow. i am so glad you had a good mother´s day. and dont worry, I will be there next mother´s day, barely. happy mother´s day to all my sisters too. I miss you all so much and loved your letters and drawings from the cutest nieces and nephews in the world.
 I still can't believe I got to talk to you both mom and dad. I was sad I couldnt see dad´s face too, but to hear your voices was such a comfort. I was way worried when I couldnt get on the computers at 6pm, since I had no way to tell you what was happening - computers didn't have skype and they were all full with a waiting list. i had a few tears. can't lie, but was such a relief when I called from a members home and you were both able to get on. I loved every minute of it. I hope you both were able to get more of an idea of how it is here in Paraguay. it was kind of surreal for me. gives me mixed emotions. i was a bit homesick for a sec, but then I think about it and am reminded how blessed I am to have an eternal family. a reminder of how important it is for me to share the restored gospel with others. I am in contact with so many people every day, so many families, and I pray that I can be an instrument in the Lord´s hands to help a family enjoy the blessings of the restored gospel forever.
this weekend has been a bit crazy .ups and downs. we have some great investigators with baptismal dates and am so excited. we have the baptism of 14 year old carlos this saturday morning. we planned it for the morning so his mom could be there since she works every afternoon, but looks like she might have to work saturday morning too. I really hope she can be there. it would mean so much to carlos and be so great for her to know a bit more of how the church is. and hopfully soon be baptized too.
we have felt like we are in a bit of a rut with finding new people to teach, so we are currently trying different things out to get going again. dad, you asked about my spanish. well, I have reached the point where I feel comfortable talking. thankfully i understand a lot more, which still depends on the person. and apparently the paraguayos don’t have very good spanish, and they know it. I think a lot of it has to do with mixing in guarani, yopara is what they call the mix. but there is so so much more to learn. as a missionary, you get comfortable with gospel language, but expanding the horizons is such a broad spectrum of everything. it is coming little by little, along with the grammar.
please have hna lavaka in your prayers. i haven't really ever talked to her in spanish, so I dont know how it is coming along for her.  yes, time flies by and before we know it the mission will be over. I was thinking, wow, I really need to learn so much more really fast.
also, I mentioned I’ve gained some weight. don’t worry, I am not offended that you are concerned about my health. We have lunch appointments every day of the week and are grateful to these members who feed us.  The food we are served, the quantities they feed us, and the customs they have makes it really hard. my jeans still fit. It is definitely bothering me as you can imagine. hna knapp and I are working on it. one of our lunch appointments can't do it anymore because she has to work. a blessing in disguise. haha. she feeds us sooo much. ahh. we walk a ton, but we just have to find ways to eat less and more healthy when we can.
well, got to go. my testimony grows more and more every day of how true this gospel is, and am so grateful to know it. hope you are all doing well. miss and love you tons!!
love,
hermana plummer