March 19, 2012

hi mom dad and family, sorry dad that you are still not feeling 100%. but that makes me so happy that you and mom were able to go to the temple together after so long. I just love the temple. mom, I haven't gotten the 2nd package yet. I got the first one a few weeks ago and ate all the red vines in one day. haha. my favorites. thanks so much. lambaré is a very big city. yes it is an upscale community. I am not sure you need to bring a lot of white shirts and skirts. well, a few. I will see. at least here in lambaré very few lack those things. skin is ok. as for the brazilian visa. he said that I need one.   I will call again, because you just need to coordinate it with the office elder in charge of travel stuff. I don't know what the law is and stuff. I haven't heard from kate lately. I got a letter from mrs wallace. she is so great and sends me letters, which I love. anyways, I hope the package comes soon. I need it. hna jones gave me a deodorant from the states that i am using thank goodness, but I just really miss MY deodorant. I have absolutely no makeup right now. it is a sad sight.
well I hope you all had a good week. I am sure mike is loving having the whole house to himself. this week here wasn’t as hot, so that was a blessing. I learned a new word. caracola - seashell. I also just bought something to take back to the states. it is super cute and something that all the paraguayos have in their house. I am excited to have it in my house too to always remember paraguay. I realized that I haven't boughten anything. we had a super awesome thing happen, shabanna´s mom said YES! she is way excited for her baptism. at the temple we bought her a personal progress book to start. oh as for the couple, umm. we went to an appointment the other week and she said that they talked and decided they don’t want to meet with us anymore because she is scared of what people will say if they have mormons coming to their house. ya. it was rough. but when one door closes another one opens. I don’t know if I talked about moura. she is 70 years old, and can’t really walk, but is the sweetest ever. she wants to come to church so much and is preparing for her baptism. she always remembers the exact hour that we said we would come, and is waiting for us with her Book of Mormon having read total. she is understanding the concept of the restoration little by little, and has such a faith in Christ and wants to be baptized to follow Him. I will have to take a picture with her to send. this week went by a bit slow because we just couldn't seem to find anyone to teach. we try to do everything, but then everything just falls through. I have a hard time accepting when that happens. I tell myself that it has to be my fault because I must not have done somthing right, but i am learning that it isn’t quite that way. yes there is always something i can do better, but as I read about hope today in preach my gospel, i realized that hope is having calm confidence that the trials we have will be for our benefit in the long run. maybe my mission has had a few more bumps in the road than I would have liked, or maybe it just didn’t go the way I had planned. But I just need to trust in Heavenly Father's will that if i did my part, my mission has been what he knew would teach me what I need for my life. we all have the same objective, but we all also have different things to learn. hope is patiently trusting in the will of God and obediently pressing on. Don’t think that I immediately came up with that. it has been a struggle to feel what I have said, but I am getting there thanks to a lot of help from the Lord and my companion. it is ultimately how one can just be happy. well, I got to go. I love you all so much.
love,
hermana plummer