Email 06/08/09

This has been an amazing couple of weeks. So much has happened.

First to answer the questions from last week. When I wrote you two week ago it had rained for three days straight. It rained an entire week after that. It was a full week and a half of rain. No sun whatsoever. How I survived was Howard´s big overcoat that I borrowed. That was my lifesaver.

To go with what Uncle D´wayne said, 2 Thursdays ago I started teaching piano again. I have six students, two are investigators. My friend Elias, the Stake Executive Secretary, is amazing with the piano and music. He does all the music for everything. Well, he got a full ride scholarship to go to Taiwan for 5 years and study there. Before when I tried to teach piano I had no support from anyone, now that Elias is leaving the Stake President asked me if I was still willing to teach. It´s been wonderful. My six students are quite different from each other so it is six different lessons. It feels SO good to be doing that again. My favorite is Elias´s little sister, Alejandra. So smart, so sweet, and practices her little heart out every week. It drives Elias nuts but she´s learning.

The baking: For the cooking times it takes almost an hour for a sheet cake but 15 minute for brownies. The cook book I stole was the one from Goodyear Ward that the Young Women made. I just took the basic cake recipes and changed it with the flavors that we wanted.
Salaries, most people make a few thousand dollars a year, especially here. Work has gone completely dry in Paraguay outside of the two big cities, Asunción and Ciudad del Este. Most men have to leave the country, go to Argentina, Brazil, sometimes Spain to earn money. It´s not expensive to live here, but there is NO money. In the cities there are government projects called villas but surprisingly it takes a lot of effort to qualify. No one starves, food grows here all year round, no one can go hungry but almost no one has 2 cents to rub together.

Now for the interesting part. In Rama 1 the missionaries for this transfer were Castro and Ruiz. Castro is Columbian and Ruiz is Paraguayan. Castro got really friendly with a lady from his branch and his branch president called President Bradley. In three days both Castro and Ruiz got transferred. That meant the Branch 1 was without Missionaries. This happened last Sunday, May 31st. Monday during the Zone Conference President Bradley took me aside and asked if me and Mercado would be able to work their area and ours for the week. He asked it like it was a question but it wasn´t a question. So we´ve been running all over town trying to get to know the other area. When the two elders left, they left NO information about their investigators, members, NOTHING. It was our job to find this information so we could give it to the new missionaries that will come. The new missionaries are supposed to come TONIGHT but we´ll see. We got things fairly set up, made maps, found investigators and members. These missionaries shouldn´t be too lost. The gross part was their apartment. Something from a bad TV show. The left the batter for French Toast sitting on the stove for 3 WEEKS!!!!!! President also asked if I, NOT we, I, would clean their pension. GROSS. But it sparkles now. No I didn´t take pictures of it because quite frankly it turned me stomach.

Now for the actual Missionary Work. Margdalena´s boyfriend, that´s 18!, is a member. Inactive but still a member. His dad was the branch president for a while before he became wicked. And wicked is putting it nicely. Mercado and I started visiting them, Familía Gonzalez, a while back and they gave us the reference of Margdalena. Their family has completely turned around. Since the first family home evening they have not missed a single Sunday (except for the rainy day but no one else came either). They have started coming with us to visit investigators and it has been so wonderful seeing them progress. Yesterday they came and brought their neighbors to meet us and to come to church. Talk about blessings.

I´ve got to go. I love you all so much.

Elder Frank Wills