Week 27/ Dec 19

Haupei Yall!

Happy Things:

1. I think everyone knows that doughnuts and ice cream are two of my favorite things and I forget if I already mentioned this (if I have yall already know it just makes me SO happy) but Familia Ramirez (my little Leis) has a soft serve ice cream machine that her dad just MADE! He is the coolest. And this week when we were DYING of heat (whatever 40 degrees celsius is and then some...pretty sure its over 100 by now) we just happened to plan to visit them and they had just happened to plan to make mango ice cream! (those suckers are on the ground EVERYWHERE) hashtag tender mercies. 

2. MORE FOOD MORE HAPPY. but really. we learned how to make CHIPA! and in a TATAKUA! or a mud oven haha. it was HARD WORK. and we made so so much. but it was totally worth it. and it may not taste the best but it was made with our sweat and tears. haha we have a ton...but get ready USA I will be making chipa left and right. it is the best. 

3. Familia Brites...Carla and Emilio... they are a younger couple that got baptized a little bit ago and well they went inactive and then moved to Mariano! Hermana Taylor and I found them a while back but not until recent have they completely reactived AND set a date for their sealing in March! and YES I got invited. They are truly the sweetest, funniest, most awesome parents ever. I want to bring their daughters home. I love them so so much and I just feel so grateful to be a part of their family. 

4. This week Hermana Montaño and I had a lunch appt that was a million miles away and super close to the river so we decided hey we are going to try and get a little closer! We never got there but en route we were just walking and talking and saw a younger woman pulling a bunch of branches away from her yard and sad to say we kept walking... but after not even 1 metro we both looked at each other and said...we need to turn around! We went up to her and said hey we are gonna help. Then after she offered us water (which you ALWAYS accept here haha) and we got to sit down and start talking with her. We start telling her about the church and what we do and she just smiled and looked at us. Then she said "I hate to interupt but I need to tell yall something. I am catholic...but I have been praying this week for help. I asked God for a sign and then yall came walking by and missionaries never come walking all the way out here and then yall helped me with the tree and the neighbors dont even help me but as soon as we sat down I knew that yall were my sign. Tell me everything about your church." We just about died... We are hopeful that we will get to tell yall more about Maria!

5. So with this awesome Christmas season there is this awesome video (mormon.org) called Ilumina al Mundo and our zone has not had the little pass along cards until this past week. such a bummer. BUT as soon as we got our hands on them we got hopping. Something different about Paraguay is not everyone has a smart phone and even if they do most of the time they havent paid for 4G. BUT we still asked. I love looking back on the little moments we have had this week with the Spirit of this video. On the side of the road with loud motos and colectivos passing by, through an unopened gate, in the shack of a house with a dirt ground, and in the quiet of a member home. Every single time the Spirit was there to testify of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and his miraculous birth. And even more than that his miraculous acts of service! El vino al mundo al servir no a ser servido! It truly is incredible that we as his servants, as his children, can also light up the world with HIS light as we serve and love. 

Less than a week until Christmas and I know that we can light up the world and do more this Christmas season then focus on the gifts (or down here eat your guts out and light up tons of fireworks) I love my Savior Jesus Christ. I know that He lives and that there are still miracles. I know that his birth is the BEST gift that we have ever received. 

Merry Christmas! Feliz Navidad!

xoxo, 

Hermana Vergara

3 Nephi 5:13 

PS Chipa with Familia Arzamendia, ROLL TIDE, and Familia Brites! 

Week 28 /Dec 26, 2016

Haupei Yall!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! FELIZ NAVIDAD!!! It sure has been a super blessed one and I hope that yall have felt the same. 

This week of happy things IN PICTURES:

1. Apple pie paraguay style

2. Our Zone played a little bit of White Elephant! two lucky elders took home a frame picture of me and comp eating Mcdonalds! 

3. 6 months on the mish = 6 alfajores! 

4. Mariano put on a Christmas program and we made the most of it :) 

5. FAMILIA BRITES! CENA 1! super yummy :)

6. FAMILIA PAVON! CENA 2! not as yummy cause super full. but worth it!  

7. Hermana Evans is an ANGEL! and Presidente even made the fudge!

8. AND last but definitely not least...the BEST Christmas present I could ask for! MY CUTE FAMILY ON SKYPE! best hour of my life. 

​​​​Crazy thing is that not all my happy photos even fit in this email. It truly was an incredible week! I am so grateful for my family, for the families that take care of me out here in Paraguay, and for my Savior who keeps on pouring out the blessings! 

​​ 

I love the Light up the World campaign the church is doing for this past Christmas season BUT IT DOES NOT STOP THERE! Spreading the light of Christ, serving, and loving should not ever stop! I want to invite each of yall this upcoming new year to pray EVERYDAY for an opportunity to serve. Put your heart and soul into it and it will change your life. I am a walking testimony of that truth! 

ALL MY LOVE AND MORE!!! 

Hermana Vergara

3 Nephi 5:13 

Week 26

Haupei Yall!

Happy Things! 

1. We had a multi zone conference this week for NAVIDAD! We were paired up with Luque Sur zone and had the BEST devotional and training from President Evans. We focused a lot on being and doing the best of our best and how it even comes down to what we wear. If we want to be the Lords servants we need to look and act like it! always. We ate the best food by Hermana Evans herself. Im talking barbeque and carrot cake. I just about died. Then  we got to do our fun service activity which has a pretty cool story added to it as well. Our service project this year was to do little baby blankets (the ones where you cut and tie) and then we found out we get to take it to our areas and donate it at the local hospital. Hermana Montaño and I went and searched out a newborn yesterday (they just let us in the hospitals here...power of the placa!) and the sweet newborn boy is a new addition to a family of 7 who really needs Jesus right now. Sadly, they live in the asistentes area, BUT its the same chapel so we are hoping to see her on Sunday!

2. The Primary did their Primary Program this past Sunday! It is always so humbling and such a testimony builder to hear those sweet kids singing and bearing testimony of Jesus Christ. 

3. We had a wicked awesome zone activity today! We are the only hermanas in our zone so usually the elders just leave us out BUT today they did something we could participate in! We were tested on our book of mormon knowledge and lets just say my team was not on top of our game. Punishment was being egged and floured...but luckily in the end we found a way to get a hold of the flour and eggs and everyone got dirty :)

4. TOBIAS GOT BAPTIZED! woohoo! Our sweet Tobias is from a huge less active family where all the youngins are active and the parents are just a little lazy...BUT they are huge supporters and they are all slowly reactivating! And a baptism always helps them get back up on their feet and remember the sacred covenant they made with the Lord. It was a rainy day, but they always say rain is good luck so we enjoyed dancing in it. 

Something I absolutey adore that the church is doing for Christmas are the 25 days of service that go along with the gorgeous video Ilumina el Mundo that you can find on mormon.org. Each day there is something little, that is a little bit more, that we can do, study, or pray for. We are loving it on the missionary end because the members are even more willing to participate in the service of our Lord, but even more than that is that we as missionaries are reminded daily what we can do to become better instruments in the hands of God! Our main goal in life should truly be to become more like Jesus Christ, and as learn charity and serve I know that we grow closer and closer to him. I encourage each of yall to pray each day in the morning for an opportunity to serve and remember the reason for the season! 

Con todo mi amor, 

Hermana Vergara

3 Nephi 5:13 

PS our cute christmas tree :) Blanca, our convert, opened her business! It was Hermana Montaños first ever lomito! 

Week 25

Haupei Yall!

First things first= FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS to the best dad ever!!! I hope Sri Lanka treats ya real well:)

Happy Things!

1. We had more splits with the hermana lideres! I got to go out in Mariano with my trainer! Hermana Taylor and I back together again and with ice cream! just like old times :) It was very different walking the paths that Hermana Montaño and I walk with my mama, but I still learn so so much from her each time and I am so grateful she is my leader and I get to continue to learn from her! 

2. We are working real hard and being real patient with my good, basically little brother, Tobias and we have arrived! He will get baptized this next weekend! Shoot up some prayers for him this week as he prepares for this big step! 

3. We were so blessed and so siked to have two more of our investigators at church this weekend! Juan- is an older man who is making huge changes in his life. After our first lesson he stopped drinking. Just like that without even talking about the Word of Wisdom yet! He wants change and he wants to start new and truly I know that he will make it there! Also, Marley came to church- He is a young man whose entire family is super catholic. As in the first time we found him he couldn't come to church because he had to do his confirmation on Sunday, but one of his close friends, Johana (the sweet girl that gave me the yellow dress) has been reaching out to him and he is progressing really well! On Sunday he was really happy to meet so many people and the branch here truly reaches out to everyone person that steps in the building. We are hoping we can continue to teach him with the support of his family and we plan to take that step this week! Prayers prayers prayers! 

4. We are loving summer and all the mango trees! There are HUNDREDS of mango's EVERYWHERE. We asked a sweet older man in a contact for just one and he went inside his house and brought us a bag of 20... Hermana Montaño was way happy! 

Quick thought: https://www.mormon.org PRESS PLAY AND WATCH THE VIDEO. that is all :)

Con todo mi amor de Paraguay, 

ROHAYHU!

Hermana Vergara

3 Nephi 5:13