The Vida‏

Hey everybody. You all know what today is. Good ol Monday. It is 12:17 in the afternoon in Caaguazu. Nice and hot. Anyways I hope you are all fantastic. I'm doing quite well. I still cant speak in Guarani but that is OK. My Spanish is a lot better, I want to tell you what kind of things have been going on in my life as a missionary.

Isabelino: This guy wants to be baptized right after we talked with him. The first thing he said to us was, "I need to be baptized right away, can you guys baptize me"? We said Claro y te shera. There is only one problem. He is in town 3 days every 40 days. 40 days!!!!! He leaves town to work every 40 days at a time. We gave him a baptismal date for the 14th of September and he said yes, but he won't even be here on that date. He is awesome though and one day we will baptize him. 

La familia Gonzales: This family is a part member family. Jimmy is a recent convert and Madi and Giovanni are his brothers. Madi went to church this past Sunday and Giovanni needs a lot of encouragement. He doesn't understand how we can know for a fact that these things are true. That the Book of Mormon is true and that there is a God. It is really simple. Read the Book of Mormon, pray about it, and come to church. He doesn't do these things, maybe because he is lazy. We are going to give him encouragement though. We have a ward activity this Wednesday and he is going to go with his family. That is pretty awesome indeed. 

I don't have a lot of time, but I love you all. You are all just wonderful, I am doing a lot. I can speak Spanish. My head hurts because of it, but I am doing pretty good at it. As a missionary for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Something I learned this week that helped me a lot. I am not here for me or my own glory. I can baptized 100 people, but this is not because of me. All of the glory all of the things I do is for God. I learned this from my Zone Leader and lucky for me, I live with him. The glory is not mine. Like Jesus Christ. He didn't come down here and suffer for his glory. It was for the glory of his father. It is the same for me. I am here teaching these people and inviting them to be baptized because it is the glory of my father in heaven

Love you all. Have a great week.

Chow Chow

Elder Jessop 

The Mission‏

Hola personas. Hi people, how are you? Today a group of kids in a bus yelled at two missionaries and said hello, It was very funny. And a lot of people know my name that I have never even seen before. They just yell Elder and nothing else. I don't know if they are talking to me or if they are talking to Elder Morgan it really confuses us. Another thing that is really chistoso (funny) is that when people yell Mormones at us we just yell back at them Catholicos!! And then we teach them the gospel and one day they will be Mormon too when they accept the truth into their lives. Yea those are funny things that happen to us. 

This week we taught a part member family se llama La Familia Britos. She wants to be baptized, but she wants to wait until her son turns 8 so they can be baptized together. She needs to be baptized like yesterday so she can be an example for her 8 year old son. They also need to get married too. That is a small impediment, but they are going to get married. They already told us haha. We will keep teaching them and they are tan buenos.

We also taught a lesson to a different part member family but this time the daughter, Paola is a member, and the mom is Catholico. She went to our church for three years and didn't get baptized. 3 YEARS!!!!!! That is a long time to go to church and not be baptized. We are going to baptize her too. She said she will read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and we are going to keep teaching her with her daughter. She is great. We are going to eat lunch with them next Sunday.

I went on divisions twice this week. My companion is the district leader so I go on divisions a lot. This time though I stayed in my area and Elder Morgan went to a different area, so I actually had to know where to go. And by the way there are no street names here, this is how we get directions. We ask where do you live? They say, I live two blocks straight three blocks to the right and a half block to the left in a blue house. That seems easy right? It's not. Especially in Spanish. Sometimes we never find the house. Sometimes they lie to us too, which isn't very nice but that's life. Anyways I went on divisions this week with one of the Zone Leaders which was podete y te and I went on divisions with Elder Guzman, who is a missionary that has the same amount of time here as me. Yes we went out and we barely know Spanish and we taught people, it was awesome and really helped us a lot to learn.
 

Anyways I love you guys- There is something I learned that was really profound this week. Friday I went on divisiones with Elder Guzman. It was pouring rain, there was mud everywhere, It was cold. My body was wet. We walked probably six miles in the rain at least and it was something that really helped me realize why I am here. I thought to myself at 8:30 at night and I told Elder Guzman in the rain. And I quote myself: "I don't know how anyone could be on a mission if they didn't want to be here. It is pouring rain, I am cold, I am wet, I am hungry, I am tired, It is dark, It is really dangerous, and I love it. I don't have to be here, but I am here, and I want to be here, otherwise I am wasting my time. I want to be here. I love it." (End Quote) This is the hardest thing I have every done in my life. Hands down no question. At the same time it is the best thing I have done in my life. God has blessed me with so much and I am here to serve him. To give my heart to the Lord so he can mold me into someone worthy of his presence. I love spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. I have so much to learn and I have only just begun. I am a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I am a representative of Jesus Christ. I am a Mormon. I Love it. I have never been so happy in my life. I know this church is true and that is why I am here. To spread my happiness to everyone I meet.

Thank you all for the emails and the prayers. I can feel your love and support in my life as I serve and give myself to this work. I hope you all are well and enjoy my letters. More will come. Every Monday. Have a great week.

Elder Jessop

Reunion de Entrenamientos

Hey everyone this is Elder Jessop speaking from your friendly neighborhood of Paraguay Asuncion. I am actually in a city called Caauguazuu, but that is OK. I bought a Caaguazuu sticker that says yo amo Caauguazzu. It is purete sheda. Guarani is an awesome language. 

Anyways I love you all and I finally sent pictures to my dad so you guys can see my place. Well it is not my place but ya know. Anyways this week every companionship that is training a missionary a.k.a. me. I went to Asuncion this week for a training meeting to help us learn more about how to train. My English is terrible sorry.

This meeting was great, we got to see my mission president and he talked to us a lot. We had the most baptisms in the month of June than all of South America south missions. Which includes every mission in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. Paraguay Asuncion is baptizing a fool. I know I will get to baptize someone one day but I am being patient. We have investigators but they don't like to go to church. Especially when it is cold. They are always working or just doing something else. I hope you guys enjoy the letter and pictures. I don't have a lot of time because I sent pictures but that is OK.

Something else cool that happened this week is the assistentes to the president came to my area and did divisions with the other trainers in the area. There are 3 in Caguazuu. I have a trainer and 2 other missionaries are being trained in Caaguazuu.  The other two had divisions with the assistentes. They lived in my house. I live with the zone leaders too. I live with a lot of leaders. My trainer is also the district leader. I sent a picture of the 6 of us. Anyways got to go. Love simo. I love it here. God lives and again sorry for my terrible English.

Much Love

Elder Jessop

                                                       Me with the District Leader

                                                        Me

                                                       Housemates/missionaries

                                                       My Closet

                                                       My Desk

                                                       My Bed

                                                       Area around our house

                                                       Our Kitchen

Zone Conference‏

This week went by really fast.... I'm always eating. We walk like 9 miles a day sometimes and I get back  in the house and hit the fridge. Anyways...... Hi everyone, I am doing great. Not sick, working hard, learning a lot. My testimony of Jesus Christ is growing more and more everyday.

This last week we had what is called a zone conference. There are 13 zones in this mission of Paraguay Asuncion. I am in zone 13. The zone farthest away from the city of Asuncion. This zone is called Caaguazzu. My area is 32 miles, its HUGE. I can walk for hours into the jungle and still be in my zone. 

Anyways zone conference: This zone conference was in another area called coronel viedo. Zone 12 and 13 were at this zone conference. The mission president was there and his assistant's too. We learned a lot about many things. We did a lot of role playing, basically practices on how to talk to people. Our method is talk to everyone. The Lord has prepared these people the receive the gospel, so we need to talk to everyone to find out who is ready for it. The mission presidents wife showed use, only the Elders really, how to clean a stove. It was fun. We did other stuff too, like inviting people to be baptized on the street. That was really fun. We have tried it and people have said yes, on the street. We are going to teach them and put our faith in God that these people will accept.

What else do I want to tell you guys: I need to start making a list haha. One week is kinda like a blur. Oh yea I remember. The bishop or president of my ward branch is from South Africa. He speaks English and his Spanish is different. Kinda like mine. We were at his house the other day, we ate dinner with his family and he talks a lot about his time in Paraguay. He came here and knew 0 Spanish. The only words he knew were the words, no hablo español. Haha that is kinda like me, but not anymore right. 

I love it here: It is really hard.... We have breakfast and exercise and shower from 6:30AM to 8:00AM We have studies from 8:00AM to 12:00PM. We eat lunch at a members house or at our house and we cook. Mom I'm cooking!! Crazy I know. And then from 1:00PM to 9:00PM we are out preaching the gospel and inviting people to come unto Christ!! That is the best part. We don't eat dinner. We come home at 9:00PM and plan for 30 minutes. We have an hour to eat and relax before bed at 10:30PM. Usually we are still working up till 10, calling people or updating our area book. It is a lot of work, but it is worth it, yes. We all of my heart and soul it is worth it. I know this church is true. If any of you are reading this and have questions about this church. Go ask the missionaries. They have a lot of the answers. Pero yo se que la iglesia de JesuCristo de Los Santos De Los Ultimas Dias es verdadera. Con todo de mi corazon. 

I love you all and I hope you guys enjoy my letter things.

One more thing they speak Guarani and Spanish here. Everyone. They have like a secret language, but I am learning guarani too. It is an awesome language. Yea, I will be fluente in Guarani too. Just you wait!

Elder Jessop