Another Week in Para.......guay..

Hello All,

This week has been slow and kinda hard. We have found a lot of great people and a lot of miracles but it has been hard, not going to lie. I always send letters like this week has been great, don't get me wrong it has been a great week, but very tiring and stressful. 
Let me tell you what has been going on down south, in South America, well just Paraguarí, Paraguay, but close enough.

5 investigators went to church this last week!!!!!! It was awesome and it made me happy to see all these people come to church and leave it happier. It is Monday and I'm already tired, just so tired all the time and it is awesome. OK the week I'll tell you about the people we have been meeting with.

Celia: Celia came to church this week and I think I talked about her in my email last week, but I don't remember. The days just kinda blur together here. Anyways she came to church I we are going to visit her today. I taught the gospel principles class in church and she participated and had a lot of questions and she was really interested and she is next door neighbors with a member and the member accompanied her all day and it was awesome and she is really progressing.

Cesar: Cesar is a 33 year old really skinny guy who is awesome. He talks ALOT like alot alot. He is addicted to smoking. He smokes like 50 cigarettes a day, but he went to church and only smoked 3 cigarettes that day and might I tell you in one day that is a great improvement. He really wants to quit and he loved church this week and he wants to get baptized really bad. He has been to jail and he likes the idea of being a new person after baptism and he is just a great guy. We have a good time together and I know that the Lord is helping him overcome his addiction to cigarettes and is helping him feel loved. Sometimes he doesn't know why he is here and when we explain to him that he is a child of God he really smiles and feels a lot better.

Those are two of our investigators and last week we climb a big old hill. We had our district activity and I led the Elders in my district up this big old giant hill and we took pictures and it was awesome. We took some great pictures and I got really scared at first and I couldn't stand up but I finally stood up and took a picture. Slowly conquering the fear of heights. This hill is probably the highest thing here in Paraguay, but still. I sent a lot of pictures and I hope you all enjoy them!!

Today before email we also went to the fruteria and bought a big old lunch and some ice cream. I felt like I was in the United States for just about 30 minutes and it was a great feeling. I sent a picture and I'm telling you if that food looks good on a picture it looked better in person, I promise.

This week was a very challenging week for me. Sometimes you just feel like you have so much on your plate and you don't know where to start and then something happened Sunday. Every first Sunday of the month we have fast and testimony meeting in church and this Sunday I shared my testimony with the members. Earlier in the church we sang the song I know that my Redeemer lives. This song touched me because even if I feel like I can't do it or I should just give up, I can look to the example of Jesus Christ and know that he didn't give up. Know that he never gave up and he endured his afflictions. With the example of Jesus Christ I know that I can too. He lives and I know it and I share my testimony with all of you that he does live and I know that to be true.

Elder Jessop

CAMBIOS!

Hey everyone, I've got some good news! Maria Nancy got baptized!! I have pictures and we got her to do a thumbs up. This week is also change week and I'm the District Leader so I'll be giving out the changes to the members of my district tomorrow. I'm going to be staying here in Paraguarí because I'm training Elder Evans, so that's pretty obvious haha.

LUVIA: This week it finally rained in Paraguari. It usually rains at least once every week, but it has only rained once in two months, which was basically killing all the plants and stuff because they were suffering from the heat, kinda like humans. Ya the heat is brutal, but through sacrifice brings blessings.

BANANA: We opened the biggest banana that I have ever seen the other day in terms of width. I have a picture. Elder Goodell busted out a banana out of the fridge and it was GIANT. I might be building this banana up a little bit to high, but I want you all to know that I saw a really big banana is all. I hope you enjoy the photo that I will send.

We have also been meeting some really great people here that we are teaching and I would like to tell you all about them:

Celia: This girl is ready to change her life. She had a three year old girl that died and she said that she would do anything she could for her daughter. She actually just moved into the area and she told us that before she would hide from the missionaries when they came, but she is now grateful that she is new neighbors of a member and that she can listen to us. 

Miguel, Miriam, and Graciela: This is a family of three who used to go to church all the time, but they just stopped going one day and never got baptized, but they want to go back. Miguel has been drinking since he was about 14 and he is 53 now, but he said he wants to stop drinking because he understands the importance of baptism. We are going to keep teaching them. The girls are great and are really interested and we are going to keep teaching them.

Nilda: This girl knows everything about the church and she always used to reject the missionaries, but she works with a member and Nilda asked the member to contact us so we can go to her house and that's what we did. She grew up Catholic, but doesn't go to church (just about every Paraguayo here). She is awesome and her family is just as awesome too.

Life is good here in Paraguay. I'm about to go buy food, so I'm happy about that. I love you all and I know that I'm far but you are all close in my thoughts, and heart.

Elder Jessop

The Hottest Week of My Life!

My dear family and friends, what I am about to tell you is something really awesome. I probably just went through the hottest week of my life ever in the history of my 19 years of living. It has been so hot!! Sometimes I just feel like falling on the ground and roasting to death and let me tell you, that is not an awesome feeling. I have to drink like 8 liters of water daily, which has been a blessing that I have enough water. I've been drinking from the tap and its not killing me so I'm planning on doing it until you know, the day comes. but yeah hot. They should change the name of the country to hot. It has been over 100 every day for the past week. The hottest it got was 107 I think. That was a great day actually, a day filled with miracles. OK enough of that I'll tell you guys what happened now.

Maria Nancy: Maria Nancy is a girl that is supposed to be getting baptized this Friday, which was a miracle. Her mom Luz Maria and little sister Maria Soledad, were baptized in December and she was going to get baptized then, but she went into the bathroom with her baptism clothing and walked out and told us that she was not getting baptized and that was a really hard day. It was a great day too because her mom and sister got baptized, but still it was difficult. We committed her to pray specifically about baptism and if she should do it. We straight up taught her one day about the importance of baptism and when we finished the lesson with her she said the closing prayer and the words, "Do you want me to get baptized?" left her mouth!! It was really awesome and we passed by the other day and asked her if she wanted to get baptized and she said yes!!! Prayer works and God answers them when you are sincere and specific. 

I have to go really soon because the Internet shop where I'm at is closing for the siesta. Also unfortunately I don't have pictures this week but next week I will. Yeah the siesta is just when everyone here in South America stops working and sleeps for a good couple hours. They take a big break and the siesta starts at 1 and ends at 4. 

I love you all, I also want to wish my awesome sister Amanda a happy happy happy birthday. If I could sing to you I would but I can't haha. I love you Amanda and happy birthday and those of you who are reading this make sure you wish my sister a happy birthday. 

Have a great week!

Elder Jessop

A Week of Miracles!!

Hey everyone, Elder Jessop is here to tell you how great of a week I had! OK I had a great week. That's all. :D

OK really though I'll tell you all why it was so great. It was literally a week of miracles. Starting off on Wednesday.

Zone Conference: Wednesday we had a Zone Conference and it was the first Zone Conference of the new year and it was awesome! We set a baptism goal for the mission and the mission has a baptism goal of 2000 people! Man it was really awesome and I learned a lot of stuff, especially about the importance of remembering that I'm a representative of Jesus Christ and how we should act around others. Yes we are young adults and we like to goof around, but we must remember our calling.

Baptisms Guazu: There were 5 baptisms this weekend in the branch where I serve and 5 confirmations too. It was a week of miracles. I'll tell you now who they are and their names.

Eva Rodriguez: Eva is an awesome women. She is 60 years old, the one with the glasses, and I had the opportunity to baptize her. We went into the water and the first thing that she did was thank God and then me for the opportunity she had to get baptized. I remember the first day we walked to her door just a month ago and she told us how sad she was and how she was looking for happiness, and then she thanked us that day because we were smiling so much haha. I'm really grateful for her and for the opportunity I have to be a part of her life. She definitely has found happiness and I'm happy for her.

Ana Maria: Ana Maria is a girl that at first didn't want anything to do with the church, she went one Sunday and told us that our church didn't have any vigor. We kept stopping by and she decided to go one Sunday again and she told us that she loves how nice the members are in the church and she told us that members in her other church always called her bad names because she has a couple health problems. She is awesome and I love her very much and I also baptized her right after Eva. She really has a testimony of the Book of Mormon and she loves the church and she will now have the opportunity to be happy always.

Maria: This is the different Maria and she is the pregnant one in the picture. Two of us baptized her, Elder Goodell and I. I just helped bring her up really and she is awesome too. She always smiles at church when she sees us and talks to the members. She is pretty young, but she will have the chance to grow in the church and raise her child with great principles. 

Mabel: Mabel is the little girl that got baptized with Eva, Ana Maria, and Maria. She does not talk Spanish, only Gaurani. I had a hard time doing her baptism interview because she didn't talk Spanish haha. I had to talk in Guarani and ask for help from a member of the church. She is an awesome girl and I'm glad she had the chance to be baptized with her sister.

Belen: Belen was the only member of her family that wasn't a member of the church. The first time we asked her if she wanted to get baptized she told us she would never get baptized, it is awesome how God changes peoples hearts. She is the one that got baptized by herself Friday instead of Saturday and Elder Evans baptized her. Belen is awesome and I have really seen the change in her as she started going to church and receiving a testimony of the church. That testimony led her to the waters of baptism, and it was an awesome day.

Torta time: Torta means cake. Elder Evans and I made a GIANT cake. We cut it into really small pieces to feed everyone and you can see by the pictures how many people were there in the room. It was great and I cut the cake with elder Goodell and we had a lot of fun doing it.

My dear family and friends that are reading this letter from Elder Jessop. I want you all to know that I love you all very much. I've been gone for about 8 months and I've had several great experiences. I gave a talk in church yesterday and I talked about what missionaries do and about the hardships of the mission and the rejection and the people who don't accept us, or throw rocks at us, or whatever else you can think of. Then I started talking about the people that do accept and how that makes it all worth it. It really does. Every second is worth it for those people who accept because if I wasn't here they might not have accepted. I love you all very much and I hope you have a great week.

Also, Elder Evans cut my hair, that's why it looks TERRIBLE.

Love you all

Elder Jessop