I'm Staying In Ettiene

Hello everyone!! 

I'm still here. Sometimes I forget that... I feel like I'm in a whole different world sometimes. This place where I am at reminds me a lot of Los Angeles, but a little less American. It is a very wealthy part and the people are excellent for the most part. It has been fun up to this point in Ettiene.

Martes: We had changes this week and I am now the District Leader of the offices of the mission here in Paraguay and I stayed here in Ettiene and I got a new companion. His name is Elder Peterson and he is from Texas and I will send a picture of us in the coming weeks. We have quite a bit in common. We both played high school football and he has a football and it is awesome. I haven't touched like a real football in a while. 

Miércoles: We had to go to the terminal for the changes and I got to see tons of missionaries from the mission. I saw my trainer Elder Morgan, who goes home this change and I also saw Elder Evans who I trained in Paraguarí. Missionaries keep leaving and leaving and coming and coming it all happens so fast these days, but the changes are always fun to ask the missionaries how everything is. 

Jueves: We had lunch with a member who is in the High Council of the stake here and they fed us and gave us a couple of references that we went and contacted. We contacted one of the references and his name was Diego. He use to have a huge drug problem, but now he quite all the drugs, but he still has a tobacco problem, but with the Gospel of Jesus Christ anything is possible. We taught him and invited him to be baptized and he accepted in the first lesson and we invited him to go to church and it was an excellent lesson that we had.

Viernes: Friday was kinda rough. We walked pretty much the whole day and it was very awesome. We tried to bare our afflictions the best that we could and endure the rejection. We did have a great lesson though with one of our investigators Josefina and she is really progressing and that made it very very worth it. Every time we bare our afflictions with faith, the Lord will sustain us and lift us up. That is what I learn that day.

Sábado: There was a baptism this day of a girl named Concepcion!!!!!!! She is about 70 and was baptized. She came to church every week and she was finally baptized on Saturday and it was a very nice experience. I forgot my camera, so I didn't take pictures but the sisters did and she was just so happy after she was baptized. She was like shining and had a big old smile on her face!! I knew in my heart that she was clean and Concepcion even said it herself. 

Domingo: Diego came to church!!!! We went and got him at his house and we walked to church together! This was his 2nd time and he said that he loved it. I was very excited to see him all ready to go when we went to his house. After church we also went looking for a house. We have basically been mandated by our President to look for a house and nothing else, but luckily we think that we might have found one and I am really excited to go look at it today! I will let you guys know on that later.

We are entering into May again and it is crazy to think that the time has passed so fast. I am getting my hair cut today too. It is weird really, life just kind of goes with or without you and we should really go with it. I have seen the blessings of the Lord in my life as I have gone with life in the way that he went with his. I love Paraguay. I love missionary work and I love seeing the faces of the people who ask God about our message and accept it when they receive an answer from him that it is true. I love you all and I hope you have a great week.

Congrats to Johnny and Meagan for there wedding in Lake Arrowhead. I'm sorry that I couldn't be there but I know that you are both very happy!

Elder Jessop

HAPPY EASTER!!

Hello everyone!! I have 15 minutes to tell you all that's happened!! Happy Easter!

Tuesday: We had a district meeting and the Zone Leaders came to it, so we were not the only Elders and we learned a lot about the importance of being with members and talking to them often and how we should use them. We also learned how we can always invite people to be baptized the first lesson and even the first time we meet them. Tuesday we also had to cook at home and that was a small but delicious meal.

Wednesday: We had an awesome lesson with a girl named Josefina who went to church this week and we are teaching her a lot and she is preparing to be baptized in the church soon. She is awesome and I will let you guys know more about her later. We also ate at a members house on Wednesday, we ate like milanea which is a meat type thing and it was one of the first houses that had a salad here so I ate all of it.

Thursday: The rain started on Thursday. Here in Paraguay for Easter they have a thing called Semana Santa and everything is canceled. This day we were invited to a members house to eat dinner named Estela and she gave us chicken and meat. That evening we also had the chance to be apart of a blessing of a house of some members who just moved in. The Melgareho family. 

Friday: Friday it rained hard. I taught my first lesson in English too while we were in a members house. He knows English and he has Parkinson's disease and we are trying to help him. The Relief Society went to his house and cleaned everything, which was very nice. His name is Javier and he also gave us a music player that looks like a plane. I took a pic and I'm sending it to you.

Saturday: It rained a ton today too, but it was an awesome day while we were walking in the rain. I had a baptism interview this day too of a guy who is like 70 and he doesn't want to get baptized yet until he feels better health wise.... He is 70 and I pray that he gets healthier so that he can get baptized.

Sunday: EASTER SUNDAY!! Here they don't do Easter egg hunts, but church was very awesome. Josefina came to church and the bishop talked about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and how one day we will all be resurrected like he was. 

I had an experience that kinda rocked my world. We ran into a couple of 20 and 18 years old kids yesterday and we taught them about Jesus Christ and we invited them to be baptized, but the 18 year old couldn't stop laughing. I find out that right before we got there he was smoking marijuana. We are going back there Tuesday, but after the lesson I realized in what different stages in our lives we are in. We are the same exact age, but in levels totally different. I look forward to being apart of his change of heart, but it was amazing to see how equal we are in terms of age, but also how different and far apart we are in the stages of our life. For that I am grateful for Heavenly Father and his love. I'm grateful for Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice.

I love you all. Today we are doing an Easter Egg Hunt. I am way excited. New change is in 3 days and we got new agendas.!! Love you all be safe!

Elder Jessop

Ettiene‏

This week went by way fast and some things might of happen, I'm going to try and tell you them.

Walking: We walked at least 20 miles this week at least. All we do is walk and I'm lucky that my shoes are staying together because here they have stuff called empadrada and is it basically compacted rock into the ground. It hurts to walk on sometimes and my shoes are holding up so that makes me happy. 

Zone Conference: This week we had a zone conference and we studied a talk by an apostle named Elder Bednar about the importance of being a missionary that Preach My Gospel teaches us to be. We studied a lot about that and how we can always try to keep improving and never stay in a static state. 

Eyes: My eyes are getting better. I still have an infection in my right one, but the doctor said to keep using the eye drops and I will be fine. I am not going to lie, but sometimes I forget on purpose because I hate eye drops. My mom and sister used to have to tie me down to put eye drops in my eyes, but they will heal soon. 

Food/Work out Plan: OK in case you all haven't noticed, I have been gaining a little bit of weight thanks to the Paraguayan food. The food here is not very healthy for you at all. I have made a plan for exercising and eating so that I can get back to my normal weight and be good again. My exercise plan consists of:

                1. 1 thousand jump ropes

                2. 100 push ups (30-25-20-15-10)

                3. 50 russian twists

                    40 abdominales

                    30 knees to chest

                    20 leg lifts

                    100 flutter kicks

               4. 50 double jumps.

An I got 30 minutes to do it all. It is good fun and I hope it helps me loose the paraguayan fat I have gained jajaja. I also am trying to eat better and tell members healthier foods. Whenever I say that I don't want more because I am full they think I don't like the food and they get offended, so I end up eating more so they don't get offended, but I get fatter. There is a win win situation here and when I find it I will tell you all haha.

Love you all. I am out of time. Have a great week!! Que Dios les bendiga.

Elder Jessop