Met Mary Magdalene. She Was Drunk...

How's it going everyone? This week was pretty great.

First and foremost I got my new comp. His name is Elder Stillwell. He's from Illinois and is an extremely hard worker and loves to get out and not stop working until the night is here. So you can imagine we get along really well. His twin brother is serving in Reno so if any of you know an Elder Stillwell, I'm comps with his brother.

We focused a lot this week on inactive members. We have a ward list that has all of the members on record and their addresses so we went out and found some of them. The thing is addresses in Paraguay are not what you think. Sometimes it's just a single street and they could live anywhere on this street for as long as it is. Sometimes it just says San Ignacio so we love that and basically we will never find those people. Others have two streets and the person lives somewhere near the intersection of these two streets. So basically what it turns into is us walking around asking everyone we see if they know this person and where he/she lives.

It's actually super cool because we were talking to everyone, asking them questions, and then we ask them if we could come back and talk to them at some point about the gospel. Most people accept the invitation so that's super cool.

However, there are definitely people that don't accept the invitation and people that don't even want to talk. One time we knew we were close to the house we were looking for, but didn't know what house it was. So we started clapping and asking people. One lady just yelled out her window at us "I'm catholic, I'm catholic, I won't talk to you" I don't think I've ever see such great example of the 2nd great Commandment. Basically she continued to yell at us until we left when all we needed was a little information. We also found this guy who was taking the lessons prior to my being here and he came out and told us if we didn't leave immediately he would call the cops. So it was a pretty exciting day.

We also were walking one day and this lady came up to us and started talking, she was drunk but really wanted to hear what we had to say and wanted us to pray for with her for her knee because she fell and bruised it pretty bad. Her name was Maria Magdalene (Mary in English) so I felt pretty special. Because the day before this guy on a motorcycle drove up to us and said that before the pandemic he came to our church. And his name was Juan Bautista (John Baptist in English) so you can imagine how special I felt. I'm just awaiting the opportunity to meet Peter, James and John now.

Also, one day I was meeting with this family and talking to a girl about Ava's age. I asked what her favorite food is and she said avocados. So I said, like avocados with salt? And she just starts dying laughing of the notion of avacodos with salt. She said the only want to eat them is with sugar. So I said that tomorrow I would buy some avocados and try it with sugar. She ran inside grabbed 4 avacodos and gave them to me and said I needed to try it tonight. The next family we met with I asked how they ate their avacodos and they said with sugar or you blend it with sugar and milk and a little bit of lemon. So naturally that night I tried it and to be honest it was actually pretty good I'll definitely be eating avacados with sugar every once and a while now.

It's been super fun to walk really far every day. At the end of the day my body is just dead tired and I love it. Yesterday we called these members that were on the ward list. One of the few that has a number, and they didn't really want to talk to us they don't really like the missionaries because "they never visit us, they say we live too far away" I looked at Stillwell and said "Bet we're visiting these people" so we did. After like a 1 hour walk, roughly 3 miles, we got to their house. The joy on this family's face when two white American dudes showed up made my whole day. They were so grateful and loving. And honestly I loved the walk. We were wayyyy out in the country passing cow fields and all sorts of things, the country out here is so amazing.

One day we were waiting for a bus and this lady came up to us and asked if we could pray with her for her niece who is super sick. Of course we said yes. And by the end of this prayer the lady was crying. It's pretty amazing to see that people know what we stand for and who we represent and want to come to us for help. The faith and humility in the people down here amaze me every day.

For example, yesterday at church there was a new guy there who I didn't recognize so I went and talked to him and found out that he walked 1 hour just to come to church and had to walk an hour back home afterward. He said he knew this church was special but didn't know why. So naturally this week we are going to go talk with him. I don't care how far I have to walk. When people are interested Stillwell and I promised each other we would go teach them. But the fact that a non member is willing to walk an hour from his house just to come to church is incredible, it just goes to show that when people have faith nothing will hold them back nothing will keep them from being with the Lord.

Also, we met with the Martinez family again this week and they said we could continue to come back 3 times a week!! So that's super exciting. They are great people and I have no doubt that one day they will come to be members of the church.

A couple things I miss from home

- fabric softener you wouldn't believe how awesome that stuff is. I finally got over washing clothes by hand and I kind of enjoy it now but some fabric softener would be amazing.

- non bipolar shower heads, I swear every shower is a bit of an adventure. I'll be showering and all of the sudden the water will go ice cold and then I won't do anything and all of the sudden molten lava is flowing on my back. Consistent water temperature is something I definitely miss lol.

- and I guess I should probably say my family (so they don't feel left out) but in reality I do miss my family, not in a way where I want to go home but in a way where I wish I could share these experiences with them in person or have them by my side when these things happen that I know they would love.

On a more spiritual note this week I was reading in Alma when Alma and Amulek were preaching to the Zoramites. Amuleks words really hit me when he started talking about prayer. And how we need to pray for everyone and everything. But 34:28 says that after our prayer we need to go out and serve the Lord through serving his children. And if we don't do this our prayer will be in vain. This scripture honestly just gave me more motivation to work harder and harder every day.

I love being in this country and serving the people here. It honestly brings me so much joy to see how I can serve people. I love walking around for miles and looking at the country and talking to everyone I can. My spanish is definitely improving and I can talk to people without a whole bunch of help from my comp. I've seen the hand of the Lord in my life everday.

I love you all

Email if you want

Elder Schofield

Wayyy out in the country.

Teaching everyone.

We walk this road all the time.

When we were walking way out in the country. We walked as far as you can see and then some.

Looking back on San Ignacio

This was the members house that live an hours walk away. We went all the way out there just for them and they were so excited because "the missionaries never come because we live too far." The old branch president used to pick them up for church in his car, but then he passed away.