Bit By An Ostrich...

Hello once again everyone, this week was really fun. A lot of fun stuff happened and the week honestly flew by.

Starting off it was Fathers Day yesterday, so happy fathers day dad, thank you for everything that you have taught me and all you've done for me. I have no doubt I wouldn't be the person I am today if it weren't for you. Love you dad.

One of the things my dad instilled in me is a ridiculous amount of competitive spirit. So one day before we taught this family one of the kids was messing around doing pullups. And this kid usually doesn't participate in our lessons with us. He goes into another room and doesn't listen or add anything. So asked him if he wanted to have a pull up competition and then if he lost, he had to participate a little or at least listen to our lesson. The kid agreed thinking there was no way he could lose. Little did he know because of how competitive I am, I would rather die than lose this competition haha. So to make a long story short, the kid ended up participating and actually really liked what we had to talk about.

My Spanish has definitely improved a lot, I'm no longer worried about talking to people. Yes, I don't understand everything, but I've become really good at guessing the meaning of things haha. And I 100% attribute it to the powers of Heaven I have no doubt that without divine help I would be struggling beyond belief in the language right now. One night we were walking around and this lady was cooking tortillas. The tortillas here are very different than the tortillas we make burritos out of at home. Here it is basically fried dough. Almost like a scone. I went up to this lady and started talking to her and her family, introducing ourselves and I asked her how these tortillas were made. She gave me detailed instructions that I definitely should've wrote down. But afterward she gave us a couple tortillas because I told her that hers were probably the best, and she said "there is only one way to find out". So that was awesome to be able to witness my Spanish improving and another testament of the charity of the people down here.

One morning we woke up to our front room being absolutely flooded (the pics don't do it justice) We had no clue what happened because we were sure that it didn't rain last night. Come to find out our neighbors had a massive leak in their washing machine and it came across the hall under our front door and flooded our apartment. Luckily all of our neighbors stuff was ok nothing was ruined. We asked if they needed any help with anything but everything was okay.

I also got a message this week from Ava. I am able to read messages throughout the week I just cannot respond to them until Mondays. It was crazy she was telling me about what she was doing. And it really hit me that when I get back my little sisters really are not going to be that little anymore. I grew so close to them when Austin was on his mission and now I miss them all the time. I love you both Sami and Ava. You guys are amazing.

For the past couple of weeks I have been searching for a scale in order to weigh myself because I am super curious if I have lost any weight. Turns out I have not. And if these scales are accurate I weigh basically the exact same as when I left. So that's a bonus I guess haha.

Also we had lunch with a member this week and she made the best food I've eaten down here. There was like this fried chicken and on the side was Arroz con queso or rice with cheese. It's mac and cheese but rice style and I think it's super good. My comp on other hand does not, but that's ok I could eat what he didn't want. She also had a whole massive salad from her garden which honestly was so good. I've eaten so much fried and greasy stuff down here a salad was so good. BUT to top it all off we drank TANG. Yup you heard it right. TANG. And I was so shook that Paraguay had TANG, but I was not even a little upset. I love that stuff haha.

But to the real story of the week. We had the opportunity to do some service for my favorite Paraguayan. My Paraguayan grandma. She needed help moving dirt from this pile into these areas below her mango trees where she is going to plant a bunch of flowers. So of course we told her we would be there to help. Little did we know that her son, who lives right next to her, worked for 34 years fishing and captaining boats in Alaska and he made really good money. He now owns a whole bunch of land with a whole bunch of different animals including ostriches. And the pile of dirt that we were digging from was in the ostrichs' field. So of course we fed them some oranges that were growing on a nearby tree. And of course we fed them by hand because we aren't wimps over here. And let's just say that the ostriches may have thought our fingers were other tasty treats lol.

After that we had to get back San Ignacio in order to catch a bus to Ayolas to do splits with some Elders that live there. Earlier today we asked at what time the bus passed and we were told 6:00 so we were there at 5:40 just in case it was early. Then came 7:00 then 8:00 then 9:00 we continued asking and people continued saying a bus would pass and that one is scheduled to come every hour. Then came 10:00 and still nothing. So after sleeping on a concrete bus stop bench and looking like an absolute bum doing it, we decided a bus wasn't coming so we went home to sleep in our beds and woke up early to catch the earliest bus to Ayolas.

Once there we had a great time with the Elders there. I was on splits with Elder Johnson another American from North Carolina who actually served his reassignment in Reno for 3 months before coming down to Paraguay. So it was pretty cool to be able to reminisce about home a little bit and share stories that we both had about areas in Reno. He was a super fun guy and I definitely learned a lot from him so it was well worth finding a bus down there. Then came the night and the wonderful opportunity to sleep on the floor again. Man, I really do love me some nice tile floor to sleep on. Nothing more comfy than that.

In the morning we found a bus to take us home and lemme tell ya, Ayolas is a fishing town that's all they do down there is fish. So naturally they ship/transport said fish not by semi, no that would be to easy. They send it on the buses. So we had a wonderful smelling 2 hour bus ride home. It was quite the experience. But well worth it because our grandma invited us over again to have desert and play cards with her and her son. So we went and turns out her son who worked in Alaska is now running for mayor of this town. The elections were yesterday, we still don't know who won but potentially I beat the new mayor of Santa Rosa in a card game, so I feel pretty good right now haha.

Sunday was awesome we had a grand total of 5 people at church today. Not 5 investigators but 5 in total. It has been really cold and rainy this week. Here in Paraguay if it's at all cold the people do not leave their houses no matter what. So it was a super small but great time at the chapel. My companion was asked to give the talk and he did a great job talking about our fathers and our father in Heaven as well. And the spirit was definitely there in the midst of us 7. It just goes to show that really a large congregation is not necessary and the spirit will be with us when we are doing the things He wants us to do and meeting together as saints.

We also went back to Adaliz and Adaluz's house on Sunday. We taught about the importance of family and about our Heavenly family with Heavenly father at the head of it. It's really interesting that out of all the names that Heavenly Father could have us call him he wants us to call him our Father. It's quite a special thing and really shows how important our relationship is with him. We need to cultivate it just like we would with our earthy father.

I also was able to help Adaluz with some chemistry homework which was awesome. I honestly miss actively learning different things and applying it other than learning Spanish. But it was super fun trying to explain some chemistry is a language I barely know but we made it through. She said that she understands her homework a lot more now. So that's a win in my book.

This week was amazing I love my mission, and I especially love serving people. There's nothing better than that. I love all of you too.

Elder Schofield