The Buses...

How's it going everyone hope it's all great. This week was fun and interesting to say the least.

We started off this week by absolutely grinding out our entire member list and putting 30+ points on the map where these members could be. Because addresses down here are very incorrect it's super difficult to find people based off of their address but it gives us a general area where we go and then ask everyone in the surrounding area if they know this person. So we've been doing a lot of that this week.

And one day was very cool. We had this address that just said that it was somewhere on this certain street, so we contacted a large section of this street searching for this member who at the end of 3 hours we found out she had moved to a different area in the city haha. But those 3 hours was definitely not wasted because we talked to many many people and at least 10 of them were very interested in us coming back and sharing with them a little bit more about why we are here and about the Gospel. So it was super awesome, because now we have a whole bunch of people to visit. And a couple of them seemed very interested in what we have to say.

Then on Wednesday we worked Facebook in the morning meaning we responded to a bunch of messages on one of our mission facebook pages and sent out referrals to other missionaries when we found interested people. When we do Facebook it's either from 9-3 or 3-9 so it kinda sucks up a lot of our day. We had the morning part for Wednesday so we headed down to the church to use the computer there. We were also planning to go to Ayolas this night in order to have divisions with the Elders down there on Thursday. Which we were super excited for but that means we would once again have to use the dreaded bus system haha. Because we have gotten messed up with the busses here many times before, we made sure to ask as many people that knew anything about the busses, what time the bus to Ayolas was going to be here.

After asking probably 12 different people and receiving a whole bunch of different answers. What we settled on was that there would be a bus at 4:30 and then at 9:30 at night. We couldn't leave at 4:30 because we had some other people to visit but we wanted to leave around 6:30 - 7:00 because we didn't want to get there super late. But we were assured time and time again that there was no bus passing through here to Ayolas at those times. The ONLY bus for around that time would be at 9:30. At least that's what we were told. So we planned to go back to our apartment at like 8:00 pack our stuff and then go wait at the bus station after that. We were super hungry so we ate dinner at like 7:30 on our way back home. Neither of us had any our things because we were out visiting people and I only had a Book of Mormon and some pamphlets with me. We were eating at this place that is right along the main highway where all the buses pass by and while we were mid hamburger the bus to Ayolas drives on by (at 7:30 when we assured no bus would pass anywhere close to this time). We looked at each other and instantly knew what we had to do. I quickly paid for our food and then sprinted to the bus station 3 blocks down, burgers in hand, and ran onto the bus.

We looked at each other and thought to ourselves "crap neither of us have anything" no towel, no blanket, no change of clothes, no toothbrush or toothpaste we literally had absolutely nothing. Luckily we both keep extra cash on hand just for crazy stuff like this so we had money to pay for our tickets and stuff, but that was literally it. So we got to Ayolas and luckily the Elders down there had some extra blankets and stuff. But I went out and bought a toothbrush and a little hand towel (to dry myself off after showering) and called it good. Let's just say walking in the heat in the same pair of underwear for 2 days is NOT the way to go haha. But it was all fun and we all had some laughs over it. The next day was pretty great.

I was back on divisions with Elder Johnson again, so that was a blast. It's been super fun to be able to spend a lot of time with him. His new comp Elder Harris went out with Stillwell because Stillwell is our District leader so he went with the new guy. We had such a fun time and taught some really cool people. Elder Johnson and I taught this one family about the restoration and it was probably one of the best lessons I have been apart of. The Spirit was super strong, the people were very attentive and asking really great questions which always makes the lessons better. We also went by and I met their recent convert, an 11 year old who was just baptized about a month ago. She was super cool and very intelligent. We taught the 10 commandments to her and she really enjoyed the hand signals I use to help remember the 10. As well as a couple funny examples. We met with a bunch of other people and definitely saw the Lord's hand in our day while we were working out there.

Also, I found a snickers bar down there and lemme tell ya that cheap American chocolate is heaven sent compared to this cheap Paraguayan chocolate haha. We also learned a new way to est oranges, they peel off the peel but leave all the white stuff and then cut the top off and just squeeze all of the juice out and use it like a cup. It's pretty good but if you don't peel it just right and the white part is just slightly too thin you end up just making a mess when squeezing it. I definitely learned this the hard way but oh well.

It's been pretty weird being in San Ignacio and only seeing other missionaries maybe 2 times a transfer. Because my district is so spread out we do all of our meetings on zoom and have never had an in person district council. So going on divisions and seeing other missionaries is always such a fun thing to do. But we are super excited because today, Monday, our new president is coming through town and he's gonna do interviews with us so that'll be awesome to finally meet this guy in person. And really get to know him. And also today we're going to Encarnacion (an actual big city) where the majority of our zone is. And we're gonna have zone conference with President. It'll be so sweet to go to my first zone conference and actually meet my zone leaders. I've only talked to them a couple times on a phone call so it'll be weird to actually see them and meet them. But were super stoked to actually get to go down to Encarnacion for once and meet up with other missionaries.

Yesterday we went back over to that area where we contacted a bunch if people and had some great lessons. We met this family and the mom had all of her daughters there and her grandkids. Its was awesome, as she we were talking she said she had 7 kids but 3 of them have already passed away. And they all passed away when they were babies/toddlers. We taught them about the Plan of Salvation and when we got to the part of living with our families again. I told her that I knew that one day she would be able to see her kids again and raise them and care for them. As I was saying that she started to cry and I was low key getting choked up talking about it too. At the end of talking with her she said that we have "the presence of God with us" which just reaffirmed why I'm here. I'm out here to spread hope and peace and it was an amazing experience to help her realize that and then for her to tell us that she knows we bring the spirit to the people we visit.

After her we met another lady and her neighbor and had a solid lesson with them. At the end she started talking about how we remind her of her 2 sons she has that live in Brazil. And then she started to cry because she misses her sons so much and told us that she was sure that our moms are crying for us too. But she was super happy that we could meet her and talk with her because we reminded her of her sons and she really loved that. She then proceeded to tell us that she would be our "Paraguayan mom" because our other moms are super far away. So sorry mom but it looks like you've been replaced haha.

All in all it was a great week and I'm super stoked to go to Encarnacion soon. I love you all, write me if you want I'd love to hear what's going on with you guys.

Love you all

Elder Schofield