Eyelid Sweat...

This week was pretty interesting that's for sure.

Starting off I spent the week in Pilar with Elder Pavon and Elder Amarilla. I'm here in Pilar in a trio because the Americans always come in a week late into the transfer. So I'm here in Pilar waiting for my new comp to get here. I'm actually gonna head up to Asuncion tomorrow in order to meet my comp and travel with him down to San Ignacio. I'm super excited to meet him and get to work again in San Ignacio.

I'm still shook that I'm going to be training but we'll just see how it goes. My Spanish is far from perfect but I think we'll be able to scrape on by. Especially with the help of the Lord on my side I'll be good to go, no problem. The Spanish definitely had to come in hard this week while living with two Paraguayans. It was super fun being with them and working in a trio. The only thing that's not so cool is when they speak guarani together. Because then I really have no clue what they're saying. But I guess I'll just have to learn guarani after I learn Spanish haha. I've definitely picked up some phrases and words so every once and a while I'll catch a word and then make an extremely educated guess into what they are saying and sometimes it works out haha.

Being without an American companion is definitely weird because when walking in the street we would talk in English and nobody could understand us, so we would say things that we wouldn't say in Spanish. A dumb example is like a lot of the time when people go into stores here they just leave their moto (motorcycle) on and run in real quick. So in English we would make a dumb joke and say "oh bet let's steal that moto" but I cannot say that in Spanish because people would freak out and think we're being legit. It was just a weird thing that I noticed. I have started relying on the fact that people can't understand English and it's super fun. But when there's no one to speak English with, it doesn't really work.

I also had my first District Council in which I was in charge of leading. It was definitely kinda weird but I think it went well. I gave a little lesson on why we need the Spirit. Also that when we are doing what we should be doing, we need to trust in the fact that we have the Spirit with us. Our thoughts and actions are being directed by the spirit even if we can't feel a specific prompting to do anything.

We also had the opportunity to do some service which was awesome. Doing service is always so much fun because it breaks up the day to day schedule that we have as missionaries. We went to this lady's house and moved a bunch of wood. Probably like 3-4 cords of wood. But it was all in branches or logs, so I really couldn't tell you how much it was. But this is where the title of the email comes into play. This week we were in the 100s I'm pretty sure. All I know is that it was like 42 degrees Celsius. I still have no clue what that means other than I was very hot. And while doing this service, it was extremely hot and I kid you not I had sweat on my eyelids. Definitely a weird sensation and honestly would not recommend it.

But I loved every second of being able to work and use my body again like I used to at home. Walking everyday and bodyweight exercises is just not the same as some solid yard work haha. Also, I've calculated that so far on my mission I have walked enough miles to get me from Carson City to Denver (as the crow flies) Kind of crazy.

We were walking around one day near this park and we saw some people playing UNO. UNO is huge here everyone loves to play it. So we asked if we could join their game and they said yes. Within like 15 minutes 5 more people asked to join us while playing which was awesome. We had a great time playing and made some super cool friends. They all think it's hilarious whenever a white dude says anything in guarani so whenever something bad happens to me in UNO I just throw in some guarani and they all start dying laughing. They are most of the time laughing at me because my guarani sucks. But it doesn't really matter because it's super fun. After that we asked them if we could come back another day and play with then again and also share something about Jesus with them. They all said yes which was super cool so who knows maybe UNO is the best way to find new people.

A big part of the missionary effort here in Pilar is helping out the less active members because there is a lot of them. I guess all of them feel really uncomfortable in church because the church here is really clicky and especially in Pilar. So if you're not apart of the "popular crowd" you kinda just get shunned and never feel accepted. Because of this 4-6 really great families are now inactive just because they don't feel accepted. Which is really sad, that we teach all day and night that our church is a church for all people and accepts everyone. And then these people go to church and do not feel like that at all.

So please, please, when you are at church be nice to everyone and be a friend to everyone because some people might really need some friends at church. It kind of broke my heart to hear the stories of these people and how they felt.

On a happier note this week was Elder Pavon's birthday. And I swear people down here LOVE birthdays. There was 3 or 4 families that baked a cake and signs and all sorts of good food when we showed up for lunch. The people here go all out for birthdays. It was actually kinda epic. Because in San Ignacio we hardly ever have member meals, but this week, everyday we had one and it was some really good food actually. I ate this lime pie thing that was probably one of the best things I've put in my mouth my whole mission, so that was awesome.

But I swear Paraguay has something against healthy food. Usually whenever I get a salad anywhere it's covered in oil so that's lame. But at this lady's house she was preparing this super good looking salad with red cabbage and everything. And I was so excited because I didn't see any oil anywhere near. But the she pulled this package of mayonnaise out of her pocket and doused this whole salad in mayonnaise. I was so sad you don't even understand.

This week was super awesome, ridiculously hot, and full of good food. So I have nothing to complain about haha. I can't wait to meet my new comp in like a day and hit the grind with him.

Love you all, and hope you're all doing fantastic.

Elder Schofield

There are some serious fires here in Paraguay, the moon is red. Looks like we're dealing with the same thing.

This is a text from our recent convert Maria. It basically says that she will always make it to church, which was pretty cool.

The girl in the white had a crush on the previous American Elder here, now it's me. haha

A family made us a pizza.

Basically every bathroom looks like this. No shower curtain, mop nearby to clean up the water, and pictures of Jesus. This is the mission apartment in Pilar.

Birthday Dinner

Doing our service moving wood. I didn't bring work clothes with me to Pilar, so I had to work in my dress pants and shoes and borrow a shirt from the other Elders. It was so hot. The long sleeve shirt was not the way to go.