Zone Conference...

This week was pretty sweet. 

It started on Monday when we got word that our president was going to pass through San Ignacio and do interviews with us. So we called the rest of our district and had them come into town in order to be here for interviews. So it was super cool because we got to hangout with some other missionaries on our P day and then president showed up and we had some interviews. President Faundez is a very funny and extremely outgoing nice guy. He speaks no English just a couple phrases here and there. So it was really cool having interviews in full Spanish. During my interview he asked how long I had in the mission and I told him about 4 1/2 months he was shook and said my Spanish was really good for that amount of time. But he could've just been being nice who knows. 

Either way he is still funny. He took us out to lunch and told us to keep it on the down low because he didn't want the other missionaries getting jealous. He said to keep our secret combination a secret. And the fact that he's joking with us and having a good time just made us all like him better. After lunch and interviews we took a bus down to Encarnacion.

Encarnacion is an actual big city 2 hours away from San Ignacio. It was insane to actually see some tall building higher than 2 stories for the first time in a while. We got there late at night and  we went to the zone leaders apartment which was super cool because there was missionaries there from all over our zone, probably like 16 of us there. It was insane because for my whole mission I've only seen my companion and then once and a while do divisions and see another companionship. This was the first time I've ever seen my zone leaders as well more than 4 missionaries together at one time. It was super cool, I got to meet a lot of other cool guys and hangout with them all night. We woke up and had Zone Conference in the morning which was awesome.

In Zone Conference a couple changes were made. We will now be able to use our personal Facebook accounts to work and communicate with people. As well as on P days we can be in regular clothes even when going out to shop and stuff. Beforehand we had to be in a white shirt and tie everywhere we went unless we were doing a physical activity. But now for all P day we can be in street clothes which is honestly going to be so nice haha. I can finally put back on my Vans shoes. 

Zone Conference was a great experience. One of the APs, Elder Nicoll, is a very cool guy and were pretty good buddies so it was cool to see him again. As well as some other people I know. I got to meet up with Hermana Unguren again, she was in my MTC group and it was super fun to talk to her about how she's been doing and how she likes her area in Encarnacion. All in all Zone Conference was awesome. But when we had to go the only bus back to San Ignacio was a little bus that is normally used to go around town not to go across the country. Usually when traveling far they have double decker travel busses that are actually kinda nice. But this little bus was not. It took us like 3 1/2 hours to get home when it should've only been 2 but it was all good. 

That night we also had the Elders from Pilar and Ayolas with us and as we finding busses for them to go home, we just had to wait at the bus station for a while. While doing that we started to play poker and this one Paraguayan dude walked up and asked if he could play with us. He was a super cool guy so we taught him how to play and he loved it. It was super funny he didn't fully understand the way to bet or what were good cards so he would always raise the stakes and bet higher no matter what. It was a really cold but super fun night. Playing poker with a random Paraguayan dude. 

I also got my package this week that my family and friends sent and tell ya what everyone at zone conference was jealous about the Skippy peanut butter and chikl-fil-a sauce. They all wanted a little bit and I told them all they had to do was visit me in San Ignacio and they could get some. I shared the cosmic brownies with my district when we were playing poker and one of the Elders in my district is a Paraguayan and let me tell you he was shook at how good those sucker's were and asked where he could get more haha. It was a super fun time and I'm super grateful to my family for that.

This week there was a national holiday in Paraguay called Día De Amistad, it's basically friendship day. So a lot of friend groups do like a "secret santa" thing but they call it invisible friend. Where people draw other people's names out of a hat and then get that person a gift. It was a super cool day to contact because everyone was even friendlier than normal and was super nice no matter what. Definitely a really cool day. We met up again with the Yacel family (the people that said we had the presence of God with us) and it was such a fun day.

We taught a lesson about the restoration and out here we teach a whole bunch of lessons but sometimes the lessons just land a little different and this was one of those lessons. They were super attentive and asking questions. When we got to the part of Joseph Smith and how he had doubts about other churches and went to pray. I told them that we have the same opportunity and that I have done that. I have prayed about this church and received an answer to my prayer. And this one lady named Veronica was kinda teary eyed and said "I want that" "I am in that stage right now of doubting all the churches I've gone too and I want the knowledge you have." So we testified that she can have that opportunity and she will receive and answer. It was such a spiritual lesson it was amazing. I love being able to bare my testimony at the end of the lessons I can always feel the spirit so strongly during that part and it's just my favorite. 

This family is super cool though we instantly got along and laugh so hard when we're with them, they honestly like our best friends now and it's so fun to be with them. They even gave us a free dessert. One of them sells desserts for her job but she just gave us some for free even when they're kinda expensive. We told her we would pay for them but she said "nope it's for my friends you definitely don't have to pay." Needless to say this family is super cool and I'm gonna be really sad if I have to leave in 2 weeks for transfers and not be able to see them again. 

I had an interesting experience the other day when we went back to Santa Rosa we had this reference out there of a guy that might be interested so we went to meet with him and his niece and nephew were there. They were probably both in their 20s. While we were this guy he told us that at sometimes he's just feels really alone. So we shared a couple really cool scriptures about never being alone and had a really cool discussion about it. And they all really enjoyed our message.

As we ended, the niece (probably 22) asked if we could take a picture with her, of course we said yes. And as missionaries we're not supposed to put our arms around girls or anything like that during pictures but she puts her arm in between my arm and my body so that basically my arm is around her back. But then she proceeded to put her hand square on my butt. So that was super fun haha. Definitely did not know what to do in that situation so I just smiled for the picture and we got out of there haha. We told this to a couple of the members we were meeting with out there and everyone was just cracking up it was so funny. 

We met with this super cool girl named Veronica she's awesome but her story is really sad. She divorced her husband and has a kid. So now she's taking care of her kid but has no way of finding of a job because nobody will hire her because she's a single mom. And she told us that she cries herself to sleep every night because she doesn't know how to provide for her kid. She stared crying when telling us this and it was so sad because we just wanted to help so bad. I felt like I had to offer a blessing of comfort and she said she would really want one. I gave my first blessing of comfort In Spanish and it was one of the coolest experiences I've had. Afterward she said she felt a lot better and at peace and thanked us like a million times saying that we're the first people in a long time that actually listened to her. And how she feels like we're real friends and want to help her. We left just kinda really sad about her situation, wanting to do more but we have no clue how else we can help her. 

We also were invited to lunch with this family.  They told us to come as soon as we could, and that they were going to kill a chicken and we could help.  We rushed over as soon as we could, but they had already killed the chicken.  We arrived just in time to see them cutting the chicken up and prepping it for lunch. The chicken was just sitting on the table with all of its juices.  When they finished cutting it up, they dumped a small bucket of water on the table and then proceeded to cut up lettuce and vegetables in the same water that was mixed with chicken juice.  My companion and I looked at each other and said a quick prayer that we wouldn't get sick from salmonella.  We'll see if the prayer worked haha.

I love all you guys and love when you guys write me,

Elder Schofield 

Watching from our balcony as the President and his wife arrived to meet us. 

They took us to lunch.  Presidents wife is super nice too.  She is a little more serious than he is, but really nice and kind. 

A mural in our city that a lady just painted this week. 

Bought a squirt gun for a little entertainment. 

Freezing waiting for the bus.

This is Veronica and her sister. They gave us free desserts. 

At Zone Conference 

The best pancakes ever.  Thanks for the baking powder and the peanut butter mom. 

Fish soup.  I'll eat about anything, but this was one thing I couldn't stomach. 

Thanks for the package.

We were careful to not let the family see us, so we didn't offend them. It was super nice of them to feed us, I just couldn't eat that much of the soup.