Lamb, Rain and Car Chases

Salutations. Hmm..Its been a while since I’ve had a lot of time to write so lets get to it shall we! So, I’m assuming we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving here based on the fact that I haven’t heard any one talking about it and people are moving straight to Feliz Navidad decorations but what ever haha. I’m not to sure there is even a turkey any where close to me. But a good alternative we have had recently was Lamb. Holy cow was it amazing! The lamb was prepared on what looked like a oil drum, cut in half and welded as a grill. It was a straight up leg of a lamb and just plopped onto the grill over the hot charcoal. It was, well I’m not to sure how to describe the taste to be exact but it was wonderful and I wish we could have it again. I have been picking up some Guatanese and its so different from Spanish its difficult haha. Spanish is coming along a ton better though. I’m feeling a lot better about it then I did a while back. The weather her is a lot like Texas when it comes to rain, it just appears in a moment and then stays forever.. We where having Lomitos at Mon Lomito pretty close to our pension (apartment) with two other elders when it started pouring and it was pouring hard. So we tried to wait it out but it kept coming and pretty soon the streets were flooded...So we ran to our pension which got us soaked from foot to about plaque and ended up leaving the other two elders stranded with us in which they were able to sleep over. A while back I saw something for the first time in my life. We were walking down the road from a awesome lesson, and on our way to Hermana Santa Cruz´s house when we heard honking and metal on rocks. So I turned around to see what looked like a Ford Explorer with the rubber shredded off the front right tire. Smoking profusely and barreling down the road towards us. We stepped to the side and watched as it zoomed by going way to fast to care. We also noticed that the front glass was shattered in the safety glass fashion and seemed to have a large indent about driver side half way up. About a few car lengths behind was a Police truck trying to catch up to the now get away vehicle. It was pretty crazy, And instead of having a siren for the police truck they were simply honking at cars.. No pics this week the computer usb port is terrible and wont let me open the files.. sorry Love to all-

Computer kiosk blues

I would have had a large post this week, and sorry if any words are missing the letter ´n´ the keyboard's keys are a tad non-responsive. It also wouldn't let me send any pictures.

Entonces I'm going to share a short story that I shared in church this past Sunday.

When I was 5 we were living in an apartment in Utah and there was a large storm that came through. My Mom was at work and my Dad was checking on the neighbors making sure they had their yard tied down. I was alone and during this time the power went out and it was dark. Being simple minded, I quickly thought to pray. Kneeling down I prayed, simply asking God in the name of Jesus Christ if he would bring the lights back. They did not turn on instantly but after my prayer was finished I flipped the switch off then back on and the light had returned. The power of prayer is real, but only if we have faith in God.

Really starting to not like Mondays. I guess I'm a bit homesick but not really.  It is hard to describe.

Miss you. Love you.

Colter,

Normal

It’s beginning to get harder to find things to talk about!! Ha-ha everything is slowly becoming normal and I’m beginning to be accustomed to it.

The work is great and I’m loving it. People are a lot more open about religion here than in the United States. Having a religious conversation with people isn’t crossing into a red zone. People in Paraguay are some of the nicest people I have ever met, minus the fact that not a lot of people reply to me when i say Hola, but none the less, Super nice people. They will always invite you in unless they are truly busy or working. Most of the people in my area are Catholic, but not Fanatics. There is a large catholic church basically in front of ours and that’s how we give directions. It is pretty much the town center. And when we talk to people it basically starts off something like this.

Hey! How are you, what’s going on.
+Oh not much
Is it alright if we shared a quick message with you?
+I’m catholic
We share the message with everyone
+Oh alright come on in.

The heat hasn't hit us yet and I'm not excited for mid-December when they said it will be here. Not excited at all. So far, staying cool is rather easy and most people are very generous and offer us ice water when we are teaching or visiting.

We are pretty good with talking to members and getting meals with them. The food, I’m not too sure what anything is yet but I have yet to find anything that I have not liked and or not wanted to try. Meals at home typically revolve around cereal and ramen which my comp has never had before, and loves it.

Umm haircuts are easy to come by and at the same time I've been busy and keep forgetting to go get one. We have a member in our ward who does our laundry for free which is super nice on her part and we make sure to ask her if she needs help with anything and let her know how grateful we are of her.
Sundays are interesting, we have church at 8 in the morning starting off with Priesthood, then Sunday school and then followed by sacrament. Then we go home and study for a while and then eat and back out into the field. We typically try to visit with families on Sunday and talk with them just getting to know them and seeing if they have any friends that are interested.

Story Time

There isn't much going on this week but at the same time we have had tons of lessons and tons of investigators. ​There is a lot of time in the field, just haven't found the ripe fruits yet.
Interesting story I would like to share though. While in the MTC I had a dream of some old friends from 8th grade, at Bear River Middle School. So I decided to get into contact with some of them. One of them in particular named Alisa, and has continued to keep in touch with me. She told me a story about how she has been praying for her father. He has been having problems with smoking and with alcohol. In her prayers she has asked for him to be able to stop and be able to come back to church again. Recently this has been turning into a reality as he had begun dating a LDS woman and has committed to stop smoking and drinking, and is doing rather well. He has begun his return to church now also. I absolutely loved this story, so I was sharing it with some members and with some other investigators. I thought this would be the end of the story for now. After telling Hermana Santa Cruz the story of Alisa, she had this desire in her heart that she wanted to meet Alisa, whom was very out of reach, and seemingly impossible. But it turns out that night in Hermana Santa Cruz's dream she saw a girl walk up to the pulpit and bear her testimony, the next day Hermana Santa Cruz asked me if I had a picture of Alisa so she could clarify if it was her or not. I was able to print one off, at my next P'day. Upon showing Hermana, she gripped the picture and nodded telling me this was the girl who bore her testimony. Hermana SantaCruz new is was Alisa had bore her testimony in church/  The Holy spirit was felt, and I felt the warmth the scene brought to my heart.

Elder Merrell

My new companion Elder Balcaza, me, Hermana Santa Cruz and her daughter.