Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Chickens, Monkeys and Poisonous grasshoppers is what this week brings...

Saturday afternoon we were pleasantly surprised to receive a couple of letters in the mail from Andrew.  Elder Ratliff who just left to go home offered to take them and send them from the states.  We were so excited to receive them and it sure brightened our day.  Bridger had us read it to him twice and wanted me to share it with everyone. :)

Dear Alex and Bridger, 

I had some extra time on my hands one night and I decided to write you guys a letter.  You both can't really email and I don't get to talk to you guys very often, so here it is. :) 

I'll tell you one of my crazy stories so far.  I was walking through a kind of jungly part of Paraguay trying to get to a main road.  It was very dark and we could barely see anything.  We were on our way home and we were scared because it was a road we really shouldn't have been on at night.  We were practically running down the road to get home when all of a sudden a Chicken popped out of the bushes with a whole bunch of baby chicks.  I screamed like a baby! I thought someone was popping out of the bushes to kill me.  It scared me to death I thought I was going to die and it was just a chicken. :) 

Paraguay is crazy, especially when it rains.  When it rains the streets all flood.  We go out no matter the weather so I am always crossing huge rivers and in the streets and jumping over puddles.  It's insane!  The thunder and lightening here though is awesome.  The lightening lights up the whole sky and the thunder is so loud that it shakes the sky.  Sometimes I just put a chair by a window and watch it because it is so cool.  

The animals here are the same but everything is bigger, oh and they have cute little monkeys here that just sit up in the trees and eat mangoes all day.  I saw my first one a couple of days ago, it was awesome.  

The bugs here are scary though.  I hate bush and you guys know that.  I have a terrible fear of grasshoppers and they have poisonous ones here.  They are everywhere and it scares me to death.  They also have moths here that can kill you.  There are the size of my hand and they try and pee poison on your head.  It's scary! All of the people here run from them.  I have killed 4 in my house so far.  Just imagine me running around with a sword hunting moths.  ;) 

That's pretty much Paraguay.  Thanks for keeping me in your prayers.  Mom and Dad tell me that you don't miss a prayer without blessing me and that means a lot.  Love your Big Brother Drew 

Elder Heugly
La Iglesia De 
Jesu Cristo
De Los Santos
De Los Ultimos Dias 

We probably should be a little frightened by this letter and all of the poisonous bugs he is encountering but it gave us quite the laugh instead.  We just kept picturing him screaming like a baby when the chicken popped out of the bushes. :)

Drew seems to be doing well and we love to hear from him each week.  We would love it even more if he would send us some pictures.  Hopefully he will follow through next week like he has promised...fingers crossed.

Hey Family, 

I received all my packages.  Thanks for everything!  I did make some of it but I don't have a microwave or anything so I can't save anything.  I just make one thing at a time.  So far I just made the stuffing and it was so good.  So Thank you so much for that.  I'm probably going to go home and eat the mashed potatoes today.  It's nice to have some extra food.  Each week we only spend about 
20 US Dollars on food so some times we run out.  Usually by the end of the week we are struggling.

I get my packages whenever I got to zone conference so I will get my Christmas package some time in December.  I will let you know when I get it.

Glad you got the letters.  I had some extra time for once so I decided to write a letter.  Hopefully that makes up for sammies email last week.  Elder Ratliff brought them home for me and sent them from the US so I took the chance when I had it.

Good old Bridger always being a maniac.  I miss him too.  He's going to be so different when I come home it is going to be crazy.

Still can't believe you don't have snow.  If it's hot there just imagine it here. I'm struggling, today it was 100 degrees in our house when we woke up this morning, it's crazy! 

Today has been an interesting day.  Today is a national holiday where they all go crazy so nothing is open.  We are way far away from the house just so we can email you guys.  I had to make some sacrifices, P day today is just going to be emails and buying food and then it will be over.  The bus I took today to get here was packed.  It was a tiny bus and it was so full that I had to hang out of the door, it was scary.

Most of my days here are the same.  We walk a lot.  This week we were in Mbaritu out in the middle of nowhere.  We have been there for most of the week just contacting all of the houses that we could.  It's funny because I think people think we aren't very smart.  We go to clap at a house and before we clap we see people sitting outside and by the time we get up to the house to clap everyone has disappeared.  We still clap and so they send a kid out to say that nobody is home and then we say all we want is water and magically people come out.  It's funny, another thing they love to say is some other day.  Every time we talk to someone we say how about Wednesday and then they say no some other day  so we say ok how about Thursday and they say no how about some other day and it just goes on and on.  ;)

Our investigators are good they are just lazy.  It's just a lazy country.  People don't want to do anything.  Our investigator that is a single mother and was looking for another job vanished again.  Not exactly what her deal is. :(  

We did get some water this week but it is contaminated so we have to clean it out.  I actually got sick from it the whole first part of the week.  I drank it without knowing.  That was rough.  

The members here are really nice.  We have lunch with them 3 days a week.  We eat a lot of pasta but they cover everything in oil so it gets nasty at times, but for the most part it is good.  They make something called milanessa.  It's kind of like a fried chicken and so far that is my favorite thing to eat here.  
The ward is good.  We attend the 3 hours of church and then go to ward council after.  We had the most people we have ever had at church this week.  There were about 50 people there.  Church is just very different here overall.  

I also pay a member to do my laundry.  I wasn't really excited to have to wash my clothes by hand so I pay a member and she does it for me.  It's really nice. :) 

I'm so glad you all have watched the video.  I have now seen it about 80 times and it still has the same effect on me each time I watch it.  

I guess that is all for today.  Just the same old same old in the life of Elder Heugly.

Love, Drew 

P.S. Pictures will come at the end if possible.  The wifi is bad in this place.  I can barely send emails but I will try.  


So the pictures never happened.  I think he needs to try a little harder next week ;) 
Love, Love, Love this cute missionary of mine. 

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

He is the Gift – Christmas Video – #ShareTheGift

Cooking down here...

Hey Everyone, 

It's cooking down here, I'm dying...it's crazy but I'm hanging in there of course.  It rained last night and the day after the rain is always nice, it's not hot at all but the next day it gets hot again so I'm probably going to die tomorrow.  At one point this week it was 100 degrees and then the humidity. The humidity here blows my mind.  Can't believe it has been in the 60's at home.  Sounds amazing about now. 

Things are good, still the ward pianist.  Put up a great performance in sacrament meeting this week.  One of my best ones yet :) . 

Being gone makes me appreciate everything more.  I have learned a lot in these 3 months.  I can't wait to see what else I am going to learn over the next 2 years.  I know it is going to help me grow and be a better man when I get home.  

This week has been good.  Not too much success.  Yaguaron is a tough area.  There aren't many baptisms. My investigators are good and I have a lot of them but none of them came to church this week.  The people are hard to get to come to church here but we are trying. The church just released a new video that we are using.  We get to take our DVD players with us so we can show it to everyone.  If you haven't seen it yet go look it up.  It's called El es la davida or He is the gift in English.  It's amazing give it a watch if you haven't already.  

Not a lot has happened this week.  We did find our investigator and she really wants to be baptized but she works on Sundays in Asunción so it is hard for her to get to church.  She lives alone with her 3 children and has to work or she won't have money to support them.  She really wants to go and is looking for a new job.  She and her children are awesome.  

A funny story this week.  I climbed a tree believe it or not and was up there cutting branches down with my machete.  The lady below was yelling at me to get down and was telling me I was way too big to be up there.  It was so funny she just kept yelling at me while I kept cutting the branches.  I almost fell out of the tree I was laughing so hard.

My favorite scripture story right now is that of Nephi when he says he will go and do what the lord has commanded.  I feel like I can really relate to him right now.  I know this is where I am supposed to be.

My Spanish is coming along.  After Christmas I will be assigned a new companion and I will continue to live with the other two Elders in my house.  They both only speak Spanish and if my next companion is Latino that will be 3 that speak no English and that will definitely help me out.  My spanish is good right now.  I understand everything but sometimes struggle to speak it but it is coming along.  

Time is flying by, before you know it it's going to be Christmas.  I'm definitely not missing putting up the decorations but I am going to miss seeing them once they are all up.  I am looking forward to seeing you all on Christmas.  I can't wait to talk to everyone.  Hopefully all goes well, it should.  

I got all of my packages and love it all.  The camera is great and everything works.  I will send pictures next week.  I didn't have time to take any this week, sorry.  

Love you all, 
Drew 

O.K. so is this kid trying to give me a heart attack? Seriously climbing trees with machetes? Saying a little prayer he is alive and well when Christmas comes around because I can't wait to see and talk to this cute missionary of mine.  Love him to pieces!