February 23, 2015

Hi everyone,

My week last week was good.  We had another baptism this week and things are going well.

Sorry for the confusion about who my companion is.  He is from Honduras and he has been serving in Paraguay for a year and 3 months.  He is awesome and we get along really well.  The Elder from Bolivia has been here less time than I have and he is the one who used to kiss the pictures. ;) My companion is the one who had his heart broken from a Dear John from his girlfriend. :(

Church yesterday was great.  We brought some investigators to church.  We also had ward council and are planning a really cool activity for the ward to help out with mission work.  We are really excited about this.

Our investigators are good.  We found a really neat family and they said they have always wanted to go into the church and see how it is.  They have accepted to be baptized in 2 weeks as a family so please pray that everything goes well.

I do a lot of "divisiones".  This is where I get to go to other parts of our area because my companion is the district leader.  A lot of the time I get to work with the other companions in my district.  It's a great way to get to know other parts of the mission and get to know other Elders.  Tomorrow I get to be in another area.

Today we will be going back to visit with the little girls so pray for them.  We are going to try again today to get their father's permission to let them be baptized.  Wish me luck and keep me in mind.  We will be heading there around 2:30.

I'm slowly coming out of my shell.  I like my shell but it's slowly peeling away.  I definitely feel more comfortable.  We are always going up to random people all the time so helps. :)

Neat story this week.  It is the story about how we found the family I mentioned earlier.  We had plans to go to my companions side of the area because we switch off every other day.  When we left our house I had the strongest feeling we needed to go to my area.  I had a feeling we needed to visit an area that we have gone to before but haven't had much luck.  There was one house I hadn't visited yet and I had the strongest feeling we needed to go there.  We decided to go there and it just so happens the family was sitting outside together.  We taught them about faith in Christ and baptism and they were so happy to hear from us. They are the family that has accepted to be baptized in 2 weeks.  It was the greatest feeling.  Always follow the spirit.

A mission is hard.  There are days where I would love to take a day off and sleep.  Most days we leave in the heat and walk around just to be rejected. But then we find those people that do want to listen and it makes it all the hard work worth it.

I can hardly believe that this week will make it 6 months that I have been gone.  It's so awesome but sad at the same time.  I love my mission even though it gets hard at times.  I know I shouldn't be anywhere else.  I love it and will be so sad to leave when the time comes.

I love you all
Thanks for keeping me in your prayers.
Elder Heugly
Drew

 Our baptism of Irma this week

 Me sleeping.  My companion took this...he thinks he is so funny :)

My companion Elder Guerra and me 

New Companion Elder Guerra from Honduras

Hey everyone, 

How is it going?  A lot has happened since I last wrote you.  2 big events have taken placed.  Ana was baptized on Saturday and I have a new companion.  

He is from Honduras and his name is Elder Guerra. He was in the other companionship that was living in the house with me and Elder Diaz.  We are still in Yaguarón but right now we are the only missionaries here.  We have all of it and we have a lot to do now with such a big area to ourselves.  We get a long really well since we already knew each other and lived together so it hasn't been much of a change.  This is the first time this week I have had to use English so sorry it it is bad. ;)

We now have the house all to ourselves.  There used to be four of us and now it is just the two of us so we have our own everything...own fridge, own bed (he used to share a bunk bed with his other companion) 

We have a whole bunch of new investigators but I barely know them right now.  I will let you know more about them as I get to know them better.  

The girls didn't come to church this week.  Not sure what happened.  I haven't been able to visit them in a while but I will let you know next week if anything changes.  

The baptism of Ana was really nice.  It only took me one try this time. ;)  She was terrified of the water but all went well and she was confirmed yesterday in church.  Ana was my first ever investigator and it was so nice to be able to baptize her.  I wasn't sure I was going to be able to with transfers.  

Ryan told me about Elder Evans.  So sad. Hopefully he gets feeling better and gets back out there.  

Thanks for thinking of my birthday already.  Garments and ties would be great.  I told Dad about a scripture case I really could use.  Anything else would be awesome.  Maybe some scripture markers and pens.  Gum of course is always nice and whatever treats, chocolate and gummies like the blue sharks with the white bottoms, anything really.  Can't believe I am almost 19.  

Tell Mom not to worry.  This wasn't my 1st transfer.  I  am on my 5th right now.  It wasn't scary...LOL...tell her to give me some credit. Hahahaha

Love you all a lot.  Thanks for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers. 

Drew

 My Old District 

 My Old District being CRAZY! 

 Ana's Baptism 

(Loving the dog in the picture and could Elder Heugly's pants be any bigger on him?!? He is seriously melting out there) ;)

Present left in my notebook from my companion Elder Guerra 

February 9, 2015

Hi everyone.  Things are great here in Asunción.  My investigator Ana (the single mom) came to church with us on Sunday and is going to be baptized this Saturday.  She is awesome. 

Still no luck with the girls.  Their Dad is still causing a lot of problems.  I am just being patient and pray that one day he will allow them to be baptized.  We are just going to give him his space.  

The week has been good.  Not too much has happened except for yesterday.  A drunk man came up to us (which happens all of the time here) and was following us around and wouldn't leave us alone.  He turned out to be a member and told us his whole story.  He isn't active right now but said he wanted to quit drinking and go to church.  He then told us he wanted to live with us and become a missionary. We couldn't take him with us because he was so drunk and would have scared everyone.  He tried following us for a while and wouldn't leave us alone.  We ended up having to call our district leader and what not and get instructions on what we should do. We ended up having to run and ditch him which we felt bad about.  People are always drinking here there are a lot of drunk people wandering around.  They can get kind of crazy.  

Other than that not much has happened.  We have transfers this Wednesday at like 3 in the morning.  I will for sure be getting a new companion since I have been with Elder Diaz since the beginning.  I think I will end up staying in my area but who knows.  For sure Elder Diaz will be leaving since he has been in the area for a long time.  I am thinking that they will transfer Elder Guerra from Honduras and leave Elder Justiano to stay here with me but I have no clue.  Guess I will find out in a couple of days.  Should be exciting.

The new mission president looks like a good guy.  Hopefully he is a great as Elder Agazzani.  I guess we will find out in a few months.  

The weather just keeps getting hotter but I guess it is better than the rain so I will survive.  Send some cold weather my way. 

Dad told me about his promotion.  I didn't understand it too well but it sounds exciting.  What's this I hear about Sammie and a boy?  If she starts acting up just do what they do here and pull a stick from a tree and smack her. ;) I'm not kidding they do that here and it keeps these kids in line.  They are terrified of the stick.  Tell Bridger he is just too smart! How do you teach yourself to read?  That's just crazy!  

Tell everyone I love and miss them all so much

Love Drew (Elder Heugly) 

 Ana my first investigator and her family

 Ana and her family...same picture just with her house in the background.  Her house she lived in when we met her was destroyed by a storm.

 My zone

Me and the family Olmedo from my branch

Better late than never...

A couple of weeks ago this gem showed up in the mailbox.  A little past due but it was like Christmas all over again.  It is a picture of President and Hermana Agazzani.  It was taken the day Drew arrived to the mission home.  President Agazzani will be there until July 2015 and they will return home and President and Hermana Wilson from Uruguay will replace them.  Drew has loved President Agazzani and his family.  

Bautismo soy el mejor

Hey,

This week went by quick.  It feels like I talked to you guys yesterday.  I am emailing quick this week so that I can try and send a lot of pictures.  Hopefully they will go through and make up for the shorter emails this week.

Congrats to Sara and Dima on their upcoming missions.  London and Hungary, WOW! I know they are both going to do great.

The week was great.  I had my first baptism on Saturday.  I baptized a Woman/Mom by the name of Graciella.  She lives on her own with 6 children.  It was awesome!! It only took me 5 tries to get the baptism prayer right...hahaha.  I had a hard time with her name.  It was super long and is very hard to say, but the 5th time was the charm. :)

We found the single Mom.  She has been working in Asunción to support her kids.  It turns out she has been going to church in Asunción and reading the scriptures all the time.  If she is able to come to church this week we are going to bless her baby and then baptize her on the next Saturday.  Hopefully everything works out for her.

Today we are going to talk the Dad of the little girls.  Their uncle (the man who was struggling with the drug problem) who is going to be baptized on the 7th, is going to go with and and help us talk to him.  Hopefully it will all work out.  I will send you pictures of him and the girls today.

The little girls all came to church again.  When we arrived at their house on Sunday they were all cleaned up and in dresses ready to go.  Their Aunt Graciella (the woman I just baptized) had helped them get all ready. It was AWESOME!

Not much else has happened.  Pretty much the same old same old.
I'm going to send pictures right now. Hopefully it works. :)
Good hearing from all of you.

Love ya,
Drew
Elder Heugly

We also received an email from Andrews companion Elder Diaz.  He wrote us last week thanking us for his Christmas package and we wrote back to him.  It was nice to hear from him and get a little more insight into what is going on. :) 

Thank you for your emails, they really do inspire.  Yes it is hot here.  We had been working with Estanislao, the fatehr of the three girls, but he is almost always drinking when we get there with his friend.  It is actually a sad story.  He isn't married to his girlfriend, and he leaves the house a lot while his girlfriend works in Asunción.  She comes home only on the weekends.  The girls have to cook, clean and wash clothes.  The men here don't really do anything but "work".  The work they do is not like the work we think they do.  There is a lot of laziness here.  There's no concept of self discipline so it's harder to get people to live certain principles or give up something for the Lord.  For example when Estanislao leaves, he just leaves.  He doesn't tell his kids where he is going or when he'll get back.  They are used to it though.  It's kind of a culture thing, most of the time the paraguyan women have no idea where their man is.  He'll just say "I'm going" and they leave.
The woman who was just baptized this week (I'm sure Elder Heugly told you all about it) is a tougher situation.

There are a lot of trees and foilage everywhere and a lot of mud.  This is my 5th area and my second hot summer.  Paraguay is great, although I'll probably kiss the holy land when I step off the plane.

What's it like to be a mother to children.  My girlfriend wants to have 9 children.  I've tried to develop responsibility and constant work ethic skills on the mission, but somehow I still feel like the same person.

I feel like the Gospel saved me.  I was baptized when I was 18 and my parents were not in agreement but they are more relaxed now.  What really helps me get through challenges is the thought of Eternal life.  Salvation was never easy, wasn't bought cheap and never short cutted.

Any other questions for me or that you want Elder Heugly to know?

Elder Diaz

Me and the other Elders and Hermanas at our church open house a couple of weeks ago.

Me and some of the children that came to the church open house.

Me and my buddy Ramon.

Me and the little girls

Joanna holding my hand

Dianna is the one in gray

Luisa is the one in pink

Me and the girls being silly.

First baptism Graciella 

The woman with the baby is a member and these are all of her 6 children

Dang I look good in white :) 

Here is the funny picture I owe Dad

Don't I look  good :) 

Heartbreaker

So we weren't actually able to have our baptisms on Saturday.  It's kind of a touchy subject but here's the story...

There are 3 little girls that are sisters, ages 10, 9 and 8.  They live in a really poor part of my area.  All 3 of them want to be baptized and come to church every week. We were really excited but it turns out their Dad is CRAZY!  We have talked to their Mom and she has said they can be baptized but we also need their fathers permission.  We need a signature from him saying that it is o.k. 

We went last Sunday to pick them up for church and nobody would answer.  We thought they were gone but it turns out they really were there but their Dad wouldn't let them leave.  He is a crazy guy and his wife works all week long in Asucnción and he is home alone with the kids.  The girls are amazing but him...not so much. ;( 

We went back to the house to get his signature and he told us No they can't be baptized.  It really is so sad.  He doesn't let them leave the house and they just stay home and clean all day long until their Mom comes home on the weekends from work.  

I don't know what I'm going to do but I'm trying to think of something.  It is so sad.  I just want to kidnap them and take them home with me.  Hopefully I can figure it out but pretty much that sums up their story.  Please pray for them and pray for their Dad.

On the bright side of things we are baptizing their Aunt this Saturday.  For sure I will send pictures home of that next week.  I forgot to bring my camera this week so for sure photos next week.

Don't worry about me though.  It's a sad story but unfortunately you see a lot of sad things here.  

I know how you fell though about the kids. (referring to the children I told him about from Mexico) I just want to take them all home with me or give them money or something.  It's really hard to see where many of them live.  I might just be bringing a few of them home with me after my mission. :) hahaha

Things are really good with me and my companion and the other Elders we live with.  We have been together for a while and get a long great.  It's definitely going to be weird to change.  We all have a really good time together.  

I did buy Elder G some shoes.  He loves them and hugged me for like 15 minutes.  He is a really good guy.  It was the first time I have used my debit card and it worked great.  Thanks so much for everything. 

We also found the woman that was living alone with her children and the new baby.  Turns out she has been going to church in Asunción and was living there for a while.  We thought she had disappeared but she is back.  She is also probably going to be baptized as soon as she figures out her schedule.

Things really are great.  I love and miss you all a lot!

Love, 

Drew 

January 12, 2015

The email from last week was not my fault.  The computer kept deleting everything that I was writing so I finally just gave up.  Things should hopefully be better this week.

We had an open house on Sunday and everything went well.  A lot of people came.  I brought 10 kids to it that live in a very scary part of town.  They loved it and loved the church.  They all came back with us to church on Sunday and 3 of them are going to be baptized this Saturday.  I will send pictures next week of all of it.  I can't send pictures this week because the internet isn't working too great.  They are going to be cutting out the lights in Yaguaron and so I am having to write everything really fast.

3 baptisms this week and then another next week.  I will tell you all about them next week.  Hopefully after these baptisms we will be able to baptize the man with the word of wisdom issues.  He is working on it.  All of them are related so it's pretty amazing.

They haven't told us anything about our new mission president. He won't be here until the summer but it should be interesting and exciting to have someone new.

Love hearing the stories about Mexico.  It is always nice to hear what is going on at home.

Talk to you all next week. Sorry this weeks is so short, problems of Paraguay ;)  I promise a longer email and pictures next week.

Love you all,
Drew