May 25, 2015

Hey Everyone,

Memorial day flags today huh?!?  Sounds like flags were a blast.  I'm going to be honest, I definitely don't miss doing that whatsoever.

Last week were were really busy.  Reuben and Amelio are working towards getting the priesthood and we had 2 baptisms.  We baptized Sergio and Manuel.  It was awesome.  There mom came to church for the first time this week and stayed all 3 hours.  She really liked it.  The only problem is that there is a guy that lives with here so get won't be able to be baptized until she kicks him out.  It may take some time but we will keep working on that.  It was a great baptism though and both of the boys were really happy.

We achieved getting the permission of Rosami from her mom so she can also be baptized.  It was amazing.  She is a relative of some of the members ans she is just like the girls from Yaguarón.  Her birthday is coming up on the 21st of June and her mom is going to surprise here by giving her permission to be baptized on her birthday.  We are so excited for that, even though Elder Jensen will be heading to his last area the week before. Rosami comes to church every Sunday and is pretty much already a member but now it will be official.   It  is very cool and exciting.  The member family loves us and told us that we need to go talk to more of their relatives.  There is a Mom who has the same problem so we are going to go talk to her and make our famous brownies with her and see if we can make another miracle happen.

Glad you liked my pictures last week.  I guess I am quite the photographer. haha

The weather here has been pretty ugly.  We spend a lot of time running for cover to avoid getting soaked. haha  The streets look like rivers when it rains here.  My shoes have a nice wet smell to them.

I'm sure everyone at home is getting excited for summer.  Glad Christian is out driving...it's about time.  At this rate I'm going to be renewing mine before he even gets his license.

School here is the opposite of home.  When it's summer in the states they are in school and when it's summer here you guys are all in school.  Other than that it's almost the same.  They impress me here. They learn 2 languages and at the private schools they learn 3 languages, Spanish, Guarni and English.  They are pretty smart.

Stevo is good.  He is just studying and being way to smart.  Every time we go to his house for lunch we play chess while we wait for the food and he is just too good.  He beats me in like 4 moves every time.  I stink and he is just too good.  He really likes us a lot.  I always tell him he's going to serve in Utah on his mission. ;)

Speaking of Utah, did Ryan ever talk to the missionaries?

Sounds like the Spanish show mom is watching is pretty good.  I don't know you watch it without understanding.  I guess you could do what Stevo did and pick up another language by playing video games and watching movies. ;)

By the way...you never tell me anything about what is going on at home.  I just barely found out from a member that there is a Frozen 2.  How could you guys not tell me that. hahaha

Still looking into sending home the package.  I'll let you know when I get it figured out.

Love you tons,

Elder Heugly
Drew

 Our faithful new member ready to go out teaching with us. 

 Our soon to be newest member Rosami 

 The whole crew that helped out at the baptism

 The baptism of Sergio and Manuel

Relax...Don't worry, it's just Guarna at some members house. :) 

May 18, 2015

Hey Everyone,

This week has been a good one.  We had a lot of success and were able to get 4 people to church this week.  This upcoming Sunday we will have a baptism.  There names are Sergio and Manual.  Things couldn't be better.

Things have been working out great with all of our investigators.  Right now we are working on getting the permission of two teenage girls that always come to church with a couple of member families.  If we get the permission they could be baptized at any moments.  We are still using the brownie tactic and it seems to usually work. ;)

Not much new besides that.  I took some pictures this past week of when we crossed the bay.  We went over to this little island type thing where we could see all of our area and so that was really cool.

Sounds like things are pretty boring at home.  You need to start doing something interesting so you can tell me about it.  Sounds like you guys are all ready for summer.  I would love to sleep in hahaha.

Wow on Justin Hebertsons call to  New Zealand.  That is exciting.  They are all going to some really cool places.  Time is sure flying by.  I can't believe when they all leave I will have been gone a year.  This is supposed to be the slow part of my mission. They say after the year mark time flies by...I can't even imagine it going by any faster.

Stevo is really liking the xbox.  He is such a funny guy.  He went out with us yesterday and he showed us a house of a friend.  He said he would only show us the house if we went by when he wasn't with us.  We agreed and when he showed us the house we decided to ring the door bell.  He headed for the hills  hahaha.  Luckily for him they weren't home.  We will have to go back. :)

Not much else is new here.  Just the same old stuff in the life of a missionary.

Love you all a ton.  Try to be a little more interesting next week...even if you have to lie ha ha ;)

Love you a bunch
Elder Heugly

 Crossing the river 

 On the island with our area in the back ground 

 My area 

At a BBQ

Baptisms, Investigators and Xbox...

Hey everyone! It was awesome talking to everybody yesterday.  I am kind of short on time today because of yesterday but I sent some great pictures and I will try and make this email good. :) 

Elder Jensen is a good guy.  We get a long really well and so time goes by quick.  There's not much we can complain about.  We are having success so there really isn't much more to ask for. Esteban and Elder Jensen loved our family.  They thought Dad was hilarious and Elder Jensen said he will have to take you up on the offer to come and visit sometime.

Esteban or stevo as Dad likes to call him, loved the family.   Thanks to you I now hooked up Esteban with my old xbox live account.  He loves you guys he thought he was dying without it!  He seriously bowed down to me and gave me the biggest hug.  He's a happy paraguayan with his xbox.  He is probably the only one in Paraguay that even has an xbox actually. hahaha 

Stevo was also really impressed that when he asked in Spanish what his name was that Dad knew what he was saying and responded. I have to say, I was really impressed too. :) 

Dad mentioned school and work when I get back.  Not too sure how I feel about that.  I may need to catch up on some sleep ha ha.  Just kidding I'll be working hard and studying when I get back.  

The week was great.  We were able to get 6 different people to come to church and also had another baptism.  We are working really hard and having a lot of success in the area.  

The baptism was awesome.  Emilio(Piñata) cried after.  He loved it and was super happy even though he barely fit into the pants.  We had to use my pants and still had to undo the belt and really squeeze him in there. ;)  He is an amazing guy and yesterday really was the best!

We have a few investigators right now and they are great.  Our first one is a Mom and two of her boys Sergio and Manuel.  They are 14 and 11 and they come and play soccer every Thursday and come to church every Sunday.  After one more time at church they are going to be baptized.  

 

Another investigator is Lily.  We found her doing contacts and she let us in to share with her.  She came to church this Sunday with her son and loved it.  Her boyfriend is a member in Spain so he helps her out a lot.  These are our 2 main investigators at this time.  Little by little we are going to progress with them.  They are all amazing. 

Not much more, I think I shared everything with you yesterday.  If I think of anything I will make sure to write it down and share it with you next week.

I am going to look into sending a package home this week.  It would be great to send some stuff home to you guys to keep it nice and safe.  As for souvenirs for you guys I figure we can buy them when you guys come to pick me up.  I still have no room in my bags so I'll buy them when I can finally ditch all my clothes and what not.  

It was awesome to see Ryan yesterday.  I'm glad he is going to talk to the missionaries.  It will be good for him to get going to church again.  I'm really happy for him.  

Thanks for everything.  I love you a lot.  Before you know it, it will be Christmas and I'll only have a few months left.  

Love  you all, 

Elder Heugly

P.S. I have never played xbox here hahaha :)

 Missiones

 My District

 Here in Paraguay they don't have lost dogs, they have lost monkeys.

Baptism of Amelio (Piñata)

 Just after Amelio (Piñata) was baptized.  He was so happy.  :)

Eating at a restaurant with my district.  I'm eating Shrimp Fried rice..YUM! 

Divisiones and Restaurants

Mother's Day Skype...

Mother's day couldn't have been any more perfect.  It ended by skyping with our favorite missionary. He is doing well, he loves his companion Elder Jensen he is having success and is happier than we have ever seen him.   He loves Paraguay and he hasn't lost his sense of humor. His Spanish is amazing and he can now speak Guarni, the indigenous language of Paraguay.   We were able to meet Esteban (Steveo as Jake likes to call him).  He is a 15 year old member and they were able to skype from his house.  He was a hoot and it was obvious that Andrew thinks he is a great kid.  He was teasing him just like he would one of his own brothers or sisters.

It will be a long 7 months until we can see his cute face again but we know he loves where he is and he loves serving his Heavenly Father.  Love this cute missionary of mine! 

No more Centro curse...

Hello Everyone,

This week was awesome.  We had a lot of success.  I'm really short on time this week so I will try and make this email quick and good.  I did end up having a baptism this week and it was awesome!

Everything sounds like crazy at home but it sounds like everyone is doing so good.  Tell Sam I am proud of her!

Here is a quick really cool story.  We have an investigator named Pinata and he is homeless.  He lives in the plaza and shines shoes.  He is very uneducated.  This last week in church he stood up and gave his testimony.  He said "Hi I'm Pinata and I shine shoes in the plaza.  I don't have parents but I come to church because the brothers bring me and I love it here"  He then went and sat down.  It made the whole branch cry, I even shed a tear.  He is awesome and only has to go to church one more time and then he wants to be baptized.

Anyway just a couple of short quick updates.  I will explain more when we skype this Sunday.

Also something else I will tell you on Sunday because it is a really long story and actually pretty funny, but I was robbed.  I'll make you wait until Sunday to hear it.  Don't worry,  I'm good but yes I was finally robbed.

Love you all and can't wait to see all of you and talk to you.  So sorry this email is so short.
Love ya a whole bunch.  I also have a ton of photos to send you next week. :)

OK so seriously he is in so much trouble on Sunday...OK not really but what a pill! Who tells their family they were robbed but makes them wait for the details.  Sunday can't come soon enough. in

This picture didn't come with any explanation.  Neither did the information on the baptism in this week sentence.  Yes I am calling this letter a sentence.  He needs to work on his letter writing! ;)  Seriously  this kid of mine ;)  He was supposed to have a baptism of Carlos but this cute new member looks just like Reuben from a picture a couple of weeks ago.  He was the investigator that they watched General Conference with at his house.  I guess we will have to wait until Sunday for details on this too.  Lots to talk about. :)  

Love this cute missionary of mine.

Mosquitoes, Brownies and Upcoming Baptisms...

Hello Everyone,

My week here was good.  Unfortunately the baptism of Carlos didn't quite work out.  He got very  busy with work so things got hectic and never worked out. When we went for his interview he wasn't home.  This week for sure he will be baptized and we should also have another baptism if things go well.

There are so many people here who know what we are saying is true but they are scared to accept it and be baptized.  I just can't ever loose hope.  One day they will and all I can do is get them started on the right path.

There isn't much new going on.  This past Sunday we were able to get a lot of people to church so that was really cool.  The members are finally starting to help out.  The brownies we have been making them are really paying off.  We are talking a lot of their neighbors.  There is a  family we have gotten close to and they love us and are really helping us out in this area.  They just needed a little love and are slowly coming along.

The weather is good.  I don't think it has changed since I've gotten here.  It's just super hot and then it rains every once in a while, like once a week.  I guess it is supposed to get colder but I haven't felt that yet.  I guess we shall see.

The mosquitoes are going crazy right now.  They are everywhere and the bug spray doesn't work at all.  Hopefully they go away soon.  They are annoying.  Yesterday was the worst sleep of my life.  All night they just kept flying into my ears, it was awful.  Then this morning the shower blew up on me and shocked me.  It was pretty rough but I'm still alive. ;)

No more pig stories this week.  I think I've had about all the experiences with a pig I can take.


Sunday we received an email notification that there was a comment left on the blog.  Rarely are comments left so it definitely caught my eye.  The comment is as follows...

Emilio FernandezApril 26, 2015 at 4:56 PM

Good morning, how are you?

My name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.

I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because through them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately, it is impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are very small countries with very few population, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.

For all this, I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Paraguay? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Paraguay in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:

Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Calle Valencia, 39
28903 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain

If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.

Finally, I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.

Yours Sincerely

Emilio Fernandez

We shared this story with Andrew in hopes that he would be able to send this Man a message.  Missionary work from across the globe. ;) 

Andrew's reply: 

I would love to send this man a message.  I have no clue where a post office is and have actually never seen one since I have been here.  The way we send letters is through the church.  I would be more than happy to do it.  Sending him a book of Mormon would be easy as shipping is free from the distribution center.  I will look into it this week and see what I can figure out.  Excited to do this. ;) 

As for Mother's day I still haven't gotten everything figured out. Transfers are on the 6th and so things could change for us.  Hopefully I will know more by next week. 

Love you all a lot

Elder Heugly

Drew

 Asunción at night.  This picture was taken from the second highest building in the city which would be about the size of the building Dad works in. 

 Me and Elder Jensen with a member and his cousin who we are teaching. 

Some sort of bike race that was taking place.  There were 1,000's of bikers.

April 20, 2015C

Hi Everyone,


All is well here in Centro.  I'm awesome and everything is going good. Our apartment here is small.  Before I was living in a house and so it has been a bit of a change.  It's very old but it works so I have nothing to complain about.

The branch here is kind of tough.  The members aren't really excited about doing missionary work  so we have been baking brownies and writing letters to ask them to get more involved.  It is working, we are making progress.

We are entering the rainy season.  The rain in centro is worse than in Yaguarón.  There is no mud but there are a lot of hills so the water just rushes down the hill and it destroys us.  It's alright though, it's better than the mud.

The weight is just melting off  (he is down 50 pounds) but here we eat a lot so I'm not losing or gaining so it's nice.  We eat a lot here.  Sometimes we eat 2 meals a day with members so it's nice.  I'll make sure and send some pictures next week.  Today we had our district activity and I forgot to bring my camera.  Next week I'll send home some good pictures.

The week was really good.We have a baptism scheduled for Saturday if all goes well.  It looks like we finally did it.  There hasn't been a baptism in this area in a year.  His name is Carlos and he is one of the poorest people I have ever seen or met.  He supports his Mom, Sister and Niece by selling on the buses.  He doesn't make much but he is so humble and has given up drinking and smoking.  He is always reading his Libro de Mormon.  Please keep him in your prayers this week.

After Carlos we don't have anyone to work with.  We get rejected a lot but it is what it is.  We have Carlos and that is all that really matters.  After he is baptized we are going to work on his family.

Crazy story of the week would be that...well I don't know how to say it without it sounding bad but,
(I will say it for him...they castrated a pig).  Apparently it calms them down.  It was the weirdest thing I have done yet.  No worries though the pig is fine and I'm just a little bit scared!

Sounds like everyone is doing well.  I can't wait to see and talk to you all on Mother's Day. You guys are pretty lucky to see my beautiful face. ;)

Love you all,
Elder Heugly
Drew