Happy New Year...

Hi everyone,

New Years was good.  We went to bed at 10:30, not much of a New Year Celebration but we had to go home early for safety reasons.  Everyone here likes to party and drink on New Years and it isn't really safe.  The people here go crazy.  They all get drunk and just party all night.  There was loud music starting from 6:00 at night all the way until 6:00 in the morning.  They love their loud music, alcohol and parties.

So sorry to hear about Bridgers Dr. Appt.  I'm sure you will be able to find something else he can eat besides his favorite PB and J's.  Poor Guy.

Poor Grandpa too, what's up with all the Dr. stuff.  I am not a big fan of hearing about this stuff. :(

So glad to hear Cody and Romney are enjoying their missions.  It will be fun to talk to them and share stories even though mine are obviously going to be the best. hahahaha

Me and Yaguaron are going to be together for a while.  I guess this is where I am supposed to be.

I am still enjoying all of the Christmas goodies you sent.  I am eating them slowly, little by little to make them last longer.  I did think about what you asked me on Christmas.  Besides water I miss Dr. Pepper, we can't drink dark liquids on my mission, wings, playing basketball, driving and music, I love my music. ;)

This week has been great. It has gone by so quickly, it feels like yesterday was last Monday.  We have found a lot of new investigators and have had a lot of success.  We have an investigator that has already been going to church and wants to be baptized.  He just has a problem with marijuana that we need to help him clear up and he will be good to go. :)   He is a really cool guy and he is looking to change his life.

We also came across a man this week that said we had saved his life.  His wife had just left him because his daughter had recently drowned in the river. He said he didn't want to live anymore and was planning on taking his life if it weren't for us.  Pretty amazing.

We are also having an open house this Saturday at the Church.  There are going to be a lot of people there.  They have announced it on the radio, Facebook, T.V. and even sent a letter to the government. I will let you all know how it goes next week.

Things are going great I feel like I finally have the groove of the mission now.  I don't feel like a new missionary anymore.  I'm loving it and time just seems to be flying by.



Love you all,
Elder Heugly

Elder Heugly and Elder Justiano (from Honduras) 

Elder Heugly and his district 

 Hoping I don't get in trouble for posting this picture. :)  This was actually sent to Laken and she shared it with me.  The cute Elder on the left has developed a small crush on Laken thanks to the ornaments for the Christmas tree I sent him.  He is the Elder who likes to kiss the pictures ;).   

Elder Heugly, Elder Justiano, Elder Diaz and Elder "Kissey"  I am not sure of his last name ( I need to ask Drew) but for some reason this name just fits. ;)

Still in Yaguaron

Hi everyone, how are things going?  It was awesome to be able to talk to you all on Christmas Eve.  It definitely didn't make things easier though.  It's fought to be away from everyone on Christmas.

I am so glad you all got snow for Christmas.  Christmas isn't the same without it.  I just pictured Mom going down the hill sledding and to be honest that is a really funny thought.  HAHAHA of course she waits to do all the fun stuff when I leave.  I see how it is :)

Christmas was kind of lame.  We had to go home early for safety purposes so we ended up just hanging out in the house, singing Christmas songs and lighting off sparklers.  That was pretty much Christmas for me.  I did get all of the gifts for Christmas.  I think my favorites were the back pack and soccer jersey, that was way cool.  Thanks so much for everything, I love it all.

I was supposed to get up super early today for transfers but it turns out I am still in Yaguaron with Elder Diaz.  It looks like I will be here for a while.  I think what will end up happening is Elder Diaz will leave next change and I will stay here with a new companion.  I will get to show them the area and then after that companion I will probably leave the area.  I will be in Yaguaron for a while.  It's pretty unusual usually after you are trained your companion leaves and goes somewhere else.

I haven't tried to use my debit card yet.  I'll give it a try next week.  I am going to buy the other Elder from Bolivia in our house some shoes.  The two pair he cakes with already have holes in them and he has been here less time than I have.  He needs a little bit of help.

Not much happened this week.  It's the holidays and they go crazy with their parties.  No one was home and so we didn't get to contact many people.  It was kind of a dull week.

I love you all
Elder Heugly


P.S.
Mom, sorry for no pictures.  We found a better place to email from (the place I skyped you all from) and  I can send pictures easier no,  but I let the Elder (the one with the holes in his shoes) borrow my camera.  He doesn't have a camera to send his family any pictures. :( I will send some home next week I promise.  So sorry.

Drew

Christmas came early...

Christmas came early this year and I have to say it was the best Christmas ever.  Because the cyber was closed on Christmas day we were able to Skype with Andrew on Christmas Eve.  It was so fun to see him and hear his voice.  We were even able to Skype with his companion Elder Diaz who was extremely nice and told us some great stories about Drew.  Apparently Drew didn't eat anything for the first 2 weeks he was there.  No wonder he is looking so slim :).

It was so good to hear he had received his Christmas packages but we weren't surprised to hear he had opened them all early.  He is our child who can't wait for Christmas each year and is always the first awake on Christmas morning.  Would you believe we slept in until 8:00 this year!?! It was heavenly!!  We loved hearing he had hung up the paper  Christmas tree we had sent him and had actually hung all of the family picture ornaments.  All that hard work didn't go to waste. :)  He did however inform us that he had to take down many of the pictures because one of the other Elders living with him was kissing some of the pictures i.e: those of Laken and my darling nieces.   Drew said it made him a little uncomfortable...hahaha. Silly Elders!

We are now counting down the days until Mothers Day...4 months to be exact! 

Christmas Catchup...

I can hardly believe I am so far behind on the blog.  I guess being more organized should be one of my New Years Resolutions.  A lot has happened with Andrew the past month.  He is doing well and is loving Paraguay.   It was great to talk to him on Christmas Eve and see how much he has changed in the past few months. We love and miss this cute missionary.

12/15/2014

Hey Everyone, 

I will try and send pictures today if I can today but it took me 30 minutes to get on the computer today.  I am hoping the internet gets better. 

So excited to be able to talk to you all next week.  I am not sure what time yet but I will give you a final time next week.  I might need to change the date also because the cyber might be closed on the 25th.  I will finalize everything this week and let you know.  

This week has been decent, not much has happened.  Church was good but I messed up playing the piano last week because the dang button got stuck so this I got fired...it was a disaster. hahaha  My new calling is a visiting teacher for women.  Other than that not much is happening.  Tomorrow I go to another area and am doing divisions with the zone leaders which means I will have water for the day.  That will be nice.  We finally figured out whats wrong with the water in our house.  The owner of our home has been getting the water illegally so things could be getting a little crazy at our house.  The water people from the city are coming to look at things today, that should be fun.  

Other than this nothing has really happened this week.  I will try to be more interesting next week. :) 

Oh I did get lost for  a while in the middle of nowhere, that was fun!! Besides that things have been pretty much the same.  

The members here make fun of me, it's pretty funny.  They make fun of me for being blonde, last time I checked my hair was brown.  So strange!?!

Everyone here is getting ready for Christmas.  Their biggest tradition down here is that they all take care of a pig all year. They get them nice and huge and then they kill them and eat them with their families on Christmas.  We are working on somewhere to eat on Christmas.  They don't decorate really but I have seen a couple of houses put up lights and I have seen a couple of Christmas trees.  They don't really do gifts on Christmas they just have a big family dinner.  

Thanks for the inspirational message.  I appreciate it a lot and as usual it was good to hear how everyone is doing.

Love you so much, 

Elder Heugly

I think I need to be a little more specific on what types of pictures I would like?  I am not exactly sure what he was thinking when taking or sending these pictures?  I am going to blame it on the heat.  

12/22/2014

Hey Everyone, 

So since I get to Skype with my family for Christmas I only get 15 minutes this week to email.

All is well with me and I hope you are all well.  Talk to everyone next week.

Love, 

Andrew

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. 

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!