Found home in Natalio Paraguay

Dylan arrived in Paraguay on Tuesday September 18, exactly two months after leaving Salt Lake City.  Upon arrival he was greeted with a major wind storm that knocked out the power of the entire country.  Power returned and he was assigned to Natalio a small farming community 190 miles from Asuncion.  The Capital of Soy and on the boarder of Argentina.  He has found Guarani to be the only language spoken, enjoy his comments.  


First week in Paraguay......AWESOME!!! Empidrada, the rocky roads, so much worse than people describe haha. It's a good time though. There's tons of chickens here. I'm in a town called Natalio, it's really far South/East. I can see Argentina from my front porch. Everyone speaks Guarani haha. We've met some families that only speak Guarani, which makes it really tough to teach them. In church yesterday, the bishop stood up to talk and he talked for a while in spanish then said 'sorry elders, I'm now going to speak in Guarani.' haha. After that the whole sacrament meeting was in Guarani.

So there are a ton of members here. But most are inactive, apparently that's how all of Paraguay is. But the people who stay active are amazing. Everyone here is super nice. They're always trying to help me and are already trying to get me to speak Guarani. We have some pretty solid investigators too. We just can't baptize them either because they don't have church attendance, or they only have church attendance and they don't have the lessons. A lot of the investigators are young too so they have to get permission from parents which is pretty tough. It's hard to teach people sometimes because;they are working literally like all day, every day.

So my trainer is from Colorado. His name is Elder Omanson. He has 13 months in his mission. He's way chill and a great help. I'm the 3rd person he's trained so he's super good at it. It's cold in the morning here and then it gets pretty hot and cools back down at night. Surprisingly though, there's less mosquitoes here than Argentina. There's loads of small flies and what not, but I haven't seen any mosquitoes and I only have one bite. So yeah, the language is good. Everyone thinks I'm Paraguayo haha. So yeah talk to you guys soon.

Arrival in Paraguay via Brazil

Emailed 9-17-12

Dylan, we think, headed for Paraguay on a local flight that traveled through San Paulo, Brazil.  His final comment warmed my heart, glad to hear he arrived safely.

So this past week was pretty good. Finished with the CCM y’know. I’m like excited to go but not. I’m gonna miss all my buddies here. I’ve made so many great friends here, some I won’t see ever again, it sucks bro. But I’m pretty stoked to leave for Paraguay tomorrow. My flight is at 6 AM, so 3 AM your time. It’s gonna be killer but hey! It’s better than the flight to Uruguay at 4 AM. Proselitismo was a downer on Saturday. Literally like no one would talk to us, we only gave 2 pamphlets out and I had to practically shove the pamphlet into their hands. Oh and a bird pooped on my head during proselitismo. It sucked but it was pretty dang funny I must admit haha. I was reaching in my backpack to grab some more pamphlets and the bird side-skirted my head haha. And to go with the poop, I got like 15 new mosquito bites haha. I’m getting straight eaten alive by those blood suckers. I got to be more careful, ‘cause I heard the mosquitos in Paraguay are super gnarly compared to the ones here in Argentina. I’m also kind of sick which sucks. Just a cough and a stuffy nose but I think it’s getting better. So past all that, my last Sunday here was pretty great. We talked about the priesthood power to heal. Some scriptures for yeah to read are DyC 42:43 and Mark chapters 5-6. Some really great stories of healing by the priesthood. So yeah then there’s today we have orientation, literamente all day. But yeah tomorrow will be tight. I’ll finally be in Paraguay. Can’t wait to tell you about my first week there. ¡Chau Ché!

12:30pm Tuesday September 18, 2012; So I'm in Paraguay now. I get my companion tomorrow morning and I'm having a great time here.

Buenos Aires Temple Dedication

Emailed on 9-12-12

We watched the celebrations in Argentina via YouTube: Search for Celebracion de la Joventud Argentina.

We actually found him in the sea of missionaries.  It was fantastic to see him participating in such a great event with the members.  He had a spiritual high of a week and now prepares for departure to Paraguay.  Enjoy his comments:

So,  A ton of stuff happened this last week. First, I loved the package. Thanks so much for all that candy and corvatas(Ties) haha. That newspaper was tight too. And I didn't see the courier so give them my thanks for bringing the package. So this last weekend was the dedication for the Buenos Aires Temple which was way cool. I couldn't take pictures of any of the events though. Stupid rules right? Once in a life time stuff but whatever. So on Friday, all of the missionaries in the 3 Buenos Aires missions and in the CCM had a devotional where E' Christopherson, E' Ballard, and President Eyring spoke. It was a prime time dawg. Wonderful talks, great for missionaries and for me. Saturday there was a cultural event that we were in. It was all day so we didn't proselyte but I loved the event so much. You know me, I love seeing other cultures. We were in a stadium in the city and there was music, singing, and dancing. Pres. Eyring and the two Apostles spoke a little for it too. Then at the end all the missionaries marched onto the field singing "llamados a servir" (called to serve). It was pretty legendary. I tell you what, Argentines LOVE their missionaries. We are practically famous here. They all wanted pictures with us and they were cheering, it was tight.

Then comes Sunday, we watched the first session of the dedication and one of my teachers from the CCM was in the choir for it. The dedication was sweet in Spanish and later that night during a fireside with the CCM pres. I shook the Area Presidents hand, it was E' Mervyn B. Arnold in the picture you sent me.  Entonces(In otherwords), I shook a General Authority's hand, Whuttup Ché! and today I went to do endowments here with some other missionaries. I had headphones so it was in English, but I tried to do some of it in Spanish and dude, it was hard. It was fun and interesting but super hard. The people that help you were slurring their speech so just 'No entiendo(Don’t Understand) dawg' haha. This temple is so beautiful and radical. Look at some photos of it, ché. So normal life here in the CCM is pretty cool. Learning tons of Spanish and now I'm doing like full conversations with some Latinos. My Spanish is straight bumpin' haha. The weather is getting super hot here and I'm slight sick. Hopefully it's not from the 50 mosquito bites I have from playing soccer. Me and E' Francis, the new American from California, are way tight. We talk all the time, he's probably my favorite person here. It's too bad he's going to Uruguay, Montevideo mission. So, one more week here then I bounce. My letter next week will be short probably because I leave on Tuesday. Thanks again for the package, love you guys. Oh and check out this sick knot I learned not to tie! Peace out, Bellsprout.

All Spanish

He is immersed in Spanish now with a companion from Ecuador.  We told him about our trip to Shakespeare and Aladdin. 

So this last proselitismo was fantastic. It was a great way to end my first companionship. We only covered 2 blocks of area but we gave out 6 Libros de Mormón, countless pamphlets, and we got 9 references for other missionaries. Oh and guess what! Pres. Eyring is doing a fireside on Friday for all of the missionaries in the area and the missionaries in the CCM get to go as well. And it's in English!!! Sounds like a good time. So I got my Latino companion. His name is E' Apolo, he's from Ecuador and he doesn't speak ANY English. Usually gringos get someone that speaks a little English but nope. In my classes too, I’m the only one that speaks English. It's so hard bro. I understand almost everything they say but they want me to answer these in depth questions and I'm like 'Dawg, I can’t just speak a paragraph of in depth doctrine in Spanish.' haha. It's rough but it should get better. so I'm already way close to some of the new Latinos. Love them, they're so crazy haha. Or in Guaraní, 'Netavy'. there's 4 new Americans, 2 elders and 2 hermanas. The two elders are E' Francis, from California, and E' Pyper, from Oklahoma. They're both way cool, I talk to them a lot. but yeah that's pretty much it. I hope you guys are keeping it real for me. I'm super jelly about the plays. Dude I miss musicals haha. My Comp is way tight. He's in the big email. He's fun but a little difficult to understand. All in all during class I understand almost everything but I struggle to answer back haha. Thanks for all the love and prayers I need it. Yesterday was way rough I was just spent from so much Spanish. So too kill a mockingbird, I remember it but I read it back in sophomore year where I barely paid attention in English haha. But yeah now I'm remembering the main plot. Such a good book, I need to read it again when I come home. I hope all is well in UTAH. Love you guys.

¡Chau Ché!

Alone at the CCM

All of the other Americans have left the MTC for Asuncion North or Uruguay. 

So this week was pretty chill.   Proselyting was ok, nothing big happened it was a normal day, o crap just kidding so not this last Saturday but the one before we met this lady named bertha but we didn’t have much time to talk to her so we gave her a plan de salvación folleto and asked her to read it. Then this week we went to visit her twice and she wasn’t home either time so we just said o well and continued our day. Then later we came across her and I forgot who she was because we meet so many people but my companion recognized her and she said she read the pamphlet and absolutely loved it so we gave her the book of Mormon and la restauración folleto(restoration pamphlet) and she said she would go to church the next day. Who knows if she actually went to church but she’s way nice and she seems like she probably went.   Yeah bertha seems like a great lady. The rain has stopped and it’s starting to get hot. I was playing goalkeeper during fútbol the other day and I was just standing there and i felt like I might break a sweat haha.

It's just me and 8 other missionaries en la CCM until Thursday.  It's nice to have some peace and quiet but I miss everyone else. I gave out so many of my information cards to my new friends. The Americans that just left were my favorites, they were so chill. One of them was E' Deaver, who's from Las Vegas, he was telling me that we were going to hang out and get all you can eat sushi in the Vegas. Sounds like a good time to me jaja. lol. Well this last set of latinos were crazy, they had like water fights and would play ninja all the time. They were so chill though. The last few days we started trading ties. I got two new ties but I need you to send me some more ties to trade because I love all the ones I have now jaja. So I met another E' Memmott here. He's in the Buenos Aires west mission. He says his ancestors are from the colonies, does that connect us? Grandma only tells us about the watts family, I don’t know the Memmott heritage jaja. E' Memmott is from California, he's pretty chill and he's pretty white. We could be related. So check out this song we sang in sacrament on Sunday. 

V1: We are marching.

We are marching in the service of our lord,

endowed with power from on high....from on high.

Armed with faith to teach his holy word.

For the lord is nigh.

Chorus: Oh We, Oh we all labor in the service of god,

with heart might mind and strength.

ever onward, holding with faith the iron rod.

ever onward, forward with faith we serve our god.

V2: Faiths the power and obedience the price,

to serve our savior valiantly.....valiantly.

loves the motive and the spirit key,

for eternity....for eternity.

[Chorus]

That is the Vanuatu missionary song. Its way up beat. I'll try to get a video of it. I told you we have a missionary from the island of Vanuatu right? It’s an island near fiji he's way rad. O so during proselitismo we found a bakery and they ha pizzas! we ate one right there and it was way good so we bought another to eat during the movie on sunday and everyone started laughing when they saw the pizza. It wasn't the full pizza, just the crust and sauce jaja. So my companions and I decided to ask the chef here if he could put cheese on it and cook it and he's way nice so he said sure. When he gave us the cooked pizza on sunday, it had a layer of ham and cheese and slices of sausage and olives and random seasonings all over it! It was so funny when we went to the movie session with our pizza. It was so good jaja. Well yeah that's it this week. How's my bud's in the ward? What's Zach, Stets, Megan, and Natalie up to? Tell everybody what's up. ok well mad love and Til' We Meet Again.

So on mondy I get my latino companion. I'm super excited.  So today I weeded some of the temple grounds. The dedication is in 2 weeks and apparently there is rumor that we will be doing something for it and we will be on tv. Dont take my word for it though haha but that would be cool if you watched it. Bear Lake looks way fun I wish I could be there.

with the money in the drawer? haha so we started selling them to the new latinos because they don’t proselyte on the first Saturday so they all wanted candy but didn’t have any. That’s just a picture of the stash me and my companion had. The banana and dulce de leche is showing you what I eat 5 times a day haha.   Chau.