Three Pirus and One Santa Paula

Hola Familia,

People live their life here so differently - even the poor people have TV´s… It seems like it´s one of their first priorities so they can watch futbol. But it´s really common for them to be sitting in conversation, relaxing with some yerba mate or tereré. Almost anyone will let you in to talk about the gospel, but aren´t always willing to do anything about what we teach. Understandable, and that´s why we have our agency. My literal area is almost completely rural. Some parts are like Piru, except the roads are cobblestone like, but with just random rocks. There aren´t any sidewalks... so you just have to watch out for the Motos, horse and ox carts. Hahaha...

I am in Branch 2 in Caáguazú. There are, technically, about 800 members, but at church on Sunday, we had 50. So... ya... lots of work to do. We had 8 investigators at church, so that was a really good thing. Really good. If Google Earth has the local names, I have Ciudad Nueva out past Primero Mayo, and way far off to the north. Ours is the second biggest area, just slightly smaller than Branch 3. Just slightly. Mostly we work with Constitution and Ciudad Nueva. Sometimes we head out to Triunfo. All the rest of the areas are difficult to get the investigators to come to church, or to even teach, so we use our time as best we can in Constitución or Ciudad Nueva. And yeah... these red dirt roads become a mess when it rains. Really bad. One of the reasons our work is really hampered when it rains. And whoever told me to keep a white shirt in a bag my whole mission was so right.... I don´t know if I´ll be coming home with too many white shirts... they´ll probably be red.

My feet are doing great. Surprisingly, your shoes [Dave took a pair of Cliff’s old uniform shoes that had thick rubber soles on them] are doing much better than the Rockport’s, as in handling the work load. Not as comfortable, but they are some pretty good shoes. The boots are doing the best so far though. Imagine that. You should be getting an official picture from President Callan. He might be sending it snail mail, but I´m not sure.

My Church Building is tiny. It could almost fit in our Chapel... I´m pretty sure. We do have a baptismal font though, so that is nice. The whole floor is tiled... makes it easier to clean. My area itself is rural, small townish. Not rural to the point of fields in between. Think 3 Piru´s. One for Ciudad Nueva, one for Constitution, one for Triunfo. Triunfo is the smallest. Another area that we work in is Familia Unidas, which is the poorest part, and that is more rural. But it´s great working with the people. Lots and lots and lots of trees, as hopefully you´ll be able to see in the pictures. Not too many hills, but there are a few mountains, if you can see through all of the trees. I´m sleeping alright. Lately I´ve been waking up about 5ish for some reason, but I don´t know why. It´s alright though. The food is good. The best has been Sopa Paraguayo, and the weirdest, hot dogs made of horse and donkey meat. There is this stuff called manioca, which is a type of plant, and that is interesting too. Breakfast is cereal, and lunch is usually pasta with some meat. It´s good. My apartment is alright. It´s small, and kind of hard to keep clean. Our landlady is an inactive member, and two other elders live across from us. We don´t do any proselyting anywhere near our house, mostly because it´s not our area and we are walking quickly to one of our appointments. I´ve never seen any neighbors, but pretty much anyone will say ´adios´ if you say it to them. Pretty friendly. The mission office is a 3 hour bus ride from our apt. There are 8 in our district, 3 from Cali (Diamond Bar, Sacramento, y yo), 3 from Argentina, 1 from Peru, 1 from the US, not sure where though. Zone conference is every 6 weeks, I think, and the next is in April. We have that in Ciudad del Este. P day is personal, companion and language study, grocery shopping, emails. This morning we cleaned, which was good too. Other than that, we write letters or try to relax and stop sweating. We haven´t done any service yet... so I don´t know. Still trying to learn.

Thank you for all the information. I love you guys so much. Thanks for all of your hard work, love, and support. I could never have gotten here if it wasn’t for my parents. I want to make sure I can sneak a reply back to Mike´s e-mail. Love you tons. Take care of yourself.

Con amor,

Elder David Watson