Green Oranges and Lemons?

Hola Familia Watson

My exclamation mark isn’t working again. Can’t show my excitement. Lame... but that is alright. I’m sure you can imagine it. My SD card converter thingy isn’t working right now, so I can't download any pictures today. I’ll try again later.

This week has been great. We’ve made a lot of progress with our investigators. This Sunday, if things go as planned, we should have another baptismal service. I have Zone Conference this Wednesday in Ciudad Del Este, so that will be a fun trip out of town. The Zone Conference should last pretty much the whole day, but it will be worth listening to my Mission President. I’m excited. Sometimes being here seems like a dream... everything flows together. But it’s great learning, growing, and being able to serve the people of Paraguay. It’s a completely different lifestyle, and it’s kind of growing on me. If that’s the right phrase. I can’t remember idioms anymore. They all seem weird. I can understand why others who are learning English are totally confused. I’m finally able to start adding my two cents to conversations here, as long as it’s not in Guarani. Not much, but the more I work with it, the better I will get. Oh... funny thing... sometimes the little kids, who only know Guarani por la mayoría, call me ja’raha or something like that. I am still learning the pronunciation of Guarani. But it means amigo grande, or big friend. Kinda cool. I can’t wait to be able to learn more Guarani - but Spanish first, and I’ll be able to learn plenty of Guarani.

This week I’ve been finding a lot of scriptures about peace, faith, and prayer. James 1 and 2 are chalk full of them, along with various chapters in Moroni, Alma, Mosiah, and 2nd Nephi. I should have written down the references so I could share them with y’all. Oh, and I realized I didn’t give credit to King Benjamin in Mosiah about believing in Christ but all prophets testify of Christ and His divinity, so I probably could give credit to all of the other prophets too. I love being able to study the scriptures here. I wish I had more time - an hour just isn’t enough. I am finding so many scriptures that are really really helpful with sharing the gospel, raising good families, building faith, the importance of living the commandments... the list could go on and on. But both the Book of Mormon and the Bible fit together so perfectly, we just need to become more familiar with them. Or least I need to.

Elder Ray. Yeah. I remember him. I wish I had my exclamation point right now. He was great. Or is great, I should say. Man... I wish I had spent much more time with the missionaries. At least I can help out with the missionaries when I get back. It’s going to be a blast. I love the prospect of it.

Info about Paraguay. The government has decided to eliminate the thousands part of their currency. So 1 dollar will be about 4.5 to 5 Guaranies en vez de 4500 to 5000 Guaranies. Much easier to convert in my head. That should take place next year. Oh... we fell back an hour this week. I still don’t know the time difference between here and Cali. I need to figure that out for next month when I call home for Mother’s Day. Don’t worry about me being homesick. I love seeing pictures of home. Maybe even a yellow lemon. Oranges and lemons here are green. SO different. Oh - One question. How do you make orchata? I want to see if I can make it here. Thanks.

Anyway, I love being here. I am learning so much. I wish I could have the time to share it all with you. I hope all is going well at home. Take care of yourselves.

Con amor,

Elder David Watson