And I Thought Texas Was Hot

Hi everyone!  Hope you're doing well!  


This week was the weirdest roller-coaster of good and bad at the same time (mostly good).  Everyday I wake up thinking "I hope today is better than yesterday" and everyday it's not any better.  But the thing is, I love it.  I truly love it.  It doesn't matter what it is, my morning studies, teaching our friends, eating, walking in the heat, I love doing it. 


That's one of the most important things I've learned over the last two weeks.  I've found that the best missionaries are always happy.  So, I determined that if I wanted to enjoy my mission, I had to be one of the best missionaries.  I know I haven't been out long, but even in my short time, I felt something wasn't quite right.  I found that I was striving for the wrong thing.  The best missionaries aren't so happy because they work so hard, are so obedient, and are so devoted.  The best missionaries are happy because they love what they are doing.  They love God, and they love the people they serve.  Every activity they do, they do it because they love God and want to keep His commandments.  So, I changed my focus a little bit.  I stopped trying to be such a hard-working machine-type missionary, and I just tried to love everything I'm supposed to be doing.  It's sooo much better.  I love to study, I love to teach, I'm by no means perfect, but I like the direction I'm heading.  I can put forth the same amount of effort, but enjoy every second of it. (This is the same for keeping ALL of God's commandments,  not just missionaries!)


Okay... I need to explain the reason I wake up every morning and don't want to do anything.  The thing is... I love it, but it's hard.  I've never been so tired.  The rumor going around is that Paraguay has recently been declared the hottest country in the world (I have no idea if that's true, I couldn't find it anywhere on gospel library).  The hardest part is that Paraguayans hate the heat.  The hotter it is, the less people want to talk to us.  


When it's too hot, nobody leaves the house, nobody answers the door (if they have a door, that is).  So then, the hotter it is, the more we walk.  It was incredibly hot this week.  There was one day where from 2:30 pm to 9:00 pm we talked to 3 people for less than 5 min each.  That's a grand total of 6 hours 15 min of walking.  But, another day it was a couple degrees cooler and we couldn't teach fast enough.  Everyone received us.  Así es la misión.


Yeah, that about sums it up.  I'm loving it.  It was my comp's birthday on Saturday and we celebrated.  We had wayyy too much cake.  It was awesome.  Until next week,


Élder Blacker


Sorry for the lack of pictures, but I took pics of a couple of things I found weird.  Paraguayans don't know how to build anything.  This guy's car was too big for his garage so he extended it, but only the exact part he needed.  And a brick wall was falling down so they just put some wood there and called it good.

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