Heat=Bad Jesus=Good

My mom saved my life this week...she bought me a little fan before I left.


Okay, first piece of advice: NEVER go to a 3rd world country where temperatures are consistently above 100° with plans to walk all day everyday... unless you have Jesus on your side.  If you have Jesus, you've made the right decision.


Here a little excerpt from my journal to help describe what it's been like this week.  I wrote this last Tuesday:


"It felt like 117° out today. The forecast says it'll get hotter tomorrow and keep going up. We work for 11 hours a day, the entirety spent walking in the sun. We got invited in by a few people, I didn't know it was possible to sweat so much sitting indoors. Many people don't have fans or ac, and the humidity makes the shade basically worthless.  In fact, the most I sweat all day was inside a newly built house.  Being inside only makes sure you'll never feel even a slight breeze. 


"We spent the whole day sweating non-stop. I started to think that people were rejecting us just because I smelled bad.  We went to the church building for a little meeting, but the power was out, so we couldn't use the ac or cold water. We had to open the windows for fresh air...yep, that's right. In 117 degree heat, it was still cooler outside than inside.  Unbelievable. After an exhausting day trying to find what little shade there was, we returned to the house at 9:30 pm, and even in the darkness it still felt like well over 100° outside. What we found at our apartment was a broken air-conditioner...and puddles of water that used to be ice in our freezer.  We don't have anything cold in the fridge anymore.


"We'll be sleeping without the ac tonight, or at least I hope we will be sleeping. We don't have any cold water or ice, I even tried to shower but it was just lukewarm. Nothing to help me cool off.  But we did order dominos pizza, so all-in-all I'd say I had a pretty good day."


Yep, that's my life right now. But luckily the heat is finally coming to an end.  I went from the end of the Texas summer, into the start of the Paraguay summer.  I've gone a whole year where it's been hot outside and nothing else.


Okay, back to the good news.  Despite the heat, I'm doing really well here.  I love being a missionary, especially now that I can express my thoughts and feelings about the gospel to everyone.  I've felt the Spirit super strongly many times this week alone.  I have felt that truly I can do all things through Christ.  Whether it's learning a new language in only a few months, or hiking all day through this incredible heat without ac, Christ is there for me and I can feel his love in any moment I turn to Him. 


Quick miracle I want to share.  My comp and I had just finished a big lunch, went to a quick little meeting, and then started walking.  We were both super full from lunch, making the walking harder.  We saw an empanada stand and suddenly we both had the strongest desires to buy empanadas.  My comp turned to me and said "I know this doesn't make any sense, we just ate and I never buy snacks during the day, but we're gonna buy empanadas."  We were in line and suddenly a guy came up to us and asked us how he could get his hands on a Bible.  We gave him a BoM, got his number, and continued on.  He's definitely gonna get baptized!  He's super awesome! 


Well, that's it.  A crazy week.  And, to top it all off, I'm being emergency transfered to a new area (in the middle of nowhere) to meet a new comp, a new area, and after only 2 weeks with my current comp Elder Woodward.  I'm headed to my second area right now!  It's going to be an adventure!


Love y'all 


Élder Blacker


Pics:
-My comp made me dinner (plain white rice)
-Silly Elder Woodward sleeping during studies
-Delicious enchiladas we invented out of Paraguay ingredients that somehow turned out absolutely amazing




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