I Love Paraguay

I love it here, but I admit that it's unlike anything I've ever seen before.  This week has been especially crazy.

The week started off on Monday with a guy falling over at a McDonald's.  He fainted while waiting for his McPapasFritas, and landed really hard.  It was rather difficult to eat while watching the medical people rushing around, taking care of all the blood.  But in the end, I finished my food (and the guy was okay too...I assume).

That night, it wasn't any easier to eat.  We have a new convert that took us out to dinner.  We arrived at the restaurant and it was surprisingly nice.  It was an outdoor place with a big patio and a big area for kids to play and even a nice fountain.  Basically, it was a lot nicer that what we usually see.  We ordered a giant expressive high-quality pizza, without any hair in it.  We took our seats and I knew this was gonna be a good meal.  

I looked to the giant TV screen hoping to be able to catch a bit of a soccer game or something.  I soon realized that it was not a soccer game.  They decided to put on a show about toes.  Like there were 5 or 6 patients that went in to the office with various foot problems.  The camera spent the majority of the time focused on their misshapen or bacteria-infested toenails and feet.  Needless to say, it was really gross.  We got our pizza and that's when they started the surgeries.  They, in surprisingly high-quality imaging, started peeling back toenails, cutting up skin, and sticking needles into toes.  I'm just glad that the show was muted.  So for those of you who have trouble eating because it sounds gross when someone chews too loud, just be grateful that you're not watching toe surgeries.....I apologize if I just ruined your next meal.

Alright, on to a more pleasing topic (unless you're a star client of people that make shows about toe surgeries, then I suggest looking the show up online).  Tuesday was a really cool day.  I went on divisions with an absolute stud, Elder Larson.  The coolest part of the day was the last lesson.  Elder Larson told me that this family had been taught by missionaries for forever and we really needed to be direct to see if we should drop them.  We started by asking a few questions, including ¿What is the purpose of life? and others like that.  After we understood their needs, we testified like I never had before.  Elder Larson started by just laying out the restoration and testifying of its truthfulness.  He was straight up just saying the words of the spirit, it was so powerful.  He wrapped up his thoughts and I picked it back up immediately testifying of the reason we are here in the world and why it's so important that we have the priesthood.  We just both testified with so much power and authority from God that it was undeniable.  The people we were teaching were staring at us so intensely and I knew that the Spirit was giving them their chance.  We wrapped up the lesson perfectly and left them with invitations to read the book of mormon and pray about and I could tell they already knew it was true.  It just made too much sense.

Elder Larson and I talked about how cool that was the rest of the night.  We literally felt like Alma and Amulek.  It was so freaking cool.

We also found a starfruit tree and we tried to get some down in the house of a member.  During that time a piece of fruit fell down from one of the highest branches all the way down right into my eye.  That hurt.  But we do it all for Him.

I also found out that drinking tereré or maté while driving is illegal.  That's hilarious to me because everybody does it anyway.  It's such a bad addiction.

Also I was served fish for dinner (pics below).  It was actually pretty good.

Anyway, love you all.  And for those of you who immediately dismissed that as an over-general statement and think it doesn't apply to you, I love you especially.  And the same goes with God's love.  Have a good day!

Élder Blacker