Blacker, Chandler

This week was incredible.  On tuesday we had the chance to watch our recent convert, Cesar, baptize his younger brother Anderson.  It was such a cool experience.  Cesar has only been a member of the Church for 1 month and he was able to help his 12 year old brother follow his example.  Everytime we go over to teach them it is so much fun.  They always love to think of deep questions and ask us when we arrive.  Paraguayans are very innocent people.  Anderson and Cesar both get almost all A's in their classes, but their questions are so weird.  They ask us if the world is flat or round.  We explain that it is indeed round and they respond, "Well why are we always on the bottom?  I want Paraguay to be on the top.  Also how do we not fall off the world if we are under it?"  We dove into a really long explanation of how gravity works and that if you dug a hole through the middle of the earth you would not fall all the way though and...

Hey everyone!   These last two weeks have been awesome. We have a baptism on Tuesday with more on the way. The work here has been incredible. We have almost stopped finding people because the people started finding us. It's a lot of fun to be with my comp. He's really funny and knows how to work. He's really invested in the conversion of the people. It's a blast out here. Short list of other cool events: -My comp found out that tiramisu DOES in fact have coffee in it, and that the peru mtc was giving coffee flavored cake to all the missionaries. (Silly mtc, we don't drink coffee) -Played lots of Magic the Gathering (my comp is an addict) -Enjoyed the mission Welp, that's about it. Have a great week! Elder Blacker

So I don't want to throw shade at Encarnación (my last zone), but apparently I really hated it there.  We had transfers on Wednesday and I got changed to here in Paso de oro.  I had nearly forgotten the joy of teaching the gospel before getting here.  I didn't realize quite how badly I was struggling until I was reminded of the great joys of being a missionary and disciple of Christ. In my 3 different areas in Encarnación, I was rejected.  It was sooooo hard to find just one person that wanted to listen to what I was saying.  Even worse, they seemed to want to listen to all the missionaries except me.  I still can't explain it.  I served under some unique circumstances, but still, everytime I left the area on exchanges my comp would see some great miracle and then I would come back and we'd get nothing.  I'm very thankful to a great comp, great missionary leaders, and great supportive members for being so helpful, but it was just different. For a ...

Hey yall! It's finally cold here!  Its actually about 60 degrees outside but thats about 50 degrees colder than everyone is used to.  All of the paraguayans and us are bundled up in our winter coats. I had a rather interesting experience this week.  I was on divisions with Élder Kempton (one of the funniest Elders in the mission) and we were just trying to find new people.  We stopped one guy in the street and presented ourselves.  We were about to start sharing when a white minivan pulls up and a guy runs out of the passenger door shouting, "50 mil!  50 mil!  Vamos vamos!"  I didn't understand everything he said, but he was basically offering money (about $8) to stop talking to us and go with them.  Our friend didn't really agree, just took about a half step towards the guy.  The guy rushed out and grabbed our friend, pushed him towards the back of the car, where another man had opened the trunk and they shoved our friend inside and sla...