Jamás

Hellooo famjamily!!

I´m glad you all liked the butterflies so much :)

So this week was... interesting. I honestly don't even know what to share, my companion was struggling so it was up and down and all over the place. I love her, I´ve done all I know how to do to help her, and just need to trust that that's good enough. Our numbers have been suuuper low this whole transfer, so that makes me feel bad, but I´m needing to trust in the Lord that perhaps that wasn´t the point of this transfer. The question is: Are we better today than we were at the beginning of the transfer?". And that answer is yes, so that means we´ve had success. Just a different type of it, but the kind that the Lord needed. trust trust trust.
Anyway, the big news of the week is the transfer!! I'm staying here in P, Hermana Mamani is going to Argentina. My new companion is Hermana Tapia. Now close your eyes and guess how old she is. ...open your eyes (old spice, anyone?). ...Bet you didn't guess 36!!!! :) hahaha but seriously I´m SOO excited. She was in my old zone, in Santo Tome. (shes the trainer of Hermana Myrold). She is super, super fun and hilarious. She loves to work hard and have fun doing it, which are the two best things to do on the mission, so I´m really happy!! Today I pulled out the note she had written me when I left our zone last transfer, and it said "Everyone who will be your companion is privileged". And now it´s her, haha! :) And we´re gonna be sister training leaders together!

I actually have no idea what I´m supposed to do as a sister training leader besides help the other sisters, which I made a point of always trying to do anyways (when I was sad I was still junior companion I decided, "well, who says I need a title to lift and support and help the other hermanas")... but anyway, I´m excited and it should be interesting. I know Hermana Tapia and I will figure it out together.

Other news of the week is a prayer request! A big one. Our whole area is having super flood issues. I´m not sure if you guys keep up on the news down here or not, but all the rivers here are rising and flooding everything. Basically all of the campo was already flooded when I came, but this week Igazu flooded (like the falls) and now things are getting worse. P has a "muro" (I have noooo idea what that translation is... sand bank?) which will only hold so much more. If things continue to progress worser, the missionaries will be taken out and basically all of P will go to asuncion as refugees (last time it happened in ´83... look it up its all anyone is talking about). prayers please! That it stops raining and that the water stops rising.

aaand that´s about all I have for the week. Sorry this letter is so much less profound than last week, haha. I set a pretty high standard for myself :) But here´s a spiritual thought igual. I was reading 1 Nephi 15:24 in spanish the other day and something struck me. In english it says that if we hold onto the word of God we will "never perish" but in spanish it uses the word "jamás". Jamás is a really strong word for "never ever ever". Like they use it to say my parents JAMÁS would let me stay out past midnight or something like that. I just loved that emphasis, that we are promised that the Lord will never, ever, EVER desert us if we are holding on to Him. Jamás.

I love you guys so much, and know the Lord knows what He´s doing. When we trust Him, things will always end up for the better.

 

Love and besos from Paraguay,

Hermana Rawlins

Here´s me and Samira, the daughter of our ward mission leader who wanted to play a game of chess after Sunday lunch. I won ;)