A Nourisher

This week was a good one!!

On Tuesday we were in CDE for the multi zone conference and it was really good. Really the best part is just being near President and Hermana Lapierre and feeling of their love and support and understanding of everything we're going through. We talked a lot about doing new things and breaking out of the routine of missionary work, which I really appreciated because I've started to get bored and that makes things harder.

 

Then the week was just pretty normal. I love Salto, I really do, but I've started to get frustrated with some things and just feeling like we're working in vain or getting little fruits from all our labors. And then that makes me worry that I'm doing something wrong or should be doing a better job. So this week I asked the Elders for a priesthood blessing and it was really good. I've studied and noticed patterns or themes in the blessings I get. For example, this week marked the third time I have been told that part of the reason I am on my mission is for the people I will know after. Which I had never really thought about, I always assumed that I'm on a mission for the people here, you know? Well apparently not entirely because several times I have been told I am here for the people I will know after my mission, including friends, family, in schooling, and my husband and children. Interesting, right?? The Lord's plan is so much more long time than ours is. Sometimes He gives us trials and experiences maybe just so we can help someone years later.

 

Also, I was studying something that I thought I'd share, since I couldnt think of anything  else more interesting to share haha :) Its in Jacob 5:22-23, the allegory of the olive tree. The Lord plants something in a really poor section of tree and then comes back later and the servant is like, "wait, what?? Why is there so much fruit here, this was the worst soil!" But I love the Lord's response. He says, bascially, "I knew it was a poor spot of ground, but I have nourished it this long time and now it has brought forth much fruit."

I love these Little tiny branches, but often times they just do not have the "roots" to grow the way they need to. So what are we doing here? We are pruning and digging and "nourishing it this long time". Because in the end, it will bring forth much fruit. I know it will. But for now, we here in the branches are the ones down in the mud helping it stay alive.

I am privileged to be one of the "nourishers" in the Lords vineyard. And then as I was praying at the end of my studies, this sentence came to my mind. "Find joy in being a nurterer as that will be your role your whole life."

 

So that was a good part of my week. The Lord knows me and knows what I need. He also knows YOU and what YOU need. I know He loves us and if we just take time to sit still, we will feel of His lovingkindness and His "perfect stillness." (that is me and hermana nethercotts new phrase to describe the spirit."

 

Things are well here with us! Oh one more update, my hair is still falling out in like clumps so I called the nurses and they said I either have a skin condition or a problem with my estrogen levels. So I'm supposed to go to a dermatologist or a regular doctor and see what they say. So I'll be trying to figure out how to do that here!

Also, today we had a district meeting in pure english just for fun cause our district is just us and the elders here in Saltos, and we recorded us singing a song in Guarani which we're gonna sing this sunday as a surprise for everybody. Elder Ollerton is supposed to get that sent along to you guys.

Questions from the family:

Do you really wear your passport thing on you that your original instructions referred to?

haaaa... no. Never. But I do have a copy of it in my wallet.

How are your clothes holding up?

I AM SO SICK OF THEM. But they're fine. No worries.

 

Do you think you will leave many things down there?

oh yes. a ton.

 

Is that a tag in Guarani? (from last week's email) 

nooo it's in Portuguese silly!!!

 

Is a parrot a common pet there?  

haha yeah, super common! We'll be walking down the Street and turn around cause we hear "hola!" and then realize its just a parrot talking to us. nice.

 

Love you all!!

-Hermana Rawlins

my zone going to the conference in Cuidad del Este

us and elders. the one on the right is one of our zone leaders and the left is one of the assitants 

pretty pretty pretty

this week we ate lunch at a members house and it was like easter cause all these Little baby animals were newly born!! Hooray for Easter in November. the mom cat was not too happy with us

 the best part was when I realized the Little gatito still had its umbilical cord attached #stillanerd

then we told the elders if they risked the mom duck and caught a Little duckling we would make them banana bread. They promptly chased them around until they caught one. And we made them the banana bread. :)

this has become the typical misión picture here in the misión. (spanish auto correct, sorry) everyone and their dog takes a picture with their companion like this. Every month they make a misión video of all the pictures we send in, and this last month there were like 7 straight minutes of pictures like this just as a joke. No importa, they're still purete

anybody want a frog? 

the new and improved way to fan your fire

 

Lots of time on the Colectivo!

So its been a busy week!

We left early Tuesday morning, and were on the colectivo all day. Literally. Hermana Nethercott spent the WHOLE time sleeping, well I took lots of pictures of her sleeping. But she's not letting me send you any of them, which is a shame. They're pretty funny. :)

Then we made it to Encarnación and it was kind of fun to be back. We went to my favorite Little shake place there and then found all of the missionaries in the terminal coming back from consejo. So I got to see Hermana tapia again, and all of my other friends! Yay!

Then I went with Hermana Rayo who is in Encarnación and hermana nethercott crossed over and went to Corrientes for tramites.

I didnt want to do divisions, until I found out it was with Hermana Rayo, and then I was like YES lets go!! She's awesome. She's from Nicaragua and is actually the best friend of Hermana Gonzalez, my trainer. Like they were best friends at home and then they got their calls to the same misión and left on the same day. Cool right??

So being with her totally reminded me of being with Hermana Gonzalez, who I miss a TON. I really do. I love her so much. And the divisions were also just a big blessing because I learned a ton and really felt the spirit with Hermana Rayo. So Wednesday was just awesome.

Then Thursday we traveled back, which involved being stuck on the side of the highway in Cuidad del Este for 5 hours. So that was entertaining. Luckily we were with another pair of Elders, and luckily no one robbed us.

So there's a recent convert here who is 10, and her Little sister is 7. The Little sister is Anai, and she wants to get baptized so bad but just has to wait for her birthday. So yesterday we went to visit and she was just home alone casually playing with her parrot. So we sat down and pulled out a pamphlet to share and say "ok, we're going to review this" and she grabs the pamphlet and says, "no, I'M going to teach YOU!". So we were like, ok sweet, we'll see how it goes. I took off my tag and stuck it on her and she got all happy and opened up to show us the pictures in the pamphlet and literally gave us the entire lession 1, the Restoration, with Little to no help. It was AWESOME. I swear she understands it all waaay better than the hundreds of other adults we teach. She's a cutie, and then made me give her the mints I had in my bag for doing a good job. :)

Tommorrow we have a multi zone conference with President LaPierre in Cuidad del Este, which should be really good!! And besides that we're just here trekking along in the work!

Question from the family: 

Did you escape the mission boundaries (although it wasn’t the west boundary you would like to cross!)?

Well...  I might have tried... :) just kidding I didnt I promise. But this morning we called and asked the Elders a question about our pday, and our zone leader goes, "Well I have a question to answer your question... "would you guys want to go to Brazil?" and we were like "are you serious?!?!" all excited and he goes "no. I just wanted to bother you." my response was "ELDER!" :) not even funny. but sort of funny.

Did I tell you guys that Julie Flinders son is my zone leader again?? He got transferred up here a transfer after me. I saw a picture of her, and I was like "wow she looks like Julie!!" and he goes "...she is. " oh.

Love you all so much!!
love,

Hermana Rawlins

look I found Hermana Tapia again!!

me and Hermana Rayo, Hermana Gonzalez's best friend

me and Hermana Rayo, Hermana Gonzalez's best friend 

this Little girl came to church and we were matching, so we took an awesome "look we're matching!" picture

Anai and her parrot :)

Hermana Anai

check this out :) (hint, that language isnt Spanish)

Road Trip Coming Up!

Hello!!

this week was a really good one!! and rather interesting at the same time.

It started out Tuesday morning when we woke up to realize that we had no water. like nothing. and it was HOT. And we both wanted to shower. So we went to district meeting looking pretty disgusting. Turns out they're doing some construction down the Street and like to turn the water off to do it. So we didnt have water until like Thursday, and resorted to showering at members houses and carrying around 2 liter bottles in our backpacks to fill up and take home with us. Nice :). Now we have water every night and they turn it off in the morning to work on the construction. Also during that period of time... we only sometimes had electricity. So that was fun. and really hot. 

BUT it really turned out into a miraculous week because we out of nowhere got like a ton of references from members (okay, like 6, but that's a lot for us...) and worked a ton and got a bunch of lessons with members (relatively speaking... it was eight. but still. a LOT) and we just ended up with one really awesome week with a lot of work and a lot of miracles. It was great. 

On Friday we celebrated Halloween in our English and music clases by the presence of two Hermana Nethercotts. It was super purete. (I'm so sorry, I really struggle to just speak one language. Any guesses what language that word is from?)

Another highlight of the week was the classes we do every Sunday afternoon for the youth. We call it CCM´i, which is Spanish with the guaraní word for "little" at the end. Its really fun, and this week we gave them all mission calls!! It was fun to see their reactions. One girl got called to Ukraine and after that she said "ay I dont want to read anymore" hahaha. Then we showed them a real missión call and talked about how they would feel to prepare themselves and get the REAL thing. I love being with the youth and helping them see just how important serving a misión really is.

 

Another cool part of the week, since I seem to hardly ever share anything spiritual, was a lesson we had with a history professor. We taught him about the Restoration and gave him a book of mormon and he was like, "wow, this makes sense! The indigenous people in the Americas always had a remarkable sense of wrong and right that no one knew where it came from! But if Christ visited them and taught them, well that would obviously be where it came from!" and in my head I was like "oh really? huh, thats cool. didnt know that." 

But sometimes when you're a missionary, at least for me, you just get these moments where all of a sudden the words coming out of your mouth arent your own words. Its as if the Spirit all of a sudden turns on the "power and authority" switch and its different than what you just normally say. Anyway, so what came out of my mouth was "Sí, porque Dios es lo mismo hoy, ayer, y para siempre. Él siempre ha enseñado Su Evangelio. Lo enseñó en los tiempos antiguos,  lo enseñó durante su vida y a las Americas, y ahora está otra vez en la tierra." 

"Yes, because God is the same today, yesterday, and forever. He has ALWAYS taught his Gospel. He taught it in ancient times, he taught it during his lifetime and to the Americas, and now it is here again on the earth." (here's hoping my Spanish is actually grammatically correct...)

Its the Little moments where things just click that keep you going as a missionary, through all the moments when things just... dont click. :)

 

Well, thats about it for this week! I'm doing really well and am happy :) We're in for a pretty interesing week cause yesterday the office called and apparently Hermana Nethercott has tramites... in Corrientes, Argentina. That's really far away from Saltos. Its not even in the mission. So we're gonna travel all day tomorrow to make it to Encarnación in the evening, then I'm not sure if I´ll stay and do divisions in Encarnación, or if I'll get to travel with her to Corrientes (I'm rooting for Corrientes), and who knows when we'll end up back in Saltos. Pray for our safety along the road! Cause thats probably all we'll be doing all week :)

 

Love you guys so much!!!

-Hermana Rawlins :)

this is Halloween in Paraguay

anybody want chicken for dinner?

the two Hermana Nethercott's that showed up for English class on Halloween :)

For Halloween I think I'll be Hermana Nethercott

Questions from the family:

How's it going with your new companion?

Awesome!! Seriously awesome.

 

Who accompanied you for the picking up trip?

We traveled together to Cuidad del Este on Tuesday night, then I spent Wednesday with Hermana Cuevas in Cuidad del Este just wandering around cause it was neither of our áreas. Which was actually a huge blessing, she's great to just talk to. Then Hermana Nethercott arrived, we spent the night in cuidad del este, and made it to Saltos Thursday afternoon!

 

Sorry you don't get to see your buddies before they go home! Crazy you have friends going home!! We're excited about April! 

me tooo!! And you're right, it is crazy. This morning I made the mistake of counting how many weeks I have left in the mission. Its 22. I told Hermana Nethercott and she was like, "wow think about it, you'll only write to your family 22 more times, and then you'll see them again". WHAT. So we're sticking to saying 5 months, because the weeks sound way too short. I promise Im not getting trunky, I'm still working hard :)

 

How did your haircut turn out?

It didnt. We got lost and couldnt find the beauty salon. Im gonna try again next week, but I'm getting seriously worried because ALL OF MY HAIR IS FALLING OUT. Like it usually does, but lately a craaazy amount falls out. Like chunks!!!! Its ok for Elders to bald on the mission, but not Hermanas!! I need my hair!!

 

So things are super good!! I feel super blessed to have Hermana Nethercott as my companion. She has answered SOO many of my prayers already, its amazing. Heavenly Father listens!! She is relieved to be able to talk in English and she loves chocolate too so at nights we just buy chocolate and lay on our beds and talk, it is wonderful. She helps me learn soo much spiritually too. Love it. Love her.

She still struggles with Spanish a little and so poor thing now besides that everyone is talking to her in Portuguese and Guarani!! This morning I was in the bathroom in the mall and hear her say "Hola, como esta?" to someone (in Spanish) the person goes "tudo bom" (in Portuguese) and all of a sudden Hermana Nethercott goes "wait, what?!" ...in English. I cracked up :)

But I LOVE the mix of languages, its so much fun. Im steadily picking up my Portuguese! :)

 

So yesterday during church it was apparently the missionaries turn to speak, which not one of us missionaries knew. Hooray for surprise talks!! I decided to share the miracle of the butterflies with them, and then at the end I said like two sentences of my testimony in Guarani. And everyone liked the butterfly story, but no one would stop talking about the two sentences of Guarani!! And I was like, seriously?? I just shared a super good experience, and all I said in Guarani was "God loves us"!! But that's really all that mattered to them, was the two sentences in Guarani. So if you want to win a Paraguayan over, learn Guarani :)

 

Also this week, we were walking down the street at night heading home, and a random man pulls over on his moto, stops, hands us a bag of three apples, says "Here's a present for you" and then drives away. We were both too confused to do anything smart like ask him what his name was or anything, we just took the apples like "...what??" and watched him drive away. So thank you man who gave us apples!!

 

Also, I MISSED MOLE DAAAYYYY. I looked at my calendar from Pri this morning and couldnt believe it. So shameful!! This year there werent any molasses cookies from Ese in the mail to remind me :)

What stresses you out the most at this point of your mission and what do you do about it?

This is a really good question, so I saved it for last.

I honestly dont really know how to put it in words. What stresses me out at this point (and always has) is the constant push for improvement. I really struggle with perfectionism or feeling like my efforts are never "good enough" because there is ALWAYS something to improve. I feel like the mission is a magnified, intensified, mini "life" experience, and that seems to make things like this harder.

 And as a student who could always tell if I was doing well or not based on my grades, it is hard to know if my best is my best. Before I could always push myself really hard, (or not really have to, depending on the class :) and perform well. Now I struggle to know if what I am giving is really my "all" (though I dont know what more I have to give) or if I need to continually push myself harder to be better. The answer is, of course, that if we give it our all the Lord is happy and then yes, we do need to push ourselves continually to be better, but I just find the whole process exhausting and anxiety-producing.

How can one know if they are reaching their potential?  How do I know if I really AM doing the best I can? 

A while ago my zone leader gave me a blessing and it said "know of a surety you are doing the best you can" but at the time I totally felt normal, even mediocre in my efforts. So is that the way my best feels? just... normal? 

So THAT is the hardest part of the mission for me. Any thoughts, from anyone, would be appreciated :) How do I cope with it? I dont really know, try to talk to other Hermans and just pray.

 

But I promise I'm doing well and I promise I'm happy. I love you all so much and am extremely grateful for you and your love!!

 

love,

Hermana Rawlins

 

p.s. the computer today has an annoying habit of autocorrecting my words to spanish, sorry.

this is me and hermana cuevas trying not to get robbed in cuidad del este 

people need to stop having birthdays so I can stop having to plan surprise birthday parties

this is the best picture we've managed together so far. still working on it :)

Hermana Torres has always wanted to do the mentos and coke experiment, but they dont sell mentos in Guatemala apparently. Well they do in Paraguay, so our last day together we had a Little explosión together in our front yard :)

Remember that sombrilla that I bought? Yeah, well it was destroyed after like 4 days. I bought a new one, ish

Goodbye Hermana Torres!