June 23, 2014
Hey Everyone!
Well I am
sitting here in Encarnacion, Paraguay and I am not even sure if I am on the
same planet as before. Things are so very different here it’s
crazy!!! We spent Monday and Tuesday of this last week to say goodbye to
the people of Puerto Esperanza and it didn't take long because there weren't
many members ha. We went to say goodbye to the Bogarin Family and while
we were there a HUGE lightning/thunder storm happened. The lights went out and
we had our last discussion by candlelight!! So cool!! Wednesday we left
Esperanza at around 3:00am in the morning. When we finally arrived
at the terminal in Posadas, we were met by a ton of other missionaries.
We all hung out for a little until it was time to head to the office to take
care of some last minute paper work before I could cross the border. We
went to the police station and took care of everything and then we headed to
Paraguay!!! It’s crazy to think I’m not even in the same country
anymore. When I arrived Elder Magdeleno (new comp who turns out is from Idaho) was there directing the
missionaries. We waited until things calmed down and then headed to my
area of Ita Paso (like 25 minutes outside of Encarnacion) to drop off my
bags. We got to Ita Paso and it’s like a farm town!! As we pulled in
there was a man walking down the road with his 3 cows and chickens running
around everywhere!! So different!! Our pinch is a little tiny house that
only has water between the hours of 7:00 to 11:00 in the morning so we have to
fill up jugs of water to use at night. Today a fuse popped so we don't
even have light anymore. On a positive side this will be great material
for my homecoming talk! We went back to the terminal where we got on a
bus with Elder Vindas and his greenie Elder Quesadas. We got on the
crappiest bus I had ever seen and headed to San Pedro to help orient the Elders
to their area. We spent the next 3 hours crammed into a nasty bus on the
way to San Pedro. When we got there, it was already dark. Here it
gets dark around 5:30pm, so it's way different than summer
daylight. We worked hard this week!! I love my new area although it
is very different!! The people here speak majority Guarani, which means
now I have to learn that language. There are actually a lot of
people here that don't even speak Spanish!! We have a ton of
investigators that speak very little Spanish so I have to think of new ways to
explain Gospel Principles in really simple broken down Spanish. Kind of
difficult!!
We had a super spiritual/ funny experience this week. When we were
tracting one day, we realized that we were walking without purpose. So we
stopped on a street corner for a minute to refocus, and then a blue gate just
seemed to catch my eye. We decided to go and clap at the gate. Within
seconds, out came Gutierrez. He is a 77 year old man who gladly let us
in. We sat down and got to know him a little better and he told us
that he lost his wife around 4 years ago. We talked a little more, and
then talked a little about how we can see our families again after we die. We
can all be together forever. As we were talking I looked over at
Gutierrez and he began to cry. There was a strong spirit as we bore
testimony that the things we were sharing were true. Then out of nowhere
he asked us if he could as us a question so we said yes. He asked us if
it was bad that a lady came over and cleaned his house/visited him. We
told him no that it wasn't bad. But then he went on into more detail and
it turns out this almost 80 year old man breaks the law of chastity a couple
times a week with his maid!!! We did not see that coming at all!!! There
are so many stories that I could share but they will have to wait a couple
months. ha ha. My experiences are endless.
Thanks for everything that you all have done and continue to do for me and all the other missionaries in the world!!
Stay safe and I love you all!!
Thanks for everything that you all have done and continue to do for me and all the other missionaries in the world!!
Stay safe and I love you all!!
Elder Ollerton
