Week of New Year's 2016!

Hola Mama!

I still get to write to you this Monday, we don`t have PDay but the emailing schedule is still the same. It was awesome to talk to you guys too! The time went by so fast but I enjoyed every second! You guys all look happy and I am too! The time has gone by so fast and I have learned a lot. My Christmas was great, not the typical American huge Christmas tree but the little one I had and we had a nice day to rest and think about the real meaning of Christmas. But thanks for all the nice gifts you sent me, and my companion said he will be getting his package this week, so no worries. :)

Our week was not super productive, because almost everyone has been traveling in our area and if people are here in town, they are with their families and don`t want to talk much with the missionaries. But it's alright, we have been giving out a lot of Book of Mormons and have found more people that way. We had a Christmas dinner with the bishop that was really good, we usually don`t get to talk with him much so that was nice to have some time to talk with his family and enjoy some food.

Sorry that this email is short, but I`m glad you had a good week to and are working with the sister missionaries! Working with members is always a big help. I don`t know an Elder Shues in our mission, but I`ll ask around and try to find out. Good luck with your primary class! I hope you have a good year teaching all the kids, I`m sure they look up to you. Anyways, can`t wait to talk with you next week and it was super awesome being able to talk with you and the family on Skype!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Love you!!!!! Mucho!

Elder Spiro

Elder Spiro's district after the last transfers

With his companion at the mission Christmas activity

A giant nativity scene

"something weird we found in the street"

With a member's cat (of course)

Not sure what is happening here :)

Service for some members

Fireworks!

The bishop and his Family

Christmas morning

Skyping with his fam the day after Christmas :) :)

Finished Lego advent calendar set that we sent him

Excited for Navidad!

Hola Mama!!!!!!!!!!

Ipora, hande? I don´t know if that's how you spell that but it's Guarani, and it means ¨I´m great, and you?¨ Anyways, I´m very excited for Christmas and to call you and the family especially! I will be calling from the church here because it has wifi and the computer has a webcam. I will call on the 26th, the day after Christmas, anytime from the hours 5-9 my time here in Paraguay, sorry that its a big time table and I´m not sure what time that is in Arizona but hopefully that's ok for you guys. 

Everything has been good this week, they changed our PDay from this Monday and the next to Christmas and New Years Day, but we still get to write our families and do our shopping for the week today. It has been a little tough during Christmas to find people to teach because everyone is traveling, but we are doing what we can. We contacted a lady the other day and she told us she wanted us to visit her daughter, so the next day we visited their family with a member, and when we arrived, the daughter was angry and yelling that she didn´t want to talk to us. We started to teach her mom and a friend of hers, and slowly during the lesson, she listened more and more and eventually sat down and all three of them accepted a baptism date! It was a really cool experience, it shows me that if we are diligent as missionaries and do our part, The Lord will make up the rest and the Spirit will help the people want to hear and listen.

We haven´t had the chance much to visit Elias, because he has been traveling with his family a lot, but we had the ward dinner and he and his grandma were there and we talked with him a little. He has a lot of friends in the church now, and I can see him serving a mission someday as he progresses in the gospel. 

We also had our mission activity for Christmas, it was super fun and it was great to get a chance to talk to some of my old companions and the other Elders in my group. I have a bunch of pictures but unfortunately this week I forgot to bring the cable that connects to the computer, so I won´t be able to send them until next week :( But if you look in Facebook the name: Presidente y Hermana Wilson, you will find the facebook page for my mission president, and I´m sure he has a lot of pictures from the activity and from conferences and other stuff we have had on the mission, and I think I´m in some of the pictures.

Anyways, can´t wait to talk to you guys on Saturday, I´ll make sure to be ready to answer all of your questions. Hope you guys have a great Christmas and sorry that my letters probably haven´t gotten there yet, but thank you again for all the stuff you sent for me Mom, and can´t wait to talk to you soon!!!!!

Te Amo Mucho Mama!!!!!!

Elder Spiro

Alex is sitting on stage in front to the right. This is their zone's part of the program for the mission Christmas activity.

Mission Christmas activity

Enjoying the mission home ping pong facilities :)

Elias' baptism and ready for Christmas!

Hola Mama!

Its almost Christmas!!!! Wooo! I sent you guys some letters in the mail but they told me they might arrive there in a month :( Or more because its the U.S., but I`ll be praying that they get there sooner! Its a really odd feeling here to be honest, it's super warm but there are Christmas decorations everywhere and at nights all the houses are lit up, but I`m used to having Christmas in the cold. I guess Santa visits here with his shorts and t-shirt haha. Things are going great though, it is a little more difficult around Christmas time, everyone is working hard and not many people have time to stop and listen. But we are working a lot with the members and sharing about the real meaning of Christmas and there are some good videos that the church has released for Christmas that help a lot.

We also had Elias`s baptism! It went great, a lot of his family came who are not members and we had a ton of good food. I really felt the spirit, the power went out in the city so we had to start the baptism without light or air, but during the first talk all the lights came back on and the air, it was super cool. He came to church the next day with his shirt and tie, he is definitely going to serve a mission someday! 

We had another storm, it was crazy, we had to stay in the street under a little tin roof because it was pouring rain and the wind was blowing super strong too, but we prepared a little better so luckily our apartment only flooded a little :) To answer your questions, a lady in the ward washes our clothes, she is really nice and always is willing to give us food or help us with anything. The holiday for the Virgin of Caacupe is basically a holiday where people walk from the city of Caacupe to another city drinking and partying. We aren`t close to there, but the missionaries that serve there have to be in their houses at a certain time because it gets dangerous in the streets.

I`m glad to hear Abby`s last concert went well, I`m sure all the songs were amazing as usual, it's crazy that it's her last concert for Christmas, time passes too fast. We are coordinating with some members for the Skype call, I will most likely call you guys on the 26th, the day after Christmas, the mission also has the Christmas activity this Wednesday, so I`m very excited for that too.

All is good here Mom, thanks for all the emails and pictures, my companion is really awesome and is probably the best one I`ve had to this point, so it will be a good Christmas. Let me know if I can do anything and I can`t wait to hear from you soon and talk to you on Skype in a couple of weeks! 

I love you!!!!!!!!! Tu hijo,

Elder Spiro

Stormy skies

Christmas decorations up and ready for the holidays

Elias' baptism

In front of the church in Fernando de la Mora

New companion: Elder Gois de Lira

Hola Mom!!!!!

So finally I didn´t get transfered from my area! But I did get a new companion, and now I have to teach him all the area and introduce him to everyone, but I like it, its nice to switch things up and to have more challenges at times, but his name is Elder Gois de Lira, yes like that. He is from Bolivia, he is a really hard worker, he was in the army in Bolivia before his mission. He is cool though, he doesn´t know any English at all but by this point its not a problem anymore luckily :) 

We had a good week but one night we had this huge storm and a bunch of trees got knocked over onto power lines so we were without power for about a day and a half. Luckily we had water but in the morning, our floor was flooded with water! It luckily didn´t ruin anything but I guess we need to prepare a little better for the Paraguay storms.

We have worked really hard this week and are planning to have a baptism for a boy named Elias. He is SUPER smart, he knows and understands better than the majority of the adults I have taught so far, we were explaining what we do in church to him, partake of the sacrament, classes, etc. and he started to cry a little because he wanted to go and take the sacrament that moment, but he had to wait till Sunday. Our area is a little difficult because its a lot of city, but we have been discussing different ways lately to find more people and like you said Mom, to maintain the faith.

I opened the Christmas box and I bought a little tree and lights to put the gifts under and I put all the snowflakes up too, but sorry, I forgot to take a picture of everything :( We are going to have our mission Christmas activity next week on the 16th, so I am looking forward to that and there will be a lot of pictures from for sure. I think I will call you guys on Christmas Day or the day after most likely, but I´m not sure what time yet, and we might call in a member´s house or here in the interent cafe (I´m hoping in a member´s house) but I will let you know this next Monday.

Thanks a bunch for all the updates Mom, I am sending letters for all of you today, so hopefully they get there fast before Christmas! All the pictures are great too! I hope you guys have a great week, it sounds super busy and I can´t wait to hear from you next week! Let me know if I can help with anything!

I love you!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Spiro

Aftermath of a Paraguay storm

The district before transfers 

At the Meet the Mormons activity with the ward mission leader