New schedules and 8th week with Elder Kjar

Hey Mom! Wow sounds like you all had a crazy week and it really was a miracle that Camille was able to make it home with just a few broken bones, but now at least she has learned to not ride on very busy roads without a helmet :(. Like you said, Heavenly Father sent angels to protect her, and I am grateful to hear that the many prayers I say for our family are answered. Hope she gets better quickly and remembers how much Heavenly Father loves her.

Our week was pretty normal, we had a conference from the missionary council in Salt Lake City where they talked about some things we can do better as missionaries and at the end they announced that they would be changing our schedule, because many missionaries have been sick and tired, so they changed a bit and also gave us a lot more time on P-Day! Its a shame that with little time left on my mission, they decided to change, but better late then never :) And it should be interesting now with more time to do activities and stuff on P-Day.

The Mendoza family attended church on Sunday, and the members did a great job of giving them a warm welcome, and they told us after that they enjoyed church and felt comfortable inside. And they asked a lot of questions and the wife, Nancy, asked "What do we have to do to be baptized?" So everything is well, and we will be visiting them with more members this week, they have been progressing very well.

We are also searching for a reference for a recent convert family (the Correa family) that also has people that can be baptized, but the directions here in Paraguay are very bad, there are no street names and we have gotten lost many times trying to find this family. But we will keep searching and I know the Lord will guide us to their house.

Not much else too new, my toenail is much better, the skin under the nail looks really gross but the doctor told me it's normal and I can see a little nail growing back little by little. I just don`t want any more problems with ingrown toenails, just because of the shots :(

Training is going well, Elder Kjar is learning fast and his Spanish is improving quickly, the weather has been getting slightly better as well, and all looks good for the future :) Hope you have a great week and tell Camille to be careful!!!!!!!!!

Rohayhu!

Elder Spiro

Backroads around Kennedy

New daily schedule

New p-day schedule

With Axel and Enzo

Elder Kjar's 8th week!

Not so happy feet, part 2

Hola Mama!

Estoy feliz al saber que usted esta bien y you guys got home safe from California. Its starting to cool off a tiny bit here so I`m happy, and we had a good week even though I decided to go to the doctor to take care of my ingrown toenail (after waiting a bit too long to do so) and he decided to just take out the whole nail and let it re-grow. It hurt more for the needles but after it didn`t hurt when he just ripped out the nail haha. And he gave me the nail to remember too!

Everything else has been going well, to answer your question yes, I am still training Elder Kjar, he only has 1 trainer for 12 weeks, so it would be 2 transfers. During his training we have an hour and a half extra of studies (4 hours in total) and he basically has to learn Spanish and follow the example that I have to set, so it's a big responsibility but its been an awesome assignment for me, I enjoy it a lot. For the baptism, he baptized two of the people, Axel and Leila. I baptized Helen who is pregnant and it went fine, I was worried that I might slip or something but all went well.

Not much progress with Tatiana and Deisy`s mom, she doesn`t even talk to us when we stop by to say hi and they didn`t come to the English class or church this week but we will keep praying and doing what we can.

The Mendoza family was going to come to church, and we even had members that promised to bring them, but Sister Mendoza had some stomach problems and couldn`t come. Next week she said yes, and we will be teaching them tonight and explain the importance of attending church. They accepted a baptismal date and said that they want to be sure first before the make a decision.

Not too much else, there are some other families that we have been working with but they haven`t shown too much progression, even so, the future is bright for the Kennedy ward. Anyways, that's about it, thanks for the pictures that you guys sent, hope your week is great and can`t wait to hear from you soon!!!!

Rohayhu!

Elder Spiro

Another ingrown toenail! Ew!

7 weeks with Elder Kjar

Fleitas family baptism

Hey Mom,

All is good here, we had the baptism of the Fleitas family on Saturday, which was awesome, but it seems like the more people that get baptized, the more stressful it is to organize, but at the end of it all its a good thing to be stressed about I think. It was a really warm Sunday, but they still came for their confirmation even though one of the ladies, Helen, was scheduled to have her baby that day. But all worked out and I think later in the week she will have the baby.

Anyways, we made it to the half way point in Elder Kjar`s training, it is going by really fast and he is learning quickly.  I hope that we can work even more this transfer and help more people to know the restored gospel. Not much else new this week, we tried to talk to Tatiana and Deisy`s mom but she didn`t seem to want to, really that is the only thing that is keeping them from being baptized is their Mom`s signature. And we have been praying a lot and if you guys could too it would be greatly appreciated.

The Mendoza family couldn`t attend on Sunday because Brother Mendoza got called to work and returned at about 4 AM Sunday morning. But this week they will for sure be attending. We have been contacting a lot in the heat but we have purified water in the house so no worries about diseases Mom :)

Anyways, sorry that there isn`t much to write about this week, thanks for the pictures you sent it's crazy to see how long my hair was before and to see Dad with hair too :) Haha, hope you guys have a great week, say hi to everyone in California for me, have a safe trip home!

Rohayhu!

Elder Spiro

The Fleitas family baptism

6 weeks with Elder Kjar!

Week of 1/9/17

Hey Mom,

Thanks for the email, we had a good week, very warm but a few days it cooled off a bit because there was some light rain. We are doing good, the Fleitas family is doing great, 4 of them will be baptized this week, there is a teenage girl that is part of the family but it seems like she doesn`t want to yet. We will give her some time to think and try to teach her after the baptisms of the rest of her family. It should be super awesome, they are all really excited, we have been teaching the commandments and one member of the family named Helen wanted to pay her tithing, but we said she couldn`t because she wasn`t working yet. She wanted to fast too, but she will have her baby so we said it's not recommended to fast either haha. The members are helping a lot with them, luckily they live close to a few member`s houses so it's convenient.

Tatiana and Deisy are doing well, they came to church with their aunt, who is also re-activating. She has a smoking habit, but on Saturday they also decided to fast as a family, and she gave up smoking cold turkey. It was a testimony to me that even the little kids in the family did a full fast, and they didn`t complain or anything during it she told us. I always remember when I tried to fast and I couldn`t even make it half a day haha.

We are teaching another family, the Mendoza family, they were a reference from a few members and they lived in the country before so they speak a lot more Guarani.  They don`t talk much or ask things either, so I`m trying to learn more things in Guarani to gain their confidence so they open up a bit more. Their neighbors who are members helped a lot and we will have a family home evening with them tonight.

We don`t have a certain family that gives us food everyday, every month a member from the ward organizes our lunches on a calendar, and luckily we have every day full. I am grateful because I have had other areas where we had lunch with members maybe once or twice a week.

Hope you guy had fun sledding, I would be very happy if it snowed here one day, but sadly I don`t think it will happen haha. I am getting used to the heat and every day passes by so fast, I wanted to ask you to send a picture of my baptism through email, and there is a place to print pictures here in the city. Also if you could send a few pictures of our family, some members were asking to see my family.

Thanks Mom! Hope yo guys have a great week and I will always be keeping you guys in my prayers! Can`t wait to hear from you soon!

Rohayhu,

Elder Spiro

Elder Kjar's 5th week

Mission training session at the mission office

Feliz Ano Nuevo!

Hey Mom!

Happy New Year! Hope you guys enjoyed your New Years Eve! More of the same here, lots of fireworks in the streets and food. As missionaries, we only had permission to stay out until 10:30 PM, then we had to be sleeping at 11:00, but I enjoyed the New Year sleeping haha.  We had church the next day at 4:00 in the afternoon, but it was so warm that a lot of people didn`t come to church so they canceled the classes.  The Fleitas family came again! Well, 4 of the members of the family, the other had to stay home to take care of one of the little kids. They are very excited to keep learning in the church, we have been teaching the commandments to them and they have been living them all. The members have been helping a lot too, with visiting them and we are going to have a Family Home Evening tonight.

The bad news is that Tatiana and Deisy`s mom didn`t sign the permission form, she wants them to give it more time. We are going to keep teaching and praying a lot so they can be prepared when she signs it. I just hope they aren`t sad because their mom didn`t sign. Their aunt and uncle have helped a TON with teaching them, they are less active members who are hoping to return to church too.

Araceli didn`t come to church, we passed by during the week and told her that we won`t be able to pass by any more if she doesn`t come because we won`t be able to do anything if she doesn`t progress.  I know in the future she will get baptized, we are just planting seeds of the gospel and I know someday they will bear fruit.

Nothing else new for the week, we had dinner with the same family as last week, it was good and they always give us a ton of food. Hope you all have a great week, cool to hear about your new callings, good luck with teaching Camille :) haha, and I know our family will have a successful year ahead!

I know that the Lord will bless our family and we will have another missionary this year too! :)

Rohayhu!

Elder Spiro

Elder Kjar three weeks out

And four weeks :)