baptismmm....1552.60 miles walked in Paraguay WEEK 30

sup friends and fam!

This week was so great! First, we had a baptism this Saturday! A**** D*****! She is awesome, and had to go through soooo much to get baptized. Seriously, there was so much opposition. First, she and her boyfriend broke up because of this. Her family hated it that she was investigating the church. At first, when she would take out her Book Of Mormon to read, they would make fun of her so she downloaded it onto her phone so she could read in peace. Eventually, she didnt care what they thought and just read in the actual book. Her dad supported her decision, and her mom eventually did. The night before her baptism, just a couple hours after her interview, a family member came over and started talking nonsense about mormons and showed her a page on the internet about missionaries. I died when I saw it. The page said that missionaries come from the US and other countries to send information back to the Pentagon...yeah. I bursted out laughing. So anyways, she planned on coming to the baptism with her mom. But at about 4, an hour before her baptism, she called us and said nobody in her family cared and would be coming solo, her mom was sleeping. She showed up to the baptsim and was super super sad. About 3 minutes later, her mom and sister walked into the church. After she left to the church, her mom got up and quickly got ready and sat at the corner from the church and waited for her to arrive. Then came in to the church to surprise her. Yeah, Axxxx was crying. It was super sweet, but super cruel as well hahahaha. 

Best part, they both came on Sunday to church to her confirmation, along with her sisters boyfriend who is an innactive! They loved it. And we are going to start teaching her sister this week, working with her boyfriend as well! It seriously was a miracle from the Lord, he is blessing us in this area so much! 

Another funny story that happened. So one day last week, I didnt have my umbrella, and my face burned. After walking around in the heat and sun for about 4 hours we showed up to a lesson. When the baby saw my face, he started crying. Every single time. He would turn away, then look again, and start crying. All because my face was red. We had talked with this investigator before and after, while the baby was there and doesnt cry when my face is red. It was honestly hilarious. haha. 

Also, this week we had a conference from SLC to all the missionarries in the world. It was sooo good. We heard from a bunch of apostles, but my favorite message I took away was from Elder Bednar, "Have the faith to press forward and go". I love that phrase. Honestly, it comes into my work for these two years so much. And it can help me and you in our everyday lives! When life is hard, we can choose to be depressed or we can do what Elder Bednar advises, "have the faith to press forward and go". With our Savior on our side, we can press forward through all of our trials and receive the strength to do so. I am so grateful for the knowledge this gospel brings. I know the Book of Mormon is true, and I challenge you all, when you have a trial in your life, to open it up and read it, after praying, and look for the answer or comfort you need and you will find it.

Love you all,

Elder Zaugg

20606
11285
10684
24985
23875
25697
17501

134633 steps

11.2
6.2
5.9
13.7
13.7
14.1
9.6

73.8 miles

A conversation in the Life of a missionary in Paraguay.....1478.8 miles walked in Paraguay

Hey everyone! what is going on in the states. Here, it is hot. Really hot. I love having some ac in our house at night so it is not too hot. but wait. This week our area lost power twice at night! It was seriously so awesome. I love waking up in a pool of sweat. I have a clock and a temp thing and it was 90 degrees in our house. So clearly we had to open the windows to get some breeze. No luck there! The sun could have still been out in the middle of the night and there was no breeze. Yeah, I had to take a cold shower and try to get some sleep but it was seriously not fun haha. 

So my mom wanted to hear about some reactions we get when we approach new people. I guess I havent really talked about that so Ill give you some of their reactions.

Conversation 1 (obviously, all in spanish)

*clap clap clap* (knocking, but we clap at the fence)

Hola, how are you doing today?

Que dice? What say you?

Hi can we shake your hand and introduce ourselves?

I am Catolica.

Oh ok, well we are missionaries and we are hear to share..

Another day! (as she turns to walk back inside)

Ok, gracias!

Conversation 2

*a group sitting outside*

Hey, hows it going today?

Hi.

Hey we are walking around in the heat today looking to share the word of God with everyone we can talk to! Have you guys seen or talked to missionaries before?

Yeah, yesterday they came by.

Oh really, with shirts and ties like us? 

Yeah, but we are catholic.

then we proceed to explain what we do, ask questions, try to get them to talk about their relationship with God and see if we can find a need they have.

Most of the time, the reject us and we walk away saying. Hmmm. this is our area, and there are not any missionaries close to us or this area. And I know for a fact they didnt talk to us yesterday. And we laugh because it is a pretty common response they give us to try and get us to go away.

Conversation 3

*clapping on houses again*

Hey hows it going today? Its super hot today no?

Hi, yeah its super hot! What are you guys doing walking in the heat and sun at this time? Do you have anything to protect your face?

(Pause. This is where I say yes and show them my umbrella. Yes, I used to make fun of grandmas that used umbrellas to walk around during the summer. And now I am the grandpa that uses an umbrella to walk around in the sun bc suncreen does not stick to my face.)

Do you guys want cold water? Please come and sit down!

When people invite us to sit down it is awesome. Doesn't happen a lot but its great when it does. 

We get a lot of different responses. There are actually a lot of times where people try to act like they cant hear us, or the walk out side, see us, and turn around. Its pretty funny to watch the people get up from the shade and quickly walk inside as we are coming down the street. 

On New Years day, we clapped at a house and a kid came out. We asked to talk to his parents, so he ran and got his mom. She walked out, groaned, and walked back inside. So, we took one of our pass along cards and wrote "happy new years" and left it on her gate. That was pretty funny. 

We always ask to share in the moment we are there, bc we know a next time will be hard to get. BUt if they say they are busy, we ask to come by another time. This is the most common response to the question.

"Im almost never here. I mean, Im hear right now, but I work a lot and Im never here."

"is there a moment at night or a day you are home?"

"I work super late every day. I dont get home until around 6 or im here Sundays."

"Oh perfect, we are working until 9 every day, we could come by in the night this week?"

"Oh well some times i work later, i dont have a schedule!" or "puede ser (yeah maybe..basically is the translation or what they mean)

But dont get me wrong these responses always make me laugh, but we definitely have people that accept us! Right now, we are bering blessed so much! The last 3 or 4 weeks we have had 3 or 4 investigators in church, and we have a baptism this Saturday! And have baptisms scheduled with people that are actually progressing and attending church for a couple weeks in a row and I am super stoked for that. Nothing brings joy like watching someone progress spiritually in something such as baptism! One thing I have learned here is that everyone has their agency. We cannot control anyones actions, but we can control ours. We can control our feelings and our reactions to things other people do our say to us. We can choose to be happy and not let that stuff affect us, and I have seen a difference in that! Nobody can make us feel angry, only ourselves can choose to be angry at something someone says. Dont get me wrong, at first I didnt believe this. There are times when people say stuff that we are going to lose some patience or be angry, and feel we cant control that. But if you try to just shrug it off and be happy, you will feel sooooo much happier! 

These past two weeks we had 2 services. One, we helped a family mow their lawn and we actually used a lawn mower. It actually made me miss mowing the lawn. Weird bc I hated doing that every saturday at home...

The other one, we helped clean up mangos. Mangos taste good. Quick question. Do mangos exist in the states? Honestly not sure. Anyways, they taste good but i would never want a tree. They drop soooooo many fruits every day you cant keep up. And they are dangerous. They hurt when the fall and hit you. So we helped a family in our ward clean them up, and an old grandma walked by and asked how much we charge? We told her it was a service so she asked us to come by and clean her porch. So we did, with the help of 2 kids in our ward that are so cool, and Alfredo, who just turned 12 told her. "They will only clean your yard if you come to church with us!" (They live just 2 houses down from here) haha it was awesome. But shes super catholic but it was a fun service anyways!

I love you all! Hope you enjoyed hearing about some responses we get😁

Elder Zaugg

PIC.

Sorry, I am slacking on the pictures and only have one this week. I made some gluten free pancakes with buttermilk syrup and it was sooooooo good. haha

15359

19445

22059

11714

17349

21875

9616

steps     117417

8.5

10.8

12.1

6.4

9.8

12.0

5.2

miles   64.8

THE ONLY TRUE CHURCH 1414 miles walked in Paraguay

Hey everyone! I don`t have a lot of time this week! But just wanted to share this with you guys!

This week, I studied and learned a ton about the restoration of the gospel. There was an actual need for it. Throughout the history of time, God has shown His love to us by sending prophets, or someone to guide us back to him. The prophets talk to Him, face to face. But, like always and forever, we have agency to choose if we want to listen. The cycle continues of people listening to the prophets, and rejecting them. When the people rejected them and their teachings, they fell into apostasy. This continued all the way up until our Heavenly Father showed His love once more and sent His son, Jesus Christ. During Christs life, He established His church, with prophets, apostles, and the priesthood. However, after He and His apostles died, the priesthood was lost. There literally was nobody on the Earth that talked with God, or had His authority to direct a church in the earth. This is when hundreds of churches were formed. People took little parts of the gospel of Christ and created churches. But, Heavenly Father showed His love once more. He loves us. I know He does. He called Joseph Smith to be a prophet. He gave him the authority to restore the Church of Jesus Christ on the earth once more. I know that this church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only church that has the authority from God. We have an actual living prophet, Thomas S Monson. He talks with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. His words come from God. I know the Book of Mormon is true. I know Heavenly Father answers prayers. I know the Holy Ghost will guide us in our lives. I know this gospel is true and I could never deny it! If Joseph Smith had not showed faith to read the bible, in James 1:5, and had not shown faith to pray to God, we would be lost. We would still be in an apostasy. But I know that we can turn to our prophet, President Monson, and receive the guidance we need in our lives. Without the Priesthood authority, we would be lost. There would be no hope. But because we have the Priesthood, we can live together forever as families through the ordinances that can only be preformed with the authority and permission of God, such as baptism and eternal marriage. 

I love you all!

Elder Zaugg

m   14312   7.8

t     13959  7.7

w    15857  8.7

th    11117  6.0

f     11184  6.1

sa   19194  10.5

su   13429  7.3

99046 steps

54.1 miles

we have been lucking out, most of our investigators live pretty close right now and we dont have to walk as much!

enjoy this sick pic of a monkey. I was in heaven for a couple minutes

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 1359.9 miles walked in Paraguay

Well, it really is 2016 already. Time has flown by. 2015 is already over, and I hit 6 months in the mission. Craziness! 

Ok, dont have a ton of time this week, but wanted to start off with a couple funny stories, at least I thought they were funny. Who knows if any of you will even laugh but here it goes. On Saturday we were at lunch with a grandma member. She cooks so much food for us, and it is so good, I always look forward to Lunch on Saturday. So we are sitting down on her couch in her family room and her niece walks in, she is probably 20. And she comes to greet us and shakes our hand. Now all the girls here kiss each other on each cheek to great each other, really only seen a girl and a guy do it like once. Well she shakes our hand and then kisses us on the cheeks, I was laughing so hard inside, trying not to let it come out. It was super awkward bc she hesitated when she went to kiss us on the cheek, and I could tell she was thinking hard about it, and then realized she had already started so she just had to go for it. hahaha. 

Another funny slash cool story has to due with the rain. On Tuesday, we started divisions at night. We had to walk 40 minutes to the meeting place, and then walk back. Well, once we got to the market, and started to walk home, it starting pouring. Soon, we came to a road we had to cross to get into our area-the road was filled with water up to my waist. And it was flowing pretty fast. We thought about what we should do, but there really wasnt any other option but to cross it. My comp nearly fell, it was super funny. But we made it to the other side safely. I did have an umbrella, but it did nothing, obviously. The "river" was super clean too, I wanted to bathe in it with all the trash bags, dead dogs and cats floating down it..  :)

Well, other than that, nothing spectacular happenned. I just wanted to challenge you all to set some good goals for the new year, spiritually, phisically, financially, and actually work on them! Dont just set them and give up on them in 6 days. For example, buying a 3 month gym membership and going twice probably wont do much for you! I have thought a lot about certain goals I have for the mission and after the mission. The best goal i have realized is to read the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon. It truly does strengthen our faith and knowledge in the gospel. If the Book of Mormon is true, it means the Church of Jesus Christ is the true church on the earth today. I know the Book of Mormon is true, and I know this church is true. I know that the B.o.M. contains the word of God, and truly does have the gospel of Jesus Christ. It explains the things we need to do in this life to return and live forever in peace and happiness with our families, and with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Through reading it, we can strengthen our faith and our hope in the plan God has for us.

I love you all, sorry i dont have time for pictures! Make it a great 2016!

Elder Zaugg

Step Stats:

Mon 10771    5.9

tues 18060     9.9

wed  14430    7.9

thur  15260    8.3

frid   13381    7.3

satu  16939    9.2

sund 12936    7.1

totals

101777steps and 55.6 miles

 Making gluten free pizza for Brody!!!

 It was delicious!!!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New YEAR! 1304.3 MILES WALKED IN PARAGUAY

I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas this year! Christmas was definitely different here. 1. its super hot. Over 100 with a ton of humidity, definitely not a white Christmas. 2. the Christmas traditions here are way different! The 24 was insane. Everyone doing shopping for the huge Christmas dinner that night, where most of the people eat it at midnight! (honestly not sure why..) We celebrated that night with the Primary President and her family! It was super fun, we had a great dinner with lots of meat (at 10 bc we had to be in our home at 11). It was super fun, and well, wet. Yes. Wet, and not because of the rain. Merry Christmas too me, I was lucky enough to be presented the present of pee. Yes, her 4 year old son peed on my while I was sitting down. I turned my head just to see him pulling down his pants, and then felt it. Allllll over my arm and my pants. What a lovely gift. Really made it an eventful night! haha. 

But, I loved Christmas. There really is no other place than the mission to remember the true meaning of Christmas, our Savior. We get to remember Him, His birth, His life, and all that He did, for US. For you and for me, for everyone. He gave up His life, so that we could live again. He suffered all the pains and afflictions of the world so that he could comfort us in our times of need. He is always there to help us, all we need to do is remember Him and ask. He already felt our pains, and wants to help us! And because he actually suffered through the pains, He knows what it takes and how to help us push on! Not only did He suffer our pains and afflictions, but He suffered and died for our temptations and sins. Through these sufferings, He made it possibly to repent of our sins, to receive forgiveness and to improve each and every day. Imagine a world without Christ´s atonement, there would be no meaning to life, no chance for life after death. But because Jesus Christ resurrected, ALL will live again, whether good or bad. And because he suffered for our sins, all those who show FAITH in Him and repent of their sins, will receive eternal life. Through his Atonement, we can live forever in happiness, if we follow him and keep the commandments. I know that without our Savior, there would be no meaning to this Earth, but I also know that our Savior, Jesus Christ, atoned for our pains, afflictions, and sins so we might live again with our Father in Heaven. I am eternally grateful for his sacrifice to me, and owe it to Him to try harder each and every day to keep the commandments. 

I challenge you all, this year, to look for ways to show Heavenly Father Jesus Christ that you are grateful for Them, by following his example and serving others, or keeping the commandments, or reading the scriptures, or listening and following the promptings of the Holy Ghost.

Thank you everyone for the Christmas packages! They were so awesome! I love you all, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 

Elder Zaugg

Step Stats

m   17061   9.3

t     25119   13.8

w   18508    10.1

th   27316    15.0

f     12943    7.1

s    20616    11.3

su  18853     10.3

140,416 steps

76.9 miles! wow.

Thank you Wood Family and others for the ornaments!

 SANTA. :)

 New companion Elder Garcia

today at burger king. my comp with a burger, me with a salad. #GFlife   

 Thank you Danielle!!!!  His favorite