Back on US soil

Friends and Family,

Thank you so much for all the support you have given me in the last year and a half. It has been a great experience, but felt great to get back on US soil today! The air is different, the trees smell different, Chevy Suburbans exist, everyone speaks English, even the news is in English...I love the US! Butttttt....I still love Paraguay so I'm gonna make the most of the 6 remaining months here! But yes, today we did go to US soil. The Cranners took us on a tour to the US Embassy here. And yes, there were a lot of Suburbans. I felt right at home in Gilbert, AZ. It was neat to get an inside tour of the embassy-most people don't get to go in and there is so much security anyways! We weren't allowed to take any pictures-not inside or outside! It was a nice pday activity. This week, pday was moved to Thursday to match up with the Paraguay holiday "Virgen del Caacupe". yeah...everyone goes to the city Caacupe and worships the virgin. But hey, the rest of the country gets the day off! ha. It is quite sad that it is bigger than Christmas is down here. But hey, that is why missionaries are in the country, to bring light to the people-the light of Christ!

We had our Christmas conference this week! It was super super awesome. Hna Evans made some sweet pork and coconut rice...yeah you can imagine everyone went crazy. The best part? The other Christmas conferences to come for all the other zones will be in the office and us office elders get to eat every time😊 We also had a little service project-we made blankets for babies in the hospitals! Elder Parade and I made a pretty awesome blanket if you ask me. Christ served his entire life. Service is intertwined in the Light the World Christmas theme. It was an awesome time making the blankets, knowing that we would be helping someone in a very small way. But that is what is cool about service; service can be so small but can light up the lives of other people! 

Another act of service can be visiting the elderly. This week we went to Maria and Lila's house-2  elderly women. They actually served us and called us earlier in the week to give us dinner! I love them, but I definitely have to remind them next time an hour before we go that I can't eat pasta...bc they really like to make pasta every time we go :) After dinner, we sang a couple Christmas hymns. It really brought the spirit. Lila isn't a member, but with every time we go there, we base our visit on serving and showing love. Hopefully, she is allowing her corazón to be touched! 

Merry Christmas!

Elder Zaugg