Ascencion, Sushi and a Bus Ride

Weekly letter!!! Ciudad del Este Barrio 1 [First Ward]! 

So this past week was amazing. These past few weeks have been so good. They’ve been really hard because we started out not knowing anyone, anywhere or anything. It´s all new but I feel like the missionary work right now is exactly what it really should be. We are finding so many people and teaching so many lessons. The spirit has been so strong and Hermana Pitts is just amazing! 

Clotilde and Francisco came to church again yesterday! Francisco has now come three times and Clotilde twice! Tonight we are going to set a date for Clotilde. And Francisco has said that if he receives his answer, he will be baptized! 

This past week we had splits with two of our sisters, Hermana Jackman (Utah) and Hermana Woolf (Mesa, Arizona). They both came to our area and we all worked here. Hermana Pitts and Jackman found a girl, Jessica, who said that she wasn’t happy and she wanted to be. She said that they looked happy and asked how she could have that happiness. They testified of the gospel. We went back to visit her on Saturday and she is amazing. We will see what happens. (: 

We have found a bunch of people and taught lesson 1, the Restoration of the Gospel, and so this week we are going to go back and see if they have prayed and gotten their answers to the truth. It’ll be great! 

Since I have been here I have been eating seafood and chicken. The members started giving me chicken and I felt bad to say no, so now I am eating it. But they know I don’t eat red meat. Yesterday we ate sushi, and salmon. It was amazing. It has been like ten months since I’ve eaten sushi!! 

So this past Monday and Tuesday I was in Asuncion for tramites (sorry, not sure how to say it in English) [visa paperwork] and we got to go to the Temple!! It was just to take photos outside but it was gorgeous! We then ate food and I got this Arabe falafel wrap-- it was awesome! And we got Burger King milk shakes, haha.

But dude, the ride back was the best, haha. (Keep in mind that this was my birthday!)

So it is like a six or seven hour drive. We were sitting down in the bus and about a half hour into the ride the person who works there asked Elder Johnson and Christiansen if they would go downstairs and sit in some “special seats” so they went down. Then he asked if Hermana Martinez and I would go down and join them. So as we go downstairs we are thinking that these must be real nice seats, right? Well, he leads us to where the driver is and as we turn the corner we see Elder Johnson and Christiansen sitting on little tiny wooden stools, like crunched over and super uncomfortable.

There was a really small bed and one seat. So Hermana Martinez couldn’t do it and she went back upstairs. Hermana Runnels came down. So for about five hours I was sitting and squished on a tiny bed and the elders on wooden stools... and it was like 102 degrees. Not joking, like 42 C! The last half hour we got real seats again, haha. We are definitely in Paraguay. That was the story for this week; lovely birthday!

Yesterday, Sunday, we had a special youth missionary fireside. The elders from our ward and Hermana Pitts and I talked about the missionary work and encouraged the youth. It reminded me of when I was a youth and listened to things like that and now it is me that is talking. How weird!!

It seems that most of the American missionaries are in Paraguay. I don’t really know why. We have eight Hermanas in our zone and only two of them are Latinas! I feel like I’m in the states again with all of them. It´s really weird! 

My Portuguese is coming along. Everyday I learn a new word but my spelling is awful so I’m not going to write it for you right now. I know how to say, “I speak a little Portuguese,” and some other things. It´s really fun. I’m learning some Guarani as well! Mishimi no mas means “a little bit” in Guarani. 

Life has been great. We had a zone activity today. Tomorrow we have splits with Hermana Nilson (Oregon) and Martinez (Guatemala). 

I forgot to bring my camera today but next week I’ll send pictures! 

Love you all! 

Hermana Newell

Coke and I received this email from the “sushi” family:

Hi Sister Newell:
We are Family Rolim, your daughter (Sister Newell), had lunch with us today. We served Sushi and Yakissoba. You can see by the photos that they enjoyed it very much. She is very happy here and she is doing very well.

Best regards,
Family Rolim
Enviado desde mi smartphone Samsung Galaxy [sent from my smartphone Samsung Galaxy]

Things are definitely different in Cuidad del Este.