Itaipu and A Week of Miracles

Sooo, I officially went to Brazil today!!!

Two weeks ago we crossed the bridge [River Paraná, separating Paraguay and Brazil] but we weren’t sure if we actually hit Brazil, but today we went to Itaipu. It is the biggest Dam in the world, right here in Paraguay!!! 

And part of the tour enters into Brazil. It was pretty sweet! Honestly though, the Dam, heck it was amazing. It was HUGE!

We took a tour bus ride and they explained everything.

Brazil and Paraguay from the middle of the dam

Then for lunch we had Paninis and Waffles!!! It has been like a year since I’ve had waffles. It was awesome! So that was P-Day!

Oh, but do you want to know the terror of the day? Every night we are supposed to send a text to our district leaders when we arrive home, right? So, last night our zone leaders call and are like, ¨Did you hear from the sisters in Hernandarias 3?” And we were like, “no...” The sisters had never sent anything and their phone was off and we couldn’t contact them. So Elder Rigby went over to their place with his comp, and the owners said that they couldn’t go up to see if the Hermanas were home. So the Elders went back home. This morning they went back over and they contacted us and said that the girls weren’t home!!

So now Hermana Pitts and I, the zone leaders and Elder Rigby are freaking out. We don’t know what happened to these girls and we are in Paraguay, so anything could happen. We called their Branch President. He went over there again, and finally the Hermanas call us! They are like, ¨Hey so we are at home, what´s up?” Heck! So they were at home the whole time, but their phone stopped working... yeah that was awful this morning... but they are safe and sound so all is good!

This past week was great! Except the trip home from Encarnacion on Tuesday was AWFUL, AGAIN, but it´s all good! While there we received a reference for an investigator. His name is Armando. His mom is going to be baptized in a different town, but he came to Ciudad del Este to study and he lives super close to us! So we met with Armando, he is SOO cool! He is 18, the first lesson, he asked how he could serve a mission! He took the lessons from the Elders with his mom beforehand! So we have had two lessons with him and he came to church yesterday! Tonight we have another lesson and hope to set a baptismal date! 

This past week we had a ton of little miracles and tons of lessons with members which went really well! We found tons of new people and families and we have been seeing huge progress in our investigators. Victor is going to have his interview this next Saturday, we hope! He is the coolest! 

We almost got eaten by a dog the other day... but all is well! Ha-ha. Uhm, que mas? My Guarani and Portuguese are honestly getting a lot better! I can understand the Portuguese and I’m practicing speaking it. And the Guarani I can understand a little bit and say some things. It is going well! 

Thank you all for everything! 

Hermana Newell