Lost in translation...

I can't believe how quickly time is flying by! This will probably be one of my last posts from Paraguay! It has been such an amazing trip!! I still can't believe that I've been in Paraguay for a month now!

This week was busy with zone conferences. We started with one in Asuncion on Monday. That night we had an asado with the counselor's of the mission presidency and their families. They had some kids who spoke english so it was fun to be able to communicate for once. The culture here is so different when it comes to parties. It was supposed to start at 8 but we didn't end up sitting down for dinner until 10:30! Crazy crazy.. Anyway, the next morning we were up bright and early to head off to Encarnacion for more zone conferences. We were able to stop by some ruins just past Encarnacion before we stopped for the day.

These ruins were started back in the 1600's. A group of Christians hired the Indians to build their church/community for them. When they pushed the indians to finish it quicker, the Indians left it unfinished. It has sat there like this for 100's of years!

Standing at the pulpit in the large chapel area.

Even old Jesuit ruins have cool places to take wedding pictures! Just like the Salt Lake temple.

(Running joke that Laura and I are a couple continues..)

This was right behind the ruins. They were just out in the middle of no where!

Another Mom picture.

I love seeing citrus fruit trees growing where ever. So different from Utah.

These ruins were the Trinidad ruins just a mile or so away from the other ones.

We started getting a little more creative.

There are these ant hills everywhere. They are as hard as rock!

Had to stop for a glamor shot...

I loved this corner with the old doors and the mold.. it felt like I could have been in England.

So beautiful!

A lot of Germans have come to live in Paraguay so you'll see their influences here and there. In some towns more than others. In this town there was a good little German Bakery we went into. It was delicious. We seriously need to stop eating so much good food..

We went back to Iguazu for Jenny to be able to see it all!

I think somethings get a little lost in translation..

It was a lot colder this day than the last time we went!

Pretty bird. Pretty bird.

Typical truck with tons of little kids in the back.. I think it was a soccer team.

Well depending and what happens the next few days this may be my last post from Paraguay! I can't believe time has flown by so fast! It has seriously been such an adventure! I'm so grateful that I had this chance to visit my parents! But I am definitely excited to get back to the states! There are some things like clean tap water, carpet, and understanding people that you sure start to miss!

Tucan Sam!

Well another week has come and gone! Time is flying by like crazy! This past week we were on the road the whole time while my dad was doing interviews. We started off by going to Encarnation. We couldn't help but sing the Nacho Libre song... We stayed there for one night, for a day and a half of interviews. One of the days we were able to go to lunch with an investigator named Juan. He spoke English really well so it was fun being able to understand what was being said. We had a really good time talking to Juan and he really opened up to us. My parents were both able to bear their testimonies and talk with him about some aspects of the gospel for a while. It was so neat to be in that experience and I felt the spirit so strong! It helped me see exactly what the mission is all about and to see how happy the gospel can make you! Juan has set a date to be baptized next week while we are doing zone conferences in the area. He asked my dad to baptize him! So exciting!

Waiting while my dad was interviewing.. found a cool tree!

After Encarnation we kept driving to Cuidad del Este. It was a great opportunity to see the country side and all that it had to offer. I was surprised to see so much farm land and livestock. One town we drove through had this tunnel of trees! So pretty!

In between Encarnation and Cuidad del Este we were able to stop in Santa Rita, a brand new area just opened a couple weeks ago! The second Sunday they already had 20 people at sacrament meeting! And last week they had their first baptism!

A pretty sunset on the way to Cuidad del Este.

Driving into Cuidad del Este was quite the adventure. Actually, driving anywhere in Paraguay is an adventure. Anyway, Cuidad was especially crazy... It was dark when we got there and a lot of cars and motos don't use lights at night. crazy. Also, people are usually standing by the side of the road waiting for buses. Even the busy highway, freeway type roads. But with my dad's safe driving we were alright!

One night in our hotel room in Cuidad I was falling asleep when I saw something dark move across the wall.. I turned on the lights and found this little guy. Naturally I caught him.
After interviews were done in Cuidad Del Este we were able to do a few more fun things. We went to Itaipu dam one night to see it all lit up. This hydroelectric dam is on the Parana River in between Paraguay and Brazil. It's the largest in terms of annual generated energy.



We were also able to go to the Salto Del Monday falls in Cuidad del este. They were beautiful!


If you look in the distance you can see a small shack town with an amazing view of the falls.

The shack town has amazingly poor conditions. We see towns like this everywhere. We also see a lot of towns that are literally made of garbage bags and sticks. It's really shown me how much we truly have! I will never complain about bad student housing again.

A family washing their clothes in the stream.

After Cuidad del Este we were able to drive over the bridge and go into Foz Brazil for a few days. It's amazing that a ten minute drive can change things so much! The language was different, buildings were better kept, and even the streets looked cleaner and well kept.

The first day we were able to go to Iguazu Falls!

On the bus to the falls.

So beautiful! The falls just kept going!

Some years there is so much water that it is right under the walk way you can see in the picture above.

That's called Devil's throat.

This platform gave us such a great view but it was kind of high up... and kind of scary to look down through..

After Iguazu Falls we went to a bird zoo with local birds. It was probably one of the best kept zoos I've ever been too! There were so many neat birds!

We were able to go into some of the enclosures with the birds. These Tucans would come right up to us!

We thought they looked almost fake the colors were so bright. Maybe it's a crow with a false beak?

There was a pond with some Cayman.. this one had a turtle friend riding on his back.

This cage had an enter at your own risk sign outside.. It was full of HUGE, loud parrots that would honestly dive bomb people that went into the cage.... Dad was the only one brave enough.

But I was brave enough to hold one on my arm.

We had a lot of fun in Brazil! It was nice to be able to see another country down here in South America! But we'd been gone for a week living out of a suitcase so it was nice to get back to Asuncion.

A couple days after we got back Jenny got into town! It's so fun to have her down here! The day after she got here we started right into Zone Conferences. It was such a cool opportunity to see a zone conference! After zone conference we went by the temple for Jenny to see it.

Random thing.. Everyone tells us that I look like mom and Laura looks like dad. Then they tell Jenny she doesn't look like anyone. haha

Today we did some more shopping and went down to Asuncion center again so Jenny could see some things.

The first marathon to ever be held in Paraguay was today so there were more people around than usual. There were some cool tribal bands set up playing music.

Cool old guys playing Chess

Just a random picture on the street.. It's interesting they only use glass bottles at street vendors here. They also collect the bottles after you drink it so you have to finish it right there.

Anyway.. another great week in Paraguay! Tuesday we head off for another tour of the mission for zone conferences! Should be fun!