All Quiet on the Western Front

 

I started picking up change off the ground this week. Not because I need it (except I always need quarters) but because a sister missionary told me that she thinks that finding coins on the ground is a sign from God that she is on the right path. For some reason that really spoke to me. This sister goes home this transfer and honestly it is going to be a huge blow to the whole Zone. She was one of the best missionaries I have ever seen. The Zone is really going to get messed up in the next couple of weeks. One of our Zone Leaders is going home, a ton of missionaries probably will be transferred, and I know I'm out of here pretty soon. It's just going to be a weird couple of weeks coming up. But that's what missionary work is. Constant adaptation. By the time you feel comfortable somewhere, you move.

I hope everyone got a chance to watch President Nelson's message of Hope and Healing because it was fire. He challenged all of us to convert our social media accounts into personal gratitude journals and said, "see if you feel better." After following this "prescription" I can definitely say I feel better. All things considered, 2020 has actually been a good year for me. I graduated High School, I spent lots of time in Laguna Beach, I spent a ton of time with my family, I got to come here. There are a lot of positives I just sort of overlook sometimes. I feel myself always caught up in the moment. I wake up, life is crazy, and then I go to bed. Every. Single. Day. It's what I have always wanted.

One thing I posted about on my social media account was my gratitude for the ocean (see below). Considering how both Nevada and Paraguay are landlocked areas, it's going to be a long time before I see the ocean again. My hope is that on the way to South America I'll get to fly into LAX and get one last glimpse of Cali. I think it's almost 104 degrees with humidity in Asuncion. It's gonna be so weird freezing my booty off and then to going straight to the heat.

We finally reached the Hernandez's in the phonebook and so we (I) got to teach a lot of lessons in Spanish. Elder Dalton was there for emotional support as needed. We actually found quite a bit of people this way, and I also posted in a Facebook group asking if I could practice my spanish with anyone. There were like 20 people that said "Si." So this week we'll try to make our way through that list. My spanish has actually gotten a lot better with this practice. It doesn't really matter though because half the people in Paraguay speak Guarani which is nothing like spanish so that will be fun. I try not to annoy people with my excitement to go to Paraguay mainly because most missionaries in this mission are reassigned and are still waiting to get back to their original countries. I definitely lucked out on this one. Just another sign I'm on the right path I guess. Other than that, it's all quiet on the (north)western front...

Gratitude Repost:

"Today I'm thankful for the Ocean. For me I have always found peace in the constant, soothing noise of waves crashing on the shore, the seagulls squawking overhead, the warm salty seabreeze that fills your mouth and nostrils as you walk along a pier, the feeling of wet sand in between your toes, the heat of the sun drying the water off of your back leaving a coat of salt on your skin, the color of the water right after the sun goes down. Even the pull of the leash as a crashing wave sends you straight into oblivious waters reminding you that you are still attached to something. Even at that exact moment you find peace in floating through the bubbles allowing the air in your lungs to slowly carry you back to the surface. The ocean is vast and unknown. We know more about the surface of Mars than we know about the bottom of the sea. As soon as we step foot in the water, as humans we are not on the top of the food chain any more. We lose control, but that's okay. The ocean is a metaphor for our Heavenly Father, constantly there, constantly moving, constantly pushing us back to our home. He knows things we don't know and sees things that we may never see. 1 Nephi 20:18 "O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments—then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea."

That's my attempt at being poetic. Enjoy.