Coke y Pollo

 

The last few days in Reno felt strange, like the end of an era. As my last few days burned away, I felt my grip on the area slowly decreasing. There was a lot going on by the time I left. My last Sunday on Reno was weird. I had to give a talk in church and it almost felt like a farewell talk. The same High Councilman that spoke my first Sunday here spoke right after me, as if everything had come full circle. It was almost a confirmation that my time was finished. I was supposed to leave December 18th but it got pushed back twice. Was there was something else I needed to do before I left? 

The last day I packed my bags and made my way around the area one more time saying goodbye to all of my favorite members and investigators. I was in Hunterlake for a long time. For the last 6 weeks, many of the elders in the zone got together every morning to play volleyball. It was a good final match or whatever you call it in volleyball. I don't even really remember what team I was on or who won but for some reason someone in the Elders Quorum walked through the gym that morning and pulled me aside. He said he was so thankful for my service to the ward. For the first time in a long time I felt that the work I was doing there actually meant something. It was not a ton, but I felt that at least in someway I left that place better than I found it. I put my bags in the car and left that day. Elder Perreria told me that he got the same feeling he used to get whenever he closed down an area in Africa (he was an AP when everything went down). As we drove up to the terminal I remember the last time I was in the parking lot of the Reno-Tahoe INTL airport. I remember thinking to myself, "The next time I see this place I'm going home."

Not quite

Another Elder from Reno and I had 3 flights to Paraguay which were all 5 hours or more. The first flight was to Atlanta. It was kind of funny going back east, the closest I've been to my hometown, Hickory, NC. It was a good flight. I remember looking at the flight tracker the whole time and watching some Book of Mormon videos. When we got to baggage claim, we sort of got lost. Our instructions told us it was very important to call the hotel and make sure the shuttle was still coming by. However neither of us had sim cards in our phones and maas blocked us from making any sort of wifi call. We walked around until we found the hotel shuttle area and then I asked a lady if I could use her phone and she said, "he*****llllll no!" I almost laughed because she had a thick Jamaican accent. But, she eventually let me call the hotel, holding onto the phone the whole time! She talked to us for a while after and asked us which flight crew we were attendants for. Ha flight attendants! Imagine that. We told her who we were and she said that she was happy to meet us. I gave her my last contact card, I hope she finds the missionaries in Atlanta or Jamaica or wherever she was going. 

We finally got to the hotel for the night and that's when the real work began. We had to fill out travel forms to get permission to enter both Colombia and Paraguay. They were super long and complicated and I had to call my parents to help because the hotel didn't have a business area or computers to use. Also maas conveniently blocked the links that were very crucial to my travel the next day. That's maas for you. (Maas360 is the software the Mission Department uses to track our phones). Somehow I managed to relay the information to my mom and we were able to fill it out. It turned out that the forms were not as crucial as I originally thought.  I could have completed them at the airport. But they got done, that's the important part. I slept horribly that night. Probably the travel anxiety. Morning came and I got up and put on my suit. We met some other Elders downstairs and they said they were staying in the room next to us. I guess Elder Madsen and I completely missed them. We loaded our stuff and headed to the international terminal. My last meal from North America was ironically Panda Express. My first transfer in Reno we practically ate Panda every week so it was a good flashback, haha. The missionaries trickled into the terminal little by little until there were about 23 of us. One of them mentioned something that really caught my attention. Apparently in one of the online Missionary Devotionals a week ago, the speaker said, "It doesn't matter if you have a baptism tomorrow or are boarding a flight to Paraguay next week..." Pretty cool that one of the area seventies were aware us, 23 out of the some thousand missionaries out there. 

The flight to Bogota, Columbia was pretty nice--we got fed! An elder sitting behind me was trying to talk to a lady next to him in Spanish, but he was doing a very poor job. I would have laughed but I know my Spanish isn't that great either. Turns out he was just fresh out of Home MTC. That's crazy to think that missionaries are going straight from home to foreign. I really don't think I could have done that.

We all got to Colombia and then to Asuncion, Paraguay no problem. It was dark outside when we landed but with customs and everything it almost took us an hour and a half to get outside. My visa picture looks absolutely terrible, haha. It was taken with like 10 hours of jetlag though so I'm not worried about it. My crispy $20 dollar bills worked perfectly, no problems. None of the missionaries  had their money rejected so we were all good.  We were told to bring brand new money for our visas or we would be rejected. We all passed through the airport and loaded our luggage onto a sketchy truck thing. It was a hot and stuffy morning that day. Now I know all mornings are hot and stuffy. But I must be acclimating, I'm not sweating as soon as I walk outside anymore. 

In order for transfers to go smoothly, we got to stay at the Asuncion, Paraguay Temple Patron Hostel right next to the temple for 3 nights. It was one of the nicest places I've stayed. Honestly we were fed 5 star meals 3 times a day, we got a view of the temple from our window, the beds were super nice, we had clean water and we felt so comfortable. It was honestly some of the most fun I've had on the mission. When we got there everyone crashed for about 3 hours. We needed sleep! Then we got up to sign some papers. Right after that we were forced to do something I did not expect. Something I thought I would never have to do again, at least not for a long time. Something that messes with me physically and mentally, really. They had to draw my blood! If you know me, you know that my biggest fear in the world is needles. My heart was racing and I started sweating. For once in South America my body got cold. I am super scared of needles. But, small miracle, I survived. I think it's because I saw one Hermana do it and my mind was like, if I pass out in front of the Hermanas, it's over! But I was fine! For once in my life, I was not scarred for the next 3 days after my encounter with a needle.  But yeah those three days were the best. My new Mission President,  President Hansen said that it was good for everyone to get their feet under them and acclimate for a while. I'm kind of bummed because this mission is much bigger than Reno in the sense that travel is really a chore. So, there's a good chance I will never see those 23 elders and sisters again. Maybe some of them but not all of them together. I will always love those memories at the temple hostel.

President Hansen interviewed us one by one. He sat me down and told me that I was going to be especially frustrated if I didn't learn the language right away because he thought I was a "smart guy" or something like that. He told me to have patience with myself. I honestly hadn't even thought about that detail yet--learning the language. One of my strengths, even if I have nothing else, is my ability to just communicate, share personalities, find common interests, be friendly. It's like my favorite part about the work. But now I don't have that. I have hardly any communication skills. It's like I'm a completely different person here. People don't laugh at the things I say because, for one, I'm not saying much. And if they are laughing it's because I have no idea what they are saying, and I have probably nodded yes at the wrong time. I make no sense to them, so I'm sure I am funny, just not in the way I want to be. I will try to not get frustrated and be patient like President advised. 

I got the news that I would be taking a 7 hour bus ride to my first area, Encarnacion. The bus ride was nothing but campo and vacas and a couple of small hills here and there. It was a long, hot bus ride but I finally made it and I've been here a week. There are a lot of times where I don't know what's happening. It feels like a whole new planet. Even weird things like the ironing boards are different here. It's so new and green and hot, and it rains all the time. And then it's hot again and even people that have lived here their whole life complain about the heat and the rain. People talk super fast here. Like crazy fast. Half of the time it's not even in Spanish. It's in this native language called Guarani. I walk around with a notebook and write down all of the things I don't know. I'm starting to get a hold on things but this week every day I would suddenly just get super tired, out of nowhere. I would crash for like 5 minutes on the bus or on a bench and then jerk myself awake. I never had a problem with being tired before in Reno, but I was eating healthy and was relatively not stressed most of the time. For the last week I've been running on nothing but coke which is basically like water here and chicken. Usually fried in some way. My body has not adjusted to this new diet yet, but I hope it does soon because honestly I could easily just collapse in the street right now and sleep. Even the dogs barking at night don't keep me from sleeping. Which is actually a good thing. 

One last thing, there is no peanut butter here BUT the closest thing is this stuff called molino which is basically like crushed peanuts that you mix with water and then boom you almost have peanut butter...kinda nice.