Die You Stupid Ants--Week 16
2/20/23
Have any of you noticed that a lot of my subjects have nothing to do with my email?
¡Hola todos!
As predicted last week a lot happened this week! It was super busy and it definitely was an experience.
Tuesday in particular was pretty eventful! A dog peed on my shoe and my bag and 30 minutes later the Bishop's 3 year old son almost choked to death on a piece of meat! It was crazy!
The first part of the day was a little more chaotic but it ended really well. Two of the young men accompanied us for the latter part of the day. There was one lesson in particular that was really good.
A few weeks ago we got a text from a guy who asked if he could talk with us. We visited him and he let us know that his daughter had been married in the temple and he wanted to know why he couldn't enter for the marriage. We planned a lesson and went over with the young men for our first lesson.
We got there and talked for a while and answered his questions then started to explain the book of mormon. He told us that he's prayed but hasn't gotten an answer. Well I didn't really buy it, this guy has had all the missionary lessons before and his daughter is an active and strong member in the church (but she lives in chile). We had the young men bear their testimony as to how they learned and got their answer about the church. Their testimonies were super strong and brought the spirit. Me and Elder Alicivar were inspired in our promises. I got a little bold and said,
As predicted last week a lot happened this week! It was super busy and it definitely was an experience.
Tuesday in particular was pretty eventful! A dog peed on my shoe and my bag and 30 minutes later the Bishop's 3 year old son almost choked to death on a piece of meat! It was crazy!
The first part of the day was a little more chaotic but it ended really well. Two of the young men accompanied us for the latter part of the day. There was one lesson in particular that was really good.
A few weeks ago we got a text from a guy who asked if he could talk with us. We visited him and he let us know that his daughter had been married in the temple and he wanted to know why he couldn't enter for the marriage. We planned a lesson and went over with the young men for our first lesson.
We got there and talked for a while and answered his questions then started to explain the book of mormon. He told us that he's prayed but hasn't gotten an answer. Well I didn't really buy it, this guy has had all the missionary lessons before and his daughter is an active and strong member in the church (but she lives in chile). We had the young men bear their testimony as to how they learned and got their answer about the church. Their testimonies were super strong and brought the spirit. Me and Elder Alicivar were inspired in our promises. I got a little bold and said,
"Jorge, I think you already know the answer, you just have to find it in your heart."
Thankfully my boldness didn't kill anything. I'm pretty sure he already knows. We left the meeting feeling mucho espiritu!
Parents! If your young men have the opportunity to go out with the missionaries, SEND THEM PLEASE! They always bring the spirit and help the worse immensely! Same with the young women (But with sister missionaries, jaja)!
Parents! If your young men have the opportunity to go out with the missionaries, SEND THEM PLEASE! They always bring the spirit and help the worse immensely! Same with the young women (But with sister missionaries, jaja)!
That was just Tuesday! The next day we had modified exchanges with some elders from the Chaco and me and another greenie gringo (but with only 3 weeks in the field). Gift of tongues is real, that's all I can say about that day! The weather was super nice to us too! It was 73 degrees for like two days (without rain)! That's the nicest Paraguays been to me. Very good days.
Now, there's another story I want to tell, the knitty gritty of the mission. Me and my comp had our first "big argument". To be fair it wasn't too bad but it was definitely a learning experience.
It wasn't even a big deal what we "fought" over. We had planned again to have a young man meet up with us to tag along with us for the day.
Well, we were planning on doing language study in the chapel from 4-5 but we also told the young man to meet us in the chapel at 4 to accompany us. The whole argument was over whether or not we should tell him to be there at 5:00 or at 4:00. My argument was to tell him to be there at 5. I didn't want him to be sitting around doing nothing for an hour while we studied. Elder Alcivar thought it was fine and he'd be okay with it, 4:00 was fine. I thought communication and honesty was important. He thought culture wouldn't care.
In the end, I couldn't communicate effectively because I was so frustrated. It didn't help that eye rolling makes me incredibly angry . Especially in moments of high tension. I was trying really hard to explain in Spanish as I was thinking and trying to calm the situation. He kept scoffing and rolling his eyes at me. That put me off so much that I had to leave the room to blow off steam.
I sat on the bed for a while just fuming and letting myself cool down. There are some techniques we´ve learned in emotional resilience dealing with anger so I started going through in my head the process of why I was angry and how I could apologize. I knew it was a stupid thing to be upset over. Thanks to emotional resilience, I ran through a bunch of things. One, I'm tired; two, I'm stressed out; three, I dont like the idea of losing my study time.
I sat for a bit more time and then went out to apologize. Now, I was thinking about how I was going to be the bigger man. But when I started to apologize, he started apologizing first!
I found out He had changed our schedule a bit and had communicated with our guy to be there at 5. In my head I thought, "Bruh! No! Let me apologize first! Stop being more humble and less prideful than me!"
I remember thinking that. I couldn't win the humble battle! Ugh! That humbled me for real. We both apologized and made up. We both felt bad and knew it was a stupid struggle. After our goody goody hug timeThere was still a little tension and awkwardness.
I wanted to make sure he knew I was fine and that I loved him so I broke out a bag of my gummy worms. He knows they are super special for me and so that made him feel a lot better. Which was really good. They were also really good... candy do be built different in Los Estados Unidos
It was even more poetic when they weren't gummy worms, but they were gummy hearts! Very epic. So we ate my super special nostalgia candy from the states and made up.
That was my lesson of the week in my life. I'm grateful for that moment and I'm grateful for my companions humble attitude and true desire to be better for those around him. He's willing to put his pride and desires aside for me. He's a really good example and I'm gonna work to be more like him.
Anyway, that's my chatter batter for the day! I hope everyones having an awesome week! There's always more to tell but of course there's only so much time! Have a great day and may the grind never stop!
It wasn't even a big deal what we "fought" over. We had planned again to have a young man meet up with us to tag along with us for the day.
Well, we were planning on doing language study in the chapel from 4-5 but we also told the young man to meet us in the chapel at 4 to accompany us. The whole argument was over whether or not we should tell him to be there at 5:00 or at 4:00. My argument was to tell him to be there at 5. I didn't want him to be sitting around doing nothing for an hour while we studied. Elder Alcivar thought it was fine and he'd be okay with it, 4:00 was fine. I thought communication and honesty was important. He thought culture wouldn't care.
In the end, I couldn't communicate effectively because I was so frustrated. It didn't help that eye rolling makes me incredibly angry . Especially in moments of high tension. I was trying really hard to explain in Spanish as I was thinking and trying to calm the situation. He kept scoffing and rolling his eyes at me. That put me off so much that I had to leave the room to blow off steam.
I sat on the bed for a while just fuming and letting myself cool down. There are some techniques we´ve learned in emotional resilience dealing with anger so I started going through in my head the process of why I was angry and how I could apologize. I knew it was a stupid thing to be upset over. Thanks to emotional resilience, I ran through a bunch of things. One, I'm tired; two, I'm stressed out; three, I dont like the idea of losing my study time.
I sat for a bit more time and then went out to apologize. Now, I was thinking about how I was going to be the bigger man. But when I started to apologize, he started apologizing first!
I found out He had changed our schedule a bit and had communicated with our guy to be there at 5. In my head I thought, "Bruh! No! Let me apologize first! Stop being more humble and less prideful than me!"
I remember thinking that. I couldn't win the humble battle! Ugh! That humbled me for real. We both apologized and made up. We both felt bad and knew it was a stupid struggle. After our goody goody hug timeThere was still a little tension and awkwardness.
I wanted to make sure he knew I was fine and that I loved him so I broke out a bag of my gummy worms. He knows they are super special for me and so that made him feel a lot better. Which was really good. They were also really good... candy do be built different in Los Estados Unidos
It was even more poetic when they weren't gummy worms, but they were gummy hearts! Very epic. So we ate my super special nostalgia candy from the states and made up.
That was my lesson of the week in my life. I'm grateful for that moment and I'm grateful for my companions humble attitude and true desire to be better for those around him. He's willing to put his pride and desires aside for me. He's a really good example and I'm gonna work to be more like him.
Anyway, that's my chatter batter for the day! I hope everyones having an awesome week! There's always more to tell but of course there's only so much time! Have a great day and may the grind never stop!
The humblest missionary you know 😎,
-Elder James Tanner
Emotional Fortitude O'Meter
I killed many ants this week - 5/10 Rolled Newspapers of Which to Kill Bugs
🗞🗞🗞🗞🗞
1. Makeup gummy hearts
2. The young legends before the adventure!
3. Rooftops of Asuncion
4. Post Servicio Vibes
5. Chaco Intercambios
6. Uh Ohhhh! Not a pictureeee!
7. Wakalaka Warriors of the Garden
8. Dirt and soap in my hair
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