I would like a nap pLeAsE - Week 19

 3/13/23

Hola Todos! I send my greetings from Paraguay.


This week has proven to be one of the most stressful weeks yet somehow, also one of the weeks where very little happened. We've found the enemy of the work most powerful in paraguay is the lack of motivation to answer our text messages. 😶 On top of that! I wish I had something super interesting to tell you about this week but nothing super interesting happened!
We cleaned out the house this week after Elder Alcivar and Elder Porter left; that was glorious! We have space! In fact we have enough space where I was able to do exercise this week. For the first time in 3 months I went to bed sore. Our quality of life has increased dramatically. Yet at the same time the quality of our work has gone down. That's the hard part.
 Included with more space in the house is less time in the field. We have a ton of stuff to do. Every night this week we´ve had at least 45 minutes of sending messages after getting back to the house at 9PM. It's incredibly hard to coordinate successfully between the two areas and usually one or two people fall through the cracks and we forget something. The grind really dont stop. There's always more we could do in both areas but we simply dont have the time or money. This week the most was between centro and amambay, we had maybe 5 successful teaching appointments. Everything else fell through, was cancelled on the doorstep, or our amigos would read our messages and just didn't bother themselves to respond.
It's hard in your first week running "your area", "alone", for the first time and nothing works out. It's really discouraging. Plus, on Sunday, two of our regular families didn't come to church for the first time since we started teaching them. In a stressful already really sucky week it felt like we were being kicked when we were already down! But despite the unfruitful and kinda sucky week, we did see miracles.
 Miracles of the miraculous kind! We're fluent to the point where we can teach and bring the spirit in every successful lesson and for most contacts. That's freaking awesome to me. I've been here 3 months and i'm proficient enough in spanish that I can get by with elder Smith and not be a burden. Thats miracle one. Miracle number two is that we've been able to coordinate effectively with the members and they really want to help us. That support wasn't there at the start and the wards dont like their missionaries being split between areas. It's amazing to have their support now and thankfully it makes our job a lot easier.
It's been really hard but it's been a really good learning experience. Everytime you think you have a hold on something, like an area or its people, something changes and everything gets thrown to the wind. Then all over again you dont know anything. That's where we're at. But I mean hey, its going going and thankfully, it's not totally gone. Just one day at a time.
One of my favorite parts about being on the mission, we're always learning and evolving. Especially meeeting other missionaries and seeing their evolution over a transfer is crazy. Everyone I've known, whether they have two months or almost two years, still changes a lot over just a 6 week cambio. Maybe that's another part of the miracle of missions. There is always a dramatic amount of growth and there are always challenges for everyone (in almost everything too). It puts us in a position that our character is never stationary. For me over the past four and a half months in the mission I've gone from an overconfident buffoon to quite terrified buffoon, back to an overconfident buffoon, and now all over again, I'm a bumbling buffoon ttrying to find out what the heck im supposed to be doing. Thankfull though, im now a somewhat capable bumbling buffoon! #Characterdevelopment
Anyways that's all i gotz for yalls. Have a great rest of your week and may the force be with you all! May the grind never stop! We shall rest when we're dead!
The most buffoon missionary in Paraguay,
-Elder James Tanner
   
Emotional Fortitude O'Meter
Better than expected but OOFs all round - 5/10 Silly Saxophones
🎷🎷🎷🎷🎷

1. Ice cream with Luis
2. RIP Amambay and Centro
3. same house, new vibes
4. The Centro capilla has great views
5. Met Abraham Lincoln in the park this week
6. Estoy cansado
7. Pre Capilla Vibes
8. First comp pic with elder Smith











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