1-9-23

HERMANA I AM ONLY 18!?! I DO NOT HAVE A FAMILY!?!


2023 BABY. NEW YEAR, NEW ME, NEW EXPERIENCIAS, LETS GET IT GOING BABY.


We started this week off by some nice Paraguay rain! Nothing better than a nice rainy day here. Had to walk in some water again, got soaked and lessons were canceled. On the bright side of things, Elder Figueroa found 20 Mil on the street, so I call that a successful day for me.


Elder Dixon and I went on splits and we worked our butts off. We were supposed to have a baptism next week, but we convinced them to change it to this week. The next day I had splits with another Elder and we can just say that we walked the whole day and had 0 lessons. Everyone that we had a lesson with either wasn't home or canceled... So what do you do when all of this happens? You buy Coke(which I don't even like Coke), you get Elder Barrios(who is a service missionary here) and you drink coke with Elder Barrios and his mom. While all of this is happening, Elder Barrios mom is telling me how getting married at a young age is bad and how I should wait until I am in my 30s. Mrs. Barrios I am 18 I promise you I won't be married anytime soon. 


Lastly, we had our baptism this Saturday. It was so freaking cool. I have been teaching Andru since Elder Turner was my companion. I have watched this kid not be interested at all, to now him being baptized and me teaching his family. I love this kid so much and he has made such a huge impact on my life. Andru lives with these members in our ward. His dad left when he was young and his mom lives in Asunción for work and rarely can visit him. This kid is the definition of hardworking. Gets up at 5AM and bikes an hour to work and doesn't leave until 8PM. And when he gets home, he is always fixing his bike or his friends' bikes. I have realized during my time with Andru that I took a lot of things for granted. The easy access to good education, a car, a job, my family always home when I would get home, etc. This kid is amazing and not to mention his mom was also there for the baptism. I am so grateful to have gotten to know Andru these last 3 months and can not wait to see how much more he progresses. 


I encourage you all to be like Andru. When you think something is weird, or you are put in a weird situation, make the most of it. You never know what you can learn when you just try to make the most of what you got.


Real quick, I wrote this this morning because I went into the city and I went to the mall for the first time in 6 months and it was wild. They played the Stranger Things song, Rolling up the Hill I think, and I lost my mind. It made me realize that I did have a life before the mission. I couldn't find any Dr.Pepper though. When I went to Mcdonalds and asked if they had Dr.Pepper, they looked at me like I was crazy. Whatever, I will see you DP in 18 months baby.


I love you and hope you all are killing 2023 already!

From your favorite... as always,

Elder Ressel






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