Once again it´s the day the Grumpy Cat hates and missionaries around the world love! 

Thats right- it´s PDAY! 

Whats new? Not much.

I am getting along really well with HNA Santos. We laugh, we cry , we teach the Gospel! I love to speak Spanish and I want to speak it forever... even though sometimes I suck really really bad. 

We just laugh it off while I try to store mental files so the same mistakes don´t happen again. The other day, serious as can be, I said "Nunca debemos tener secretos con nuestros cuñados!" and Hna Santos just kind looked at me... but I totally meant conyuges! Hahaha. I went to contact these construction workers yesterday and biffed it... HARD! I knocked over there Tereré and everything.... which was rey chistoso and we laughed for like 5 minutes. Yby Yau and our efforts here are going alright. Sometimes I get a little whiney because it's not easy and sometimes it's flat out no fun to have to, month after month, support this ward/group with little to no seen improvements. Faith is believing and hoping for something you can not see, but is true. I have faith that I am in some way helping here, even if I can't see how. I have faith that I was sent here by God. Also! just because it's less easy here, doesn't make it any less important. Or at least... these are the things I tell myself to stay focused & push onward. I sure hope I am doing SOMETHING useful here. I know, at the very least, I personally am improving and learning loads! That's something! Everyday I am falling more and more in love with my mission because of what I am learning here about my Saviour, My Father in Heaven and this Gospel. I am realizing more and more how BIG of a mark, the decision to come on a mission has had and will have on my life on earth and for eternity. I am trying to learn to be a better missionary, a better servant, and a better disciple of Christ. Basically, I am converting myself & I am the best convert! I go to all the church functions, read my scriptures, pray etc...! lol I am learning a new level of commitment to the Gospel. I am learning to obey him more fully, not just to be obedient out of fear or to sacrifice for a reward, but because I LOVE Him. I want to follow Him,& not just for 18 months, but, in the words of Squints, for "FOR EV-VER". Well thats all I got for you folks. XOXO Hermana Valenzuela

Mba'éichapa! Well here we are in Yby Yau, only this week when I say "we" it`s only 50% the same as it has been the last 4 months. Of course I am still here and the other 50% is my new Compañera,Hermana Santos! She is from Guatemala and it a Hoot and a half! I love her to death and it only been 5 days! I pray that together she and I can suffer with joy! We really have very similar personalities and I LOVE observing a new missionary. I love how this gal teaches! She is so funny and bubbly, yet not afraid to say it how it is. We are here to preach repentance and she is not afraid to BE BOLD! I hope it rubs off on me. We are going to try to focus this week (and maybe this change) on our Jumbo list of MenosActivos and see if we can help some of these brother and sisters who have previously felt the stirring in the hearts REMEBER,REMEBER! It´s funny how you can live in the same place, but when it´s with someone new everything feels completely different! We welcomed Hermana Santos to our crazy jungle town with a classic chaotic Tarde De Rama. We may have scared her a little bit, but I think she`s getting a feel for the craziness that is our lives here. We did our weekly cleaning the chapel on Saturday and then we went home to prepare to teach our classes Sunday. Also this week it´s our turn to teach Instituto. I wasn´t kidding when I told her WE are the ward here. haha. We really do it all, but at least we do it together. That´s what I love most about this area/our little ward; because we are so few, we REALLY support/rely on each other and we make an excellent team. I called my family yesterday. It was the best and the worst. hahaha... Like eating ice cream after a month of dieting, of course it`s delicious!, but knowing you can´t have it everyday almost makes you wish you hadn`t eaten it and tasted of it`s sweetness! I sure do love the faces that smiled back at me on the computer screen. I think the part that got to me most was talking to my little brother, Justiz. He is leaving for his mission in August (Dominican Republic).That was the last time I will be able to talk to him in a very long time. He asked for advice and I just welled up and bawled and told him to give his whole heart to Our Lord. Also my Dad asked me to bear my testimony to all of my family... I felt like Moroni, though he wasn`t fancy in writing, God chose him to seal up and write the last testimony in all of The Book of Mormon. Although I didn´t speak as eloquently and magnificently as I would have wished, I hope that my simple testimony of a Father in Heaven who loves us touched their hearts so far away. Just as Moroni`s has, through the power of the Holy Ghost, touched millions of people`s hearts years after he carved his testimony on Golden Plates and sealed them up in obedience to Our Father in Heaven. I hope my Family (and anyone who reads this) knows that I KNOW there is a God. I know that he is Our Father and I know that we find the way back to Him in this, His true and Restored Gospel! I love my family and I really really hope (and pray constantly) that they each will follow Christ, repent and be welcomed happily home because I want my family to be Forever. I know that families CAN be together forever. I know it now even firmer than I did 4 months ago. The mission is at times hard, especially after Skype,but I know that my Example/my actions is the strongest tesimony I can give to those I love SO MUCH. I hope they can hear my actions loud and clear. I pray that they will open their hearts and listen. Now I am just refocusing on Yby Yau and these souls, these sons and daughters of My God, these My other brothers and sisters, whom also need to hear my testimony, need this light and truth in their lifes, need to know that Father in Heaven wants them to be able to come home. They need to "know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins"(2Ne25:26). I miss my Family, but I love this work. I love bringing joy and love and knowledge of Eternal Families to people`s doors. I am sad when those doors get closed in my face, but I press onward because I know how vital the message I carry is. We have the truth! And we have the INCREDIBLE privledge to help bring that truth to the World! It´s hard work, sometimes it is REALLY REALLY hard, but it never stops being worth it. With all the love in my heart Hermana Valenzuela

4 months (Elder Lira and Hermana Valenzuela)

we stayed the night in the Hermana Lideres house and they had these beautiful paintings on the walls.... my modeling goal was to capture their enchanting eyes and tiny lips

Hola!

All is well here in the jungle Parguayan town of Yby Yau. The week was lived with a cloud of "what-ifs" showdowing over our head because of the possibility of changes. We talked about what would happen if fulano or fulana was changed and kept our nerves in check by laughing off our actual anxiety of the situation.  After the changes came yesterday we had a REALLY amazing fast and testimony meeting and then had some incredible lessons with some people we went to say goodbye to since then its been MANIC-monday trying to get everything in order.

Hermana Willis is going BACK to her old area after only being away 3 changes (WEIRD!) I started calling her Ping Pong yesterday because shes been out over a year now and only has 2 areas cause she keeps going back and forth.

Thats right folks. Today was the last day of the Adventures of Hermana Willis and Hermana Valenzuela! We ar going to the Templo Tomorrow and when I come home from that it will be with a new Best Freind by my side! Her name is Hermana Santos and she is going to be my New Favorite (besides smiling, smiling is my Favorite). She is a Guatemalteca and likes eating candy and doesnt like mud? This is what I have gathered from my poor investigation, though I hardly asked because Id rather hear it from the source since the source will be living with me here in YBY YAU for the next 6 weeks at least.

 Im nervous and excited for all the things coming within the week; temple & new comp & call home! Im excited to HAVE to speak spanish 24/7. I also know I will soon be eating those words and talking to myself in the mirror just so I can say all the clever things I think but dont know how to say in Spanish.

My Guarani contines to slowly improve as well. 

Life is Crazy... but crazy good, like PopTarts.

The church is true and missionary work is (sometimes tough, but) oh so fufilling.

Now I will send photos.

Besos!

Hermana Valenzuela

Im awkward and can't take photos (this is from divisions with the Hermana lideres Hermana Owen and Hermena Guttierez)

This is a photo Hermana Willis took of me sleeping... I guess I was cold (ALL BY MYSELF... Thats a DCOM underwraps reference for Wyatt because I look like a mummy)

we went to cerro corra... its a national park!.... but really its just more jungle, thats fenced off because once there was a war there. 

There are also like some busts and flagpoles (which had no flags... so I just climbed to the terror of my companion)

Mulan "BE A MAN" stick photo

Defrosting the fridge...

I FOUND STERLING SIMS AT A ZONE CONFERENCE! YAY TUACAHN STUDENTS!

Im still being EATEN! (pray that i will REMEMBER to put on repelant! I have it- I just forget)

we cook for the elders EVERY sunday and this sunday we made chinese food (because remember i used to live in China) and it turned out HEAVENLY. like... Watch out panda Express! 

Chipa for Hna Willis' last day

Romina had really long hair that she is extremely proud of. She looks maybe a little bugged in this photo but she really isnt.... were best friends and she loves me. Her MISSION CALL should be coming soon! WOOT!