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! 

Writing feels uber surreal this week. I feel like it was just Pday... The week passed by and was full of so much... I hope I didn't miss anything. The Hermana Lideres(Sister Leaders) came for divisions which was super pleasant. The Zone Leaders came into town and we had a YBY YAU 'zone' meeting. We also had one of our Young Men,Ronaldo Lopez Ortiz, pass away due to an exploded appendix. It was a shock to us all. He had seventeen years. Although it was a sad event and his smile and spirit will be greatly missed in this little Rama in Yby Yau, Hermana Willis and I couldn't help but feel peace in his passing. We know that he is with God now. He was a good, good kid and he will do amazing things, even if from the other side of the veil. Participating in the Paraguayan burial procedures was interesting and although I felt a bit awkward, I did my best to console the family and testify of our Savior Jesus Christ and the happy news his resurrection means to us. There has been a guy going around town (for a couple months before I came to Ybyyau) and showing some harsh Anti-Mormon videos and ... for lack of a better phrase "stealing" our members. REALLY attacking the church. Days before Ronaldo passed away, this guy visited him and tried to get him to leave the Iron Rod and check out the awesome great and spacious building across the river. With a firm voice (and I imagine that giant smile he always wore) Ronaldo replied: "I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints. I am a Mormon." The Elders told me of this story today and I couldn't help but do a tiny "success kid" fist and say "YES". God probably had him pass because he was so awesome, he didn't even need to learn anymore. I'm sure an Epic High-Five was shared upon his arrival at the pearly gates. Somewhere amidst all this craziness in YBY YAU, hard work gets done. A ward is run, the gospel is taught, service is provided testimonies are tried, shared and strengthened, and. for me at least, love and charity is learned on a new level daily. Also this week, because of the stress I had been having prior and in order to overcoming falling back into the gloomy glooms, I asked for a priesthood blessing of comfort and advice. I know my Heavenly Father is keeping a close eye on me. The words in my blessing were words that I had heard before as my Earthly Father blessed me before my mission and as my Stake President Set me apart to be a missionary. They were not words of a Chilean Teenager I met a couple months ago. They were comforting words of my very real Father in Heaven who has known me since before this world was formed. They were His words to me reminding me to enjoy my mission, encouraging me to push forward and above all making sure I knew He loves me very much. I am so grateful for the priesthood. I am awe-struck at how full and endless God's love is for me (and for us all). I simply can not express how very much I am learning here. Im starting to see a tiny part of why everyone always calls it "The Best 2 Years" (or 18 months). Changes are this coming Monday... so... My near future is a giant foggy Question Mark! As a result... so are the Mothers Day Calls. We don't know if we are getting changed so we don't know where we will be so we don't know when we can call! BUT Our sketched plan for now is that I will be calling you on Mom's Birthday!(Monday the 5th of May) buttttttttttt I'm just stressing out on what TIME and how to coordinate it all and basically it is not organized by Mom so it is not organized well enough to MY likings. BUT rather than freak out I am trying to just let it be. So. Find a time that the Family can all be there this Monday BEFORE 8 oclock my time. Idk what time that is there... but figure it out. (youre the one with Google) If you could present me with 2 options of when it will work for you, that would be Ideal. really idk all the stuff and I.m trying not to freak out. I just do not like when something as vitally important as my ONE of TWO opportunities to call you this year is taken lightly or treated as a "we'll see" situation. I am sorry its so disorganized. Im sure you're all as stressed as I am... but this is all the info I have. There is also a possibility that we can do it this Saturday, but I DO NOT KNOW AND NO ONE TELLS ME ANYTHING. *breathe lib!* onfd guhsd.kiscrsiljcfip0sz more information to follow. Also as to the reason why this letter is being received so late at night, it is because, as this possibly one of our last Pdays in YbyYau, we (Elders and H.Willis and I) went to Cerro Corra today. Hermana Willis and I worked in the morning and now we are doing our Internet at night. BUT my time is cut in HALF so. to all of those who wrote me and I didn't reply this week, that is the reason. I apologize deeply and send my warmest hugs your way. in fact... Warm HUGS FOR ALL! XOXO Hermana Valenzuela

Coming to you LIVE from YBY YAU(only a few weeks until I can teach you vocally how to properly pronounce that) IT’S PDAY AFTERNOON!!!!!!!!!!!! 

*crowd cheers*

I am elated to report that this week I felt much better than the last two gloomy gloom weeks.

 After our visit to Asuncion for migrations, I returned home with packages and letters. The love from home was an excellent and much needed boost. I could write you 100 thank you’s each to all who send me things, but I heard pictures are worth 1,000. I will just send some of those instead. Everything I received was more than perfect and millions of happy tears were shed and trillions of warm fuzzies were felt in my heart.

Myy inventory included 2 packages from my familia, one from some cool cats in PARK VALLEY, one from a señor Goooozman and a manilla folder full of Grandma lovin’ from OAKLEY

Tons of awesome letters were also received!

Thank you again!!!

WONDERFUL WONDERFUL job loving and supporting me. I hope I use all the treasures and jewels sent to me to full potential and get good missionary work done. I wanna make ya’ll proud!

SO,

Best story pertaining to my adventures the last P-day in Asuncion: 

Whilst waiting in the Migration offices to write my John Hancock on a couple of papers I looked up to see a familiar smiley face.

Very familiar....TOO familiar for this foreign place. This was a "home" face!

It was the face of Elder (Dakota) Goodell!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Granted, I knew he was on a mission in Paraguay, BUT he is in the South mission and so the chances of us seeing each other were few unless a general authority came to visit Paraguay!

 I was so excited and shocked! 

Now imagine, if you will, MY shock times 1,000.... That was the shock of my good friend Elder Goodell, for he knew not that I was even on a mission, let alone in his same country. We had several hours at the offices to laugh and talk of home (he especially praised my family and parents which was great because that’s what I do all day long and HNA Willis just doesn’t understand, but HE DID!) We also shared the laughter with my Brazilian CCM brother, Elder Lira. He and I are still rowing along in the same boat and now that Elder Lira went home, we are the only 2 left in our group from the Argentinian Missionary Torture Chambers (MTC). We re-vowed to stay on our missions and took another photo together. BMFL (Best Missionaries For Lyf)

Along with other audio treasures, Wyatt sent me a talk by Dr.John L Lund named “The Myth we call Perfection”. In his talk Dr. Lund explains how we are not perfect, nor can we BE "perfect" until at least after we are resurrected

 (if not longer... I’m not positive about the refinement process we will go through). Perfection is (at least for now) unattainable and is NOT expected. What IS expected, quoting Dr.Lund, is that we "love much and do what we can". 

I can do that! I have also been studying the stress handbook and trying to keep it cool and stay out of the gloomy glooms. I have also been getting up to exercise(most days... like 77.8% of them). As a blessing for these efforts, God has sent Angels(The Elders) who got permission to enter our abode and fix our shower! Now getting up to take a cold shower won’t be something I have to dread each morning. 

I took my first warm shower in 4 months and I washed more than just my hair. I washed away stress and worries and bad moods every morning! I am so very optimistic looking into this new week filled with workouts, work and NO cold showers! I am grateful for the silly tender mercies God provides me with to help me chug along, like packages, friends and warm showers.

I truly feel like I am being refined and growing. 

I am loving much and doing what I can. 

We are still struggling a bit with the area being stubborn to accepting our message and choose Liberty and Eternal Life!! I am confident in the work we are doing. . Like the Primary song sings "I hope that I can share the gospel to those who want to know the truth", I know that the message we have is the truth and the greatest news one could hear.

I pray that I will find hearts that will listen. The rest is up to the Lord. 

This is, you know, HIS church, HIS gospel, and really, HIS mission. I am on a mission for HIM. So I am confident in whatever He has planned. 

The Ward is doing well. We had an activity. The kids were rowdy and kid like. Eggs were painted. The Paraguayans thought it was weird, but humored us. Chocolate, chipa and chicken were eaten (a very Paraguayan Easter to us all!)

Primary went really well this week . My mother had sent me a ton of materials I could use to plan and I was thrilled with the results! 

(I tweaked the lesson a bit because it draws a lot of parallels to Spring and here it is Fall). The kids listened and learned! We were all edified and I didn`t feel stress and cry before or after! It was an Easter miracle! Another Easter funny story was when Elder Munoz, from the pulpit, announced that the Hermana’s were doing a special musical number. . .  

(The people who gave talks went FAST and so there was time to fill)

SURPRISE! We quickly picked a Hymn (Divina Luz) and hit them with an impromtu accapella masterpiece.... We even made it basically the whole song without giggling (a mess up happened with the VERY LAST word and HERMANA WILLIS kinda lost it so I finished solo,but we covered it up well and hurried to our seats) 

Happy Easter. Loved the Robin Eggs. Taught the Chileans how to apply Robin Eggs Lipstick. hahahaha!

 We also made meatloaf and deviled eggs to celebrate! And on the side... MANDIOCA! of course. We really are Paraguayos now. 

We had even bought Hershey’s Cocoa whilst in Asuncion and made brownies! 

All in all I am feeling like I have a nice clean slate with good work behind and ahead of me! 

There is sunshine in my soul today!

Isn`t it silly how much a small thing (like a hot shower) can do?

"If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way"

That´s what I`m going to try to do.

I am also going to try to stay safe because it is getting dangerous here.

 (Prayers are good)

Thank you for all the attention, care, emails, advice, letters packages and most of all for the love. I can feel it. 

I must now use the remainder of my time to slooooooooooowwwwwwwlllllllllyyyyyy load promised photos.

Until next week...

Love from all my heart,

Hermana Valenzuela

Elder Goodell and Hermana Valenzuela Reppin St Geezy and Tuna-Can all the way in Paraguay

Elder Lira and I made it 3 months!

Hmn Willis took a photo of me in  the morning....

I took a secret photo of her laughing (I make her lol all DAY)

 Missionary`s Cloud 9 (thanks again all)

 Grandma sent me a photo of this old man... but Idk who he is?

Thank you Wyatt. We listen to your tunes every morning!

Thanks for the hat and the scarf, yo.

Grandma sent me these things and then my eyes filled with water

 just like freakin out cause I love candy (espacially of the mexican variety)

This is Dalila... She is a huricane trapped inside a child. But shes cute and I love her even though sometimes I want to cage her. Also I recently realized that when she talks (constantly) she ISNT just baby talking gibberish... but it is Guarani. 

OH and ps. My guarani is getting so much better. 

Because Ialso have that China Egg Pic... 

Also the temple is great

Goodbye to cold showers!!!