Chipa! Chipa! Chipa!

It’s awesome when we catch Hillary on line.  These were some quick interactions and answers to our emails.  It takes 5-10  min to receive anything back and her time is so limited… (as most of you know).  But I thought I’d share, it shows some cute insite… (and as you see her typo’s you know she doesn’t have much time J )

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and i´m on!  but reading and writing you guys while hna toctaquiza and i enjoy a random combination of chipa (a popular cheese bread here) and caramels :)

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Dad thank you so much love you tons oh and my mish pres knows the Burtons!! i went to school with zach burton (jaren´s age)  i think his dads name is dean? They live in mesa, i thought they were in our stake maybe not.

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have so much fun in Cali! i miss you!  surf some waves for me!! sometimes i get wiffs of california here, not sure why, it is weird but i love it! and sometimes the weather is just like CA!  choa bud! I’m eatin chipa (a popular cheese bread here) and caramels as i sit here and write ya haha love hillary

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:Nate, ) xoxo enjoy cali for me!! so jealous! but not really this work is incredible and paraguay is so cool.  i am learning more and more each day!  the language is still in the running.  i understand about the same (15-20%)  but all is well.  i recognize if i am obedient i can be a better tool in the lord´s hands. :) love hillary

Week 10 Letter:                   Chipa! Chipa! Chipa!

Okay just met our new mission presidents today!  President and Hermana McMullin (I think that is how you spell it) and they are wonderful!  Pres. McMullin looks like what´s his face on… oh now i am forgetting the movie ... oh yes parent trap.  He looks like the dad. (I can never remember songs or movies down here).  

Today the sun is shining and not a cloud in sight! It is just beautiful!  The past three days have been perfect.  A nice change from the cold overcast days.  Plus, the best part is the stars come out at night. Oh the stars are absolutely one of my favorite gifts from Heavenly Father.   

This week has been wonderful!  So every week we set seven goals and if we achieve all seven goals all seven days of the week it is called siete por siete. We got siete por siete this week!  I got 75 contacts as well!  Oh we were so excited.  With each of these goals comes promised blessings.  For example, with the 7x7 we are promised more baptisms and with the 75 contacts we are promised that we´ll have someone at church every sunday! :)  Yet there is no way we could have achieved these goals on our own.  It is by and through the Lord that these goals were met.  Through prayer and submission to the promptings of the Holy Ghost.  We are teaching a little boy (whose name is Josùe) and we have him set for baptism July 13th!  Crazy right!  It is kinda hard teaching a youngster after getting used to teaching people my age and older, but so fun.  He makes the lessons entertaining. He is so anxious.  He cracks me up. Reminds me of Briggy or TJ Mortensen(cousins).  His two older brothers have both been baptized and they live with their mom who is Catholic.  She is adorable, her name is Clara and last Tuesday we made dinner at their house and shared a lesson.  It was quite the adventure.  We made an Ecuadorean dish (from Hna Toctaquiza) yet half the time we were cooking with the light from two candles and our cell phone because the power kept going out.  It always does at their house.  The dish was delicious: rice, chicken, some sauce NO IDEA what, corn, peas, onions, peppers, carrots, and some other stuff. yum. 

Speaking of food, that´s all I think about!! haha No, psych but I definitely look forward to meals here cuz we go along time sometimes before we receive any.  Yet this week was exciting... Hna Toctaquiza and I grabbed some dulce de leche ice cream on the way home one night!  holy yum.  I have some pics!  Also thought you guys would find it funny... every two hours or so you can here a car or motor bike riding around yelling ¨Chuuuuda Chuda Chuda, Chuda!¨ through their little microphone things.  Or ¨Chipa Chipa Chipa!¨  I have been practicing saying it like they do through the microphones and Hna Toctaquiza thinks I should get a job selling Chipa or Chuda.  Not sure what Chuda is but Chipa is this popular cheese bread everyone sells and makes here.   

The Spanish is still in the running.  I feel like no one understands my questions but that´s okay all is well.  I just gotta work harder and maybe make my language study more beneficial.  

Oh I wanted to tell you all about an investigator: Martha Rosa Correa Perez.  She is one diva.   She is hilarious!  We love her though!   She was a reference from the Elders in our district.  They told her about conference and she like wants to go this coming year!  haha She has 3  no maybe 4 small dogs and like who knows how many cats.  They are like her children (although she has real ones) and there is fur everywhere.  Okay but the first lesson was amazing!  She accepted baptism right away.  She was so accepting and agreed to almost everything we said.  We watched the Restoration video the other day with her, which was really powerful.  She recently came out of surgery so hasn´t been to church yet... so the baptism will be postponed a bit.  We teach her by her bed side usually and she always has her daughter make us chocolate caliente.  :)  We are excited though because we have a few others committed to baptism this month and she is one we are really praying will follow through. I can tell she is ready.   I know the Lord prepares people for us.  In fact, mañana a sweet sister in the ward is going to accompany us to our visit with Martha.  This is one thing we have been implementing in the last week or two: missionary work with the members.  It is not only helping the mission work increase, but strengthening the members as well.  I love the ward more and more every week. They are all so wonderful!

I have been teaching Hna Toctaquiza ¨Come Come Ye Saints¨ in English as we walk in the streets.  It´s a ton of fun! :)

Here´s a quote for the week.  I have been reading about Humility in this cute little book I found in our apartment (speaking of which I totally deep cleaned today and it felt amazing!):      ¨How does one get humble? To me, one must constantly be reminded of his dependence.  On whom dependent?  On the Lord.  How remind one´s self?  By real, constant, worshipful, grateful prayer.¨ What a a blessing prayer is.  What a privilege.  The Lord God all-mighty, all-powerful, all-knowing invites us to communicate with him on a daily basis and address him as one of the apostles put it, ¨As Father... and there is no appointment to be made.¨  We can pray to him anytime anywhere.  May you know how much I love you all yet most of all how much our Heavenly Father loves you.  You are all in my prayers. xoxo

Con Cariña, 

Hermana Owen

P.S.  I need some ideas for a simple yet fun ward activity that we could do this coming month with our ward. we are in charge of planning or coming up with the activity and my mind is completely blank.

P.S.S.  I was curious if any of you have a neat experience with tithing or the word of wisdom (two things I have a testimony of but no stellar experience to really make it apart of my heart) you would be willing to share??