Be Still My Soul

So the rest of the story to Hillary's first picture below, of the lovely tiger eating Bambi is...

                                She went to the Batanical Garden and they have these stuffed animals.  Lovely huh

Isn't She Lovely

Hola!
It´s overcast again! Halelujah because this week was hot!  Noooo!  I really don´t want it to get hot.  One of our investigators (Niko- 15)  said that winter is over and it is only going to get hotter from here on out.  Yikes! Although the rain cools it down a bit.  I am sending some photos this week! 

This week was so fun!  First off, Wednesday was jam packed and we were running 2 hours late for lunch which was at a members house in the outskirts of our area (He lives in a shack like wooden house with literally only the necesities) His name is Hno Arcenio.  The sweetest and jolliest old man.   He served us like the biggest thing of meat, a loaf of bread the size of my forearm, and a WHOLE plate of white rice... Hna Toctaquiza and I had planned to eat in 10 minutes and run.  Ya not happening... so Hna Toctaquiza had an upset stomach and literally couldn't  put half her serving down.  She looked at me expecting me to do something... ¨No no you seriously want me to eat yours too???¨ She nodded in reply.  haha uh ya no sorry there´s no way.  Well Hno Acenio was watching a soccer game on his little television while we were eating.  I had an idea... I found a bag in my backpack and while he wasn´t looking Hna Toctaquiza (it is pronounced Toe-k-tah-key-zah) gave me the go and I threw a whole handful of meet into the bag and the rest of the loaf in my back pack.  I was chewing a peace of meat in the moment... Hna T. and I couldn´t hold it in, we just bursted out in laughter but then I started choking.  Hno Arcenio turned around with a huge smile on his bony skinny little face, ¨¿Que paso?¨haha  uhhhh I tried to explain I took a ¨really big bite¨ and I was choking.  We finished and left asap with a bag of meat a half a loaf of bread in my backpack... I think he was amazed at how fast we put it all down.  haha it was hilarious.  

Speaking of eating a lot... Friday at a ward activity (we brought investigators!! score!)  I had 3 Mbeyus (pronounced: M-bay-you) Mbeyu is a popular Paraguayan food... it is my favorite (when it´s cooked well and served hot)!! It´s like a corn/flour pancake not sure exactly.  It is amazing though. 

Also this week I realized the importance of following the promptings of the Holy Ghost, as well as the power of prayer.  We had a lesson the other day with this young man Nicholas (hna Tocatquiza had felt a little unsure about entering the gate a talking with him but I thought she was joking and then not thinking much of it we did.  Nothing bad happened so don´t freak out. He just said he is ¨Agnostic¨.  He doesn´t deny there is a God but he says he is happy without one.  He laughed at my testimony as I started to bear it.  I have never felt so rejected.  The spirit literally left the second he started laughing,  you could feel it... I have never felt such a contrast.  I tried teaching him about the plan but he just wore this ¨sincere¨ yet empty cold smile on his face.  My heart ached for him,  to know the truth and for the fact that he didn´t have faith in his Heavenly Father.  Hna Toctaquiza started bearing her testimony and started to cry (cuz of the spirit) but then he places his hand on her head, she shook it off, but it was the most bizarred lesson we have ever had.  We prayed and left asap and Hna T. suggested we stop and say a prayer.  That´s when I lost it.  Not sure why, I think the situation just weirded me out and I have never met someone like that.  The fact that their was no faith in his heart and no desire to return to his Heavenly Father.  Hna Toctaquiza and I had a little heart to heart (I love her) and she asked me to offer the prayer.  The spirit was so comforting.  I finished the prayer, looked up at the stars and recieved an overwhelming feeling of peace.  The words ¨be still my soul¨ were played over in my head.  I am so grateful to know I have a Heavenly Father who loves me.  He lives as does our elder brother Jesus Christ.  We are children of God.  What a blessing to know.  Here is a quote I love from Pres. Hinckley about prayer, ¨Missionaries should get on their knees and plead with the Lord... if they will do this, a new light will come into their lives... they will come to know in a very real sense, they are servants of the Lord, speaking in his behalf.¨   Also another that mom sent me on a magnet: ¨May the sun bring you new energy by day, May the Moon softly restore you by night, May the rain wash away your worries, May the breeze blow new strength into your being, May you walk gently through the world and know its beauty all the days of your life.¨ -Apache Blessing

Con Cariña,

Hna Owen

                                                                          Companions ~ Hermana Owen and Herman Toctaquiza

Nigel's Baptism

Nate, Nick and Bambi

The brother's got letters so we'll share those.  We sure miss Hillary.  She's so cute with her brothers and they look up to her so much...

NICKI!!! Shut up the ¨brain storm¨ store is back!?!  Hey I have been meaning to ask you how is passing the sacrament?  You hold a special special gift buddy... that is the Authority of God.  Always remember it is the power to act in the name of your Savior Jesus Christ.  Every Sunday you pass the sacrament, you are standing as a witness of Him.  Remember Him this week :)  Glad to hear Cali was fun and that the weather is cooling down.  Give nate a kiss and hug for me and tell him happy late birthday for me :) love you so much bud!! xoxo love Hillary

NATE!!!! DOOOOOGGG!!!SUp man seriously stop you´re growing up so much!  You´re starting to look like a young flippin man instead of a little boy!! what the what the what the!! Well... HAPPY 15th!!! I sang you Happy Birthday yesterday morning just for your information and celebrated by eating some birthday cake... it was Nigel´s birthday and baptism yesterday (a cute little boy in our ward- his mom is the one that reminds me of Tiff Burbige)  Awh bud I love you so flippin much!!  How is faith in God ?  isn't that what the young Men work on??     SHUT UP!! We got Nate´s big red suburban!!! ahhhhhh YES! Please keep it until i get home!!! What no no your drove it!??   Love you bud!  thank you for your words of wisdom and encouragement xoxo

Love Hillary

Besides the boys emails, this picture below was all we got this week :(   There was no caption.  We don't know what this is about. We think it's hilarious.  We are just laughing that this is all we got this week.  Hahahaha.  There was a note about pictures, but this is the only one that came thru.  Poor Bambi.   So, stay tuned until next week when we'll share "the rest of the story" !!!

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 )

1.

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 :)

2.

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.

3.

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

4.

: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??  

Freezing and Well Fed

It is freezing here!!  Well this past week we had a couple freezing days!!  I literally had 6 layers (shirts) on.  Plus rain on top of that, on and off.  The weird things is that it just like ¨mists¨ all day long. Sometimes it is like soft rain but tons!! Its bizarre.  No bugs so far.  I am praying i don´t find any but I am pretty sure we have a mouse in our apartment.  Our apartment is freezing when it is freezing outside and hot when it is hot outside.  Last night Hna(hermana, which is sister in spanish) Toctaquiza and I slid our beds close together and put the heater in between (I slept in my thermals, sweatshirts, pj pants, two pairs of socks, and three blankets.  haha but I finally got some sleep! We have been exhausted cuz we freeze every night and can´t sleep.  Last night was fabulous though!  So we have a heater we use when we study.  We turn it on down by our feet... it is wonderful.  My favorite part about our study is that we have little french doors/patio (it´s all off of our front room)  that lets in a ton of light (on sunny days) and you can see trees and tops of houses.   Our apartment has a kitchen, two bathrooms, study/living room, bedroom, and room with closets for clothes.  It´s pretty nice.

This week has been absolutely amazing!!  We found a new investigator (Aida and her son Matias)  They are amazing!  We taught her the first lesson and gave her the Book of Mormon.  We went back the next day to find she had already started reading it and said she felt such peace as she read it.  Ahhhh yay!  We taught her about the Holy Ghost and the Plan of Salvation.  She wasn´t able to attend church (it is so hard to get people to attend down here)  but she and her son said they would prepare to be baptized on July 13!!! What!?  No I am serious!! I have never been happier!! Oh my life it is the greatest thing in the world to see the gospel take effect in one´s life.  Oh I am falling in love with the mission.  This week the Lord helped me focus and I didn´t miss my family like at all.  I wasn´t distracted with thoughts from home or anything.  Oh, life is wonderful.  The ward (area of members that total anywhere from 100 to 200 members) is just fabulous. They feed us TONS!  I am eating a lot.  I am going to come home twice the size I was haha, nah but I eat a lot.  I am hoping to walk it all off.  We walk everywhere.  

Which reminds me, I wanted to say thank you thank you thank you for the shoes, the gloves (megan and nana), the rain coat, and everything that I came prepared with.  My feet could never be happier.  The streets are rough: literally dirt and rocks the size of your fists just spread everywhere.  It's especially bumpy when riding the bus.  Anyway the ward... I love the members.  One family we eat dinner with every Sunday... the mom reminds me of Tiff Burbidge.  Hno Pablo (her brother) drove us around the other day (we were in the bed of his truck).  I was so thankful cuz it was the FREEZING cold day and I couldn´t feel my feet or face anymore.  He came and picked us up to accompany us to our visits with invesitgators.  He also brought us this meat on a stick (azadito- which was so flippin chewy i was working one peace of meat for like 3 minutes!) with mandioca (a root like potato).  Then some members gave us these hot corn pancake fried things called Mbeyu which warmed our tummies as we drove around in the cold.  After not much success with investigators (not one was home and it was freezing) Hno Pablo treated us to Lomito Arave (burrito type things).  They are delicious.  They don´t have much sauce or salsa down here.  Mainly mayonaise and/or coleslaw.  But the Lomito Arave burritos were amazing!  I was definitely stuffed by the end of the night. haha  

Oh  the past few days have been extremely wonderful.  Hna Toctaquize and I are growing in our companionship.  I am learning how important communication is, especially when you both speak a different lanuguage. She is helping me a ton with the language because all we speak is Spanish.  I feel I am comprehending about 15-20% which is exceedingly better than a week or two ago. Ward members say I am doing exceedingly well, having only been here for 20 days which makes me happy :)  Also Hna Toctaquiza says she sees me improving every day despite the fact that those we teach never seem to understand me (which can be frustrating).  The past few days I have had a special prayer (speaking of prayer mom ;)) in mind for each day.  First was happiness, then faith, then strength, and today gratitude.  As I have focused on one thing a day I realize it is possible.  I can do this.  I am loving the work and the Lord is helping me see the joy in this work.  Here is an incredible quote our district leader shared with us this week:  ¨I cannot promise you fun. I cannot promise you peace and comfort. I cannot promise you freedom from discouragement from fear, from downright misery at times.  But I can promise you that you will grow as you have never grown in a similar period during your entire lives.  I can promise you a happiness that will be unique and wonderful and lasting.  I can promise you that you will reevaluate your lives, that you will live closer to the Lord, that prayer will become a real and wonderful experience, that you will walk with faith in the outcome of the good things you do.¨ -Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley

I know without a doubt that as we give ourselves to the Lord we find Him and he WILL make us a new self image.  Our countance will relfect the light of Christ.  May we all remember our Savior this week and what he has done for us so that we might be more willing to give our lives to him as he so willingly did for us.  Love you all so much. I apologize this letter is so long and I feel like I didn´t even get to tell ya´ll everything I wanted.  Esta bien!  Choa Choa!

xoxo

Hna Owen

-- 

"We become what we want to be, by consistently being what we want to become."

                   -Richard G. Scott

"Oh my life"... and Live

Oh my life I don´t know where time has gone!  It seems like I was just hugging you all goodbye.  I am just loving it here in Paraguay and learning to adjust to the life of a missionary.  This week was awesome. I got 80 contacts (same as my comp) and my district leader was really impressed! yay!  By the way my district leader is Elder Hatch who is from LA, California (he is in Mary Ellen´s home ward!)(she is one of Hills new best friends from BYU and serving in Korea) what the small world right!?  Any way we have reached a ton of goals, I witnessed my first baptism and my companion and I had the greatest experience.   

We weren’t talking at first... she would kinda ignore me, she always seemed frustrated, and I didn´t know what to do.   So everyday I would pray. On Tuesday we had a fast for an investigator and that night she literally broke down apologizing and opening up to me.  It was the sweetest thing.   She has just been super overwhelmed, as was I, cuz she has only been on her mission for 3 months!  So we´re both newbies in a sense.  We now laugh together, and learn from one another, and our friendship is growing.  She is adorable! 

We live in an apartment (just us two) in Loma Pyta, about 15 minutes or so (by bus) from the Asuncion temple.  We ride the bus if we need to travel somewhere like the temple or mission home or other areas in our district.  It is so fun!  The buses are crazy!!  They are bumpy and jam packed with people.  It is a great place to contact haha.  It costs 2 mil which is equivalent to 50 cents.  Loma is close to Mburucuya (where I did an exchange the other day with Hna Wood from West Valley, Utah).  Mburucuya is a nicer neighborhood.  Here in Loma there is one busy street that separates two LARGE neighborhoods. We hardly walk/cover 1/8^th of a neighborhood in a day.  There are so many houses (little and hidden)  The people have close to nothing. The members here are mainly inactive but are always happy and loving.  We clap (don´t knock).  Everyone says Adios here. It is a phrase you say if you are just passing by.  Otherwise you say hola, como esta like usual. :)  

My district is super fun. We love playing jokes on each other. There are,I think, 4 elder companions and hna Tocataquiza and I :) Get this: in January there were only 14 sistsers... there are now over 40!! Crazy right!  Some of our investigators: Abel (15) who has the greatest testimony, but his mom won´t allow him to be baptized (we were so sad cuz he was set to be baptized this coming saturday).  He is the one we fasted for.  We have a lot of old woman and teenagers as our investigators and as our contacts I feel like. They are all wonderful but it is hard to get them to follow through with commitments.  We pray fervently and have faith in the Lord. 

We eat at different members houses everyday. It switches back and forth every week.  Yesterday we had two meals in a row!! Ya talk about food baby!  We had Chorizo de viena (kinda like a brotworst) and ensalada de tomatas y papas (potato salad).  The weather has cooled up a bit the past few days. On Friday I had an exchange and it went right down to pouring!  All day long!  It makes it hard to hear (at least in the houses in Loma cuz their roofs are tin/wood/old) and hard to teach but it´s more fun!  We walked and worked hard in the rain. I was soaked except for under my rain coat yay!  but freezing!!  We took hot showers and made some hot cocoa when we got home. Mom my bed is fabulous. Climing into bed is so rewarding after a long day of tracting and walking miles and miles.  Oh and when it rains, some of the streets completely turn into rivers!  

Catholics, Catholics, Catholics if you aren´t a member you can bet your bottom dollar they are Catholic.  The houses here in Loma are small compared to places like Mburucuya (more city). They have tile floors, a sink, some just a bed (usually a queen they share) and a fridge.   Clothes hang to dry on lines. No one is afraid of germs here and a little dirt... this is going to be good for me haha. Everyone wears flip flops... I though the dirt has bugs that turn ur feet black!? haha  I think they are immune.  Oh and you know how in Jungle Book the ladies carries baskets on their heads! People do that here selling bread!  It´s so cool!  

This week has been a fabulous one.  I wish I could tell you everything!!!  I wanted to share a quote from this incredible talk I am reading (the 4th Missionary by Lawrence E. Corbridge).  ¨There are two ways of evolving: deliberately and accidentally.  You can decide who you want to become and deliberately work toward that end, or you can just go with the flow and become whatever life makes of you. In that event, you will become whatever the fickle circumstances and forces of life and society will make of you; whatever is currently considered to be popular or in; whatever is easiest. But, whatever you become accidentally it will not be nearly the full measure of our potential. You will become just someone, somewhere in the middle.¨  Who do you want to become?  I have recognized that I must completely forget myself, wants, desires, etc.  and go to work with full purpose of heart.  Do what the Lord asks no ifs ands or buts.   Give him my all, my everything, my whole heart.  I love you all!!! 

Con Cariña,

Hermana Owen

 These two Elders are friends with Hillary's cousin Jake from SLC.  (Hilly says Catie Porter knows the one on the left, pretty well... :)

Hillary with her comp, Center is an Elder who is Traasdahl's cousin  and Elder on left is good friends with our friends the Simkins, who's daughter, Macquel, is one of Hilly's best friends and she is serving in New Zeland, Aukland, from Farmington, NM.

Last photo with her companions at the el CCM in Buenos Aires.  And Elder Aguaro. (Steve' mission Pres from 27 years ago).  

 Hillary and Elder Bredsguard.  He is from our ward, but Hillary had never met him.  He was in Asuncion when the new missionaries arrived, for duty.  He is the new AP.  At a local church, getting settled in.

                    The streets of Paraguay.  It is true.  Red, muddy, wet, green.  Happy Hillary.

It’s a Whole New World

Week 7 

FAMILIA y AMIGOS!

where to begin where to begin?

Well we finished off great in el CCM... our last day with proselitismo we got to go into to some ones house and teach them! It was incredible. It was this cute lady named Argentina and the spirit was so strong.  She agreed with everything we taught her and agreed to come to church with her little boy.  One of the best parts was the end of the lesson.  We prayed on our knees with her and she held my hand and completely bawled as we prayed.  What a blessing it was to see the spirit touch her heart. 

Now onto Paraguay! :) Man alive it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster these past few days. SO MUCH has happened. The first couple days here were grand! We had huge meals, even got to eat out at a restaurant. The mission presidents treated us to a treat at the end:  A bowl of fruit with gelato on top. Delicious. The presidents had a sweet surprise for us... we had a testimony meeting on top of the church mtg house next to the temple.  Our view was Captain Moroni... not bad for a first day in Paraguay eh.  (oh and i bore my testimony in Spanish) :) We slept at some of the hermana´s apartments the first night here and got our companions the next day! 

My companion´s name is Hermana Toctaquiza from Ecuador.  She is adorable! It has been fun getting to know her and she helps me with my Spanish although I think it´s beginning to get frustrating for her. I feel so bad!  But I am praying for our companionship and I fasted for our companionship. I know the Lord will provide :)  She has four siblings and is the second I believe to serve a mission.  Her sister served in Uruguay two years ago.

Paraguay is great!  It is really similar to Argentina but a little more relaxed. Argentina is gated up EVERYWHERE! Here (at least from what I have seem and in my area) there aren´t as many gates and there are more people in the streets. I just list a few fun facts:

-people are always slapping themselves (at first it made me jump haha i had no idea what was going on)... it´s the mosquitoes.

-there´s always music blasting from cars driving around to houses on the street.  They love their music (and play it for all to hear)

-The people are very sweet and say yes to almost everything we ask, although they have a hard time following through

-It is humid and my hair is even curlier!

-temperatures are in the 80s-90s most days

-It has only rained once (last night) and the thunder is psycho loud!

-I pretty much eat breakfast, LUNCH, and small snack when we return from proselyteing.

-food: lots of rice, white bread, pasta, and meat!  My favorite was last night at our family night with some members of the ward... after the message everyone had tea like drink with these pretzel like snacks.  Although, missionaries aren´t aloud to drink the tea, mata, or coca cola so they made us some chocolate milk... tradition is to crunch the pretzel things in your hand and put it in your mug and let them soak in your drink.  I was really good! (even though it sounds kinda gross)

-I´m pretty sure we have a mouse in our apartment. We bought poison though... I think we´ll be okay :)

-The dirt it´s everywhere!  On the people, the floors, everything!  and most of the time it is red.

-the ward is small but just wonderful.  Although it was all in Spanish the spirit was so strong. I got to bear my testimony and went right down to bawlin! 

-the language... yup just like everyone said you wonder what in the world they taught you in the mtc!  nah it´s not that bad and I am learning but I understand maybe 10% of what my companion or anyone says.  pray for me!

I got all the dear ELDERS YAY! and oh my life Catie porter got her call!  started bawling when I saw that! how exciting! 

I will write more next week! Love you all so much! xoxo

Con Cariña,

Hna Owen 

p.s. - I am adding below an excerpt from an Elder who is in Paraguay and is good friends with Hillary's dear friend and college room mate (Lindsay Heap) His letter goes to the Heap family so they shared it with me... He mentioned Hermana Owen so thought you'd enjoy thier interaction when they met...

Elder Wing:  “Oh by the way at the training meeting last Wednesday, all the newbies were there obviously. And I got to meet a friend of the Heaps, Sister Hillary Owen. She seems like a very funny girl. She stopped me in the hall and asked if she knew me, I recognized her name from a earlier letter from the Heaps. So I asked if she knew Lindsey. She then yelled out ARE YOU STEPHEN! It was pretty funny I haven’t heard my first name shouted that loud since I left for the mission. 

Paraguay, Here I come !!!

Sent  June 3rd 11:30 (3:30pm her time):

     Hey this is just a quick hello and letting you know I will be leaving the CCM tomorrow (tuesday) morning at 4 am.  Our flight leaves at 6:45 am (that would be what like 2:45 am ur time).  So be watchin ur phones from midnight until 2:45 am or at least have them on loud.  I will call yours mom. :) I might have some time to call but if not i will try to find time when we land.  I´m sure it´s a quick 1-2 hour flight.  only guessing though.  So I hope everything works out with callin ya´ll but not sure if it will. Love you all!!! xoxo

Hna Hilly Owen

  p.s.  SO STOKED FOR THE FIELD I am just excited! I know it will be hard but I am happy where I am with the language and am excited to meet my new comp. lots of love!
More miracle stories to come this next week! :) paz out! p.s. never got nick´s letter

So we're up until 2:00am waiting for the call, phone on the loudest ringer in case we fell asleep.  NO CALL... :( 

The typical miracle story would be that the phone would ring right when I was praying, but I had a different lesson to learn...

During my prayers at 2:00am, crying because I wanted that call to come so bad, a peace came over me, and i knew she was safe and i knew the Lord was with her.  The tears literally stopped that fast and I knew she was ok and busy doing the Lords work (literally on the plane) , she is in His hands and i was comforted knowing He is there by her side.

Sent June 4th 7:45 am (11:45am her time)

Hey ya´ll I made! Hey so sorry I didn´t get to call! the payphones... well we couldn´t really figure them out.  I am safe, fed, and super excited to be here in Paraguay.  It is so green!! On the flight over I had the opportunity to share my testimony and get a reference (a man and his family and a cute old lady)!! Let the work begin right :)  The best is that they listen to and play all of Katie´s and my church music! It is so comforting and we are being trained today in a church building which makes me feel so at home. We haven´t met our comps yet but I am anxious to.  Much love.  I will talk to you later :)  We don´t have much time to write. xoxo

con cariña,

Hna Hillary Owen