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

STELLER WEEK - A MOTHER'S INSTINCTS - AN APOSTLE OF THE LORD

Familia!! Amigos!!

 

Que tal?!  This week has been absolutely STELLAR! 

First:  I´ll begin with something amusing.  Last week we were running in the morning on Pday and the mornings here are usually foggy.  We were running on what we thought were small black leaves and didn´t pay much attention, then I swear I saw a few with atenas.  So I took a closer look and realized they were SLUGS!! Everywhere!!!

Second:  We have an appointment set up for Saturday with a cute Italian woman from Proselitismo last week. :) Yippee!

Third:  I was called this past Sunday to be the "Sister Training Coordinator"... I´m in charge of looking after all the English speaking sisters.  I love it.  I go to the District Mtgs with President Openshaw and the District leaders and I am Hermana Openshaw´s councelor in Relief Society.  So I organize and conduct :) 

Fourth:  Monday was THE best!!!! We were praying in our district when all of a sudden I hear "Hermana Owen! Hermana Owen!"  being yelled outside our window.  The prayer ended and we all bolted to the window.  You know those moments when you jump in an ice cold pool or land on your tail bone really hard and your breath is just taken right from ya?  haha the second I saw who was standing outside, my heart dropped and I literally couldn't speak.  I was taken by complete surprise and couldn´t even speak I was so happy!!  I went right down to bawlin!  ELDER JAREN SWEENEY... you´re kidding!?  Nope it was him alright :) I could see him laugh as I couldn´t even respond... I think I might have let out a scream of joy haha idk.  I ran downstairs and we got to talk for a few minutes (which was good because we didn´t get to see each other at Elder Cook´s devotional).  Oh it was the greatest.  He is so tall and skinny! haha He is just beaming with the missionary spirit and his new companion is actually one of the Latinos that was here just a week ago.  It was so good to catch up a bit.  He asked me how I was doing and just told me how much I would love everything.  He is doing fantastic.  (His mission came to the temple that day, that´s why they were here)  Apparently, seeing each other  wasn´t allowed but both our Mission Presidents wives said they would turn their heads :)... I think it´s cuz of motherly instincts. Halelujah!   (below is from Jaren Sweeney's letter that came to them on Monday- his side of the story)

This week was a great week.  We actually have the meeting with Elder Cook on wednesday  but...............   i got to see Hillary today!!!!   On friday we got a text that all of the mission was going to go to the temple today.  After the session i asked Hermana Gulbrandsen if I could go over to the CCM and see if Hillary was there. she said “ya, i will turn my head and you can go over there and see.”  Then she told me they are really strict in the CCM and that they would just send me away.  But I could try if I wanted. So, i took the risk and went over to see.  Just so happened that hillary is on the top floor and some of the kids from her district were saying stuff to us and then i found out she was actually in the room so i shouted up to her window “SISTER OWEN!!!” and she came over to the window and started crying!!... making me almost cry.  I didn't really know what to do so i told her to ask her teacher if she could come down and talk to me for a few minutes.  I went in and there was a teacher just inside the door.  I told him that my cousin was inside and i had not seen her for a year so could I go up and see her and he said “no”.  I thought a minute about what to do and then decided that “well im going to see her on Wednesday so i will just say hi from the window while she is upstairs.”  As we walked out the door my comp said “wait! she came down.”  We started talking and she told me she asked the CCM president’s wife if she could talk to me.... the wife said the same as Sister Gulbrandsen “I’ll turn my head and you can try.” haha. The moms let us talk. Haha We only talked for a minute or two and then the sister came out and said we had to go but at least i got to see her.   It was awesome!

Fifth: there are four-leaf clovers here!!! I am sending some home! :)

Sixth: Holy Rain!  Two days ago, weather reports read that we would have thunder storms, and boy did we ever!  The second it started raining the streets began flooding!  It was psycho! 

Seventh: An Apostle of the Lord... so yesterday Elder Cook came to speak to us missionaries. It was one of the neatest experiences ever! We stood up and row by row he wanted us to come up and shake his hand.  I was bawling as you probably aren´t surprised (Nate and Nick ;)  Oh but His spirit was just incredbile.   I can testify to you all that he is a wittness of our Savior Jesus Christ and he is an apostle of the Lord.  He promised us a blessing, that our missions would be not only the greatest work we do for ourselves through out our entire lives, but for all those around us... family, friends, futures spouses, children, grandchildren.   This gospel is amazing.  The banner is unfurled and we are taking this word to all the world.  Christ is coming.  We need to be prepared.  Oh I am so grateful for you all and for your examples to me.  One of my recent favorite scriptures, Katie shared with me was Mosiah 2:34, "ye are eternally indebted to your Heavenly Father, to render to him all that you have and are..."  Isn´t that a neat one. I love the scriptures; I have been striving to really ponder and study them more lately.

 

Okay so there are two Elders here that I have already found connections with!  An Elder Lacey from Farmington, New Mexico!  Totally knows Macquel!!!! And he went to BYU this past year and we have some of the same friends.  Second, Elder Morris I came to find out that he is cousins with Tyler and Parker Traasdahl!!  He totally looks like a Traasdahl!  What the small world! ...mormons :) 

 

Con Cariña,

Hermana Owen

 

Birthday shout outs to two of my best friends... Michelle and Brianne!!! Love you two!!

 

To addres some questions: I can´t look at my blog (I don´t think).  Tell Mrs.  Hetsler I say hi.  Tell Dani Neisen I love her and couldn´t be more honored that she wanted to go on a mission.  Congrats to Mish and all the graduates!  OH I saw Blake Cowan at  Elder Cook´s thing!! How neat that Katie got to read seminary names. 

 

P.S. Mom ask Clara and Brianne if I wrote them back... I can´t remember... I feel so bad.

xoxoxo LOVE YOU ALL!

Dearest Family and Friends!

         How is everyone?!  :)  Thank you so much for all the mail and emails.  Keep em comin :)  I am a little behind in responses but don´t worry I will respond, it just might take some time.  We don´t have much time here in el CCM.  Plus, considering the fact that we only have 11 more days here... NO Time.   We are using every spare minute.  Studying studying studying, praying praying praying, teaching teaching teaching, etc. :)  But I love it. 

         Highlights of my week... it´s hard to pick, but I have a few real goods ones.  First off, for the last 2 days there have only been 25 missionaries here at the CCM!  Crazy right! It was so quiet and I´m sure a night and day difference compared to Provo.  It is because we just had a group leave, and today we get more.  Speaking of today... Thursday, May 23, 2013 :)  HAPPY LAST DAY OF SCHOOL EVERYONE and HAPPY GRADUATION DAY!!!! (right?  uhhh hope i got that right haha... Michelle and Kyle; a letter is on its way for you two... to kyle´s address and I gave you graduation tips... a little to late but that´s okay :)  

         As for the second highlight... I would have to say PROSELITISMO once again. :)  We saw more miracles!!!  Right off the bat we decided to offer a prayer.  So we jumped off the bus and prayed.  Then we walked down to the pizza shop where we met a boy named Maxi last week who I tried to give a Book of Mormon to and found he was working again.  We wanted to buy a pizza and go take it to Adela´s and have lunch with her.  Well long story short Adela wasn´t home BUT I think we bought the pizza for a greater purpose.  There was a man there, getting a pizza as well, with his son.  We taught him about the purpose of families in our Heavenly Father´s plan and gave him the family proclamation to the world.  Before I could even commit him to read it with his family, he suggested he would!! :) How neat is that.  A smile beamed across my face and he said oh that would be wonderful.  Happy day and Maxi the pizza guy took the Book of Mormon.  I think it meant a lot to him that we remembered his name, plus his friend was all excited that we gave him a Book of Mormon.  We didn´t stop to talk for long so we didn´t get to know his friend, but I know we needed to be there in that moment for a reason.  One of the coolest parts of the day was when we teaching this woman (looked to be about 27 years old or so) at this bus stop.  We were teaching here about the restored gospel and our Heavenly Father´s plan for us. I had the strong in impression to tell her that every single person around us was a Child of God and that we ALL chose this plan to come to earth.  The greatest joy of proclaiming his Gospel entered into my heart and I knew the Spirit spoke to her heart.  She said she doesn´t believe in God, but after talking to us, she was really interested in learning more.  We gave her the address to the church and time, and so I pray she went.  She was such a sweet heart.

         Oh another highlight was the temple, last Thursday.  We go in the afternoon so I never got to write about it.  But that was one of the most incredible sessions.  My favorite part was sitting in the waiting room and offering a small prayer before going into the session.  As I prayed, I prayed for peace, and to feel at home.   Then I it came into my recollection that the hymn, "Where Can I Turn For Peace"  was playing on the organ (that is always played in the temple)  You know what I am talking about if you have been in the waiting room at the Mesa temple for baptisms (or any waiting room for that matter I think).   Even though the organ isn´t my favorite, I felt like I was home.  I felt the greatest sense of peace come over me.  I remembered the morning our whole family sat in the Mesa Temple before I left.  I know that families are forever and I thank my Heavenly Father in Heaven every day that I can bring that  message to those of Argentina and Paraguay. 

Lots of Love Hermana Owen 

P.S. Dad do you remember Alfajors!?!  they are a treasure to us!  Oh my heavens they are delicious!  And by the way my teacher Hermano Milerio said that the Nunez and Correa family are doing  great.  All active, and the dad of the Correa family I believe is secretary is his ward.   what a blessing :)

--

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

                   -Richard G. Scott

Then she was gone !!!

NO way k I have to go!! so stoke for Linds!! ya Mary and I email :)  She is the greatest!! Lots of love HAVE A FABULOUSSSSSS DAYS xoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxox give Nicky a kiss for me.  I will print and read your emails!!! bye!!!!!! :)

Can you believe it

Hillary with Elder/President Aguero.  President Aguero was Steve's mission President when Steve was on his mission in Argentina. Can you believe it... 25 years later he is standing with our daughter, in Argentina, as a director of the CCM and now getting to share this love for missionary work with Hillary.  This has brought some peace to Steve.  He's dying to go down there and jump in and do more work.  18 months, we'll be there.

Laughter is the best medicine

Hermana Owen and Hermana K.  Hillary is having such a great experience at the CCM