Huddle up close kids! I got some stuff to tell you all about.
So, I don't have a lot of stuff going on this week, but I thought I'd tell you all about the Branch, the Zeballos Cué Branch (mine). It's really old, and has 1400 members on record. We usually get 73 people in church every Sunday. Honestly, if even half of these people were active church members, we would have at least two branches (possibly three) and probably another church building. This means that there is a lot of work to be done with Less Active and Inactive members.
BUT, there are all of these crazy issues. Within the leadership, not a lot gets done and we're really struggling to get member support, even in spite of the leadership actually wanting to improve things. Within the congregation, there are a lot of cultural problems and difficulties with understanding doctrine. Some members still have their little shrines from back when they were catholic (yes, they build full-on shrines to different saints to whom they give worship. One saint is actually the Baby Jesus, to whom you pray and give worship differently from the adult Jesus). Many members think my companion and I are haso (hah-SO Guarani word meaning someone overly strict and just kind of a kill joy) because we won't play sports with them or drink Tereré (a cold drink drunk in Guampas with Bombas that mixes Yerba Mate with a lot of other things like Mint and Lemon), both of which other missionaries have done over the past five years, both of which are extremely against the rules and always have been in the Paraguay Asunción North Mission (which has existed for a lot longer than five years).
But this lack of doctrinal understanding means that, to a pretty big extent, our church just kind of turns into Catholicism. People don't understand that it's actually a commandment from Jesus Christ personally to go to church and partake of the sacrament (3 Ne. 18), they don't know about doing missionary work, they don't know modesty rules, temple work, temple worthiness, or even a lot of basic doctrines (like the Plan of Salvation). This means that pretty much anyone at any time can just go inactive for really poor reasons, because they don't see the importance of church participation.
This might sound like complaining; it's not. I'm explaining why there are so many less active members, and why so few people have gone through the temple. But that's what we're working in right now. Can you guys imagine it? Church every week is a battle, and we meet new less active members every single day, all of whom we invite to church, with whom we share spiritual experiences, and even so nothing comes of it. It means we've been learning to work in new and different ways, and it means that we do just as much of that as we do actual work with investigators.
In order to really bring people back into the gospel, however, we need a place to bring them back into. That means we need a Branch that is active, where people have callings, there are home teaching assignments, information gets entered into the computer and recorded, and this is where I draw epic ties to the Lord of the Rings. We are now trying to focus on reinforcing this ward. Making it something that can sustain growth, rather than being crippled and broken by it. And even though there is so much trial, I believe we are finding success. Our church attendance has been over 110 for the past two weeks, we have new callings extended, and the Branch actually looks like it's growing well.
So, to conclude, the work goes on here. I just thought I'd give everyone a small ideological glimpse into my little corner of things here. I hope it wasn't bad... I mean, things aren't bad here. In reality, it's amazing. I get to learn how to make a Branch function and grow, I get the opportunity to grow in love and understanding of other people, and it's in a really awesome place too with good people.
Speaking of people! I think there's room in the day for a spouting off of quirks and fun bits of information!
-The people here fully believe that if you consume Watermelon (called Sandia here) and milk together in somewhat large quantities, you will sí o sí die within the hour. I was privileged enough to drink lots of milk the first time I ever tried watermelon. Telling people this pretty much turns them pale and they just end up telling me I'm super lucky to be alive.
-There's fruit everywhere! The most common tree here is actually a mango tree, and the season hasn't hit yet, but kids are already walking around eating some pre-season mangos (they apparently taste different when they aren't in season).
-Piqui Vole: I think that's how you spell it (It's pronounced peeky volley). It's a Paraguayan only sport played on a Volleyball court with a full volleyball net, but you use a somewhat deflated soccer ball and you cannot use hands. I have seen some Paraguayan guys jump ridiculously high and rocket a ball over to the other side using only a chest bump. This stuff is awesome.
-Weather! The weather can be pretty crazy. The rain is fun (in my opinion). It floods things and will utterly shut other things down (school gets cancelled for just a little rain, no one goes to church, colectivos- buses -don't run). A normal day of Spring will be in the 80s and 90s, and a normal hot day in the springtime will get up around 100. My comp says that there are times in the Summer where 90 feels so good, because that's literally the coldest it will get for a week. But the weather also fluctuates quite a bit, which means a really badly rainy day could be just before a really hot day, which turns into terrible amounts of humidity. For some reason though, the more extreme the weather, the more we missionaries seem to like it. Not in the moment, but I think it makes us feel all cool and tough and manly. No one is allowed to complain about heat when your summer comes though!
