The Coolest of Activities

(From November 18th)

I don't have a lot to write about this week, except for what we did today! Today was a day to be remembered for all eternity because of this:

 

And also this!

 

That's right! We went biking through the Botanical Gardens of Asunciòn Paraguay! It was really cool.

 

So, the first part, as you can see, was mostly this cool area that had really dense groupings of bamboo plants all together along the trail. After that, we found this:

That's right, someone had built up little dirt mounds and stuff for mountain bikers to go over. I caught some pretty good air too. Pictured there is Elder Sorenson, who is actually serving in the like 3rd or 4th chuchiest area in the mission, the only area that contains the temple of Paraguay.

Anyways, we went up the trail a little further, but we were surrounded by so many cool trees, and I am a huge dork who had loved climbing since before the womb, so.....

 

My trainer says I look like a koala in that shot.... But physical excercise is really paying off. ;)

Anyways, it was really cool for a while, and an Elder from Chile (Elder Jimenez) and I took the lead for a our first loop, which ended with a long downhill slope that had lots of trenches. I've never actually done mountainbiking before, but you adjust quickly to the realization that if you don't yank up on your front handlebars, you will go on a headfirst collision with the ground as soon as your front tires collide with the trench wall. Funny story, this can also happen if you push too hard on the front wheel brake when going to fast, as our good friend Elder Huancollo (Peruano) learned:

Here's the photo of Elder Huancollo's epic fail:

 

It was actually quite scary because he had just barely gotten his cast off the week before... He's fine, but it was really funny to see someone literally go 90 degrees for a second, until the bike just goes back to where it was and the person flips the other 90.

Well, to finish off, we actually biked into the jungle. I kid you not. Jungle. A path was carved through it, but it was absolutely awesome. I was way happy. 

 

Yeah, that Elder in the red is Elder Beus from Farmington Utah. He's actually a really cool person and he's come to be a friend. I came on a special change (changes are periods of six weeks into which the mission is divided), meaning that I just entered two weeks after the change had already started. What does this mean though? Well, everyone else in my group was American and didn't speak spanish already, except for one Elder, and so they all came here the change after I did, and they have a lot more unity and friendship than I ever could have just because they were in the MTC together so much longer. Elder Beus got here one change earlier than my group, which means he had already been in Paraguay two weeks by the time I arrived, and he and I have just grown up here together at pretty much the same stages. He's just an awesome guy.

This week was crazy though. I lied about not having anything to say about it. We did lots of service actually, for example, setting up the Branch President's brand new computer and printer, and this thing:

 

That's right. The member there is a recent convert named Marcelino Benitez. We literlly made that concrete from scratch and were building a floor for the new room he added onto his house. It was fun, odd work. Interesting though.

Along with that, we received a visit from D. Todd Christofferson! He was amazing. He actually had every single missionary come up so he could greet them individually, and it was amazing. The spirit was so strong. He really stressed the use of the book of Mormon in our teaching, and made us some pretty cool promises. I was floored. His Spirit is so powerful, and the biggest thing that I'll always remember is that he looked right out to all of us and with power and great authority told us all personally (literally, he switched from the ustedes pronoun to the tù pronoun) that we were worthy and our offering is accepted. I'd been having doubts of whether or not I'd been working hard enough, was obedient enough, or even good at all, but all of that stopped when the Spirit carried his words directly into my heart. It was something very special.

Well, that'll be all for this week. Do stay tuned and keep doing what's right! I'll start including some spiritual thought in these one of these days....