Quincee Kills Her Mom's Cheesy Titles for Blog Posts- RIP

 **From the Mom- Quincee begged me to stop the Quincee theme in her blog post titles, so this will be the last one (tear drop, sigh..). So I begged her to do a letter even though she said it was an uneventful week. Here is what her "uneventful week" sounded like:

Hi All-

This week wasn't super eventful, but is was a good week regardless. Lots of walking, lots of fun times, and lots of cancelled appointments. 

• We had a few more lessons with Ricardo, who is doing great. He is reading the Book Of Mormon and I am so happy for him.
• Our trio survived transfers so we are staying together and staying put in Loma Pyta. So I get to be with my awesome comps a few weeks more. 
• We had exchanges with the Hermanas in San Jeorge (hor-hey).  Everyone here calls San "Hor-hey" Saint George just to make the Latinas say Saint George because it is really hard form them to pronounce. Nice to have the roles reversed on pronunciation because I am always pronouncing Spanish words wrong. 
• We had lots of appointments fall through this week and lots of appointments cancel. It's funny how before I was a missionary, down time at home or in college was awesome. I never complained about having too much down time and I always looked forward to it. But here when people cancel I get super bummed out. And when we don't have anything to do it can be seriously disheartening.  The work here is awesome, and when we are working really hard that is when I am the most happy. 
• We called every contact in our area book one day this week when we had lots of cancellations. Not one person had time to see us. So if you have missionaries serving in your area, try to invite them over to share a message or a treat or vegetable.  ( I really really miss vegetables!!)

Shout out to Robyn Copa who, based on her missionary experiences in Argentina, advised me to always carry toilet paper with me in my bag while on my mission. That advice came in clutch this week when I had to use a members bathroom, which was straight up just a bucket and no toilet paper. But I had some TP in my bag, thank goodness!!  And for all of you Nacho Libre fans, I am the real life version of a quote from that movie. Since I arrived in Paraguay on Easters......  you can figure out the quote that applies to my life now. 

I am happy and so grateful to be serving a mission in Paraguay. 

Te Amo, 

Hermana Carter

Quincee Keeps Smiling and Laughing

I'm kind of short on time this week, hence my email is a wee bit small

This week:

• We had our first in person district meeting which was AWESOME
• The weather was wack. One day it's super cold, the next I get a sunburn in .7 seconds
• Ricardo and Juan both came to church again- whoop whoop!
• There's a cat that likes to come say hi to us at our apartment every night. Not a huge fan of the cat, but for some weird reason it loves me. My comps named her Quincee.
• I'm only 5´6, maybe 5´7, but I have yet to meet a girl that's taller than me.
• Everyone asks if I play basketball.
• Lots of people also ask if I'm related to Jimmy Carter-no I am not :/
• My comps pointed out that before we wouldn't talk at night when we were falling asleep because I couldn't understand what they were saying. But now we are talking and laughing every night. That's encouraging!

After a week of working super hard and having lots of new contacts it was a bit hard to transition into this week which was kind of slow and not super eventful. I was feeling down on myself thinking what could I have done more when I received an email from a favorite Fraunt (friend+aunt) and I'd like to share what she said..

"I listened to a podcast yesterday that helped remind me that helping in any way to brighten someone's day is the Lord's work. It doesn't need to be a baptism, a lesson, or a grand act of service ... every little smile and laugh counts."

Thanks Sarah, and thank you to everyone who sends me emails. It really means a lot!

Keep smiling and laughing  

Te amo,

Hermana Carter

At the mission office

Noche de hogar with familia Romero

Asunción Norte distrito

Crinilda

Beautiful Sunrise

El Gato "Quincee"

Quincee Work Work Work Work Works

I hope all of you read the heading as if you were Rihanna, if not its okay.

Anyways quarantine is over and this week we WERKED. Tons of lessons, tons of awesome people, lots of walking, and lots of good memories.

This week we had a competition in our district to see who could find and teach the most amount of people. Luckily, I'm not the only competitive one in my trio, and we all really wanted to win. We taught so many new people, and I saw so many blessings because of our hard work and diligence. 

• I had to eat 4 rooster hearts kebab style. Could have lived my whole life without doing that.
• Ricardo is a super awesome dude that we found on Facebook. He's super smart and really loves learning more about Jesus. He came to church with us! Woohoo Ricardo!
• Juan was also a reference from Facebook and he's the best. He has found so much comfort in the gospel! He also came to church with us! Woohoo Juan!
• We bought some empanadas from this super sweet lady named Ana, and she wants to learn more about the church! She came to church with us as well! Woohoo Anna!
• There were a lot more lessons and a lot more awesome people but I will spare you more Woohoos!
• My companionship won the district competition and get to have dinner with the president of the mission as a reward!
• For my 3 month in the mish, Hermana Gills 1 year, and Hermana Sorias 19 month we celebrated with a super fancy dinner. McDonalds and McFlurries woot woot
• I love reading the English graphic tees here because for the most part they never make sense. A personal favorite is a long sleeve purple shirt with "there is some" written on it. 
• 1:50-new PR for holding my breath:)
• I was able to call my mom for mothers day! 
• Just want to re emphasize this- I love my mom! She's the best!

Thanks for the emails! Seriously means so much to me!

Te Amo

Hermana Carter

Choncho (pig) 3 ways

All smiles here

The Golden Piña (our reward for winning the competition)

Ma'ena (this is how you say cute in Guaraní)

Love the bus rides

My reward for 3 months in the mission

Quincee Goes to the Wild Wild West

Pedro Juan Caballero, what a blast!!

What a crazy start to a crazy week! After a long and slow Uber ride, we arrived at the bus terminal in Asuncion at 11pm just in time to see our bus leave :(. I had no clue what was going on- my companions were talking super fast in Spanish and running around the terminal. After a few minutes we were in a taxi chasing down the bus. After 20ish minutes of following and trying to get the bus to pull over thankfully it finally stopped. Miracle!! We were able to get on the bus and I am so grateful because this bus was deluxe with reclining seats and I slept most of the drive.  Option B would have been painful. We were safe and sound and on our way to PJC. 

We arrived around 6AM-ish and set up our bed to try and get a few more minutes of sleep. Spoiler alert- I did not get a few more minutes of sleep because the "bed" we set up, well, it was 3 thin blankets on the tile floor. Yeah it was going to be a long four nights but oh well. 

We were going to be in PJC with one companionship for the first two days (Rama 1) and then in a different part of Pedro Juan with a different companionship for the final 2 days (Rama 4). 

Pedro Juan is a city on the border of Brazil. And no its not actually in the west, but wow was crazy like a wild west town. It feels like it's lawless.  All the roads are dirt. People are riding horses and are guiding goats through the middle of the street. In Rama 1, they have a neighborhood 3 blocks north of us that we aren't allowed to go in after 5pm because they have DUALS!  Like straight up gun duals (as in Alexander Hamilton) once the sun sets. And in Rama 4, the Hermanas' next door neighbor is a huge drug dealer. Apparently PJC is super corrupt and the narcos here just pay off the police. 

Rama 1 is bordering Brazil, so all the lessons we had there were in Portuguese. We would speak to them in Spanish and then they would respond in Portuguese. Luckily my companions understand a little Portuguese. Like I said, this town is lawless, so the quarantine definitely doesn't apply here. We had 5 lessons in person the first day and 3 in person and 3 virtual the next! It was fun experiencing the Brazilin influence in Rama 1. We left Rama 1 early Thursday morning and were in Rama 4 till Saturday afternoon.

Rama 4 was awesome! It really felt like I was in the middle of nowhere! The Hermanas there were awesome as well! The first day a cold front moved in and I experienced my first bit of cold weather in Paraguay. I was very stoked about that.

All the houses are super spread out so we walked a ton! Another cool thing about Rama 4 is because its not super developed  most people stick to the original ways of Paraguay. That means they also stick to the language. All the members in Rama 4 speak Guarani.  Lots of the lessons were taught in jopara  (half spanish/half guarani). Once again having Paraguayo companions was clutch. I could go on and on about this week- it seriously was so cool but per usual here are my highlights instead:

• I bore my testimony in Guarani, and they understood it!!
• Some members made me eat a red hot chili pepper. I didn't cry so that's good.
• Yesterday was my 3 month on a mission birthday woohoo!!
• We are teaching a new person named Ricardo and he is awesome!!
• I had to give a 5 minute talk in Spanish at the baptism which I had 10 minutes to prepare for.  
• oh yeah, ABBI GOT BAPTIZED

We got back from PJC at 9ish Saturday night and the next morning Abbi got baptized!  It was especially cool for me because I have been here for all the lessons with Abbi. The baptism was one hurdle after another and almost didn't happen, but when it did it was super awesome and I'm so happy for her!

Te Amo,

Hermana Carter

Packed and ready for the ride to PJC

Our floor bed for FOUR nights!

Lots of love for PJC

Our morning workout

Abbi's baptism!

I love Abbi!

The Trio

un cerdo

In Rama 4

Well, this was fun!
(hope you liked this caption Panda)

How do you say cute in spanish???

Quincee Gets Quarantined- sorta

Hola!!

The unfortunate news arrived on Sunday night that we would be in quarantine for two weeks. Being that I'm from California and experienced quarantine I was ready to curl up in a ball and well, die. But alas, quarantine in Paraguay is not the same as California (praise). Our quarantine consists of no in person visits, limiting church attendance to 25 people, and being in our house by a curfew of 8:00pm. Quarantine definitely isn't fun, but it's not curl up in a ball awful. We are still allowed to go to the park and work out every morning. We can go to the church for our zoom calls for a change of scenery. Stores are open. Buses are running. The biggest bummer is that for the next two weeks, we can't teach people in person:( But hey, one week down, only one week to go!

Remember how I said I hope I don't have to have one of those long bus rides to Conception again. Welp, it's not a bus ride to Conception so I guess that's cool. We are leaving at 9pm tonight for Pedro Juan which is 8 hours away, 2 hours further than Conception. Consider me stoked for that!

This week wasn't too eventful but here are a few cool things

• We had a devotional with Elder Villar of the 70. 

• There was a boy who got baptized in my companion's old area. We were allowed to attend because my companion had taught his family.

• I am NOT flexible, but because I´ve been stretching every morning, I can finally touch my toes!

• Christmas miracle- no carne this week. All the members were on a chicken kick this week I guess

• My companions let me download the song Oceans onto our phone and that song is soooo good

• Somethings wrong with our water heater so we've had cold showers for three days. 

• If I ever start to fall asleep during a zoom meeting I just hold my breath. PR-1:43 woohoo

• I hit one month here in Paraguay on Sunday so that's all kinds of crazy!!

• Always a highlight-emails from super purete people

Well I'm off to Pedro Juan!! I'm sure that'll give me something to write about for next week.

Te Amo,

Hermana Carter

Pajama Party

Baptism with all the Hermanas

Bus Rides with my comps

Pretty Paraguayan clouds