Hermana Quincee Carter Paraguay Asuncion North: 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