Straight Kicked

Fam, friends, and various acquaintances, it's been a hot, rainy, yet blessed week here in Paraguay. Let's get straight into it.


Straight kicked
The people of Paraguay are some of the chillest people to walk the earth. They might be a little too chill if you know what I mean; sometimes it's tough to get them to church, but we're working on that, trustttt. Anyway, they have this drink called “tereré,” which is like a tea, and they fill this little cup with dried herbs and plants. And all day, they pour water into these cups, drink it, refill, and repeat this process all day, and everybody does it. To be honest, the first time I saw one of these, I was slightly concerned because I thought it was a little bong or some other smoking device. And I kept seeing them in every house, and I thought, these people are nottt gonna rock with the Word of Wisdom lesson. Anyway, I was very happy to find out that it is, in fact, not weed in these little metal cups but tea, so blessed was this discovery. Paraguayans have a couple of main concerns and hobbies. 1. Do everything in flip-flops 2. Absolutely bump music as loud as the speakers can go all throughout the day and night (my neighbors are crazy good at this) 3. Let off fireworks all day at the most random times (no joke, fireworks go off here at like 9 am on a Tuesday) 4. See how big a speaker they can fit in the back of their car or motorcycle. All jokes aside, as you can see, I am very blessed to be living amongst such fun people.


Chess
So Elder Radcliffe has a little chess board. And when we get back from a long day's work, we usually have a little game of chess over a little snack. Okay, I know what you're thinking, Elder Pickett, chess? The mission has already turned you weird. The answer is no, I'm not weird yet; chess is a gentleman's game, and it's the only thing we have to do besides read scriptures. Anyway, so I just learned how to play chess for the first time this past week, and Elder Radcliffe's pretty good. The first couple of games we played, I was getting smokeddd. But now, it's more even, and the other night, the stars aligned, and I even caught a dub; it was insane. Out here achieving wizard status in chess.

The obra
The first week here was a toughy, not gonna lie. The work here in Oviedo is hard. It's almost always over 100 degrees and humid, and when the sun's not blasting, it's dumping rain. This area has been referred to as dead because people aren't interested or they're Catholic. Eighty-something percent of Paraguay is Catholic, and this area is full of devout Catholics, so they freak out when we bring out the BOM. However, got 17 weeks left here, and every day I adjust a little more to the heat, a little more to the people, and find a little more success. We are going to revive this area in time, trust.


Spiritual:
I've been thinking a lot about the subject of faith. Before, I simply thought of the word believe or trust in something not seen. But it is deeper than this; faith is a way to activate power, a power that is comparable to nothing else. This power directly comes from God and the heavens, and through this power, we can virtually do anything, ACCORDING to our faith. So if you needed to literally make a mountain do a backflip for some righteous/justifiable reason that aligns with God's will, then you can (let me know how that goes for those of you that try it). It's all up to you and your faith. Love this verse in 1 Nephi 7:12 “Yea, and how is it that ye have forgotten that the Lord is able to do all things according to his will, for the children of men, if it so be that they exercise faith in him? Wherefore, let us be faithful to him.” So ponder that, keep building that faith. It is how we draw power from Heaven.


Anyway, that's all for this week, folks


Hit me with an email; I love them

Google Photos is going brazy, so take a peek: https://photos.app.goo.gl/6pnXadUF4PCYgUtV7


Get after it this week; love you all


Elder Pickett















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