Kaitlin continues to love her service in Paraguay. Her weekly e-mails elicit excitement, laughter and sometimes a few tears around here. We love that girl and miss her so much!
Here are a couple of excerpts from a recent letter:
Let's see...I'll just give a brief day-by-day review I think. Monday we climbed Cerro Lambaré (this big hill in our area...it's the tallest hill for miles, and it's not even that tall) with Antonela. She's so dang funny. She told us to bring a lot of water and to wear really comfortable shoes because it was a really arduous hike. In reality, it took us about 12 minutes to climb up (she did have to stop and rest once), and she wore flip-flops. Funny. Paraguayans have a way of exaggerating, and I just love them for it.
Saturday was another day of torrential rain. My goodness. It was ridiculous--harder than the one two weeks ago. It started raining during our studies that morning, and by the time we left the house, it was coming down hard. Thankfully I found an old bright green poncho in our apartment, and I had no shame in putting it on. I looked like a giant green monster, but I kept halfway dry, and that's all I was worried about. It was rather comical. People sure get a kick out of watching us trudge through knee-deep water on the streets.
After buying ingredients, making phone calls, and contacting a few people, we got to the chapel five minutes before conference was to begin. It was still pouring, and they were having trouble finding the signal. For a solid hour, the satellite didn't work. No one was in the chapel except about 14 missionaries a couple members, and the screen was blank. I prayed a lot inside, and I knew every other missionary was praying as well, but I kept thinking we should all pray together. I didn't really pay attention to that prompting like I should have, but after a few minutes, the zone leaders walked over to us and told us we were all going to go to another room for a minute. We all walked out of the chapel and into a sunday school room, and Elder Piriz (my old district leader...he's now my zone leader!) said both he and his companion received the impression to say a prayer all together. We all kneeled down, and an elder who's only been in Paraguay for two months offered a beautiful prayer. The Spirit was so sweet in that little room. We walked into the chapel again together, and just as we did so, Elder José Alonso of the Seventy came up onto the screen. I mean, it was the very second we walked into the chapel. It was such a tender mercy, and a very real answer to prayer. How grateful I am for Heavenly Father who loves each one of His children so much.
The "conference" Kaitlin was referring to is the General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is broadcast worldwide over television, internet, and satellite twice each year, in April and October. If you are curious about it, go to lds.org and click on October 2011 General Conference. You will find lots of motivational and uplifting messages.
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