THE ROLLA HOLLA! Mon 10-20-08

Leaping Forward today, as a zone, we went to the beautiful city of Caacupe, where there is a giant cathedral of the Virgin Mary. What a beautiful place it was. I was overwhelmed, as we laughed and joked and enjoyed a free day with some of the other Elders in the zone, at the ABSOLUTE sacrifice made by these missionaries to be out here. These are all young men with GREAT potential and with excellent prospects back at home, and they chose to DEFY the secular wisdom of the world, to FLY in the face of popular consensus, and GIVE during a period of life when most people are grasping to get there fair share. I hope this doesn´t sound like I´m boasting. I, for one, am BLESSED with a loving foundation of friends and family who make it all possible. Thank you all so much! THANK YOU, to my Mother and Father, who raised me, and are now, with the help of so many others (Grandma and Bud) raising the money to support me. I´m humbled EVERY single minute of this mission by their sacrifice.Well, the time started to fly again, and here I am, another P'day later, another week older. I must have reached the stage of succesful readjustment because now I´m starting to be able to clearly think of ways to improve a situation that before seemed impossible. We are now working with triple the effectiveness, double the fun, and a much closer, more functionable companionship relationship. Things are GREAT!I promised myself I´d tell you a little more about the work this week. Our area is HUGE, and very poor. We alternate and spend one day in one half and the next in the other, working with different less active members, faithful saints, and investigators. Each morning, we´re up at 6:30 am, and I´ve resolved to let Elder Portales shower first, since when I go first he is always waiting outside the door, holding shower supplies and his towel. So, I begin the day by reading out loud in my Spanish Book of Mormon and doing a pronuncation excercise called the monkey drill, to practice vowels. Then, it´s on to vocab, reviewing from the day before, and writing new words, mostly that I picked up along the way the day previous. I study the Book of Mormon and Preach My Gospel each for 30 minutes, then we have Comp Study, then we go out!At 11 the day begins. We had a rainy week this week, but usually it is BURNING hot! 5 of 6 work days we have meals with the members. And...wow, my time is really short. In fact, I have to end now. Sometimes obedience is a sacrifice. I´ll send more next week, I promise! Sorry the above ended up being a boring synopsis.

I love you all!

Thank you SO much for all you do!

Elder McCarty

Pics:

Me outside a members house.

Me outside my apartment with a sunset.

My companion and I outside the Cathedral.My Zone, ¨the Holy Zone¨, outside the Cathdral.

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