Letters from Meredith...

3 de Mayo 2010
Hola, familia y amigos!

¿Como estan? Things are going really well here. Tomorrow marks two weeks of being in Paraguay. The first week was really slow, but this last week flew. Rowena, thank you so much for your email! It was very uplifting for me. I know you´ll figure out the best thing for you and Joseph. And you´re right--the Lord does guide us to where we need to be. I´ve felt that very strongly here. A shout-out to Emily Galloway as well--HAPPY BIRTHDAY yesterday! I hope you had a wonderful day.

This past week has been good. Hermana Valente and I are still kind of getting adjusted to each other. The culture here is very different, but I like it. I feel like my Spanish is coming along pretty well--I learn new words every day.

A little about our investigators. We weren´t able to catch Eladia, the woman who came to church with us last Sunday, at home this week, but we happened to run into her yesterday. (I don´t think it was a coincidence). She told us that she liked church last week, but wasn´t sure she could join a church different from the Catholic church her parents attended and that she was raised in. We´re going to go by and see her this week, but it was disappointing.

We have found several new families this week! Mirian is a young mother with two children and she was so incredibly open to the Plan of Salvation! We weren´t able to catch her at home for a second time, either, but we´re still hopeful for this week. Catalina is another young mother with five little children. She is so sweet! We really want to find a family to teach and baptize.

We were feeling a little discouraged as the weekend began because we were getting many follow-up appointments. We´ve been praying a lot to witness miracles, to find those who are ready to hear the gospel. We´ve been working a lot with Ana and Micaela, the two young women who were baptized not too long ago and their grandmother. We helped them get to church yesterday! And the family Chilavert (Justina and Andres) came as well! We had a family home evening at their house with some members on Thursday and made two other visits there. I wanted to cry because I was so happy when I saw them come in! And, the greatest thing was that one of the members brought a friend to church who is very interested and lives in OUR area! So great! Her name is Sonia. We have an appointment to teach her on Wednesday. We´re very hopeful for her, and I hope we´re able to prepare her for baptism. We really want to baptize someone in the next couple of weeks! I know the Lord hears and answers our prayers. Sometimes we have to exercise faith and patience, but after the trial of our faith will come the blessings. Hermana and I witnessed that very specifically yesterday. It was amazing!

This week I´ve really tried to focus on bettering myself so that I can more effectively love and serve the people here. In district meeting on Tuesday, we received copies of a talk about purifying ourselves. It was written by a stake president to his children serving missions. It talks about making goals for 40 days for purifying ourselves. I made my own list, and each day I try to improve a little bit. Each day I see glimpses of how my mission is going to bless my future life and I´m so grateful for this opportunity!

I´m including some photos. (They might actually be out of this order, but hopefully you can figure out which caption goes with which). The first is my first hour or so in Asuncion, with President Callan and Hermana Callan. The Asuncion Temple is gorgeous! The second is me eating my first empanada! The third is Hermana Valente (my trainer) and I in our apartment beside the American flag. The fourth is Hermana and I goofing off (as much as missionaries can goof off--haha). We went to eat lunch with the Alvarez family last week to celebrate Vanessa´s birthday. The fifth is Hermana, Vanessa, and me. Vanessa is 19 and often goes on splits with us. She is great! The sixth is Hermana, me, and Vanessa again with the cake that Hermana made for Vanessa´s birthday. Hermana is famous for the delicious cakes she makes! Haha. The seventh is me by a sign on the street that says, ¨Dios es Bueno,¨which means God is good. Hermana and I thought it was really funny. The eighth was taken last night. This is me, Hermana Valente, and Leila, a member in the ward. Hermana often cooks with the members, and they made a cake last night. Leila went on splits with us, and we enjoyed the chocolate cake afterwards. So fun! I´m going to try and include photos every week. The people here are great!

Thank you all for your prayers and thoughts. I love it here in Paraguay. I´m still adjusting, but the people here feel like another family. They would do anything for the missionaries. I pray for you all! Hope all is well and I would love to hear from you!

Love, Hermana Cozzens