Monday, September 12, 2011

Tony's Mailing Information

While serving in Paraguay you may send letters through the church "pouch mail". Send your letter to:

 Elder Antonio David Trevino

Paraguay Asuncion North Mission

POB 30150

Salt Lake City UT 84130-0150



Pouch mail instructions: To prevent possible fines, only postcards and letters that are single sheet, folding into three panels, and taped at the top only (no envelopes) may be sent through the pouch. Packages may not be sent through the pouch.


*You can also use DearElder.com, which Tony prefers*



Mailing packages to the mission: the following address may be used to end packages to the mission office:

Elder Antonio David Trevino

Paraguay Asuncion North Mission

Casilla de Correo 1871

Asuncion 1831

Parguay

Phone: 595 21-280-930


If you ship a package with a private courier, you will need the mission office telephone number indicated above. 

Sept 12 - Almost a month in this crazy country

On the 16th i will have been in paraguay for a month already, time is just absolutely flying by.  i found a scale and i guess i have already lost 15 or so lbs which is cool.  this week has been a little crazy.  there are two companionships here in horqueta, but this week the mission pres decided to do some special changes to get ready for the next group of missionaries.  In the next group there are going to be 32 newbies which is a lot, so a lot of new areas are being opened and there have been a lot of weird changes, and one of the elders from the other horqueta area got reassigned to Itagua.  so now we have a trio for the next 3 weeks with me Elder Lane and ELder Kilner.  Elder kilner is a pretty awesome guy, so i will need to get a picture for you guys some other time.
I cant really tell you much about my mission pres cuase i have only seen him 3 times, but he looks like a mad scientist.  This week has really been kinda boring.  Nothing really crazy but today im going to make a pullup bar in our house somehow so we will how that will go.

i have been trying some more food here from street vendors and there is some good stuff, i love the asaditos, which dad can tell you about i would think.

Story time then im going to bounce

So me, Elder Lane and Elder Kilner were out contacting to fill some time and we get to a house with a metal fence around it, we clapped out side the gate (they dont knock here) and waited for a bit.  We saw in the window two people talking, probably arguing about who was going to answer.  Then two old ladies came out, one was carrying a pot and a plate of food and came to the gate, while the other was getting on a moto(scooter/motorcycle).  The lady that came to the gate said that whe was leaving and that this was not her house, right as she walked out, the other old lady was riding the moto right out of the gate as we were trying to ask her a question. And then they just took off, one was running and the other was on a moto in opposite directions.  This all happened in the space of about 30 seconds.  Right as the lady on the moto rode out i just started laughing, and walking away, while the other two were laughing while wondering what just happened.  So far it has been one of the funniest contacts that i have had.

anyway, that all folks, see ya next week.

Sept 5 - ParaParaParaguay

Yeah so this place is sweet, this week was a super crazy week though.  Last monday night we took a bus to  Santaní which is like 5 hours away, and we slept in a chapel there.  Then on tuesday we had zone conference with Elder Arnold who is the South America South Area President.  That man is pretty powerful and the conference was great.  Then we took a bus back to Horqueta later that day and we got back around9ish or so.  Then on wednesday we found out we had to move houses so we spent a lot of the day doing contracts and paperwork and a bunch of stuff to get ready to move.  Then on thursday we spent moving nearly the entire day moving, the only member in the area who has a car helped us move, and thank goodness it was a truck too.  and then the rest of the week was just normal missionary work as usual.  The other guy we baptized is a guapo and we are helping him learn a ton, and then the One i baptized´s mom is nearly dead, she is 86 or something, so he has been worrying and been busy with her so we havent had a whole lot of time to talk with him.
Things here are pretty good,  time is going by way fast and im learning a ton.  Tell everyone that i say hi and that im doing fine.  im going to get some pictures sent finally so you can see what is going on.  and mom to answer your question about health,  what i meant by that is that the conditions down here arent exactly the greatest, as im in a nearly 3rd world country, so health is not exactly the biggest concern of mine at this point.  But to answer you question, as far as i know i am healthy.  I dont know when i get mail, it comes whenever we get sent more supplies or whenever since we are pretty far away, so there is no way for you to time the packages.  And Paraguay doesnt really have a mail system......so yeah, i dont really know whats up with that. anyway, till next time

ciao- Elder Treviño

August 29 - another week in the Paraguay

Story time.  Because im a new missionary, we have a lot of study time in the morning. So at 8 we have personal study, then we have two hours of comp study, then we have another hour of language study.  then its time for lunch.  We are lucky and have 4-5ish lunch appointments with ward members in our area, and if not we just cook lunch.  So generally we dont even start working till 1ish, then from there we just go to lessons with our investigators or just tract or just do whatever we have scheduled, then return home around 9 and then we prep for the next day and sleep time.  I have never slept so good in my life! im just drained at the end of each day and just pass out within a minute or two.  As far as our investigators go we really only have 2 progressing investigators and just a bunch of people that we need to follow up with and a bunch that we have only taught once.  We had two baptisms on saturday, with the confirmations on sunday.  I wil try to send the picture for  you guys, but dont hate me if you dont get it.  i baptised one of them and the branch president baptised the other.  but here is the sad news, later last night we went over to the guy that i baptised´s house and we were 99% sure he was pretty freaking drunk, which means that he lied to us to get baptized.  so now we just got to keep an eye on him and see what happens.  thats pretty much all the stories from this week.  Its hot again, probably close to 90 plus the humidity and its only going to get warmer.

My comps name is Elder Lane, he is from cali and has a twin brother in argentina, we get along just fine.  The food is pretty good.  its definitely not going to be a problem for me to eat stuff so i should be good.  I am living in a flat in Horqueta which is like 8 hours north of Asunción.  we have running water, and a water heater that is on our shower head, which gets the water pretty hot.  We have a laundry lady that does our clothes, so no washing machines.  Am i staying healthy? its hard to say, but i will just say yes so you dont worry.

Anyway thats pretty much it.  Tonight i get to ride a bus all night to get to a town called Santaní, which is where he are having our zone conference, so thats pretty cool.  And Guaraní is really weird and everybody speaks it.  so yeah thats it for now.  Peace- Elder Treviño

Aug 22

so my pday will always be on monday unless i get assigned to work at the office later in my mission, just so you know.

we got our luggage the next day so that wasn´t to long of a wait but i had been in the same clothes for four days at that point, so i was smelly and my facial hair was definitely not up to mission code.

The first two days we were in Asunción, and that city is crazy status.  depending on where you are in the city you get people trying to sell stuff and weaving but mainly peds do that. and now its story time, i will try to get you guys up to date.

the first night we stayed at the office elders apartment cause it serves as the night houde for transferring elders as well, and that was a pretty nice flat compared to a lot of other places here.  On wednesday we went to the only hill  in the city called lombare and tooks pics and stuff up there.  speaking of pics i will try to send some if i have enough time. then after that we went back to the mission office and met our new companions and got our assignments and areas and stuff.

my comps name is elder lane, and we are assigned to the Horqueta A area in the concepción zone.  Horqueta is 8 hours away from Asunción so we had to take a bus out here right after we had a little orientation.  that was a seriously long bus ride.  we got to horqueta around 11 at night and i unpacked then went to bed.

The next morning we had to wake up early because we then needed to do a companion exchange.  One of the investigators in horqueta needed a baptismal interview and we needed to have a zone leader come do the interview be cause my comp is also a district leader.  So we went to concepción which is an hour and a half bus ride there.  we then exchanged and i went with elder tensmeyer for the day. during the day i also split from elder tensmeyer because of baptismal interviews and went with elder johnson.  so my first day i was with three different companions, and i wasnt even in my area.  

on friday i finally had my first day in my area, and it was rainy and cold, probably about 40-50 degrees plus however humid it is, so its pretty stinking cold.  and its windy to, and it has been ever since.  on sat we found a sweet investigator, and a sweet investigator yesterday too.

In church yesteday, the branch pres had me stand up and introduce my self so that was kinda cool, but other than that thats all i got for ya.

August 16 - im hererererererererererererer

¿que pasa?  so im here and this place is totally sweet.  im jealous of myself.  im at the mission home and they are just having us email saying that we have arrived.  so yeah im here, and now i understand why the traffic is crazy, people are just walking in the street and selling stuff and its just crazy.  Remember how i said we had one of our flights cancelled? because of that our luggage didnt come too. im not worried buts its funny. like everything that could go wrong did.  our flight was cancelled, i dint sleep on the way to brazil, the airport in brazil was zombie apocalypse-like empty.  none of our seats were reserved on the flight to asunción so there were only seven that got on at first, then thae other three got lucky.  lets just say the lord was looking out for us.  anyway i need to go, till pday adios

elder trevino

August 13 - short stuff

so i got packed today and that was super weird but im pretty much done with packing, i got my carry on to ten, and one of my bags is at 48, and the other i didnt bother to check cause its going to go over.  not much else happened today, just chilled and packed up my next 22months of my life.  anyway, i dont know why i wrote most of my email yesterday in spanish and the other half in english but its whatever.  soo many people are stressing out about leaving but im just chilling.  i kinda think something is wrong with me in that regard but its all good.  anyway, talk to you monday.

August 12

no sé porque el subjeto del correo electronico es lo que es, pero.......
 
so i didnt really have pday today because we had an in field orientation, but i will have pday tomorrow.  i dont know if i will get to email tomorrow but i will see if i can.
 
I dont have any of the letters you sent me so i will try to answer the best that i can the questions that i remember and no tengo mucho tiempo, entonces este email podría ser corto, y no sé porque estoy escribiendo en español. 
 
I foundout some news about my flights.  my flight from brazil to paraguay only allows a 10lb carry on.  10 pounds.  solomente diez.  so that kinda sucks, so one of my suitcases is definitely going over.
 
Yo encontré matt griner finalmente, y rob dijo hola tambien.  Ambos estan bien y estan teniendo un tiempo bien.
 
i dont need anything else before i leave so i should be good.  If there is anything that i dont need i will send it with bro barker to you guys, but i will probably keep most of my stuff or give away the toys to others in my building or something.
 
gracias por todos, y si hay algunas cosas que aperecen, yo trato de informar uds.  adios, hasta nuestras conversación de el teléfono. 
 
élder antonio treviño

August 5

another week at the mtc, not really much to update on, same old stuff day to day.

One of my teachers is getting married so their last day was yesterday, and our other teacher is getting married too but is leaving next week.  We (our district) got our travel plans yesterday so no we official get to leave even though dad sent me the travel stuff in my email last week. I went to the dermotologist today and one of the receptionists gave us m&ms.  its really weird being outside of the mtc for that kind of stuff.

So quick update on my companion.  So he went to the neurologist on wednesday and got a prescription, then got an mri yesterday (i got to go to that too) and is talking to the doctor here at the mtc right now(im on a comp exchange so i dont know).  But basically the medicine can take 2 weeks to start to work so the docs want to keep him here.  So they extended his mtc stay by two weeks.  so he was super bummed cause we are all sick of it here and are just ready to leave.  he talked to our district president though and the district pres said that if it were up to him he would just send him with us at the normal departure date.  so it all depends on how he reacts to the new medicines he got.

Adios!
Elder Tony Trevino