Sunday, January 3, 2016

MASSIVE Holiday in Paraguay

hola familia!

this week has been a really good one! but a really hot one as well... we are for sure in summer down here. It's going to be pretty weird again to have a Christmas during the middle of summer haha. I hope you all can feel the Christmas spirit this year, this time of the year is really one of my favs. Paraguay is a little special in this time of year, it's A LOT different from the normal Christmas that i've always had haha. 

I don't know if you guys still remember last year in december when i was still in my training in Itaugua at this time of the year and i talked a little bit about the 8th of December.... So this week we passed the 8th and here in Paraguay its a MASSIVE holiday. its the day of the virgin of Cacupeé. So in Paraguay the majority of the people are super super super catholic and they worship the Virgin Mary down here. So every 8th of December all the catholics walk from wherever they are to the city Cacupeé to worship the virgin mary. And man it's super crazy, people leave like 2 weeks in advance to walk from Concepcion, and all those cities super far away just to come to Cacupeé. Our investigator Laura used to be Catholic and she had gone several times to do the walk to Cacupeé and i asked her a little about it and she told me that they recite prayers to the virgin mary so she can bless them with miracles and every 8th of december the people that received their miracle walk to Cacupeé to thank the virgin for blessing them. It was a pretty crazy day. And for sure in almost every single house they light off fireworks and have massive shrines of the Virgin to worship her. All of this probably sounds a little bit weird but man if you guys were here, i felt so weirded out and awkward that day walking by tons of houses with tons of people in groups chanting(reciting) prayers all together to a big statue of the virgin mary. The culture here definitely is not the same as the states that's for sure. oh and while we were eating lunch at the house there was one of these Virgin mary worship things going on and i took a couple pictures from our window so you guys can see haha. 

And as for new things going on..... I have transfers tomorrow! so we'll see what happens and where God wants me to serve here in Paraguay. i have 6 months here in San lorenzo and 4 1/2 months with the same comp so i feel like a change is coming but we'll see what happens! Anyway i hope you guys are doing great and getting ready for Christmas which is coming really soon! I gave another talk this sunday about the spirit of Christmas and the real meaning of it, that it's really a time to serve others and be grateful for the many blessings that our loving father in heaven has blessed us with and remembering the birth of the savior. So make this Christmas a good one and get out and serve someone who needs it. Love you guys tons!

Elder Nyberg

Catholic holiday. 


cheezzzzzz :) in front of the catholic church in my area...... for real its like as big as the temple haha

poor shoes..... they had a good life...... good thing i have more:p

No comments:

Post a Comment