October 10, 2009

October 10, 2009

Hello everyone. We pray you are all well and enjoying life. We continue to prepare for what we are told will be a very hot and humid summer. The weather has been quite mild here for which we are grateful. The highlight of the week for us all was the opportunity to listen to and watch General Conference. We are a far cry from the days I remember in Argentina many years ago during my mission. Back then we didn’t receive any broadcasts of conference. I did once listen to a shortwave radio broadcast on a member’s radio but the quality of the sound was poor and much of the broadcast was difficult to understand. Many of the chapels here in Paraguay are equipped with satellite dishes and video equipment so the members are able to come and listen to the sessions. Sandy and I listened to 3 general sessions on the internet here at the mission home and one session at mission offices when the internet stopped working here at the home. The Church’s broadcast site is really nice because you can choose the language you want to listen to. It is interesting to note that Elder Scott and Elder Christofferson record their own Spanish translations to be broadcast during their messages. It is fun to hear their voices speaking Spanish rather than a translator’s voice during the message. It seems very personal. I wonder if the other foreign language speaking General Authorities do the same? I imagine they do. We have quite an international Church. We received a nice note from Elder Aidukaitis yesterday thanking us for the nice mission tour. He was so helpful to us. We will remember his visit for many years to come. I called him the other day with a missionary issue and he was still in Salt Lake City after conference and we talked about the various speakers and their messages. We I mentioned Elder Holland’s message and testimony of the Book of Mormon and how powerful it was, he said he felt tingly all over just thinking about it. That was one of my favorite messages of conference.

We used that talk as a spiritual thought for the office elders the other day at a staff meeting and they really enjoyed it. We must never tire of sharing our testimony of the things we know to be true. My study of the Book of Mormon this week has been a bit more focused as a result of the great messages we heard at conference. I attended Priesthood Session at a stake center with the office elders and it was wonderful. The stake president told me that he had set up an English broadcast in the high council room for those interested but we stayed with the members in the chapel and listened in Spanish. I really enjoyed the session. After the session we helped start a member’s old truck by pushing it up the street until he could clutch start it. I am looking forward to studying more in depth the messages. Tomorrow Sandy and I are headed south to visit three more remote branches of the mission. All three are lead by missionary/branch presidents and I really want to find local branch leadership. I’ve called the missionaries and they are lining up priesthood interviews for me during the day on Sunday so hopefully I’ll feel some good impressions that can help with these decisions. One of the branches is about an hour off the main road. The branch has had a few challenges of late. The missionaries are a bit frustrated with some of the members. Gossip can be a bit of a problem from time to time in some of the branches and it usually involves a few members not supporting the leaders of the branch. I’ve asked the district president and one of my counselors to visit a number of branches in the area that are struggling a bit with this. I am confident that with time these things will run their course. On Monday well will be heading up to Ciudad del Este and along the way we will stop in three small towns where missionaries are serving. We plan a few apartment checks and more than anything, spend some time with these isolated elders and give them encouragement. On Tuesday morning bright and early we will cross the Friendship Bridge from Ciudad del Este and enter Brazil. Elder Aidukaitis wanted to take us to Brazil during our tour but we ran out of time and couldn’t. We need to get our passport stamped to activate a time-sensitive Brazilian visa that will give us access to Brazil for 5 years. We are planning to drive over to Iguazu Falls if things go well and then back to Asuncion. It should be fun trying to find everything. I’ll report next week on our adventure.

I went out teaching with the missionaries this week and met a wonderful man who is searching for the truth. He grew up Catholic but left the church and has been trying other churches. Right now he is attending an Evangelista Church but isn’t quite satisfied with it all. He’s looking for more. He is from Argentina originally and married a woman from Paraguay. He is well-read and very positive and upbeat. It was great sharing my thoughts as the elders taught him a first discussion. His name is Oswaldo and he came to our church meetings on his own. The elders invited him to come to General Conference and he came for a session and really enjoyed it. Sister Callan and I would like to have them over for dinner and some fellowshipping. Thursday at lunch Sister Callan and I were eating a quick bite at an outdoor fast food place and a man coming out of a next door pharmacy saw my nametag and asked what church we belonged to. I walked over to him and we visited for a few minutes and he mentioned that several months earlier he had received the missionaries and that they had left him a book and then hadn’t come back. Hr said he would like to learn more. He had a happy countenance and a positive spirit about him so I got his name and phone number and neighborhood and passed the reference on to the missionaries. It is fun to be in a place where people are willing to talk to us. The missionaries are reporting that many investigators came to conference sessions and were impressed with the messages. One missionary reported that an investigator reported having prayed the morning of conference to “see and hear” the truth and later felt his prayer had been answered through the viewing of conference. We now begin the stake and district conference season in the mission and so many of our weekends through the end of the year will see us attending various conferences. A total of about 6 months of the year will see us involved in various stake and district conferences. There is also a branch conference schedule that fills in a lot of the rest of the calendar.

We have had many birds in the yard this week. Two large green parrots appeared one morning in the neighbor’s tree. We didn’t have the camera but will try to get a picture in the future. The birds are very loud and usually awaken us around 5am. We have had gardeners at the mission home this week getting the lawn in shape for the summer months. The pool man has been getting the pool ready for use. We did take a quick dip after exercising last P-Day (Yes, mission presidents and their wives can swim). The a lot of people in our neighborhood have pools. President and Sister Wade of the north mission took us to lunch yesterday and introduced us to a new restaurant. They served tacos (more like a chicken wrap with guacamole) and many other items on the menu. They also have a bakery that had some great looking stuff as well. The four of us ate a great meal for about $15 total. They also told us that there is a TGI Fridays that has opened near the temple. President and Sister Wade have been so kind to us and so thoughtful. They know what we are going through in getting into the pace and load of these callings. They tell us that after two years of serving it is still hard and very busy for them but that’s OK. Everyday seems to bring a new challenge and thus a new chance to grow and learn. The Wade’s go home in July and then we will be the “veterans” here! We will miss them. President Wade tells me of a golf course he wants to take us to that has alligators in the water hazards! It is interesting to think that next year’s new mission presidents will begin receiving their callings soon. This week has seen me conducting interviews with missionaries and members. My cell phone is always with me and usually being used. I had finished exercising this morning and we were saying our prayers for the day outside on the patio and the phone rang. It was a new missionary who just wanted to talk and be reassured that he could do this. He was missing his family and trying to adjust to life here and told me that he sometimes cries during his prayers. I told him I was pleased with his progress and that it was natural for us to miss our loved ones so far away and after a few minutes of sharing thoughts he said it was good to hear my voice and he felt a lot better and was ready to hit the streets. He’s a great young man and will do well here. I have spent some time this week with planning missionary transfers for the upcoming transfer cycle. We receive 17 new missionaries and lose but 5. We will reach 180 missionaries total at the beginning of November. We will open up 5 new areas so we are busy finding new apartments and buying the basic things (fridge, stove, beds, wardrobe, blankets, dishes, desk, chairs, etc.) to furnish them. With the loss of mission vehicles (2 trucks) we are organizing ourselves to use hired transport services, etc. We will have 16 sisters and 164 elders in the mission with about 60 missionaries from Latin American countries.

We are thinking of our grandsons Joshua and Colin today. Our sweet Josh will be baptized today and Colin will be blessed tomorrow. We will miss being with everyone but are grateful for the comfort we have felt through the Spirit. Sandy and I both shed some tears this morning as we thought of the family but we’ll be alright. We need to get use to this part of a mission. We trust a few pictures will be coming through the miracle of the internet. We were also excited to hear that Jacob Hess, the son of our dear friends Paul and Martha, is getting married today. We are so happy for their family and especially for Jake and his sweetheart.

We love the work and see miracles regularly. A missionary sent the following account to me this week: “President, this entire week my companion and I have been studying in depth about the Light of Christ, and saying that we were “in search of light,” and had been praying for greater light in our missionary work. To our surprise, last night we met that light that we had been praying for in person! After teaching a couple of lessons, we were on our way to contact a reference to finish the night when a little girl came up to us in the street and said, “My mommy has been wanting to talk to you, she lives over there” and showed us a house we had passed by many times before. When the mother answered the door, it turned out that her name was Luz (meaning light in Spanish) and that she had made changes in her life along with her boyfriend since her sister was baptized nine years before. Luz will be baptized the 24th.” Thank you for your prayers and support. I’ll sign off. Love to all….Mark and Sandy