March 6, 2010

March 6, 2010

Dear Family and Friends,

We had some wonderful experiences this week and we hope everyone also had a good week. We attended meetings on Sunday in our own ward and then Mark headed off to Priesthood meetings in the afternoon. That night he met with a stake president. He is supposed to meet about monthly with all 5 stake presidents. He is enjoying getting to know the presidents. He also is busy each Sunday for the next little while with Priesthood meetings in the 5 districts.

Monday morning we had a staff meeting at the office. There is always so much to do to keep things coordinated. The office staff works so hard, so they can get out the door to teach by 4:30pm. Between details for zone conferences, change week when we receive new missionaries and send others home who have finished, keeping track of all the 95 apartments and everything else that’s happening in the mission , they really have a lot of things to do. It is pretty amazing how well they usually do their jobs. They are young men and it shows sometimes but they are all learning some valuable lessons for their futures.

Tuesday we were off to the temple with two zones of missionaries. Two times a year all the missionaries are allowed to go to the temple. The temple sets up a morning where they can do an endowments session, baptisms, confirmations, ordinations, initiatory and sealings. It’s a great way to help them be focused on where we are trying to help people prepare to go. It was a great day. I am so grateful for our temple covenants that bind us as a family. I am so glad there is a temple here. The missionaries love temple day and look forward to it every six months.

Wednesday we spent time at home and at the office preparing for future meetings and for a dinner with Fernando and Romina. Fernando is the man that Mark baptized last September after he challenged him to be baptized. He and his wife challenged us to a cook off so we invited them to the mission home for the big event. Fernando wants to be a chef and he cooked a chicken and vegetable meal that was very tasty. We cooked our chicken curry dish that we love and they enjoyed it too. They are a great young couple who are growing in the gospel. They serve as Presidents of the Young men and Young women in the ward. They are planning to be sealed in the temple in September. It was a nice evening.

Thursday we welcomed Elder Bowns into the office to begin training to be the secretary. Elder Wilkes has done a wonderful job and he will spend a month training Elders Bowns to be an equally wonderful secretary.

This week Mark spent time with a couple more elders who needed some encouragement. They are doing well and we are hopeful they will be more and more focused on other people so they can be even more effective missionaries. I think often of what President Hinckley’s dad said to him because it is such great advice. “Just forget yourself and go to work.” A couple of the elders call me once in a while for a little encouragement also. Sometimes they just need to talk a bit to feel like they can keep working hard. One elder has a native speaking companion and he’s new and he told me he just needed to speak English with someone for a bit. That’s something I can so real well—speak English!

Friday we went to lunch with a church attorney who was in the area and also with the Paraguay North mission president and wife. I’m already missing The Wades and they don’t even leave until July. They have become great friends already and they have helped us so much!

Saturday Mark was at the temple at 6:30 to interview 10 people. He then went to meet with another stake president. I was home cooking for the dinner we are having Sunday for the office missionaries and assistants. We are going to have barbeque chicken and I wanted to make potato salad. I had to be a little creative because celery is kind of hard to find at times. I seeded cucumbers and sprinkled celery salt on them and it’s a pretty good substitution. We haven’t had a dinner here with the elders for a while and they are all excited to come and eat American food.

We also attended a nice baptism in our ward Saturday. The missionaries found a young man on the street and began talking to him. He had started having the lessons in the north mission and then they moved here. Our missionaries continued teaching him and tonight there were missionaries from both missions involved in the baptism. Roberto’s wife had been a member for 15 years and she was so happy that her husband was baptized. It’s such a testimony to me that Heavenly Father knows each of his children and he watches over them even if they move from one mission to the other . He helps the missionaries find those who are prepared and ready for the gospel in their lives. We hope this is a good week for you all. We love you all we are grateful for the things we are learning and experiencing.

Love, Mark and Sandy