May 22, 2010

Dear Family and friends, May 22, 2010

This week passed quickly as we were busy with Mark finishing up the interviews for all the zones in Asuncion and preparing for the coming mission tour with President Bowen and his wife. Monday through Thursday was spent at the office. Most of the missionaries look forward to their interviews each 6 weeks. Because of the numbers of missionaries usually the secretary or I if we are on the road, keep track of time to keep things moving. A little knock on the door lets Mark know when it’s time to end unless he feels otherwise. Anyway it’s interesting to see how many missionaries try to convince the person doing the door knocking to forget to knock so they can have longer interviews. It would be nice to have more time for Mark to spend with each missionary but it just isn’t possible with 190 plus missionaries. Of course when there are special circumstances Mark does his best to spend the needed time with those who need it. It is wonderful to have cell phones for those occasions.

As a mission we continue to focus on the Book of Mormon in all teaching and also working with the members. In zone conferences and zone leader councils we have been talking about how to help the members share the gospel with their friends and families. The missionaries go into the members homes and help them list all the people they know who are not members of the church. They help them think of ways to share the gospel and then they focus on specific families and people with specific ways to share. It is really helping the members know how to be member missionaries and the missionaries are receiving references. It also helps them see how many people they are in contact with in their lives who need this gospel message. Some people have listed hundreds of names. It is great and the members are excited about sharing because they are being helped along the way. Thursday Mark went to a meeting at the temple with the Temple presidency, Elder Aidukaitis from the area presidency and stake presidents from both missions along with the other mission President. The stake presidents were telling him how excited they were with the way the members seem to be more interested in helping with the missionary effort because of the things they are learning from the missionaries. It is so important that the members take a bigger part in sharing the gospel with their friends and loved ones.

The temple meeting was also special in that 8 years ago from the day they held the meeting the first session in the Asuncion temple was held. The temple is such a blessing for the people here. The missionaries are encouraged to get all new converts to the temple to do baptisms as soon as they can after baptism. One new member from our ward went and did baptisms the very first week he was a member of the church.

Friday we spent preparing details for the week to come with the Bowens. We will have 4 zone conferences in four days with travel between the cities all done in the daylight. With it being winter here now the days are shorter so we have been fine tuning our schedule so we can get where we need to be on time and with a little food in our stomachs. We are looking forward to the time with the Bowens. We have a lot of driving time so we usually fill our brains with all we can when we have these mission tours. The Bowens are finishing up their time here in the area Presidency and have been assigned to go back to Salt Lake in July or August. We have learned a lot from them already and know we will not be disappointed this week.

The office staff is in high gear getting ready for the conferences and meetings that will happen with the Bowens here. We also are in the midst of training a new office elder. Elder Steren came into the office yesterday to begin training with Elder Facer as financial secretary. He has a big job because he has to learn quickly so he will be ready to train Elder Stringfellow, our senior missionary, when he gets here in July. Elder Steren is excited and ready to work hard. We also have a change in assistants this week. We are going back to 2 assistants from 4. We have needed 4 to help increase the training ability with so many newer missionaries that we have in the mission but now Mark feels like we can go back to 2 for now. Elder Lytle and Pitcher will be a great asset back out in the field but we will miss our closer association with them now. We are so impressed with the wonderful missionaries the Lord has sent to Paraguay. We are grateful for the good things they are doing. We learn so much by watching them as they diligently serve the Lord and the people here. Elders Urmston and Woodruff continue on as assistants.

They also are doing a wonderful job. It is so wonderful to see these young missionaries step up to challenging situations and with the help of the Lord be successful in the work. The missionaries truly wear out their shoes in the service they give here. We love our missionaries! Love, Mark and Sandy