Sept 19, 2010

Dear Family and Friends, September 19, 2010

We hope everyone is having a good week. We had a nice Tuesday when we attended a meeting with Zone 3 here in Asuncion. With the new schedule of zone conferences and interviews quarterly instead of every six weeks we were asked to hold specialized trainings in between to help with teaching skills for missionaries. The zone leaders Elders Guenther and Rodriguez asked President to come and help give the zone a boost. We met with the 22 members of the zone from 9am to noon. As part of the renewed focus on teaching we also received the DVD’s produced by the missionary department called” The District 2”. It is the second of a series of video clips of real missionaries in real teaching settings that we watch and discuss. They really are inspiring and helpful in getting discussions going and helping us to be able to dissect the teaching methods being used. As we were watching them in preparation for the meeting the day before I had this feeling of gratitude for the missionaries and the wonderful things they are doing by helping people every day to learn about the gospel. We aren’t in the homes as much as they are and it made me want to be there with them more. At the end of our meeting the Hermanas came up and asked us if we would go with them to visit a family they were teaching. We met the La Flor family and had a nice visit with them. They had some questions for Mark and we were able to share our testimonies with them. They have a baptismal date set so hopefully they will continue on in their study of the church. It was exactly an answer to my desire to be in the homes a bit more. The Lord listens to our desires ,I know!

Mark had two different video conferences this week. One with the area presidency and another with the area seventy assigned to Paraguay. He also went to a stake Priesthood meeting in Fernando de la Mora stake. The focus from the area has been helping the local leaders be able to fulfill their callings better by better training. It is still amazing to me that many branch presidents have only been members 3 years of so and District Presidents just a bit longer. There is a need to strengthen all members here and especially the men so they can become stronger leaders. For the missionaries it is at times a balancing act to know how to support local leaders without stepping in and taking over. Many of our missionaries have come from areas where the organization of the church is fully functioning and they know how things should be done. If they are not careful the local leaders will sit back and let the missionaries do what the local leaders should be doing. They are really concentrating on getting ward and branch councils going now and that will help things so much as more and more begin to routinely hold their meetings. It’s a great education for these young elders to see what happens in branches when required meetings are not held. I’ve heard more than one elder say they have learned how important these council meetings are and also they will always do their home teaching when they go home because they see how important it is now!

Mark went to Encarnacion today for a Priesthood meeting. He and his counselor drove 4 hours to the meeting and then will have interviews and the meeting and then drive home after the meeting. A very long day for him and a quiet one for me! I went to our home ward today and it was the Primary program. One of our office elders , Elder Steren , played the piano for them and they sang well and presented a nice program. There were about 15 children and 3 leaders there for the program. There were probably 85 or 90 people in sacrament meeting which was a bit more than normal for our ward.

Our lesson in Relief Society today was about faith in Jesus Christ. I am grateful for my testimony of the Savior and the faith I have in him. I know that with faith in Jesus Christ we can do whatever he asks us to. I know he understands everything about me and my struggles and successes and truly is the only one that can help me at times. Just as we teach people that they need faith to move forward and be baptized we need to continually strengthen our faith throughout our lives. I am grateful that because of our faith we can do things that we might not otherwise try to do. I know that because of our faith in Christ we can become the people he needs us to become. How blessed we are to be a small part of this great work here in Paraguay and have the opportunity to share that message! We love and miss you all!

Mark and Sandy