October 9, 2010

October 9, 2010

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was change week. It’s always filled with many activities and the week flies by. Monday the office staff was busy with last minute preparations. This was the first time we had all the new missionaries and the leaving missionaries stay overnight in the room next to the office. Elder Dance, our office administrator, has overseen the adding of a doorway between two rooms, the installation of the tile floor,and generally everything else that needed to happen so we could accommodate the elders there. We think it worked okay but we might change a few things to improve for next time. That’s one thing that is a constant here in the mission….change! We are always trying to improve the things we do.

Tuesday we were excited to receive our new missionaries . An hour before they were to arrive we found out that the north American elders missed their flight in Buenos Aires, Argentina and instead of arriving at 11:30am they would be arriving at 11:30 pm. We picked up the three latin elders and went ahead with the plans for the day of lunch , orientation, and interviews with President. Elders Perez and Vasquez from El Salvador and Elder Bazan from Peru went out to teach and make contacts with the office elders in the evening. The rest of the elders, Elders Clanton, Dexter, Durrant , Faas , Harwell , Snow, Stewart and Wray arrived later that night and went straight to bed.

Wednesday was spent orienting and interviewing the late arriving elders and holding a training meeting for the trainers of the new missionaries. Companionships were introduced and off they went to their new areas. In the meantime President is interviewing the returning elders and hermanas . We took the returning missionaries to lunch and then to a session at the temple. After the temple we came to the mission home for dessert and testimony meeting. Elders Carleton, Freeman, Goodwin, Reed, Urmston, Wall, Wilkes and Bowers,and Hermanas Valente and Casteneda were great missionaries. It is always wonderful to hear their strong testimonies at the end of their missions.

Thursday we said goodbye at the airport. It’s always a tender time as they say goodbye to the country they have come to love.

Friday we drove 2 ½ hours to Ca’aguazu and Coronel Oviedo for President to interview 22 missionaries. With the new schedule the interviews come every three months. It’s nice to meet one on one for President and I enjoy seeing all the missionaries in smaller groups where we can chat and I can remind them of important things like cleaning their apartments! We also passed out batteries for their carbon monoxide detectors in their apartments. I was talking to Elder Richards from Mukilteo, Washington and he was telling me that he worked real hard to get his apartment clean and then he was transferred. He said the new apartment wasn’t as clean so he just got busy getting that one cleaner too. I love to hear that from missionaries! It really makes a difference when we have missionaries who have been taught to clean and work.

We loved conference last weekend and it seemed to us there were many mentions of missionary work. We really see the need for members to be involved to help the work go forward. We need many more strong members here but with time hopefully things will improve in that area here. Elder Arnold who spoke is our new area president, so that was nice to hear him speak along with all the others we heard. The missionaries were excited to be able to share conference with their investigators too. We hope you all had a good week! Love, Mark and Sandy