October 30, 2010

Dear Family and Friends, October 30, 2010

We had a wonderful week this week that went by way too quickly. We flew to Buenos Aires, Argentina for our annual Mission Presidents Seminar. We were excited to go and meet the new members of our area presidency and also to see all the other 13 mission presidents and their wives . We were especially blessed to have Elder Neil L. Andersen and his wife and Elder Walter Gonzalez of the seventy and his wife there also. The tradition has been for an apostle to attend each mission presidents’ seminar. This year a change was made and the apostles are no longer attending the seminars. We were told we were the only seminar that had an apostle with us this year. We were so grateful for the experience we had.

We began the week with a dinner and message by Elder Anderson and his wife. Each day we had meetings during the morning and afternoon .We were spiritually fed and given so many things to think about and come back to our missions and implement. The most important thing that we were taught was the focus on the great importance of helping the missionaries really gain a deep testimony of the Savior. It is so vital and is the foundation of everything we do as missionaries. If missionaries don’t know the Savior how can they testify of him? We have wonderful missionaries in our mission but some do come with testimonies that need strengthened and deepened. It is wonderful to watch missionaries come to the mission and grow the whole time they are here no matter where they were at the beginning of their mission. We were all encouraged to deepen our own knowledge and testimony of the Savior. We were taught by Elder Gonzalez who has an amazing knowledge of the scriptures. He taught so fast we were taking notes as fast as we could so we could go back and think about all that he was saying. His wife also was a great teacher. We did practices just like our missionaries and learned some things that will help us improve with our missionaries in the future. We really felt the love of our Area Presidency also. Elder Mervyn Arnold, Elder Marcos Aidukaitis and Elder Bradley Foster are wonderful, kind loving men and their wives are wonderful too. They all taught and shared with us during the week. We felt their excitement as they begin their time together as a presidency over the area including Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina. All of the presidency members have been mission presidents among other assignments and callings. They are great examples of serving wherever the Lord needs them as they will all be here for a few years as they serve.

We learned so much from Elder Andersen and his wife. They are such genuine , kind and loving people. At each meal the seating arrangements were assigned with everyone rotating through the tables of all the area presidency members and Elder Gonzalez and Elder Andersen’s tables. It gave us a chance to get to know everyone and they had us all share a bit about our lives with them. We sat at Elder Andersen’s table Tuesday night and again Thursday for lunch. We were so impressed with his memory for detail about each of us and the things we had said. But more importantly we felt a strong love from both him and from his wife. Sister Andersen has lived outside of the country for 10 of the last 25 years with her husband while he served on different assignments. I really admire her and recognize the sacrifice our leaders make as they are away from family as they receive and accept different assignments. We received some wonderful counsel during the week from Elder Andersen and his wife that will bless the mission and our lives personally . We were so excited to get back to our missionaries after receiving so many wonderful things to share with them. We really did miss them!

One afternoon we all took a break and went on a boat ride on the Tigre Delta at the Puerto de Frutos. There is a grouping of islands that are inhabited year round but are especially busy on weekends by all the people from the city for recreation. It was interesting to see the school boat as the children left school and got on the boat to go to their homes. There were bus boats that people ride in between the islands and grocery boats that bring all the items the people need. It was a nice afternoon and fun to see a little more of the area.

We continue to be so grateful for the experience we are having as we serve here in Paraguay. We are learning so much and our lives are so much fuller because of this experience. We are grateful for the way the spirit teaches us as we strive to help these wonderful missionaries we are entrusted with at this time. There is much to do here and we felt the message of urgency in the things we heard this week. We are grateful for our chance to be taught by an Apostle this week and know our mission will be blessed as we follow the counsel we have received. We hope you all have a wonderful week! We love and miss you all!

Mark and Sandy Callan