December 18, 2010

December18 ,2010

Dear Family and Friends,

This week we finished up our specialized trainings with the missionaries in zones 7 and 11 in Encarnacion. We drove to Encarnacion on Monday and made a fun stop on the way. San Miguel is a little city known for its woven fabrics , hammocks, wool items and crocheted items. We decided to stop and look around and had a nice visit with a woman and her granddaughter and nephew who worked with her. They had a loom set up where they weave the cloth for the hammocks. A thirteen year old boy was running the loom with foot pedals similar to stair stepper exercise machine. The whole loom was made of 2x4 boards and was quite interesting to see. We bought a few hammocks and had fun seeing up close the things we drive by every time we go to Encarnacion.

We had a nice conference in Encarnacion and were able to spend time teaching and then listening to the testimonies of our remaining missionaries. What a nice Christmas gift we received to hear each testimony of every missionary in our mission in the last couple weeks! It was such a nice way to focus on the Savior as we celebrate His birth .We know it is difficult to be away from family during the holidays but we also know that Christmas during the mission can be more Christ centered and a time for all of us to learn to celebrate with a better focus on the important things. The zones have each been asked to have a Christmas activity on the preparation day before Christmas. It is to include a spiritual part, a fun part and some kind of service. We are excited to hear reports of the activities after they have had them. Christmas falls on Saturday and here that is the main day for baptisms. The area presidency has asked us to try to have a Navidad Blanco or White Christmas(white baptism clothes) so we hear of many baptismal services planned for Christmas Day! What better way could there be than for missionaries to spend their Christmas here in the mission helping people come into the kingdom!

We drove right back to Asuncion after the conference on Tuesday and got home just before dark. We try to never drive on the roads outside the city after dark. We have been blessed with safety and protection we know. This time as we were returning we drove through a small town. As we passed a side road a pickup truck suddenly pulled out and proceeded to come straight for us heading right at Mark’s side of the car. Mark swerved off the road and we prepared for the crash. We opened our eyes and to our amazement somehow the truck did not hit us. We still don’t know exactly how it didn’t hit us! We looked back and the truck was in a different place than we thought it should have been. We know the Lord protected us that day.

We finished the week back in Asuncion with Mark having various meetings and interviews .I worked on some projects with the office elders to upgrade the mission apartments. Almost every apartment has now received their new beds and we are beginning the delivery of microwaves for the apartments. Elders Dance and Smith went out delivering various items and I went with Elder Steren and Sellers to look at the microwaves and some fabric we are buying for table coverings for all the study desks and kitchen tables. We will be spending some time cutting the fabric into the right lengths for the 300 tables we will need. It will make their study areas a bit nicer we believe, along with the Preach My Gospel poster they received during our conferences.

This week we want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! We are so grateful for the opportunity we have to be here serving a mission. As we think of celebrating the birth of our Savior we think of the blessings we receive because of his life and his mission. We are grateful for the protection we feel as missionaries. We are grateful for the guidance of the Holy Ghost as we seek to help our missionaries. We are grateful for each missionary who has been sent here by our Heavenly Father. We are grateful for the things we are learning from them through our experiences with them here in the mission. We are grateful for our family and for the promises we have of living with them forever if we are faithful and keep our covenants. We are grateful for the prayers of family and friends and parents of missionaries that sustain us. We are grateful for the way we are helped physically to be able to do what the Lord needs us to do. We are grateful for our testimonies of Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. We know they live! We know the gospel and the priesthood were restored to this earth through Joseph Smith. We know that President Monson is our living prophet today. We know the Book of Mormon is another testament of Christ and that we know him better when we read and study it and the other scriptures. We know we need to do all we can to share this wonderful message with everyone! We are happy and grateful for this glorious time of year ! We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas season and know that we love you all!

Love, Mark and Sandy