March 19, 2011

March 19,2011

Dear Family and Friends,

Sunday we had a nice day as we drove out to Ca’aguazu to attend meetings and so Mark could also set apart a young man who has been called to serve a mission in Lisbon, Portugal. We are always excited when young men from here prepare for and receive callings to serve. Elder Aguilar is good young man who along with his two brothers have been faithfully preparing since his baptism four years ago with little family support. His father passed away and his mother went to Spain for work so the young men have supported each other the last few years. He is excited to serve!

We headed out Monday to complete the apartment checks for the rest of the mission. Many of the outlying apartments are more spread out so we did a bit of driving. We figure over the last two weeks we have driven about 1400 miles. We were able to see all but 5 apartments and we will see them in the month to come. We have seen all the missionaries except the 10 in those five apartments these last two weeks. We were happy with the majority of what we saw so it was a good week. The missionaries are working and cleaning and organizing better than they were last year at inspections. Paraguay really is a beautiful country and we saw some of the smaller towns and some things that we don’t always get to see. We stopped off in a city called Yataity where the Paraguayan embroidered cloth ao po’i was said to have begun. We bought a couple items and talked to some women who told their story of how the women needed something to do to help them earn money so they began doing the hand work and making clothing to sell.

The week kind of ended with a bang, literally as we drove into Ciudad del Este on Thursday. We were in a traffic roundabout where a policeman had stopped part of the circle to allow another part to go. We were in the front of the line and when he motioned for us to go we began driving. All of a sudden a woman way to our right decided she wanted to cut in front of us to go to the left. Mark stopped quickly to avoid hitting the driver’s side of her car. We rejoice for one second until we felt the slam from the truck behind us hitting the back of our car. Luckily, we were not hurt nor the other driver. Our car was drivable with some damage to the back only. The officer watched the whole thing and wrote up the accident declaring no one was at fault. The next day we had to go to the municipality to get the official record for the auto insurance. We are really getting to learn about Paraguay from many perspectives.

We pulled into Asuncion Friday night and checked into the office and then went home . We were there about an hour when we had to meet an hermana at the hospital who was having trouble with ongoing nausea. She ended up staying the night with a diagnosis of dengue fever which is the result of being bit by an infected mosquito. It is a virus treated by acetaminiophen and rest and lots of liquids. She stayed overnight and then will rest until she finishes her mission Thursday. What a hard way to end your mission! Normally people with dengue are not hospitalized but she was especially dehydrated so she was given an iv to get the fluids in her quickly. We can’t stress enough the importance of plenty of water here. All the missionaries were told this week to be sure they are using the repellant the mission gives them for their apartments and also their own personal repellant daily.

Well ,Tuesday we receive 13 new missionaries and lose only three. One thing that is constant around here is change. We love watching our missionaries come to the end of their missions having grown in many ways. Every six weeks we get a bunch of new ones to begin that process. Missions are a great growing time for all of us. If we take advantage of what the Lord is offering us we can learn how to share this gospel with the people here and also grow personally. We have many great missionaries who love the Lord and the people here. We are always trying to encourage them to give themselves fully to the work so they can accomplish all the Lord needs them to. What a blessing for us to be here with these young missionaries. Have a great week! Love, Mark and Sandy