June 18, 2011

Dear Family and Friends, June 18, 2011

Well our change week has come and gone. What a fun week! We received 24 new missionaries on Tuesday and all the planning and preparing of the office elders for all the details worked out beautifully! We had a couple scares because the airport kept closing because of the air quality related to the volcano in Chile but everyone got here and those missionaries finishing their missions were able to fly out with only a few delays. Tuesday we picked up the 24 new missionaries in a bus and brought them to the office. There we had a dinner and then photos, interviews and orientation. Half of the elders slept in our dorm room at the office and the other half at a hotel. The one sister stayed at the mission home with us. She is from Paraguay and will be here until her visa for Mexico arrives. We received a great group of missionaries who were excited to finally get to Paraguay and begin working.

Wednesday we held a 1 ½ hour meeting with the trainers and then the new missionaries joined in for another hour of more training. We took a group photo and then the taxis came and off they went to their areas or the terminal to catch buses to their areas. Mark finished interviewing the rest of the 21 elders who were leaving and then we took the elders who were finishing their missions to lunch and then to the temple. Afterwards we came back to the mission home for dessert and testimony meeting. It is always so wonderful to hear the testimonies of the missionaries who have come to the end of their missions. They grow so much and our love for them grows also. We love to see the progress we have all made in the last two years. This was the first group we have had for their whole missions so we have been with them a long time.

We had a nice experience at the temple. There is a woman we have seen at the temple every time we have been in the temple since we came here almost two years ago. We have spoken to her before but this time she told us her whole history. Basically she served in the temple in Orlando, which is where she is from, for 4 years. She has also spent time working in the temple in Costa Rica and Guatemala. She has been here for 4 years. When she started she did 10 sessions a week but at the end was doing 12 each week. She found the church late in life and has a daughter and grandson who are also members. With tears in her eyes she said she hoped the offering she has made to the Lord with her temple service is acceptable but only wished she found the gospel earlier in her life. She was such a great example of really giving her all to the Lord and the church. At the end of the month she will be returning to her family in Florida. We will miss seeing her!

Thursday morning we were up early to begin saying goodbye at the airport to the missionaries. The airlines had some delays so one group of five latins ended up staying an extra day and then left Friday. The rest flew out as scheduled. Wow ,what a week of movement in the mission. Friday we spent assessing change week and seeing how we could improve things for next time.

This week we also welcomed a new assistant to the president. Elder Blake who has served so well returned home and Elder Fernandez from Chile will be working with Elder Roberts now as an assistant. He will be a great asset to the mission. We will miss Elder Blake. We also welcomed into the office Elder Stewart who is in training as the new financiero. Elder Rockwood will stay on to train for a while as his responsibilities are many and take a while to learn. We are excited to have a great group of new missionaries here to add to our missionary force and we are excited for the missionaries who have returned home to move forward in their lives.

We are grateful for the family we have. Our granddaughter Anna turned 5 this week so we had a little chat with her. We are also grateful for the wonderful fathers we both have and hope they have a wonderful Father’s day. They have both been great examples to us and have taught us well throughout our lives. We are also grateful for the wonderful sons and sons in law that we have. They are great dads to their sweet families and we count that as a great blessing in our lives also. We hope you all have a great week. Love , Mark and Sandy