June 25, 2011

Dear Family and Friends, June 25, 2011

This week started with the surprise early arrival of our new grandson Eli. He decided to come 5 ½ weeks early to wish his father a Happy Father’s Day I guess. He and his mom Jenny are doing well. He was 5 lb. 5 oz. and 18inches and only needed a breathing tube for a day. As I write this he is still in the NICU but hopefully in the next week he will be able to go home and join his family. His siblings had to wait 5 days before they could meet him but they were able to do that yesterday. I am so grateful for all the ward members and family members who are reaching out to help Jenny and Brian during this time. Jenny is back and forth to the hospital 4 times a day now and she’s getting tired but we are grateful for the help she is receiving. It is hard not to be there to help but we know the Lord is taking care of their family for us! We are grateful for all of our children, their spouses and future spouses and all of our fourteen grandchildren. We are grateful for the way they are reaching out to support one another during these challenging times. We are grateful for our covenants that bind us together and bind us to heavenly Father. The great plan definitely is a great plan of happiness!

This week all of our missionaries had the opportunity to attend a session in the temple. We are so blessed to have a temple here in Paraguay. It is so good for the missionaries to be able to attend not only for them personally but also to help them be reminded of the importance for all of the people we teach here to be prepared to enter and make further covenants after baptism. The missionaries love the two visits to the temple they are given each year. It was especially nice for the 24 new missionaries we received last week to be able to go to the temple here so soon after their arrival. I remember when we had been here 10 days and we went to a session in the temple. I had decided to go ahead do the whole session in Spanish and was so grateful for the understanding I had of the language there that day. I know a big part of that was because the temple is very familiar to me but it helped me have more confidence that I could learn the language better and be able to do what I needed to here in the mission. I love that calm, comfortable feeling through the spirit that I felt that day. For me the temple has always been a place of comfort and encouragement as I go through life with all its joys and challenges.

Our new missionaries and their trainers are the first group to use the new training program given to the missions recently by the church. We have heard good reports of the training going on and the way the very specific schedule is helping them. It includes an extra hour daily for study with very specific guidance for their study along with more language time. It is a twelve week schedule so the missionaries and trainers will have more time focused on getting the new missionaries up to speed and reminding the trainers of things they can improve on also.

We had a nice dinner last night here at the mission home with the mission presidency and our area seventy , Elder Di Giovani. We always have fun sharing our American food with them and hearing their comments on it. They seemed to like our family favorites and ate plenty! A couple asked to take home some Texas sheath cake with them. We have noticed here that the baked goods look very appetizing but they often don’t taste so good. The cake looked and tasted good!

This weekend we will be attending stake conference with the Fernando de la Mora Sur stake. Elder Foster of the area presidenc y will be in town and wants to stay with us tomorrow night too. We always love his visits and we saved some cake and baked beans and salads from our barbeque last night so he can have some American food also. Well, until next week! Love , Mark and Sandy