Last Sunday we attended two sacrament meetings. We attended one in Monte Lindo and the other in Fernando de la Mora. It
is always nice to see our missionaries in action so we like to attend
as many different wards and branches as we can. The missionaries were
speaking in one ward so that was an extra treat. Elder Zeballos and
Dyches both gave great messages. Elder Dyches had only been in Paraguay 5
weeks when he spoke and he did an amazing job. It is such a blessing
when new missionaries can get the language so quickly!
We
also met Elder and Sister Culimore who are a Humanitarian missionary
couple from Salt Lake. They are here for a couple weeks and were in
Argentina before coming here. They told us they base out of Salt Lake
but travel 60percent of the time and they have been serving for 5 years.
What a wonderful couple!
Monday
we were having our regular staff meeting planning for the week ahead
when we heard a loud boom and then the power went out. We called our
maintenance people who quickly came and told us a monkey had been
climbing on the transformer in the grounds outside the office and had
caused the problem. It probably was a pet of someone in the neighborhood
but sadly the monkey did not survive the run in with the transformer.
Tuesday
we went to district meeting with a district in Asuncion. It was nice to
see Elder Hauser and Calvert who are both new in the mission and see
their progress with the language. We are so excited when we see that
because right now the mission is very young! When we get our 15 new
missionaries this Tuesday we will have received 58 missionaries over the
last three changes. The majority have been North Americans so we really
need them to learn the language quickly! I have a strong testimony that
the Lord does help his missionaries with their language!
Mark
had meetings with stake presidents and his mission presidency this week
also. He has a new counselor in the mission presidency. Brother Ocampo
who right now lives in Ciudad del Este but will be moving to Asuncion in
December. He travels for work so he is able to visit the districts at
the same time which will be helpful. He is a former stake president and
will be a great support and help to Mark.
Saturday
Mark spent time with temple recommend interviews for members of
districts including two young men who have received their mission calls.
We are excited to see more young people from Paraguay preparing for and
serving missions! In the afternoon he spent 4
hours in a coordinating council and was thrilled to tell me it was the
first time he had been in a meeting with all 5 stake presidents and all 5
district presidents and their counselors. We see progress!
We
attended our home ward in Herrera today. We have a young couple from
Utah who live in the ward. The husband, Brother Stewart, works for the
U.S. Embassy. He was called to be a counselor to the bishop today. He
has only been in the country 4 months and is just learning Spanish along
with his wife and three children. What an
experience ahead for them! The 10 year old daughter was telling us how
hard it would be that her dad couldn’t sit with them in church. We told
them that our two youngest daughters never sat with their dad in church
while they were growing up because of his callings and that the Lord has
blessed our family and that things turned out okay for them!! I
don’t know if that helped her or not! Next week is the primary program
and she told us she and her brother would both be speaking and will do
it in Spanish. I hope we will be in our ward next week! Children are
pretty amazing!
Well
we receive 15 missionaries Tuesday so we are excited about that! We
love the work here and the energy we receive from those young
missionaries! We hope you all have a great week..we plan to!
Love, Mark and Sandy
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