Dear Family and Friends,
November 5, 2011
This
is the time of the year when I look at the calendar and it doesn’t make
sense! It is spring here and starting to warm up so warm weather and
November just don’t go together in my mind! Oh well!
This
week we went out teaching with Elder Stewart and Wray one evening. They
are teaching a woman who along with her less active boyfriend decided
to come to church so she could learn about it. We were invited to come
help teach the importance of the law of chastity and teach about how
making commitments to each other and how marriage strengthens our relationships. The couple has progressed and soon there will be a marriage and baptism, hopefully this week.
Saturday
we spent time with our friends the Harbertsens and the Hancocks one
last time before their trip home. We cooked a big breakfast and enjoyed a
nice visit with them hearing about their trip to Iguazu Falls. After
their visit we drove to San Ignacio for a District conference
Priesthood meeting. While the men were busy since there was no place in
the rented building for auxiliary training, Sister Grau (Mark’s
councilor’s wife) and I went to visit a couple interesting sights in the
area. The oldest building in use in Paraguay was once a school in the
first Jesuit Mission for the Catholic church. Now the building is the
Diocesan Museum of Jesuit Art. It was filled with wooden carved statues
from the original San Ignacio church which has been replaced by a newer
one. The building was built in the early 1700’s. We couldn’t take
pictures inside and the outside of the building is rather plain but
pretty typical of the building style here. We
also stopped at a plaza in the center of town where some young people
were practicing their traditional dances. There are lots of groups who
practice and perform the traditional dances here so it was fun to watch
them.
I’ve
been trying to get more photos lately of buildings and churches here.
Every town has a large Catholic church in the town square or plaza. We
stopped and got quite a few photos this time as we drove to San Ignacio
and then on to Pilar. After the priesthood
meeting Saturday we drove to Pilar where the Sunday meetings would be
held for the conference. Because of distance and travel issues the
priesthood session was held in one city and the rest of the meetings in
another. The adult meeting was held Sunday morning and a half hour later
the general session was held. It really seemed to help the attendance
having both meetings on Sunday. The Saturday night meetings seem to be
difficult for people to attend. It was a nice conference and we were
able to see eight of our missionaries there.
We drove to Asuncion after our meetings and got ready for Zone leaders council that was held on Monday morning. All the Zone leaders came for the monthly meeting where the leader’s council together to see how we can improve as a mission. We
always feel that there is so much to cover and never enough time but we
had some great discussions and talked of the doctrine of Christ and our
purpose as missionaries…..a common and continual theme of discussion
here. If missionaries can be clear in their understanding of the
doctrine then they can truly understand why they are here and what they
need to be doing. Eight missionaries who will be
leaving during the next change bore beautiful testimonies at the end of
the meeting. It was a great meeting.
Tuesday
we held a specialized training for the 16 new missionaries and their
trainers. It was good to see them all and answer questions and give them
some additional training as they begin their missions. They seemed
happy to see each other and be together as we met for the 5 hours we
were together.
We
taught the doctrine of Christ, purpose, and fundamental principles from
Preach My Gospel to help ensure they are starting off well. One
of our trainers has only been in the mission 3 months himself. He came
ready to work and has done well with the language. The new 12 week
training plan for new missionaries is working well to get hardworking
missionaries up to speed quickly!
Wednesday
we took Elder Curtis out to lunch. He will leave his responsibilities
as secretary for the president this week. He has done a great job and
kept things going well in the office and for president. He has been
working hard to train Elder Hair who is replacing him. Elder Curtis will
go out and continue to work in other assignments here in the mission.
Friday
we went to the airport to receive one missionary that was sent to us in
the middle of the change cycle. Elder Norton arrived ready to go to
work. We had the usual orientation, photos, testimony meeting and dinner
as with all groups but it was a bit more personalized since there was
just the one missionary. He will be companions with Elder Fernandez who
was serving as an assistant. They will be a great
team. Again some things happened where President knew exactly who
should be Elder Norton’s trainer. The revelatory process in placement of
missionaries here in the mission has been a great blessing for me to
observe! We know each missionary who comes to this mission or any
mission is sent by the Lord to exactly the place he needs to be. Each of
has a work to do and with our diligent efforts and the Lord’s help we
can accomplish the work.
We
are so grateful for our experiences here. We feel especially blessed to
see the growth and progress that happens in the lives of our
missionaries. They come here from a variety of experiences and
backgrounds but with the Lords help each missionary can be successful
here. What is success for a missionary? In our
eyes it is developing a love for the Savior and gratitude for the
atonement to the extent that we apply it in our own lives and change and
become like Him. As we do that we genuinely have a desire and love to
reach out to those around us and share this beautiful gospel. When we
truly know that when we covenant with the Lord at baptism and later in
the temple that we can be with our families forever we want everyone to
hear this message! We are
grateful for the families and friends of ours and of all our
missionaries who support and help the missionaries keep focused on the
work here at this time in our lives. I love a scripture in D&C
31:6(and the whole section) that I read often that speaks to
missionaries.”Behold, verily I say unto you, go from them (your family)
only for a little time, and declare my word, and I will prepare a place
for them.” I know missionaries and their families are the recipients of
many blessings. We see the blessings in our family and are grateful for them. We hope you all have a wonderful week! (Sorry this was really long this week!)
Love, Mark and Sandy
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