Merry Christmas Pictures!

  Beautiful greenery for Christmas time!!

 Stake President Rivarola's daughter and relative who sang at stake
conference.

 .The nativity in front of the temple in Asuncion.

 The daughters and nephew of Mark's councilor's in the mission Presidency.

 The Ocampos and Jaras.

 A woman and child out selling pineapples door to door.

  Coco de flor- this is a pod from coco(coconut) palm trees. At
Christmas the pod is split open an put out by the nativity in the
house along with fruits. The scent of the coco permeates the house .
We bought one on the street and kept it in the house for a while. It
has a nice but strong plant like smell.

 Christmas tree in the mission home.

 Christmas decorations in the mission office.

Elder Fernandez finished his mission and went home to Chile . He
was an excellent missionary and we will miss him so much!

Merry Christmas! December 17, 2011

December 17,2011

Dear Family and Friends,

    As the year comes to a close we have been thinking of the past year and the many good things that have happened in our lives. We are so grateful for the past year’s experiences that we have had here in Paraguay. We see the growth of missionaries as they focus on learning what they need to do to help more people learn about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have learned a lot and continue to try to improve things here in the mission.

   Our family has been blessed in so many ways also. Jenny and Brian have done so much to keep the home fires burning as they have been living in our home and taking care of things there and with the rest of the family. They had a new addition to their family this year as sweet little Eli made his appearance in June. He surprised everyone  by coming six week early but after a week’s stay in the NICU he came home and has done great .The other 4 brothers and 1 sister were happy to have another baby in the family. Callie, Jake , Josh ,Adam and Wil are all growing up so fast also. The boys love to study and read about various subjects(mushrooms were a focus for a while).  Callie got to go to Chicago with her school band and was so excited for the opportunity to travel and see Chicago.  Jenny and Brian helped us so much with the wedding plans for our daughters. Jenny is all ready to plan her own children’s weddings in the future.

   Matt and Jessica are in their fifth of six years in his oral surgery program in Buffalo, New York. Their three boys James, Christian and Preston are growing up fast also.  James loves to read and Christian likes to do anything his older brother does. Preston just tries to get out of the way of the brothers. Their home is always full of activity and excitement. Jessica works hard to keep the boys occupied and focused on great activities. We love hearing what is going on in their home!

   Wendy and Kevin made a move this year. They moved from Flower Mound ,Texas to Bellevue, Washington. They are living close to where they lived before Chicago and Texas so they have had fun getting reacquainted with old friends there. Kyle and Anna both seem to like their new school. Colin is at home with Wendy. Kevin and Wendy are both enjoying being closer to more family members from both sides of the family and Wendy’s grandparents are enjoying the visits they have had with their family. The weather is a big change so they are getting used to the cooler weather again after the warm Texas weather.

   Robert and Rachel are living in Provo/Orem and Robert is loving his job there. Their family is happily anticipating moving into their home they are purchasing in Orem. Jack and Rose are both growing up fast and we enjoy skyping with them and all the grandchildren to get keep connected. We love watching the family grow and take on new responsibilities. They are excited to be home owners!

   

This year brought some happy events for Laura and Sara. They were both married in August in the temple in Bountiful , Utah. They nicely coordinated their wedding days with each other and their mother so she could make one trip home for the weddings.  Jenny and the girls had fun planning everything and they had great results as everything went so smoothly and was beautiful!

  

Laura and Anson Hooper were married August 11. Sara and Daniel Lord were married August 12. We held a combined reception for both couples in Farmington. It was a wonderful time for all the family to gather and celebrate. Mark stayed in the mission here in Paraguay and kept connected through telephone calls and skype calls. He sent DVD’s for both daughters and their spouses so he could give a little fatherly advice also. It was nice the whole family was together giving Sandy the chance to meet four new grandchildren  along with the two new son in laws . Laura and Anson live in St. George where Anson is continuing his education and Laura is working. Sara and Daniel moved to Mesa, Arizona where they are both working. Sara and Daniel both graduated from BYU in April and Daniel started his job in Arizona  in May. Both couples are so happy and enjoying married life.

           

We are so grateful for this time of year and the chance we have to focus especially on the birth of our Savior. We are so grateful for the great plan of happiness that includes the opportunities we have to live with our families on this earth and forever! We love our family and the way the gospel is helping each one of us live our lives better. We know as we strive to be more like the Savior our lives will be better! We are grateful for this time in our lives that we have to be missionaries and share this wonderful message with the people of Paraguay!  We wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and hope you enjoy the Christmas season!                                                                                                                                       Love, Mark and Sandy

Pictures December 10, 2011

With Elder Rockwood and his parents outside the mission office.

With Elder Swenson and his mother..his dad had already gotten on
his flight, long story!

 

December 10, 2011

Dear Family and Friends,                                                                                       December 10, 2011

     Monday began with zone leaders’ council, a meeting that is held every month with all of the zone leaders. The purpose is to teach and strengthen the zone leaders and help them better understand their responsibilities. Part of the time is discussion, part instructional and part deciding as a group along with President’s input as to what the mission should strive to achieve in the next year. It is a great learning process and experience for these young men who will soon be home serving in wards and branches in leadership capacities. We had a large group of zone leaders finish their time serving as zone leaders or finish their missions with the last change so there are quite a large number of new zones leaders needing to learn quickly! The mission is all about teaching, teaching, teaching and more teaching!  Someone explained it to us as a lake with a river feeding in and out of it. The mission is like the lake and the constant flow of missionaries in and out is represented by the rivers. No matter how often and thoroughly we talk about and teach things there are always new missionaries to teach (and old ones who still haven’t learned some things!) Oh well we just keep teaching and re teaching!

   Tuesday we went to a nice district meeting with Elder Falepapalangi and his district from Fernando de la Mora stake. It was a well organized meeting and the eight missionaries there are in good hands. Elder Falepapalangi focused on some things we talked about in the recent zone conference which is exactly what they are suppose to do. It is nice to go out and see missionaries trying hard to keep the work moving forward in a good way!

  Thursday Mark spoke in a combined 3 stake gathering for future missionaries. Our missionaries were there to take groups of youth out to speak with people and gather references. They probably received about 150 names and phone numbers of people who were interested in having the missionaries come back and teach them. It was fun for the youth to get an idea of what missionary work is like. Anytime we can help the youth know better what a mission is all about it helps them prepare better for their own future experience.

   We met the parents of two missionaries this week who had come to pick up their sons. It is nice to see the joy in the faces of parents when they see who their children have become during their missions. Elder Rockwood and Swenson have both been great influences here in the mission. 

    Mark and I have a standing joke when we are on the road early in the morning when I ask if we could just drive through McDonalds for a breakfast burrito. (There are some McDonalds in certain cities here but they didn’t have breakfast.) The other day we saw a sign at McDonalds that said they were now serving breakfast. On the way home from an early meeting the other day Mark sweetly stopped to check on the menu and found that the menu included  pan queso(cheese bread), chipa (Paraguayan cheese bagel/roll) and an inside out hamburger bun with ham and melted cheese  that they called a tostada!  We laughed and will continue to wait for that breakfast burrito in the future!!  

     We see the signs of Christmas everywhere now. We were in a mall the other day and there was life sized nativity that was beautiful .The airport also has a nice nativity. Paraguay doesn’t have a problem with including Christ in Christmas like many in the world seem to these days.

     We are enjoying our third Christmas here and especially the blessing of being focused on sharing the gospel full time. Since being here we have been able to eliminate the running around part of Christmas that sometimes gets out of hand. We are trying to help our missionaries also stay focused on the work and not on the things they might be missing at home. Families can help a lot by encouraging their missionaries to throw themselves into the work especially now. What a wonderful time to be here sharing the gospel! We got a message from a missionary who is now at home and he said as he was thinking of the upcoming Christmas that his best and most spiritual Christmases were here in the mission.  We love our missionaries and the things we are learning from them as they grow and recognize the important lessons of the mission and life.  We hope you all have a wonderful week! 

                                                                                                    Love, Mark and Sandy

Pictures December 4, 2011

 Visit from  returned missionary Elder Ale from Argentina. So good
to see him again!

 Elder Segovia(California) at airport. He arrived after the group
because of visa issues.

 Visit from Elder Phelps and his family!

 Elder Wray (old administrator) with Elder Calvert (new administrator).

 New Elders Escoffre (from France,Valle (from Australia),Puma
(Peru), and Castillo (Mexico) at the airport.

  Hermana Jones,Willnauer, Elders Rodeback, Lund, Johnson,

Dockstader, LaFaye, Speedy, Ashcroft, Nielsen, Call, Boudreaux and Allphin at the airport.

 

 All the new missionaries at the mission office.

 All the new missionaries and trainers at the mission office.

  The missionaries finishing their mission at the temple. Elders Stokes,Skinner, Fowers, Hall, Patterson, Swenson, Anderson, Hernandez, Rockwood, Roberts, Eddy,

Piriz, Cano, Pearson, Sorensen and Hermanas Quartino and Troesch. 

Missionaries finishing their missions after testimony meeting at
the mission home.

 Patricia and her grandmother day after Patricia's baptism.

 .Elder Gleason and Hair with Patricia and her grandmother.

 Trainer Elder Salinas with new Elder Segovia.

December 4, 2011

Dear Family and Friends,                                                                       December 4, 2011

    We had a great week meeting 18 new missionaries who came from all over the world! We received 14 missionaries from the United States and four elders from Peru, Mexico, Australia and France.  The elder from Australia is a native English speaker but has ties to El Salvador so he speaks Spanish. The elder from France studied English,Japanese and Spanish in school and was quite surprised to be called to Paraguay. He actually knows Spanish quite well and didn’t go the MTC for language study. Seventeen of the missionaries arrived on Tuesday and one came yesterday because of visa problems.

   We had a nice week with the arrival and departure activities for the 18 missionaries who arrived and 17 who were finishing their missions. We received 17 missionaries Tuesday and spent the afternoon with orientation,interviews, signing legal papers, dinner and getting everyone to bed by 10:00pm.  Wednesday we spent 5 hours with the new missionaries and their trainers in various training meetings. The new missionaries were off to their areas with their trainers by 1:30 pm and then we went to lunch and the temple followed by a testimony meeting at the mission home with the missionaries who were finishing up their missions.    We sent home some wonderful missionaries that we will miss here in the mission!

     Thursday we went to the airport twice to say goodbye to that group of missionaries. After the airport we took our Luis and Lidu Galeano out to lunch . They are our helpers here in the mission home and in the office. They do so much to help the missionaries and us. Change week especially increases their work load so it was fun to sit and eat and visit with them and just thank them for all they do to help the missionary effort here.

     Saturday Mark was at the temple early interviewing a sweet family of ten for their endowment and sealing. He was very impressed with their preparation to enter the temple. They joined the church four years ago and had been working to be prepared to make and keep their covenants. That afternoon we received one more missionary who was waiting for his visa and couldn’t come with the group on Tuesday. We spent Saturday afternoon and Sunday after church getting him oriented and ready to go out with his companion.  Saturday night we attended a nice baptism of a young woman named Patricia. Over a year ago Mark had gone out teaching with Elder Pitcher one night to teach her brother. They met Patricia and her grandmother that night and remembered thinking she seemed a bit interested. The missionaries went back and found her recently and she was ready to be taught and be baptized. Her grandmother will be baptized in the next week or so. One  part of the missionary’s responsibilities involve keeping records of those visited and taught in the past in an area book that is kept  in their apartment. Many times when the missionaries go back to visit people who are in the book their lives have changed and for whatever reason they are now ready for the message of the gospel where before they weren’t. It is so wonderful to see the joy that comes to people as they change their lives. A recent convert of a month named Helen bore her testimony at Patricia’s baptism as to the joy she feels in her life now. Helen was called to teach Relief Society after being a member of the church 2 weeks. She is great and excited to help Patricia as she begins her new life in the church also.

    We are enjoying the beginnings of the Christmas season here as we move toward Christmas. This is such a great time of year to be sharing the gospel!!  We love and miss you all!  Love, Mark and Sandy

Pictures November 26, 2011

   Zones 7 and 11 from Encarnacion and Pilar at zone conference held
in Encarnacion.

  Zones 9 and 10 from Ciudad del Este and Hernandarias.

Detour through country side  because of demonstration out side of
Coronel Oviedo

 

 .Little boy repairing the road damage.

  Typical houses in country.

 Country lane busy with traffic from detour.

 Typical houses.

  Little boy caring for cow.

 

Little girls in front of school and playground.

 Red soil of Paraguay.

 House with cart. We see these alot in certain areas pulled by
large cow /oxen animals.

Cow crossing!

  This time of years these are sold on the streets so people can buy
them and put their nativities in them for Christmas. Most people have
a nativity somewhere in there home for Christmas.

  Catholic churches.

.Rock formation.