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