Pictures March 23, 2012

 Birds on the drive to Pilar. There were thousands!

  Pilar District President Mendoza and family.

 The whole Garcia family after they served us a wonderful asado (barbeque).

 The Garcia family in Pilar.

 With Romina Garcia-returned missionary from Pilar.

 They showed us how many Paraguayan travel around the town. We have
honestly seen five on one motorcycle driving down the road.

 Paraguayan sunset.

In Jardin Botanico where Paraguay was dedicated for the preaching
of the gospel Feb.25,1979 by Ezra Taft Benson.

 The Recoleta cemetary in Asuncion. It was quite interesting.
Families buy and take care of the buildings where the coffins are just
set on shelves.  Families visit often and open the doors to the
little buildings to spend time there.  Some of the areas looked like
little streets in a town with porches and front doors and curtains.
Many also had basements for space for more family members.

The building where the first gathering of  the church was held
in Asuncion on Calle Mayor Bullo . A total of ten people attended , 4
missiionaries and 6 others. It was held on Feb 29, 1950.

March 23, 2012

                                                                                                                                    March 23,2012

Dear Family and Friends,

       Last weekend we headed out to Pilar for our District conference there. It is a drive of five hours the last hour of which is a wetlands that is always full of birds. This time there was a huge amount of large white stork like birds with black markings on them. There were probably 1000 of them that we saw on the drive. We have four missionaries serving in Pilar and it was good to see them at the conference and then we went to inspect their apartment finishing our last inspection for the mission.We also saw our missionaries who serve in Ayloas and San Ignacio.

    Saturday the priesthood meeting  was held and then a presidency meeting. Sunday the adult session was held and then the general session. This district has four units, two in Pilar, one in Ayolas and one in San Ignacio. The travel is difficult for the two branches that are not in Pilar so both meetings are held on Sunday so the members can attend both meetings with only one trip. We had some nice meetings and then were invited to an asado(barbeque) at the home of the Garcias.  Romina served a mission to Argentina and returned last year. She and her mother and sister and husband are all members. The father is not. When Mark set Romina apart for her mission a couple years ago her father was not very happy to see her go. When she returned his heart had softened a bit. Romina spoke in the Sunday meeting and her dad came to hear her speak. Mark and the district president had visited the family on Saturday and the father invited us to come for dinner. It is always so nice to be in the homes with our friends here. They were so kind and we had a wonderful time with them before we drove back to Asuncion.

    Monday we went to check out the location of the dedication of Paraguay for the preaching of the gospel. It happened in Jardin Botanico on February 25, 1979 by Ezra Taft Benson.  Wednesday we also went and found the building where the first gathering of the church was held here in Asuncion. That happened on February 29, 1950. There were 10 people in attendance , four missionaries and 6 other people.  The building was on a corner of Calle Mayo Bullo. The missionaries lived on the second floor of the building. On the way home from seeing that building we stopped in to walk around The Recoleta cemetery that we had wanted to see. Families buy or build little houses to hold the caskets of their family members . The caskets are set on shelves and families go visit often. There were front doors and curtains on many just like little cottages. Parts of it looked like miniature towns with streets and porches. Other parts were simple buildings with many shelves and others were quite ornate.  It was an interesting visit for us.

   Our missionaries are working hard and we think about how far the missionary effort has come here since that first meeting in 1950. The first stake was organized in 1979 and now there are 10 stakes and 11 districts in the country. There are about 200 missionaries in each of the two missions now sharing the gospel with the people of Paraguay.  More than 70,000 people have joined the church in Paraguay where we are living to see the fulfillment of the promises of the scriptures that Lehi’s descendants would be gathered in. We are grateful to be a part of that gathering along with our missionaries.

                                                                                                                                                Love, Mark and Sandy 

Pictures March 15, 2012

 Sewing factory for Beehive clothing .One of only four or five in the world.

 In front of museum in Ayolas after checking apartment there.

 If you look carefully you can see four people on the motorcycle.

 The Jara family. Pt. Jara is a counselor in the mission presidency.

 District President Perez and family.

 Belen and Rebecca Jara.

District Counselor Capuzano and family.

District Counselor Horvath and family.

Bishop Garay and family.

 President Callan with future missionaries he's working with in the district.

  District presidency with Mark and counselor in mission presidency.
Brother Martinez,Pts.Campuzano,Perez,

Horvath,Callan and Jara.

The Presentacion family in Obligado.

 The chapel in Natalio Diez.

  My favorite tree covered part of the road between Encarnacion and
Ciudad del Este.

 Catholic church

 Sitting area in a missionary apartment.

 Sitting area in a missionary apartment.

Catholic church in Villarrica.

March 15, 2011

                                                                                                                                March 15, 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

      The last two weeks zoomed by and I didn’t get a chance to write so I will catch up with what happened the last two weeks. We have spent the majority of the time during the last two weeks driving throughout the whole mission inspecting all of the apartments in the mission. We will see the only two we missed this weekend when we go to a district conference in Pilar. We figure we drove 1000 miles and saw every missionary in the 95 apartments in the mission.  We were so pleased and happy to find almost every one very clean and well organized. We really saw only two that were very dirty and the rest were in great shape. The apartments are basic and simple which really makes them fairly easy to keep clean with a little work each preparation day. It was so fun to see each companionship and see the way they are taking pride in their apartments. We know they don’t always look this good but it was good to see how happy they were to show us how hard they had worked to get them ready for inspections. We really felt good about the way they all responded to our invitation to have clean ,orderly apartments. The mothers of all our missionaries should feel happy that their children are doing a good job in taking care of their apartments.

   Tuesday March 6^th we had a fun afternoon taking a tour of the beehive sewing factory here in Paraguay. All the garments for South America and Africa are made here. We met up with President and Sister Foster there who were with  Elder Marcus B. Nash and Richard E. Turley who were touring the area for the church history department. The Nash’s are from Lynnwood ,Wa. but now live in Centerville, Utah so it was fun to get to know them a bit and chat about Washington and Centerville. We were able to see a presentation about the history of the church here also that was wonderful and we learned a lot. The Fosters had a few hours before they flew back to Argentina so we got to spend the afternoon with then here at the mission home. We love them so much and we enjoy any time we get to spend with them.

   March 10th and 11^th we spent in Encarnacion for the district conference there. We had a nice weekend and enjoyed the conference. Sister Jara (wife of Mark’s counselor) and I  held a training for the women while the mission presidency had their priesthood training on Saturday. Sunday there was a nice choir and the final number was “I’ll Go Where You Want Me to Go”. On the final verse all 18 missionaries stood and joined in. The members really enjoyed seeing all the missionaries scattered throughout the congregation rise and sing together. The missionaries in Encarnacion are really doing a great job and seeing many successes in helping people come to the Savior.

   Monday we were up early visiting apartments along the way as we headed to Ciudad Del Este to finish the inspections.  We spent a few minutes in a museum in Hernandarias in between inspections learning bit more of the history of Paraguay . We have wanted to visit that museum for a while and realize that our time here is quickly slipping away so we took a few minutes to check it out. After finishing the inspections in Ciudad del Este on Monday and Tuesday we inspected apartments in Coronel Oviedo and Caauazu  Wednesday  where Mark also interviewed about 5 young people who are preparing for missions. Any missionary who serves a mission from one of the five districts receives his interviews from the mission president just as those in a stake receive them from the stake president. When we are out and about Mark tries to take advantage of the opportunities to interview so everyone doesn’t have to travel to Asuncion for interviews.

  We returned to Asuncion Wednesday night and felt happy we had been able to see all the missionaries and their apartments and found things in good order. The country is just beautiful this time of year…actually it usually is beautiful. Each time we make the rounds of our mission we are grateful for the time we have here together living in a beautiful country with kind and loving people and especially with our marvelous missionaries that we love so much.

  We received great new this week also from two of our children. Matt and Jessica will have their fourth baby in late September and Wendy and Kevin found out that they will be having a boy the end of July. That baby boy will bring our grandson count to an even dozen with only three granddaughters in the mix!  We’ll see what Matt and Jessi have in a few months. It appears the Callan missionary force is continuing to grow!!

  We hope you all have a great week.  Love, Mark and Sandy

Pictures March 3, 2012

  Primary children in Lucerito. Sandra Franco is the leader with us.

 All of the zone leaders after the council meeting in Asuncion. Front row. Callans, Elders
Snow, Ponce, Pastul, Nelson, Holmgren, Merrill, Hatch, Ramos, Chatterley, Guizada,

Schone, Curtis, Enriquez, Guitierrez. Back row. Elders Shaw,
Massey, Richards, Wray, Sievers, Boydston, Dexter, King

 Zone leaders with assitants Paladines, Love, Clement and Durrant.

  Elder Clark who is being trained as financiero by Elder Stewart.

 Elders Love and Paladines are off to do divisions in the outside zones.

 Elders Durrant,Clement, Schouten and Reid heading off to work.

  First Lady of Paraguay Mercedes Lugo with Elder Nicolas DiGiovanni
at the wheelchair ceremony.

 Speaking with the first lady.

 Baptism of Jose Avila in Lucerito.

Baptism of Jose Avila with Elders Johnson and Palma.