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
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