Dear Family and Friends,
Last
Sunday we were invited to speak to a youth fireside held by the
Fernando de la Mora South Stake. It was a good group of young people and
leaders who attended. We enjoy meeting with the youth here and see the
hope of the future in the youth. More and more are preparing for
missions. We love to hear their reports of mission calls that they have
received. That stake hold those firesides monthly.
Tuesday
we attended a district meeting in San Isidro. Elder Hager did a great
job planning the meeting and teaching and leading the meeting. We love
to see good things happening around the mission in the district meetings
that are held each Tuesday. Thursday we headed to Ciudad del Este for a
stake conference. We took a detour to a town called Tobati and visited a
center for local artisan work. The landscape was a bit different than
many of the places we drive through here. We then stopped in Caacupe
which is up the road half an hour. These two towns are the center of
religious worship for the Catholics here. The
story told is that a native Indian was being chased by a rival tribe who
was upset that he had become a Christian. He said that the virgin Mary
protected him and kept him from being killed. He carved two images of
her as his thanks to her. One of the images is in Tobati and the other
is in Caacupe. Each December 8 people make a pilgrimage to Caacupe to
give their thanks to Mary and ask for additional blessings. We have
enjoyed learning about the traditions and history here and seeing a few
of the places of interest that are in our mission.
We
went on to Ciudad del Este where Mark went out teaching with Elders
Wray and Knudsen and Gleason and Hardy. Friday the Ciudad del Este stake
held their priesthood leadership meeting. Saturday the adult meeting
was held and then Sunday the general session was held. The stake is
trying to improve attendance so they switched their meeting schedule and
it seemed to help as they had the best attendance they had ever had.
Mark taught some on Friday and we both spoke on Sunday. Saturday night
we were invited to a dinner with the presidency at the home of President
Kara. President Kara is from India and his wife Luz is Paraguayan. We
had a wonderful Indian meal with lots of curry and cilantro and rice and
chicken. We had fun spending time with the families of the presidency.
The conference sessions were all just great with great messages and
great attendance. It was a nice weekend. Sunday after conference we drove back to Asuncion.
While
we were in Ciudad del Este we were able to meet many new converts and
investigators of our missionaries there. There are 36 elders serving in
the Ciudad del Este stake and they had many people with them in the
meeting. We met some wonderful families who are
meeting with the missionaries and preparing for baptism. We also had to
say some good bye to people we will not see again while we are here.
There are some really wonderful people that we have met here and we will
miss them.
Well, we hope you have a great week. Love, Mark and Sandy
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