Adventures in Paraguay!

Friday, July 13, 2012

Final Pictures July 10, 2012

Luis and Lidu Galeano- our helpers in the mission home and office.

New Elders Chavez,Richart and Chavez at the airport.

Trainers Wilding, Hauser, Coggins with Elders Chavez, Richart and Chavez.

With ex Hermana Edwards, now Rachel and Aaron Lewis.

With office elders:Elders Hill, Nielson, Cannon and Clark.

With Assitants: Elders Clement and Henriquez.

Outside our office on our last day in Paraguay.

With the Agazzani family outside the office.

With President and Sister Agazzani.

With Elder and Sister DiGiovanni and President and Sister
Madariaga at the airport.

With Elders Clark and Nielson at the airport.

With President and Sister Peterson(President in Argentina) on our
way home in Dallas.

At the Salt Lake airport.

With part of the family who were at home when we arrived.

With ex Elder Andrew Dobbins and his wife Hillary who came to visit.

Family and friends gathering after speaking in church.

One last letter to finish up the events of our mission! Our last week in Paraguay began with a final staff meeting with our wonderful office elders and assistants. We took the office elders to lunch and finished preparations to receive the new president later that week.

Tuesday we received our last three missionaries from the MTC in Argentina. Elder Chavez, Chavez and Richart arrived and were oriented and fed lunch . Their trainers arrived to meet them and they were off to their areas. Later that night we met one of our former hermanas who had returned to Paraguay with her husband for an internship. We had a fun dinner with Rachel Edwards Lewis and her husband Aaron.

Wednesday we had a nice dinner with President Madariaga and his wife from the north mission and Elder and Sister DiGiovanni our area seventy. They are such good people and we will miss them. Thursday was spent in final preparations of the house and office for President Agazzani and his family.

Friday we checked over the office one more time and then checked into a hotel where we would stay that night. At 4:30 pm we were at the airport to greet President and Sister Agazanni and three of their children. Santiago (15years) ,Julieta(12) and Tomas(7) were excited and anxious to see where they would be living for the next three years. The older daughters ,Mikaela (19) and Brenda(18) were to arrive in July after their school semester in Argentina ended. We immediately went to the mission office to show them the facilities and introduce them to the wonderful office elders. We then went to the mission home where we showed them around and had a nice dinner prepared by our sweet Lidu and her husband. We spent a couple hours with the Agazannis sharing information about the mission and showing them the binders of information we had prepared for them until around 9:30 pm when we said our goodbyes to everyone and went to the hotel. They are such wonderful people and we truly felt the mantel shift to President Agazanni when he arrived in Paraguay. After one last sweet ,tearful hug between the former and new president ,the elders came to take us to the hotel. We left without the cell phones we had carried for three years and felt quite strange as we checked into the hotel to spend one last night in Paraguay but without the responsibility we had there for our sweet missionaries.

Saturday morning we were taken to the airport where the Madariagas and DiGiovannis were waiting to send us off with one more good bye. We took our turn taking pictures at our usual place for departing missionaries in the airport and we were off. A quick hour and a half later we were in Buenos Aires ,Argentina and quickly found that our flight from BA to Dallas had been cancelled! We called church travel who informed us that we had been reticketed for the same flight 24 hours later. We were taken to a hotel for the night and to our joy found that our good friends the Petersons who served as mission president in Neuquin, Argentina would be on the same flight with us Sunday night. Sunday morning we went to a sacrament meeting close to the hotel. After the meeting we were leaving and a sister came up to Mark and said that she was from Paraguay and that Mark had helped her when she had some problems before she moved to Argentina. She said she had felt bad she had not had the chance to thank him so was grateful to see him there in the meeting. What a tender mercy for all of us and a reminder of the fact that the Lord is aware of each of his children and their needs and desires.

As we were in Argentina waiting for our flight home we heard the sad news that our dear family friend from Farmington , Martha Hess had passed away. We were so sad to know that we would not get home in time to see her again. Saturday, back in Farmington, we attended her funeral and were taught so well by her wonderful family of the strength and comfort available to those who put their trust in the Lord. The Hess family is an amazing family who has blessed the lives of everyone who knows them. Martha especially was a friend to everyone and always reaching out to everyone. She was a true missionary and a great example to us always. We will miss her terribly!

Monday morning July 2^nd we arrived home at the Salt Lake City airport greeted by four of our children and their spouses and 11 of our grandchildren ,Mark’s parents and brother. It was soo good to see everyone! The next week was spent celebrating the 4^th of July with family and spending time seeing other friends and more family. Sunday July 8^th we spoke in Sacrament meeting and were in awe as we greeted 75 returned missionaries and many family members and parents of currents missionaries along with dear friends from Farmington. We were a bit overwhelmed by the numbers but felt such love and caring from so many that we know our adjustment here at home will go just fine! Life after the mission will be good because we now have the blessing of knowing our dear missionaries and can communicate with them in person or through internet and facebook.

Our lives have been changed forever because of our opportunity to serve together in Paraguay. We are so grateful for the things we have learned . Thank you for the love and support we have felt from all of you. The church is true and we want to always do our part to serve the Lord! Love, Mark and Sandy

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Pictures June 24, 2012

Elder Clark tring to complete his work amidst the work being done
in the office in preparation for the new president.

New missionaries at the airport. Elder Brimley,Sister Michael, Elder
Maxwell,Sister Stewart,Elder Seethaler and Elder Naef.

Trainers with new missionaries at the mission office. Elders Shaw, Maxwell, White, Naef, Seethaler, Hugie, Ashcroft, Brimley, Sister Lefler, Stewart, Michael and Ramos.

.Elders Maxwell, Naef, Seethaler, Brimley, Sisters Stewart and Michael.

Lunch with the missionaries completing their missions.

Elders Tyler, Davis, Brown, Beckett, Nelson, McGee, Madsen, Obray, Butcher, Sievers, Griffin, Sister Knapp, Elder VanMondfrans, Sister Little, Elder Larsen, Sister Paipa, Elder Richards, Sister Lewis outside the temple

At the mission home with the missionaries who are completing their missions.

With Elder Richards and family.

With Elder Seivers and family.

Baptism with Elders Wilson,Schone,Enriquez and Clement in the
Ka'aguy Rory ward.

June 24, 2012

June 24,2012

Dear Family and Friends,

This feels strange as we write our last letter from Paraguay! We thought three years would be a long time but it doesn’t feel like it has been so long now. Our week was filled with our last change week as we received 6 new missionaries from the U.S .and said goodbye to 18 more. We will receive three more new missionaries from the Argentina MTC this week also. It was our last time to go to lunch with those missionaries leaving the mission. It was the last time we will attend the temple in Asuncion. What a blessing we have had to be able to attend the temple each six weeks with our leaving missionaries. Having a temple here is a great blessing for the missionaries and for the people of Paraguay.

We had our last testimony meeting with our sweet missionaries at the end of their missions. Seeing the growth of our missionaries has been a wonderful thing to watch! Our feelings have been tender as we have experienced so many wonderful parts of this mission for the last time. We are so grateful for the wonderful missionaries who have come and gone during our time here. We have been blessed to have around 480 missionaries here during our time in Paraguay. They are all now a part of our lives forever. We always want to know what is happening in their lives and see the great things they will accomplish. We know our lives are so much better because we have been able to spend time serving here with all of them.

The parents of two of our missionaries came to pick them up so we had fun meeting Elder Richard’s parents and Elder Siever’s parents and brother. They were both excited to introduce their families to the people they had taught in their different areas.

Friday we spent a good amount of time watching as the president of Paraguay President Lugo was impeached. The formal proceedings began around noon and by 6:30pm they had sworn in the new president who was the vice president before- Federico Franco. We were asked to have all missionaries stay in their apartments for the evening that night because of some hints of violence but we were grateful that there were no more problems and we all went back to our normal schedules and work on Saturday. Some people have kind of joked that the people get more upset about losing a soccer game than a president being impeached. Hopefully things will remain calm as the changes in the government are put into place.

Saturday we went to a nice baptism in Ka’aguy Rory. A family of four and also a young girl were baptized. It was a nice service and the parents of the young girl are planning to be baptized in the future. Sunday we attended our home ward in Barrio Herrera. It was a tender time saying goodbye to some sweet people we have come to love. We were both asked to bear our testimonies one last time. We have seen what a wonderful change can come into people’s lives when they learn and accept the gospel and live it! These people will be in our hearts forever! They have blessed our lives so much.

We know this is the work of the Lord and are so grateful for the opportunity we have had to serve here in Paraguay. We are eternally grateful for the wonderful missionaries we have served with and for the preparations they made before they arrived in the mission and for the work they accomplished while they were here. We are grateful for all of their parents for teaching them and for supporting them while they have served. We are grateful for our family who has supported us in so many ways. We have mixed feelings as we leave this country and people and missionaries that we love so much. But we are excited to see what life will bring as we return to our family and friends at home. We know we will always be connected to our missionaries and that brings us much joy. We will write one more letter after our arrival home and that will conclude the report of our mission. We hope the things we have written have helped share a bit of the life in the Mision Paraguay Asuncion. A life we have loved so much! Have a great week! Love, Mark and Sandy