Pictures March 27, 2011

Three faithful missionaries, Hermanas Steadman, Sargent and Elder

Moreno. we will miss them!

After testimony meeting at the mission home.

New Hermana Ramos from Honduras came with her companion Hemana

Cozzens to receive her endowment.

Hermanas Steadman, Sargent and Elder Moreno at the temple.

Elder Curtis , the new secretary getting to know his new desk.

All the new missionaries and their trainers.

All the new missionaries.

All the new missionaries at the airport. Elders Gillette,

Bowers,Wilson,Stewart, Gleason,Hair, Hermana Lefler,Elder

Geary,Hermanas Ramos and McGregor,Elders Weekly,Dominguez and Soria.

Hermana Knapp and Hermana Steadman feelling better!

March 27 2011

Dear Family and Friends, March 27, 2011

This was change week so we welcomed 13 new missionaries to the mission on Tuesday and then said goodbye to three on Thursday. We received a great group who are ready to go to work. Elders Bowers, Dominguez, Geary, Gillette, Gleason, Hair, Soria, Stewart, Weekly and Wilson and Hermanas Lefler, McGregor and Ramos all arrived on the same flight which was nice . We spent the day with them in orientation, eating and interviews with President followed by a testimony meeting. During the testimony meeting I had this strong feeling of love come over me for these young missionaries who are trying so hard to learn a language and everything else the Lord needs them to learn. It’s an exciting, scary, wonderful , interesting time for them as they begin to learn about the place they will live and serve the people for the next 22 months.

Thursday we said good bye to Hermanas Steadman and Sargent and Elder Moreno. They left with tears as they said good bye to this beautiful county and people. They all served well and are excited for the next phase of their lives. We spent a nice day with them at lunch and in the temple ending with dessert and a testimony meeting at the mission home. Sister Steadman had been ill but recovered just in time to go home with her group. We made three trips to the airport to see everyone off that day. We are lucky we are so close.

This week we also welcomed Elder Curtis into the office as the new secretary. He is learning fast as Elder Stearman is teaching him everthing he knows! That is a big responsibility but the young elders do such a great job in all the many things they have in their job description.

Friday we prepared for district conference in Ca’aguazu and drove there Saturday morning. We had some good meetings and were happy with the attendance. There are so many good people and it is fun now that we have been here a while to recognize more and more people and chat with them. It is always good to see the missionaries also. We have 8 serving in Ca’aguazu including one of our brand new ones, Elder Hair. It’s always nice to check on them after they have been here a days and he is doing well and very positive. His trainer Elder Davis is doing a great job. We returned home tonight and I am ready to drop! I have no trouble sleeping because the days are so full we are worn out by night time! Well , hope you all have a wonderful week . We are so excited to get to watch conference this weekend. The missionaries are excited to bring their investigators and show them what a modern day prophet looks like and what he has to say to the world. Love, Mark and Sandy

Pictures March 19, 2011

An example of ao po'i.

Hermana Knapp helping her companion Hermana Steadman.

Banana trees

Our friendly officer and the person who hit us.

The church in Yuty

Elder Aguilar after being set apart with his district and branch

presidents, brothers and President Callan.

March 19, 2011

March 19,2011

Dear Family and Friends,

Sunday we had a nice day as we drove out to Ca’aguazu to attend meetings and so Mark could also set apart a young man who has been called to serve a mission in Lisbon, Portugal. We are always excited when young men from here prepare for and receive callings to serve. Elder Aguilar is good young man who along with his two brothers have been faithfully preparing since his baptism four years ago with little family support. His father passed away and his mother went to Spain for work so the young men have supported each other the last few years. He is excited to serve!

We headed out Monday to complete the apartment checks for the rest of the mission. Many of the outlying apartments are more spread out so we did a bit of driving. We figure over the last two weeks we have driven about 1400 miles. We were able to see all but 5 apartments and we will see them in the month to come. We have seen all the missionaries except the 10 in those five apartments these last two weeks. We were happy with the majority of what we saw so it was a good week. The missionaries are working and cleaning and organizing better than they were last year at inspections. Paraguay really is a beautiful country and we saw some of the smaller towns and some things that we don’t always get to see. We stopped off in a city called Yataity where the Paraguayan embroidered cloth ao po’i was said to have begun. We bought a couple items and talked to some women who told their story of how the women needed something to do to help them earn money so they began doing the hand work and making clothing to sell.

The week kind of ended with a bang, literally as we drove into Ciudad del Este on Thursday. We were in a traffic roundabout where a policeman had stopped part of the circle to allow another part to go. We were in the front of the line and when he motioned for us to go we began driving. All of a sudden a woman way to our right decided she wanted to cut in front of us to go to the left. Mark stopped quickly to avoid hitting the driver’s side of her car. We rejoice for one second until we felt the slam from the truck behind us hitting the back of our car. Luckily, we were not hurt nor the other driver. Our car was drivable with some damage to the back only. The officer watched the whole thing and wrote up the accident declaring no one was at fault. The next day we had to go to the municipality to get the official record for the auto insurance. We are really getting to learn about Paraguay from many perspectives.

We pulled into Asuncion Friday night and checked into the office and then went home . We were there about an hour when we had to meet an hermana at the hospital who was having trouble with ongoing nausea. She ended up staying the night with a diagnosis of dengue fever which is the result of being bit by an infected mosquito. It is a virus treated by acetaminiophen and rest and lots of liquids. She stayed overnight and then will rest until she finishes her mission Thursday. What a hard way to end your mission! Normally people with dengue are not hospitalized but she was especially dehydrated so she was given an iv to get the fluids in her quickly. We can’t stress enough the importance of plenty of water here. All the missionaries were told this week to be sure they are using the repellant the mission gives them for their apartments and also their own personal repellant daily.

Well ,Tuesday we receive 13 new missionaries and lose only three. One thing that is constant around here is change. We love watching our missionaries come to the end of their missions having grown in many ways. Every six weeks we get a bunch of new ones to begin that process. Missions are a great growing time for all of us. If we take advantage of what the Lord is offering us we can learn how to share this gospel with the people here and also grow personally. We have many great missionaries who love the Lord and the people here. We are always trying to encourage them to give themselves fully to the work so they can accomplish all the Lord needs them to. What a blessing for us to be here with these young missionaries. Have a great week! Love, Mark and Sandy

Pictures March 12, 2011

This is a family of four on a motorcycle, not too uncommon a sight here.

Elders Patterson and Gonzales in Guaranbare'.

The new rented church in Guarambare'.

Avacados on the tree at elders apartment.

Elder Guenther at the airport.

Elder Facer at the airport.

Turtles helping with the work.

Elder Aris and Swenson race to spread the gospel.

Landlord in Libertad with pet turtle.

Parrot at one of the missionary apartment.(It belongs to the landlords)

Looking at the church grounds from Cerro Coro.

Looking down at the river from Cerro Coro.

Top of Cerro Coro.

Look at Cerro Coro from the Ita Enramada Chapel.

District meeting in Ita Enramada. Elders Ramirez,Robayo,

Reveron,Verduga,Sanderson and Phelps. Hermanas Quartino,Gonzales and

Tuitele.

March 12, 2011

March 12,2011

Dear Family and Friends,

This week we have been out doing apartment checks in all the apartments in the areas in and around Asuncion. We saw 41 apartments and 104 missionaries. Some of the apartments have four missionaries in them but we are in the process of getting them all down to two per apartment. We were pleased for the most part at what we found. Some needed a little work and we decided to move a few to better apartments. Mark checked the Area Books which are the records of everyone taught in the area. It’s important for the missionaries to be organized in their record keeping so they can keep up with the people they are teaching now and also for future reference. It is good to see the missionaries in their apartments, we learn a little more about them this way. When we learn to be more organized in our lives it helps us in every way, not just in the apartments but in the way we use our time and energy as missionaries. Most of the apartments are tile floors with wood doors and frames. They are basic but not too difficult to keep clean with soap, water and a squeegee. We gave everyone a new toilet bowl brush and some cleanser as we visited. We also did an inventory of each apartment to be given to the mission administrator so he can fix anything that needs repaired or replaced. The missionaries all are grateful for the new beds and microwaves the apartments got this year. We hope they all eat and sleep a little better now! Then they can work even better!!!

Tuesday Morning we also attended a district meeting in Ita Enramada. Elder Sanderson did a good job reviewing the weekly bulletin that had a summary of the teachings of Mark and President Arnold from the leaders’ council held last week. After the meeting Mark and I drove up Cerro Coro ,a hill that gives a nice view of the city. We met a man from Austria there and had a nice visit with him and shared a Book of Mormon with him.

Thursday was our grandson Williams third birthday . We were able to talk to him through skype and see his sweet face. What a blessing!

During the week we saw lots of fruit on the trees in the yards of the missionaries. Grapefruit, avocados and lemons are a great free food for many of the missionaries. Members are good to share with those who don’t have their own trees. We also saw parrots, a monkey in a tree, turtles and the ever present chickens and cows. We had fun at one apartment with the landlord’s turtles putting missionary name plackards on them and taking some photos for some future messages.

We saw a new church building that was recently rented in Guarambaray. Elders Patterson and Gonzalez were happy to show us the baptismal font outside being filled for a baptism that night.

It’s been along week with a lot of driving but it has been good to see so many missionaries.

Midway through the week we also went to the airport to say good bye to two faithful missionaries. Elder s Guenther and Facer finished their missions well. Both of these elders served in the office with us. Elder Guenther helped us get our storage room better organized for our teaching materials and was in charge of getting everything where it needed to go throughout the mission. Elder Facer was the financial clerk and did a wonderful job of making sure all the missionaries had their money each month and was sure apartments and everything else financial was done correctly. These two were also wonderful in their proselyting. They loved the people and it showed it the number of people they were able to teach and share the gospel with. That is why we are all here ,to share this wonderful gospel with more people. We hope you all have a wonderful week. Love , Mark and Sandy

It's a Small World in the Church!

I received the following picture from one of our great missionaries, Elder Ale, from Rosario Argentina who just finished his mission and returned home. He found one of the men we taught and baptized while serving in Argentina many years ago, Adres Lopez. He is a very active member and the small family of three that we found and taught has grown to 13 active members of the Church. Elder Ale, upon meeting Brother Lopez, figured out that his family had interacted with Brother Lopez's family in the past. In fact, Brother Lopez's daughter grew up to be a primary teacher of Elder Ale. Elder Ale loved her. Small world in the Church. Love to all, Mark