pictures

1- Cheryl in front of the Garay house. 

2- A Christmas tree in the Branch 3 building.  Made from  2 litre soda bottles.

3- One of the Seminary Graduates - Helbert Echeverria

4- Our garden continues to do well.  Tomatoes all died, but we have green peppers, mandioca, and many plants and flowers.

1- the man who helped with our flat tire.

2- The virgin de Caacupe in front of the neighbors house.

3- Selfie

4- Cheryl and Brisa.  See if you can read Brisa’s nametag.

December 14, 2015

Hello to everyone.  First of all, I will send separate emails with photos attached.  Makes it easier for everyone to receive the email even if they can’t receive all of the photos.

It has been an interesting week with strange weather and all of the accompanying challenges that come with it.  It is unusually cool and rainy for this time of year.  We have some really hot days, but many are cooler and rainy.  The bad weather is creating serious problems for the economy here, and for some of the members.  One good family is struggling with financial issues due to the fact that the husband can’t work making bricks due to the rain.  Plus, there is no demand for bricks as construction is all but stopped due to the weather.  Their son, a returned missionary, works in a shoe shop but there are no shoe orders so he is not working.  They had ducks and chickens which they used for eggs and eventually to sell.  All of their ducks and 19 babies died due to a virus.  All of their chickens and their 13 babies dies from the same thing.  The spouse sells used clothing from door to door, but no one is buying anything right now. So this good family is struggling for food, electiricity, water, clothes, etc.  We would appreciate your prayers in their behalf.

This week we helped our neighbor and landlord trim a very large tree in the street in front of our houses.  He was up in the tree with a machete cutting off rather large branches, and we were all on the ground trimming and stacking the branches for removal later.  It is much safer now and we get more light from the streetlight. 

Tuesday was the big celebration for the Virgen of Caacupe, the virgin of Paraguay.  Our next door neighbor has a sanctuary for her saint in the road in front of her house, and they had a large activity that day.  They had a mass in the street (blocked off from traffic) in the morning, and a large meal for family and friends at noon.  We were invited but unable to attend due to a zone meeting in Concepcion.   When we returned home, however, she gave us some of the food she had prepared - a plate with three large pieces of blood sausage!

On Wednesday we drove to Tacuati to assist with the cleanup of the missionary’s yard and house.  When they were moved from the area they only had a few hours notice so they dropped everything and left.  The landlord threatened to evict us even though we were paying the rent because the place looked so bad.  The members of the group there did all of the work - we provided cleaning supplies and the funds to pay the man to weed wack the yard.  The house had been cleaned and organized so well that it looked almost good enough to live in.  It is still very small and isolated.  But the members really want missionaries to return to Tacuati.

On the way to Tacuati we had a tire blowout.  Cheryl and I started to change the tire when a friendly man on a horse rode up and asked if we needed help - which we did.  With his help and the help of his brother-in-law, we were able to get the spare in place and arrived in Tacuati without problem.  We repaired the tire and on the return trip to Horqueta had another blowout on the same tire.  Fortunately we were only two blocks from the tire repair shop.  The tire was destroyed so we had to order two from Asuncion which arrived early the next day.  We were talking about this experience and realized the had of the Lord in watching over us.  We were not injured when the tire blew out.  We were in an area with no cell phone coverage.  We were blessed to have a good and honest man come to help us, and when the tire blew again we were only two blocks from the tire store.  The new tires arrived in less a day and we were able to travel to Concepcion the very next day.  We are humbled and grateful.

Friday the Elders invited the familia Cranney to lunch at their apartment.  We took a drink and breadsticks,  and they provided the spaghetti and salad.  It was amazingly good!

Friday night we attended the Seminary Graduation in Concepcion where 4 of the youth graduated after 4 years of attendance.  Pretty amazing.  During the event the power went off and then the storms started.  We left at 900 pm and it was pouring buckets of rain as well as wind, lightening, and thunder.  It took us about twice as long as normal to drive home, but we made it safely. We also used our new projector to show 2 videos about seminary and it worked really well!

Saturday we had an invitation to have a light meal with the owner of the local book / paper store and her family.  It was really a good experience.  They have a simple but beautiful home and served sandwiches, cake, juice, and hot chocolate.  We made arrangements to return before Christmas to share some American food and show them the video “Ha Nacido un Salvador”, or A Savior is Born.  Later that evening the missionaries were tracting that same street and knocked on that door.  They asked if they could come in and show a Christmas video.  Kelli, the daughter, said that the Cranneys had already made arrangements to return and show the video.  We all laughed about that!

Yesterday morning we got up to a sunny and warm morning.  We thought -”great, the members should come to church today because there is no rain, it is not cold, and the roads are not muddy.   Then the power went out.  The power came back on about 60 minutes into our meeting schedule.  We had reasonable attendance with 38 people.

We are still trying to decide if we want to purchase a Christmas tree or not.  Cheryl already bought some garland and lights and we will decorate the inside of our home a bit.

We love and appreciate you all.  Please pray for the good people of Paraguay who are beginning to suffer some pretty serious challenges in their lives.  We so want to help but there is only so much that we can and should do.

Love ,

Jerry and Cheryl

    

My helper and new friend

On Dec 10 Cheryl and  I were driving to Tacuati, a distance of about 40 km on rocky roads.  At about km 25 our right rear tire blew out.  We started locating all of the pieces and parts of the jack and tried to remove the tire and replace it with the spare.  I also discovered that we had no cell phone coverage!  I noticed about 100 yards up the road a man on a horse watching me.  He signaled for me to come visit with him so I left Cheryl visiting with a young girl (who spoke only Guarani).  This man said there was a tire repair shop up the road about 400 meters.  He came and looked at the tire and then rode his horse to ask for help at the shop.  He later returned saying no one was home at the shop, but his brother in law was coming to help us.   We got the tire changed, the spare installed, and on our way again in about an hour- thanks in large part to this good man.  He spoke little Spanish, much Guarani, some Portuguese, and a little German.  He invited us to come visit him at any time at his house near where we blew the tire.

Sometimes we don’t really appreciate, in our times of trial, the tender mercies of the Lord in our behalf.  We were blessed to have a good, honest man who was willing to help us.

Thought you might enjoy both the story and the photo.

Love you all.

Jerry and Cheryl.

December 7, 2015

Horqueta 7 December 2015‏

Horqueta 7 December 2015

mom & dad cranney

12/07/15

Photos

To: Justin Cranney, Angela Williams, Melissa Sampson Cc: Cheryl Cranney, Karen & Lex Cranney, Don Cranney, Lori Cranney

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1 - Our favorite hamburgers at Lometeria San Lucas.  You can see they wrote their name on the top of the burger in garlic sauce.

2-  A goat resting.

3-  A nursery (Vivero) near our house named Achu.  Especially relevant for those who have allergies or hay fever. 

4- A large, very large red bee on  our flowers this morning.

Greetings to all.   Thank you so much for your love, support, and prayers.  We truly appreciate all that you are doing for us.

This has been another week of cool, rainy days.  It usually starts to rain very early in the morning with lightening, thunder, and heavy rain - starting around 4:00 or 4:30 am.  It rains heavily for several hours, the lightens up and just drizzles after noon.  There is always mud everywhere, and with the high humidity everything we have is damp - towels, clothes, sheets on the bed, all of our books and papers.  Cheryl’s Book or Mormon came loose at the binding and the branch president reglued it - now mine is falling apart.  The rains is having a serious impact on the local economy here - there is no construction going on, no brickmaking, not much farming, etc.  So no one has cash and no one is shopping at the local grocery stores.  Kind of a downward spiral.  They all blame the rain on el Nino - (which translated is “the nino”). 

Yesterday was a very good day for us.  We awoke to a light rain and thought “oh no, no one will come to church today”.  But in the end we had 35 people in attendance (and one small dog).  It was testimony meeting and there were so many strong and sincere testimonies shared.  We really enjoyed the ones in Spanish since we can only partially understand the ones in Guarani.  We are so grateful for those faithful members who come to church, come rain or shine.

This week we also had instruction and interviews with President McMullin.  He taught all of the missionaries the importance of being obedient, and that there really are no excuses for not being obedient.  As a result of his instruction, we chose to not participate in an outing to a famous hill about 2 hours away - a wonderful place for pictures.  It is out of our zone and thus not appropriate for us to travel there.  He is a great President and we have grown to love him and his family very much.  He brought a small cooler full of goodies for Cheryl.  Sis McMullin called from the Super Seis Supermarket about 10 days ago and said that she found some chocolate chips - real ones.  So Cheryl ordered several bags of chips, two bags of marshmallows, 2 brownie mixes, and 3 containers of Hersheys cocoa.  What a find.  We can make all kinds of treats for Christmas.

We went to Concepcion for Presidency meeting on Thursday, but we left early and visited for an hour or so with Alex and Hilda - some of our favorites.  They sell imported goods, but they also make all kinds of good and interesting foods and share recipes.  Alex also has a small garden and he started a few plants for us. They are a Brazilian plant with very large leaves.  You can eat it in a salad or in a smoothie.  They are great folks and we really enjoy visiting them.  Hilda also gave us a recipe for pineapple upside down cake as the season for fresh pineapple is here.  The pineapple are small, but they are sweet!

We had two Family Home Evening appointments this week.  One is with three youth who joined the church without any family support.  Their mom is living and working in Spain (8 years now) and the dad is never around.  They need a fair amount of support from the branch to stay on track.  The second was with a great family who, according to the dad, is 100% on everything about the church… except they don’t come to church each Sunday.  We are working to help correct this incorrect assumption.  You can't be 100% if you don't attend church and partake of the Sacrament.

We are working with the District and Branch leaders to be more effective, and hopefully committed to their callings.  We have started using agendas for meetings, plan our Sacrament meetings more than 1 hour before they start, and are having Presidency and Branch Council meetings.  A long way to go, but we are starting. 

We now have a 2nd counselor in the District Presidency.  He is Elder Guterres and he and his wife are the only other couple missionaries in our mission.  They are from Brasil and he speaks pretty good Spanish.  The Hermana Guterres speaks mostly Portugues.  She and Sister Cranney get along pretty well.   Our District President is from Paraguay, I am from the US, and Elder Guterres is from Brasil.  Pretty fun to work with them. 

We are relatively healthy and enjoying the work. We have been blessed thus far with no major sicknesses, just the normal kind of stuff you get in South America. 

Thanks again for everything.  Love you all. 

Jerry and Cheryl

1 - Our favorite hamburgers at Lometeria San Lucas.  You can see they wrote their name on the top of the burger in garlic sauce.

2-  A goat resting.

3-  A nursery (Vivero) near our house named Achu.  Especially relevant for those who have allergies or hay fever. 

    

November 30, 2015

We had a great Thanksgiving dinner and time with the missionaries.  Our menu included chicken, mashed potatoes (from the Hermanas), cooked carrots, jello salad, rolls (made by the Elders), gravy, and for dessert apple pie and chocolate layer cake.  Everyone ate a ton and we realized more than ever how very blessed we are.  After dinner Hna Ross had an activity for us in which every person had a paper with their name at the top.  You pass it one to the right and that person writes something about you for which they are grateful.  You then pass it again to the left, and when it arrives back to you - you have to write something about yourself for which you are grateful.   We had a good day but missed our family bunches and bunches.

Yesterday was kind of a downer at church.  It has been cold and rainy, and yesterday was no exception.  When we counted attendance during Sacrament Meeting we had 14 people in attendance including 6 missionaries.  We are so grateful for the 8 faithful members who attended, but we were a out 30 short from where we really should be right now.  We did kick off the new church Christmas program “Ha Nacido un Salvador”.  We were all so touched by the wonderful video with the children speaking.  We are anxious to share with all of our friends and neighbors.  We also had a meeting with a counselor in the mission presidency about the Book of Mormon and how we should be reading it regularly - and try to complete it prior to Conference in April. 

Our projector arrived yesterday and we used in for the Book of Mormon discussion.  It worked amazingly well in a fairly light room.  Our branch president is very excited to see the First Presidency devotional at 10:00 next Sunday night.  He has never seen a devotional before.  We have already had to set some ground rules for the use of the projector - our District President wanted us to send it with Pres Colman for the Book of Mormon activity in Concepcion yesterday.  We told him that it only went where we went - and should be used only by us.   Too much money and grief for us to sent it out all alone in the backwoods of Paraguay.

We had a great Family Home evening with the Arce family the other night.  We are trying to help them out both temporally and spiritually.  There is no Dad in the home, just a Mom, a married daughter, a teenage son, a daughter,  and two granddaughters.   They live in the most humble of circumstances and struggle with many challenges in life.  They have a very small and humble 2 room house with a large yard of dirt.  Their garden of tomatoes was destroyed by the rain and flooding, and they don’t have electricity in their house yet.  We had two of them work here at our house so they could purchase wire to add power to their house.  They also have struggles with the teenage son, and the mother speaks very little Spanish.  But there is a very special feeling or spirit in this home.  We always feel loved and welcome when we visit.  We had a family home evening about how the Lord will bless us both temporally and spiritually when we are obedient (Mosiah 2:41).   We challenged them to read the book of Mormon every day as a family and trust that the Lord will bless them - as we have experienced in our home.  We trust that they will receive enough blessings to stay afloat and stay faithful in the church.

The son-in-law works way out in the country and the other day he came home with a baby cat that he found after he had burned some fields.  The cat got singed a bit in its whiskers and feet but should be fine.   This is NOT a housecat.  It appears to be a baby jaguar or tiger of some sort.  It only will eat meat, it doesn’t mew - it growls, but is very cute.  The chickens in the yard are already afraid of it and it is still a baby.

We are truly grateful for the opportunity to serve. We appreciate the support we receive from all and pray that health, happiness, and success come to all.

Love you.

Jerry and Cheryl

November 23, 2015

Hello to Everyone.  It is preparation day, so here comes the weekly email.

We have had an interesting week here in the mission. 

Our Garden is doing well, other than the rain and wind.  We hope our tomatoes survive and some day begin to bear fruit.  We have two green pepper plants and both are doing well.  We have 5 small mandioca trees and all are growing well.  We also planted some seeds and now have 17 watermelon and two melon plants.  We will need to thin them out.

Our projector was finally rescued from the customs office in Asuncion.  It cost nearly as much in taxes, processing costs, paperwork, etc.  We should have it here in a week or two and then we can start to use it for training, youth activities, etc.  We believe it will be a great tool for missionary work, youth activation, etc. 

We are planning a Thanksgiving dinner for the missionaries in Horqueta and the zone leaders from Concepcion.  This day is not a holiday here in Paraguay, so we only have a short time for dinner.  We are planning to have roast chicken, mashed potatoes, jello salad, bread / rolls, cooked carrots, apple pie, and lemonade.  Should be good.

This last weekend we had a branch conference in Santani - about 3.5 hours south of here.  It included the branch in Santani, groups from Santa Rosa and San Pedro, and one other small group.  In Sacrament meeting on Sunday we had 142 people in attendance.  We rode down with the District Presidency, so there were 6 of us who went.  It was a decent trip and we had two meetings Saturday evening.  We then went and checked into a somewhat questionable hotel, but we did get some rest.  We had very good Sunday meetings, had a very good dinner at a member’s house, and then rode home with 8 others.  It was crowded but we arrived safely home.  A couple of interesting experiences:

• We had dinner late Saturday evening - we had hamburgers, fries, and ice cream. 
• We saw some sort of auto show at the town square with probably 30-40 volkswagons.  Photo attached.
• During the sustaining of church leaders on Sunday morning, the list of people to be sustained had not been updated with the passing of some of the Apostles, so the President started to sustain Boyd K Packer as President of the Quorum of the Twelve.  Later we decided that we believe in doing work as proxies for those who have passed on. This was something new - sustaining someone who had already passed on.
• I drove about half way home in the Presidents van.  I grew to appreciate more the car we have assigned to us.

We are experiencing some challenges with the youth of the branch.  Their attendance and their commitment is waning - and we are trying to figure out why and what we can do to help.  We have found that many of these youth were taught and baptized by very energetic and friendly missionaries.  They have been visited 2-4 times per week, weekly Family Home Evenings, and other events.  What is lacking in a strong commitment to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and knowing that Jesus is our Savior.  When new missionaries have arrived and focused more on teaching and baptizing, many of these youth have become upset and even at times offended.  As a result their attendance and commitment drops off.  We will be working to help, support, and direct the youth - to help strengthen them so that they can obtain their own testimonies and be converted.   I was thinking this morning how the situation with the youth correlates to our  experiences with our garden:

Our weather has been unusually wet and cold.  The heavy rains have pounded our garden and after each storm we have to go out and try and save our tomatoes. We have to help them stand up, we attach them to stakes and poles, we wash the dirt and sand off their leaves, and we pile up dirt around their roots so that they can better stand on their own.  We also spray the leaves regularly with a mild soap solution to help keep  away the virus / mold.  We check on them daily and provide whatever support or help they need.

If we give the same sort of support for each of the youth of our branch, we have a very good chance of helping them stay active in the church, receive the Priesthood, and receive the blessings of the gospel in their lives. 

We love you all and thank you for your support.

Jerry and Cheryl

November 16, 2015

Hello to all.  We so much appreciate the ongoing support we receive from our family and friends.  We are grateful for the technology that makes it possible to stay in touch - via email, Skype, WhatsApp, etc.  It helps us know that all is well at home.

We are doing well.  We sort of hit a lull in the work the last couple of weeks.  We have new missionaries that don’t invite us to participate with them in lessons, Family Home Evening, or other visits as often as previous missionaries.  We try to invite ourselves, but they are not used to working with couples - so they usually just forget.  As a result, we will be relying more on the Branch Council to help identify families that we need to visit each 2 weeks and then go out and do it.  We have had some success recently with just visiting less actives, letting them know we miss them, inviting them to come to church again, and telling them that we and their Heavenly Father love them.  They seem to appreciate the fact that we don’t apply as much pressure as the young missionaries and as a result we nearly always receive an invitation to return and visit again.  In some cases, these members won’t allow the young missionaries to visit them. We keep reminding ourselves that the young missionaries are here to do their work and they have great motivation to do so - so some times the press hard as they have been taught and counseled to do.

Yesterday was Voting Day for the new mayor and council for the city of Horqueta.  The campaign has been going on for months and finally yesterday the elections were held.  It was Sunday, so we were sure that not many people would come to church, but we had 35 in attendance.  Some had voted prior to church and there was plenty of time for the rest to vote after church. The campaigns always provide free food in exchange for a promise to vote for them, so tons of people come in from the outlying areas for the food and beverages.  The polls closed at 500pm, and the winner was announced by 7:00 or so.  For the rest of the evening supporters of the winning party (the Colorados) drove around town in caravans with horns blaring, screaming, etc.   Quite a sight.  Fortunately they only have these elections every 4 years or so.

We are staying busy with our other church assignments.  We are very busy with our calling in the District Presidency - meetings 1 or 2 times per week in Concepcion, branch visits on Sundays, talks to prepare, visits to make, etc.  The people here are so kind and loving, yet struggle to serve in their callings.  As Pres. Eyring has said, many struggle to serve because they have already served for so long, and others struggle because they know how much more there is to do and they get discouraged.   So we continue to work, teaching, encouraging, etc. 

We asked Justin to send us a package with a small PC Projector to use for training in the branches and District.  We also could use it to watch General Conference, devotionals, and other church broadcasts.  They don’t have much to use here and we were so excited to have it arrive.   Well, it did arrive at the airport in Asuncion, but it will cost 300,000Gs (about $60) just to retrieve the paperwork and we then have to pay taxes which could be more than the value of the projector.  We are frustrated, concerned, and praying to do the right thing.   We really need this equipment here but feel we have been pinched by the system here.  So we  are searching for the correct thing for us to do.

Cheryl has started to cough again.  The hot, dry weather continues to generate tons of dust and she is coughing more than before.  I nearly wilt in the heat, but we drink lots of water, use the cooling towels that Lori sent, and try and plan our trips and visits during the parts of the day when it is not so hot.

I attached some photos:

1- Daisy Duarte voted before church yesterday.  When you vote, they dip your finger into ink so that you can only vote once.

2- The Hermanas had a baptism on Saturday.   Sara is a cousin to other members in the branch and is so excited to be a member.

3- This morning for Preparation Day, we invited the Elders and Hermanas to our house for French Toast.  It turned out well.

4- The other night at the church we had a small visitor.  It is some kind of beetle that is about as big as our nametags.  Weird.

We have invited the missionaries to join us for Thanksgiving dinner.  They have to work since it is  not a Paraguayan holiday so we will only have an hour or so for dinner.  We plan to have baked chicken, mashed potatoes, cooked carrots, rolls, and hopefully an apple pie.   More to come on this topic.

Thanks again for all that you do for us.  Love you all.

Jerry and Cheryl.

November 9, 2015

Greetings to all.

It has been a relatively calm week here in Horqueta.  The weather has been unusually cool, but very humid with a lot of rain and clouds (reminds me of University Place

On Monday we invited the Sisters and Elders to our house to use our Internet as the internet at the church is still out of order.  They like to use 2 hours each Monday to write to family and friends - the good news is that we have 2 laptops so it goes faster.

Tuesday was “Cambios”, or changes / transfers.  We go to Concepcion for the change meeting and all of the missionaries anxiously wait to see if they will be transferred.  This time the President changed the way in which transfers are handled.  Each of the missionaries stood up, and one by one were told to either sit down because they were staying in their current location, or to come forward as they would be leaving.  In the past each missionary who was leaving would be told where they were going and who would be their new companion.  There was always a huge amount of noise, phone calls, comments, rumors, etc that came from this approach.  This time all of the missionaries being changed were instructed to travel to the Mission Office in Asuncion and there they would be told where they were going and would meet in person their new companion.  It was truly a test of their faith but it did create a much better environment and helped everyone focus on their current companion, the members, and really cut down on the noise and the phone calls. 

In Ward Activity night we taught a lesson on Sustaining the leaders of the church.  We used the example of Moses, Aaron, and Hur.  During one of the wars, as long as Moses held the staff of the Lord above his head, the Israelites prevailed in their battle.  If his arms dropped, the enemy prevailed.  So Aaron and Hur held up / sustained the arms of Moses and the Israelites were victorious.  We had one of the youth come up and hold up hymn books while we read this story from the scriptures.   He got tired pretty fast.  We then had two other youth come up and help him hold up the books.  It was fun, I think they understood the point, and we enjoyed teaching them.

We visited several members this week, to deliver items we purchased for them in Asuncion, to see how they are doing, and to invite them to come to church.  It is always a challenge when they commit to come on Sunday, but don’t show up.  The excuses are many and quite common:  it is too hot, too cold, too early, too late, it is raining, it is election day, I was tired, I forgot, etc.  But we keep inviting and hope they come and feel the spirit and desire to come on their own.  Yesterday was a cold and very rainy day.  As we drove to church the roads were running rivers of red mud, it was windy and cool, and it was still raining.  We had visitors from the District and I was not sure how many members would come to church. The final count for attendance for Sacrament Meeting was 26 people, with 12 or so from the District leadership.  In Tacuati, our group we support, we had 9 people in attendance.  Kind of discouraging.

Yesterday we also did visits with the District leadership, had a District Council Meeting, showed the youth the church program “Face 2 Face with the Piano Guys”, and had a short Missionary Prep class.  We are tired today.

Oh, I almost forgot. The District President asked that Cheryl make a meal for the District leaders who had traveled to Horqueta.  She warned him that it would not be the standard beef and mandioca meal - so she made 'bowtie pasta chicken salad".  Most of the leaders, particularly the women didn't enjoy it much, but the President wolfed down 4 plates of the salad.  Cheryl did a good job with the food, the tablecloths, etc.  It was a good meal and we are still enjoying the leftovers. 

We taught an English class again this week to 5 young girls from the neighborhood - our 3 regulars and 2 new ones.  We probably wont be able to keep working with all 5 - just too many at one time

Well, we are doing fine.  We sure appreciate all of the support we receive from our family and friends.   We are far away and it is hard for Cheryl who still is struggling with the language.  We pray for all of you, for your safety, your health and your success.

Love you all,

Jerry and Cheryl

 

Pictures

- The winning team in the “build a strong foundation contest” at the Branch Activity Night

 At the bus terminal saying goodbye to Hna Aguilar who is transferring out of Horqueta

 Elder Bickley - transferring out.  Has been in Concepcion (close by) the whole time we have been here.

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Pictures

Los Cranney with the TV host for the local TV station.

- Dinner at the church for visiting District Leaders.   Cheryl made bowtie pasta salad - not a big hit with most of the folks.  but the District President (front left) ate 4 helpings.  Not sure if he liked it or was just hungry.

November 2, 2015

Hello to all:

We sure love you all and appreciate your love, support, and prayers.  We know that we are being blessed everyday with safety, success, and inspiration to know how to serve and whom to serve. 

We continue to be challenged with our car.  It is a good car, but the roads here are so bad, and when we travel outside of the city we are many times “offroading” and it isn’t good for the car.  We need new rear shocks, we have a airbag indicator lit on the dash, the air conditioning stopped working, and everything is starting to rattle and squeak.  Come to think of it, it sounds a lot like me!

We have been doing more visiting with the members this week - with Daisy Duarte the YW President and Mirna Duarte- the Primary President and Branch President’s wife.  We are visiting many people who haven’t been to church in many years.  Yet one common theme we hear regularly is that even though they don’t attend church, they still have a testimony that the church is true and most have a desire to return.  More often than not they are embarrassed by what they are doing now, that they have not come to church, or that their children have strayed.  Our counsel to them is that the Lord loves them and their children, He has not forgotten them, and that it is never too later to return.  We had one very interesting experience this week.  There is an inactive member family who we visited with Hna Duarte.  This brother sells hammocks door to door during the morning and sells hot dogs and burgers on the corner of the plaza in the evening until late at night.  We had a great visit with him, and he said that he rarely greets the missionaries because they try and commit him to come to church.  We said, “Hermano, we are here to invite you to return to church and to bring your family with you”.  He received it well but said he would not commit or promise to come.  His wife however said that she could and would commit to come to church this next Sunday.  We told her that the Hermana Cranney would be out front waiting for her.  This good family has 4 children and 2 of them have returned to activity in Brasil where they currently live.  One of the daughters and her Brazilian husband came to church yesterday and it was wonderful to see the light in her eyes and face as she and her faithful husband sat next to each other.  A great testimony that like with the Prodigal Son, our loving Father is always ready and willing to accept us back into the family. 

This week one of the Elders, Elder Mendoza, taught Cheryl how to cook a traditional Bolivian meal.  It included a ground beef patty loaded with spices and bread crumbs, tons of white rice, cooked beets, and salads.  It was a pretty dry and bland meal, but we enjoyed the experience.  We fed the Elders yesterday prior to our trip to Tacuati (more to follow) and each of them ate 2.5 hamburgers, loads of cole slaw, chips, etc.  They can really eat!

This week I finally broke down and Cheryl and I purchased a really cool new blender that has a juicing attachment.  We have already made juice of Maracuya and it is really good.  With this attachment the blender keeps all of the pulp inside of the attachment and the juice flows out into the jar.  It is pretty cool.   We also purchased a 42 litre electric oven.  It is a Brazilian brand but Cheryl baked a cake the other day and it seems to work really well.  Our counter space is shrinking but we enjoy having a few more household items to make it more pleasant.

The weekly attendance here has been dropping and we are concerned.  So as a District and Branch Council we are doing more visits and inviting people to return, testifying to them of the blessings that come from keeping the Sabbath Day holy.  Yesterday when we started Priesthood Meeting, it was only the Branch President and me.  We sang a lovely duet for the opening hymn and talked about some of the challenges in the Branch.  Our final attendance at Sacrament Meeting was 40 in Horqueta and 26 in Tacuati - a reasonably good attendance number.  Everyone was just very late!

We had a good grip to Tacuati yesterday with the two Elders from Horqueta.  They received permission to go with us to visit some of the investigators that are being taught by the members there.  I also talked to the Group Leader (kind of like a branch President) and then taught a little to the members about how it is important to serve with all of our ability regardless of where we are called to serve.  It was a good day and we enjoyed traveling with the Elders.

We love hearing from all of you.  Please feel free to email regularly.  We really are grateful that we can call you by phone or Skype and stay in touch.  How very different from when Dad and Karen were in the Phillipines. 

With the time change you recently had, we are now 4 hours ahead of Mountain time and 5 hours ahead of Pacific time zone. 

Thanks again for all that you do. 
We love you all.

Jerry and Cheryl 

Week Ending 25 October 2015

Well, today is our 5 month anniversary on our mission.  In some ways it is speeding by; in other ways it is moving pretty slow.  We are very engaged in the work, and are so happy when we see progress being made.  We also feel very heavy in our hearts when someone decides that they don’t want to continue being an active member or choose not to attend church.  It seems that when we need the Lord the most, we are at church every week, we pray every day, we read our scriptures daily, and we are open to receive the help we need from a loving Heavenly Father. 

Once our trials have passed, we fall back into our old ways and forget the Lord and his love and support for us.  We are learning a lot more about life, about people, and about a Loving Heavenly Father.

This week we had the opportunity to be trained in a Zone Conference with President McMullin.  It was a great experience and we learned so much.  We had to leave a little early because part of the Conference was to pair up with the branch leaders and visit members or investigators.  It is so great to associate with great Elder and Sister missionaries.  We visited three families that evening and enjoyed meeting a few new people.

On Thursday we had a Relief Society meeting with the Sisters here in the branch.  We had printed up about 60 invitations, announced it for several weeks, and invited many to come.  We had 10 sisters attend, including Hna Cranney but it was a good start.  We plan to hold a meeting every month for just the Sisters.  Next month we plan to show them the General Women’s Conference from the last General Conference. 

On Friday evening we were asked to join many of the youth of the branch in a Home Evening with an investigator.  We were asked to provide the lesson the restauracion, and we had a good interactive discussion.  We stayed and talked while we had refreshments.  Cheryl made Peanut butter bars with chocolate frosting - yummy.  We are going to try and post a video (poor video quality but good sound) of the youth speaking in Gurani.  It is a very pretty and expressive language, but hard to learn.

Saturday we had Walter Arce come over to the house to help me varnish some of our wood furniture.  We sanded and varnished, then watched the paint dry and sanded and varnished again.  

They turned out pretty well.  We then went out to a friends place to get some roses, a hydrangea, and some lumber to hold the shade for our garden.  The sun is so hot here that it fries most everything in the garden if you don’t provide some shade.  We have the materials but have not finished the installation.

Saturday evening we participated in a Young Women activity in which the YW President, Daisy Duarte, introduced the girls to the YW Program including Personal Progress.  About 5 girls attended and Daisy did a great job  She more than explained the program, she also taught why this program is so important to these Young Women.

Sunday was busy, with a visit to Rama 1 in Concepcion, a Sunday School lesson, a talk in church, a District Presidency Meeting, Lunch with the District President, and that evening back in Horqueta a lesson for the Missionary Prep class.   What a wonderful day.

We had the missionaries join us today for a Bolivian mean for lunch - one of the Elders is a bolivian from Utah.  We had hamburger steaks, rice, potatoes, salads, and cookies for dessert.   The internet at the church was down so we let both sets of missionaries use our laptops and internet for their weekly emails. 

We are doing fine….busy, healthy, enjoying the people, and loving our branch members.   We are trying to learn and implement activities and programs that will help strengthen them - both personally and in their families. 

Thank you all for your love, prayers, and support.

Love - Jerry and Cheryl

Week of October 12

Hello to everyone.  We are back safe in Horqueta after an interesting week in Asuncion.  There is a huge difference between the big, capital city and our little village here.  The traffic, noise, and stress of Asuncion does not agree with me.

We left early Monday morning and drove directly to the mission office.  Hermana McMullin had scheduled three full days of apartment inspections in the suburbs of Asuncion.  However, our first priority was their son, Bryant.  The President and Sis McMullin were traveling to Montevideo, Uruguay for a mission president seminar with 39 other presidents.  We were asked to care for their son and get him to and from school each day.  So we verified that we had his school and the mission home and office in the GPS they loaned us.  

We had a good week with Bryant - seeing him only briefly each morning before school and we had him full time each evening.  We played games, watched a movie or two (with the approval of the Hna McMullin), and went out for burgers at Burger King.  The mission home is beautiful in a very nice section of Asuncion where several embassies are located.

The apartment inspections were very interesting and some challenging.  We had a list of what needed to be done and Cheryl knew how clean the apartments should be.  We enjoyed meeting many new elders, seeing many new parts of the mission, and seeing a few Elders with whom we had served earlier.  Most of the Elders really want to have a clean apartment and the Spirit can certainly dwell in a clean house more than a dirty and messy one.  We were well receied by all but on set of Elders.  They are going home in 20 days and really didn’t care to clean their apartment.  Their closing comment - “what are they going to do, make us stay here?”

 We inspected 17 homes in 3 days and put many kilometros on the car.  We missed two appointments; one due to a GPS mishap on our part, and the second due to police intervention. 

We were driving out of Asuncion on one of the main roads with not a ton of traffic.  A police car pulled up next to us a motioned us to the side of the road.  This officer said that we  had run a yellow light about 4 lights earlier.  We disagreed, as Cheryl always knows when I run a yellow light.  After some discussion, he took my license and said we needed to follow them to the police station to pay a fine.  He said that this offense was “grave” or severe and the fine would be 1.400.000 Gs, or about $250.00.  As we followed him to the station, Cheryl called the mission office and they said not to pay anything until our attorney could look at things.   We waited about an hour more and the attorney said we could leave without paying any fine.  He will try and figure this out.  I was really down the rest of the week because of this, until the Hna McMullin told us later that she had been stopped in about the same place for about the same offense.  Appears to be a trap for Americans.

We brought home many treats from the Supermercado across from the mission office.  It is called Super Seis, and has a load of imported food as well as good produce, etc.  We have peanut butter, jams, tissues, and other treats such as candy! 

We are still doing our work as well.  Yesterday at church the Hna Cranney had Primary since the Hna Duarte was out of town.  She didn’t know until we got there, but she taught the kids music, watched videos, etc.  What a trooper!  I taught the Sunday School lesson on Magnifying our callings (Pres Eyring - “You are Not Alone”), gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting on “Conversion vs Testimony”, and later assisted in a branch Presidency training meeting in Concepcion where I provided an update on Tithing Settlement via a powerpoint presentation.  Can’t wait for our pocket projector to arrive.  At 7:00 back here in Horqueta I teach a Missionary Prep class with 4 youth.  It was a good day.

Today I started a project early to varnish all of our wood furniture - chairs and tables.  I asked one of the youth in the branch, Walter Arce, to help because he works in a furniture shop.   We worked on 4 chairs and 2 tables and they turned out pretty nice.  We have several other things to varnish but ran out of time. 

This week we have a Zone Conference with the mission president and assistants, a Relief Society meeting on Thursday, and hopefully many visits and Home Evenings.

We received three packages when we were in Asuncion - containing 2 pair of pants, a pair of shoes, some wonderful treats, new vitamins from Ann, etc.  Thanks to all.

Love you, (Rohaihu)

Jerry and Cheryl

October 14,2015

Well, we are here in Asuncion, the capital city, and I finally have a few minutes to write.  We arrived here early afternoon on Monday after a good drive.  We received some orientation from Hna McMullin and then we were on our own.  We take their son Bryant to school every morning and pick him up at 5:00 or 6:30 each afternoon.  He attends the ASA - American School of Asuncion which is a very nice school.  

While he is at school we have preassigned visits with many of the missionaries in the Asuncion area to inspect their houses for cleanliness and functionality.  Some are very good, others very humble, and some just downright ugly.  We have inspected 6 or 7 houses a day, in various parts of the city and surrounding area.

Bryant is a good young man and helps us with things.  He has a great sense of humor and we enjoy playing games, like Milles Bornes, with him. 

We return to our home in Horqueta on Saturday. 

Love you all. 

A tree on the McMullins yard

At Pizza Hut with Bryant 

October 4, 2015

Hello to All:

We have had a good week, with lots of rain and cooler weather.  The locals say that this is the end of spring and soon summer will arrive with a vengeance!

We had the opportunity to take some clothes / goods from a missionary that went home to one of the member families in our branch, Richard and Danelia.  There were a couple of shirts and slacks for Richard and three towels.  We weren’t sure if we should take the towels or not.  We visited with Danelia on Tuesday and started to show her what the Elder had given to them.  When we got to the three towels she was shocked.  Richard is now working out of town and he took their only good towel with him.  She started working at a local store and that very morning at work she had picked up a towel and was going to ask the owner if she could take the towel and pay for it when she got paid.  She said she thought about it two or three times but always replaced the towel with the idea that she would wait for a while.  When she saw the three towels she was so grateful and knows that she had listened to the promptings of the Spirit that morning to now purchase a towel for use by her family. It was a small yet powerful reminder that we need to always listen and heed the promptings of the Spirit.

I have been working on trying to help fix the finances for the branch.  The branch president has a bankcard and he withdraws funds as needed to run the branch.  However, he needs to report every expenditure he makes with the money he has withdrawn - and things are out of balance.  So I am analyzing what has happened, identifying outages, and then we will come up with a plan to fix it. 

General Conference here was wonderful.  By using our wireless Internet Router at the church, we were able to live stream all of the sessions of Conference on Saturday and Sunday.   Typically, the branch here in Horqueta and the group in Tacuati would rent a minibus and travel to Concepcion to see 1 or at most 2 sessions of Conference.  The group from Tacuati came Sunday morning and it was a great session for all.  We had a big box of bananas and light refreshments for everyone.  President Duarte said it was the first time he has seen all of the Conference sessions live, and especially the first time he had seen a live Priesthood Session.   We really enjoyed it and felt good about helping with the Conference. 

We are preparing for our trip to Asuncion next week - we will travel on Monday and be there all week, returning next Saturday.  We will be watching Bryant McMullin, age 13 while his parents are at a Mission President’s Seminar in Uruguay.  During the time he is in school, we will be conducting some inspections on Missionary Houses.   Should be fun.

Love you all.  Thanks for all that you do for us.   We love and miss you.

Mom & Dad, Jerry & Cheryl. 

White Shirts & Ties

Hello to All:

During our time here in Horqueta / Tacuati, we have seen a need for appropriate Sunday clothing for the brethren of the Priesthood.  Many of these good brethren work hard all week just to feed their families and really don’t have the means to provide white shirts and ties for themselves and in some cases their sons. 

We would appreciate any help you can provide in gathering new/used white shirts - please ensure they are “wash and wear” only - and ties for these good brethren.  We need sizes for boys from 12 years of age and up and for men sizes 14 - 16.5.  Ties of any color would also be appreciated.  

We don’t need hundreds of anything - but if we can gather a dozen or two of shirts and ties it would be great.  Please provide them to Angela or Melissa or Justin and we can package them up and send them south. 

Just as an example:  Richard and Danelia have been receiving the lessons for a couple of months.  They are not married (yet) but have received a strong testimony of the gospel and of the restored church.  They have a great desire to be sealed in the temple as a family. They have many debts from when Richard was out of work, but through their faith he now has a decent job driving a tractor on a farm.  They live in a very humble home but always have their scriptures and hymn books ready when we arrive to visit.  Richard and Danelia are getting married this Saturday and then baptized immediately afterward.  We are all so excited for them.  However, Richard is very self conscious when he comes to church because he doesn’t have a white shirt or tie.  We are borrowing a shirt and tie for his wedding / baptism, but he will need a shirt for the longer run. 

Thanks to all for your love and support.  We are so grateful.

Jerry and Cheryl.

Horqueta - 28 Sept 2015

Hello to everyone. We are doing well and enjoying a few days of cooler weather as spring comes to an end.  We take the blankets off of our beds when it gets so very hot, then we have to drag them out again when it gets cold (60 degrees or so).

We have had a very good week, On Tuesday we attended the change meeting for the missionaries and much to our surprise two of our missionaries transferred out.  Sister Valdivia, who has been a rock since have been here, was transferred to Asuncion, and our District Leader Elder Munoz transferred to Pedro Juan.  We will surely miss them both and love them much.  Sister Aguilar from Ecuador is now here as well as Elder Mendoza (from Riverton, UT).  I am sure we will grow to love these two missionaries as well. 

On Wednesday we were the only missionaries in town as changes were in process so we prepared a lesson on the Book of Mormon.  The missionaries challenged all of us in the branch to read the Book of Mormon but not many folks have been reading.  So we used the challenge and promises issued by President Hinckley to try and help motivate the members.   Pres Hinckley promised that those who read the Book of Mormon will receive 1) a greater portion in their home of the Spirit of the Lord, 2) a stronger resolve to keep the commandments of God, and 3) receive a stronger testimony of the reality of Son of God. 

Late Wednesday evening we received a phone call from the mission office asking if we could drive to Tacuati to pay the rent on the Elder's house which is empty right now AND on the house the Group is using as a chapel. Since there are no longer missionaries there, the office forgot to pay the rent and the landlord was getting anxious.   We took money out of the bank and drove 90 minutes to Tacuati to pay the landlord.  In the end, after paying the late fees, everything turned out just fine.  We suggested to the office that they consider using Western Union next time. 

We spend an hour teaching English to some of the neighbor girls, Brisa and Nahiara.  They are both 9-10 years old and already speak Spanish and Guarani and want to learn English.  We enjoyed the time with them.  We also drove to Concepcion for the District Presidency meeting where we finalized the plans for the District Conference on Sunday. 

Friday we went visiting with Daisy, the Young Women's president in the Branch.  She is a wonderful young lady who completes her schooling in December then plans to go on a mission.  She is 24 years old and very well grounded in the Gospel.  We also met via phone with Gary Teran, our financial advisor.  We have not checked up on our finances since we left home and although the market is not doing that well right now, we are still doing fine and look forward to a long retirement.  We have found that the dollar continues to get stronger against other currencies - for example - when we arrived here you could purchase about 5,000Gs with 1 dollar.  Now we can purchase about 5,600, or about a 12% increase in purchasing power here in Paraguay.  Our mission president said that two years ago the rate was 3600Gs to the Dollar.  Wow!

Saturday we had the first sessions of District Conference - leadership training and Presidency meetings.  The President McMullin used a very interesting approach to teach the leaders about their stewardship and where they should be during meetings on Sunday (not in their office!).  He brought leaders up in front to represent each of the groups / classes / quorums, and then led the Branch Presidents and their counselors by the arm to where they should be during each of the meetings on Sunday.  Very simple, yet very effective. 

Sunday morning early we woke up to rain, lightening, and thunder.  Big time thunder.  We thought - oh no, no one will come to our conference in Concepcion today.  If it rains, it cold, if there are elections, etc, no one comes to church. 

Fortunately, the good members from far away arrived by bus and we were able to start our meetings about 20 minutes late.  Some of the folks from Santani / Santa Rosa / San Pedro had to leave home about 2:00 am for the journey, and the members from Tacuati left home about 4:30 am.  Bless their hearts. The conference turned out fine with many good talks and the District Choir sang for the first time in the Concepcion District.  Our good members in Horqueta were quick to point out that it started out as the Horqueta choir and grew into a District Choir.  

After the conference we came home and finished preparations for our dinner with the McMullins.  President and Sister McMullin invited themselves and their son Bryant to dinner.  We had Sweet / Sour chicken, jello, cornbread, and Strawberry shortcake for dessert.  We spent abut 2 1/2 hours eating, talking, sharing stories, etc and Sis McMullin said it was the most relaxed she has seen the President in a long time - perhaps in 2 years.  It was truly a blessing for us to have them in our home. 

Today is preparation day and we chose not go to to Concepcion for the Zone activity today - we just had too many things to do.  We do plan to drive to Concepcion later to pick up a package from home (Yeah!) and maybe buy some frozen vegetables.   We love the freeze dried veggies we have received from Lori and others, but the frozen ones aren't bad either.  

We are looking forward to General Conference.  We are all anxious to see who is called to fill the vacancies in the Quorum of the Twelve.  We plan to use our internet wireless router at the church to show all 5 sessions on Saturday and Sunday.  The Branch is so grateful that they don't have to rent a bus to go to Concepcion to watch a few sessions of Conference.  They can now go to the chapel!

We love and appreciate you all.  Thanks for your support, your prayers, and for taking time occasionally to visit with us by phone.  

Love - Jerry and Cheryl / Mom and Dad / Elder y Hermana Cranney, 

The photo is of Fernando and Roberto - taking a picture of me!