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.