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
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