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
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