Horqueta, Paraguay: 11 Abril 2016

1- Cheryl and Daisy at the Duarte farm with a large bag of grapefruit, oranges, and Persian limes.  It is all wonderful.

2- Elder Piriz from Uruguay, Cesar Cohene our ward missionary, Elder McNulty from Las Vegas, and some old missionary they found in Paraguay.  Great serving with these good brethren.

3- In the fishing department at Shopping China in Pedro Juan Caballero - right at the border with Brasil.  A pretty amazing store with wonderful but expensive stuff.

4- Hermana Martinez from Paraguay, Hermana Scott from Utah, and Hermana Cranney all riding with us in a moto-carrito.  A motorcycle with a wagon on the back.

5- Burger King and QuattroD 0- Burgers and ice cream - at Shopping China.

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Hello to all:

We hope and pray that you are all well, and that your families are doing fine.

We have had a good week.  Much of the same stuff - week after week - but we enjoy the work and are so very concerned about the good people here in Horqueta and in Tacuati.  We have only a short time left to try and find, train, and prepare strong leaders for the groups and branches.  We are really enjoying our classes that we teach - Temple Preparacion, Priesthood Prep, and leadership principles.  We are hoping and praying that some of these good folks will step up and accept new and greater responsibilities  We teach classes in Horqueta every other week, and in Tacuati the alternating Sundays.  So much to do…so hard to get people to commit to live up to their covenants.

We had a very strange storm here on Saturday night.  We have not had any rain at all for many weeks.  It is hot, dry, dusty, miserable, etc.  The forecast called for some rain on Saturday afternoon so we were not surprised when it clouded up a bit.  But then the heavens opened up and the winds came.  It was what they call a “tormenta” here…. a really big storm.  It rained so very hard that many of the streets here in Horqueta turned into rivers.  We literally could not see any asphalt as the road was full of fast running water.   We had to pick up people for a meeting in Concepcion and we all got wet.  We headed to Concepcion and about 5 km outsite of town the rain stopped.  Not a drop of rain fell in Concepcion - only 25 miles away.  Now everything is muddy and slowly drying out.

We went out to President Duartes farm this week to pick up some bags of fertilizer (manure) and some good soil for our garden.  We had two bags of each and thankfully his helper on the farm loaded the bags for us.  While we were there, Daisy Duarte took us around with a bag and we picked fresh grapefruit, sweet oranges, and Persian limes.  We got a huge bag full and we are still enjoying the fruit.  The Duartes treat us so well.

Yesterday was a very good fast Sunday.  We started our meetings at 8:00 am with Priesthood and RS.  In Priesthood we consecrated oil, as no one in the branch had any and thus could not give blessings.  We had 4 of the brethren consecrate their own oil.  It went really well.  We talked about the temple during Sunday School because we have a trip planned in June, and then we had Fast and Testimony meeting.  It was very nice, with many of the testimonies borne in Guarani - but I am starting to understand a bit more of this very fast and expressive language.  Hermana Cranney bore her testimony - with much of it in Spanish!

We had lunch with the Sister Missionaries and then had our Priesthood Prep class at 2:00, Temple Prep Class at 4:00, visits with the Cristaldos at 6:00, and Home Evening with the Martinez and the missionaries at 7:00.   We dropped the Sisters off at about 9:15 pm and crashed at home.  But it feels good to be busy.

Well, we love you all and appreciate so much your support.  Take care and thanks for all you do.

Love, Jerry and Cheryl.

Paraguay: 4 Abril 2016

 

1- A foto at Shopping China, a very nice and large store in Pedro Juan, Paraguay about 1 minute from the border with Brasil.  They even have a large fishing department.

2- Part of the food court at Shopping China.  Burger King is always good but “Quattro D” or 4D ice cream is the very best.   We actually ate Italian pasta today.  Yummy.

3- Walter Arce taking a short break from working on our tree.

4- Cesar Cohene cutting down the trunk of our tree with my machete.  He sharpened it and now I can almost shave with it!

5- Cesar in the tree cutting down the upper branches.  He just climbed the tree with his bare feet and hands.  Amazing.

Hello to everyone:

Well, we made it back from Pedro Juan today in time to write an email to all of you.  We had to take the pickup in for maintenance (every 5,000 kilometros) and we tried to fix the gas gauge.  It still isn’t working, on a brand new Nissan Pickup.  But it is ok, we have figured out how to use the trip odometer to know when to fill up again.  Plus we got to do some shopping at the stores on the border with Brasil.  You know what?  They had Frosted Mini-Wheats!!!!!!!!!  I feel better already. 

Conference weekend was wonderful.  We actually started by watching the General Women’s conference a week ago and it was fun to have some of the sisters there to watch.  The Sister missionaries received permission to stay out late and watch with us.  Then Saturday we watched all three sessions and both sessions on Sunday.  In spite of a few internet problems and ongoing concerns about how much data we had left on our plan, we loved all of the conference.  It is amazing to me how we can receive answers to questions with talks that seem to be prepared just for me…..and then others say the same thing about the same talk.  We were so grateful that Pres Monson was able to speak several times.  I love his talks - even when he has to make them shorter now.  The sister missionaries had an investigator family show up at the Sunday pm session of conference - and the sisters didn’t know they were coming.  There were 6 of them and it took two scooters to get them all there.  We were also blessed to have about 14 of the members from Tacuati come to the Sunday am conference session.  They rented a small bus and it was wonderful to have them here with us all.

Last week we had a wonderful temple trip.  We left here on Monday morning and finally arrived in Asuncion about 8:30 pm.  We stayed at the Temple Hostal and it was WONDERFUL.  Modern, clean, and the hosts were so kind.  Tuesday morning we had a testimony meeting, some training, and then went to the 11:00 am session at the Asuncion temple.  It was wonderful and Cheryl and I were the witness couple.  It was so powerful to be in the temple with so many missionaries - both elders and sisters.  After the session we all had Pizza Hut pizza, and then we got our bus tickets from the office elders for our ride home.  Most of the missionaries left between  5 and 6 pm.  Our bus didn’t leave until 11:15 pm, and we arrived in Horqueta at 4:30 am.   We walked home with the Sister missionaries.  It was really quiet (other than the dogs!).

We had the chance to visit with Alex and Lori this week about what we have learned about clothes for a mission in the tropics (like Paraguay and Panama).  It was so fun to visit and to share also what our office elders told us about the most important things to remember about clothes. We hope it helps Alex prepare for his mission.  We are so proud of him.

This week we had our second monthly visit with the branch mission leaders.  We have interviews with them, review their ward mission plans, and then do some training.  They are growing and learning - but ever so slowly.  As the District Presidency, we are working on resolving many issues that surface in areas like this - such as finance issues, what to do when someone does not sustain the local leaders of the church, how to help build and strengthen the church here, etc.  I enjoy the work but we need to start looking for someone to take my place in the presidency in the next 4-5 months so we can have a smooth transition.

This week we hired two folks from the branch to come and remove a tree that has broken twice due to windstorms and dropped branches on our neighbors house.  Cesar cut down the whole tree with one of our machetes and Walter trimmed up everything and stacked it in the middle of the street for removal.  They worked very hard, it was sooooo hot, I helped as much as I could, and Cheryl made a pancake breakfast for us.  It turned out really well as you can see from the photos. 

Friday night we started our training class to help prepare several of the men in the branch to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood.  We had 4 attend and it went really well.  We will meet every two weeks for 90 minutes.  It is amazing how when given the opportunity these good folks love learning and progressing. 

Thanks to all for your emails, WhatsApp messages, fotos, and kind words.  We just passed the 10 month markd (no we are not trunky) but we are amazed at how quickly the time flies by.

We love you all,

Jerry and Cheryl

ps:  We found a way to ship home two chairs that we want to keep as souvenirs of our time here.  Our branch president is known throughout Paraguay for his chairs and the mission president also ordered two chairs from him.  So we are planning to send our chairs home with the mission president in his shipping container.  We are so excited. 

A few fotos

 

1-  The missionaries from Horqueta traveling from the bus station in Concepcion to downtown to meet the other missionaries for a trip to the temple.  We are riding in a “motocarrito” or motorcycle cart.  Cost 35.000 GS or about $7.00US

2- Sister Cranney and I in front of the Asuncion Paraguay Temple.  A beautiful experience.

3- President and Sister McMullin eating Pizza Hut pizza with all of the missionaries.

4- Hermana Cranney in our room at the Temple Hostal.  Just as good as the Sheraton!

5- On the trail to the river Ypane for the baptisms last Saturday.

Love you all.

Jerry and Cheryl

21 Marzo 2016

First, the fotos:

1- This is a picture of a member’s house.  He is one of our best branch missionaries, and he built this himself.  He is one of the most faithful and humble members I have ever met - anywhere.

2- Cheryl at the Relief Society birthday party. 

3- Two of our best leaders in Concepcion.  President Angel Gomez, Branch President of Rama 1 and Gavi Benitez, counselor in Rama 3.  Gavi is a policeman in Concepcion. 

4- the house of Maria, one of the investigators and a neighbor to our branch missionary.  Single mom with 4 kids under the age of 6.  

 

 

Greetings to all:

It is amazing how busy we are.  We are trying to organize well, travel only when we need to, and we go grocery shopping far less than we used to.  We have many assignments with our District calling, but we still have so much work to do here in Horqueta. 

We are grateful for good missionaries with whom we serve.  We have Hermana Martinez from Paraguay, Hermana Scott from Utah, Elder McNulty from Las Vegas, and Elder Piriz from Uruguay.  We had a District fast last week to help us know why we are all here in Horqueta and how we can find people to teach and invite to return to activity.  It was a wonderful experience and everyone benefitted from the experience. 

We went visiting with our Elders and Cesar, our ward missionary this week.  We went out near his house to visit an investigator (see photo ) who has been taking the lessons.  She is very interested in the gospel but lives very far away.  It takes Cesar about an hour to walk to church and this woman has 4 small kids.  We are working on having the branch president give them a ride.  Anyway, we went to teach a lesson and this good sister only has 1 chair.  So Hermana Cranney sat on the chair, Maria sat on a bucket, and we sat on the ground.  It was a very good lesson and we were reminded again how much we are blessed.

Saturday we went to Tacuati with the new Elders - their first trip.  It is always fun to see people enjoy the beautiful scenery on the way to Tacuati.  Large open ranches with coconut palms, lots of cows, and miles of scenery without any people, power poles, etc.  We also planned the trip to support a fundraiser for the father of a member boy who broke his arm.  Story to follow.

On the way up, for the first time ever, there was a police checkpoint.  Four policemen with rifles, camo gear, etc.  One stopped us on the road and asked for our documents (I always get a little nervous at this point) and we gave him our registration card.  He was very serious….and then asked for my drivers license.  While I was taking it out of my wallet, the senior officer came over, said hi, and then reached over and grabbed the card from the younger officer.  He smiled, handed the card to me and said, “have a safe trip, hermano” and off we went.  I am so glad that we always pray before we drive. 

We had lunch in Tacuati as part of a fundraiser for the father of a member of the group.  He broke his arm about 4 months ago and was told he needed surgery in Asuncion.  About 3 months ago Pedro and I gave him a Priesthood blessing that he would heal without serious complications.  He borrowed 1.200.000 Guarani from his landlord and went off to Asuncion.  The doctors there took x-rays and asked why he was there.  When he told them that he needed surgery on his arm, they said that his arm was totally healed and he only needed some therapy.  He paid the doctors 200.000 and returned home.  He paid the 1.000.000 to his landlord but needed the 200.000.  The members had a fundraiser but due to economic challenges in the area had not earned enough.  So we (us and 2 missionaries) went and ate and they were able to pay off his debt.  It was a simple but wonderful meal.

We had visits with the two investigators who are getting baptized on the 26th, visited a few other people, and waited for a brief thunderstorm to pass before we left for home.  On the road home near the bridge we encountered a huge section of the road (1-2km) of pure mud.  We also could not pass because a girl in a new Toyota was stuck in the mud.  We pulled out our rope, hitched up her car, put the truck in 4 wheel drive, and pulled her out.  Cool.

We have had a week filled with miracles.

Two last thoughts. 

1- a few nights ago the elders called and said that they had no lights in their house, but all their neighbors had lights.  They said that it looked like their power cable had broken.  Sure enough, it had.  We drove over to the power company, and miracle of miracles - they came and spliced the cable.  They said the cable needed to be replaced because it was very old, probably the first wire put in when the power arrived here.  We asked a neighbor lady when she first had lights and she said……….1982.   Wow.

2-  One of our sister missionaries told a funny story last night when we were eating dinner.  She said that when she received her mission call she and her mom joined a Facebook group for mission moms for our mission.  As she looked at the sister missionaries hair, skin, clothes, etc she kept saying, “ They are so ugly, but so happy, how can that be”  She sent a foto home a few weeks ago and after looking at it said, “my clothes are ugly, my hair is ugly, my skin is ugly……why am I so happy?”.

We love you all,

Jerry and Cheryl

14 Marzo 2016

Hello to All:

What a great thrill we had to receive a voicemail from Alex Cranney that he received his mission call - to serve in Panama.  What a thrill, what an opportunity, and what a blessing for the people of Panama.  We are clearly disappointed that he is not coming to Paraguay, but our loss is their gain for the Panamanians.

We are healthy and eating well.  We are so grateful for our safe little house, our safe neighborhood, our good neighbors, a good car that we can trust, and for the direction of the Holy Ghost as we do our work. 

We had been working here in Horqueta with just two sister missionaries who had all of the city.  It was a large change from when we first arrived when we had 6 missionaries here in the City.  But we know that the Lord knows what is best and how many missionaries He needs to do the work.  In the last change that occurred this week, we now have two Elders here also.  They are Elder McNulty, from Las Vegas, and Elder Piriz who is from Uruguay.  We are excited to have a slightly larger team here.

We worked this week to help prepare our Branch for a branch financial audit.  In spite of our work, the audit did not go very well.  It is a real challenge to help the leadership of the church here understand the importance of documentation, proper approvals, control of cash, etc.  We had a good learning experience and we are already doing better than we did before the audit. 

We drove to Tacuati this week to work with the group leader, Pedro Garcia, on some training plans for the branch.  When we arrived at the church we discovered a rapidly deflating front left tire.  So we had to install the spare and have the tire repaired.  The road to Tacuati is not a good one and we hope that we have experienced all of the flat tires that we are going to have.  We had a good visit and are excited to travel more often to Tacuati to help train the members and leaders on how to progress and learn to run a group / branch of the church.

We also had a good meeting with the District Self Sufficiency committee and we are focusing on three areas:

1. Spiritual self sufficiency - focus on Prayer, Scripture study, Family Home Evening, Tithing, Fasting, and Fast offerings.
2. Mi Camino - the program for improving education and employment.
3. A small project to help families - we want to help them plant a garden and become more self sufficient.  Many say, “why should I have a garden when I can go to the store on the corner for everything I need”.  We need to become more self sufficient.

On Friday we drove to Pedro Juan Caballero, a city still in our mission but right on the border with Brasil.  We needed to have some work done on our Nissan truck and they are the closest place.  Pedro Juan is also known for a cooler climate due to their altitude, and for two large import shopping stores, “Shopping China” and “Shopping Planet”.   We got most of the work done that we needed and then went shopping.  WOW.   Shopping China has nearly everything one would need in life (minus groceries).  They have clothing, household goods, sporting goods, electronics, etc and most of their stuff is American and imported.  We had a good time but only purchased a few things as it was very expensive.  We saw some jars of pasta sauce, a common brand in the US, but they cost $8.50US per jar.  Nope.  We treated ourselves to Burger King and bought an ice cream cone at a premium ice cream shop.   We checked in the parking lot when we left and we were nearly the only car from Paraguay.  All the rest were from Brazil who come to take advantage of the exchange  rates.   We enjoyed our trip and the new and different scenery

Yesterday afternoon we had a Book of Mormon Marathon to help us all with our reading of the Book of Mormon.  We had a few activities, read and studied together, and watched the video “How Rare a Possession”.  It was very good.   Then we went with the Sister Missionaries to teach a lesson.   A very good day!

We love and appreciate you all. 

Jerry and Cheryl

Only a few fotos today:

1- The hermanas ordered French fried potatoes, and got a French fried bee at no additional cost.

2- Two very excited missionaries arriving at the church in Tacuati to work for a day.  They had already been on the road for nearly a week.  Elder Kincheloe and Elder Walters.

3-Selfies are very popular:  Elder Vela from Burley Idaho, Elder Smith from Utah (already went home), Elder Burger - a german whose family lives in Paraguay, and Elder Cranney.

    

7 Marzo 2016

Good Monday morning to all.  We so love and appreciate you.

We are doing well and starting to see the change of seasons.  Fall and winter are coming with cooler temperatures.  Everyone is expecting a much colder winter than last year.  We will break out the long johns when winter is here.  I am grateful for the cooler temperatures because we sleep better and the church doesn't have air conditioning!

Last Monday we helped cook for 22 missionaries from our Zone.  We worked with the Guterres, the missionary couple from Brasil.  We fixed chicken stroganoff (Brasilian style), rice, fruit salad (american style), and lemon creme pudding.   They ate everything but part of the rice ( we made 3 kilos, or 6.5 pounds).  They got permission to watch Ephraims Rescue so they used our projector. It was a good activity.

We were challenged by Pte McMullin to plan for a replacement branch president here in Horqueta prior to our departure, and to find a way to strengthen the Group in Tacuati.  We have focused on 4 main areas:  1 - The temple, 2- Melchizedek Priesthood Advancement, 3- Leadership in the church, and 4- Self sufficiency.   We are planning a temple preparation class for 4-6 people here in Horqueta and 3-4 couples in Tacuati.  We will also be teaching about the Priesthood to several men who have been members for 6-12 months but really don’t know much about the Priesthood.   It is a huge blessing to receive but also a big responsibility.  We have also found that many of the methods or practices in the church are based on custom rather than on doctrine.  For example, they leave sufficient space between the rows of chairs in our chapel so that the deacons can pass the Sacrament to every person in the congregation.  Why?  Because women and children do not hold the Priesthood and therefore should not handle the Sacrament trays.  I am sure that at some time in the past a leader thought that this was a good idea, but I don’t believe it is doctrinally sound.   They also need help on conducting meetings, interviews, sustainings and releases, and many other topics.  We can’t do it all right now so we are waiting on the Self Sufficiency work until later. 

A funny story.  The other day Cheryl was praying in Spanish (and she is doing much better).  She prayed that the missionaries would open their mouths and share the gospel with everyone them meet (abrir su boca).  She made a slight error in her words and prayed that the missionaries would abrir su vaca (open their cows).  I tried hard not to laugh, but I couldn't help myself.

We visited several families yesterday after church.  We / them members always make a short list of who did not attend meetings, and we ask for someone to go out and visit. We visited two families last night - the Martinez who were not at church because their son Hugo has Dengue fever.  Also the Cristaldos - they have missed several weeks and we invited them to attend.  They are really good people. We then went out to visit Camila and Marcos, a part member couple that we know.  Camila is the daughter of Pte and Hna Duarte.  We had a nice visit and when we got ready to leave they said “no, wait, we have something for you to eat”.  The whole Duarte family showed up for a surprise birthday party for Cheryl.  They had a really yummy cake and we had a very good time.

Today we went with 4 sister missionaries (2 from here and 2 from Concepcion) to do some sightseeing.  We took pictures in Concepcion with the Virgin Maria, at the monument for the Indigenous, and then we drove about 20 km to see the monument to the Tropic of Capricorn and the Rio Ipane.  We had a really good time and the Sisters seemed to enjoy the outing.  They are such good missionaries and it was fun to see them taking some time to relax and have fun.  Fotos are attached.

Update:  We received word early this morning that our nephew, Alex Cranney, received his mission call to serve in Panama City, Panama mission.  We were secretly hoping that he would come to Paraguay but we are so happy for him and proud of him.  The Lord needs valiant servants and Alex will be a great missionary in Panama.

We love you all.  Thank you for all that you do for us.

Jerry and Cheryl

1-  At the statue of the virgin in Concepcion

2- Monument to the Indigenous People in Concepcion

3- Tropic of Capricorn

4- Tropic of Capricorn

5- Our truck, or “the tank” as Cheryl calls it.

6- Cheryl at the monument for the Tropic of Capricorn

7- The hermanas at the Rio Ypane in Belen (Bethlehem)

8- Self portrait of Elder Cranney

9- The missionaries on the line / tropic of Capricorn:   (left to right):  Hermana Scott, Hermana Anderson, Hermana Collins, Hermana Martinez. 

 

 

29 Febrero 2016

Hello to all,

We have had a very good week here in the mission.  We were in Asuncion Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday to have some service done on the pickup and to work in the office a little with the records clerk.  It was time to have the first oil change and the gas gauge doesn’t work.  We only had time for the oil change and will have future work done in Pedro Juan Caballero - about 2 hours from here and right on the border with Brasil.  They also have a couple of big malls in Pedro Juan so Cheryl is excited to go and shop a bit.

We have been working for months to try and find all of the missing baptismal records for the Horqueta Branch and get them loaded into the church system.  We have a new records clerk and he is very diligent.  We also put some additional controls into place to help track and verify the records so they not only don’t get lost, but that they also get loaded properly.

We had some spare time while we were in Asuncion so we went to Shopping del Sol, a nice shopping mall.  We had a bite to eat and we purchased an official Paraguayan soccer jersey for Cheryl’s birthday (but don’t tell her). 

We also had the opportunity Wednesday morning to attend a missionary conference with Elder David A Bednar.  He was in Buenos Aires and we were in Asuncion, but it was a live broadcast for all of the South America South Area - nearly 8,000 missionaries.  He spoke a lot about Faith and action - faith is a word of power and of action.  He shared how the Israelites were crossing the river Jordan, and the water did not part until they stepped into the water - demonstrating their faith.  We really enjoyed the conference.

On the way home we stopped in Santa Rosa and visited the Guterres senior missionaries from Brasil.  We really enjoy them and Hna Guterres always gives us something to eat.  She doesn’t speak much Spanish but my ability to understand Portugues is improving with each visit. And for the first time since we arrived, we made a round trip to Asuncion without receiving a single traffic violation and fine!

Thursday night we had another session with Elder Bednar for all Bishoprics and Stake Presidencies - it was very, very good.  He focused on two points:  1) we need to put the youth of the church to work, and 2) Bishops need to delegate things related to the old people in the ward to others, and he needs to focus more on the youth. 

We had District Conference this week.  It started Saturday pm with a leadership session, and two sessions Sunday morning.  Our District (Concepcion) is about 400 km north to south, so many of our members had to catch buses at 3:30 am  to arrive in Concepcion by 8:00 am.  Even so, due to weather and other challenges, when we started the 8:00 am Sunday session we had 6 members in attendance.  When we finished the 10:00 am session we had 255 people in attendance.  I spoke in the 8:00 am session on “how to strengthen our faith” and it went pretty well.  After the sessions, we invited the President McMullin and his family to join us for dinner.  We had roast beef, vegetables, gravy, jello salad, and apple crisp for dessert.  The only thing missing was ice cream. 

We have been very concerned about the Branch here in Horqueta.  We have 9 months to strengthen the branch and prepare a new branch presidency.  We have a strong group in Tacuati with at least 3 families who want to go to the temple.  So we are planning to start Temple Preparacion classes, Family History classes, and Priesthood leadership training.   We hope to do this every other week for several hours on Saturday.  We need to have time to teach and work together, and we need to have it on a day when the busses are running (they don’t come and go to Tacuati on Sundays).  We can also go and visit regularly. 

Today all of the missionaries from the Concepcion Zone (22 of them) stayed after the District Conference for a Zone activity and they ask the Cranneys and the Guterres to cook for them.   Hna Guterres made a chicken stroganoff over rice and we made fruit salad and lemon pie for dessert.  They all liked it and it only cost 10.000Gs per missionary (about  $1.75). 

Attached are a few fotos:

1 and 2: My birthday card from Hna Scott and Hna Martinez.  Inside the cards are the words for Happy Birthday song in Guarani.

3 - a foto from Tacuati.  A new lake has formed due to all of the rain.  We were told that the lake has fish, crocodiles, and lots of snakes.  I am surprised that Cheryl got that close.

We love you all and appreciate your support and prayers.

Love,
Jerry and Cheryl

23 Febrero 2016

Dear family,

We are in Asuncion in the waiting room at Chacomer where they are supposed to take the winch off because it belongs on a different truck.  We tried to get a few other things fixed today at Nissan but everything was going to take "at least a day".   

Tuesday we helped the Zone Leaders reposition mattresses in the homes of missionaries in Horqueta and Concepcion for an upcoming Zone Conference and activity. After a District meeting we hauled the ZLs to Horqueta to help clean the Elders house.  They both got transferred out and left quickly.  The house was a mess.  We try to teach the importance of cleanliness and order but it doesnt always work.

We went to Tacuati on Friday with the Zone Leaders to meet some investigators who are being taught by the members as we no longer have missionaries there.  There are 3 young people who have received most or all of the lessons.  Two are schedued to be baptized on March 26 when their Dad returns to town.  While we were there we also paid the past due (5 months) water bill and sent a bill for electricity to the mission office for payment.  It is amazing to see the faithfulness of these good members in Tacuati.  They attend their meetings, visit the members, invite non-members to learn about the Gospel,, and challenge them to be baptized,  Then the missionaries interview and baptize the investigators.  They are such good people

We also had an opening devotional for Mi Camino to self sufficiency.  I was pleased that the branch presidents had invited at least 15 or 20 people to participate, but the leader of the group said we didn’t have enough to start the class.  I disagree so we will move forward as soon as possible.

Our trip to Asuncion has gone pretty well.  We had a good trip and are staying at the Hotel Westfalenhaus, a German themed hotel.  It is clean, comfortable, quiet, etc.  We like it a lot.

Time to rest -we have a busy day tomorrow. 
Love you all,

Jerry and Cheryl

15 Febrero fotos

1- Our friends and neighbors have 2 toucans.  they don’t even look real.

2- Cheryl at our landlord’s gym with a new cartoon on the wall.

3-  Cheryl and her friend Hermana Delia Martinez.  Delia just moved to Buenos Aires to work for a time.

15 Febrero 2016

Greetings to all - and belated Happy Valentines Day.

It has been a very interesting week - full of great blessings, some amazing challenges, and we are so grateful to be here.  We are thrilled to work with such wonderful young missionaries - who are anxious to fulfill their charge to serve the Lord and invite all to come to Christ.  We continue to see how obedience brings forth the blessings of heaven as well as great peace.

We had a special meeting with President McMullin this week and he taught how important it is to be obedient - in every way.  He used one example:  right now in the Paraguay North Mission we have at least 20 missionaries with Dengue fever.  That means that we have 40 missionaries out of commission (got to stay with your companion!). The President reminded us that in December he sent out a communication to ALL missionaries that they are to use insect repellent every day and regularly spray their clothing with Permitrina.  Apparently, not everyone followed his counsel and instruction.  He said it was as if we had been commanded to bathe 7 times in the Permatrina River and had chosen not to obey!  Powerful message.  Hermana McMullin said that at the recent Mission President’s Seminar they showed several slides about how the countries in our Area compare.  One area in which we excel is in the reported cases of Dengue - we are far and away the leaders in this category.

One of the new sister missionaries here in Horqueta has excema and when she first arrived washed some clothes by hand.  Her had had a serious reaction and one of her fingers got a serious infection,  turned red, swelled up, and looked horrible (see foto).  We sent fotos to Sis McMullin who forwarded them on to the Area Medical Director in Buenos Aires - he instructed us to take her to the hospital for shots and then drive her to Asuncion to admit her to the hospital.  At the local hospital the Dr said he treats these kinds of things all the time and prescribed antibiotic shots every 8 hours, cream for the finger, and lots of water.  Her finger looked well enough the next day that we did not have to drive to Asuncion or take the Hermanas out of commission.  Amazing what a Priesthood Blessing can do.

Our last trip to Asuncion we decided to try really hard to not get a traffic fine. The trip down was great, no problem in Asuncion, and then we stopped in Santa Rosa to visit with the other missionary couple - the Guterres.  After our visit, we got back on the highway but I forgot to turn on my lights (a law in Paraguay).   So 3 minutes later we got stopped and fined 281.000 Gs.  I wish the lights on the truck were automatic…..

I had a good birthday this week.  Cheryl made a chocolate cake from a mix that Angela snuck into our last package.  It was very good.  She gave me an official Paraguayan soccer jersey and a multi-tool to use around the house and in the car.  Most of the day we were in the hospital with the sick sister missionary.  On Saturday night we had District Presidency meeting in Concepcion.  After the meeting the Dist. President asked if we could go with him for a few minutes to visit the DeMelo family who are our good friends.  We said sure and when we got there they had a surprise birthday party.  It was a fun time with good food (beef, pork , chicken, potato salad, mandioca, etc).  Many of the District leaders and Branch Presidents / families were there. 

We hired Walter Arce to come and clean  up our yard and garden this week.  We have lots of weeds and fallen branches and leaves.  During the cleanup he discovered 3 watermelons growing in our garden.  We hope and pray that they survive the heat and sun.

This week we had a Self-sufficiency Committee meeting and I am the chairman.  We spoke about many things, including the need for the members to become more committed to self sufficiency.  We think that without a strong spiritual testimony of this principle that they will never feel the desire to provide for themselves.  Here in Paraguay it is always someone else's problem - the President, the governor, the mayor, the branch president, my neighbor, etc.  So we are focusing on two things: 1- living and having a testimony of the law of the fast and the law of tithing.   Also the need for Family Home Evening each week.  We will provide sample lessons to each branch for their First Sunday lessons in Priesthood Mtg and Relief Society.  2- We are starting a new class of “Mi Camino”, or My Path to self sufficiency.  I even asked about planting a garden and I was told that every though the ground here is very fertile, most people think it is too much work to have a garden.   We will keep trying.

Yesterday we held a Book of Mormon Marathon to help encourage the members to read and complete the Book of Mormon before April 6.  We had 10 people there and we read together, discussed chapters, acted out stories of the Book of Mormon, saw some cool videos, and really enjoyed our 2 1/2 hours together.  One of the members celebrated his 1 year anniversary of his baptism yesterday!

We have been helping Daisy Duarte with her missionary application.  She recently graduated from college (she is 24 years old) and is now ready to go.  She is a wonderful young lady and very well prepared to serve.  It would be great if she were called to serve in the US.  She speaks fluent Spanish, fluent Guarani, decent English, and some Portugues.  We are excited to see where she will be called.

The weather has turned very hot.  This week each day will be at least 100 degrees F.  Our weather app says that when it is 100% with humidity it feels like 110-115.  A few weeks ago it was 106 degrees and it felt like 125 degrees.  The locals say that with el Nino we should prepare for a very cold winter this year.

Thanks to everyone for their support.  I should mention that with some of the financial support that you are providing we purchased a Gott-type cooler for the group in Tacuati.  They are in a rented building and had to water supply for the members during 2 very hot hours each week.  They put ice and water in the 3 gallon cooler and enjoy it every week.  Thanks to all of you.

We are doing fine.  Our health is good but the heat sure drains our energy.  We love the good members here and struggle when they do not remember why - why they got baptized, why they need to come to church each Sunday, why they need to read their scriptures and pray everyday, etc.  But we keep trying.

Thanks - we love you.

Jerry and Cheryl.

Fotos:

1- our new Nissan truck.  It does a great job on rough roads.  Cheryl calls it “the tank”.

2-  Hermana Scott’s finger - pre treatment.