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