Mid-week fotos

We had a big parade yesterday - to celebrate the 223 anniversary of the founding of Horqueta.  I thought you all might enjoy seeing what a rural Paraguayan parade looks like.  Enjoy!

Horqueta Birthday Celebration

 

Hello to all:

Just a few fotos to show you how Horqueta is celebrating it’s 223rd birthday this week.

One is a poster for the birthday, and the other is Hna Cranney in front of the municipal building in Horqueta.  Pretty cool street painting.

Love you all.

    

Weekly update: 5/9/16

 

 

Well, Hello to everyone.  First the fotos:

1- The Hermana Cranney at Burger King in Asuncion with Elder Piriz and Elder McNulty.

2- Us with two of the hermanas who served at different times in Horqueta and now are companions in Asuncion.  Hermana Scott from Californiaa and Hermana Torres from Peru.

3- Hermana Cranney sitting in her new chair.  Sitting at her side is President Duarte - he is the branch president and is the artisan who made our chairs.

4- A foto of my chair in progress.

5- A foto of Cheryl’s chair in progress.

6 - Our neighbors Carlos and Petty teaching us how to cook some new dishes.  Very good.

We have had a good week here in Horqueta.

We drove to Asuncion on Monday to haul for chairs to the McMullins.  They ordered two and so did we.  In exchange for delivery from Horqueta, they will ship them with their household goods to the US.   On this trip we did not get a single traffic ticket - wahoo!  We always enjoy our visits to the mission office to see missionaries that have served here or in the office.  We always shop at SuperSeis, a very nice supermarket that has an imported food section.  We typically buy jams, brownie mixes, etc.  We also took advantage of the opportunity on Monday to order leather covers for our scriptures from Dino.  He does a very good job and each missionary can select which scripture scenes they want on the covers.  It takes about 1-2 months to complete as he does orders for both the north and the south missions in Paraguay. 

Tuesday morning I had an appointment with a doctor in Asuncion.  I have been sick and I took advantage of a good, American trained, English speaking doctor.  He did a good job and had me tested for Dengue.   The tests came back negative so at least we know what I don’t have! He said that after a week or so if I am not feeling better to call him and he will see what else he can to.

We headed home Tuesday afternoon with two passengers - the Elders from Horqueta had been in Asuncion to sign Emigration papers.   We had a safe and uneventful journey home.

It is amazing how much Horqueta now feels like home to us.  We have wonderful friends and neighbors, the branch of the church is full of so many good people, and we have everything we need here in our little house.  We have been watched over and blesses so abundantly with safety, security , and good health.  We are so grateful for the prayers and support we receive from everyone.

Thursday we conducted home inspections on two missionary apartments in Concepcion.  The elders had worked hard and the houses were pretty clean and well organized.  These wonderful missionaries are more focused on the work than on cleaning their houses.   But they do try and clean it up at least for the inspections.  I also had our weekly Presidency meeting and we had a Skype meeting with Pte McMullin, our mission President.  We talked a lot, and he trained a lot, about ward mission plans.  They are so crucial to help convert, retain, and reactivate members of the church in a growing area.  I figured out as well that some of the less active leaders should be listed on the ward mission plan for activation efforts.  We need them to be active; we need them to feel of the love of the Saviour in their lives again;  we need their help.

Saturday we had a good training meeting in Concepcion for all of the Auxiliary leaders.   We drove with Hna Duarte who is the primary president of our branch.  She only has 3-4 kids each Sunday and of differing ages - so it is hard for her to implement a full primary program.  But she is there each week and loves the kids.  She wants to teach them some of the Primary songs but most of our primary leaders have never heard some of the primary music and need much help.  We are hoping to download music so they can begin to teach the gospel via music.

On Sunday we help our Priesthood and Temple classes.  I am amazed at times how much I take for granted.  Some of the youth in our branch don’t know for sure if they have been ordained to the Priesthood and if they have are not certain what office they hold.  So we have started with the basics to help them understand what the Priesthood is, how we can serve, the blessings it brings, etc.  It has been very wonderful to teach these youth about such an important subject.

The temple class has only two participants - Daisy and Isidro.  Both are very prepared and have strong testimonies.

We sure love and appreciate you all.  Greetings to those who read our blog that our daughter Angela updates for us (familia de Hna Scott).  We love the people…we love the work…we love the Lord.

Jerry and Cheryl.

4/25/16

 

 

2- Our District of Horqueta missionaries.  Elder Piriz, Elder McNulty, Hermana Scott, Hermana Martinez, y the Cranneys.  Hermana Martinez is now in Pedro Juan and Hermana Francani from Argentina is here now.

3- Having lunch in Concepcion with some of the missionaries.  It is really pretty good food.  Chicken, pasta, mandioca, potatoes, etc.

4- Elder McNulty taking advantage of the air conditioning in the pickup to cool off.

5- Hermana Cranney swept and mopped the floor and a few hours later the Elders visited.  This is what she swept up after they left.  We love them in spite of the sand on their shoes.

This has been a challenging week for Elder Cranney due to illness.  I have been blessed for nearly a year now with good health, but this week I broke out with cold sores, aching head and neck, fever, pain in the eyes, muscle pain, swollen glands, etc.  The area medical director in Buenos Aires said it was an acute virus attack and I an now taking 5 doses of antiviral medication every day (instead of the 2 per day as it says on the box).  The good news is that the medication is readily available here and seems to be helping.  I have not had much strength at all to work this week but have focused on rest, liquids, rest, a little work, and more rest.

On Monday we went with the missionaries and sisters to President Duarte’s chacra or farm.  We walked around and enjoyed the peace and quiet of the area.  It is a large farm and he has big plans for the future.  He also has cows and Sister Cranney loves baby cows.  The Pres. helped us pick grapefruit, oranges, mandarins, lemons, and Persian limes.  All the missionaries got a good supply of the fruit. 

Tuesday was change day and what a surprise.  Sister Martinez was changed out and ended up in Pedro Juan Caballero, right on the border with Brasil.  She is a wonderful missionary and we have loved getting to know her.  Sister Scott is staying, and we are so excited to continue working with such a fine missionary.  The Elders are still here for at least one more change.  Our new missionary is Sister Francani from Argentina.  She is a fine, mature missionary and we really look forward to working with her.  (Note:  Sunday night we received a phone call from Hna Torres who worked here in Horqueta when we arrived and from her new companion Hermana Ross- also previously from Horqueta.  It was so cool to hear from them both and now they are companions.  We also learned that Sister Anderson from Concepcion is now companions with Hna Lundberg who was here in Horqueta).  We are so blessed to work with and support such fine missionaries. 

I got a haircut this week from our neighbor Magdalena and she did a fine job but boy is it short!  But it is very easy to care for.  Cheryl also got her hair “painted” as they call it here.  We enjoy Magdalena and her family - Brisa and her little boy Dylan.

At noche de Rama this week, the Elders prepared a team game in which they used their dartboard to have the youth select a gospel topic and then their team had to answer either a tough, medium, or an easy question.  The hard questions valued 300, medium 200 and easy 100 points.  It was fun and helped the youth strengthen their knowledge of the scriptures.   Brother Carlos Colman was there working on repairs at the church - including new locks and keys.  Over time keys get lost and no one can get into the church unless they have one of the few keys that remain.  Hna Cranney also had a list of repairs such as a very noisy light in the Primary room.

We have been invited / assigned to travel to Asuncion May 17-23 to stay in the mission home and conduct home inspections for all the missionaries in Asuncion.  We accepted (clearly) and are looking forward to the visit and the work. 

In our temple class yesterday two of the members clearly indicated that they want to receive their temple endowments in June.  We need to arrange for interviews and prepare them well.  They are such wonderful people. 

We are looking for someone to help us clean our house twice a week since Camila is moving to Concepcion with her husband Marcos.  He is going to be working in the meat packing plant.  Our neighbors have recommended a young lady named Liz who works part time for several of them and comes highly recommended.  We don’t need much but it is great to have some help.

Yesterday in church in Concepcion I gave a talk on Faith - that it is a principle of action and power.  I hope that the message connected with some of the people - as many seem to think that an occasional visit to church is all that is required.

We love you all and appreciate your support.  We are so blessed to be here, blessed to be working with such fine missionaries, blessed to be safe and well, and blessed to be serving the people of northern Paraguay.

Love,
Mom and Dad

4/18/2016

 

 

Hola!  What a great day we have had today with our Preparacion Day.  We went out to the branch President’s ranch and had a great time.  We picked fruit….grapefruit, oranges, manadarins, Persian limes, and Paraguayan lemons. He also showed the elders how to harvest mandioca.  It was fun. 

A few fotos:

1-  Me with a large machete that they use to clear brush and dig up mandioca. 

2- Cheryl visiting with a calf at the ranch.

3- Flowers and butterflies

4- Cheryl and Hna Scott and Hna Martinez. 

5- President and Sister Duarte headed for home.

This has been a busy but good week.  We have been working hard to try and update the membership records for many of the members here in Horqueta.  We had to locate copies of or recreate membership records for 9 members of the branch.  We then added at least 4 ordinations to the Priesthood that had occurred months and years ago but never recorded.  The thing is that the more we solve the more we find.  For example, we are trying to find witnesses for a baptism of a young man that occurred about 6 years ago.  Just as we are getting close we discovered that his older sister does not have a membership record either.  Well, I guess we are here to help in any way we can and sometimes it is in ways that we don’t expect.

This week in our Noche de Rama (branch activity night) we taught the lesson on “Choices”.  We used the stories of Daniel in the Old Testament as examples - when Daniel chose to eat healthy food rather than the food of the king, - when Daniel refused to bow down before the golden image and was thrown in the fiery furnace,  - and when he refused to stop praying to his God and was thrown in the den of lions.  All great examples for us to learn from and to help us make better choices every day.

We helped with Relief Society meeting on Thursday by showing a video about the formation of the Relief Society.  It went well with about 8 sisters attending and we had finger foods and cake afterwards. 

Friday evening we had Presidency meeting in Concepcion and a Self Sufficiency Committee meeting.  We have much work to do and so few willing hands.  We are trying to do something with self sufficiency and not just talk about it.  So we are trying to obtain vegetable seeds so that we can help the members plant, tend, and harvest vegetables from their own gardens.

Sunday was a great day.  We left home about 730 am to drive with the Elders to Tacuati.  We attended Gospel Principles Class and then Sacrament meeting.  They only have 2 hours of meetings each week as they are still not a branch.  We then distributed vegetable seeds to each family - with a commitment that they plant and harvest the fruit.  We had tomato, green pepper, onion, cucumber, carrot, lettuce, and a bit of spinach.  Everyone was so excited to plant their garden.  We look forward to seeing the results in a month or so when we visit Tacuati.

We had a nice lunch of chicken, pork, rice salad, mandioca, and juice at Pedro's house.  It was very good.  We then taught a temple preparacion class and shared a few ideas about Priesthood ordinances.  We finished about 4:00 pm, went and picked up the elders and drove home.  A busy but fruitful day. 

The Elders taught 5 lessons to Sister Adelaida who is planning to be baptized on April 30.   She and her family are so wonderful.

Well, we love and miss you all.  thank you for your love, support, and prayers. 

Jerry and Cheryl.

ps:  We don’t have an update on Manuela Martinez yet.  She was hoping to have surgery this week IF they could find her blood type.  In the meanwhile, her tumor continues to grow.  Thanks to those who have helped put her name on Temple Prayer rolls.