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.