Week Ending 25 October 2015

Well, today is our 5 month anniversary on our mission.  In some ways it is speeding by; in other ways it is moving pretty slow.  We are very engaged in the work, and are so happy when we see progress being made.  We also feel very heavy in our hearts when someone decides that they don’t want to continue being an active member or choose not to attend church.  It seems that when we need the Lord the most, we are at church every week, we pray every day, we read our scriptures daily, and we are open to receive the help we need from a loving Heavenly Father. 

Once our trials have passed, we fall back into our old ways and forget the Lord and his love and support for us.  We are learning a lot more about life, about people, and about a Loving Heavenly Father.

This week we had the opportunity to be trained in a Zone Conference with President McMullin.  It was a great experience and we learned so much.  We had to leave a little early because part of the Conference was to pair up with the branch leaders and visit members or investigators.  It is so great to associate with great Elder and Sister missionaries.  We visited three families that evening and enjoyed meeting a few new people.

On Thursday we had a Relief Society meeting with the Sisters here in the branch.  We had printed up about 60 invitations, announced it for several weeks, and invited many to come.  We had 10 sisters attend, including Hna Cranney but it was a good start.  We plan to hold a meeting every month for just the Sisters.  Next month we plan to show them the General Women’s Conference from the last General Conference. 

On Friday evening we were asked to join many of the youth of the branch in a Home Evening with an investigator.  We were asked to provide the lesson the restauracion, and we had a good interactive discussion.  We stayed and talked while we had refreshments.  Cheryl made Peanut butter bars with chocolate frosting - yummy.  We are going to try and post a video (poor video quality but good sound) of the youth speaking in Gurani.  It is a very pretty and expressive language, but hard to learn.

Saturday we had Walter Arce come over to the house to help me varnish some of our wood furniture.  We sanded and varnished, then watched the paint dry and sanded and varnished again.  

They turned out pretty well.  We then went out to a friends place to get some roses, a hydrangea, and some lumber to hold the shade for our garden.  The sun is so hot here that it fries most everything in the garden if you don’t provide some shade.  We have the materials but have not finished the installation.

Saturday evening we participated in a Young Women activity in which the YW President, Daisy Duarte, introduced the girls to the YW Program including Personal Progress.  About 5 girls attended and Daisy did a great job  She more than explained the program, she also taught why this program is so important to these Young Women.

Sunday was busy, with a visit to Rama 1 in Concepcion, a Sunday School lesson, a talk in church, a District Presidency Meeting, Lunch with the District President, and that evening back in Horqueta a lesson for the Missionary Prep class.   What a wonderful day.

We had the missionaries join us today for a Bolivian mean for lunch - one of the Elders is a bolivian from Utah.  We had hamburger steaks, rice, potatoes, salads, and cookies for dessert.   The internet at the church was down so we let both sets of missionaries use our laptops and internet for their weekly emails. 

We are doing fine….busy, healthy, enjoying the people, and loving our branch members.   We are trying to learn and implement activities and programs that will help strengthen them - both personally and in their families. 

Thank you all for your love, prayers, and support.

Love - Jerry and Cheryl

Week of October 12

Hello to everyone.  We are back safe in Horqueta after an interesting week in Asuncion.  There is a huge difference between the big, capital city and our little village here.  The traffic, noise, and stress of Asuncion does not agree with me.

We left early Monday morning and drove directly to the mission office.  Hermana McMullin had scheduled three full days of apartment inspections in the suburbs of Asuncion.  However, our first priority was their son, Bryant.  The President and Sis McMullin were traveling to Montevideo, Uruguay for a mission president seminar with 39 other presidents.  We were asked to care for their son and get him to and from school each day.  So we verified that we had his school and the mission home and office in the GPS they loaned us.  

We had a good week with Bryant - seeing him only briefly each morning before school and we had him full time each evening.  We played games, watched a movie or two (with the approval of the Hna McMullin), and went out for burgers at Burger King.  The mission home is beautiful in a very nice section of Asuncion where several embassies are located.

The apartment inspections were very interesting and some challenging.  We had a list of what needed to be done and Cheryl knew how clean the apartments should be.  We enjoyed meeting many new elders, seeing many new parts of the mission, and seeing a few Elders with whom we had served earlier.  Most of the Elders really want to have a clean apartment and the Spirit can certainly dwell in a clean house more than a dirty and messy one.  We were well receied by all but on set of Elders.  They are going home in 20 days and really didn’t care to clean their apartment.  Their closing comment - “what are they going to do, make us stay here?”

 We inspected 17 homes in 3 days and put many kilometros on the car.  We missed two appointments; one due to a GPS mishap on our part, and the second due to police intervention. 

We were driving out of Asuncion on one of the main roads with not a ton of traffic.  A police car pulled up next to us a motioned us to the side of the road.  This officer said that we  had run a yellow light about 4 lights earlier.  We disagreed, as Cheryl always knows when I run a yellow light.  After some discussion, he took my license and said we needed to follow them to the police station to pay a fine.  He said that this offense was “grave” or severe and the fine would be 1.400.000 Gs, or about $250.00.  As we followed him to the station, Cheryl called the mission office and they said not to pay anything until our attorney could look at things.   We waited about an hour more and the attorney said we could leave without paying any fine.  He will try and figure this out.  I was really down the rest of the week because of this, until the Hna McMullin told us later that she had been stopped in about the same place for about the same offense.  Appears to be a trap for Americans.

We brought home many treats from the Supermercado across from the mission office.  It is called Super Seis, and has a load of imported food as well as good produce, etc.  We have peanut butter, jams, tissues, and other treats such as candy! 

We are still doing our work as well.  Yesterday at church the Hna Cranney had Primary since the Hna Duarte was out of town.  She didn’t know until we got there, but she taught the kids music, watched videos, etc.  What a trooper!  I taught the Sunday School lesson on Magnifying our callings (Pres Eyring - “You are Not Alone”), gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting on “Conversion vs Testimony”, and later assisted in a branch Presidency training meeting in Concepcion where I provided an update on Tithing Settlement via a powerpoint presentation.  Can’t wait for our pocket projector to arrive.  At 7:00 back here in Horqueta I teach a Missionary Prep class with 4 youth.  It was a good day.

Today I started a project early to varnish all of our wood furniture - chairs and tables.  I asked one of the youth in the branch, Walter Arce, to help because he works in a furniture shop.   We worked on 4 chairs and 2 tables and they turned out pretty nice.  We have several other things to varnish but ran out of time. 

This week we have a Zone Conference with the mission president and assistants, a Relief Society meeting on Thursday, and hopefully many visits and Home Evenings.

We received three packages when we were in Asuncion - containing 2 pair of pants, a pair of shoes, some wonderful treats, new vitamins from Ann, etc.  Thanks to all.

Love you, (Rohaihu)

Jerry and Cheryl

October 14,2015

Well, we are here in Asuncion, the capital city, and I finally have a few minutes to write.  We arrived here early afternoon on Monday after a good drive.  We received some orientation from Hna McMullin and then we were on our own.  We take their son Bryant to school every morning and pick him up at 5:00 or 6:30 each afternoon.  He attends the ASA - American School of Asuncion which is a very nice school.  

While he is at school we have preassigned visits with many of the missionaries in the Asuncion area to inspect their houses for cleanliness and functionality.  Some are very good, others very humble, and some just downright ugly.  We have inspected 6 or 7 houses a day, in various parts of the city and surrounding area.

Bryant is a good young man and helps us with things.  He has a great sense of humor and we enjoy playing games, like Milles Bornes, with him. 

We return to our home in Horqueta on Saturday. 

Love you all. 

A tree on the McMullins yard

At Pizza Hut with Bryant 

October 4, 2015

Hello to All:

We have had a good week, with lots of rain and cooler weather.  The locals say that this is the end of spring and soon summer will arrive with a vengeance!

We had the opportunity to take some clothes / goods from a missionary that went home to one of the member families in our branch, Richard and Danelia.  There were a couple of shirts and slacks for Richard and three towels.  We weren’t sure if we should take the towels or not.  We visited with Danelia on Tuesday and started to show her what the Elder had given to them.  When we got to the three towels she was shocked.  Richard is now working out of town and he took their only good towel with him.  She started working at a local store and that very morning at work she had picked up a towel and was going to ask the owner if she could take the towel and pay for it when she got paid.  She said she thought about it two or three times but always replaced the towel with the idea that she would wait for a while.  When she saw the three towels she was so grateful and knows that she had listened to the promptings of the Spirit that morning to now purchase a towel for use by her family. It was a small yet powerful reminder that we need to always listen and heed the promptings of the Spirit.

I have been working on trying to help fix the finances for the branch.  The branch president has a bankcard and he withdraws funds as needed to run the branch.  However, he needs to report every expenditure he makes with the money he has withdrawn - and things are out of balance.  So I am analyzing what has happened, identifying outages, and then we will come up with a plan to fix it. 

General Conference here was wonderful.  By using our wireless Internet Router at the church, we were able to live stream all of the sessions of Conference on Saturday and Sunday.   Typically, the branch here in Horqueta and the group in Tacuati would rent a minibus and travel to Concepcion to see 1 or at most 2 sessions of Conference.  The group from Tacuati came Sunday morning and it was a great session for all.  We had a big box of bananas and light refreshments for everyone.  President Duarte said it was the first time he has seen all of the Conference sessions live, and especially the first time he had seen a live Priesthood Session.   We really enjoyed it and felt good about helping with the Conference. 

We are preparing for our trip to Asuncion next week - we will travel on Monday and be there all week, returning next Saturday.  We will be watching Bryant McMullin, age 13 while his parents are at a Mission President’s Seminar in Uruguay.  During the time he is in school, we will be conducting some inspections on Missionary Houses.   Should be fun.

Love you all.  Thanks for all that you do for us.   We love and miss you.

Mom & Dad, Jerry & Cheryl. 

White Shirts & Ties

Hello to All:

During our time here in Horqueta / Tacuati, we have seen a need for appropriate Sunday clothing for the brethren of the Priesthood.  Many of these good brethren work hard all week just to feed their families and really don’t have the means to provide white shirts and ties for themselves and in some cases their sons. 

We would appreciate any help you can provide in gathering new/used white shirts - please ensure they are “wash and wear” only - and ties for these good brethren.  We need sizes for boys from 12 years of age and up and for men sizes 14 - 16.5.  Ties of any color would also be appreciated.  

We don’t need hundreds of anything - but if we can gather a dozen or two of shirts and ties it would be great.  Please provide them to Angela or Melissa or Justin and we can package them up and send them south. 

Just as an example:  Richard and Danelia have been receiving the lessons for a couple of months.  They are not married (yet) but have received a strong testimony of the gospel and of the restored church.  They have a great desire to be sealed in the temple as a family. They have many debts from when Richard was out of work, but through their faith he now has a decent job driving a tractor on a farm.  They live in a very humble home but always have their scriptures and hymn books ready when we arrive to visit.  Richard and Danelia are getting married this Saturday and then baptized immediately afterward.  We are all so excited for them.  However, Richard is very self conscious when he comes to church because he doesn’t have a white shirt or tie.  We are borrowing a shirt and tie for his wedding / baptism, but he will need a shirt for the longer run. 

Thanks to all for your love and support.  We are so grateful.

Jerry and Cheryl.

Horqueta - 28 Sept 2015

Hello to everyone. We are doing well and enjoying a few days of cooler weather as spring comes to an end.  We take the blankets off of our beds when it gets so very hot, then we have to drag them out again when it gets cold (60 degrees or so).

We have had a very good week, On Tuesday we attended the change meeting for the missionaries and much to our surprise two of our missionaries transferred out.  Sister Valdivia, who has been a rock since have been here, was transferred to Asuncion, and our District Leader Elder Munoz transferred to Pedro Juan.  We will surely miss them both and love them much.  Sister Aguilar from Ecuador is now here as well as Elder Mendoza (from Riverton, UT).  I am sure we will grow to love these two missionaries as well. 

On Wednesday we were the only missionaries in town as changes were in process so we prepared a lesson on the Book of Mormon.  The missionaries challenged all of us in the branch to read the Book of Mormon but not many folks have been reading.  So we used the challenge and promises issued by President Hinckley to try and help motivate the members.   Pres Hinckley promised that those who read the Book of Mormon will receive 1) a greater portion in their home of the Spirit of the Lord, 2) a stronger resolve to keep the commandments of God, and 3) receive a stronger testimony of the reality of Son of God. 

Late Wednesday evening we received a phone call from the mission office asking if we could drive to Tacuati to pay the rent on the Elder's house which is empty right now AND on the house the Group is using as a chapel. Since there are no longer missionaries there, the office forgot to pay the rent and the landlord was getting anxious.   We took money out of the bank and drove 90 minutes to Tacuati to pay the landlord.  In the end, after paying the late fees, everything turned out just fine.  We suggested to the office that they consider using Western Union next time. 

We spend an hour teaching English to some of the neighbor girls, Brisa and Nahiara.  They are both 9-10 years old and already speak Spanish and Guarani and want to learn English.  We enjoyed the time with them.  We also drove to Concepcion for the District Presidency meeting where we finalized the plans for the District Conference on Sunday. 

Friday we went visiting with Daisy, the Young Women's president in the Branch.  She is a wonderful young lady who completes her schooling in December then plans to go on a mission.  She is 24 years old and very well grounded in the Gospel.  We also met via phone with Gary Teran, our financial advisor.  We have not checked up on our finances since we left home and although the market is not doing that well right now, we are still doing fine and look forward to a long retirement.  We have found that the dollar continues to get stronger against other currencies - for example - when we arrived here you could purchase about 5,000Gs with 1 dollar.  Now we can purchase about 5,600, or about a 12% increase in purchasing power here in Paraguay.  Our mission president said that two years ago the rate was 3600Gs to the Dollar.  Wow!

Saturday we had the first sessions of District Conference - leadership training and Presidency meetings.  The President McMullin used a very interesting approach to teach the leaders about their stewardship and where they should be during meetings on Sunday (not in their office!).  He brought leaders up in front to represent each of the groups / classes / quorums, and then led the Branch Presidents and their counselors by the arm to where they should be during each of the meetings on Sunday.  Very simple, yet very effective. 

Sunday morning early we woke up to rain, lightening, and thunder.  Big time thunder.  We thought - oh no, no one will come to our conference in Concepcion today.  If it rains, it cold, if there are elections, etc, no one comes to church. 

Fortunately, the good members from far away arrived by bus and we were able to start our meetings about 20 minutes late.  Some of the folks from Santani / Santa Rosa / San Pedro had to leave home about 2:00 am for the journey, and the members from Tacuati left home about 4:30 am.  Bless their hearts. The conference turned out fine with many good talks and the District Choir sang for the first time in the Concepcion District.  Our good members in Horqueta were quick to point out that it started out as the Horqueta choir and grew into a District Choir.  

After the conference we came home and finished preparations for our dinner with the McMullins.  President and Sister McMullin invited themselves and their son Bryant to dinner.  We had Sweet / Sour chicken, jello, cornbread, and Strawberry shortcake for dessert.  We spent abut 2 1/2 hours eating, talking, sharing stories, etc and Sis McMullin said it was the most relaxed she has seen the President in a long time - perhaps in 2 years.  It was truly a blessing for us to have them in our home. 

Today is preparation day and we chose not go to to Concepcion for the Zone activity today - we just had too many things to do.  We do plan to drive to Concepcion later to pick up a package from home (Yeah!) and maybe buy some frozen vegetables.   We love the freeze dried veggies we have received from Lori and others, but the frozen ones aren't bad either.  

We are looking forward to General Conference.  We are all anxious to see who is called to fill the vacancies in the Quorum of the Twelve.  We plan to use our internet wireless router at the church to show all 5 sessions on Saturday and Sunday.  The Branch is so grateful that they don't have to rent a bus to go to Concepcion to watch a few sessions of Conference.  They can now go to the chapel!

We love and appreciate you all.  Thanks for your support, your prayers, and for taking time occasionally to visit with us by phone.  

Love - Jerry and Cheryl / Mom and Dad / Elder y Hermana Cranney, 

The photo is of Fernando and Roberto - taking a picture of me!

 

14 Septiembre 2015: Horqueta, Paraguay

It didn't seem like a very busy week until I started looking at my planner and remembered.  So here is a summary view of our week here in the mission field.

Monday we drove to Asuncion, about a 5 hour drive via the Chaco, or the northern wilderness.  It is not advisable to drive that route alone, so we followed the two counselors in the Mission Presidency who were returning to Asuncion.  It was a very interesting trip: not much traffic, some very good roads, some horrible roads, and lots of wilderness.  At one point the highway was so bad that everyone departs from the road and drives on the dirt at the side of the highway for about 1.5 km.  Strange.  We arrive in Asuncion, visited the Mission Office, checked into our Hotel (a German hotel that we really enjoyed), and then went shopping at Super Seis - the closest thing to Walmart here in Paraguay.  Since we drove we had lots of room for things. 

We had dinner and FHE at the McMullins Monday evening.  The new couple from Brasil, the Gutierrez, were supposed to join us but their car broke down somewhere between Brasil and Asuncion.  We had a very nice evening with the McMullin family. 

Tuesay morning we went to the office and then drove with two Elders to the Emigracion office to sign a bunch of papers so that we can stay for another year here in Paraguay.  Then we walked to a Hospital and gave a sweet young lady a blessing.  She wants to get baptized, but every time she gets close she gets sick or has a relapse of her smoking habit that we has had for 11 years.  Note:  she is only 25 years old.  It was a wonderfully sweet experience.   We then walked back to get a car and stopped for a quick visit at the Railway Museum.  Paraguay had the first railway in South American in the 1860s.  We drove back to the mission office and Cheryl and I went to Burger King for lunch.  I really enjoy it, but Cheryl doesn't but she goes with me anyway. We drove to the Distribution Center and found Ace Hardware along the way.  It is an amazing store and they have some really cool stuff.  When we got back to the office the President asked me how much room we had in our mission vehicle.  I replied that all the room we had was available to the mission.  He asked us to take a few things to the new couple who will be living in Santa Rosa.  Those few things included:  a stove and gas tank, large room fans, a large microwave, pots,, pans, dishes, silverware, cutlery, cleaning supplies, emergency kits, etc.  We were packed and the crazy stove rattled all the way from Asuncion to Santa Rosa!

Along the path we were driving through a small town and the highway patrol was on full alert. I got pulled over and received a speeding ticket for going 71 kph in a 40 kph zone.  The multa (fine) was 281,000 GS or about $55.00 US.  Bummer.  But I have a really cool souvenir of the trip - a Paraguayan speeding ticket. 

We dropped off all the stuff at the new house and arrived home about 10:00 pm, tired but glad to be home. 

Wednesday we recuperated and participated in the Branch Activity. 

Thursday we had a District Presidency meeting where we planned the Branch Conference for the Rama Horqueta.  I was told to prepare a talk, but on Sunday the District President came and I didn't have to speak.  Now I have a great talk in reserve about "Sacrament Meeting". While we were in Concepcion for the Presidency meeting, we delivered letters and packages for the missionaries we had picked up at the office in Asuncion.

Friday we ordered chairs from Pres Duarte - Cheryl wanted a rocking chair for our front room and two chairs and a table for our front porch.  We picked them up and they are great!

Friday we had a great branch activity where the missionaries issued a Book of Mormon challenge to all the branch members....to read again the Book of Mormon.  To help them be more excited, a small cast of characters (and boy were they characters) presented a little play about 1 Ne Chapter 1.  I was the narrator and most of the other parts were in Guarani.  We had a great time and the members loved it. 

Saturday we went to the Duarte home and had dinner with them to celebrate their daughter Daisy's 24th birthday.  We had a great meal and birthday cake. We then went to the Garay home to help prepare food they were selling to raise money to help pay for their 14 year old daughter Wilke's medical bills.  She was in a moto accident and broke her collar bone.  She needs a metal pin. We prepared over 70 plates of food  

Sunday we had branch conference which was focused on the Sabbath Day, Reverence, and Sacrament Meeting.  We had a nice dinner at home, then went to Concepcion to teach our final marriage class.  It went well and Cheryl had prepared a cake to celebrate the event.  We presented each participant with a Certificate and they loved it. We picked up the zone leaders to interview a couple in Horqueta for their baptism on Saturday, and I taught a Missionary Prep class to 4 of the youth in our branch.  We then watched a broadcast for Young Adults on Cheryl's laptop.  It was a very good day. 

Today we worked around the house, killed ants, and went out to dinner.

We sure love and miss you all.  Thanks for the support, the prayers, the packages, the emails, and the love. 

Love, Jerry and Cheryl.