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.

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.