Horqueta 22 Agosto 2016

Fotos:

1-  How we keep our water jug from falling over and spilling in the back seat.

2- Cheryl and Jerry at Iguazu Falls.

3- A typical Paraguayan meal of rice, Chipa Guazu (cornbread), and barbecued beef.

4-  Where we had our picnic today.  You can see our friend on his horse in the background.

 

 

 

 

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Hello to everyone.  We are excited to provide our update this week.  It has been a very wonderful week, filled with new adventures. 

On Monday we drove to Asuncion to spend time with Travis Evans, the 15 year old son of the mission president.  The President and Sister Evans had to travel to Buenos Aires for a New Mission President seminar.  We spent some time in the office on Monday and got moved in to the mission home.  We had two other house guests at the mission home - one missionary who has an active case of tuberculosis and the other is his companion.  It appears that his treatments are working and he should be able to move out soon and return to work.  His treatments last 6 months!

On Tuesday morning we took Travis to school at the American School of Asuncion, probably the best school in town.  The Evans went with us and after dropping Travis off we drove the Evans to the airport.  We then picked up the mission nurse, Sister Trujillo and her companion for the day.  We went to the Paraguayan Health Dept - Division of Tuberculosis.  We needed pills, information, and a referral to a local clinic.  We then went looking for someplace that had the TB test that you take under your skin.  They only had 3 tests in Asuncion available for the missionaries who had worked with this elder.  It was quite a day! We enjoyed our time there and picked up the President and Sister Evans Wednesday night at about midnight. 

Thursday morning early we headed off to Brasil to visit Iguazu Falls.  It was about a 6 hour trip and we arrived in the early afternoon.  The hotel shuttle picked us up at the gate of the National Park and we fell in love with the hotel.  It was so nice and the service was excellent.  The biggest benefit of the hotel being inside the park is that we did not need to follow the park schedule (9:00 - 5:00) but we could walk the trails and see the falls anytime of the day or night we wanted.  We walked all of the trail on Thursday afternoon, had a guided night visit, and then a Friday morning trip to the falls with the hotel guide.  We loved the sights, the food, and the rest.

We drove all the way home Friday afternoon and arrived home about 10:30 pm. 

Saturday morning we went to the police station here in Horqueta to obtain a police report on the hit and run accident we had so that our car insurance will pay for the repairs.  Kind of a scary place to visit but we did get what we needed. 

Sunday was a good and a busy day.  We went to Concepcion and visited the Rama 3 - I taught the Sunday School lesson on Home and Visiting teaching, I spoke in Sacrament meeting on Reverence, Hna Cranney played the piano, and I conducted a financial audit after church.   We drove home just in time for our Priesthood Preparation class here in Horqueta and then we had an hour for dinner.  Cheryl slow cooked chicken and it was sooooo good.  We participated in a Home Evening on Sunday night at the home of Roberto, Mariela, and Federico - all youth who have joined the church in the last two years or so.  We really enjoyed the evening with about 12 other members who participated as well.

Today we took the 2 Elders and 2 Sisters on a field trip out to Paso Ita to a stream that the members call the waters of Mormon.  It was in Paso Ita where about 120 indigenous people joined the church a few years ago.  There was a rented building for a chapel, and nearly an entire tribe joined the church. But something happened there and now there are few members and services are no longer conducted.  We relaxed a bit, played Frisbee, and had lunch on the big rocks in the middle of the stream.  To quote one of the Elders, “this was the best P-day ever!”   We all had a good time.

We are so grateful to be here.  Tomorrow is change/transfer day.  Two of the missionaries here in Horqueta (Elder McNulty and Hna Francani) only have 6 weeks to go to complete their missions.  We only have12 weeks and cannot believe that it is passing so quickly.

We appreciate your prayers, your support, and your love.

Love,

Jerry and Cheryl

More fotos - Iguazu Falls

1- Garganta del Diablo (throat of the devil)

2- Sunset in the Park

3- Had a bit of a hailstorm while we were there.

3- Cheryl on the walkway near the Garganta del Diablo

4- Other view of the walkway

5- Other panorama of the falls.

Love you all,

Cheryl and Jerry

Special Edition - Trip to Iguazu

Fotos:

1- Us in front of our hotel.  Wonderful place to stay.

2- The View from our hotel room window. 

3- Panorama of part of the falls.

4- Cheryl at one lookout

5- Cheryl also….

  more fotos to follow…….

 

 

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Greetings to this special edition of the Cranney newsletter. 

We arrived home late last night after driving all the way to Horqueta from Iguazu Falls, Brasil.  We spent Thursday afternoon and Friday morning at the park and we enjoyed every minute of our visit.  We were blessed to stay at the Belmond Hotel which is inside the park boundaries, so we were not bound by the opening and closing times of the Park.  In fact, when we walk out the front of the hotel you can see some of the falls from the entrance.  We could actually see a little bit of the falls from our room, and when we opened the window you could hear the roar of the falls.  

When we arrived Thursday, we did a self tour of the entire Brasil side of the falls and stayed until dark.  We only saw 3 or 4 other people at that hour.  The sunset over the falls was beautiful but difficult to capture in fotos.  We also went for a moonlight walk to the falls, but it clouded up so we didn’t stay too long.  After the walk, we ate dinner at one of the restaurants in the hotel where they had a huge buffet and grilled meats of every kind.  We really, really enjoyed the meal. 

During the early morning Friday is rained like crazy with much lightening and thunder.  We had arranged for an early morning walking tour of the falls and we really enjoyed it.  There were only a few people in the park, and none of the concessions were open yet.  We put on our rain ponchos when we walked out on the walkways near the base of the falls because with the wind and mist from the falls you get very, very wet.  It was a good walk and we learned a bit about the history of the falls. 

We then enjoyed a huge buffet breakfast and left the park around 1:30 pm.  We had a long and rainy drive home, arriving about 10:30 pm. 

We are so grateful that the Mission President approved our trip, that we splurged a little with the hotel, and we have hundreds of fotos to edit and save. 

A once in a lifetime trip!

Love you all.

Mom and Dad

Asuncion, Paraguay 16 Agosto 2016

Fotos:

1- The Buddist study center in Asuncion near the mission office.

2- The Paraguay National Program center for the elimination of Tuberculosis.  Hard to find and at times hard to believe.

3- Dents from a motorcycle

4- Hermama Cranney, Hermama Brunelle, and Hermana Trujillo at the Tuberculosis Program Center in Asuncion.

5- Us near a fairly large ant hill on the way to Asuncion.

6- Cheryl and the ant hill. 

 

 

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Yes, we are in Asuncion this week spending some time with Travis, the son of President and Sister Evans.  They are in Buenos Aires for a new Mission President Seminar.  Travis is in school so we have been keeping busy helping Sister Trujillo, the mission nurse.  We have a missionary here in the mission who has an active case of Tuberculosis.   And guess what - he is staying here in the mission home with his companion.  So he wears a mask every day and today we went all over Asuncion with Hna Trujillo to get his medicine, his tests, looking for a closer clinic, etc.  It was quite a day.  We have now been informed that all of the missionaries, including us, need to have a TB test when we return to the US after our mission. Swell.

We had a great day on Sunday.  We went to church in our own branch - Horqueta - and loved being with our own branch members.  We from the District taught a combines RS / Priesthood lesson on Home and Visiting teaching.  Everyone participated and it turned out well.  My favorite learning from our discussion was that everyone wants someone to visit them - but not many people want to go out and do visits.  Kind of hard to have it both ways.

After church Hna Cranney worked with Junior Diana who is 9 yrs old and wants to learn to play the piano.  They have a short lesson each Sunday and he now comes to church every week.  We provided a white shirt for him and a zip tie and he looks so good.  We then took the elders to the house where we had a light lunch and then drove to Tacuati.  We had a temple preparation lesson on being worthy to enter the temple and it went well. There are at least 3 couples in the group from Tacuati who want to go to the temple in October.  After the class we went and visited two families and had really good visits.  The first, Noemi, is a member with 3 kids and an inactive member husband who drinks a lot.  She has such a sweet spirit and her husband doesn’t.  But we had a short lesson with her and it went well.  We then visited a member family where only there 16 year old son Jose is active.  They are such good people who just need to realize that they don’t need to be perfect to come to church and be blessed in their lives.  The dad of the family is the one who broke his arm and after a blessing he healed totally after a few short months.  The doctors were amazed. 

We left Tacuati a little late, and as we left our last visit we noticed that at the top of the trail where we were parked was a police pickup blocking the road.  Made me just a little bit nervous. But we drove right by without any problem. 

Last Friday we were having a missionary meeting at the local hamburger place.  After we ate we loaded up into the truck and shortly after we pulled onto the road a motorcycle without lights ot license plates sideswiped us.  He hit hard but did not fall, so he drove off.  We have two dents in the left side of the car.  We need to get a police report so that insurance will pay for the repairs.  Kind of shook me up. 

We are on our way to Iguazu Falls in Brasil tomorrow.  We hope it doesn’t rain.
Take care and we love you all.

Jerry and Cheryl

Monday August 8, 2016

 

Fotos:

1- Toothbrush holder at a member’s house (tree with cord wrapped around it)

2- The Cranneys with Daisy Duarte at the Asuncion Temple. Daisy will be serving in the Brasil Belo Horizonte Mission for 18 months, speaking Portugues.

3- Our landlord and his girlfriend painting the awning of their gym. Note the ladder she is using and who is doing the painting.

4- An updated photo of our garden. We are nearly ready to eat green beans.

Hello to all.

We have had a marvelous week here in Paraguay. On Wednesday morning early we left for Asuncion to attend the temple with Daisy Duarte. She had traveled via bus on Tuesday so that she could complete her passport application and have her temple recommend interview with President Evans. We drove with Pte Duarte, Hna Duarte, and their 12 year old daughter Aurora. We had a good and uneventful trip and arrived at the mission office early afternoon. We dropped off all the stuff from the missionaries, and went to pick up our package from Angela. Surprise. The Zone Leaders had been there earlier in the week and had picked up our package since they did not know we would be in Asuncion. So we were in Asuncion and our package was in Santani, a out 3.5 hours away from Horqueta. We then drove to the temple hostal and the couple in charge was taking a siesta so we had to wait about 2 hours for our room. Cheryl and I went downstairs to the Distribution Center and purchased things we needed for the branch in Horqueta, the Group in Tacuati, and for us. We then went up and got our room. The rooms are so very nice there - a hotel in Asuncion with accommodations like these would charge $150 - $225 per night. We paid 10.000GS or $2.00 USD per person, or $4.00 for the night. We ate food that the Hna Duarte had brought with her and then prepared to go to the temple. We arrived about 45 min early for the session and ran into Hilda, the housekeeper for Pte Evans and his family. What a neat surprise. The session was only about 1/2 full, but it was wonderful. The film was in Spanish on one screen, Portugues subtitles on a smaller screen, and Cheryl used English headsets. Daisy looked so wonderful and so happy to be there. We so much appreciated the invitation to participate with her.

We left for home early Thursday morning and stopped at Rio Verde to buy Peanut Butter from the German store. We bought 5 jars because it is so good, and so inexpensive. We arrived home about 2:30, cleared out the truck, cleaned out our clothes, and then drove to Concepcion for Presidency meeting. I informed President Escobar that we had about 100 days left in the mission and he might want to start looking for another counselor. He looked stunned!

Sunday was a wonderful Sabbath day of fasting. We had not as many members attend due to rain and cold, but those that came were there because they wanted to be. Most of the active members in the Horqueta branch are youth and single adults. They bore testimony of the Book of Mormon, the power of prayer, their desire to serve missions, and their love of God and their Savior. It was a powerful meeting. We have truly grown to love these wonderful people.

We are doing well. Relatively healthy, comfortable except when it is freezing cold here (lower than 60 degrees), and we are enjoying the food - especially the fruit.

We miss and love you all.

Jerry and Cheryl

Horqueta - 1 de Agosto 2016

 

Fotos:

1- part of our garden. It is growing really well, we hope it produces fruit soon.

2- The Anniversary cake from the Duartes. A month late but truly appreciated.

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Greetings to all. The time has come to turn the calendar one more time. We cannot believe how the time is now flying by.

Today was a great Preparation Day. All of the missionaries from Concepcion joined us here in Horqueta and we all went out to the Branch President’s ranch for games and lunch. They played volleyball and futbol, and we had a lunch of chicken(cooked in Hna Duartes tatacua - brick oven), rice salad, fried mandioca, soda, and two kinds of cake. Cheryl made her famous carrot cake and hna Duarte made a very large three layer sheet cake. We took some of our hot chiles that are growing in our garden. Some of the Elders were brave enough to try them, and then spent the next several minutes with cold water running from the faucet into their mouths. They are hot chiles!

We received word today that we can accompany the Daisy Duarte and her family to the temple this week. It will be a great experience and we are honored and humbled that they would invite us. We will be on the road two days - Wednesday and Thursday.

Yesterday we went to Tacuati for church, for training, and to visit the members. It was a good day at the group - we taught about the importance of callings and of fulfilling them. We showed them the video “Only a Stonecutter” and it was powerful. We had a good lunch with Mauricio and his wife Fatima, and then we had training on Home and Visiting Teaching. We visited a bit and then returned home to attend a Family Home Evening / Birthday Party at the Martinez home. It was a good day. We also had great attendance at our meetings - 30 in Tacuati and 52 in Horqueta. Probably one of the highest attendance numbers we have seen in some time.

On the 26th (Tuesday) the Duartes invited us to come to lunch. We gladly accepted - and when we arrived everyone said “Congratulations”. The thanked them but asked why. They said that it was our wedding anniversary. The 26th was correct but in June, not July. 😂 We all had a good laugh.

Our garden is doing well. We have plants, but no fruit from, green beans, peas, hot peppers, tomatoes, green peppers, strawberries, spinach, and we have eaten all of our leaf lettuce. We are excited.

We are doing well. We fasted for the branch in Horqueta and the group in Tacuati and we believe that our prayers have been heard. We love the good people here, and pray for their success.

It is getting hot again, nearly 90 degrees today. Much too hot for me.

We love you all and appreciate all that you do.

Jerry and Cheryl

More fotos: 25 Julio 2016

 

 

1- At lunch with the Hermanas in Concepcion. Hermana Cordova de Peru and Hermana Rolim from Brasil.

2- Egg delivery at the supermarket where we shop - they don't refrigerate their eggs.

3- Other view of the egg delivery. They had already delivered about half of them to the store.

4- A foto of the parking lot at Shopping China in Pedro Juan. If you zoom in or look closely you can see the scooters and motorcycles all lined up.

5- A temple wall hanging of leather made by our branch president, Pte Duarte. We love how it turned out as a gift for a family here.

Love you all.

Jerry and Cheryl