Early mornings and late nights

Travis and the assistants.... We have spent A LOT of time together.  Sometimes our travel space is a little tight.  They are wonderful and never complain.

Sunrise as we drive leaving at 5:00 am.

Sunset two days later.... As we drive😀 

About 600 miles in 3 days. Training for each companionship and an interview with the president.  We    have covered about half the mission outside the city.

We will try not to drive again at night as there are many cars and mottos on the road without any lights,  potholes that could take an entire tire and speed bumps that could ruin your day...and car, the greatest of all these concerns though are the people walking along completely dark roads.  

Yby Yau

Our little rented building in Yby Yau.  The baptismal font is found in a small area between the classrooms and the chapel.  These elders are keeping things moving as we work through our month that we have had to close some areas for lack of missionaries.  We are gratefully that it is temporary due to missionaries leaving to return for school.  

Paraguayan life

There are many interesting things about Paraguay that you can pick up in this photo.  First the red dirt.... Beautiful and it grows so many things.  It is very fine dirt.  Notice the man in the back hoe....sleeping at 9:00 in the morning!  Well progress on road construction is slow for a reason 😀Next if you look closely you can see three men in the background drinking Mate or Yerba.  Paraguayans LOVE this drink!! All day long they drink  it.  You see them carrying their thermos type containers with them everywhere.  There are little stands in the mornings we're they can go to get the herbs ground up for their drink that day.

A woman waiting to make you the Mate for the day.

Ant hills!  President is 6'3".  Hard as a rock but everywhere outside the city.  Some are definitely
larger than others but they are all over.

I don't know if you can pick this out but there are Emu in this picture.  There should be three.

Training for new missionaries

Training is given to new missionaries and to the trainers and then the moment they have been waiting for ..... The new companionship! It is so exciting! It is a bonus whe one of the missionaries rep ones that they just new that would be their companion, they had just felt it.  It is awesome!

Our first missionaries!

Adventures continue with the first new missionaries coming into the mission.  There have been many hours of preparation as we have anticipated them.  Time spent in physical preparation getting things ready for bedding, medication, food, etc, and then many hours spent in prayer and counseling trying to find the best trainers for these new missionaries.  We know that trainers are really the most important responsibility in the mission. They in a large part will set the pattern for the whole mission.
Our new missionaries are so excited to be here! What a great group they are coming from the MTC In
Argentina and Mexico. Counties of Argentina, Bolivia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, and the United States are represented here.  They come from so many different backgrounds all with a desire to share their testimonies and joy with someone else.

Elders and Hermanas from Argentina MTC

 

Hermanas from Mexico MTC

                                                                             

Our last stop on the mission tour was here in the area of Santani. In these areas our missionaries try to learn the language of Guarani.  One of these Hermanas had borne her testimony the week before in complete Guarani. Incredible! This language is loved by the Paraguayans but not related to Spanish all.  The people love it if you use their language. It is an amazing beautiful, language to hear.
Four days of constant travel or meetings and we have a taste of this incredible new country.  We feel very humbled yet grateful to be here. We know that Heavenly Father loves these wonderful people.

Another very different, beautiful area of Paraguay right on the Brazilian boarder. Travis is eyeing this area as a possible adventure someday.  We are told that there are hikes and beautiful waterfalls to see.                                                   

These missionaries are the farthest from the mission home except those that serve with the Nivacle indigenous group that live anywhere from 7-15 hours from the mission home. We haven't been there yet. The missionaries that are here serve in an area named Pedro Juan Caballero which is about 6-7 hours from us with one road that literally separates Paraguay from Brazil. Great trust is invested in 

these that work so far from us.  We are so grateful for them! 

Another very different, beautiful area of Paraguay right on the Brazilian boarder. Travis is eyeing this area as a possible adventure someday.  We are told that there are hikes and beautiful waterfalls to see.                                                   

These missionaries are the farthest from the mission home except those that serve with the Nivacle indigenous group that live anywhere from 7-15 hours from the mission home. We haven't been there yet. The missionaries that are here serve in an area named Pedro Juan Caballero which is about 6-7 hours from us with one road that literally separates Paraguay from Brazil. Great trust is invested in 

these that work so far from us.  We are so grateful for them! 

Monday morning we were on the road by 7:00. We had new country to see out of the city.  Amazing birds filled the air of the Chaco. This is an area that alligators and anacondas are found wandering from the river and we have even been told that there are lions and jaguars that roam.  Thankfully the only thing that we saw were huge snakes.  

We meet a great group of missionaries and one of our two senior couples that serve in the mission.  They are in the area of Concepcion. It is a very interesting city where most people drive "mottos". Very few cars are found here.

These are the missionaries serving in the areas closest to the mission home.  We were able to meet them after we attended our Campo Grande ward on Sunday. Don't they just look awesome?

A wonderful group of priesthood leaders and wives that we will be working with here in Paraguay.
We had been told that one of the many qualities of this country was the kindness of the people, we have definitely found this to be true. Everyone is so willing to do anything to try and help us.

Thankfully we have this great group of missionaries that keep us running.  It is amazing to us how much they do and know.  We could not function without them!  They are awesome!

Our first day on the mission we traveled to the zones of Luque over new roads that don't have a speed limit but then don't really need speed limits because the speed bumps and the potholes prevent anyone from going very fast.  Even thought the mileage from the mission office is small (10 km) the time to get there may take 45 min to an hour.  It was worth every minute though to start meeting the missionaries that we serve with. What a great welcome that have given us.

Touch down in Paraguay! July 1st 2016. We had just spent four incredible days with all the apostles, participated in the marriage of our son and new daughter, spent moments with all of our family who are expanding rapidly with the addition of a new grandaughter in  Septmber and twins probably by the end of the year. The only one missing was our son Isaac who is serving in Ghana. We sadly had to bury our wonderful dog who was killed just days before we left.   Thank heavens our days would soon be filled with more than 200 missionaries trying each day to bless the lives of the people that they serve in Paraguay.

This is the wonderful McMullin family who have been lovingly watching the missionaries in Paraguay for the last three years. They somehow think that by giving us keys and phones that we know what to do.