Zone Conferences

Zone conferences are great!  Wonderful training from zone leaders and assistants, testimonies and goals set and discussed.  It is a great thing to watch missionaries catch a vision and set w goal for themselves.  It is nothing they say, just the look on their face and the way that they act.

District conference in the Chaco

Getting to the Chaco can be a real trick, especially after a rain storm.  This trip proved that four wheel drive isn't always going to solve the problem.  President was so stuck that another truck couldn't pull him out!  The next day with divine help, a tractor did get him out.  He definitely fit right in with all those that had walked to church since he had only brought the pair of pants he was wearing.  Covered in mud he presided over the meetings for the next two days dropping mud off his caked shoes.

This is the group of missionaries that make it all happen in the Chaco along with the assistants and Hermana training leaders.  History was made on this trip with the first ever experience of Hermanas in the Chaco.  Zone meetings for all missionaries and then special meetings just for the youth. 

Branch members from the Neuland area.

Some of the Members from the Mistolar branch who traveled on at he back of a truck for 18 hours to attend this conference.  They provided a beautiful choir that was unaccompanied by instrument but in perfect harmony and pitch. 

Get out of Jail!

Well the magic day has finally come that Elder Grey has passed three consecutive days of testing for Tuberculosis and is NEGATIVE!!! You can get out of quarantine jail!  You have been a part of our lives for a third of the time we have been in Paraguay.  We hope that you will miss us a little bit, we have loved getting to know you!

Kidney stones.... Pain!

Usually our medical needs don't nessisitate a trip to the emergency room but when a missionary calls in intense pain and she is throwing up we get her to the best hospital in the city as fast as we can.  Thank heavens it was not a real emergency because the fastest way of transportation is taxi.  We considered the hour and a half trip a blessing from the more that two hours it could have taken.  Hermana Solorzano we are so sorry!  That is nothing that you want to do when you are away from home.  Thanks to a wonderful, kind companion Hermana Cardenas who was with you every moment!!

Calling all Hermanas!

This is a one time event that we had to get permission to hold from our Area President.  Missionaries are not supposed to congregate in large groups for safety reasons.  We were able to bring all the Hermanas into the mission office for a special meeting to educate and order the pants that we will start to wear in October.  With the concern for Zitka and Dengue in the mision all the young women serving were given the opportunity to order up to 4 pairs of pants in order to cut down on areas that mosquitos can bite.  This country last year at one time had 40% of the missionaries down with Dengue.  The church will provide pants for the sisters and mosquito repellant, permethrin, and Raid plugins all in effort to protect.

Getting 48 women in the right place for a picture was trick.  Fitting pants to each of them was a task!

What an amazing group of young women here doing incredible things every day!

Visiting the Maka

We had the amazing opportunity to be invited to meet with some members of the Maka tribe.  This is a group women that we were with.  It was a cold night and the warmed their feet as the worked on the bracelets that are sold at the airport and other various areas.
It was a night to never be forgotten as we were able to testify to them that the Great spirit dressed in white, that they had  told stories about was not a spirit but the Savior that appeared to their people in flesh.  He lives!  He loves them and we are brothers and sisters in the eternal family of God.

It is hard to see much in this picture but by the time we left little kids wanted to jump into the picture.   We are pictured her with Elders Bickley and Crofts who have done all the work there.  a visiting missionary couple from Argentina and the future tribe leader that is married to the chief 's daughter. We are in the main area of the community with a nice community center off to the right were there are about 10 computers available to the people.  A very quiet, timid people, but wow can the women play volleyball and the men play soccer!

Elsie joins the family

We are so excited to have our newest granddaughter join our family on Sept 4th!!  Very little Elsie Nicole arrived weighing 6 lbs 10 oz and was 19 inches.  It will be so interesting to see how our family grows while we are gone.  We are so grateful for our 6 grandchildren and their moms and dads that help them communicate with us through Skype.

Another big loss!

Another loss happens every time we get new ones in, Darn!! We lose a few of those missionaries that have already wiggled their way into our hearts. Tradition is a great dinner at "Paulistas", after a day of going to migrations to sign out of the country, a last experience contacting, recuerdo shopping, and  tender testimony meeting.

Special delivery to our missionary serving from our own mission.  Elder Monzon we are taking you home but are so glad that you will continue to serve as the District Executive Secretary.

Goodbye Hermana Henriquez 

We will miss you Hermanas Mera, Diaz, Elder Barrera

Do great things Elders Vela, Rizzo, Stuz, Jeweks, Hermanas Knuckles and Larsen!

August 22 new and much needed missionaries!

August 22 nd brought our  second group of missionaries to arrive in "our mission".  We were so excited to bring this group into our mission that we stayed up all night welcoming them in.  :)  They came from the MTC's in Mexico, Argentina, and Peru, all at different times of the night.  In the middle of that we sent our little missionary out from the Nivacle.

A few hours of sleep for some and none for others finds as at the beautiful Paraguayan temple.  Then the training starts in the mission and the excitement mounts as they will soon learn what part of the mission they will start serving in and who their new companion will be,  

A new school for Travis

Www have been working on trying to get our son Travis into the only America accredited school here in Paraguay since March.  Finally on August 10th he started school, a week and a half after everyone else.  He has been such a trooper as we have uprooted him from the only life he has ever known in Illinois.  Our first experience as a family to the doctor to get all papers in order required a blood test and you have to look your best for your first day of 10th grade in a new schools do new country.  President and Travis both agreed that haircuts were going to be great in Paraguay!

New members of the family

August was when we added two more members to our home.  Elder Grey was diagnosed with an active case of tuberculosis the first of August.  By the third we had moved he and his companion into the house.  Travis has taken the responsibility to teach piano to Elder Grey who is doing great. They will be one happy companionship when they are back to work.

Our visit to the zoo

Pdays are the best!  This is the pday that we shared with our office Elders when we went to the zoo.  The zoo is pretty small but a worthwhile trip here in Asuncion.  Animals are very close,  the dangerous ones are usually just an electric fence away.

Abudancia continued...

The water in Abundancia is so salty that it isn't drinkable.  The church as also installed a water filter system that catches all the rain water which runs into a huge tank under the church.  It's is then filtered and piped through the community.  All the drinking water is obtained through this method or it must be purchased.  In this photo you can see how the salty water has eaten away the bottom of the metal door that leads to the pump system.

This Nivacle man stands in front of a picture of the day that 200 where baptized in Mistolar.  He was a part of this picture and was baptized that day. Mistolar is about 6-7 more hours from this area and we haven't been there yet because we don't have enough daylight right now to travel to that area.  For those of you who know us well traveling during the night asnever been a problem for us but here the roads are way to dangerous. 

This is a Nivacle group that we attended church with in an area 45 minutes from Abundancis,  they live in Filidelfia  They have chosen to leave Abudancia and work for themselves rather than rely on the church. 

There is another group