Little pieces of our heart.... leaving!

Front l-r Hermana Pardo, Hermana Evans, Hermana Recalde
Back l-r Elder Aleman, Elder Godoy, Elder Albornoz, Elder Passos, President, Elder Starks, Elder Marcum, Elder Proffit

Hermana Pardo off to Bolivia

Elder Albornoz going to Bolivia too

Elder Aleman going home to Honduras

Elder Proffit going home to Utah

Elder Passos calls home Brasil

Elder Marcum going home to Arizona

Elder Starks going home to Utah

Hermana Recalde we hope to see you still in Paraguay!

New prophet, tieing corbatas and preparing with our leaders for the next six weeks

Concilio was held today.  We had the wonderful opportunity to listen together as a new Prophet was announced. How blessed we are to be lead continually throughout the ages by living prophets!
We also had the opportunity to talk and plan to use lesson one more effectively.  We were taught that you can tie your tie each day by routine but teaching with purpose something routine, can be a challenge.  Each lesson one should be a learning opportunity for all involved and taught with purpose and feeling.  One of these truths in lesson one is that we do have prophets on the earth today.

We love new missionaries!!

Boy o boy do we love new missionaries!  This group came to us in spurts.

Four came to us Monday night late from the Mexico MTC.  They got a good nights rest and a whole day with not a lot of action.  They got to be the last group on the temple grounds as all building permits are now in place to start the work. Yeah!!  We hope that all these missionaries are here to see the temple open again.  

We received one from Brazil in the wee hours of the morning and our big group of 9 a few hours later from Argentina. We had the opportunity to take this group to the Botanical Garden of Asuncion where this country was dedicated for missionary work by Ezra Taft Benson.  We hope they establish roots of love as deep as the tree that has protected this sacred place for many years.

Hermana Moya de Utah

Hermana Torres de Peru

Hermana Revelo de Ecuador

Hermana Contreras de Argentina

Hermana Milligan de California

Elder Moser de California

Elder Andrade de Peru

Elder Falcòn de Argentina

Elder Alves de Brasil

Elder Vidurrizaga de Peru

 

Elder Morris de Utah

Elder Taigen de Utah

Elder Piriz de Uruaguay

Hermana Moya de Chile

 

An experiment with Hermanas

This opportunity is one that has been coveted by many of the Hermanas in the mission.  Who will be the first Hermanas to go to the Chaco?  This change we found out!  Hermana Arch and Hermana Adakai will spend 3 weeks in Abundancia working.  They are telling us there is so much to be done!  We are so grateful for the perspective of both Elders and Hermanas and that they are different!  We are all blessed by the differences that each can give. 

Hermana Arch and Hermana Adakai ready for a challenge!

Wow!  Almost everything above Abundancia has not yet been touched in this country.  There is much to be done!

Bahia Negra...almost!

President Evans has been trying to get to a small community in the Alto Chaco for 6 months.  Plans have been made for several months now to visit the community of Bahia Negra which is about 14 hours driving from Asuncion.  Plans were made that we would leave the day after Christmas for this adventure.  From the fist moment it seemed as if the adversary was trying to do everything to stop the trip.  After two days of trying to pass on impassable roads our trip has to be delayed for some other means of transportation rather than car.  Apparently the Chaco has not had rains like this for many years and roads had become lakes and bridges have been closed.  Travis our son, decided that this adventure was worth more than just a picture or two so you can click on the video he made.  Maybe a little or our enthusiasm died after the first 14 hours but we will still get there!! 

We go both ways.....

Usually we are send and receiving missionaries that we consider our sons and daughters of our heart.  In December we got to have one of our own flesh and blood come home from a mission who served in the Ghana West Africa mission.  AWESOME!  We only got to keep him here for a few days before he left to go continue his education.  It was pretty hard for his little brother to send him off.  It seemed just like home for him to have his brother with him.
We are excited that he has plenty of brothers and sisters on the other side to take care of him and lots of nieces and nephews to get to know. We loved every moment with you!!

The motor of the mission

We got the opportunity to share a few Christmas minutes with our great office staff and Assistants.  These are the ones who keep things going and it is quite amazing that they do what they do and still serve as missionaries too!  We are incredibly grateful that we have had the blessing of working very close with these great young men. 

l-r Elder Smith, Elder Villacreses, Elder Perez, Elder Silva, Elder Hill, Elder Hall, Elder Murphy

Last but definitely not least

Our last Christmas zone conference was held in Concepcion.this week.  We love being with these fabulous missionaries!  This month this was the only conference that was held away from the office and even though we worked hard in October and November to make arrangements for food and other things for these missionaries, somethings just didn´t work out as planned.  They were still so happy to be together so all turned out well. Talents abound in this little important part of the mission.