A Week of Wonders

    Sunday when we entered church a young man came and shook our hand and knew who we were. It took us a minute to realize he was one of the mission presidents in Paraguay. President Alleman is an amazing guy. He had emailed us that he wanted to meet us but was really busy with transfers and Elder Renlund's visit so he would catch up after, but there he was, so excited that we were here. Oh it did our hearts good. Somedays as a humanitarian missionary you feel like an orphan because you aren't really involved in the "mission" or in your ward by assignment. Having President Alleman love on us was wonderful. He was also very excited that we were from Minnesota as he and his family lived in Rochester for 10 years before moving to Arizona.

    Paraguay has the best breads, beef and dairy products (ie. ice cream and butter) We are proud that in nearly a month's time we have only accumulated two ice cream cartons in the name of having storage containers. But really they are the perfect size and the ice cream is amazing.

Monday's Wonder:

    We really have the best mission in the world for so many reasons and we are happy and prospering but we wonder sometimes if they knew we were coming. Each day we wonder if our office will be finished, if Chris's laptop will come (if you don't have a church computer with all the security you can't get into some needed stuff), if we are going to get our desktop computers, if our mission president will get to meet us, if there are any other senior couples in Paraguay. We try not to focus on those things but we do wonder.

Tuesday's Wonder:

    The wonder of technology. Each week we enjoy a devotional that is transmitted from Argentina at our Area Headquarters. This week's devotional featured Elder Dale Renlund.

Elder Renlund gushed gratitude for senior and service missionaries and said we were called by apostolic keys and if we haven't had the confirmation that we were called with that power we need to humbly plead in prayer until we get it.

Leading up to his humorous and memorable analogy he made a few points:

• Revelation changes outlook. 
• Define the problem
• See heaven's help which comes in councils
• We can all be together without worrying about who's more important
• Move forward being open to revelation

His analogy: Nitroglycerin although great at blasting through rocks is unstable on its own. If it was disturbed, it would explode. If it was left alone too long, it would explode. If it was too hot or too cold, it would explode. Because of these traits, it was banned in some places because of it's unpredictability. and the destruction it caused.  Then Alfred Noble did the research and found that by adding diatomaceous earth (a main product of kitty litter) nitroglycerin's explosive properties could be predictive and serve the greater good. In fact Alfred Noble prospered greatly from this discovery. Elder Renlund asked "which was more important, the nitroglycerin or the kitty litter?" Answer - both are equally important. Without the kitty-litter the nitroglycerin was unusable. Without the nitroglycerin, all you have is kitty litter. Whether we are the explosive or the kitty litter we are important in getting the job done. We are all here to make the explosion of the work of the Church safe.

Wednesday's Wonder: 

   We knew Elder Renlund was coming (part of the reason we don't have our office, we are kitty litter). A youth and parent devotional was announced for Wednesday evening but we were not youth or parents of youth and didn't want to take up their space. As it was they ran out of space and had youth sitting in the aisles. We prayed on Tuesday even and Wednesday morning that if it were possible we would be able to see Elder Renlund, thinking that maybe he would walk through the Church office building here in Paraguay and we might get to say "hi" or wave but if not we would keep our temple appointment and go there instead. Around 9:00 am on Wednesday, a sweet brother we work with who has taken great care of us and is the Paraguay Asuncion Mission clerk invited us to the missionary meeting at 5 with Elder Renlund. There are not many reasons I would miss going to the temple but the opportunity to be in a room of about 200 people with an Apostle is one of them. We changed our temple appointments to Thursday which brought other blessings and went to the meeting.

   We thought we were doing well getting there about 4:15 for a 5:00 meeting but the chapel was full of missionaries as quiet as church mice. The love and spirit were strong. We took pictures (we haven't gotten a copy yet) and were able to go up one by one and share our name and where we were from with all the guests (The Renlunds, The Walkers (from the Area presidency) and the Allemans. Prayers are answered.

    We enjoyed a spiritual feast. A second wonder was the Renlund's sense of humor and the amazing way Elder and Sister Renlund worked together as equals. She was as powerful a speaker as he was and it didn't bother him a bit in fact he called her back up a second time so he could seemingly take a breather. It would take too long to share all the wonderful things we heard but I want to share something funny Elder Renlund said in jest, something like  "I think the war in heaven (Revelation 12:7) was started over what was or wasn't going to be in the hymn book." Elder Renlund also said many important things that have changed my life and one was his powerful apostolic blessing. What I was able to remember and write down felt like he was talking individually to us. He blessed us to be able to sense Heavenly Father's love and that what was not right at home would be made right by our sacrifice of coming on a mission, not staying at home trying to fix it. Boom on so many levels but he was speaking to the whole room. Amazing.

Some great talks for consideration that the Renlund's comments were directed from are:

October 2016 RMN Joy and Spiritual Survival 

October 2022 Liahona RMN The Everlasting Covenant 

This was not as amazing as it smelled. Italian pizza made in Paraguay. Not bad tasting but you know when you smell something but it doesn't taste like you expected? Ya, and the Mexican pizza (Ken's choice) had sliced hardboiled eggs. We would brag that we only paid $10 but it was wasted calories. Some things just don't taste the same and that's ok but we won't be buying it again. But the other picture is of the temple lit up at night across from the pizza place. Save!

Thursday's Wonder:

    So remember we switched our temple appointment to hear Elder Renlund? Well, we worked a full day and left the office about 5:45 pm to walk across the street (yes, we are bragging) to head to our temple session, and find it full of people from our ward who warmly welcomed us. A young man was going through for the first time. It was beautiful praying in Spanish together. We were supposed to get a picture of all of us in front of the temple but haven't received it yet.

Friday's Wander:
    A friend asked on Saturday (which is our day off) if we were staying at home to rest or going on an adventure. I told her that although we were working, Friday was our adventure and we were getting things done at home on Saturday.

    Friday we left early to go for our first time on our own to visit organizations who have solicited help from LDS Charities. It is a bittersweet experience to see the humble circumstances that exist and yet beautiful to see the joy that comes from love and not things. (In Paraguay the greeting is a kiss on each cheek).

Here is Ken with the staff of a clinic out from the city. It is only open three days a week during the mornings and it is a dentist office as well as primary care for the people of the community. These are courageous women to be doing so much with so little. We hope we can help them.

This is a picture of our first fleecing from police. You know when you are in an unfamiliar place and you don't catch all the roads signs? We missed a no left turn sign supposedly. We had been coached by our trainers to ask for a receipt and we did but not until after they had enough of our cash for a nice Friday night on the town. Kind of a downer but we live and learn.

This was the farthest out of Ascunción we have been. The gardens are immaculate and we also stopped and got all this for $10 at a farm stand.

The last stop of the day was at a hostel near a hospital that allows those from far away to live there in order to receive the needed dialysis for kidney failure. Most of the residents live there until they die. They are allowed one companion to stay with them. As we toured the building there was a young women celebrating her birthday and we sang Happy Birthday in English to her. It made her and her mother smile. Here we are with some of the staff, the director and a resident after they were trying to teach us some Guarani. We really want to practice so we can surprise them when we return.

They gave us this mug as a gift. "No tengas miedo.,Solo tan fe." Don't have fear, just so much faith." That means so much on so many levels for us and especially Chris learning two languages.

Police stop part dos (two). In Paraguay you need to drive with your lights on and Ken forgot. Gratefully this time he just warned us and we were on our way. Do you remember I called it an adventure?

This is a picture of Ken's puzzle he was working on this week at night although he finished most of it on Saturday.

It was a great week, full of many wonders. We really just feel full of gratitude and love as we serve. We are growing and learning so much from the wonderful people of Paraguay each day.

There are so many spiritual thoughts to share this week but one that sums it all up is from  

Psalms 16: 8,11

 I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

 Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

Don't not let things interrupt your rejoicing!