We have told many people that although we are called to serve the people of Paraguay we know our call is to help us develop greater faith and dependence on the Savior and to strengthen our relationship with Him and each other. Christ's name on the badge gives us added courage to do hard things but everyone who has been baptized has taken on his name and can enjoy the strength and power of doing things in His name. When we do that, it is amazing what we see, feel and can accomplish.
This week we tackled a few hard things with His strength, power and direction and we did it together. Not many pictures this week as we were very busy with paperwork and didn't go visiting projects. Although we love the beauty we see we are becoming more accustomed to it and not taking as many photos.
On Sunday (Nov 12) we were asked to give talks in Sacrament Meeting this Sunday(Nov19) about charity. We wrote them on Sunday and Monday, translated them into Spanish and have been practicing them each night and morning. Below is a link to Chris's talk in English and Spanish in Google Drive. Ken wasn't up for sharing his.
Chris's talk
We have not had a week when our missionary meetings have been at the same scheduled time since we arrived so there are days when we just don't get it right. Monday we ended up going to our weekly devotion an hour early. Good thing is it is only upstairs so we just went back to our office (temporary office) and got a few more things done.
Last week we shared this video from the movie Bruce Almighty with the other senior humanitarian missionaries in the South America South area about how life as a humanitarian missionary feels sometimes with all the requests and paperwork. (And no, although they sell Juan Valdez down here we don't drink it even on a tough day.) Click the link below for a laugh.
Bruce Almighty answering prayers
We have an important medical conference that LDSCharities is helping to sponsor with the Ministry of Health here in Paraguay Nov 23-27 on Mother and New Born Care. There are many things that need to be done and fall into place in the next week, prayers would be helpful.
Thanks to remembering a share from Chris's sister, Kim, we enjoy oatmeal in the mornings. The night before we add some of the drinkable yogurt we find here (that's the only kind they sell) into some oatmeal and add some cinnamon. The yogurt softens the oatmeal and gives us a great stick to your bones breakfast, because you never know what time your are going to get to eat lunch.
Tuesday Chris felt sick with head congestion so she worked from home Tuesday afternoon.
By Wednesday Chris was feeling better physically but emotionally, we had to decline our first project because it was not sustainable and that was heartbreaking. In order for a project to be approved, because we are safe guarding the widow's mite, the project needs to be sustainable either by the help of other organizations or those requesting the project. We hope that after some more collaboration that we can resubmit the project we had to decline at this time. Tough mission day! Thanks for those of you who reach out when I posted on Facebook. It helps so much on those days to have a cheering section.
So Chris deals with stress by (cr)eating. Wednesday we worked with what we could find and made a delicious "cowboy caviar." We bought some choclo which is field corn and tried cooking it and adding it to the caviar. It didn't taste bad but by the second day it was like little pebbles. We now think they may grind that for their chipa guazú or sopa paraguaya (different kinds of cheesy cornbread). They have Tostido brand tortilla chips. The chips are just salted Doritos without the flavoring. Salty is great when you sweat alot. The tortillas we used on Thursday for steak tacos were Bimbo brand and excellent.
The great thing that did happen Wednesday was that we were able to meet with some people from the legal department and a couple who has close government connections in the Paraguayan Senate because they wanted to learn about our Humanitarian projects in Paraguay. She was impressed that Chris knew to do the double cheek kiss and by the end of the meeting we were old friends. We hope this will help us make inroads on our education project.
Thursday we stayed and worked from our home office. We had deadlines and we find it is easier to not be distracted at home. There are a lot of hoops to jump through to get approval for a project to begin. One hoop is to enter your project into a specific software program (Chas). The software is a work in progress so there is a dance we have to do with what we want to put in and how it all fits. That makes it important to not have too many distractions. We had a deadline of Friday and wanted to get two done. For our first two we feel we made a great first effort and Elder and Sister Barney would be proud of our measures. For our humanitarian missionary friends, we made a developing projects measures table just like the one we trained on and are using that in our definition. For us that was a huge help!
On the left is Ken and our daughter Kensington(11 months) in Rhode Island in May of 1989 and on the right is Nick and Lane14 months) (Kensington's husband and daughter) in Sayulita, Mexico November 2023
Thursday we were able to go to the temple again. It is a place we can feel wrapped in the arms of love. We learned more about a couple who were born in Paraguay, lived 30 years in Philadelphia USA (there is a Filadelfia, Paraguay too) and returned to Paraguay, so they speak English. They were so kind to us and even asked about our Thanksgiving plans.
Friday went by fast and it was hot. It probably wasn't the best idea but we decided we would walk to the computer clinic to pick up Chris's old MacBook that was being worked on. It was a 30 minute walk to and 30 minutes back. We were a little disappointed because before we left the clinic, we turned it on and it wouldn't boot up. The clinic has a great policy that you don't pay if it doesn't work so he needed to do a few more things so we walked home empty handed. We weren't pulling a handcart but it reminded us of our Trek experience because it was 100°F and humid. We won't be doing that again but the Lord in his mercy sent a man driving by in a truck who recognized our tags and yelled, "Hermanos!" and then held out his copy of the Book of Mormon and waved. We gave him a thumbs up and made it home with smiles.
Today, Saturday, is a rest day. We are only doing essential cleaning and laundry today, the rush of the next three weeks will be a test of our ability to work hard and be examples of disciples of Christ so we need to rest up and enjoy a little self-care today. After speaking at church, preparing and executing the training conference and then making a trip to the Chaco (three nights without our CPAP's because we will basically be camping) we will be shown our weaknesses and where we need to work on our Christlike behaviors.
Sorry for lack of pictures and it may be a while before we get the time to post again, so sit tight (Mom, please don't worry I will text you). We love you all and feel your prayers of strength for us.
Today's spiritual thought is from Alma 5:19
"can you look up, having the image of God engraven upon your countenances?"
Think about the word engraven. We are all born in the image of God and on the surface we reflect his image but how deep does that image penetrate? When an image is reflected the permanence depends solely on the image being reflected remaining true and not moving(God is true, faithful and unchangable) and whatever it is reflected on not moving. But if the image is engraven it takes time and effort and depth to copy. It remains even if the original image is not there(integrity) How are you carving out the fleshy tables of your heart with his image?
Have a Great Week
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