Some Weeks You Personally Feel You're Spinning Your Wheels But People Love You Anyway

    So last Saturday only a few hours after we blissfully drove around Asunción(above) and the city of Luque (flooded below) trying to find our way to places where would be taking our Salt Lake Humanitarian visitors, roads flooded. And just to make us feel a little more at home a tornado happened in Ciudad del Este from the same storm that swept across Paraguay. Paraguay much like Iowa just picks up the pieces without a lot of fuss and keeps living.

    On Sunday we experienced a different kind of storm. We walked into church and were both asked to bear our testimonies after the sacrament was passed. Chris cried in fear on and off through the opening song, prayer, announcements, sacrament song and really until she was done. She was determined to put faith before fear though and with Ken by her side shared a simple testimony in Spanish with only needing help once. The joke is Chris can now cry in Spanish or English. Ken of course did a great job.

Some other Sunday funday things were meeting a couple emigrating from Switzerland to southern Paraguay. It will be fun to visit them when we travel to southern Paraguay and also to enjoy their company when they visit the temple here in Asunción. We also learned that our bishop here served in the Utah Salt Lake City Mission just like Carter but a few years(10) before.

    So this Sunday some of you are turning your clocks back, right? Well we wanted to be on top of things and found out that Paraguay does daylight savings but in reverse of what we do and on a different weekend. The first weekend in October ( beginning of spring in Paraguay) Paraguay went on Daylight Savings time and moved an hour ahead. That means those of you who are falling back on November 5 will be one more hour behind us. I will share the updated World Clock for examples:

    Shout out to the Marshall Ward Relief Society sisters and especially Erin Hadfield who had the foresight to buy Chris some warm Minnesota socks to wear so Ken can have the AC on "Morgue" setting and she can still be comfortable. 

All week it has been storming and this was another amazing view from our balcony of a coming storm on Wednesday evening. Our raincoats are getting a work out.

Wednesday night we had to help pick up our Salt Lake and Argentinian visitors at 10:15 pm which is way past missionary bedtime so Chris ventured a try with cinnamon rolls. For a first go with flour, yeast and salt being the only ingredients that matched her normal recipe, they turned out great and were a welcome gift to our guests at the airport and a few office friends.

Thursday and Friday were full of taking our guests to projects that have been completed by our trainers. We had been to all of the spots before but it is still easy to get choked up when people thank us with such sincerity and gratitude for what the Church has done to support them. The first picture is of the new Oxygen plant at a hospital where the Humanitarian arm of the Church donated all the machinery and back up generator. They would really like a new hospital but don't want to move because the location is close to the people. We also toured the newly furnished emergency room and 2 ultrasound machines donated by the Church. It will save lives because people won't have to wait in long lines and there will be better ways to diagnosis things. They were working with a machine that ranked #49 before they purchased a machine that is #2.

    This next picture is of the wheelchair project. This time we even met with the director who is amazing. The most productive projects are those where the implementing organization is not only looking for assistance financially but has plans and principles that help others to grow and become more self reliant. The wheelchair project at Fundación Solidaridad does just that. 

    Again we were able to see the smiles on the faces of the wheel chair recipients the moment they sat in their new chairs. We learned from her parents that the girl in front of Ken in the picture, had lived a normal life until she was 15 and then experienced water on the brain and began loosing her ability  to move. Her dad told us the wheelchair she had been using was 35 years old, so it was used when she started using it. Her mama hugged Chris for what seemed like 5 minutes saying in tears, "Gracias" over and over. 

One of the places we were able to visit was Beehive clothing, where temple clothes are made for South America. Due to the amount of temples announced in South America this particular manufacturing facility is doubling it's capacity. Working here allows for better working conditions, pay and benefits to the workers in comparison to other jobs in the country. 

It has been wonderful to see how these projects improve peoples lives and self sufficiency.

On a personal note we also found out while our visitors were here that when our trainers leave in January we will be taking over some of their area in Northern Argentina. See you then, Cheathams!

The next two pictures have things tied to our past. If you see them post in the comments, text us, or email us.

Spiritual thought for this week: While reading about Limhi and Alma in the Book of Mormon the thought came to mind that the Lord often sends people out in the wilderness to protect them and to help them learn and grow. Even Adam and Eve were sent out of Eden so they could repent (change) and grow in their covenant relationship with God. These verses were in a cross reference:

Therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, alway.

And know ye this day: for I speak not with your children which have not known, and which have not seen the chastisement of the Lord your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his stretched out arm, . . .

But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the Lord which he did.

Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that ye may be strong, (Deut. 11:1-2,7-8)

We hope you are all working on your relationship with God and his son Jesus Christ. As we understand more about who they really are and how much they love us and every other person on this earth that has lived or will live, we can all improve our desire to be more like them and bless others.