Wait What? They Didn't Teach Us This in the MTC

One of the lessons learned this week: very few things go as planned but the Lord's work gets done.

Fresh mango marmelada from Soledad at the office. Here in Paraguay Mango trees are plentiful and the sidewalks are at times covered in Mangos. We are waiting for one of us to get hit in the head with a mango falling from the trees.

Preparation day came and Chris tried her hand at making her sugar cookie recipe. They were tasty but not pretty. The temple cookie cutter didn't work well with the dough. Chris made a solo trip to the store to get eggs in the middle of making cookies. Good thing it's a block and a half away.

Sunday was the day we gave our talks and we made it through. Chris has more confidence now. The Lord was there beside her all the way. Ken was awesome as always.

On Monday there was a baby shower at the office. It was fun to be included and nice to get to know more people. We all pitched in and bought the high chair. 

This is the thank you gift.

Also on Monday or Tuesday our projects that we thought were well on their way to approval were bounced back to us for revisions. Oh, it is always a little sad to have hard work not be enough, but it is even harder when what you learned at the MTC isn't quite in place in the field. So you regroup and adjust and go on another adventure so you can move ahead, learn from your differences and focus on serving the Lord.

Our adventures seem to include our need to be stopped on the side of the road. This time we only had to pay $7 USD to have someone change the tire. Sometimes in Paraguay you have to pop up on the curb to park. Um, we just popped. You can see the gash in the second picture. We are not sure we are going to be allowed to use the cars anymore. Haha, the term go big or go home may be changed to just go home.

We are now prepared for our adventure to the Chaco with the camping gear we picked up. We heard they are bringing extra diesel up and will run the generator all night so the church we are sleeping in will have lights and fans but most importantly we will be able to use our CPAPs. 

Our adventure included finally meeting someone from our mission even if by accident or divine design. These sweet sisters, Hermana Feliz (Dominican Republic) and Packer (Utah) were such a tender mercy when our day seemed to be not the success we wanted it to be. They are amazing women serving the Lord. Hermana Feliz is almost done with her mission and Hermana Packer has been out 3 months.

Finally on Wednesday we got permission to start bragging about having another granddaughter in May! Polly and Oakey are having a girl. It is always a blessing to have our family grow. Polly and Oakey will be great parents and Kenny and Cooper are taking the responsibility of being a big brother very seriously.

Sometimes we get so comfortable with how we do things that we forget that there are other ways of doing them. Other ways may not seem as efficient, or by the book but learning to focus on getting the work done more than how it is done is very important. We've learned we are just here to funnel information. We gather and pass information from those seeking help from the Church to those who make the decisions about who and how we will help. In order to do that and reflect the love of the Savior while doing it, we've learned we can't let ourselves get overtired, hungry or overwhelmed. As we feel our way through the learning curves of senior humanitarian mission life we know we have to stay focused on who we serve (Jesus Christ and our brothers and sisters) and that will determine how we serve.  

After Wednesday meetings we were ready to just do something that would make us feel successful. We can count and put things into bags, right? You would think. We began the job of making these medical training kits for the conference this coming week. There will be 55 medical professionals coming to learn how to better deal with postpartum bleeding, preeclampsia and eclampsia. They in turn will become the trainers and go out and train more professionals. It's great, we were only supposed to have 40 and now we are at 55.

It has been hard to be away from family for the holidays and all things familiar. But just like bumping into the Sisters on our tough Tuesday, this rainbow came on a weepy Wednesday just to let us know He is aware of us.

Thursday we went to work and Ken spent the morning with Global Support trying to get our computers to work correctly and allow us to accesses the programs we need to get our job done. After about 2 or 3 hours he learned that he would have to wait for a call from a level two tech. Ugh! Last time we waited for level two to call it took nearly a month. (This time it only took less than 48 hours. Yay!)

We went home early and worked from home. There is something about the comfort of home that refreshes our soul and helps us endure well.

Thursday night has become our temple night. It is so wonderful to be able to walk to the temple. Ken had made his appointment to do initiatories but Chris was planning on doing an endowment session to work on her Spanish understanding. Another success, as she did the whole session including the veil in Spanish (reading from the card). Going to the temple helps us remember how much Heavenly Father and the Savior want us to be with them and become like them with Their help.

We keep forgetting to share about our alarm clock. Each weekday morning and sometimes on Saturday anywhere between 5:30 and 6:30 am  a man with a loud speaker on his car drives up and down the streets announcing something in Guarani and then "comida caliente." He passes by our apartment complex at least twice. Ken realizes if he is still in bed by the second call of "comida caliente" he needs to get up.

This is Friday's miracle. Finding out where to buy things is always part of the learning curve when you are in a new place but it doubles when it is a new and not a fully developed country and you don't have your own car. We are walking a lot and learning about great places in the city. One of the things we were searching for were labels to use on the medical vials. We were ready with labels to tape on because we had not been successful in finding Avery labels anywhere. (We couldn't even find 50 pocket folders, it's been a rough week). Friday Chris was looking in the credenza behind out desk in the morning and found two packages of labels. They were so old they had old floppy disks pictured on the cover. They worked, they stuck to things and we found a template on the Avery UK site so we could print them easily and now have them printed and ready to stick on the vials when they arrive. 

Friday was another early out. Ken again worked on paperwork at home and Chris did the weekly cleaning and made chicken soup. We also took the time to decorate for Christmas.

The Lord seems to always share with us what we need to hear and learn when we study His word. This week's spiritual thought comes from Alma 8, while he was teaching in Ammonihah and the people "would not hearken unto the words of Alma. . . Nevertheless, Alma labored much in the spirit, wrestling with God in mighty prayer, that he would pour out his Spirit . . .nevertheless, they hardened their hearts . . . thou hast no power over us . . withstood all his words and reviled him and spit upon him and caused that he should be cast out of their city."

Alma," being weighed down with sorrow, wading through much tribulation and anguish of soul," received a visit from an angel who said, "Blessed art thou . . . lift up thy head and rejoice . . . thou hast been faithful in keeping the commandments of God from the time which thou receivest thy first message . . . now . . . he returned speedily to the land of Ammonihah.

We learn the Lord prepared Amulek to take care of his servant Alma and he was filled and tarried many days with Amulek before he began to preach unto the people.

Alma is such a great example of persevering in following the commandments the Lord gave him despite the outcomes and doing it with meekness and patience like the Savior. Alma shows great integrity to keep his focus on the Savior through sorrow, tribulation and anguish of soul. Alma boldly kept doing what he was asked without or regardless of being noticed or shown any fanfare. But he did also recognize his need for rest and knew that Amulek was a blessing prepared from the Lord.

Here in Paraguay and through technology we continually have our Amuleks who lift us, love us, fill us and let us tarry with them until we can go out and work some more. 

We are grateful for the Amuleks in our lives that buoy us up on our tough weeks.

I have fixed the settings on the blog so everyone should be able to comment now even if you aren't signing in from a gmail account.

 Next week we'll share some great food we've tried.