Three Months Away and a New Year

 We can't say enough about how much we love Paraguay its beauty, its people and all the experiences we have been able to enjoy. Regardless of the imperfections of mortality that at times bring saddness and discouragement for a moment, we are reminded daily that our call to be here at this time was heaven sent and is heavenly supported.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

    We rang in the New Year with a sweet family from the office. Enrique works as the Regional Director of the Physical Facilities group at our church office and covers the same areas we do. It was such a fun and relaxing night. The food was amazing and the company perfect. We celebrated before midnight with some of their traditions of sparklers and making a wish when you light them, then tossing the confetti of gratitude and love while proclaiming "Happy New Year."  We were home by 10:30 but were able to watch the fireworks from our balcony again as Asunción was lit up for 30 minutes of fireworks 
everywhere.
    New Years Day was a sleep in and relax sort of day. Catching up on cleaning. It was good to rest because Tuesday was one of those frustrating days when the rug was pulled out from under us for a moment and the world we thought we understood got a little more complicated. We are learning how to voice our concerns with Christlike attributes but it is a work in progress. We pray for patience and understanding and then the Lord gives us occasions to see if we are praying with real intent. Do you really want to go through what it takes to practice patience and understanding? We were just thinking it 
would take the wave of a heavenly wand and the gift of patience and understanding would be bestowed upon us. You mean we have to do some ground work?
    One thing we've learned is to take comments from others as information, thank them for the 
information, then give ourselves time to process that information. It is so important to not allow the pace of things to be frantic or allow ourselves to be "stirred up to anger." We're trying to be like Jesus.
    Of course with the tough came a beautiful invite from the young missionaries to join them that night at the church for a ward game night. There was mostly youth there but we enjoyed oursleves and it helped us remember how blessed we are, how much we love what we are doing and how we can 
support and strengthen others. Although the projects we do will help many people it is really the relationships that we are making that will change our lives and hopefully those we come in contact with.
    Wednesday was kind of a do-over day. We were able to prepare for our trip East. One of the things we did was purchase 20 shovels, brooms, dustpans and packages of garbage bags from our favorite store Ferrex( like a Home Depot). These items were add ons to the emergency supplies the Church bought to have ready at the Bishop's Storrehouse for the yearly flooding. We wiped out the shovels in one store and found another store, right down the street from the North Mission Home. Bonus we found a nicer SuperSeis too (one of the grocery chains). We thought the storehouse was open on Thursday morning and we could drop them off on our way out of town but we had to take all the shovels, brooms, dustpans and garbage sacks in the back of the Fortuna(HIghlander) for our trip to Ciudad de Este and 
will try to drop off the emergency supplies on Thursday.
    The drive east was beautiful. Lots of beauty, new and interesting things and lots of feeling like we were driving through Iowa and Minnesota. There was somewhat of a small valley surrounded by hills and nearly every town was named something with a "cerro" in it: Hillside or Ladero del cerro, Abrazo del cerro, Hug of the hill. One thing that was different was that even though it was a major highway with tolls, there were speed bumps near anything residential and if there were orange cones in the middle of the road it was what we lovingly call the shakedown zone, where the police can stop you for anything and make you pay a fine. Our motto, don't make eye contact.

Other types of hills in Paraguay are anthills. They can get rather high and wide.

These next few are just the beauty of Paraguay. Much greener than the Chaco in last months travel and kind of like the Midwest vs. Wyoming.

    Our hotel, the Wyndham Dazzler, had a king size bed! Woohoo! And we didn't get a picture of our breakfast buffet but it was amazing. We did however get a picture of Friday's dinner and our first time trying VoriVori(Boribori) which is the traditional soup of Paraguay. Also the menu at the cafe gave a few giggles in the way they bring a US flavor to some of the options. The food was good and relatively inexpensive.

    One funny thing I remember from Mexico is that hotels are respectable places to stay but in Latin America motels are akin to brothels so we need to remember that when making reservations.

At some point when people started clearing the land for farming, the government of Paraguay started requiring those whose cleared the farmland to plant groves of tree to reforest the land. These groves are very noticeable by the trees all in a row.

Another sight of Paraguay are these trucks overflowing with goods. We are not sure how they are able to get the stuff on top but they make the most of their trip.

    Have we said how much Paraguay reminds us of the Midwest? Well the first picture is of sugarcane so that isn't very midwestern (it does kind of look like corn) but we did get to see them harvesting the sugarcane and some soybeans. And the Cargill sign.

We went to see three health institutions, two hospitals and one center of health (more like a family practice but they deliver babies there. We are hoping to be able to fix some of this old machinery for them. 

Chris would like to have one of these motorcycle trucks to drive around when she gets home. 

    We are trying to work with the Ministry of Education and buy equipment for school kitchens. The Ministry is in charge of getting the "comedor" built and then we are hoping to donate industrial stoves, ovens, fridges and stainless steel prep tables. This will allow students to stay at school longer. We haven't heard much from the Ministry of Education so we were excited to see that things are moving forward in some places.

Hernandarias Christmas decorations included hats. Not sure if that was this years theme or there is something traditional about that. 

The joy of being a senior missionary is that after the work is done you can play. We were able to go see the 2nd or 3rd largest hydroelectric dam in the world(depending on who you talk to) that powers 90% of Paraguay and a portion of Brazil. It was impressive and the bus tour even took us across the dam into Brazil.

Ken being a tourist!

Due to visa issues and not being able to take the car across the border, we chose to save our trip to Iguazu Falls for another time but we were able to visit Saltos Monday. It was beautiful and because we visited on January 6, which is a holiday here, it was just Ken and I viewing the falls. I know the younger generation are laughing, we are still trying to perfect our selfies.

Stopped at a gas station for a restroom break and went in to the handicap stall to find the toilet paper hanging on the purse hook up high and wondered how this worked for people who can not stand.

    Sorry we are a little late sending this out this week. Lots to do, many to help and there was a lot to share this week. I think we will only get busier and we just need to remember to ask Heavenly Father when he needs us to up the pace and when we wants us to not run faster than we have strength.
Our spiritual thought this week comes from October 2023 General Conference address by: Amy Wright, in Primary General Primary presidency:

"My dear friends, we cannot share our oil (referencing the story of the ten virgins), but we can share His light. Oil in our lamps will not only help us "abide the day" but can also be the means of illuminating the path that leads those we love to the Savior, who stands ready "with open arms to receive" them."

As the Midwest enjoys its first blizzard of the season we are "enjoying" temperatures over 100°F with at least 90%humidity. We are grateful for air conditioning in our office, apartment and car and good antipersperant.

Love you all and thanks for your continued support and prayers. We feel and need them daily.