Finding Peace in Stretch Marks

Chris remembers finding her first of many stretch marks when pregnant with our first daughter Kensington. Chris never felt it was something bad but somewhat of a badge of honor that came with giving birth and the joy of being a mother.

A mission whether we are young or seniors leaves stretch marks on your soul. In the four months that we have been here in Paraguay the growth we have both experienced has not come with a wave of a magic wand but by leaps of faith, conquering of fears and remembering who it is we are here for. We really thought this senior mission would be easier than our missions as young adults and in some ways it is but to think we were not going to be stretched or stretched to the limits we have been was shortsighted. Growth is usually not comfortable but worth it. We are grateful for the ordinances and covenants of the sacrament and the temple that help us realign ourselves to His will and bask in the Lord's love through remembering His precious promises to all who follow Him. Instead of birthing a baby we are continually being reborn as we change to be more Christlike in all we do. 

Jumping ahead abit,Thursday was one of those nights. We were the only two in the endowment room of the temple to participate in that ordinance(click the link if you'd like to know more). We both felt like being the only ones helped us focus more and have a more meaningful experience. Chris felt her dad  and Sarah there which intensified the understanding of the welding link of the gospel in God's family and our family being part of God's family. Heavenly Father wants us all to prepare to live with Him.

Last week we were able to find Ken a leather temple bag and Chris an embroidered dress. We also were able to find baking powder and made some bran squares from cereal Ken changed his mind about. 

Monday after having taught our 4th English Connect 2 class we were trained on how to do it. Woohoo, we were doing it the right way. We also had a meeting about the new program piloting in Paraguay called Business in a Box for returned missionaries. It will help return missionaries learn how to start a business, have the tools necessary to start the business and remain spiritually strong by attending institute. Sometimes after being on a mission where things are planned out for you and spiritual experiences are plentiful it is difficult to come back to a more telestial world and be on your own. This will be great for us to have a front row seat at seeing lives and livelihoods improve.

I can't remember if it was this week or last that we found out that our office neighbor Nelson is representing Paraguay with the Tabernacle on Temple Square at the Sunday morning session of general conference and Music and the Spoken word. He is so excited! Too bad it is so expensive to fly to Utah that he can't take his family with him.

Our personal miracles this week came in the form of a James Taylor song on the Gospel Stream 24/7 LDS radio station and in the young missionaries who serve in our ward. They are kind, thoughtful, caring and full of hope (well this really happens all the time so maybe it is not so miraculous but such a gift to be around them).

Tuesday night Chris went to the Noche de Barrio at the church and helped teach some of the sisters how to use the sewing machine that she fixed. If you look carefully at this picture Chris doesn't have her glasses on and shared them with the sister sewing so she could thread the needle and see better while she was stitching. This was the same hermana that patiently talked to Chris in Spanish for 30 minutes until everyone else showed up. Chris learned the Spanish words they use in Paraguay for "party pooper." They are "agua fiesta."

Wednesday we found out we have been assigned a vision project about an hour out of our three mission area because we are closest to it at 6 hours away. Another trip to Argentina is in our future. This time to Villa Campo in Santa Fe province.

Thursday morning we were able to participate in Fundación Solidaridad's wheelchair assessment in a small pueblito near the border of Argentina and Paraguay in the Departamento (province) of Pte VillaHayes. It is amazing to hear the stories of the families and how they care for their loved ones so well without chairs or the elderly who are alone without a chair. (The first picture is of Oscar. He is the director of Fundación Solidaridad and doesn't use a wheelchair but was having some fun in one) The whole town was involved in making sure everyone was able to get there to be interviewed and have their needs assessed. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints provides the wheelchairs, Itaipú, donates financially in other big ways to the project and Fundación Solidaridad does the work to get the chairs to who needs them. It is just great to be part of the process and in the presence of amazing people. We also learned that in Paraguay they eat empanadas as a sandwich. 

Thursday night we had yet another guinea pig experience. This time with the "Chas" program that we use to keep track of Humanitarian Projects. We put all our information about projects into Chas including the contacts of people from the organizations and church leaders whose stake covers where the project is located. Several times both of us have tried to update some of the project contacts and have been denied access. When we had emailed Chashelp about it, initialy they said you should just be able to go into contacts to do it but we had tried that and it still didn't work so Chris had one on one help and Chashelp found another glitch in our situation of covering two countries. Sarah, the Chas helper, was great and offered to find a solution. In the mean time we get to send all the needed updates to Sarah. For my fellow Humanitarian missionaries reading this if the contact doesn't have a country entered it will come up as a personal contact of the person who put it in and then others after them in that country cannot update the contact. Long story it has been another learning and stretching experience.

Thursday afternoon we also took "a few minutes" to get our haircut. We really need to remember more that nothing is done fast here. When Ken asked if they had an opening to cut our hair now and they said yes in just a few minutes that meant in a half hour. But she finished up right before the power went out on the whole block for a few hours so I guess that was another miracle.

Friday we left early to make it back to VillaHayes to be part of the wheelchair entrega ceremony. It is overwhelming to represent the Church and the Savior as we watch lives change. We didn't catch this girls biggest smile when she was given her custom chair and no surprise that Chris was in tears. It is a beautiful thing to see someone's hope change. Thirty five families were blessed with wheelchairs.

We also met the Governor of the departmento and explained our purpose for being in Paraguay and some of the projects we have done. Another small miracle was that the woman representing Itaipú is the cousin of the doctor from the hospital we are going to see next week in Salta de Guairá. She had us take a picture with her and sent it to him.

We also were able to visit Hospital Distrital de Capiatá where medical equipment is lacking and we hope we can organize a project to get as much as we can for them so people don't have to suffer as much. This hospital is considered small but because it is located on a major thruway from the capital of Asunción to Cuidad de Este, many people use this hospital. We weren't comfortable taking pictures in the emergency rooms but the exam rooms were over crowded and you can see how long the wait was for all these people.

And we saw this Radioshack sign which we used to see back home:

Finally not sure this is spiritual but it was some hard-earned wisdom:

We are not here to impress anyone but to serve. Those who do not expect us to be impressive are those we are most comfortable serving with. We are trying to humbly, meekly and quietly get things done, relying on the Savior in order to do all things he asks of us whether through personal revelation, through our leaders and even through persecution, mocking and adversity. Just like success as a young missionary wasn't found in the number of people we saw baptized, our success now is not measured on how big or how many projects we complete. Both our success now and then is measured by how we help lift others with relationships that help them feel the love and light of Christ so they can have hope, temporally and spiritually, and want to make the choice to turn to Him.