Biggest news of the week: Polly and Oakey had their baby, Collins Marie Johnson. She was a whopping 9 lbs. 5 oz. and was born Monday afternoon. She is the cutest thing and what is even cuter is the way Cooper and Kenny take care of her.
Last Saturday was a wonderful P-Day. We just relaxed. On our trip to the supermarket we both commented on the fact that we never walked to the HyVee down the street from us to even get a few things, forget about all our groceries for the week. We decided we would look at distances when we got home but thought it was pretty similar. Surprise, Hyvee to our house is 1 mile or 1.6 kilometers. Our apartment here to Superseis is 2.25 kilometers. So we got exercise then Chris made two apple pies to share with some friends and energy bites for the district president we are visiting this week.
Sunday evening after finishing English Connect at 6 we left for an asado at our friend, Sandra's house. Her family is wonderful and fun. We laughed so much. Chris was asked to say the blessing on the food, eek! She brought her Cilantro Lime Hummus and Sun Dried Tomato Hummus with crackers and cut carrots. It was a novelty and a hit as was the apple pie. So an asado starts with sausage slices and sopa paraguaya. After that you then have a dinner with beef, pork, chicken and mandioca, lettuce and tomotes. It was sooo tasty and we finished about 10 pm. We really need to have more days between our asados. One every week is keeping our tummies too full.
We are learning a lot more how to give a hand up instead of a handout with our projects. It is easy to see so much need and just give things believing that having stuff will change situtations. In our giving of things we need to make sure there is a process to initiate incremental self reliance through suggestions and accountability in ways to use what the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints donates so the project will sustain progress.
Monday was a 12 hour day which helped to keep us busy while waiting to hear of Miss Collins arrival. Organizing new solicituds and moving the project dial ever closer on that project that we revisited in March. A meeting with DIBEN which helps people subsidize operations and medical costs that aren't free and they were the initial start of the wheelchair program in Paraguay. We organized our trip to the Chaco and planned a meeting with our friend Burkhardt to try and move ahead on a water project in Mistolar.
On Monday we also found out that the refurbished shipping container that was supposed to be moved before we got here for a Puesto de Salud in a much needed area will finally happen! This Puesto was flooded and then experienced a fire. While school was out they moved into the school but in January school began. Thursday it was moved and we hope to go visit soon to see if they need another one.
Tuesday we had meetings all day. It seemed like one just flowed into another and nothing led to much progress. A high point was that someone thought Chris looked liked she had lost weight! Yeah!
Blessings came that day in the form of a chat with Polly about the birth of her third child and first daughter. Precious time. Things are going well and she has lots of support from Oakey and the boys.
We also got to FaceTime with some MTC (mission training center) friends who we did teaching roll plays with while there. The Bushmans are serving in inner city Tacoma and have lots of interesting stories of an entirely different type than ours. It was great to laugh again with them.
Wednesday was a day of more meetings and until we actually looked at the date we didn't realize it was our anniversary. We knew it was coming up but days fly by and then it was like oh, today's date is that day. Thirty seven years of try to treat each other like a celestial family - thank goodness for repentance, forgiveness and determination.
On Wednesday our boss asked us to use a drone to take pictures of the entrega ceremony on Friday to show how remote the clinic is (remote is a relative term in this case). Um last time Ken used a drone he lost our grandson's drone to the storm sewer. We are still traumatized by the accident, no drone. If something happened there is no way Chris would be able to keep her composure without laughing and snorting so it was a firm, NO.
We went to the temple in the evening, dodging rain on our walk to and from. Chris did the temple work for a woman who's birthday was on Thursday the 9th. Happy Birthday Gertrude May White.
On Thursday we left Asuncion for the Chaco with a stop at Hospital Regional Villa Hayes. It was a nice visit to check out a donation of things the Church had given them in 2022 for their blood bank. They are on the short list for their mammography machine to be digitalized and we also found out that another solicitud for different equipment had been sent through the channels but we haven't seen it yet.
We made it to Filadelfia and found a ghost town. Who knew it was Feast of Ascencion holiday (the Mennonites are serious about their holidays) and even the supermarket was closed. We invited the missionaries serving in Filadelfia to have dinner with us at our hotel just out of ease but we think it may have been the only thing open.
On a rainy day it was rather cold. We have become quite Paraguayan in our tolerance. We sat by the pool and Chris was freezing but it was 17°C which is about 63°F. But the drop from upper 90's to 63 in Paraguay is as shocking to the body as upper 60's to 33 in Minnesota, right?
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| Chris was having one of her uncontrolled laughing attacks as Ken was trying to take the selfie. Get yourself under control he begged but it only made it worse! |
Dinner was great with Elder De Jesus from the Dominican Republic and Elder Head from Layton, Utah. They said they don't go out to dinner much in Filadelfia. It takes a strong, disciplined and dedicated missionary to preach up in the Chaco. Language barriers, cultural barriers and just physically getting through the mud in the streets could certainly get old. These are some of the finest.
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| What a treat to sleep in a king size bed again! |
Friday morning dawned and we had remembered everything for our entrega ceremony with Fundación Vision. Number three is a charm. We got there early enough for them to attach the Donación por la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Días tags on the equipment. It was amazing to see the camera and other equipment and how it will help to improve the ability of the surgeons to work with premature babies to detect a specific eye issue. We have made great friends with fabulous people who are helping the people of Paraguay live fuller lives.
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| Our gift from Fundación Visión |
They also had amazing food at this entrega! No pictures but it is the first time we enjoyed cinnamon rolls with a dulce de leche glaze. Yum! great pan (bread) and dulce de leche together. Can't miss.
After the ceremony we went to try and find a sick member with President Gaona. The member had gone to work so President Gaona was going to try and find him and get him home to Abundancia. While he did that we went with our meeting with the First Lady of Boqueron (Governor's wife), Ruthie Bergen to talk about projects we could help with. One of the projects was teaching sewing in a few communities that lack sewing machines but have volunteer teachers ready to teach. Chris is excited, something she knows about.
Ruthie has been helping to pass out the Church's school kits that the youth made at For the Strength of Youth conferences in January. We invited her to the entrega and she came. We asked her if
her husband had been in politics long and she said he had not and she was against it. We asked what changed her mind. She said Jesus! Yes! our kind of people.
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| Missionaries riding home |
Friday before leaving Filadefia, Ken needed to go pick up some shaving gel. He likes it better than foam and we can't find it anywhere but in the Chaco. When we finally had time to get there is was 11:55 and they close at 12 noon for siesta and don't open again until 14:30 and by that time we needed to be on the road. The guard stopped us and asked if we were just getting a few things and we said only shaving gel so he let us in before locking the door. We located the shaving products and found the last can of gel, our tender mercy. After paying we saw the elders trying to pack their groceries into 4 bags to hang from their bike handles on the way home. We asked if we could take their stuff in our truck and follow them home. It was nice after receiving a tender mercy of our own to share in helping them.
While drivng up and back we saw many animal crossing signs but none of the animals except one skinny deer and many cows. The different birds were a pretty sight. We saw some Greater Rhea or ñandú which looks like an emu or ostrich in a field, Jabiru storks and lots of white cranes.
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| I think these may be Jabiru storks |
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| This is a white crane |
When we stand before God and see Him as he is we will recognize and understand our sins. If we study and learn the true character of our loving God we will want to change now to emulate Him. He wants a people prepared to meet him. Prepared not perfect in the way the world sees perfection. Prepared means we are always learning (by study and also by faith) and turning to Christ (repentance).
Interesting that it talks about blood covered garments, as garments can be cleansed and need to be cleaned often, especially if we are working hard. Again let's not wait for our garments to be cleansed through the power of Christ's sacrifice and sing the song of redeeming love for ourselves and to others in the way we treat them.
V.37 triggered thoughts of the hymn Softly and Tenderly:
1 Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling,
calling for you and for me;
see, on the portals he's waiting and watching,
watching for you and for me.
Refrain:
Come home, come home;
you who are weary come home;
earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
calling, O sinner, come home!
2 Why should we tarry when Jesus is pleading,
pleading for you and for me?
Why should we linger and heed not his mercies,
mercies for you and for me? [Refrain]
3 Time is now fleeting, the moments are passing,
passing from you and from me;
shadows are gathering, deathbeds are coming,
coming for you and for me. [Refrain]
4 O for the wonderful love he has promised,
promised for you and for me!
Though we have sinned, he has mercy and pardon,
pardon for you and for me. [Refrain]
Happy Nurturer's Day tomorrow for those in the US
In Paraguay we celebrate on Wednesday
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