Hola from Asuncion

This has been an incredibly busy week. We have been working on getting the priesthood reports for FPE out, meeting with directors over the Employment Services and the Institute, and visiting wards and branches. Today (Sunday 16 2011) We were able to visit with two wards. That almost never happens because most of the units are in far reaching areas, there is only one unit in a building and since they all start between 730-900 in the morning it is impossible to get from one to the other in time enough to meet with students after their sacraments. So needless to say…we love it when we can knock out two with one bus trip.

This week we had a young sister missionary staying with us. She has been very sick with a 5 day fever and symptoms of Dengue. She is not well enough to maintain the routines expected of the young missionaries so she is going to help dad and I with our work and stay with us until she is well enough to keep up with a comp and the demands of her area. She has been a delight to have in our home and it has been exciting to watch her get better. She is from Austin Texas and has great Spanish. She is helping us with ours

We are using Spanish more and more each day. Dad is picking up on many of the dichos. We study almost every day now and it is great to have Dad be able to listen to my pronounciation and correct me before I get use to using words incorrectly.

We think we will be moving into our office on the 22nd. We are waiting for the furniture. We met with the gentleman that will be fabricating the white boards, clip strips and easel this past week. The clip strips on the walls are not something that is used here but we are thinking it will save a lot of space when it comes to displaying the large maps that we use.

We were invited by the temple president to join him and his wife to a Stake youth conference and a stake standard activity. It was great to get word out about the FPE and we were able to meet with students. The temple has been closed for cleaning for the past two weeks and we start back up on Thusday. The air conditioning at the temple has been messed up and a repairman from Salt Lake City came this week to work on it. We are hoping he will do his magic before we go back on Thursday.

We had a delectable treat this past week. We located some stovetop dressing mix and were able to make the infamous chicken dressing cassorole. We invited another couple over and we all ate until we couldn’t put another bite in our mouth. We topped the meal of with homemade coconut cream pie. (we also found the Bakers sweetened coconut). We felt a little spoiled….No a lot spoiled.

Alan is drooling over the mangos. They are green right now and he loves to sprinkle salt on them. He said they remind him of a green apple. We plan to make Lynae’s Mango Salsa and serve it with the Paraguayn corn chip…they are kind of like our Sun chips

We continue to feel blessed to be on a mission. We continue to thank Heavenly Father for the confirmation that we are to be here working with the Paraguayns and find the most joy when we are visiting with students. The full time position for a FPE service center supervisor was approved and filled last week as well. We love the sister that we will be working with. She has a dynamic personality, knows a lot of people in Paraguay, and knows nothing about FPE…Perfecto…we can raise her up without preconcieved ideas. She has been managing the church distribution for Asuncion and has a great background for understanding reports too. Her name is Monica Romero. We are sure you will hear a lot about her in the next 17 months.

One of the highlights of this week was this afternoon…we taught about 8 elders how to make the microwave cakes in a dish. They are all extreemly committed to keeping cake mixes in their appartments ! They are excited to know they can make such a jiffy quick treat for cheap and in one bowl. It was fun watching them experiment with the chocolate and white cake mixes. They were great to wash their dishes too. They sang I Am a Child of God (harmonized), Elder Lucas offered the prayer and they were on their way. It was awesome having them in our home. They bring an energetic spirit for teaching the gospel and one can’t help but feel the spirit of service when they are around.

Of course there are things about Paraguay that do not change…it is still hot, humid and heavy pressure out side. We are grateful for ac and fans, water bottles and the shady side of the street. We are happy when the colectivo (bus) takes the down side of the hill rapideo and we get to feel a little breeze on the wet necks. We are estatic when the colectivo is only 15 minutes late and we have a chance at sitting in the heat instead of standing. Life is good.

We just got word from Kay Hauser that her Grandson just received his mission call to Asuncion Paraguay. I will be great fun getting to know him. It’s a small world.

We love you. Thank you for your encouragement, funny comments, mission ideas, scriptures and prayers.

Love
Alan and Vicki

It has been such a long time since I have sent an update to the blog. A lot has gone on in the past several weeks. As most are aware Brice had heart surgery on September 29th. It so happened that I was asked to transfer a sick elder to Utah and was able to lay over for a few days and be with the Brice and Heidi through the surgery. Brice was able to come off life supports early on in the recovery and did so well that I felt comfortable returning to Argentina. Heidi has been amazing in taking care of him. I know she missed the kids but what a great blessing to all of us that Val (her mom) was able to come to Utah. It helped immensley in maintaining consistancy for the children. I know Brice is experiencing an amazing recovery because of the faith and prayers of many. Thank you. I only wish there were words to express the feelings we have for you.
A couple of days after I returned to Bruenas Aires we received word from Alan’s family that Virginia (his mom) had suffered a stroke and was not expected to make it to the end of the week. We could not imagine her lasting even 3-4 days but by time the 5th day had come Iwas beginning to feel that Alan needed to go home to Utah. We had decided earlier, we would follow our Area Presidents suggestions about going home. When his answer returned in the positive we called Karen (Alan’s sister) and within minutes she had arranged the flight, we had Alan packed and was on our way to the airport (thanks to our great missionary friends, the Grieves). Alan made it home in time to spend about an hour with his mom before she passed away. We feel this was a true blessing for us and also feel she was hanging on to see Alan.
As I stayed behind I stayed abreast of the funeral plans and gatherings by Magic Jack. By the reports I have received the time together as family created much reminiscing. It also increased our testimonies of the Masters plan that includes families being together forever.
Alan and I keep very busy preparing for Paraguay. I kept thinking… certainly could not be that much to do. But…since there has never been a couple in Paraguay in this capacity we have had a fair amount of groundwork to complete before actually moving there. Isobel Ibola, our director and Caudia The BA supervisor have been nothing but the greatest in teaching, helping us meet people and make arrangments. They have sincere and wonderful testimonies of the Perpetual Education process and there is no question in anyone’s mind of their conviction.
Alan and I teach an English Book of Mormon class on Thursday Night. Institute here gets going at about 7-8 pm and classes run until midnight. Where the instructors get that kind of energy; we will never figure out. We have about 15 students and they all try so hard to use English. I am expecially compasionate with them…I am in the same spot with Spanish. The students are good to help me with words and phrases. They have also been great cheerleaders concerning the language. “Hermana, at least you are learning Espanol..English is much harder”. I just chuckle. Tonight I will take the bus and find my own way to the Institute. Several other couples have there phones on just in case I get into trouble. Alan was great to teach me were to hit the buzzer and where to walk to get there the safest and quickest way. The Grieves will pick me us so I am not walking the streets alone after dark.
To kind of fill you in on the everyday routines:
Baking without a built in oven thermometer is a blast…the oven is either too hot or too cold. I would say…nothing really turns out…but it is definitly manageable and most of the time eatable.
There are about a million busses…eventhough they have a number on them that doesn’t always mean they go where…they say they go. This requires being extreemly aware of the surroundings and an okay attitude about walking along ways…anyway (Because you missed your bus stop). There have been times when we would have been better off walking by time we spent the time running around the city on the bus and ended up just as far away as if we had walked in the first place. Oh life is good…at least we are walking off the factura that we have been eating on a daily basis.
Catch the next chapter to hear about our factura habit.

Long Awaited Update

Sorry it's been so long! But Mom and Dad did make it to Argentina - about two months ago - and have loved it! They've been working hard in the office learning everything they can from the missionaries there so they can take that knowledge to Paraguay with them in a few weeks. They've grown to love the people they work with and the other missionaries. On P-Days they tour the city and other surrounding areas, often with other couple missionaries. They love shopping at the mercado but are shocked at how expensive things are! Dad is loving the food, especially the empanadas, which he can't seem to get enough of. Their apartment is nicer than expected. It's small, easily panned with the laptop. They have a teeny, tiny water heater, which I guess they are extremely blessed to have at all! Mom mentions it everytime we talk to her. She's so grateful for it! Their apartment is on the tenth floor of the building and they say a short prayer everytime they get on the elevator that they'll reach their floor. Dad's knee is still acting up - not that he'd complain about it - and it'd be difficult for him to hike up that many flights of stairs!

Mom was asked to also serve with the area's medical group. She's loved being able to apply her nursing background to help the missionaries. She surprised us all one day last week showing up back in Utah! She had to bring a very sick missionary home. He hadn't been feeling good for about six weeks, gradually getting worse, but wouldn't say anything because he didn't want to get sent home. Finally his companion "told on him" and sure enough he was sick enough to get sent home. Sick enough to have to be escorted home. Everything fell perfectly into place so she could be here for Brice's surgery! She flies back to Argentina on Friday.

Dad stayed in Argentina and is awaiting further instructions on the move to Paraguay. They were suppose to go this week to start setting things up there, but that will have to wait until Mom gets back.

So that's about where their adventure is at... about to turn another bend...