Mike and Dori Mission: TRAININGS IN ASUNCION, PARAGUAY

Last weekend we flew to Asuncion, Paraguay for quite a few meetings and trainings. We really love
Paraguay and love being there among the people and we find it to be a very refreshing and rewarding experience each time we go this unique and amazing country!

The Asuncion Temple.

Our purposes for this trip were for Michael to briefly speak at two area council meetings where he could address all of the stake and district presidents in Paraguay regarding the audit program, train a new Assistant Area Auditor, Hermano Cabanas, attend a training given by our other auditor in Paraguay, Hermano Beraud and attend another special training for stake secretaries given by our friend, Dante. There are two missions or councils in Paraguay. The Asuncion Mission, and the Asuncion North Mission. The North Mission has a brand new mission president, President McMullen. We enjoyed meeting him . He is still in a daze and not really knowing what he is doing since he only arrived in Asuncion a month ago, so we tried to give him some encouragement!

Our new auditor, Hermano Cabanas is great and very enthusiastic and we loved our time with him. He is a very interesting person as he speaks fluent Guarani, which is the language of one of the indigenous peoples in northern Paraguay. Hermano Cabanas often translates for conferences. Guarani is a very difficult language for sure. We bought a Book of Mormon in Guarani as we are fascinated with the language, and they sell it in the small church book store at the church office building in Asuncion. The title on the front of the book is, "Mormon Kuatianee". (unfortunately, I can't do the accents on my computer!) We also were very fortunate to meet a group from another northern indigenous tribe, the Nivacle people. Their faces were beautiful ...... can't really describe the experience....... it was very unique. They were in Ascunicion attending some church meetings.

Our church meetings were all very rewarding and we met some really wonderdul people. Elder Zeballos was in the same sacrament meeting we were in on Sunday and we were able to hear him give a talk which we thoroughly enjoyed and learned from.

Paraguay has recently elected a new president which seems to have brought new hope and energy to the country. He will have his hands full that is for sure. Over the past fifty years there have been wars, dictators and widespread corruption in Paraguay. He has promised to work on the poverty and strengthen the infrastructure of the country. We will be very interested to see what happens. There are still signs of a dictatorship from the past throughout all of the places we have traveled in Paraguay, police stopping cars randomly ,( when we drive here, we are stopped multiple times) armed guards with machine guns and huge rifles standing guard in all of the banks, and deteriorating roads and buildings and an inadequate airport. New road construction has begun in Asuncion already and it is encouraging to see the work taking place, providing jobs and improvements. The roads themselves in Asuncion are very, very crowded..... and difficult to drive in..... few traffic lights, and bumper to bumper traffic almost constantly. Nevertheless, there are many beautiful sites in Asuncion and it is a city that is very, very old and it has a kind of raw antique charm about it.

We will still have some work to do in Paraguay and will probably visit at least one more time before we leave.

Same meeting.....this time I took the photo.... Hermano Cabanas on the far right. He is our new AAA.

Hermano Beraud on the far right. Presidente Dominguez (to the left of Michael) and his counselor and auditor on the left of him. Presidente Dominguez drove us back and forth from our hotel to all of our meetings and we enjoyed some great conversations with him. He has a terrific sense of humor!