Our Temple Mission in Paraguay

What an awesome temple!   We have loved being missionaries here.

What made it even better was sharing the experiences with our dear friends, Mel and Jeannie Peel

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We have loved this beautiful Temple.

We have loved having the Peels join us in this great service in the Lord's Holy House.

This is the sight we see in early spring as we leave the temple.

 We say good- bye to our mission, our American and Paraguay friends ---- oops and some Argentine ones too.  We have had a marvelous time and a great learning adventure.  Mostly we have grown in our testimonies and our love for our Savior, Jesus Christ.
 
Our advice to you is... set a date for your mission, begin to save your money, plan and prepare to serve and find a great couple of friends to join you.   And if you can't find willing friends, don't worry you will find wonderful ones waiting for you on your mission!

                                     GOOD-BYE BEAUTIFUL PARAGUAY!

One shopping trip with the Peels

 Here we are at one of our favorite spots for shopping.  These statues below are some of the folklore mythical characters here in Paraguay.

        These look a lot like the Polynesian culture... and the Guarani language has a similar sound.

If you read this name it is a idol for religion... called Tupa Dios.

 All I know about them is that this one is a small boy who lives in the forest and protects the Honey.

 One of the sad sights... garbage out on the streets.  Run down old buildings and they are still in use.

 Smile!---- Bus rides can be fun... look we got on one that was newer, cleaner, and empty.  That is a first.  Look below at the front of the bus  all decorated fancy and it is a Mercedes- Benz.  WOW!

What you might see around the city

Dolls and stuffed animals for sale.  On many corners of main streets the venders just set up shop.

                                        Trees are valued ---so build the street around the tree. 

Cars and horses share the road---everyone seems to be alert and patient with each other.  Well there is a lot of honking... so maybe not so patient.

This is a photocopy shop with weird pictures to the side- pointing up ward to this below.

 Yes, it is the headquarters for the communist Party on the second floor... picture below is the side view all taken quickly from the bus.  Weird, Hey?

 One of the very few churches we have seen.  They are usually small.  We have heard it said--- they were too poor for religion. 

 This is how you remodel... they dump the sand and the bricks... then you just start mixing the sand,  water and cement on the sidewalk with a shovel and begin to build.

            This made me laugh--- I call it a moto motor home.  Let's go camping.

Just a taste of Paraguay

We don't see much graffiti -- but in the poorer sections of town and in the small towns it is all over.






This bottom picture is an advertisement --- it was not far from us on an old building.

 Look up high on the light pole in our parking lot ...there is a big mud birdnest...The bird is in nest and another blurry bird on the wire.  Notice the wire "dinosaur" they are on all wires... Millions of them.

 This is just a closer look at the little bird... with a big sound!!!  I am surprised at how the birds are all small but their voices are so loud. 

We have been by a few small daycare centers... but this was a huge pre-school I guess.  The sad thing is that it starts with a 3 months old. UGH!!!!

 We walked by on Sunday so their are no kids... but it looks clean, colorful and cute!!!

                          Now look careful at the front of the bus.Yes,This driver is in with the season-                                                                                They are Jingle BELLS!

A Sunday Walk

 This is a neighborly thing to do... This lady and man were filling a big hole in the road with rocks.Then as we walked closer, we saw they were balancing a tree branch with grocery sacks tied on.  Just another "sign" for the motorists to drive around .  Whew... that is dangerous.

 Mostly I was noticing trees this day... look as this one growing out of the side of the house.

 This is a close up of the roots growing out of the wall above.  The buildings are made of adobe bricks so  we see small plants starting to grow a lot..but most people get rid of them before this happens!

 I call this the dragon tree... the spikes are so large... this is in the early Spring before the leafs were on. Check out their huge seed pods below.  They grow to be massive trees.

Now this is a great construction fence.  I am not sure but it might keep people out.

 This is another guard house... I think they got the idea from our outhouses!!!!!!

Now you can really tell that trees are important!!Just build your windows around them. I loved this one.

 Just a beautiful burst of flowers.... I wish the pictures could show the true  look of this...

 This tree looks so unusual it is on the temple parking lot and it has just a flat top.  I couldn't get a good shot until it's leaves were turned and the surrounding trees had their new leaves.

This was a first for me this spring as the trees still had lots of their old leaves and also new ones are sprouting all over.  Such a warm winter the leaves didn't fall off.