And the Missionary Work has Began

This may be our second week in Argentina and third week of the mission but it is the first week to "labor in the vineyard" as the scriptures say.  The labor was minimal as we still had a lot of temporal needs to take care of but it felt good to get our feet wet.  Soon we will be diving right in and the triathlon will be in progress.

Monday was our first P-day in the mission field.  We learned that it goes until 6 pm and that the young missionaries start every P-day playing soccer from 8-10 am at the district chapel.  So of course that is where we headed as Elder Rhoades had the inspiration to harness their knowledge of the area and the members as we are still riding with our training wheels on and without a list of members.  We tried to get lists on Sunday from two of the branches but we were unsuccessful.

Sure enough maybe not all the elders, but about a dozen of them were there.  Most importantly the zone leaders were there.  We ran past them our idea of going out two hours at a time with a set of elders and having them take us to the in-actives/less actives so we could meet them, introduce ourselves and invite them to attend general conference and hear the prophets speak.  They were helpful and announced to all of them there to go home during their planning sessions and see what would work for them.

Monday Elder Rhoades was able to have his first chiropractic appointment here to get some relief for his back.  He followed up with a second appointment during the week and a third appointment last Monday.  He is doing much better and we are able to walk around more.

Monday felt like Christmas as our missing luggage was delivered along with some additional furnishings for our apartment.  Elder Rhoades was so happy to have more than one pair of trousers to wear! I am happy because our apartment is looking and feeling more like a home.

 We now have drapes up on our big picture windows.  We open them during the day and have them closed at night.  It helps block the cold air from coming in but most importantly helps cut down on the echo we hear when people talk since the walls are cement and the floors have no carpet on them.

Our couch arrived and the church bought us the futon we had mentioned we preferred.  The sofas are not very comfortable down here and this futon not only was the more comfortable of all we tried but it has the added benefit of being able to become a bed.  So we are now set up for family visits (hint, hint).  There is not a lot of tourist sites in Venado Tuerto, however.

My excitement on having a couch did not last long as within minutes of having the futon set up, Elder Rhoades got a bit carried away pressing down the cushion to flatten it out from having been rolled up that he put a bit too much pressure on the wood and....

In Dave's defence, right where the wood cracked is a knot that weakened the wood.  Luckily, the men had not left yet as they were setting up our washing machine/dryer.  So the next day they were able to bring a replacement part for that section of the futon and we have been enjoying it ever since.  Dave has gotten an afternoon nap on it and I have stretched out to do reading/studying on it from time to time.

Our laundry area is quite small which must be normal because they sell a machine that is a washer/dryer all-in-one.  It's crazy but most of the load settings go for close to two hours!  They have one setting that is a rapid wash and that only takes one hour to go through.  The first load we did that included the drying cycle, we found out that "dryer" is a relative term.  The clothes come out damp rather than wet but still require some time hanging up to completely dry.  We have a clothes line up going across our backyard and the sun does a good job drying them, but we are limited to how much clothes we can do at one time.

Tuesday is district meetings from 9 - 10:30 am  So we followed up with the elders the next day and we had three sets of missionaries set up times to work with us.  Score.  We would have liked more, but it was a start.

Wednesday night we went out with a set of missionaries assigned to Branch 3.  They took us to meet Javier, an inactive member and his partner Denisa, a non-member and they have a little 2 year old girl.  Javier's work schedule makes it hard for him to attend but he grew up in the church and now wants to become active again, and become an eternal family by going to the temple.  Interestingly, Denisa is not so keen on that idea.

L-R: Elder Almendras, Danisa in back, Javier in front, Elder Navarro

We learned that the following Saturday was Denisa's birthday so we made some chocolate no bake cookies, which didn't turn out real well but we made due and took them to her that day.

The chocolate I used was pretty weak.  I had to grate the chocolate from a bittersweet chocolate bar.

And the peanut butter here is real runny so the cookies turned out to be more peanut butter than chocolate.  I have since found cocoa powder in abundance so I will be able to make these again and have them turn out more normal I think.

We hope to build a relationship with her and Javier.  Denisa is a bit timid and reserved but will open up once she feels comfortable with you according to the elders.

Elder Rhoades was pretty inspired as we dropped the elders off from this visit as he asked the elders where Javier was with his commitment to the church.  He then proceeded in his limited Spanish to discuss with the elders the need to strengthen Javier and have him living the gospel in his home, especially reading the Book of Mormon, hopefully with his family.  His point was then the spirit would be in the home 24/7 rather than just every 15 minutes whenever the elders visited.  As well as the key to conversion is The Book of Mormon and Javier needs to be converted before this family can become an eternal family.  This may then help Denisa's heart to soften and her stance may change.  The spirit testified that he was spot on and the elders could feel it too.

Thursday we went out with the elders assigned to Murphy, a small town just outside of Venado Tuerto that is part of the district.  It's about a 15-20 minute drive from our apartment.  We were able to meet the branch president and a few inactive members.

L-R: Elder Allen, Presidente Mario Escudero, Elder Maraga

One lady went inactive when she was released from working with the young women a number of years ago.  It made her feel unwanted that they released her.  We told her that was just normal procedure within the church and that she was needed and asked her to return, but we did not feel much positivity during that visit.  Another lady we visited is inactive due to her work schedule.

L-R:  Lucio, Naomi, Martina

 She has a group home for elderly people and it is an around the clock work schedule.  If she can get someone to come in for a couple of hours that is qualified she can get to church but that is not easily accomplished.  She had a good spirit about her and as we discussed conference she could name off a number of recent conference talks she had enjoyed.  Her 13 year old daughter just recently got baptized two weeks ago and she has a cute 6 year old that drew a picture of us while we were there so of course we had to put it up in our apartment.

Sorry for the close up of my face.  We are not very experienced selfie takers.

Friday we went out with the zone leaders who also work in Branch 3.  We met one sister, Mirna, who claims to be inactive because her husband, who is not a member, is not very supportive of her spending a lot of time at church.  She has a two year old daughter, Cristal.

L-R:  Elder Sovereign, Mirna, Elder Nerey

They live with her mother, who is a member, but doesn't come much due to health issues.  The mom was not at home when we stopped by but we did meet her on Sunday because they both came to the morning session of conference.  The zone leaders had explained to us that they had never met her husband but that the sister described him as being immature and into playing sports and hanging with his guy friends.  Elder Rhoades had no fear while we were there and asked if her husband was at home.  She said yes, and so Elder Rhoades asked to meet him.  He came out and we had a good discussion with him about sports.  We learned that he has recently taken up playing paddleball.  This is a sport that isn't played in the US that we know of but apparently is all the rage in Argentina.  He described how it is played and brought out his racket that he uses to play.  He mentioned that Monday night he would be playing it with his friends at a court nearby.  We asked if we could stop by and watch to see what it was like.  He said sure.  So that is what we did.

 Here are a few photos we took while our non-member friend, Juan, was playing.  They are not the best quality. The best way to describe this sport is it is a cross between tennis and racketball.  They play on a tennis court with a tennis ball and net, but they play off of the three walls that surround the court and they play with a racket that is much smaller than a tennis racket and has holes in the paddle, which is very light weight.  It almost looked like it was made from some sort of styrofoam and covered in a plastic covering.

Our hope is to be a friend to Juan and change his outlook on the church so that he can at least allow his wife to attend church more frequently. Mirna talked a lot about working with the Primary and she got very animated and happy doing so.  You could tell that was something she had enjoyed. We would like to get Juan to have an interest in the church as well.  We felt we may be able to use the conference talk by Elder Villar about the muscles as a springboard to opening up a dialog with him about spiritual things, once we have more of a relationship with him.

Friday night we also met Norma, an inactive single sister that is struggling not only with her activity but in general due to her 18 year old son dying in a motorcycle accident 5 years ago.  It was clear that she is still grieving.  (I forgot to take her photo when we met her)  I tried to console her the best I could and buoy up her faith.  Elder Rhoades again was very inspired as he offered her a priesthood blessing, which she accepted.  So Elder Sovereign anointed her and Elder Rhoades with his limited Spanish gave the blessing.  You could feel the spirit there as well.  We invited Norma to attend conference and she accepted our offer for a ride to the chapel for the later Saturday session.  She was ready and waiting when we arrived and looked very nice.  She even had a friend with her, named Norma as well.

Unfortunately, the talks that really spoke to her issues were given on Sunday morning rather than Saturday afternoon.  We particularly felt President Nelson's talk about eternal families was very apropo for her.  Both Dave & I had the same promptings during conference - that we need to challenge Norma to become worthy to go to the temple.  We are planning a follow up with her and will share his message and challenge her to do that.  When we shared it with the zone leaders they didn't seem convinced that was the way to go as Norma currently struggles with just doing the basics - read scriptures and attend church.  My answer to that is sometimes a goal you really want can motivate you to do the little things you struggle doing. And besides, why question the spirit's promptings.  We need to have faith.

Saturday we took the time to walk to church for the conference sessions.  We live only about 7 blocks from the chapel but we have always driven our car (which we are appreciated the name suggestions and are torn between Pepe or Cricket).  It has been very nice weather here, sunny and not too hot, just very pleasant so I wanted to get outside a bit.  I also wanted to take some pictures of the park that we pass going to church and I've walked around for exercise.  I figured the grandkids would appreciate seeing what a playground looks like in Argentina.

 The name of the park

I just find it so interesting that you have palm trees and pine trees growing side by side.

 The playground equipment reminds me of the 1950-60's - all metal.  The swings creak pretty bad when being used.

But what's really cool is the tree next to the playground.  What an awesome place for kids to climb and play on.  Makes me think of the book The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein.

Elder Rhoades got excited because on the way back from the morning session, look what was sitting at the park.

A fire truck!  They are yellow here apparently.  He of course had to check it out and talk to the bomberos (fireman) who were setting up for a free CPR demonstration as it was World Health Day apparently.

We learned that firemen are all volunteers here and get paid a very minimal sum each month.  You could not make a career out of it, that is for sure.  There were quite a few female fireman at this event.

We saw some spring blossoms on the trees at temple square during the conference broadcast, which gave me hope that spring had arrived in Utah.  But it seemed strange because this is what we are seeing everywhere we go in town - signs of fall.

Not very many members were in attendance on Saturday at the chapel for conference.  There were probably more missionaries than members.  But I do think a lot of them listened at home.  Access to the internet is much more common here than it was in Cuzco.  Since we are three hours ahead of Utah time the morning session of conference didn't even start until 1 pm here.  That meant the afternoon session started at 5 pm and the priesthood session went from 9-11 pm.  Crazy, but Dave said that was the session that filled up the chapel.  In between the first and second session of conference, the Goesches treated all the missionaries (that included us) to ice cream at a shop that is only about 3-4 blocks from the chapel.  We offered to help pay but they said our turn would be in October as they will not be here to continue the ice cream tradition.

Forgot to take pictures of the missionaries while they were eating so all you get is the store sign.  If I'm remembering there were 18 of us total.  It was a good size group.  You can get a quarter of a kilo (1/2 lb) tub of ice cream for $3 US.  They have lots of flavors and the quarter kilo tub allows you to choose up to three different flavors.  The Goesches promised this was the best quality of ice cream in all of Venado Tuerto.  It didn't disappoint.

We went to our first restaurant here in Venado Tuerto as well on Saturday with the Goesch between the second session and the priesthood session.  They introduced us to Drops.  They said it was the closest restaurant here that is like an American Fast Food restuarant.  Will have to go again and take photos of the food.  Dave got this big plate of thin sliced steak, salad and fries for just under $7 and I had a milanesa sandwich that was huge which cost even less.  I couldn't eat it all.

More members came to the chapel for the Sunday sessions.  Elder Rhoades was able to listen to the talks in English in a separate room with the gringo missionaries.  I listened to most of the sessions in Spanish as the English feed tended to have periods of delay as it downloaded which were driving me crazy.  It was good ear training for me to listen to them all in Spanish.  So many of the talks revolved around the Doctrine of Christ, the very topic missionaries focus on each and every day.  So if the apostles and prophets preach the Doctrine of Christ, we missionaries are in good company!

Spiritual Thought for the Week:  Comes from what I thought was the most powerful talk from General Conference.  President Russell M Nelson's Sunday morning talk "Come Follow Me"  Now, as President of His Church, I plead with you who have distanced yourselves from the Church and with you who have not yet really sought to know that the Savior’s Church has been restored. Do the spiritual work to find out for yourselves, and please do it now. Time is running out.