Mondays are probably going to be my baking day. Last Monday I jumped in and attempted to bake a few things. The ovens here do not have degrees marked on the oven. We found an oven thermometer that we can place in the oven to give us an idea of the temperature. Without that, it would be impossible. I owed some lemon bars to Brother Olmos who has helped us so much so I made some of those.
Elder Mathias and Elder Cannon work in Branch 1, which is the area our home is located in, so we've gotten to know them a bit more than the others. Mathias on Sunday gave me a going away present.
His jar of left-over molasses! There is no brown sugar here in Argentina, but the work around is to add molasses to white sugar and beat and beat it together. Most cookie recipes require brown sugar so this was a very valuable gift. Elder Deem is photo bombing in the back. He goes home this transfer as well. We didn't work with him much, as he was out in one of the outlying areas.
Today I attempted to make brownies as we have a family home evening scheduled for tomorrow night and I'm supposed to bring the brownies.
Here are the results. The chocolate flavor is too strong of cocoa powder. The powder here may be stronger than in the states. I'm going to have to make another batch tomorrow with less powder.
Missionary work was a bit slow this week. We still don't know enough of the leaders and members. We went to two choir practices for the district conference this weekend. That is helping us to know some of the members. Most importantly, the president of the San Martin branch was one of the basses and his wife was the choir director so it has really helped us get to know them.
We also went out with one of the sets of elders working in the San Martin branch one morning. We visited four inactive individuals. It was enlightening but discouraging at the same time. We heard the same reasons for their inactivity every time. These members all complained about the leaders offending them in the past, for some of them many years in the past. They have nursed those hurt feelings until it almost seemed like they can't see past them.
The first member, Naomi is in her seventies. She is one of the pioneer members here in Venado Tuerto she was baptized 47 years ago. She worked as a social worker when she was younger and has very good people skills. Her heart was pretty hardened and not opened to the idea of reconciling and going back. That doesn't mean we won't work with her, however.
The second member was Henry, a single man in his early 40's. He is very well educated and travels alot. He was baptized over 20 years ago and knows the scriptures more than a lot of the members here. Elder Rhoades was able to work with him, as he has a pretty good command of English. Dave challenged him to read Jacob 5 and promised we would visit him again in a couple of weeks. He was a bit easier to work with. He would be such a great resource to the church if we could get him to be active again. He is definitely leadership material.
The third member was Jorgelina. She came to the door with a baby less than a month old - her granddaughter. She has five children ages 19, 16, 11, 8 and 5. She had family visiting so we did not stay long. We invited her to district conference. During our visit we learned that her youngest was having a birthday the next day. We tried to make it out there to leave her a treat and small gift but Thursday was not the best of days so we went Friday but missed both Jorgelina and Candela (the 5 year old) but left the gifts anyway. This member didn't seem to have the offended issues that the others had. This member just has the demands of life issues that get in the way of commitment to church I think.
The last member we visited was Lola and her daughter Luciana. This member again is one of the pioneer members of the church here in Venado Tuerto. She was baptized 48 years ago. I don't believe she has lived in Venado Tuerto the whole time. It has only been since her husband died that they have moved here. This member is an endowed member and has been very active, but she is very bitter about the leaders here and their lack of concern for the difficulties they have been through. She told us of some very difficult things she has gone through and hasn't felt like the church members have been there for her. We invited her back to church. We'll see if we can't soften her heart. She would be such a help to the branch as well (as long as she doesn't have a critical attitude). They are struggling financially.
Apparently, Argentina is going through some difficulty financial times right now. We have heard that a number of times from individuals here. Finances may be tough, but we keep comparing things to Cuzco and life is pretty good here compared to what we saw as we served in Peru.
Thursday was a difficult day and not much work was done. Wednesday night as we were almost ready to turn the lights out and go to bed, a fuse blew and the lights suddenly went out. We were in bed reading scriptures and so Dave got up to check things out. As he went into the kitchen/laundry area to the breaker box he smelled smoke and the heaviest smell was in the kitchen. We checked to make sure the stove/oven had not been left on and following his nose, he was able to determine that the strongest smell was at the far end of the kitchen near the back window, which made him suspect the water pump outside. As he opened the door, a wave of smoke smell hit him and the closer he got to the water pump the stronger it was. We quickly turned off the pump and removed the cover from the pump and called our friend, Brother Olmos, even though it was 11:30 pm. He didn't seemed bothered at all with the call at that hour. In fact he told us to call him whenever we needed to and not to worry about the hour. He indicated he would be in VT the next day and he would come to our house first.
So this meant we needed to stick around Thursday morning and deal with the water pump. We called our landlady who has been out of town and found out she was due back in that day but in the afternoon. She arranged for an electrician to come over at 4:30 that afternoon. Which meant we had to be at home in the afternoon for that visit. It turned out that they had to take the water pump apart and take it away to be refurbished or something. The water pump is ancient! I should have gotten a photo of it before it was taken away. Anyway we are now without a water pump, which means we have very limited water in the apartment. Luckily the water tank was full and with frugality we made it last until Sunday night. But we now have no hot water and only cold water out of one tap, our kitchen sink. We had hoped they would return today with the repaired pump, but no sign of them yet. Dave's McGyver skills are being tested on this one. Monday is when I typically try to clean house and do laundry but not much of that is happening today.
Thursday I also wasn't feeling well. I guess I picked a good day to be sick as we were stuck at the house anyway. In the morning I was just dragging due to lack of sleep the night before. The firm bed we have is just really making it hard for me to get a good night's rest. In the afternoon, I had stomach cramps and ended up having a short bout of diarrhea. This is the second time this has happened to me and it seems to be an issue with something I eat making me sick. Both times Dave has eaten the same thing but has had no problems.
We did manage to get out of the house in time for choir practice at 7 pm that evening and then for a visit with Branch 1 elders to a family that have been perpetual investigators for more than 20 years. Juan Jose (his nickname is Comi) knows a lot about the church, has received the missionary lessons multiple times. We found out his son, Francisco who is 21 is a member and has even attended seminary but currently is inactive. He is living with a girl, Catalina. Juan Jose's mother -Marta - has now moved down from Cordoba. She told us she was Evangelista.
I was pretty blunt with them and asked him directly what was holding him up with becoming a member as he indicated he knows the church has the truth, more due to a book he read called "La Vida Sempiterna" or Life Everlasting by Duane Crowther, than from a testimony of the Book of Mormon. This book appears to be about near death experiences and what is learned by them. His response was he needs to get married to his partner. I do believe there is more to it. The gentleman had a pack of cigarettes on the table so there is a word of wisdom problem that would have to be overcome as well. The elders are hoping we are the key to getting them to change from perpetual investigators to converts. I'm thinking the key is the Book of Mormon and not us. But we will see what we can do.
Friday we did some more shopping in the morning for things we need,mostly to see if we could find a solution to the hard bed problem. We did manage to find a small think foam pad that we bought and took home to see if that might help to some degree. It seems to be an improvement but not wonderful. And we discovered a wonderful bread store. We've been disappointed with the bread here compared to Peru. One of the sets of elders recommended this bakery - La Libertad - and told us where it was located. It turned out to be a great recommendation.
The french bread was excellent. We scarfed down the loaf that very day. It didn't last us very long. And lo and behold, we found cookies that are pretty darn close to American style chocolate chip cookies. They were a bit expensive so we won't be buying those often.
In the afternoon we tried to visit Norma however she was not at home. But we did call her by phone and set up an appointment for Saturday morning.
Friday night we had our second Noche de Hogar with Branch 2 to help get to know the members and help them get to know us. It was not well attended but those who were there had a good time. We did our presentation and then did a relay race using plastic cups, building pyramids and taking them down. It was a close finish and the adults took the challenge seriously.
Saturday morning we had a good visit with Norma. We were able to share with her President Nelson's Sunday morning conference talk and invite her to prepare to go to the temple. We learned that she too is in a relationship with a gentleman. It is a long distance one, but it does make her unable to get a temple recommend even if she does become active, unless she gets married to him. Her boyfriend has "promised" to marry her once he retires in 5 years, but who knows if that will come to pass. She also admitted to us that she feels uncomfortable going to church as she is not very out-going and not well educated. We do feel we've made a connection with her, so perhaps we can fellowship her and help her to feel more comfortable with the rest of the saints in Branch 3.
Saturday early afternoon we went to a festival near to the chapel. It was called Festival de las Collectividades and sponsored by some of the international schools in the area. Apparently certain schools (elementary) have a focus on a foreign country. We saw booths for Italy, France, Arab, Ireland, Paraguay, Chile & Argentina. The booths were offering typical food from those countries for sale. Our choir director works at the Italy school and the Lucarelli daughter attends there as well. They were just getting set up so there were not a lot of people there early afternoon. We bought some "briochettes" pork meat on skewers and grilled cheese kebabs (those were delicious by the way).
And it does look like kids are the same no matter where you are in the world. Look what was set up for them to enjoy. A skier just to make us feel at home. And we loved the chameleon.
There were vendors booths set up. We went just to look but ended up buying a number of things.
We just had to take a photo of this booth above. It had such a large variety of bombillas, I think they are called. They are the containers they drink mate out of. Argentines live for mate, a tea made from the mate plant. We have not tried it, nor do we care to try it. Apparently mate is to the Argentines what tea is to the English. Every afternoon they prepare and drink it. They use a silver straw with holes at the bottom that keeps the herbal leaves from coming up into the straw and only the liquid gets through. It is very common to pass around the mate and everyone uses the same straw. No worry about germs here, apparently.
We knew Argentina is know for leather products. One vendor had belts, wallets, purchase, backpacks all made from leather. I've been looking for a smaller purse and this one above was such a pretty design I had to buy it. A leather purse for $7.50. Can't complain about that.
We went back to the festival after the district meetings ended Saturday night and it was just packed with people! A family friendly concert was going on. We learned that the performer was quite famous - Piñon Fijo - at least to the Argentines. Here is what wikipedia says about him. "Piñón Fijo (Spanish: Fixed-gear; born August 20, 1965) is an Argentine clown. He has a self-titled children's television series in El Trece. His real name is Fabián Gómez. He has also appeared in a children's movie, "Piñón Fijo y la magia de la música" (Spanish: Piñón Fijo and the magic of music).[1]
The district conference meetings held this weekend on Saturday night and Sunday morning were great. We attended the leadership meeting because we knew it would be a great place to meet and get the names and contact information for each of the branch leaders. And it was. We still need more names, but we made a big dent in the hole of information we had previously. President Allred as part of his talk also had us stand up and he introduced us and asked the leaders to work with us. Nice plug.
Sunday conference meeting was a joyous time. The chapel and the overflow area were full. Even seats on the stage were taken. The members were excited to be there and sang the hymns with enthusiasm. Sure wish Utah Mormons sang that way. The talks were excellent. Each of them had a great message. The district president particularly talked about the need for the members to do more missionary work. The district leadership knows that Rosario will never be announced as a temple location as long as Venado Tuerto remains a district. They must grow to be a stake for there to be any chance of a temple in Rosario. Venado Tuerto's population is about 100,000 - 120,000 people and currently active members number between 350-400. Many more names are on the membership rolls, probably around 2,000. Even if all of those were active there would still be many, many individuals living in VT to teach and find. Sister Allred read a talk and did very well with her pronunciation. Both her and President Allred stressed to the members the need to read the Book of Mormon.
After the meeting we spent some time outside visiting with members. We met a group of saints from the Laboulaye group. We learned that they have to travel two hours one way to get to the district center building. Some of those saints were new converts of only a couple of months and some were even investigators (the church isn't using that word any more but old habits are hard to break).
Here's a group photo. Good looking bunch don't you think. One of the speakers at the conference was from this group. Fifth from the left in the back. A return missionary who served in Lima, West mission. He has been home for only a month.
Sunday evening we attended two baptisms. The first was in Branch 3, an 11 year girl named Rosario. We had met her and her brother during the week as they had a final teaching lesson. Apparently, I made an impression on her because she asked me to give the talk on the Holy Ghost. So I prepared a talk about gifts and how this gift of the Holy Ghost would require practice before she could use it well but it would be the best gift she ever received!
Baptism of Rosario - Dave, Me, Rosario, her brother Nicolas, Elders Navarro & Almendras
The second baptism we went to had three young girls, two sisters - 12 & 14 and another 12 year old. The second counselor in the Elder's Quorum who oversees missionary work conducted the meeting. He and his wife served a MLS mission to Salta and have been home about a year, so he has a good idea of what we are supposed to do. After the baptism he hooked up with us and took us to each of the girls and their parents and helped us set follow up visits. He asked us to teach them the lessons, which was confusing to me. I thought, haven't they already had the lessons? But apparently they do a review of the lessons with new converts. He indicated that Branch 2 has had 26 baptisms in the last three months and they are having trouble keeping up with the follow up. We are happy to do it! That is exactly what we are here to do. So he is going to get us a list of these 26 people so we can work with them as well. We left that baptismal meeting with a full slate of appointments for Thursday evening next. It was great.
Spiritual Thought of the Week: We live in a time of great trouble and wickedness. What will protect us from the sin and evil so prevalent in the world today? I maintain that a strong testimony of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and of His gospel will help see us through to safety. I implore each of us to prayerfully study and ponder the Book of Mormon each day. As we do so, we will be in a position to hear the voice of the Spirit, to resist temptation, to overcome doubt and fear, and to receive heaven’s help in our lives. -- President Thomas S Monson April 2017
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