Trial and Trail Experiences

We started off the week with limited running water in our apartment.   One night late last week, (I think it was Friday night) we were about to turn the lights off and go to sleep when the lights went out on their own - a blown fuse.  Dave got out of bed to check it out and our fuse box is in the small laundry area off of our kitchen.  The smell of smoke was strong as he walked into that area.  But it wasn't any of the inside appliances that were burning.  We were able to figure out that our outside water pump was the problem.

New pump in foreground, burned out pump in background.

Most of our water comes from a well that an electric pump pumps up into a storage tank on the roof.  Every time the water level gets down, the pump automatically kicks in and pumps more water up to the storage tank.  Some part of the motor on that pump was burning out.  So we turned off the pump and called in about the problem.  The next day we had a service man here who took the pump away to repair it.  Which meant we were limited to the water in the tank at that point in time except for the cold water out of the kitchen sink which comes from city water.  We lived frugally at that point and made the water last until late Sunday night.  We were hoping and praying Monday the repaired pump would be installed, but Monday morning dawned with pouring rain that lasted all morning and into the afternoon.  Still no water by Monday night.  Dave spent most of Monday wearing his McGyver hat and rigging up a work around that got some running water into the washing machine so we could do a few loads of wash. The dirty clothes had really piled up.  Finally on Tuesday by afternoon we had a new water pump installed and life was back to normal. Dave managed to turn this into a missionary moments as he got the name and address of the repairman for the elders to visit, so it wasn't a totally wasted experience!

Tuesday night we did a FHE with our former fireman friend and his family.  I had promised to bring brownies for desert so Tuesday was my second attempt.  Luckily, the spirit inspires in temporal needs as well as spiritual affairs, just before adding the cocoa powder I decided to check the conversion chart and I figured out that my measuring scoops were not accurate and the 1/2 cup was really sufficient for my recipe that called for 1 1/4 cups of cocoa powder (or maybe the cocoa powder is more potent here than in US).  But the bottom line is they turned out wonderful!  Thank goodness because we wanted to make a good impression with them.  The Lucarelli family you will be hearing more about.  I honestly believe we are here in Venado Tuerto for them.  We both have a lot in common with them, not just Elder Rhoades.  I learned that Veronica (the wife) is a return missionary, who married later in life and is a twin, not identical but still a twin!  We gave a lesson using a fireman experience Dave had with a small child, a ball, a drainage ditch and popsicles.  The child had his arm stuck in the drainage ditch because he did not want to let go of a ball he had grabbed below the bars and his closed fist was too wide for the space between the bars.  Dave managed to get him to let go of the ball by tempting him with a popsicle (as this was a very hot summer day).  We then shared I Corinthians 2:9 and an Ezra Taft Benson quote that will be at the end of this post.  We wanted to plant the idea into his mind and heart that God's plan is the popsicle and offers amazing blessings.  Doing our own thing is holding on to that ball and keeps us limited in our growth and potential.  We then showed one of the Easter videos the church has about Jesus Christ.  Those are such powerful videos that really bring the spirit.  His eyes were moist by the end of our lesson.  They fixed us a great dinner of ravioli and we visited until late.  Thank goodness the curfew doesn't apply to us!

Wednesday we caught up on housework since we hadn't been able to do that on Monday due to the lack of water.  We did go visit an inactive sister, Loreta Sena, who is married to a non-member.  She was very nice.  She is an acquaintance of Javier Olmos, the church maintenance man who has helped us so much.  He was concerned about her as she is slated to have surgery soon and is new to the area.  We did confirm that she is set to have carpal tunnel surgery on both wrists on May 2nd.  She says she has her sister coming to help her out but will be 15 days without the use of her hands, so we will need to get the Relief Society to be a support for her.  Her husband was friendly with us as well.  He has a business of motorized kids cars that he sets up at the main plaza on the weekends and rents them out to the kids for rides.  It is going to be hard to get him coming to church because of his business I think.

Thursday April 18th, was the day we had been looking forward to for quite awhile.  It was the day internet connection was going to be installed in our apartment.  Thursday was also the day for district meetings due to the transfers earlier in the week.  Dave had to stay home for the installers and I went to the district meeting.

Venado Tuerto had a lot of changes with the younger missionaries.  A number of the missionaries had been here a long time.  Multiple areas had both missionaries transferred out.  They call that a whitewash when an area gets a complete new set of missionaries.  Sisters are back in the area and live only a few blocks away from us.  Both are North Americans, Hna Condie from Cedar City and Hna. Salmon from San Antonio, Texas.  Hna. Condie has been out only 6 months and Hna. Salmon has been out only 4 months.  We have a new district leader, Elder Galindo, as well who has a very green elder, Elder Fuentes who has been out in the field only a week. (Still need to get photos of our new team members).  Both of these elders are from Peru, Galindo from Huancayo and Fuentes from Chiclayo.  We are familiar with Chiclayo, which is located in the north of Peru, as we visited there before leaving Peru.  The other missionary district in Venado Tuerto had many changes as well.  We are starting over learning missionary names and developing a relationship with them.

We did get internet connected in our apartment on Thursday.  Hooray!  First thing we did was try using our Vonage phone to call the states.  Alyssa was our lucky phone call recipient.  The good news is it worked.  The bad news is she couldn't call us.  Apparently, only we can call the states and not vice-versa.

We had a full schedule of appointments for Thursday night and all of them held.  We visited the new converts from Branch 2.  First we visited Perla, a 12 year old girl.  She has an older sister 15 years old, who was baptized before but has since gone inactive.  We reviewed with her the first missionary lesson about prophets and the restoration.  We were pretty discouraged at how little she seemed to know.  She did get the lessons from the elders, but somehow it didn't stick.  We gave her the assignment to read 1 Nephi 3-4 for our next visit.

We then visited the Mercado sisters, Dahlila (12) & Guiliana (15)(pronounced Juliana) and their mother Maria.  The mother needs to get married before she can be baptized. We reviewed the restoration lesson as well.  They seemed to remember a bit better the information.  We gave them the same reading assignment.  We were surprised to find this family living in a shack in the back yard of a house owned by the father's family.  They have no electricity or running water.  Dirt floors and when it rains the yard is a mud pit.  They recently came to Venado Tuerto and are looking for a place to rent.  They are poor, however.  It would really help if the mother could find work.  She indicated she would like to find a cleaning job, but apparently here it is all about references, which she has none.  We challenged them to read I Nephi 3-4 as well.

Our last appointment was with Zaida, a 12 year girl and her mother, Marta.  The mother was baptized a month ago and now Zaida this week.  We are reviewing with them both.  We asked them to share their conversion story and the mother took so long telling us her history that we didn't have much time to review a lesson.  So we showed them an Easter video and challenged them to read I Nephi 3-4 as well.

Interestingly, they live across the street from a Boy Scout camp.  This got Dave's attention.  That's another thing that took up time in our appointment.  Apparently Zaida actively participates in the program.  She told us about going to the church ranch, Kilgrumen, and doing activities there.  This gave Dave an idea for generating good will for the church here in Venado Tuerto and he has been actively pursuing his idea of setting up a sister city arrangement with the scout program here and at home in Pleasant Grove.  It will be interesting to see how things develop with that.  More later.

An interesting development this week in regards to the church trek program here in Argentina involved us.  The couple currently running the program, the Goesches, out at Kilgrumen ranch, which is about an hour from Venado Tuerto (where the traffic is good), leaves at the end of this month.  They have been running the program for 2 seasons and can not come down next season due to family needs at home.  On our paperwork, we had indicated we were interested in serving there, but did not receive a call to work the trek.  There was also a local Argentinian couple interested in serving there as well, but they did not get a call to the trek, rather to Nauvoo.  So currently, the area does not have a couple to replace the Goesches.

We got a call out of the blue from Elder Jones in the area office in Buenos Aires assessing our interest in replacing the Goesches.  After talking to us about our backgrounds and current assignment, he asked if we would be willing to go out on Friday to participate in the last trek of the season to see how it is run and what it all entails.  We told them we could do that.  We quickly tried to make the needed arrangements and Friday morning we were up before dawn, meeting with Elder Jones and Elder Burton from the area office and riding out with them to the church ranch at Kilgrumen.  It was an hour drive from Venado Tuerto.  We arrived in time to join the group for breakfast and the days activities.

This group was from Mar del Plata, south of Buenos Aires, part of the Bahia Blanca mission.  They had come on a bus the night/day before.  It was a 12 hour bus ride and then did a half day of activities, camping over night.  We were told there were 81 youth and their leaders in the group.

Above, part of the group eating breakfast.  Below you can see what breakfast consisted of.

As the group broke camp and packed up.  We went around and checked out their flags.  Here are some of the ones we particularly liked.

We were surprised at how much they carried in their carts.  A lot more than the groups we have trekked with in Wyoming.  There are no mountains here or hills.  The ranch is in the middle of the Argentine pampas, so it is flat as can be.  I guess the extra weight in the carts helps to make it more challenging.

They played the typical pioneer games and sang hymns in Spanish as they walked.  What was cool was the group had matching trek bags.  They gifted me one, so I've got that for a souvenir.

Here we are just before taking off on the trek.  Do we look authentic?

Even though April is not the season for mosquitos, I was dousing myself with repellent often and still got a few bites.  Since I developed a reaction to mosquito bites while in Cuzco, I had brought my ointment that will keep the reaction at bay and applied that as soon as I realized I had one.  That helped.

If we were to handle the trek next season, Dave would have to be able to give two short talks to the groups about the Willie & Martin Handcart history.  Above was the talk given by Bro. Goesch in the morning before they took off.  He talked about how the pioneers subsisted on 150 grams of flour and that many of the men lost their lives because they were giving up their portion so their wives and children could have more to eat.  It was a very moving talk.  Below is Bro. Goesch giving the talk at the end of the trek, once the group reached the main ranch grounds, called Zion.

The women's pull turned out to be a challenge.  Even though it wasn't far to go and the weather was not that hot, we had two girls become dehydrated and suffer from heat stroke.  One fainted and we could not revive her well enough for her to go on.  She became one of the pioneers who lost her life on the plains and the men had to come back and take her into a local clinic.  Once she got an IV into her she was fine.  Another girl further into the women's pull showed the same signs but was not as far gone as the first one.  She was able to recover and continue on just walking.  As we reached the spot where the boys were lined up on both sides of the trail waiting respectfully for the girls, she collapsed again and had to be assisted past the line of boys to the end of that section of the trail.  The men gave her a priesthood blessing and all worked out well in the end.

The challenge for the girls was not hills, but bogs.  The carts would get stuck if the girls did not push hard and fast enough through this section of the trail.  Because my feet got wet and I walked the rest of the way in wet socks and shoes, I managed to get a good sized blister on my left foot that I am now recovering from.  

I was impressed how well the girls supported one another and worked together during this part of the trek.

After lunch, the group continued on and walked 4 miles total.  Not that far by Wyoming standards, but plenty far for these kids.  The heat and humidity took it's toll and it took them most of the day to roll into Zion - home camp.  They did take an extended lunch period and during the afternoon part of the trek they get ambushed and are forced to retrace their steps and take another direction.

Here's the group as they approach the end and near Zion.

Here is the victory photo of the group once they all arrived safe and sound.

They then had a few hours to clean up - the camp had a building with indoor showers, 30 on the girls side of the building!  and flushing toilets!  You didn't see that on the treks in Wyoming.

In the evening they held a square dance.  We would have to learn how to teach these dances in Spanish to the group.  After dancing, they watched the movie Ephraim's Rescue with Spanish subtitles.

Interestingly, we got a photo of a sapo, or toad, in the morning as one of the boys released it from a bottle he had it in.  As soon as it turned dark and cooled done, these toads were everywhere!!  As you walked through the grass they would jump out of the way.  I was amazed I never squished one.  I wondered how they kept them out of their tents.

We left halfway through the movie with the area leaders and headed back to Venado Tuerto.  We treated outselves to ice cream once we were back and had a nice visit with Elder Jones and Burton as we ate.  I'm not sure what their recommendations will be, but we left the experience with a lot of respect for the Goesches.  It is not easy what they are doing.  That mission call is not for the faint hearted whatsoever!  Our opinion that we shared with them was that we didn't believe we could take over all the duties required and still be able to do our member support calling here in Vendao Tuerto very well.  We told them if they could find someone handle the maintenance of the ranch facilities, we could probably handle the communications with the groups and go out to the ranch during the treks to oversee everything.  I think we will be Plan B.  Plan A would be to find another couple to serve full-time with this.  But couples willing and qualified to do this trek are few and far between.  We'll see what happens

This happened to be Easter weekend or Pascua.  The big tradition here for Easter are Huevos de Pascua.  We ventured into a young women activity where they were making these goodies.

 As you can see above, they make chocolate eggs using molds and then fill them with M&M type candies.  Below you can see the finished egg of one of the girls.

This is what you saw in all of the stores this week, the professional Huevos de Pascua.

In fact, the ice cream store had this huge, and I mean huge, Easter Egg on display.  It must have been 36 inches tall or thereabouts.  I wonder who got to eat all of that chocolate!

Sunday morning we were church hopping trying to be everywhere we needed to be.  We started out at Rama 1, then ran over to San Martin branch area to pick up Hna. Panetti, one of the inactive sisters, and take her to church.  The members were very welcoming to her and expressed joy in seeing her there and encouraged her to keep coming.  As soon as sacrament meeting was over, we had to run down to Rama 2 to play the piano for a musical number the young women had prepared "I Know My Savior Loves Me".  Then we ran back to San Martin branch to take Hna. Panetti home and then attend a baptism of Manuel Contreras.

It was very satisfying to see a potential priesthood holder get baptized and hopefully a sealed eternal family one year from now.  He has good family support as his wife is the sister to the branch president's wife and is already a member.  We will visit with him, but aren't sure how much support he really will need.  Above are the elders involved in his teaching.  The two elders on the outside are new to the area and sort of inherited this baptism.  Elder Rios in the white shirt did teach him, but was still in the district boundaries so was able to attend.

The rest of Easter Sunday we enjoyed skyping with some of our family members and we invited at the last minute Maria and her family to come have dinner with us.  We even got Juan, her significant other, to come as well.  He is super quiet.  We had fixed a roast and potatoes, but they were so shy about eating.  It was hard to know if they liked it or not.

After dinner we told them our family tradition was to play games after eating and we brought out the Yahtzee game.  We taught them how to play and as we played the ice started to melt with a few of them.

Here is the family standing in the order of how they did on the game from right to left, actually.

The champ was the 15 year old daughter, Guiliana.  If you can't make out her score, her total score was 426!  She rolled two yahtzees in the one game.  She had so much luck on every turn.  She definitely had fun.

Spiritual Thought of the Week: 

“Men and women who turn their lives over to God will discover that He can make a lot more out of their lives than they can. He can deepen their joys, expand their vision, quicken their minds, strengthen their muscles, lift their spirits, multiply their blessings, increase their opportunities, comfort their souls, and pour out peace.”  -- Ezra Taft Benson