May

I've gotten behind in my blog posts so I'm only going to include the highlights from the first week in May.

We started May off doing a YM/YW combined activity in Branch 2.  We taught them to make chocolate no-bake cookies and the game Yahtzee.

 We divided them into three groups and made the recipe three times.  While one group was in the kitchen making a batch of cookies the others were learning to play Yahtzee and then we would rotate them through.  We gave them a small lesson about how following a recipe to obtain cookies is like following the plan of salvation to obtain eternal life.

Yahtzee Time

 Lesson about Recipes & Plan of Salvation

 Concentrating on creating their cookies

It was interesting how each batch of cookies came out differently.  The first group's cookies came out dry and wouldn't form.  We had to press it into a pan and hope they would stay firm when set, but at the end of the night they still didn't work.  They are going to use it for yogurt parfaits at a future activity I think.  The second group's cookies turned out great!  The third group's cookies came out too soft and tasting waxy.  They all followed the same recipe and yet had different results.  I think that is a good example of how important it is to follow with exactness the recipe/gospel plan.  I will probably use this example in a future talk.

We attended our first zone conference of the mission on May 2nd.  We traveled down to Pergamino and joined with the zone there.  We thought, oh boy, we can see more of Argentina.  Well it turns out that the more we saw is the same as what we see in Venado Tuerto - pampas...flat farm land with small cities every so often.

We left at 6:30 am and it was a 2+ hour bus ride one way.  Luckily they rented one of those tourist buses with lots of leg room and comfy reclining seats and curtains on the windows so you can sleep if you want.  The conference went all day just about.  There were good talks and workshops and the younger missionaries enjoyed visiting with each other.  The conference ended at 4:00 pm and we got back to Venado Tuerto just before 7 pm.

Apparently at zone conference, missionaries with birthdays since the last zone conferencee are recognized and given some sort of goodie bag prepared by Sister Allred.

Returning missionaries at next transfer sharing their testimonies to the group

We were able to visit with one of the other senior missionary couples serving in the mission.  Elder & Sister Moreno.  They are from Buenos Aires and are set to finish their mission in June.  They have been serving in a very small town where the church only has a small group.  He has been serving in the branch presidency.  They told us when they first started there were 4 people attending regularly.  Now there are about 40.  Wow!  Job well done, Morenos!

Here is a picture of our Venado Tuerto Zone.  This involves two districts.
Back row l-r:  Backus, Allen, Smith, Magaria, Mayer,Maco, Raven, Perdejo, Fugal, Fuentes, Galindo, Hernandez  Middle row l-r:  Navarro, ?, Rios, Niu, Sovereign, Nerey, Martinez, Cantaro  Front row l-r:  Rhoades, Salmon, Condie, Allreds, Morenos

We've started a Daily Dose English class here in Venado Tuerto.  Actually the sister missionaries have, but we've been the teachers for the first two weeks of class.  We have only had one student come, Louisa.  She and her son, Bruno, have a trip planned to New York at the end of August and she needs to improve her English skills.  Her son Bruno speaks English quite well.  Louisa happens to be an in-active member.  So we have followed up and done a home visit with her, which went very well.

We also have gotten involved in Self-Reliance here in Venado Tuerto.  Saturday the Self-Reliance manager for this area, Hno. Ullua, came for a visit.

President Allred asked us to attend the meeting with him and the counselor in the district presidency who is over self-reliance, Esteban Gorena.  Currently the Self-Reliance program has not been functioning here in Venado Tuerto and with our background serving as Self-Reliance missionaries in Cusco, Peru, we figured we could help.

A member from the district has just been called to be the self-reliance specialist for the district.  We had already introduced ourselves to her and offered her our services.  She came to this meeting as well.  Much of the meeting was spent in discussing the new EnglishConnect program.  The district has two members called as instructors and we are being asked to be assistants to the teachers.  Apparently they have 70 members and/or non-members signed up to participate in the program so they will be offering two classes.

The EnglishConnect program requires that local members be used as the instructors, but allows full-time missionaries to assist.  This English program is much more intensive than Daily Dose.  It has a once a week class that goes for 1.5 hours versus the 30 minute class with Daily Dose.  It also has the expectation that they are going to practice English 10 hours during the week.  This practice includes using a speaking partner (like the Pathway program requires) and watching movies/tv shows in English, or listening to conference talks in English.

We will also be helping Fabiana, the self-reliance specialist as she works to get the self-reliance workshops up and going for the members here in Venado Tuerto.  Needless to say we left the meeting feeling a bit overwhelmed, wondering how we were going to keep all the balls in the air we are being asked to juggle.

The first Saturday in May I helped with a district service project while Dave went to help an Enrique with a car distributor.  The district is working with the Billion Graves website and attempting to map and record all the graves in the city cemetery.  The members take their smart phones to the cemetery and log into an app for Billion Graves and then take photos of the headstones and grave markers.  You then go home and upload the photos to their website.  Once the photos are on their website, you then view each of the photos and log in the names, birth and death dates recorded on them.  This will then create a database that anyone in the world can access.  This is preserving the histories of these people as well as making it easier for others to locate their ancestors' data.

Here are some photos from that service project.  The cemetery is very different here than in the states.

 They have rows and rows of family crypts.  Some rather ornate and others more plain.

 Here are some of the members who came out to help.  L-R: Martina Menchie, Cecilia Menchie, Emilia Alasia - all from Rama 1

Some of the graves are really deteriorating and needed some deciphering and repair.  This one was written in English and was for a gentleman from Ireland who had immigrated to Argentina. There apparently was a wave of Irish immigration in the 1800's to Argentina.

I decided to walk home rather than have Dave come get me.  The cemetery is a ways out from the main part of the city so it was a good 50 minute walk back to our apartment.  But is was a very pretty walk.  They had a nice walking trail that is tree lined and you walk past fields, horses, sheep and

a few other scenic items.  This old jalopy for one.  Emily, I know your dad wants you to draw the old truck he found but this is my choice for a painting.

The first Sunday in May we visited the Murphy branch with the district president.  It was a bit depressing, as only a handful of members were in attendance and most of those were women.  The full-time elders and Elder Rhoades and one Aaronic priesthood member handled the sacrament.  The branch president had no counselors in attendance and there were only three other men in the congregation.  The women who were there were great!  During the Sunday school discussion on Come Follow Me it was apparent these women had read, studied and pondered the material.  We learned that the majority of the members are all family members in one way or other to one woman, Rosa.

Murphy's challenge is soccer.  Murphy, a town in the middle of nowhere with a population of 4,000 is a soccer player factory.  Apparently, they take soccer playing to a whole new level.  There is a soccer training program like no other there and it has produced a number of world famous soccer players.

Paulo Gazzaniga and Mauricio Pochettino are the big name ones currently.  This is a huge billboard that one sees as they enter town.  Apparently, Murphy is to soccer what LaVell Edwards was to BYU Football. 

I got a bit peeved at the lack of priesthood in that area.  I couldn't help but think that if the men's home was threatened by fire or flood they would be right there doing everything within their power to protect it, and yet in the battle to protect their family from the spiritual threats of the world the men are completely absent.  The more I thought about it the more I wanted to knock a few heads together and/or throttle a few throats, but then I realized that wasn't a good missionary approach so I had to let it go and just resort to pleading with the Lord in prayer on their behalf.

But I am learning to be bold and not be afraid to speak the truth plainly to those we work with.  Elder Rhoades is just learning to speak the truth in Spanish.  He already has no fear to be bold and speak up. :)

Spiritual thought for the week:  I Samuel 17:47  "And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear;  for the battle is the Lord's."  and 2 Chronicles 20:15  "Thus sayeth the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's."