Back to Work

The last half of June we were able to get back to working hard.  We had full calendars and made lots of visits.  Here are the highlights.

June 17th we supported Branch 3 with a Father's Day activity.  It went all day!  Started at 11 am and didn't end until 4 pm.  These people like to party.  They fixed a spagetti luncheon, played games and visited.  They had asked us to help with the games.  It was a big group so we played fruit basket and then took it to the next level by removing chairs and making it a process of elimination.  Maxi Alverez was the winner.

Dave next to the sign at the Father's Day party

While we waited for the lunch to be ready, Dave taught Briant one of his card magic tricks and then had Briant go around and do it for the different members waiting.  It was a great confidence builder for Briant.  I also think it helped cement a positive relationship with him.  Dave now has both Briant and his younger brother Maxi texting him the way he did with his teachers in his quorum in Pleasant Grove.  

We continued to work with new converts, one of them is Nair Silva.  She is the sister to Salome, one of our other new converts.  Nair was baptized first just before we arrived in March.  Salome was baptized after we had been here a few months so we got started visiting her right away.  Nair lives out on her own so we didn't meet her when we started to visit Salome.  But now we are visiting both sisters and they are very different from each other, but both eager to learn the gospel.

Nair in the middle with the sister missionaries - Sister Martinez on the left and Sister Condie on the right

We continue to entertain.  We had another young couple, Enrique & Maria over to our home for an evening meal.  My go-to-meal is now beef stroganoff.  I've served it on noodles (since they are big on noodles here) and on rice.  It works great either way.  I was super excited when I discovered they had Worchestershire sauce (called salsa inglesa here).

We held our monthly Family Night in Branch 3.  We used Pres. Hinckley's talk where he brought out his now famous what every new convert needs list.  We worked in my giant pumpkins as a comparison... bottom line - they need A LOT of love and attention for a long time after they join the church to get their roots strong in the gospel and their testimonies to grow the size of one of these.

Being sent to an agricultural community is making my pumpkin growing hobby come in handy.

Louisa Varela, our little sister who has returned from being inactive had a birthday on June 21st.  We were invited to her little party.  She was born the same year as Sister Rhoades, just a few months earlier.

Her son, Bruno, had gotten her the biggest birthday cake I have ever seen.  It was two layers and the top layer was a spice with nuts flavor that was simply delicious.

Later in the day they did a smaller gathering and fixed pizza.  We goofed around a bit with Bruno, who has studied gastronomy and has the complete chef outfit.  He asked me to poise as his assistant.

Piano lessons have been stalled.  Attendance has been non-existent.  If it doesn't improve, lessons will probably be discontinued.

June 22nd, Elder Rhoades had the opportunity to perform his first baptism in Spanish.  A little old lady in Branch 2, named Rosa, has taken a shine to Elder Rhoades and asked him to baptize her.  She is 72 years old and doesn't get around real well, but with the help of the regular elders (Fugal and Magaria) they were able to get her into the font and under the water.  She was extremely happy to be baptized.  She cried and said a prayer of thanksgiving right there in the font.  Sister Rhoades gave the baptismal talk at her services.  We will be visiting with her to give her support.

June 23rd, Ricardo Mercado was baptized, the 17 year old son of Maria.  We've been working with him and his family so that was a great day to see him baptized.  Elder Rhoades was asked to confirm Ricardo the following Sunday, June 30th.  That was a stressful thing for him as he had to do it all in Spanish, but he did quite well.

L-R:  Elder Margaria, Ricardo Mercado, Elder Fugal, Elder Gonzalez, Hector Fernandez, Elder Cantero

The same day Ricardo was baptized, another man was baptized Hector Fernandez, whom we have started to work with.  He is potential priesthood and we don't want to lose him to inactivity.  

A few more photos from Ricardo's baptism - June 22, 2019

We finished the month of June with our Scout ceremony.  It turned out really well.  Here are some photos from the event.

 They did a neckerchief exchange between Elder Fugal and Hugo Silva, the scout adult leader.

 We had Lisandro Enrico, the department senator come.  He is holding the plaque.  He was involved in the scout program as a youth.  We had him present the plaque we made to commemorate the link between the two groups.

Here is a photo of the plaque.  It cost us a pretty penny (more than I was expecting) but they were really impressed with it.  We have it in English and Spanish.  We had it say - 

The Boy Scouts of Utah and the Scouts of Venado Tuerto extend a hand from side of the world to the other, sharing a common goal and desire to be good friends and neighbors, having a common allegiance to our scouting principles.

We put the outline of each state - Santa Fe in Argentina and Utah in U.S. and the scout seal from each group as well.  Then we listed the leaders names that were part of the presentation.

Photo op - Elder Fugal & Elder Verdejo, both eagle scouts.

The scout holding the flag shows the name of Harry Amincton, who was the first boy scout in Venado Tuerto.  The street the boy scout encampment is on is named, Amincton.

A group photo of all the older scouts in attendance and their leaders, with the flags of US, Argentina & Venado Tuerto.

The lowering of the flags at the end of the activity.  They all surrounded the flag pole and saluted.  Then each group did their group shout.  It was pretty impressive. but very cold.  There was a biting wind that didn't help.

The last Saturday of June was a temple trip for the members down to Buenos Aires.  They had a big group going this time.  It was awesome!  A number of the families we have gotten to know were getting sealed and there were a number of members making their first visit to the temple to do baptisms for the dead.  What was really fun was that Bruno and Louisa, our reactivated members had made plans to go.   They wanted to do baptisms for some family names.  Louisa got sick right before and was not able to go.  She practically cried when telling us how disappointed she was she couldn't go this time.    Bruno showed us a sheet of paper with his family names - 4 of them - that he wanted to do the work for.  When I asked him if he had entered them into the Family Search site, he didn't know what I was talking about and this was just a few hours before the bus was set to leave.  We quickly helped him get his family names into the family search site.  Since we don't do a lot of genealogy we didn't realize that the names that had dates of birth less than 110 years ago, he had to get permission from the nearest still living relative, so it ended up that he was only able to do one of his name, but he is now working on getting the permission.  But it was so fun, because Bruno was sending us photos as he got there, he was so excited to be going to the temple.

The district members leave in a rented bus about midnight and travel most of the evening and arrive early in the morning.  Here is his first photo that he sent us with the lights still on.

Then here is his photo a bit later after the sun came up with him in front of the temple.

I have to say seeing their excitement about going to the temple is at the top of my list of experiences we've had on our mission so far.  It was a very sweet thing.  I was smiling the whole time as we spent Friday night with them, 

Spritual Thought of the Week:  The Lord blesses those who attend to the sacred ordinance work in the temple.  And the blessings he gives will not be limited to the time spent in the temple. Those who do temple work will be blessed in all aspects of their lives.  Their labors in the temple will strengthen them and refine them spiritually.  www.churchofjesuschrist.org