June Social Events

The second week in June turned out to be one social event after another.  We started the week by going to a birthday party for Jeremias Bagorria.  He turned 11 years old.  His family attends Branch 3 and his dad is the ward mission leader.

The wife is struggling with activity so we are trying to be of support.  They live out on a "quinta", which is what they call a piece of land with more acreage.  We estimate they live on 1.5 acres.  We lucked out that is was a nice fall day since their house is very small and would never have been able to hold a party.

Dad Bagorria is a bit hyper.  He is the one in the marron sweatshirt on the right.  His wife, Lily, is on the right and the sun is hitting her face.

We also had a moving event.  Juan and Maria up and moved to a plot of land on the outskirts of Venado Tuerto in the Branch San Martin area.

Just so you realize how blessed you are to live in the United States or wherever you are, this is their house, made from sheets of corrugated metal and tarps.  With an outhouse built outback.

 Here is the electric line that they attached to their house.  This was a step up for them.  Where they lived previously they had no electricity.

Here is the family outside their house.  They've improved it since this photo was taken, but it is still very, very basic.  The funny thing is, they have a satellite dish and can now watch TV.

It was the strangest thing for us to understand.  They didn't pay for the land, they just moved onto the land.  We thought they must be squatting and worried that they would be kicked off my the city.  But the more we asked around, the more we learned that from time to time this is allowed.  Apparently, when some land is defaulted on by the landowner, the city will make it available to people with limited means.  It has to be families, not individuals.  Apparently, if they set up a household and live there for a set amount of time, we were told 7 years, the land becomes theirs...free.  We were astounded.

Wednesday we met with the local newspaper representative, Florencia, in an effort to promote our planned scout activity.  She was very nice and they ran a pre-activity article.  Here is the link.

https://www.diarioelinforme.com.ar/2019/06/26/ceremonia-de-hermandad-entre-grupos-de-boy-scouts-argentino-y-estadounidense?fbclid=IwAR39kw6gM5KuMtss0bMstkA_24IU8uKqEtNLg-IS5eSJUOhHJna52nqvlmU

I posted it on facebook as well.  You'll have to know Spanish to read the article.

Thursday we held a wedding reception for Maria and Juan.  They got married in the morning and in the evening we held a party for them with the help of the missionaries.

Above is a photo of the Justice of the Peace reading the civil marriage decree.

Here is the official wedding document and the rings.

 Here is a photo of the whole family.  Back row L-R:  Dahlila, Juan, Maria, Guiliana  Front row L-R:  Victor and Ricardo

And here is the photo of the missionaries that have worked with this couple to get them married.  Elder Margaria in the back and Elder Fugal in the front and the good looking couple on the right, you already know them.

They were both pretty happy after the ceremony.  That evening we surprised them with how nice of a reception we prepared for them.  Here is what the saw as the walked into the cultural hall at the chapel.  Notice the heart shaped balloons, nice touch, huh?

Here is the cake we had made for them.  The daughter of a branch member, who is taking the missionary discussions currently, made if for us.

Here is the happy couple cutting the cake.

 Here they are at their table of honor eating the pizza that the missionaries prepared for the party.

What was really nice was Elder Margaria got a toast started for them and it went around the whole room with each person there making a special toast or wishing them well.  It was really touching.

Then EnglishConnect 2 class on Friday night we got to teach ourselves as the local sister who has been called as the instructor was out of town.  We geared the class so there was plenty of opportunity for speaking practice.  It was fun.

Saturday morning piano lessons was a dud.   Only one student showed up, but the afternoon turned out better.  

Then Saturday we hosted the Rolon families for lunch.  These families work in construction.  Dave was very interested in seeing how they worked.  So we had the opportunity to watch them at work earlier in the week.  

Here they are mixing cement and you can see one of their homes in the background.  Just in case, you thought the Mercado home was a fluke.  Their home is not much better.  These brothers had build homes in the back of their mother-in-law's land.  Apparently land is extremely expensive.  We asked them how much it would cost to buy a piece of land like their mother-in-law's and the amount they told us come to $11,500 US dollars.  To us that would be cheap, but to many people here that is not something they can ever come up with.

The funny thing was when we visited our friend Juan and Maria the next week to see how things were going for them, lo and behold, our friends, some other recent coverts, the Rolons, were setting up house three plots down from them.  We were very surprised to say the least.  Their reasoning was that this was an opportunity for them to own their own land.  We were happy to know Juan and Maria would have some good member support near them.  

We did manage to teach a few discussions in between all these social events.

Spiritual Thought for the Week:  "Your commitment to hold firmly the iron rod will transform you inito the eternal being who you were created to become.  God knows and loves you.  He will bless you and guide your steps.  You might be thinking that you are no one special, that you are not all-star material.  But that is not true. He can open doors and help us find strengths and abilities we never knew we had.  Trust in the Lord.  Put on the whole armor of God, and get in the game.  You can do this because you are an all-star in His eyes."  - Gary E Stevensen "Your Priesthood Playbook" April 2019 Priesthood General Session