And the winner is....!

Second half of July starts out with another zone conference.  This time we met in the afternoon and into the evening.  We had the local priesthood leaders come for the last part as we were talking about how to better work with the members.

There were some interesting stats shared about convert retention.  The church conducted a survey of active members after they had been baptized a year.  They asked them to give the number one reason they had continued active in the church.  Here is where the surprise came in....(drum roll)

The number one reason given by these 1 year converts was they felt loved and cared for by the other members of their ward/branch.  This response was given by 52% of those surveyed.  Close behind it at 49% was the bishop/branch president cared about them and was interested in their welfare.  All the other reasons were well below these two.  Interestingly, responses to do with spiritual reasons or testimony were all below 10%.  Wow!  What an eye-opener.  But it did confirm what we have already learned here -- the members are crucial in keeping new converts active and that Venado Tuerto members need to do a much better job of showing love and support to new converts since the activation retention rate is only around 17% here.

If all we do is work with new converts and keep them coming to church while we are here and hopefully helping them develop stronger roots with the members and their testimony, we will have done some good.

Venado Tuerto Zone Conference July 16, 2019 back row L-R:  E. Cantero, E. Vergara, E. Fields, E. Topham, E. Christensen, E. Grahme, E. Pertuso, E. Scott, E. Morales (newbie from Paraguay)  Middle row L-R:  E. Castilla, E. Bryan, E. Galindo, E. Fuentes, E. Raven, E. Packer, E. Morales, E. Barrientos  Front row L-R:  Hna. Alvilez, Hna. Elos, los Rhoades, los Allreds, Hna. Condie, Hna. Martinez

Our district got together and did a service project for the recently baptized Ochoa family.  She wants to have a garden but knows nothing about how to go about doing that.  So we rounded up some shovels and used the muscle power of the elders one morning and tilled up a part of her backyard.  We are still in winter here but the seeds we have are for cooler crops and so we have started the seeds indoor so that by the time they are ready to be outside, the danger of frost will be gone.  We had some rainy days after prepping the soil, and we've been busy with our Talent Show activities so the seeds didn't get planted until a week later.  We left the two boys, Sergio 11 yrs old and Albano 9 years old in charge of watering them and bringing the seeds in for the night and taking them out in the morning.  We'll see how responsible they can be with them.

A lot of our time the rest of July was spent on Talent Show activities.  Rama 2 had their talent show on July 19th.  Here are some photos from their show.

 Rama 2 had the best participation with the exhibits of all the branches.  Look at all that baking!

 The drawing category had some great entrants.  I really liked the painting on the tennis shoes.  I think it would have potential as a side business.

 The young man who drew the horse won the drawing category.  He is only a priest but he has some talent!  Below are drawings that Perla (one of the new converts we've worked with) entered.  We didn't even know she had that talent!

Exhibition winners below:  Margarita Gomez in artesanias, Kayla in artesanias as well, Tomas Fresco in drawing/painting and his sister & Perla in drawing/painting as well.  Sister Nadalini in sewing, and Monica Riquelme, Isabel Pena in the cooking category.

Below are some photos from the performing acts.  Below, 2 sisters singing and that is a ukelele she is playing.

 Below one of the kids acts.  We loved her pink moon boots.  Right out of the Napoleon Dynamite dance style.

Elder Rhoades got roped into being part of an act with the district president.  Pres. Riquelme knows how to play the piano and his favorite song is a Paul McCartney number called, "Maybe I'm Amazed".  He said he needed someone to sing it with him and asked Elder Rhoades if he knew the song.  Being the Beatle fan that he is, he immediately started belting out the words.  There was no way backing out after that.  He was committed.

 She he decided they had to have a bit of costuming.  So we bought grey mop head and he attached them to some baseball caps.

He also made up a fake guitar to "play" while singing.  They didn't get much chance to practice so the presentation didn't go that well, but everyone was talking about the wigs.

It now sits in a place of honor in our home.

 The youth prepared a skit and dance about Peter Pan.  Above you can see Tinker Bell and Capt. Hook.  Below are photos of Wendy

 and Peter

 and they even brought a dog who was dressed as the crocodile.  It was pretty cute.

They of course won the favorite vote.  The youth sure had a fun time doing it.

Branch San Martin had their Talent Show on July 20th.  This branch we were the most nervous about, but they put on a great show.  Out of all the branches, they had the most kid acts.  Here are some photos from their activity.

One of the families in the San Martin branch are way into dancing.  The dad is a dance instructor.  So of course his kids did dances.  Above is a typical gaucho (their version of a cowboy) dance.

The Primay had also put  together a dance and it was done to The Token's song, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight".

Here is a photo showing the kid winners.  The boy on the left took 3rd with a short beat box talent.  Second place winner was the daughter of Pres. & Sister Roldan with a dance and then the Primary took first with the Lion Sleeps Tonight dance.  No surprise with that one.

 The youth had some great talent too.  Here is Fabricio Tapia and his dance partner Rut doing the tango, the famous Argentinia dance step.  Rut is a non-member.

Mirko Cabrera played his saxophone and he played "Bohemia Rhapsody"  He had a backtrack playing and he played the melody.  He did a great job and he is only 11 years old! 

This photo shows the winners of the youth category.  Third place were the two girls on the left.  They come from in-active families.

There were not many adult acts so this family dancing Hawaiian style was put into the adult category and took first place.  

The guy who won second place had an amazing singing voice.  He just wasn't very prepared with the lyrics.  Third place was a young adult who did card tricks,  right up Elder Rhoades' alley.

There was only one exhibition entrant and that was Sister Monsalvo with her cakes.  So of course she took first place.

Here is a photo of the elders assigned to San Martin giving their missionary message while the judges deliberated.  The one speaking in the photo, Elder Morales, is a newbie missionary and yet his part in the message was probably the most powerful.  He is going to be an awesome missionary!

With all the branch Talent Shows completed we were now ready to move on to the District Level, which was held July 27th.  This one was completely on our shoulders.  We had delegated out responsibilities to the young missionaries to head up their branch shows.  We of course provided guidance and direction and provided follow up and help, but they pretty much took charge.  But the district level show was our responsibility.  So the week leading up to it was pretty focused on preparing for that.  It was amazing how much communication had to be done with leaders, members, show entrants, etc.  Thank goodness most people use a free app called WhatsApp where you can text, voice message and call if needed, but it is mostly used for texting and voice messaging.

All the first place winners from each branch in each category were invited to participate in the district talent show.  The same format was followed but this was to determine who was the best in the district.  Some of our first place winners were not able to participate so second place winners were notified and invited to take their place.

Here is our show program for each category in the order they performed.

H.J and M.J. stand for "hombres jovenes" and "mujeres jovenes" which is the YM/YW of the branch.  It was fun to watch them work together and practice during the week.  A number of the acts had really upped their game and improved on their performance.

Here are photos of what was entered in the Arts & Crafts category.

And the winners showing off their ribbons.  (Bro. Bolano is standing in for his wife who took first place but couldn't be there)

Below are the entrants in the cooking category.  The cake below was designed to show the Buenos Aires temple.  A lot of work went into that.

 The other two entrants are shown below.

Below are the winners receiving their ribbons.  The pink and purple cake took first place, made by the beaming sister on the right in the photo below.  She was thrilled to have won.

Below are some of the drawing entrants.  

And the winners shown below.  Sister Silva on the left is standing in for her 10 year old daughter who was too embarrassed to go up in front of every one.  I was surprised that the young man took first instead of the older gentleman.  I would have gone the other way.

It looks like we missed getting photos of all the winners.  But below are the favorite acts winners.  Branch 1 took first place.

 Below are the winners of the youth category.  I was so happy for Tania to take first.  She had practiced a lot and improved her dance moves from the branch talent show.

While the judges deliberated, the full-time missionaries presented a skit of the Parable of the Talents.  It was fun to work with them and have them do this.  The members got a kick out of watching them and even cheered when the slothful servant was thrown into the "tinieblas" and cried and gnashed teeth. (Elder Bryan played the slothful servant and really got into his role).

The members had a great time.  It turned out to be a very successful activity.  The district president was very pleased with how it all went down so our  stock in the eyes of the members and leaders has gone up.  At the very least they now know the Rhoades really know how to throw a party!  And the moral of the story is, following inspiration and working your darndest guarantees that things always will turn out well.

Our newest inspiration is to start up a Missionary Prep class.  Apparently, they haven't held a mission prep class in the district for at least three years.  Well, no wonder not many youth are going out on a mission from this district!  We have identified a total of 14 young adults from the district we can invite to participate.  We've gotten the green light from the local leaders and have set the date for August 13th to start the course.  We will involve the full-time missionaries on a rotation basis to help us teach the class.  We are excited to get that started.

We are working with a new convert family that has a 14 year old boy who is struggling in his life.  He has taken to us, however, and is participating well in our lessons and is completing the Book of Mormon reading assignments we are giving him.  That is bound to bear fruit if he keeps that up.  We bribed him to read by promising him a reward if he read.  We decided to gift him a pack of cards and have Elder Rhoades teach him a magic trick with the cards.  We figured this would help build his self-esteem.  We'll see how that goes.

We have about half a dozen new converts that we are consistently visiting and teaching.  Each have their own set of challenges.  But we love them all and pray for them and hope that they can develop good roots and build solid testimonies.  Most of these new converts are part member families and we have a number of the non-members sitting in on our visits as well.

Spiritual Thought for the Week:  For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.  And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey. Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents.  And likewise he that had receive two, he also gained other two.  But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money.  After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.  For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance; but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.  Matthew 25:14-19, 29