Sports Day Kicks Off November Bringing Snowballs to Venado Tuerto

As November started we were busy getting everything ready for our second district-wide activity, this time a Sports Day.  We held it November 2, a Saturday.  The weather has been very unpredictable here and most of our activities were outdoors so we were praying for good weather.  It turned out to be a beautiful day, sunny and not too hot.

Our plan was to have various sporting events going on throughout the afternoon.  We organized a Volleyball tournament between the different branches.  We were fortunate to have a sister missionaries serving here that played college volleyball before coming out (at Rangley even, Cathy) so she was our principal officiator.  Each of the branches played all the other branches once and the team with the best win-loss record was declared the winner.  We set the volleyball court up outside on the grass.

  We had real good participation by the wards with this.  And it wasn't soccer!!

The district champs turned out to be Rama 1. 

For the team photo, everyone from the branch jumped in to soak in the glory.

We also had some additional outside games going on.  We taught them how to play 4 square, which turned out to be popular and the mission had a game called 9 square that we borrowed and were able to have them play.

 It turned out to be really hard to find a rubber playground ball.  We learned that a rubber ball is a rare commodity here in Argentina.

The object of 9 square was to reach the middle square where you are the "rey" or king.  You have to work yourself up around the outside squares.  Towards the end of the afternoon we had both games with a waiting line of people to rotate in to play.

We also planned some kids activities.  The most popular being chalk art.  Didn't get a photo of that, wish I had.

We tried to make a homemade bubble solution without success, so our next option was regular blow-up balloons.

Many of the adults just sat around drinking mate and visiting.  Which is what they do a lot here.  It was good to see them together socializing though.

 As you can see, many of them have their mate and bombilla with them as they watched the activities.

Hno. Ruben Sanchez

Hno. Arana and family with Angel hopping in

The youth did a fund raiser for PFJ (or Especially for Youth in English).  We had to help them get that organized but it turned out to work well.  They were happy that they made 6,000 pesos from the sales.  That would be about $100 US.

 The fresh squeezed orange juice was delicious!

Inside the chapel we had a couple of other tournaments going.  One was ping-pong.  We had brought tables from the other chapels.  Each chapel has one table.  We managed to fit 3 into the sacrament/cultural hall area.

 We had lots of non-members and less activities participate with this activity.  Above are two non-members playing.

 The elder in the middle of the above photo, E. Vergara, from Chile, is a ping-pong master.  So he was assigned to help in this area of the activity.

Our winners were Debora and David Antuna.  They were so proud with their certificate.

We also set up a couple of foosball tables.  That is the closest we got to soccer with this activity.

 This was a busy place for the full 4 hour activity.  Everyone wanted to play.

 Below, we even got the Ochoa kids to walk over to the chapel to play.  They won't walk to church but we did get them to come to this activity.

We designated the Primary room as the place for Yahtzee.  We figured we needed something for the less athletic inclined.  But it didn't turn out to be a very popular place. Most of the time it was empty.  I managed to get a photo when we actually had more than one person in the room at a time!

We were pleased with how many less actives and non-members came and participated.  Below are some of them.

 Above - Dario (less active) and his non-member wife, Tamara played on the Volleyball team for Rama 1

 Above - Lautauro and Evelyn from Rama San Martin came and played volleyball, foosball and Yahtzee.  They took 3rd place in the foosball tournament and Evelyn took 2nd place in Yahtzee.

Above - Even our local copy center guy who is always so friendly with us came and brought his girlfriend.  They enjoyed the ping-pong activity.  And hanging out with Elder Rhoades.

Before the event was finished we had people asking us when we would be doing another Sports Day.  There was a very good spirit of friendship and camaraderie displayed during the activity.  Everyone seemed to enjoy it.  We were exhausted at the end of the day!

We took plenty of photos and made sure to print out a bunch to put up on the bulletin boards in each of the chapels.  We had good attendance in the chapel the following day, Sunday.

That Sunday was a highwater mark for our mission.  Not only had we just completed a successful district activity that really generated good fellowshipping among the members, but the sacrament meeting in Branch 1 was amazing!

We got to see Damian Farias bless the sacrament for the first time since receiving the Aaronic Priesthood.  He was all decked out in a suit coat and tie that a member of the branch had given him.  He was pretty proud.  We also watched as his sister, Carolina and his mother, Griselda both got up and bore their testimonies.  Wow!  They have come a long way and they are so grateful to be actively participating in the gospel.

We then moved on to the next activity the following week, but this one was member sponsored.  We felt really good that the members were beginning to initiate activities on their own...the snowball effect.  Branch 1 wanted to host an activity for Dia de la Tradicion, which is celebrated here on Nov 11th.  It is a day where they honor their Argentina heritage.  We were asked to help with the planning and organizing.  It was great to just help.  And it turned out wonderful!

 Turns out our Farias family is into traditional music so Carolina and Damian sang and played.  And it turns out the dad is into the traditional music as well so he actually came to this activity.  First time we have gotten him to come to the chapel since his family has been reactivated.  So it was a big deal!

 It also turns out that Branch 1 has 3 members that sing in a choir that performs traditional music as well.  So we were able to get them to come perform.  As you can see there are 9 total participants, 6 of which are non-members.  The sister on the far left in the white blouse is a member and the lady to her immediate left as well.  Then the brother with the blue shirt is a member, but the rest, including their director are not.  They stayed for the whole activity and enjoyed themselves so much they let us know they would be willing to come back and perform again.  Another win!

 Traditional dancing and more traditional singing.  Oscar Valentini came back to perform, an in-active member from Branch 2.  He even dedicated one of his songs to us.  Imagine that!

 And of course, Dario Arevalo had to perform.  Just wouldn't be complete without hearing him sing.  Notice the flag hanging in the background.  That is the flag for Venado Tuerto.

They set it up caberet style with tables and chairs and had traditional munchies available to eat.  Tortas fritas, which are a bit like scones but not nearly as tasty, garrapinadas (peanuts coated in a brown sugar type covering) which we are a big fan of.  Those will be bringing home for everyone to sample for sure.  And soft drinks.

To start the activity off they posted the Argentine flag and played and sang the national anthem.  It was the first time we have heard it since we've been here.  It is a rather long song.  But it was moving to see them all standing and singing their own national anthem.  Also at one point in the program they had a sing along of a traditional song that apparently everyone knows, called Zamba de Mi Esperanza.  Here is a youtube link that you can listen to.  The group is even dressed in traditional gaucho garb.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmBUqwxUvWM

We've been meeting regularly with Dario Arevalo for awhile now as a new convert.  He is progressing very nicely.  We enjoy discussing the Book of Mormon with him because he always captures the spiritual meaning of the stories and knows how to apply them to his own life.  He is just great.

Another snowball that has been created here has to do with a Christmas activity we were planning on sponsoring.  We had heard that not much is done here in regards to Christmas celebrations and we can't imagine Christmas without some sort of musical program so we started working with the district music leader planning a musical fireside.  However, after two meetings together, we learned that another sister, the district Primary president, and her return missionary sister had started planning a district Christmas program as well and they had gotten approval from the district presidency so we were told to basically cease and desist.  Which was just great with me.  It is what we are wanting to see happen, the members starting to plan and prepare their own activities.

Another snowball effect we saw was a young mens activity that Elder Rhoades was able to participate in.  A fishing outing to a nearby lagoon.  They asked him to come along and bring his kites.  So on Nov. 9th he had a great time with the young men.  You won't believe the size of the fish they caught!

Deboned and filleted and ready to barbecue (or asado as they say here)

While E. Rhoades was fishing and flying kites with the young men, I went over to Marcela's house and took her out walking.  We are meeting with her and her son regularly as he is a new convert.  Marcela has some emotional challenges and spends a lot of time home alone.  So I figured if I could get her out walking it might help.  We purposely passed by the home of Rosa, our 72 year old grandma convert who is also lonely and could use some emotional support.  They live about  7 blocks from each other.  Rosa's health would not let her get out to visit, but Marcela certainly could.  We also went by Sandra Raies home who lives close to Marcela as well. Sandra is a less active who takes care of her 83 year old mother and needs some friends in the church as well.  These three ladies could be a great support to one another with a little bit of effort on their parts.

We had become concerned about our 14 year old convert, Valentina, who we took on the youth temple trip in September.  We had not seen her come to church much since that trip.  We had tried to reach out to her but without success.  Finally, we caught her at home and found out that her friend, who had helped to convert her to the church, and her had had a falling out so they were no longer a support to her in picking her up to go to church.  They live in Branch 1 but Valentina actually lives in the area of Branch San Martin so we suggested that she start going there.  She was open to that and so Nov. 10th we went and picked her up and took her to church.  We had been praying that she would make some kind of connection with someone at the branch so she would want to keep attending.  Our prayers were answered abundantly.

The first person we introduced her to was Jacqueline, who is a cute,  young 20 something recent convert who has the calling of working with the youth.  And guess what??  As they shared when each other were baptized, they were both baptized about the same time...connection!!  Then up comes this older lady (probably in her 50's) and greeted Valentina by name!  Ends up she is one of Valentina's teachers at school...connection!!  And when Valentina saw some of the YM/YW she knew a few of them!  And thankfully, this was the Sunday when the youth met together so she had a whole hour with them and when she came out of the room she was smiling and when we left she told us she had liked it.

The first part of November we spent quite a bit of time in our medical capacity to the missionaries.  The first week we had to bring in the sisters who are serving in Murphy and have Sister Tippets stay with us.  She suffers from severe migraines from time to time.  She knows how to handle them but apparently, she was having an episode and her Bolivian companion was freaking out about it and got the Branch president's wife involved and she was sending us messages so we felt like we needed to show them we were taking things seriously.  So for two days she stayed with us while she basically slept it off and her companion went out with the sisters here in Venado Tuerto.  But this meant they were here for my birthday luncheon (which was actually on Nov 6 and not 5th since 5th was a bit crazy)

Yep, Swedish Meatballs and mashed potatoes.  Oh baby, it was good!  We all ate a lot!                      L-R:  Hna.Tippets, Hna. Callapa, Hna. Rhoades

The second week in November we had our first medical call in the middle of the night.  We had to walk some elders off the ledge as they were panicky about an injury that had occurred that day that they had failed to treat correctly and now, in the middle of the night, the pain seemed unbearable and they wanted to go off to the hospital right that minute.  We managed to calm them down and get them to take some first aid steps that should have been done right after the injury occurred.  We told them to call us in the morning and we would re-evaluate the need for a hospital visit.  Turns out by morning the elder's fears had calmed down and in the light of day and with the first aid treatment, he no longer felt like he had to be seen in the ER.  Whew!

The district welcomed home one of the full-time missionaries that had been out serving from their district - Elias Menchi, from Branch 1.  He came home on Nov. 12th and a homecoming was held for him on Nov 15th.

E. Menchi is in the middle of the back row, surrounded by his extended family.

Apparently he is well loved as there were members from all the branches in attendance at his homecoming.  Here they have him give a report during the homecoming and then they let those in attendance ask questions to him about his experiences and then they eat and socialize.

That same evening, we had a farewell for Stefania Moreno who is heading out on her full-time mission to Brazil as well.  So we were party hopping.  Again they held a somewhat formal meeting where some of her friends and leaders from the branch spoke, wishing her well and thanking her for her service in the branch.  The young women sang a song for her.  The full-time missionaries did as well, but I was playing the piano for them so didn't get a photo of that.

 Afterwards was refreshments and socializing.  The cake was amazing!  And they had made a cute photo frame to use for pictures.

L-R:  Leonela, Stefania's younger sister, Stefania Moreno, and Daiana, the RS president and best friend of Stefania.  Daiana is amazing as she is only 24 and yet is the RS president.  She is a return missionary.  She served in Mexico so I think she had a big influence on Stefania wanting to serve a mission as well.    She is our first Mission Prep graduate to go off and serve. Piracicaba is the name of the mission where she is serving in Brazil.  Stefania already knows a lot of Portuguese as she studied it in school.

The weather is warming up and it is beginning to feel like summer here.  Flowers are everywhere.  Here are some photos of our favorites.

 These trees are all around town with lavender colored flowers.  We think they are stunning.  We have no idea the name of the tree.

 The other day we drove past this corner and just had to stop for a photo op.  The abundance of flowers against the yellow wall was just breathtaking.

Below is a photo we took that captures a lot of the different flowering shrubs and trees here in Venado Tuerto.  It's a much prettier place than the early months here during the winter.

Spiritual Thought:  We teach a lot out of the Book of Mormon to the new converts helping to strengthen their newly acquired testimonies.  We have come to know quite well the first two books - 1 Nephi & 2 Nephi.  Here is a favorite scripture of ours.

"Therefore, cheer up your hearts, and remember that ye are free to act for yourselves - to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life.  Wherefore, my beloved brethren, reconcile yourselves to the will of God, and not to the will of the devil and the flesh; and remember, after ye are reconciled unto God, that it is only in and through the grace of God that ye are saved." 

2 Nephi 10:23-24

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

We started off the second half of October giving a temple discussion to our new convert Emiliano.  The statistics show that if new converts can get to the temple within 90 days of their baptism, they have a higher retention rate.  Since there was a schedule temple trip at the end of October we wanted to point his attention towards the temple.  He was very interested in the lesson.  We usually use the Rome Italy open house video that the church did when teaching new converts so they can see inside a temple and learn what the purpose of the temple is.  See it here Rome Italy Temple Video  He was very impressed.  We explained how to do basic family history and also how to get a temple recommend to do baptisms only,  since in the first year that is all they can do.  We must have converted him, because he signed up and went on the trip at the end of the month.  That was a month from his baptism date.  He had received the Aaronic priesthood so he actually got to perform the baptismal ordinance for the first time... in the temple!  This 18 year old convert is a great young man.  We sure hope he can stay active and down the road serve a mission.  His friend who introduced him to the church is getting ready to go on her mission in April, so she is setting the example for him.  When members are involved in conversion, it rocks!

One of our part-member families had a difficult time this last half of October.  The wife, who is not a member, had a health scare that put her in the hospital for over a week.  We visited her there and she truly was scared she might die.  If it brings her to repentance, great.  The hospitals here are very austere.  They do not provide much other than a bed, a bathroom and occasional medical assistance.  No food is provided, no TV's (we were told TVs were bought for the hospital, which is fairly new, but that all the construction workers stole the TVs rather than install them..and got away with it.  Go figure) and family members are always staying with you when you are in the hospital 24/7.  It's a whole different world here.

She didn't die, but she has had to take it easy.  Her husband wasn't able to work the whole time she was in the hospital so since then he has been working non-stop and we haven't had much chance to visit.  We did take her a meal after she came home from the hospital.  Ministering in action.  I don't think any of the members did anything for her.  Ministering here has a ways to go.

We are visiting a new convert who's mom is in a wheelchair, but the wheelchair is falling apart.  E. Rhoades looked into fixing it, but the cost of parts was not cheap.  A new wheelchair is 35,000 pesos ($636 US) which is not something she can afford.  We considered seeing if we could contact the church's wheelchair donation service but before we figured out how to do that, another new convert we are visiting mentioned they were selling items they no longer needed and one of the items was...a wheelchair!  He was willing to sell if for 1,000 pesos ($18 US).  This guy is poor.  We told him he needed to sell it for more.  The lady is poor as well, but she told us she could afford 1,000 pesos.  We bought it from him for 3,000 pesos, which was a fortune to him.  We told a white lie to get him to accept the 3,000 pesos.  Hopefully, the Lord will forgive us for our sin as it was in an effort to give service to others.  We just need to combine the two wheelchairs to make one that will work for her.

Baptisms have been slow lately in Venado Tuerto.  We did have a couple baptisms in October.  The first one was October 18th.  The sister of Jessica Sanchez, a convert of 7 months, was married and baptized.  Hopefully, her husband will be following her into the waters of baptism and membership soon.

 Outside the Registro Civil, Oct 18th, when Fabricio & Karen were married.  E. Vergara & E. Castilla are the missionaries working with them.

Jessica Sanchez on the left and her brother, Ariel on the right - who is also reading the Book of
Mormon and receiving the discussions from the missionaries.

That evening, they held a small party at the Branch 3 chapel.

Simple decorations, a simple cake, a potluck dinner (usually pizza and/or empanadas) drinks, and music with dancing.

Here is what their little son thought of the party --- sleeping right through it.

Ruben, one of the members, acting as DJ for the event.  Joaquin Sanchez, a nephew gives the thumbs up.

As is common, here baptism was the next day, Saturday  For some reason we didn't get any photos from that event.  And her confirmation was Sunday.  We have not been able to start working with them since they moved the very next week and things were unsettled for them.  And we have been busy with other projects since then.

Mother's Day in Argentina is in October - the 20th.  So Sister Rhoades got to celebrate it twice.

E. Rhoades got her a rose and she made chocolate chip cookie bars to take around to the mother's whom we felt needed them or with whom we are working.  For some of them it was the highlight of their day.

The Alvarez family is now back to being in-active again.  They are like a yo-yo.  It is very disappointing.  Finding this out on Mother's day started a domino effect of disappointments with the people we are working with.  Multiple families and individuals have moved away from the path of discipleship and our efforts seem to be falling on deaf ears.  We've had to take a step back away from visiting them as it is not bearing any fruit.  We've visited them long enough that we have learned to love and care for them and it is sad and disappointing to see them let go of the iron rod and go off into the mists of darkness.  Hopefully, they will find their way back as they realize that life is harder without the gospel in their lives.  We are learning that some are not willing to pay the price of discipleship.

We had a second baptism, however, on October 25th, of an investigator who has been on again off again.  Hopefully, she will stick.  The members in Branch 1 know her pretty well as she has been attending for some time.

The funny thing is, her last name means church in English.  And her first name is the same as the dance that was popular awhile back.

Hna. Ellsworth, Macarena Iglesias, Hna. Martinez

We are working on our next district activity, a Sports Day.  It was originally scheduled for October 19th, but we are in the spring here and the weather is so unpredictable!  One day warm and beautiful, the next 3 days cold and rainy.  The weather forecast was not looking good for that day AND the youth had not organized well for a fundraiser for EFY so we decided to postpone it until Nov. 2nd.  As it turned out Oct 19th turned out to be beautiful weather.  It would have been perfect for the sports day.  Oh well...next month.  And we really wanted the youth to have a successful fund-raising for EFY so hopefully it will be worth the wait.  We also had not had much chance to publicize it with General Conference and District Conference two weeks in a row.  Next blog post you'll be able to hear all about it... and see lots of photos.

We are also starting to work on our Christmas activity, a musical fireside.  This event will be more on the spiritual side.  I am working closely with Laura Roldan, the district music director.  I have managed to get her pretty excited about the event.  We've also got a member in Branch 1, Hna. Sanchez, who has gotten the vision of what socials can do for the members and missionary work.  She contacted us wanting our help organizing and planning a branch event for their Dia de Tradicion which is on Nov 11th, but she wants to do the activity on Nov 8th, a Friday night.  That is really close to our Sports Day event so hopefully the members and the branch missionaries can do most of the work and we just need to provide moral support and a little bit of help.  Next blog post you'll hear more about that event as well.

Halloween is not celebrated down here.  We almost didn't even realize it was October 31st.  Our Pathway group reminded us what day it was.  So to give them English practice we had them go to the following link  Monster Mash  and listen to a Halloween classic. 

And that's the last half of October.  You decide what is the good, the bad and the ugly.  We had it all these past few weeks.

Spiritual Thought: In his letter to the Hebrews, the Apostle Paul was trying to encourage new members who had just joined the church (oh, sounds like what we are trying to do!), who undoubtedly had had spiritual experiences and received the pure light of testimony, only to discover that their troubles had not ended but that some of them had just begun.  The reminder is we can not sign on for a battle of such eternal significance and everlasting consequence without knowing it will be a fight -- a good fight, and a winning fight -- but a fight nevertheless. (see Hebrews 10: 32-39). 

In Latter-day Saint talk that is to say, sure it is tough...That is the way it has always been, Paul says, but don't draw back.  Don't panic and retreat.  Don't lose your confidence.  Don't forget how you once felt. Don't distrust the experience you had.  That tenacity is what saved Moses and Joseph Smith when the adversary confronted them, and it is what will save you.  Jeffrey R Holland "Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence"  BYU Devotional  March 2, 1999