Baptisms from Beginning to End With Inspiration In-Between

We started February off with a baptism in the little town of Murphy.  It was a child of record who had turned 8, but he specifically asked us to come.  We visited his less active mom when we first got here about 10 months ago and he has never forgotten us.  Every time we have seen him, he has come up to us with the biggest smile and adoring look.  So we just had to be there to make his baptismal day even more special.

 

Lucio Serrano had many people there to support him.  He is loved by the members in Murphy.  We have to agree, he is a sweet kid that is easy to love.

PS - HLJ is the Spanish version of CTR.  It stands for Haz Lo Justo.




We started a monthly movie night that we will do each month on the first Friday of the month.  We have access to the Living Scripture site and we realized that many of the movies have Spanish sub-titles.  Also, many here study English, that is why we teach an EnglishConnect course.  And these movies on the Living Scripture site can be faith building as well.  We felt inspired to begin this monthly tradition so we have high hopes for this.

Our first movie night was February 7th and we went with the classic Saturday's Warrior the 2016 version.  We had about 12 people attend, mostly young women.  They loved it!  After the show, we take time to share thoughts and impressions.  We make sure they know these are not church movies so what is being shown is not church doctrine, but we do testify of truths found in the movie.  This time about a pre-existence, the importance of families, and that God has a plan for each of us and it is important to find out what that plan is and follow it because it will bring us lasting joy and happiness.

That same weekend we held a Sunday devotional for new converts.  We had heard about the South America Northwest tour that Elder Holland did in January.

We found out that he was holding devotionals targeting different groups during his tour and one of the groups was new members of two years or less.  Since we work a lot with new members we felt strongly that we needed to make that available to the members here as well.  We found out that we could access a recording of the event.  So we set up a date here and publicized the event as much as we could.  We listened to the recording ahead of time and knew it was going to be powerful.  It's Elder Holland folks!  We made invitations and took those around to every new member in each of the branches, active or not.  We actually meet a few new people we didn't know about before.  We put posters up in each of the chapels.  Even with all our efforts the turn out was minimal.  But... those who came were very impressed and edified greatly.  They all talked like it had been well worth coming.

We also felt impressed to organize a youth activity for leap year day, February 29th.  We got the green light from the district president and then met with the district YM president and YW president.  As we meet we felt impressed to focus on the 200th anniversary of the first vision and preparation for for April General Conference.  By the end of the meeting we had developed a pretty great plan for an activity that will combine fun socializing together but also provide a spiritual finale that should build testimony and challenge the youth to prepare for April conference.

We learned of a new bakery that is fairly close to us that makes great "facturas" which is basically pastries.  There is no end to good bread products here in Argentina. 

Not only do they have good pastries but they have both wheat and white rolls that are as good as anything in the states.  We can always use rolls for our Family Home Evening activities so it helps to have another source because you can't always count on rolls being available when you go to the bakery each time.

Because of the heat, we have had a steady diet of chilled watermelon.  There are days when nothing tastes better.  We include watermelon on our Family Home Evening menus as well.  Sometimes we need the missionaries to help us polish off left over watermelon from an event.  They are usually happy to do so.

 E. Tiquillahuana & E. Lewis above and Hnas. Silva, Callapa and Bueno below.

February 12th was yet another zone conference.  This time it was only the missionaries from Venado Tuerto and it was held in Venado Tuerto, which was nice since traveling usually means a 6 am departure time.  But the conference didn't have the same excitement you feel when two zones get together.

 Current zone leaders - E. Landvatter & E. Johnson

 Hnas - L-R: Bueno, Moura, Silva & Callapa

 Rama 3 elders - L-R:  E. Navarro, Campos, Vergara, Carbajal

 L-R: E. Tiquillahuanca, E. Skinner, E. Hansen (greenie), E. Rowley

L-R: E. Rodriguez (greenie from Arequipa, Peru), E. Bitter (Dave's adopted son), E. Taylor (greenie), E. Johns

The zone leaders wanted to teach about teamwork so they brought out the good old fashion three legged race event to illustrate what it takes to work together.

Zone leaders preparing the ties

On your mark!, get set, go

Lunch requires a large quantity of whatever we are eating as the elders can certainly put away a lot of food.  This time the menu was choripan, which is sausage sandwiches where the sausage has been cooked over a grill.  We learned that our friend, Victor Barboza, is the chef of these sandwiches. 

The choir Dave put together from his district singing

 One of our favorite elders is finishing up his mission this transfer so he was asked to give his testimony.  E. Vergara (on the right) has been in Venado Tuerto since July so we've gotten to know him well.  He started out as a zone leader and then became a district leader and has been training new elders.  He is a 24 year old convert from Chile.  He's done some great things here in Venado Tuerto.  We are very impressed with him.

 Our complete zone group photo

We are working on finishing up the EnglishConnect 1 classes and hope to have that completed by the end of the month.  We continue to work with our Pathway group.  It is smaller, but we have a dedicated bunch and mentoring the lead student seems to be a lot less time intensive than first semester.  They have seen how it's been done enough times by others that they know the routine now.  

We've had some pretty intense summer storms.  The weather here tends to be cyclical.  We tend to have hot days with more and more humidity until the heat/humidity is stifling and non-stop from morning to night.  At which time, we have a big downpour of rain, which will bring relief from the humidity and heat to various degrees for a number of days (2-4) and then the heat and humidity start to build again until it gets so bad that it causes another rain storm, sometimes with lightening and thunder sometimes no.  

We finished up the first half of February with a baptism as well...Victor's!  Victor is the husband of Rosanna who was baptized in September.  At the time she was baptized, he did attend her baptism and confirmation but prior to this he hadn't attended church at all during the 2-3 years she had been attending as a non-member.  But once he attended for her baptism, we noticed he started to attend on Sunday as well.  And the elders assigned to their area, did their job and invited him to come unto Christ and be baptized and he accepted.  We've liked him from the beginning.  He is an auto mechanic so Elder Rhoades connected with him right away.  So February 15th we had the privilege to attend his baptism.

When we got here, only Tania, their 15 year old daughter was a member.  Then September, Rosanna was baptized and now Victor.  They have a 6 year old son as well.  This is an eternal family in the making!  If Victor can stay active.  We are confident that Tania and Rosanna will stay active.  We will definitely be working with Victor to help him progress.

Spiritual Thought:  "Ultimately, everything God invites and commands us to do is an expression of His love for us and His desire to give us the blessings reserved for the faithful."  Jorge M Alvarado  October 2019 General Conference

10 Months in the Books

The last half of January was hot! and muggy!  Thank heavens the church found us an apartment that has a small window a/c unit.  It keeps our bedroom pretty chilly, but with the help of a fan we push that cold air out into the rest of our house and it keeps the temperature bearable.  The summer has not been as hot and muggy as normal (thank goodness) but we are grateful we don't walk the streets like the young missionaries and we've been able to do a lot of meetings in our own home to keep us somewhat cool.

One of our in-home F.H.E.'s with the missionaries from Branch 2 and the Fresco family with a family investigating the church. (E. Johns and E. Orquiz)

We attended three missionary farewells during the last half of January.  Two of our mission prep students left on their full-time missions.  We threw a party for them and the other single adults and then attended the farewells the families held for each one.

The first farewell during the month was the one we organized on Jan 16th.  We created a Jeopardy game for them to play with categories related to mission life.  We had a Brazil category and a Bolivia category since those were the two countries they were going to as well as discussion, mission life and first vision categories as well.  The sister missionaries helped us with the party.  After the game we ate hot dogs, chips and watermelon and visited.

The next farewell was Ian Heredia's out in Murphy.  He reported to the Brazil MTC on Jan 22nd and is going to serve in Brazil, Recife.

Look at the amazing cake they made for him!  Farewells here are a bit more formal.  They hold a program with opening song and prayer and with speakers who are family or close friends that wish the missionary well and talk about why he or she will be a great missionary.  This boy had a lot of people in attendance and wonderful things were said about him.  He is certainly loved!

Eating and mingling after the program.

Hermanas serving in Murphy currently, Hna. Silva (from Brazil) and Hna. Callapa (from Bolivia)  both dressed in pink!

Later in the month, the farewell for Milagros Menchi was held.  Menchi's live just around the corner from us and so we know them a bit better.  Their son returned from his mission in Brazil back in November so Milagros is their second send-off.  Milagros reported to the Lima MTC on Jan 29th as she will be serving in Bolivia, Santa Cruz North.  Interestingly, her mission president is Matthew Hawkins who was one of the missionaries I taught in the MTC back in the 80's while I was a BYU student.  He served in Honduras.  So of course, I had to write a letter to him for her to take.

 Her cake is amazing as well.  She has a big extended family that sang a medley of primary songs as part of the program (below).  With a smile like hers, she should be able to open many doors and help many to feel the love of God.

We continued to meet with leaders and talk about ministering.  Branch 3 has plans to incorporate us into the ministering lists so we can help new converts learn to be good ministers.

We continue to do a lot of service.  We helped Dario A get to a doctor's appointment.  Here in Argentina people can receive what they call a "pension" if they are certified as disabled.  It is like being on disability in the states, we think.  Because Dario has such poor eye sight (he is practically blind), he is working on getting certified to receive a pension for disability.  But if you think the red tape is bad in the US, try getting through it here in Argentina.  It will make the US process seem like a breeze.

Dario & Dave returning to the car after the appointment.  Besides vision issues, he also has other health issues, but he has found that becoming a member of the true church, living the commandments and studying the scriptures has given him a new perspective AND better patience when dealing with afflictions/trials, which in turns is turning into noticeable health benefits.  He has dropped weight, no longer need insulin and feels more at peace and contented despite his trials. 

We also helped paint a front room for Giselle and her mom (who is wheelchair bound).  It is a good thing we helped.  They and the sister missionaries didn't really know how to go about it and E. Rhoades ended up doing most of the work or supervising work.  

We also did an outing with Giselle and Rosa to their "campo", home outside of Venado Tuerto that is a small farm.  Rosa's brother and mother live out there and up to 8 months ago, so did they.  We learned that the home they live in now (near our apt.) is new to them.  They had only lived there a few months when the sister missionaries started teaching Giselle.  Makes you think the hand of the Lord was involved in that purchase/move.  Here are some photos from our visit to the country.

 E. Rhoades in front of a windmill covered with vines.

 Peach tree and pumpkin/squash plants

 Orange trees

We finally had a baptism in Venado Tuerto!  It has actually been since the end of September the last time there was a baptism so this baptism ended a bit of a drought.  And it seems to be a good candidate - Magali F, a 16 year old girl in the San Martin branch.

It was a bit of a miraculous conversion story.  The missionaries had tracted out her friend who lived in Rama 2 and were visiting and teaching her when one day Magali was at the house when the elders came to do a discussion.  She listened and liked it enough that she continued to listen even after her friend told the elders she wasn't interested.  She has come to church, on her own, for a solid month and is well integrated with the other youth of the branch. We get nervous when youth or children are baptized without their parents, but hopefully this young girl will stay holding on to the rod long enough to make it a life long journey.

During the last half of January, we received some more revelation on what activities we should involve ourselves in.  We invited the district president and his wife over for dinner so we could discuss this inspiration and get his stamp of approval and authorization.  We must have fed him well enough (taco salad) because we got a thumbs up on each of the items we wanted to discuss with him.  More about these developments in the next posting...stay tuned!

We had yet another transfer on the last Monday of January (the 27th).  We sent two elders home from this district.  and also saw two others get transferred.  We sure learn to love these young missionaries while we serve side by side with them. 

 L-R:  E. Tiquillahuaca, E. Williams (transferred), E. Lewis (transferred), E. Delgado (went home), E. Johns, E. Bitter, E. Orquiz (went home), E. Rowley and in front, E. Rhoades

E. Rhoades with E. Williams.  Venado Tuerto was his first area.  He hails from Pennsylvania.  This transfer was his first so he was a bit nervous and excited at the same time.

For those who may be counting (certain family members, grandkids in particular), I realized that we are now down to only 5 more transfers and a few weeks before we will finish up our time of service.  That still means 7.5 months but we are definitely on the downward side now.

The youth 14 & up from the district spent the last week in January at PFJ, which is the Spanish version of EFY.  Here is a photo of the group that went.  It is a 5 day event, held in Pilar (just outside of Buenos Aires) where they stay in big tents, and have a wonderful spiritual time.  We weren't able to get as many of the less active youths or non-members, new converts to attend as we would have liked but we did get Giselle and Emiliano to participate.  Both of them are 18 yrs. old which is the last year you can attend so that was good.  Emiliano actually went last year as a non-member and PFJ played a big role in helping him decide to join the church.  Here they are in the photo below after they had just arrived and unloaded from the bus.

Venado Tuerto continues to have plenty of flowering trees and bushes around.  Below is one I took while out on a walk one morning.  Since pink and purple were my favorite colors as a teenager, I found this a beautiful sight.  At first it looks like one tree with two different colored blossoms, but as I got closer I realized it was two trees next to each other where one had branches higher so that both colored blossoms could be seen at the same time.

Spiritual Thought: Since we are celebrating the 200th anniversary of the first vision that ushered in the restoration of the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, this scripture is evidence that we are members of the true church of Christ as we are in the process of attempting to do just this:
"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:  Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."  Matthew 28: 19-20