Miracles

We've had a couple of miracles happen since we have been in Argentina. First one was that we survived the bus ride from Buenos Aires and didn't have heat stroke!  The second is that I didn't break my ankle.

I should have posted this earlier on the blog, but we just took a picture of the crime scene! We walk 11 blocks to church and 11 blocks back every Sunday.  The side walks are filled with dog poop and many, many cracked tiles or just dirt holes. We are constantly dodging obstacles in our path. Coming back from church 2 weeks ago we were walking quickly to get back to our apartment and I twisted my ankle and fell down into this window

 Luckily this store was closed so they had their metal bars down or I would have gone through the glass.  I limped a little bit back to the apartment and then my foot felt fine.  About an hour later I couldn't even walk on it and was in a lot of pain. We put ice on it and took couple of Ibuprofen and prayed that I could go to our office to meet our boss who was coming down from Buenos Aires the next day.

Monday morning my ankle was swollen and a little bruised, but no pain at all! We went to our office and met Jorge Romeu who is our Area Self Reliance Manager and his Church calling is a General Authority Area Seventy. He is so nice and kind and he speaks english!!

Fix it Time

 Our second Saturday in Rosario was fix-it time. Alan and the fix-it-man are working on our estufa. (gas heater).  Once again you have to stick a match in it and turn on the gas for it to work. Our Mission President also got us a bed, so bye bye bunk beds! Since there is only one estufa, it's a good thing our apt is small.

One problem was our new mattress would not fit up the stairs or elevator, so they (4 guys with very long ropes) hoisted and pulled it up the front of the building and brought it through the sliding door, which they took apart. Bunk beds are in the red truck below. Notice all the power lines the moving guys missed hitting as the hoisted the bed up!

 Bing-botta-boom, we have a queen-size bed!! It's actually a very comfortable bed and much appreciated.  Thanks President Zanni!  Somethings here are so expensive, this bed spread was about $80 USD, it should have been a $19 K-Mart special!

It was also fix-our-closet problem day.  Thanks to Alan for bringing Fred/Annette Ghiz's gift of the ultimate Leatherman fix-it knife. It is so heavy (because of it's many tools) that we also keep it in our night stand as our weapon of choice if someone breaks into our apartment! Alan disassembled and removed this shelf and viola... 

 We can now hang all our clothes in the closet and the red dresser was moved into the bedroom. The owner said we could take the lock off this red dresser and we removed her stuff from inside, it was much needed space. And the suit cases are put away for 1 year!

Rosario Apartment (departamento)

Home Sweet Home
            Our apartment building entrance.

Our inside apartment front door.  We walk up 5 flights of stairs to get to our apartment. Notice that Elder Wheatley carries up 6.25 liters of water each trip we make up those stairs!

Inch by inch, in our spare time, we are cleaning the kitchen and the rest of the apartment. It is very dirty and grimy. We can only clean it during the day when we have sunlight because our lighting is very dim. We are preparing to live 'the simple life' with 2 plates, 2 bowls, 2 spoons, 2 forks, 2 knives, and 2 glasses. We're not sure we want to venture into using the oven, we think a raccoon may have been living in it and you have to stick a match down in a hole inside it and turn the gas on each time you fire it up, literally! Welcome to the 50's.  I'm pretty sure the oven has never been cleaned but... we have granite counter tops so who's complaining.

Our bathroom is very small, if you're standing at the sink you have to move to the hall to let the other person in. As far as cleaning it goes, it's a work in progress.  We tackle one or two targeted areas a day and are working our way through.  The toilet/bidet combo is just not right!! I want a lid on that bidet!

The apartment is small, but that makes it easy to clean. Looking at these pictures makes it look very nice and the wood floor is very shiny as shown! We live in about 690 square feet. it's cozy.

Our suitcases are on the bed and spread around the apartment because we only have this small space to hang up our clothes! We need to find a solution to this closet situation not to mention sleeping arrangements. (3 bunk beds?)

Journey to Rosario Argentina

Thursday, August 21st: We have our Servicios de Autosuficiencia Missionary badges (we're legit), 4 checked bags, 2 carry ons (not shown in the pic below), 1 very large brief case, 1 purse and off we fly to Atlanta (11:06 am) on Delta (4 hour flight).  We arrived in Atlanta at 4:50pm (4hr layover), departed at 9:08pm for Buenos Aires for a 10 1/2 hour flight.

 Bienvenidos Argentina!!!!  We arrived in Buenos Aires on Friday the 22nd at 8:20am and after passing through customs and immigration counters (long lines) we were welcomed by 2 gentlemen with the sign below to take us to the Area Office in BsAs. Alan recognized this sign, I was looking for a sign with Wheatley's on it and would never have recognized that that sign was for us (I'm a greenie)!

 We had so much luggage that they had to get creative in how to put it in a very little car. We went to the Buenos Aires office and met some senior couples working at that office, had lunch there and then they took us to a bus terminal and put us on a 4hr bus trip to Rosario. (8 missionary couples are based in Buenos Aires)

I am ashamed to say that I did not get a picture of the bus that took us to Rosario.  The bus terminal was wild and did not feel safe to bring out our phones which is our only camera since I left our camera at home (by mistake)!! After some issue with the bus driver telling us that we can't get on the bus, Alan assured the driver that it would be fine and we needed to be on this bus.  It was a double-decker bus with a TINY circular staircase to get up to our seats on the 2nd level. It was hard to get us up those stairs plus our carry ons! Our seats were right above the driver with a full windshield and side windows for a great view, only one problem.... our seats were laying flat... broken. Alan put our carry-ons behind the seats to prop them up which kind of worked.  We soon found out why these last seats were available, it smelled, the seats were very very dirty and the sun shinned in on us and the air was not working!! The bus had red dirty drapes hanging everywhere so we pulled them closed and couldn't see anything outside for the 4 hour bus ride and it got really hot even with the drapes closed. As you can see from the photo below I now had no ankles from flying for 18hrs. (we'd been up for 25 hours at this point)

 We arrived at the Rosario bus Terminal at 6pm to a wonderful greeting from our Mission President, President Zanni and his wife, Veronica and 2 Elders.  They took us to a temporary apartment where we could stay for 5 days until we found a apt to live in.  Once again, I can't believe I didn't take a picture of the welcome committee! (I hope we will see them at least one more time during our time here)  It didn't seem too safe to bring out my phone to take a photo at the bus station again. Yes, our apt had bunk beds! We were invited by our mission President, his wife and another couple (the Orozco's) to go dinner at 9:30pm to celebrate Veronica's birthday and our arrival.  We got back to the apartment at 1am, they eat late here! After 35 hrs of no sleep the bunk beds were wonderful!!!  But we had to be ready at 8am Saturday for Brother Edwardo Orozco to show us where the grocery store was, the church and our office.

President and Sister Zanni

PEF Self Reliance Missionary Training, August 17-19 2014

On Sunday, August 17th at 9am we gathered at the MTC in a cozy room with 8 other Self-Reliance missionary couples for 3 hours of training with Elder Robert C. Gay of the 1st Quorum of the Seventy. He is leading the Self-Reliance initiative charge.  He told us that the Preach My Gospel Manuel was written for missionaries to help increase their faith.  "Preach with Faith to teach with power and authority".  He also said in the church we need converted leaders, (broken hearts and contrite spirits) converted members, and converted Missionaries, that are all converted by the Spirit.

No tithing money is used for the Perpetual Education Fund, it is totally perpetual in every sense of the word, no principal is used.  The loans are based on the earning from the fund only.  As Self-Reliance missionaries we will be helping people to act for themselves. The Savior didn't give people goods or things, he lifted them by showing them a better way.

Our group consisted of (left to right) Brother Roper, the Glauser's (Draper) going to St. Petersburg Russia, the Lee's (British Columbia) to Manchester England, the Reed's (Colorado) Micronesia Guam, the Powell's (Eden, Ut) to Hong Kong, China, the Nish's (S. Africa) to Vanuatu PortVila-SL, the Wheatley's (Draper) to Argentina Rosario, the Porter's (Orem) to Puerto Rico, and the Snell's (England) to South Africa and Elder Falabella of the First Quorum of the Seventy.

On Monday and Tuesday, we met on the 26th floor of the church office building where we were trained by some very impressive individuals working voluntarily and vigorously in this effort. Brother David Roper (son-in-law to Elder Ballard) works with recruiting and assigning senior missionaries. Tom Reuckert who is over all the PEF loans worldwide.  Geoff Davis who works with Elder Gay and Mike Sloan in an organization called "Uniteus" which is a poverty alleviation NGO and Mike Murrray a Harvard guy that reported to Steve Jobs and Bill Gates directly and who has made this effort his current labor of love.

(David Roper presenting to our group)

Below is Fred and Sharon Hunsaker (Logan) volunteers helping Self-Reliance missionaries when they get their calls. We talked to him and his wife a lot with many questions before we departed. They live in Logan but keep an apt in Salt Lake for these trainings that are once a month. They really took good care of us. They are from Logan and are good friends to Steve and Betty Stokes.

The views from the 26th floor of the Church Office Building were breath-taking Post Cards!

We also got some little gems like, President Monson's office is in the building behind the waterfall in the NW corner, ground level and the First Presidency have the other corner ground level rooms. On levels 2 and 3 are offices for the Quorum of the Twelve.

 And, of course, President Monson's apartment is located in the L shaped building below, top floor, north corner with the green tinted windows.

Here's WHY we are Self-Reliance missionaries:

Elder Gay counseled us to, "Listen for the voice, hear the voice and then follow the voice".  Here are some other choice quotes from Elder Gay:

President Eyring said that PEF/Self-Reliance perhaps is the greatest converting tool the church has.

This calling (missionary service) is the answer to the questions: 'to what you were ordained?' (D&C 50:13) It's serious business.

Regarding PEF and Self-Reliance, Elder Gay said, "We report directly to the 1st Presidency.  That's how we have been able to get so much done in such a short time. We have a license to go to all the world."

"You've been called to serve in Self-Reliance but don't get sucked into helping or doing it (anything) for them.  Invite them to act and to pray.  Don't you pray for them.  Instead teach them to pray and act thus opening the lines of communication with God...thus unleashing the Powers of Heaven. Everyone needs the powers of heaven!"

There is a fast spreading global sickness in the world today.  No country is exempt.  A crisis and a culture of Governments (and even well-meaning NGOs) taking care of the poor by giving handouts, doles, and welfare. It is not sustainable.  It's not doctrinally sound.  It's a counterfeit that does not work and can not work.  We must teach Self-Reliance at the root and at the core.

This work is important.  The Self-reliance program, employees, and missionaries names are placed on the temple rolls throughout the world each day.

Brigham Young said, "We need to teach the saints how to live"

Our fundamental scripture is D&C 104:15-17 (the poor shalt be exalted..)

Missionary Training Center, Provo UT August 11-15 2014

We left every morning from our Draper home and drove down to the Provo MTC and then came home every night and slept in our own wonderful bed! Our schedule was 8am-4:30pm, oh how I miss this home!

Of course, we had to take a pic in front of the world map at the MTC.

This is the place where we received our week long training for Senior missionaries.  It is called the Stadium Chapel (or affectionately the "Senior Chapel) it's is just North of the MTC and is right outside the locked MTC north gate.

We would walk through this locked gate onto the MTC campus to the MTC cafeteria and MTC bookstore with all the young Elders and Sisters. If you want to feel old, walk into the the MTC cafeteria with all the wonderful, young Elders and Sisters! (By the time we figured out where the good MTC lunches were, it was Friday)

The chapel is used exclusively for training senior missionaries during the day and then converts to a regular church building at night and weekends. So all our desks and equipment were on wheels and a crew moved our desks out in the parking lot to this storage center each night.  Although the building is dated showing a lot of use, we made some wonderful memories and made some new friends too.

 There were 35 couples and 2 sister missionaries in our training group for the MTC week. We were the only couple going to South America, we felt a little lonely!
Picture #1  From left to right, Elder and Sister…
Atwood, Gilliand, Beckstead, Sebring, Nish, Olsen, Porter, Reed, Joy, Sister Diane Killpack, Sister Nanette Arnold, Clifford, Chipping, Powell, Snell, Hymas, Bielamowicz, Wheatley, Reagan, Colton

Picture #2  From left to right, Elder and Sister…

Lee, Hayward, Dever, Hill, Madsen, Graff, Jepperson, Norton, Price, Kearl, Glauser, Wright, Sayer, Hart, Fowers, Porter, Scott.

 The second day they divided our group up into districts of 8 people.  In the mornings we had a sister trainer and a brother trainer and in the afternoon we had a brother trainer only. Alan was our district leader.

Our district comprised the Wheatley's, Bielamowicz's, the Porter's and the Cliffords. Also pictured are two of our MTC teachers. Brother Bellingham and Sister Marht (below)

In our training we role played a lot, a lot, a lot.....

  Another picture of our district with Brother Carver (our third instructor) in the middle.
The faith demonstrated by members of our little district was awesome.  This was the Clifford's second full-time mission. Brother Porter had a stoke a few years ago and is learning how to talk again.  Although he struggles a little putting his thoughts across, he has an awesome heart and a fearless attitude.  He kept saying, "We can do this, we can do this".  Brother Bielamowicz has been a member just under a year!  We felt pretty average.

Additional thoughts, comments, insights, and feelings:

We attended a devotional with all the MTC missionaries (about 2500 or so) half of them were in the choir.  They sang "Called to Serve" and blew the dust out of the rafters.  Very moving and powerful.

We are not called to teach lessons but to teach people instead.

We learned that the spirit can touch souls even in role-play situations.

A positive thought is a 'prompting' unless proven otherwise.

The videos from "the District" are awesome training tools.

About the Book of Mormon: "No wicked man could write such a book as this; and no good man would write it, unless it were true and he were commanded by God to do so".

Be loving and patient!  Leave every place you go better because you were there.

Teach simply!

Did you know that Lehi had a pet?  (The Lord told Lehi to take his family and flea into the wilderness)

Why did the Lamanites have sore knees?  (Because of all the Knee-phites)

Who was the first Prophet to go thru the MTC?  (Moses.  He went thru the EM-PTY-SEA)

Our MTC Mission President, President Nally gave us a simple instruction: "Now,  just go and do good"