Arroyo Seco

On Saturday, April 11th we were able to travel to the Arroyo Seco Branch to present a Mi Camino night. It took us about 45 minutes to drive there.  Our Stake President Councilor, President Reccechia drove us in his car and also our Stake Facilitator, Pilar Segovia traveled with us.  The picture below is like the car we rode in.  4 adults traveling about 80 miles an hour swerving in and out of traffic lanes in what I like to call a clown car. But we made it alive, so all is well! Argentines want to be race car drivers, ALL of them!!

The Arroyo Seco Church Building.

Branch President Gutierrez, Pilar our Stake Facilitator and 2 branch Facilitators (below).  We trained the Branch President a few weeks ago and showed him a video presentation.  A part of the  presentation showed a picture of some crops that the water was not getting to the ends of the rows and the crops were dying. And then we showed another picture of the water getting to the ends of the rows and the crops were getting watered and were green. We explained that this is what this new Self Reliance is all about is getting the water to the people who need it.  When we were walking toward the building door the Branch President came outside and stretched forth his arms and said, "the water is coming to the ends of the rows", it was so tender, it brought tears to my eyes.

The meeting was held in their chapel.  They don't have benches, they use folding chairs.  President Reccechia standing on the right in the picture below.

The Arroyo Seco Young Women's room and the Relief Society table that is in the chapel (below).  The RS table cloth was so beautiful! It was the first Branch that we have visited and we discovered that we had already had met so many of their members who had come to classes in Rosario that Alan had taught months ago.

It was a very large building for a Branch.

#Because He Lives

On Friday, April 3 we hosted at our Self-

Reliance Center a one night showing (on the big outdoor wall) of the Easter video #Because He Lives.

2 sister missionaries that live in the area and our ward Mission leader wanted to share this wonderful video message with the people of Rosario

Hermana Nelson is from American Fork and Hermana Spencer is from a little town below Fresno, CA. Having 2 Hermana's from the US is a first for our ward. I was in charge of running the electronic equipment.

We had many people who stopped and watched outside our gates and we also had this cute family across the street that watched it from their balcony. 

Thanks Hermana's for sharing the good news message that Jesus Christ Lives.

Hermanas

I guess it is getting close to the time when we will be coming home because almost all of the sister missionaries that were here in our area when we got to Argentina have gone home!! I will miss these Hermanas so much! Below is Hermana Siapo who is from Chiclayo, Peru. Every time I saw Hermana Siapo her hair was wet (no hair dryers, so air drying and it took forever for her hair to dry).  Today her hair was dry (it was 6 in the afternoon)!!

Hermana Siapo and her companion Hermana Cruise would come to our Self Reliance Center almost every day and we would read the Book of Mormon together.  She would practice reading in English (and I would help her with her English) and I would try to read in Spanish (and she would help me with every word)! She made us a card and gave it to us when we were at the mission home giving a training to the missionaries that were going home in March.

Below is Hermana Martinez from Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Hermana Martinez and Hermana Siapo were serving in our home ward area.  We saw first hand what hard workers they are. They served the Lord well for their 18 months in Argentina.

Below is Hermana Hickman from Seattle, WA.  We met her while she was cleaning the baptismal font at a stake center in our area one evening where we were having a meeting and now she is home.

By the look of her shoes (below), she knows how to work hard too!! Hermana's (sister missionaries) are fabulous missionaries and have great success reaching the people here in Rosario!

Below is the group of missionaries that we were able to train on Self-Reliance (March 23rd) before they left the mission to return to their homes. We only have two more of these trainings before we return home! So much to do, so little time left!!

Barrio Belgrano

A couple of Sunday's ago we traveled to the Belgrano Ward to give a presentation to a combined Relief Society and Priesthood on the new Self Reliance Initiative (what we came to Argentina to start). It was so good to see sister Fagunde (pictured here just walking into the Chapel). She has been a member for just under a year and was one of the first people we got to meet at our self reliance center when we arrived in Argentina last August! Her husband, Anibal, was looking for a job for a very long time.  He now is a night watchman and still came to church even though he had not slept! It's so nice to see that they are still active and faithful members of the church!

It was a lovely cool day and I got to wear a sweater, which hasn't happened in a very long, long time!  Fall is starting to happen in Argentina! We had our combined meeting in the chapel which has no benches, just folding chairs. It was the smallest chapel we have been in so far.  It is a two story building. They hold Relief Society, Gospel Doctrine Class and of course Sacrament Meeting in this chapel. 

Alan was about to begin the presentation and an area Seventy, Elder Rechek, from Buenos Aires came in and sat down.  He was in Rosario introducing the new BYU-Idaho PATH program for the Institutes down here.

We took a cab to and from the Chapel which takes about 30 minutes each way.  One of the dangerous things we do in Rosario is ride in cabs.  A few are nice, clean and have seat belts that work and then others are not so nice.  I think I've only found 3 working seats belts since we've been down here. The dangerous part is either the way the driver drives (crazy, like he is driving a race car!) or the condition of the car and most of the time it is both! The little red light in the window tells you this cab is available. (pic below)

We called on the phone for this cab to come pick us up so we weren't standing out on the street with our portable projector, extension cords, computer, cell phone and books. This cab was pretty worn down but the driver was nice.  He was very large and his seat was broken and leaning into the back seat! The bottom picture is of the meter (upper right side of the windshield) that tells us how much the ride will be. Our ride was about $20 US dollars round trip.

Mi Camino Rosario Stake and Rosario Norte Stake

Friday, March 20th was the first Mi Camino night in Rosario! We came down here last August to get this started in Rosario and it is finally happening! The Pergamino Stake (an hour away from Rosario) had their Mi Camino night while we were in Utah for my mother's funeral. It was hard to miss it, since this is what we came here to do.

Many obstacles have delayed this initiative from rolling forth sooner, mainly getting these manuals translated into Spanish!!! It took forever!!!!! These manuals are online at pef.lds.org under Self-Reliance (in English), take a look! Self-Reliance is both temporal and spiritual. Do a My Path evaluation and see if you have room to improve on your Self Reliance! Hint, we all have room to improve!

Our Stake President Councilor, President Lazzarra conducted. These pictures were taken at the beginning of the night and the tables and chairs filled up.

Stake High Councilor over Self-Reliance said a few words (pic below).

Pilar Segovia (below) is the Stake Self -Reliance Specialist and is introducing the manuals. She is also our Bishops wife! They had 35 attend and one of the sisters took the little kids and had a little nursey (bless her heart). The Pergamino Stake had 60 participates show up on their first Mi Camino night, so this Stake has work to do. They are dragging their feet because our Self-Reliance Center where we work has been doing all this for the members of their Stake and now it is being turned over to the Stakes. But I know it will take flight in this stake.

On Friday night the Rosario Norte Stake had their first Mi Camino night and it was fabulous! They had 57 participants and more people are signing up for more Mi Camino Classes.

The Rosario Norte Stake had fabulous refreshments after the seminar.  They had sandwiches and dessert cakes and of course pop with Table Cloths!!!! Table Cloths!!!!!!!

One more Stake Mi Camino Night and then we can come home!!!!!!  Well, not quite, we still have lots and lots of trainings and presentations to give and colleges to find and approve and late paying PEF loan participants to call and emails to answer and people to help make curriculums and find jobs etc., but Self-Reliance is taking wings in Rosario!!

Trip to Utah

It has been over a month since I have posted and that is because we had an unplanned trip to Utah.  My Mother passed away and we returned home for 2 weeks. My children and grandchildren pictured below.

It was hard and yet wonderful to be home.

Saturday, February 28th Megan (our granddaughter) was baptized in St. George and so we were able to see this. What a great blessing and bonus for us!

Then on Wednesday, March 4th Little James was born up in Rigby, Id to our Angela. He was 3 weeks early and a cutie pie! Blessing and Bonus #2!!!

Happy family of 6!

Then it was time to travel back to Argentina. We had Elder Holland on our flight from SLC to Atlanta and we also had 40 missionaries going to the Buenos Aires mission!

Once in BA we tried a new way to travel to Rosario (4hr bus ride). Our bus ride to Buenos Aires was an adventure with some yellow liquid dripping from the ceiling on us.  So we looked into a new way to travel, which was still by bus, but this bus system delivered us to our apartment door and we didn't have to go to the bus terminal and then take a cab to our apartment with all our luggage.

This bus had a stewardess, a movie and she served a drink and treat all as we were driving! No seat belt for her on our journey! When we were coming into town in Rosario they shuttled us onto 2 smaller shuttle vans to to take us to our apartments like the one below. I also had to take a pic of 2 gypsies that were walking in some very colorful outfits! And we are back in Argentina and catching up on all the work that we left behind.