On the Road Again!

Well, another two weeks have passed again and it's time for an update. We spent the last week traveling. I guess that's what happens when you live out in the middle of the province, to get anywhere you have to drive at least 2 hours. Our trips this time included a multi-zone mission conference in Resistencia, a quick day trip to the city of Formosa, and another day-trip that included stops in Ingeniero Juarez and Las Lomitas.

The night sky on our trip to Resistencia (leaving Formosa)

Our trip to Resistencia was for a mission conference with a general authority, Elder Gavarret. He is a counselor in the South America South Area Presidency. We left Sunday evening to be there for a Monday morning meeting. Sunday included a stop in Formosa to attend the stake counsel meeting. We have been working with a branch within the stake boundaries (Pirane) and were invited to come meet the stake leaders and share a little bit about what we do as senior missionaries. It was fun to be involved with a large stake and attend the meeting (I know that sounds weird to say it's fun to attend a meeting but for 7 months we have not had many opportunities to be included in any type of larger gathering of leaders).

On Monday morning, we arrived at the stake center in Resistencia early to prepare for the conference with Elder Gavarret. It was supposed to start at 9:00am but only one zone had arrived. The missionaries from our zone left on a bus at 3am and ended up being 2 hours late. We all waited around in the stake center. Elder Gavarret decided the missionaries were going to head outside and do some street contacting. I guess you need to keep missionaries busy and what better way than to have them do the work they were called to do. By about 11am all the missionaries arrived and the meeting started. It was a good meeting.

Cross in Formosa town square

On Wednesday this past week we headed, once again, to Formosa. Our friend who is the branch president in Estanislao del Campo needed to return to Formosa to pick up a sewing machine he had fixed. He uses the machine to make all sorts of artisanal items to sell, mostly all from leather. It was a long day because they wanted to take advantage of being in the big city to buy some things that they cannot get in Campo or are really expensive. For example, shoes for their teenage son are only about $20 in the city and over $40 in their pueblo.

Members and missionaries in Las Lomitas

The last trip was on Sunday and it was to take some donated clothes to some of the far away areas that are quite poor economically and in need of anything that can be donated. I drove the district president, his wife, and the branch president. In Juarez we dropped off some clothing and completed a priesthood ordination for a young man who was ordained an Elder. He is planning to serve a mission. It will be a great blessing to his family and the members of the group in Juarez. At church on Sunday there were about 12 people. It is a very small group. They meet in a small house where the missionaries used to live. This group in Juarez actually lives closer to the Salta mission than they do to Resistencia.

Martha decided not to make that third trip on Sunday. She stayed home and bravely attended church by herself, relying on her own Spanish skills. It all turned out great. She even taught a Sunday School lesson for the youth. The branch in Ibarreta almost never has anything planned for Sunday and just shoots from the hip. It's something we have been trying for months to change and once we think we have made progress things slip back to how they were. The new Relief Society president is helping to change things around a bit. She is the former seminary teacher and it always reading and studying. She has a desire to serve the sisters and so far has been prepared with lessons.

Saturday was a busy day. We taught our Book of Mormon class, had Primary, and helped with a baptism. We started a Book of Mormon study class on Tuesdays in Ensanche Norte (la colonia) but some members couldn't come on Tuesday so we started a second class on Saturday mornings. We usually only have one couple, Belen and her boyfriend Christian. He is not a member but has been coming to class and we enjoy having him attend. This Saturday Belen invited three of here cousins to join her. We enjoy teaching these classes. They are, by far, the highlight of our mission service so far and something we find very rewarding and enjoying.

Teaching broom hockey!

These two younger ones enjoyed playing broom hockey (Elias and Mirasella)

Right after the morning Book of Mormon class we taught Primary. Martha is doing a fantastic job helping the children learn so many primary hymns. Their favorite so far is the new one recently added to the church hymn book, Mi Pequena Luz. (click on the hymn title to listen to it). Sometimes I randomly sing it in my head throughout the day. As the others kids were participating in the lesson, two of the younger ones, (especially the little boy Elias in the above picture) learned to play hockey. There was a balled up piece of paper on the ground and I started to hit it around with the broom. This started into me teaching them broom hockey. A little different style of brooms but they worked as hockey sticks.

Cleaning the baptismal font

Saturday was capped of with a baptism. On Friday we had to drain and clean the font. We love serving! The baptism was great. It was for two people from the colonia and so once again we made several trips in the truck to bring people from the colonia to the pueblo. Others helped drive as well and some members came on their motos (basically scooters). We had over 60 in attendance.

We filled the font on Friday but someone, who shall remain unnamed in order to protect the innocent, turned the water back on right before the baptismal service began to fill it up a little bit more. Well, it never got turned off and it was starting to overflow. When everyone went into the room with the font, we could see water had spilled over the font and was going into the hallway, the bathrooms, a few classrooms and the baptismal room. Instead of recognizing the situation the elders proceeded with the baptism. Of course, once they entered the font even more water poured out and we had a small flood on our hands. The two people were baptized and the meeting continued. Martha and I along with a few others started sweeping all the water back into the font. It took about 30 minutes to get all the water cleaned up and the floor dried as best we could. Sorry we don't have any pictures but trust me there was water everywhere!

After the baptism, we viewed a broadcast from the Area Presidency celebrating 100 years of the missionary work in South America, which all started in Buenos Aires. It was fun to hear about the history of the church in Argentina and especially fun to feel apart of that history since I served in Rosario from 1991-1992 and we are now serving here in the Resistencia mission.

One last quick update: We mentioned last time trying to find ping-pong balls. While in Resistencia we found a set of two paddles and three balls in the grocery store. Martha thought the price was 3.500 pesos, which is about $3 USD. After paying for everything, I thought the cost seemed high for all that we bought. Taking a second look at the receipt, the ping-pong set was actually 35.000 pesos, that's $35 USD. No way we are paying $35 for a ping-pong set that is worth no more than $2. So we returned it. Long story short, still no ping-pong balls. Who knew how difficult it would be to find something so simple. Where is the Dollar Tree store when you need it?!

That's about all we have this time. Enjoy a few more pictures!