Bañado, Amigos, y un Carpincho

Elder and Sister Barlow, us, Sister Barlow and President Barlow

This past week we had a visit from the Barlows, all four of them.  Our mission president is Brad Barlow and his older brother Alan is serving with his wife as a senior couple in our mission. They arrived in January and will finish their mission next July along with his brother.  How fun would that be!

Elder and Sister Barlow are currently serving in the big city of Resistencia but will be replacing us next month when we leave.  They came to this area with the mission leaders to check out the area and get to know a few members and the unique needs here.  Like us, they will support two branches and four groups which span about 400 kilometers.  They will come before we leave and we'll have a couple of weeks to show them around and acclimate them to our dear pueblito, Ibarreta!

Bañado la Estrella at sunset

Martha at sunset, not quite.

The other reason they all came was to visit a wetlands called Bañado la Estrella. It's a beautiful place that's only about 2 hours from us.  The mission leaders take time to visit all the sites they can within the mission boundaries and took advantage of visiting the bañado while coming to visit with the members in the district.  We had a lot of fun with them here.  Ibarreta is quite small and when visitors come it's a treat.  

Ensanche Group with the Barlows

We had a little meet and greet in the colonia Ensanche with the mission leaders and the other Barlows.  In their introduction Elder Barlow said to make it easy to distinguish between the two couples the members should call them the Barlocos (crazy Barlows).  They aren't crazy but they are a fun couple.  The members here will love them.  Having all the members gathered together was fun.  We had just finished having our primary class (it's really Martha's class I just translate every once in a while and set up the music) and so the children were drawing when everyone came.  It kept them busy while others visited together.  After awhile we started to play some dance music and let the kids have some fun.  It's interesting, when we ask the youth what music they like they always ask for an 80's playlist.  That's perfect for us!

Joao's baptism (his father, Elder Eldridge, Joao, Elder Suarez and Joao's brother)

The elders here have been very busy and blessed with having baptisms almost every week for the past month.  Today, (Sunday) was the baptism of Joao.  He is 19 years old and his mom and grandma are members but he never felt a desire to be baptized and join the church.  We had the opportunity to have a couple of visits with him.  It's great to see his desire to follow Jesus Christ and be baptized.  The purpose of missionaries is to "Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end."  These missionaries are great examples of Christ's command to preach the gospel to all the earth and help them to come unto Him.  Welcome to the covenant path Joao!

Carpincho

You might have to zoom in on this picture but that is a carpincho, otherwise known as a capybara. The daughter of one of the members we visit has this carpincho as a pet.  Her husband basically rescued it.  This poor guy was found alone out it in the campo just a few days after he was born.  It's only about 3 weeks old!  Capybara's are large rodents, the largest rodent in South America, maybe even the world.  When fully grown they can get to be about 50 kgs (do your own conversion to pounds).  This little guy runs around with their other animals, mostly dogs and cats.  You can see he is just like a dog, he likes to be pet under the chin. 


Happy Father's day to all those dad's and fathers out there!  Thinking of our dad's on this special day.  We sure miss them but know one day we will see them again.  We are extremely grateful for what they taught us in this life and think about them often as we serve.  They were great examples of service. 

Have a great week and enjoy the photo dump below!!

Our tour guide at the bañado

Best looking companion I could have!

The Barlow brothers

At one time there was another tree intertwined with this one.  That's why it looks like a corkscrew. 

Us, Sister and Elder Barlow, President Barlow

More sunset. 

Alligator, more specifically a Caiman.  In spanish, Yacaré.



The road to the Bañado was 60 km of dirt!

We see birds similar to this along the highway.  They are usually referred to as an eagle-hawk because they look like a mix of the two.  The ones we see feed on the roadkill along the highway. 



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