The End of the Road (almost)

 

We've reached the end, almost.  Today starts our last week in Argentina and it's bitter sweet.  We have met so many great people and have had tremendous adventures together.  This week was no exception.  


We helped one of the members move his 40 animals from one farm to another.  All sheep and goats.  You can see in this picture the truck is full with about 8 sheep and a few goats.  It was fun but it took a long time.  We didn't really know exactly what we were getting into.  We thought it was to help move a "few" animals.  It ended up taking 3 trips and about 5 hours of work.  It was quite the adventure and something we'll probably never have the chance to do again. After one of the trips we returned to see a goat give birth.  It was amazing.  It actually had 3 little babies, something unusual for goats.  They typically only have 1 or 2 at a time. 


We also attended a 1-year birthday party for little Brayden Mansilla.  He's named after the missionary that taught his family the gospel.  At the party they dressed him up like a little king, or prince, and paraded him around the room for everyone to see.  He can't walk but his mom helped him around the room.  We've been teaching his parents about the temple and preparing them to enter the temple and be sealed together as a family.  Hopefully, they'll get there within the next month.

The group is planning to visit the temple in September.  This week they all surprised us with their plans to travel to the temple.  The closest temple is about 6 hours away on the bus and costs about $100 roundtrip for each person.  It is quite a sacrifice!  Without any urging or prompting from us missionaries the members gathered together in a meeting and discussed how they could earn money to travel to the temple.  Each week they will be selling empanadas and tortas a la parilla to save up money.  It is such a great thing to see them making plans and working toward this goal.  We are sad we will not be here to go with them but are very excited for them to experience the temple and receive the great blessings that will come to them for their faithfulness and desire to follow Jesus Christ.
 
Enjoying a torta a la parilla.  It's a simple bread that's cooked on the grill.  

Teresa gifted Martha this handmade basket.  

On Sunday, we visited our dear friends Dionicio and Teresa out in Bartolome. We had a nice sacrament meeting in their back yard, probably one of the best we've had.  Very simple, very humble.  These two are awesome.  We have been preparing them to go to the temple for the first time and hopefully they will get to go in August or September with the other group of members that are planning to go.  In the sacrament meeting we tried to play the hymns on our phones but there was no cell signal so Martha and I sang a cappella. Poor Dionicio and Teresa had to suffer through that experience. Ha Ha! We tried to pick hymns that they knew but they don't typically sing anyway.  Spanish is their second language.  They speak Toba and all the words of the hymns are in Spanish. They tried to sing but it ended up being just the two of us.  

On Saturday, Martha held her primary class in the colonia Ensanche.  This is always one of the highlights of the week.  She teaches them primary hymns and a short lesson.  This week she did an activity with them, bowling.  Martha created bowling pins from old juice bottles and labeled the bottoms with a primary children's hymn.  Each took turns rolling a ball to knock down the pins. They could choose with song to sing from all the pins they knocked down. It was a lot of fun!  Each lesson ends with coloring time.  They love to color and would sit their for hours coloring if we had the time. We will sure miss these kids!


Farm to table!  After helping to move all his animals Presidente Huells and his wife invited for an asado today (Monday).  He left one little lamb behind for us to bring to his house.  It was today's meal.  Once you get over the fact that these little sheep are cute and cuddly you realize they are a source of food for many people around the world.  On the right you see what our meal was.  Honestly, it was by far the best meat/asado we have had here in Argentina.  The sides are ensalada Russa and rice with beats.  Ensalada Russa is basically potato salad.  It has potatoes and carrots and a little bit of mayonnaise.  This version did not have a lot of mayonnaise and so it was good.  The rice is plain white rice cooked with beets, thus the red/pinkish color to it.  We love the Huells and will miss their friendship, kindness and generosity (not to mention all the adventures we've had with them).  

It's hard to believe a whole year has passed. We started this adventurous mission last July and will always remember the wonderful people we met and had the opportunity to work with.  We are very glad we made the decision to serve as missionaries.  The experience is priceless and hopefully we return as better people.  We will for sure always view the world from a different lens, but probably the most significant lesson is knowing that God loves all of His children and wants us to love one another and help one another along life's journey.  Just like we as parents enjoy watching our boys interact and help one another, we know God is the same way.  Nothing makes Him more happy than to see his children showing love one to another.  

We start the long journey home this Sunday afternoon by driving to Resistencia, staying the night, and then flying to Buenos Aires early Monday morning.  Our flight from Buenos Aires to Atlanta does not leave until 8:00 pm so we hope to hang out with Bill and Carin in Buenos Aires for the day.  We won't be home to Orem until Tuesday morning.  We'll make our last post after arriving home next week.

We love all of you and are very grateful for the chance to share our mission experiences with you.  We hope it wasn't too boring reading all of our stories.  For us, it will be a treasured memory. 

May God bless you all and your families.


OK...Photo dump

The youth from Ensanche Norte singing at the district conference

Youth preparing to sing for the district conference. One young woman came up with the idea and with the help of leaders and the sister missionaries they prepared and practice. 

Youth of Ensanche Norte that sang in the conference, along with the sister missionaries on the end.

All of the members from Ensanche Norte

All of the members who attended the district conference

Happy birthday King Brayden!

Brayden's mom was very happy for his birthday

Cathedral in the city of Formosa


Little baby Sol Angelica Jacqueline Holgado.  Born about 1 month ago

Loading the first goat into the truck

A full load ready to go.

An old cemetery we passed while moving the animals.

Tied up so they don't jump out!

I slipped this one in.  One of the goats that we didn't move gave birth while we were there. You can see one of the little babies in the bottom right-hand corner.

Hermana Julie Barlow in heaven with this little goat in the truck.  She and her husband are replacing us here in Ibarreta. 


church dog hanging out

little Elias from primary

Aldana and Salma, the faithful who come every week to primary

Little Mirasella. 

Showing off their coloring

Elder Bauti!

We saw these wild turkeys.  Too early for Thanksgiving dinner!



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