Despedidas and Welcome Home!

 


After almost two days of travel we finally made it to our new home in Orem, UT.  As many know, we moved from our beloved home in Hacienda Heights before embarking on our 1 year mission in Argentina and now live in our house in Orem.  Lots and lots of changes have happened and many more to come.  We loved our mission experience and the many friends we made along the way.  


Goodbyes

Us with Griselda Galvan and her granddaughter Aymar (Estefania).  We spent two days a week with Griselda over the past 3 months teaching her classes to help read and write better and classes in self-reliance.  We will miss her and her family. 

This is Carmen. We got to know her over the last year.  She returned to church after several years of inactivity.  She felt a prompting that she needed to come closer to God and responded by returning to church.

One of the many youth in Ensanche Norte that we worked with over the past year.  They faithfully attend seminary each week.  

We will miss our friends Dionicio and Teresa from Bartolome de las Casas.  Martha and Teresa seemed to have a special bond even though Teresa spoke very little Spanish.  She and her husband are part of the Toba people of Argentina. She mainly speaks Toba.  Soon they will be attending the temple for the very first time!

Hermana Lili.  She was recently called as the Relief Society president and we helped and trained her along the way. Lili is a very resilient women working every day making facturas (pastries) from her home to support herself.  Her mother was one of the pioneers of the church in Ibarreta.


Our travels began on Sunday, July 27th which was our last day in Ibarreta.  Ibarreta is a great place and our last day was very typical for this tiny town.  We woke up early Sunday morning to the sound of rain hitting the corrugate metal roof of our house.  When it rains in Ibarreta almost the whole town shuts down because the unpaved dirt streets became a huge slip and slide of mud and water.  Having a 4x4 truck sure makes it easier, except we had already traded our truck with the other couple that came to replace us.  We were going to drive the tiny little Toyota Yaris they had back to Resistencia to be returned. 

Because of all the muddy streets, and our tiny Yaris, we didn't think we'd make to the church building or make it out of Ibarreta to get home!  We never prayed harder in our life to be able to get to church.  I (Brian) was not confident we would make it the short block and a half out of our neighborhood and to the safety of a paved road.  Fortunately, our prayers we answered and we made it!  We felt like Ibarreta was kicking us in the behind as we left.  Ibarreta did not want us to forget her!

Beginning the 4 hour drive from Ibarreta to Resistencia.  We were so excited to be able to get out of the mud and get on our way. 




Sunday night we spent the evening with our mission leaders, the Barlows (Brad and Angela).  We use first names because his brother Alan Barlow and wife Julie are serving as senior missionaries in the same mission. We had a great dinner and visit with them the night before our flight from Resistencia to Buenos Aires.  We have such great admiration for them and all they do for the young missionaries. We developed a new found appreciation and great gratitude for the dedication and consecrated service of mission leaders all over the world. They truly love the missionaries!

We spent Sunday night in a hotel in Resistencia and this is us leaving at 6am Monday morning to get to the airport for our first of three flights to get home.




We left Resistencia Monday morning at 7:30am and arrived into Buenos Aires at 9:00am.  Our next flight was to Atlanta and it did not leave until 8:00pm so we had lots of time in Buenos Aires to wait.  We were blessed to spend the day with Martha's brother Bill and his wife Carin who are serving as Humanitarian Aid missionaries in the Buenos Aires.  They are in the South America South Area office.  They are super great hosts and we loved spending time with them in Buenos Aires on two different occasions.  Love you guys!  Keep Argentina together now that we've left.  



'Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane
Don't know when I'll be back again  

Can anyone name that song and artist?  This is us finally on the plane leaving Buenos Aires.  At this point we had been up since about 4am and were looking at a 10 hour plane ride to Atlanta, back home to the U.S.A!  

For some reason we did not take a photo in Atlanta. I think we were so tired, and quite honestly feeling frumpy after 10 hours in the plane with only a few short cat naps here and there.  But we were finally off to our final destination: HOME.

Finally made it to the Salt Lake City airport at about 10:30am.  This is us after close to 33 hours of travel.  

First things first.  Holding little Thomas.  What a great site to see our grandson for the first time. Thomas was born in May and we had only seen him on video calls and in photos.

Second was tortilla chips for Martha.  Of all the food we missed tortilla chips and salsa was at the top of the list.  


Later after arriving we were able to see our granddaughter Lyla for the second time.  We were very fortunate to have flow back to the U.S. back in November to see her.  She is a lively funny little girl.  Always smiling!


That's about it for all our travel adventures and now it's time to wrap up our mission blog.  It was been an awesome experience and something we could have never imagined and will never experience again. Sure, we may go on another mission in 10 or 20 years but this one will always be unique.  It was not easy, but at the same time is was remarkable and we met so many great and faithful people along the way.  We have many friends that we may never see again, but we will never forget them.  With technology they are only a few clicks away.  

For anyone considering serving a mission we echo the simple words of former church president Spencer W. Kimball "DO IT".  Stop worrying and focusing on all the challenges or obstacles you think you may have.  Prepare yourself and then DO IT.  There are so many different opportunities and ways to serve. We promise you the Lord will bless you!

This is our last post\update from out mission but we'd like to invite everyone to join us as we speak in church here in Orem and in Hacienda Heights.

Sunday, August 17th in Hacienda Heights, CA
Meeting begins at 10:00am at 1415 Turnbull Canyon Rd (Hacienda Heights Ward)
All are welcome and we will have time after the meetings to chat with everyone. 

Sunday, August 24th in Orem, UT
Meeting begins at 12:00 noon at 430 S 700 E Orem, UT (Sharon 3rd Ward)
For anyone in the Orem/Provo area. 


For anyone that would like our new home address and phone numbers simply reply to the email we sent and we'll gladly sent it to you.  We would love to visit with any of you that pass through the Orem area. We love visitors! 


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Our beloved Colonia Ensanche Norte!  Adios amigos, les amamos!!

This is a place on the side of the road we passed all the time during our drives to Formosa.  The town is called Palo Santo and this little place has all sorts of yard sculptures.  

Unfortunately, we couldn't figure out how to bring this giraffe sculpture home. 


By far the best thing about being home is being around our grandkids.  This is miss Lyla.  She is a ball of energy and we love her so much. 

Reading to Lyla at her house. We got to hang out and spend the afternoon with her, and Eric. 

 


We've been sharing the house with Jacob, Ana and little Thomas.  

Nothing better than having a sleeping baby in your arms.

Makes me remember the days when our boys were babies.


Second day back and we went to the temple.  We were fortunate to go to the temple three times while on our mission.  Twice to Salta and once to Buenos Aires (all outside of our mission area).  This is us at the Saratoga Springs, UT temple. 










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