Where Were The Seagulls?

I know you all know the story of how in 1848 the seagulls saved the crops of the Mormon pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley by eating up all of the hordes of crickets. Well Fred cooked up a couple of racks of his barbequed ribs and brought them to Mendoza for the missionaries working in the office. The crickets wearing white shirts and ties began to swarm all over the ribs devouring every rib in sight until nothing was left except the aroma and a few bones! And not a seagull in sight to save the day. We continue to visit, teach and encourage the weaker members of the church here in La Consulta. Some are beginning to come out on Sundays and it is good to see them returning. This is an agricultural area and unfortunately some of the people are in poverty. One such family is the Condo family which we have visited twice. They live on a farm and you have to walk the last 200 yards or so to their house and step over a fence to get into the yard. They get a vehicle in there somehow so there must be a secret entrance. The family structure there is a little confusing and we are still trying to figure out who is who. Life there seems more like a colony to us. Each time we visit there are new faces and some of the others are not there. We plan on taking family photos at some point so they will have to identify with one group or the other for the shot! It is a dirt yard with an outdoor kitchen using open fire for heat and some very makeshift housing. Last visit Maria, who is expecting her 9th child in July was cooking bread in the outdoor oven and she shared some with us that was still warm. Yummy stuff! By our best estimate there are about 20 people living there and if we can get them coming out to church we could really fill our little chapel to overflowing. The couple dozen or so chocolate chip cookies that Linda made for them just barely made for one cookie each! We shared a video about the Last Supper from our iPad propped up on the dusty rear bumper of their truck and had some discussion afterward. During the discussion one of the toddlers got restless so the mom, without batting an eye, just went right into breast feeding mode. No modesty blankie or nothin'! Now, that right there is distracting and a bit awkward to say the least. Teaching in Spanish is hard enough but sheeesh! Come to find out from speaking to other missionaries and the Mission President it is a very common thing here. Just going to have to deal with it. And NO we don’t have a picture to share!! Jose Coronel and his wife have been absolute angels going with us to introduce us to the families in our branch. Jose can be a character sometimes like trying on this Bolivian poncho that one of the ladies had just finished making. We had them over for dinner and fed them some of Linda’s yummy taco soup. Afterwards we got on the computer and were, with Linda’s skillful help, able to locate some of Jose’s ancestors.