We Found It! (sort of)

We had a baptism in the La Consulta branch! Judi Vladez was baptized and welcomed into the church. I know this looks like the picture was taken in a dungeon but it was getting ready to be painted. It looks much better now. We have a collapsible baptismal font that seems to get the job done. It is set up behind the chapel and taken down after the ceremony. We are teaching nine investigators at present. Not sure yet how many will continue to progress but it is a wonderful experience giving them the opportunity to learn about the church. Some are very poor but nevertheless deserve all of the blessings the Lord has in store for them if they will follow his teachings. Maria Condo carries her little one on her back everywhere during the day doing chores, cleaning and cooking that yummy bread in the outdoor oven. When the baby gets hungry mom is right there! We finally got a chance to take a picture of this unique wash tub made from 1/3 of a tractor tire. It is usually in use when we drive by and we don’t want to cause any awkward moments. It serves as a bathtub for the kids and a laundry tub for washing the clothes. A pretty good idea actually. We have started the inspections again beginning with San Juan. Hard to believe we have already been here six months! Some interesting things in the missionaries’ pensiones continue to amaze us like a way overdue defrosting of this freezer. We have the inspections down to an efficient routine now. We have developed a scoring system with candy bars as a reward for the cleanest places. The REALLY good ones get a Snickers from Wal-Mart. It actually works as word has gotten around the mission! While in San Juan we actually found the house with the address of Fred’s great aunt when she lived in San Juan almost 100 years ago! The original house was destroyed along with all of the others in the area by the 1944 earthquake. Unfortunately neither the people living there now nor any of the neighbors know anything of Teresa Garcia or her family. We had another of our monthly activities with the other missionary couples in the mission. We went to a monument of the Ejercito de los Andes (the Army of the Andes), led by General San Martin, in Mendoza. It is up on a hill overlooking the city. Then we went down to the Plaza Independencia and rode bikes around for a while and ate some yummy ice cream. We met a group of Hari Krishnas chanting their thing as they walked around so we joined with them for a bit mutual fun. They got a kick out of Fred ringing the bell on his bike in time with their chanting and instrumentals. Here is the sunrise between Tunuyan and Ugarteche one early morning on our way to Mendoza. Love these mountains!

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Well it has been snowing here lately while you northerners are going through heatwaves and fires everywhere. We are just awed by the majesty of the Andes Mountains. It is a photographer’s paradise if you like mountain scenery. We took a trip up to Historic Manzano which is a place where General San Martin met with his troops back in the late 1700s in the fight for independence from Spain for Argentina, Chile and Bolivia. He let it be known that he was going to cross the Andes from there to attack the Spanish but the local Indians snitched him off to the Spanish. He knew this would happen and the Spanish fell for the decoy while San Martin attacked through another route further north through Uspallata. The rest is Argentine independence history. It is tourist place with museums and shopping to be had. There is a restaurant there with the best ever advertising! Nothing better to attract the gaze of hungry passers-by than huge racks of ribs cooking in plain sight over an open fire. We had a wonderful buffet meal there and left feeling like we had just finished a big Thanksgiving dinner. Beef ribs, sausage, suckling pig and goat all fire roasted plus a large selection of other stuff. We WILL be back! Our monthly outing with the other couple missionaries was in San Martin. We had a tour of an olive oil processing plant which also has a small hotel on site. It was very interesting seeing how they take the raw olives and reduce them to oil. President and Sister Goates were able to take time out from their busy schedule to be with us. A good mid-day meal was had by all. We also visited a family vineyard and got some insight into the things they do to get by. We finally finished all 80 of the inspections of the missionaries quarters in the whole mission just in time to start over in September. We are smarter now and more familiar with the lay of the land, so to speak, so we expect things will go much smoother on the second round. It was really great to get to see the whole mission and meet some very outstanding and wonderful young missionaries even if some of them come up a little short on housekeeping. We are still teaching some investigators and unbaptized members of different families in the branch. There is a baptism this Saturday for Judi Valdez who is a neighbor of ours. We have sort of adopted our landlord’s dog named Boni. She reminds us of our daughter Heather’s dog, Mocha. She has developed a habit of crossing her front paws when she is lounging around the house. She does not get much attention from the owner and is pretty much just a watch dog around here. Fred has been teaching her manners and she is a quick learner and good pooch. She loves coming indoors occasionally and likes to lie down on the mat in front of our couch for a nap. The mother of one of our members died and we went to the funeral. They do not embalm people here so they bury them quickly. This woman died at 1am and was buried at 5pm the same day! The cemetery was an interesting place. Some build shelters over the graves and it gives the cemetery a shanty-town look. Cultural diversity I suppose.

Hokey What?

We hope you guys are enjoying summer there because it is COLD here with temperatures down to freezing and below almost every night. Our monthly outing with the other couples here was at the Mendoza Zoo. It was a fun outing were we saw lots of interesting and some boring animals. One interesting fact is that some of the animals have escaped from their cages and still hang around the zoo in the woods and shrubbery there. The lion walking around loose was cool. JUST KIDDING. It was mostly monkeys and some other animals we had never seen before. One of the highlights was watching a couple of grizzlies dancing, so to speak. Elder Carrea from Chile decided to try out his new theory on “scripture study by osmosis” during a break at our District Meeting. I think the idea needs a little work yet. Then there are the gangsta sistas from Valle de Uco Zone flashing their gang signs. No wonder half of our zone got transferred this time! Our Tres A La Vez in La Consulta was a smashing success. Like the others it ended with a talent show where we had lots of participants. We did our part by getting all of the missionaries from the US to do that long standing tradition that everyone knows but can’t remember exactly when or where they learned it; that all-inclusive dance; that icon of American culture; the HOKEY POKEY! It went down with resounding applause and cheers from the crowd. Now all of the Latino missionaries that saw it are doing it! The whiteboard exercise down at the town square was highly successful. We got over 50 contacts with addresses to follow up on. More than all the other towns combined! I love this town! Hmmm… looks like Elder Gray is also testing out the “scripture study by osmosis” theory. Pension inspections produced another goofy hat to try on.

Asado Is Good Stuff!!

"Tres a la vez" is a program in our mission that focuses on baptism, retention and reactivation. Our zone in Valle de Uco had an all-day event planned for contacting investigators, study, contacting potential investigators and a talent show. We were a bit skeptical about the whole thing that these young missionaries had planned but went along to support the activity. It was in another town, Tupungato, where all 16 missionaries in the zone would swarm down and focus on the tasks at hand. Normally there are only 6 in that town. Each companionship was assigned three investigators to visit that we had never met. Then we met back at the church afterwards. First house - the wife answered the door and promptly waved us off. Second house - nobody home. Well our skepticism was really off the chart at this point and we figured we'd be back to the church in no time. The third house was a couple in their 70’s named Villaverde. We had such a wonderful time getting to know them. It was an awesome experience! We ended up spending an hour or more with them sharing a video and teaching them about the restoration. Had to slap myself for lack of faith. After lunch and study time (during the siesta), we headed downtown to a plaza where the plan was to have a couple of whiteboards with markers and ask people on the street to write down some of the things they felt were a blessing in their lives. Skepticism was raging again. Turns out people were happy to do it! We spent an hour or so and the young missionaries got over 20 names and addresses to visit at a later date! Another slap for lack of faith. I cannot think of another activity I have ever seen that produced so many contacts in such a short period of time with such easy effort. The talent show was fun and many of the ward members and missionaries took part. One guy sang three songs that were at the professional level. Absolutely amazing. Got home late but the day was a success we will not soon forget it. The Quecanos are such a sweet family. They are the ones who cooked the yummy bread in the brick oven. They invited us over after church to have "asado" for lunch. Asado is roasted meat cooked over coals much like a barbeque. They fired up the brick oven again where they divided the coals in three parts. Cooking sliced potatoes in the oven…..heating water…..and cooking the asado. The meat was beef ribs, sausage and some sort of sliced beef. Done to perfection it was scrumptious! We get such a kick out of Sister Quecano. She is a bit shy and is only about four and a half feet tall but such a generous and sweet personality. We are still teaching the Condo's teenaged girls. They have a tentative baptism date for August 15. Their 23 year old brother, Jose, who has not been out to church in years, is helping and we are hoping he and the rest of the family will take this occasion to renew their commitments and activity. Stay tuned!

The Beast!

Well last Sunday was Father’s Day and we had a special activity for the fathers in the branch on Saturday. We met upstairs in our chapel and played games where all the fathers won of course and received lots of prizes all containing lots of sugar plus a new pair of house slippers. Then they herded all the dads into another room where there was a TV with a curtain rod going over to the widow that served as an antenna of sorts where they watched a soccer game between Argentina and Jamaica. The reception on the TV was not exactly HD. You could see the ball but not very well. They served hot chocolate and cookies to the dads during the game. Argentina won 1 – 0 and all was right with the world. We have had some problems with our water supply lately due to a worn out booster pump. It is not fun to wake up in the morning with no water. The landlord finally replaced it and we are good to go. The weather has been chilly lately with temperatures in the 20’s at night. We heat with gas here so of course the gas went out one night. When we moved in here Fred insisted on having heat pumps installed instead of plain air conditioners so we could have a backup heating source. Well it for sure paid off the night the gas went out when the temperature was in the mid 20’s. Ice sickles on the unit in the morning! Bought some candles today in case the electricity is next. We found a restaurant in Mendoza called Fidelitos. It is owned by an Argentine who lived for a while in the US. He came back to Argentina and opened a restaurant serving American style food which is very popular here especially with the missionaries. They offer a burger called “The Beast” that Fred has threatened to try one of these times. Still trying to figure out how to take a bite! They have on the menu listed as a starter the most scrumptious chili cheese fries that are a meal for two. We could not finish them! The work (yes we still do missionary work) is going well. We are working , along with the Elders, with the Valdez family who, as it turns out, live about a 4-iron away from us! Alejandro is a member but his wife and children are not. The Elders are going through the lessons with them and we are helping fill in the details and providing fellowship. They are now attending on Sundays and we are excited for them. Two weeks ago our District President came to our Branch and assigned Fred to be the Elders’ Quorum President. He should do well since this is his 3rd time around. Last week he gave his 1st Sacrament talk in Spanish. It went well. The people all said they could understand him.

Beware the Car!

Our car is great but we are beginning to think that it is jinxed. With the history of the bumper getting scraped in the parking lot of the grocery store, a parking ticket in Tunuyan and window broken and our stuff stolen in front of the mission office what else could happen?. Well we were off doing inspections in Lujan just south of Mendoza when we took a wrong turn. It was a very low traffic area and surely a U turn would be easy. We pulled over a bit to the right to get a good wide turn and THUNK….. the right wheel went into a concrete ditch right down to the frame. How could that happen??? It looked clear there. Turns out that it was a short uncovered section of the ditch about 30 inches long (just enough for the wheel to fit) that was camouflaged by some weeds growing out of it. With the help of the two young Elders that were with us and some nearby construction workers we lifted it up and out of the ditch to asphalt with no damage done. Later that day as we returned to the car after an inspection and some repairs we discovered that the pigeons would add insult to injury by pooping large quantities all over the side and windshield of the car! Sorry, no pictures of either incident. Hmmmm….. not sure what else lurks out there in the future. Speaking of inspections, we went into the pension of the Office Elders and up on the cabinets there was a huge collection of cereal boxes! Good home for cockroaches I suppose but we did not find any. The siesta time where everything closes between 1 and 5pm continues to be an obstacle at times. On another inspection the bathroom sink was not useable due to a very bad leak in the drain. There was a missing compression washer in the piping. So, not realizing the time of day, we all piled in the car to go to the local hardware store only to find it closed for siesta. Not having time to wait around for another 3 hours Fred was thinking of some alternative way to fix the leak. In the meantime we swung by for the Elders to pick up their lunch from one of the church member’s houses. When we saw the woman hand them their lunch in a plastic bag, Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding! Of course! A plastic bag just might do it! So Fred took strips of the plastic bag and twisted them up to fit around the pipe inside the slip-nut and BINGO! No runs, no drips, no errors. Sink back in service. Fred said that Ray Erickson, the guy who taught him the plumbing trade is probably rolling over in his grave (but more than likely with a smile). Along with visiting several less-active member families in our Branch, we are now officially teaching 3 non-members. The first being Delia Esponda, our landlady. We may have mentioned that her husband passed away in Jan. & now her niece just died from breast cancer. She’s been very sad and lonely and we asked if we could share a message of comfort with her. She was very open to that so we began teaching her about 2 weeks ago. We started with the Plan of Salvation which is usually the 2nd lesson, but due to the eternal aspects of it, we decided that would be better for her to hear it first. She is Catholic and has a pretty good understanding of life after death but not from an LDS perspective. She really liked what we taught her and has never hesitated to make another appointment with us. On Tuesday, we taught her the Restoration lesson which was all new to her. She said she believed the Joseph Smith story. As directed by President Goates, our mission president at our last Zone meeting, we asked her to be baptized!! Her eyes got very wide and she said, “That’s a difficult question!!” As we pursued it, she just kept coming up with that same sentence, so we thought it best to just let her think, pray & read about it some more. She said she enjoys our visits very much and welcomed us to come again on Fri. So stay tuned. Our other two are Bolivian teenage girls, 12 & 13, who belong to the huge family of Condos who live on a farm where they are currently growing a big field of garlic. We have visited there several times and always thought that these girls we’re baptized but they told us last week that they’re not. So we offered to teach them the lessons and they got all excited about it. So, on Sunday, they also had the Restoration lesson and we gave them each a Book of Mormon and had them write their name in it. Their older sister/aunt, Juana, is baptized but has been away so long that she’s sitting in on the lessons too. It’s so great to see the intense interest in their faces as we teach them & show videos! WE LOVE THIS WORK!! As we were leaving their house in the dark, Linda discovered the chair she'd been sitting on was wet and so was the back of her skirt!! When we got to the very l-o-n-g path that led from the house to where we parked the car, our flashlight wouldn't work. So here we were two diligent missionaries slowly walking along a path that had ditches across it every now & then and we couldn't see a thing, it was freezing cold and Linda had a wet skirt!! About half way there we realized, "Duh, we can use our phones for light!!"The youngest, Analis, is finally warming up to us as well. It was our turn to sponsor the monthly activity for the couple missionaries so we all went out to the Fournier Winery for a tour and lunch. A very hoity-toity restaurant. We had a great time and the food was spectacular! We left a lot of unused wine glasses. We all then went to our house to watch the video “A New Day for the Book of Mormon”. A great, sort of, documentary on the Book of Mormon. If you haven’t seen it, Google it and you can find it on BYU TV. Some very interesting nuggets in there. Cintia, a 24-year old member, is married to a man who is not a member of the church so we visited them to get better acquainted. She is trying her best to get her husband more interested in the church. Not sure yet what we can do to help. They have the cutest little girl named Flori. Now what could be cuter than a pretty little girl with a puppy and a balloon? Zone conference was this week. We got a lot of good instruction from President and Sister Goates and our other leaders. Of course afterward there is a lot of goofing around! Yep that’s our zone leader , Elder Gil, from Mexico City on top. He is actually one of the tallest Mexicans I have ever seen. About 6’3”.