Richardsons in Buenos Aires

 This past week was another three days of zone conferences which we really enjoy as we get to see missionaries we have gotten close to and moved to other areas again.   Something about serving together as missionaries creates relationships that are very different than what I am used to.   I think of missionaries I served with as a young man and how much I still feel for them and the feeling is very similiar even though I'm an old 64 year old missionary.   Linda and I love serving these missionaries and doing little things to make them happy.   Linda's banana bread and cookies continue to develop a reputation with missionaries.   We spent last night delivering items to missionaries in Escobar and Sarmiento; sheets to a new missionary that didnt bring any with him from Chili, a "Villa Phone" to another pair that is a cheap cell phone that missionaries utilize when they go into "villas", which are some of the poorer areas of Buenos Air...

 We made it through another "every six week" transfer period in which we say goodbye to missionaries who are returning home as we attend the temple with them on Tuesday mornings and then welcome a whole new set of missionaries coming from the MTC's in Brazil and Mexico City who arrive on late Tuesday night flights.   I suppose we have been here long enough and gotten to know the missionaries well enough we are very sad to see some of them leave.   They have worked so hard for 18 months or 2 years and now they have worries about what comes next in their young lives.   These missions have prepared them well for what comes next, we look forward to seeing what they will do. Transfers also means we have new missionaries in our district, both Elder Martins and Elder Luke were transferred to other areas so we are now officially the longest serving missionaries in Pilar which was bound to happen and will likely continue.  We already love the new missionar...

Teaching our English Connect class in the Pilar Ward is in its third week and we are enjoying getting to know our Ward members better through teaching them English.  I tell them that they are teaching me Spanish as much as I am teaching them English.   It's a fun group as you can see from the picture below.  When I'm at Church, they introduce me to others as their "English Teacher" which makes me smile.    During our last class one of the members brought his 7-year-old son to class who sat quietly during the class coloring with colored pencils and paper.  The next day the dad sent me this picture that his son drew during the class.  When asked what he drew he said that when he heard me talk about Jesus Christ during the class he drew a picture of me next to Jesus Christ and we were both kneeling while we prayed.  Sometimes we don't realize how much children are listening to us as we talk with their parents.  I would hope to be able to pr...

 This month has continued to be a month of road trips as we complete apartment inspections for missionaries in the Northernmost areas in the mission.   We just completed a road trip delivering a contract to San Pedro and then heading to Gualeguaychu to spend the night and inspect the three apartments there.  I have learned that each mission has an area that all the elders want to serve in, mostly because they are so far away and often different than the rest of the areas in the mission.  In the Texas Dallas mission, it was serving in Pecos Tx, in Lima Peru North it was serving in Iquitos and in the Buenos Aires North Mission its serving in Gualeguaychu.   It's a town that supports three sets of elders that is as far north as you can go in our mission on the border with Uruguay. It had a beautiful cathedral in the city center with artistic paintwork throughout the building, we have always enjoyed visiting cathedrals wherever we travel.  So many sma...