Week #13 in Argentina

 With the recent missionary transfers last week, we are getting to know a number of new missionaries in our Pilar District which now includes two sets of sister missionaries in our district.   We took them out to lunch at McDonalds earlier this week and then went to visit new members so they could get to know them and we could get to know those members better also.   Two of these sisters are from the United States, one from Uruguay and one from Peru.  One of the missionaries from the US has a grandmother that lives in Zarate in our mission and she has been able to visit her grandmother while she has been here.  Interesting how many missionaries have some ties to Argentina as they are called here.

Visiting these new members is always a humbling experience as they often live in very humble circumstances but have a strong testimony of the gospel.   One of the biggest challenges for these members is simply getting to church which often includes buses and walking that takes more than an hour.  It can be difficult to determine who is active but not able to attend Church and who is inactive and not wanting to attend Church.   This Sunday is our Stake Conference with 5 wards from all over the region attending in Pilar.  For some of those members it may mean two hour trips just to get to Stake Conference.   In some wards only 2-3 members in the ward own cars so there is little option to go pick up members to attend Church.   I feel bad in that we are unable to take members in our car due to insurance risk so we are unable to help either.   In probably the most humble of homes, the little 5 year old boy came up to me as we were talking and slipped me a piece of candy which he probably would have liked for himself.   They have nothing but they give all, he made me smile as I'm usually the one handing candy out to kids after our Church meetings.   It's a practice my father started long ago with Smarties that I have tried to carry on...I love the kids running up to me after meeting know if they shake hands with me, a piece of candy will end up in their hand after a handshake.   The first time I do that with them they have such a surprised look on their face.

On our last P Day we were able to take the hop on hop off bus tour of Buenos Aires to get to know the full city better and hear some of the history.   We had been to a lot of the places already, but the round trip put it all together in our minds.    With traffic it ended up being a three hour marathon that had us anxious to get off the bus by the end so we can just check it off the bucket list now.   Buenos Aires has some beautiful architecture and artwork as shown in the pictures below:






One of the things we started doing as we complete apartment inspections is giving the missionaries some animal cookies before we leave.   We started telling them that if they get a monkey cookie they will have good luck and a great day that day.   Now they have started sending us pictures of themselves when the get a Monkey Cookie.  We love these missionaries and honor them for how hard they work every day.


We learned this week that we will start English Connect classes in the Pilar Ward on April 23.  Many ward members are very excited to learn English so we will be challenged in the next week to get a lesson plan together for both Linda and I to teach the first two levels.   It will be a great opportunity to get to know Ward members better so that will be a great benefit to us to better understand their needs and how else we can help.  We are enjoying being missionaries and serving here in this grand mission of Buenos Aires Norte. 

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