Los Refuerzos!

 We had a new missionary arrive!  We are going to call our new arrivals “Los Refuerzos” in English it means “The Reinforcements”.  We really need reinforcements!  We only have 43 Missionaries who are doing the work for 180.   We are hoping and praying that the country opens soon, and we can have many more missionaries arrive! 

 

Waiting at the Airport

Welcoming Sister Aimone

Our newest arrival is Sister Aimone from Buenos Aires!  We were so excited to meet her and welcome her to the Mission.  After a quick capacitación by our wonderful office Elders, we had a fabulous dinner made by Monica.  (Monica deserves her own post. She is amazing!  She cooks, cleans, washes clothes and helps me practice spanish!)

 

Sister Aimone

Sister René, me, Sister Aimone, Sister Thompson and Sister Gandara

Monica

Our office elders also deserve their own post.  They have been so helpful, kind & patient as we are learning so much about the mission!  There are not words to describe the incredible, valiant, persevering spirits of all our missionaries.  To serve a mission during a pandemic has brought about so many challenges but they have learned new and better ways to continue Missionary work.  Half of our missionaries are on loan from other missions, regardless they continue to work hard and love the people of the Neuquén Mission.  What a great example to serve where the Lord needs you.  I have a bracelet that Grace gave me before my mission that says, “Bloom where you are planted”.   Our missionaries our great examples of this principle.  It will be bittersweet when the countries open again for missionaries from other countries. 

Elder Valdez, Elder Peńaloza, Elder Guibe and Elder Rodriguez

 

This scripture in Esther keeps coming to my mind. “and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Esther was placed in a situation in which she had an opportunity to perform a great act of service for the Lord’s people.   She trusted the lord and acted courageously made the right choice at a pivotal moment.  With faith in Jesus Christ, she performed the work required for her time.  All our missionaries are doing the same.   This is their time and with faith in Jesus Christ, they are performing the work required for their time.  

We feel honored to be working side by side with them in this great work of bringing souls to Christ. 

 

Los Fieles

 We had our first Missionaries finish their missions and return home to their families!  We are calling them “Los Fieles” in English it means the “The Faithful’s”.  Sad for us but happy for their families.  We have grown to love these Elders in just the short time we have been here.  What extraordinary young men they are.  To serve a mission during a pandemic takes a very valiant spirit.  It has been so hard on these Los Fieles they have both served in multiple missions with multiple mission presidents.  Despite the challenges the pandemic has produced, they have served the Lord well.  Elder Bowles was the only North American left in our mission when we arrived, and he has been so helpful to us.  We pray daily that the borders will open, and we can receive more missionaries to our mission.  

 

We have a few traditions we are going to do when missionaries finish their service.  I made a Mission quilt to have all Missionaries sign and we have a set of Spanish scriptures that we will have them mark their favorite scripture in.   We had our first Los Fieles sign the Mission quilt and had a nice farewell dinner together.

                               

Steve called his new counselors into his Mission Presidency.  They help with us with running the mission.  We had a lovely evening getting to know them and their beautiful wives.   We look forward to many more evenings with them.  I still struggle with the language and feel very much like a fish out of water.  But these beautiful people were so gracias, kind and patient with my lack of language and Argentina culture knowledge.   Every day I am understanding more but I have a long way to go!   Which has been the hardest part.  I really love to connect and communicate with people, and I am not able to yet. 

  

 

 

A scripture & quote I read the other day was so comforting and I reread it every time I am feeling discouraged.  

 

Proverbs 3:26 “For the Lord shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken.”

 

“ We sometimes …. Have a tendency to be very critical of ourselves.  During these times we need to seek the spirit and ask, ‘is this what the Lord wants me to think about myself, or is Satan trying to beat me down?’ Remember the nature of our Heavenly Father whose love is perfect and infinite.  He wants to build us up, not tear us down.”  - Sister Linda S. Reeves

Picture of the Mission quilt

And the adventure begins!

It has been a busy 2 weeks!  We have had 2 zone conferences, met all our missionaries in person and traveled to the southern part of our mission.   We are becoming less overwhelmed every day.   

Neuquén & Neuquén Oeste zones

Zapala Zone

Grocery shopping is very different in Argentina.  They have a separate store for everything.  For example if you want bread you go to a pandaria (pan is bread in Spanish).  If you want meat you go to a carniceria (carne is meat in spanish you see where the names are coming from). If you want vegetables and fruit you go to a verduleria.   For fish a pescaderia. We did find a few Super markets that carry a variety of things. 

 

One thing we haven’t found is Diet coke.  We have found little cans of Coke sin azucar so my diet coke habit has been replaced with a traditional Argentina drink called Mate.  It is an argentina herbal drink that you drink with a very special straw called a bombilla that actually serves as a sieve and doesn’t let any of the herbs get in your straw and that I really like.  

 

 More interesting things about the food are  - we buy milk in a bag, really hard to find basil, sourcream is non existent, No tortillas , no brown sugar and cheese is all very mild mostly mozzarella type.  But the Dolce de leche can make up for everything we lack! There are shelves and shelves of the different types and we plan on trying every single one.

Cultral- Co is a little town 2 hours west of Neuquén 

                       

Argentina is below the equator so we are in the middle of winter.  It can get cold where we are in the southern part of Argentina.  This last weekend we traveled to the southern part of our mission which is part of the geographic region known as the Patagonia, one of the most beautiful regions in the world .  They had plenty of snow.  We stayed in two of the most beautiful lakeside cities in the Andes, San Martin de los Andes and San los Carlos de Bariloche.  This north part of the Patagonia is miles and miles of huge lakes surrounded by the Andes mountains.  This north part of the Patagonia rivals our home lake of Coeur d’alene in beauty!

San Carlos de Bariloche

      

San Martin de los Andes

 

The best part of the last two weeks was meeting all our wonderful missionaries!  They are incredible!  To choose to serve a mission amidst a pandemic and work as hard as they do to find people to teach is inspiring.   Missionary work has changed quite a bit in the last year because of the pandemic they use a lot of technology to teach.   After one of our Zone conferences two of our cute Sisters went out into the foyer of the church and taught a lesson right from their phone.   It was wonderful to see the Lord using all the craziness of COVID to help us realize the great opportunities technology can give us.

 

We were able to attend a baptism of new member in Bariloche.  He was so excited to get baptized that after he came up out of the water he put his hands in the air and exclaimed “SI!” in English “YES!”  I feel the same way everyday!  What an incredible opportunity we are having to be able to bring the Love of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of Argentina!

Cute sisters were so happy to have us in Bariloche

 

We are official!

 We met with President and Sister Cardozo in our Hotel on our last day of quarantine!  We were then given the Mission Phones and that made us official!  They were so helpful and so kind.  We will miss them.  Wish they could join us and teach us all they know!  

We had an early flight to Neuquén.  Our flight was leaving at 6:30am.  It was 6:10 and we were waiting on the plane with ALL our bags checked & loaded ....... we thought.  The flight attendant came to our seats and said something was wrong with our bags so Steve had to go and see what was wrong.  They took him all the way back to the ticket counter and to the police.  The police had tagged our bag because they said we had an aerosol....... Did not know you couldn't have an aerosol in your checked bags.    By the time they opened the bag and looked to see what the problem was it was time for the plane to leave.    Steve called and told me he didn't think he was going to make the flight....... needless to say I was a little panicky.   What would I do??? I do not speak very much Spanish!  The police opened up the bag and saw that it was not an aerosol and Steve kept asking them to hurry so he could make the plane.  They did not care and told him he would not make the plane.  The problem with not making the plane is there is only one flight a day to Neuquén.   Luckily, there was a very nice woman who called the pilot to have him wait and put Steve on a private shuttle and  got him to the airplane.  The pilot waited 20 min!!!!  That would not happen in the USA.  What a blessing!!

We were greeted in Neuquén by our Office Missionaries! (I think the Sisters made the sign)  They were so helpful!  Oriented us on all their jobs, made us a fabulous lunch and went and worked on getting the missing suitcase!  They delivered it the next morning!  Great Missionaries!!  

We were able to meet all our missionaries on Zoom this afternoon!  They introduced themselves and we shared a short message with them.  What a great spirit they have in this mission!

We are excited to meet them in person hopefully this next week!  Because of the country being closed we only have 44 Missionaries.   We are hoping the country opens soon so we can get all our missionaries here!