Rainy Days and Transfers

Change week or transfer week is always busy.  It makes it more busy and hectic if it is raining.  We had a big storm system come in for the weekend that made everything look dreary.  Even with that we had a good week.  I have talked about change weeks several times.  This week was very typical.  The new ones arrive on Tuesday, the trainers come in Wednesday to get their new companions and the old missionaries spend Wednesday getting ready to go home and then going home on Thursday.  All went as planned this transfer except we could not put the missionaries up in the Temple Hostel.  We ended up traveling to some of the nearby apartments and back each morning and night.  It was not too big of a group so it worked out pretty good.  I had to include photos of the new missionaries milking alfajores for the first time.  This group started out pretty subdued and ended up really getting into the game.  It was a real fun time.

The next group of pictures is all of the missionaries going home.  It gets harder and harder.  The only thing that keeps us going is that we will soon be able to see them again.  The sisters got here after we arrived and are now going home so we have had them for our entire mission.  This is a real fun group.  We got to know them all real well.

I have to say something about Elder Poulson and Elder Ucanan.  You can’t let them take pictures or they always have to do a selfie.  Also, we have been putting together some emergency food packages for the missionaries.  It includes some spaghetti.  Well one of the packages ripped so I gave it to the office Elders.  They started eating it raw!  Just like boy scouts!  Some things never change.

Friday was the Zone Leader Conference.  It is always a good day as we are able to see the leaders of the mission.  You can see from the pictures that they really enjoy lunch.  I can always count on Elder Cabrera for a good picture.  He’s from Paraguay.  The Paraguayos always are happy and fun loving.
Thursday after changes we were pretty tired but still found the energy to visit Humberto and Cristina.  We went with four Sisters.  It was a full house.  Good thing too, as they made “tortas fritas” or fry bread that would feed and army.  It is real good with dulce de leche, not to good for the waistline but real good for your spirits.

The meat and potatoes of this week really started late Friday afternoon.  We had several appointments set for Castillos for Friday night but they all fell through.  We racked our brains and tried to listen to the Spirit to go where the Lord wanted us to go.  We ended up stopping to see Tito and Patricia to give them some cookies and thank them for the chukar eggs that they gave us the last time we were in town.  It was a wonderful visit.  We showed a video of the Savior and had a short talk about what He did for us.  It turned out real well.  We ended up with more eggs and a demonstration of how they hatch out more chickens.  They are a real special family.  We have plans to go see them again.

On Saturday morning we had overcast skies and a long list of members to go see.  Not one of them ended up being at home.  Instead of getting discouraged we dug into our old list and tried to listen to the Spirit to find out where we should go next.  We ended up trying to find a family on Mevir.  When we asked a guy where Mevir was he kind of laughed and told us it is not a street but a Barrio.  With simple instructions, we found the barrio and the house.  We received a warm welcome from Lirio and his wife.  We had a short charla and were welcomed back the next time we come.  This was really a neat experience.  The charla made us a little late for lunch with Narda but not too late.  Again we had such a wonderful time at lunch.  She is definitely family.

After lunch we went with the Elders to see Zulma.  Zulma broke her ankle a couple of weeks ago and is on bed rest for another month.  In spite of this, she was in good spirits.  She made us all feel better.  We finished our visit with her just in time to go to the branch activity.  You can see from the pictures that we had pretty good attendance and really had a good time.  Renee made copies of the pictures of all of the Prophets and we played the “match game” with them.  Everyone had a good time.  The Elders are doing these activities twice a month and it is really helping draw the branch together.  After the activity we stopped to see Rosanna.  She has not been feeling well and we gave her a little support.    

Today we had pretty good attendance in Church.  I was asked to teach the Priesthood Class and Renee helped Narda with Primary.  We had a good time and really feel good when we can be helpful.  We finished off the day by driving home in the rain and dropping off a vacuum cleaner in Maldonado.  It was a little bit out of the way but not too bad.

We ended up having the opportunity to share our testimonies several times this week.  That really makes the week better and builds our spirits.  We love being part of the missionary work and helping the missionaries.  With the change we have a new list of things to do and are anxious to get started.

We love all of you and appreciate your support.

Love,
Gordon and Renee