Looking Forward to Winter

The weather has been very good.  We have not had too much rain and it hasn’t been too hot.  Since the middle of March the weather has been really nice.  That is until the last couple of days.  The cold started last year about this time so we were ready for it.  We have spent the last couple of months making sure the missionaries were prepared with heaters etc.  We really had an interesting week.  We started the week off taking some time on Monday to catch up.  We also had to get ready for our visitors.  Noel and Carol Johnson are from our Stake in Blackfoot.  They used to be in our ward.  They served a mission like ours in Neuquen, Argentina and got home in 2011.  Now they are on a mission, teaching English on the Church Farms in Santiago, Chile.  They had meetings in Buenos Aires last week so they took an extra couple of days and came over to see us.  It was really fun.
They arrived on the ferry on Tuesday morning.  We were right by the Independence Plaza so took them to see it first.  After that we had lunch at the Mega mila pizza place.  This is a pizza that is built on top of a milanesa.  It has a lot of meat, cheese and other deep fried stuff.  It is served on a bed of fries to make us Idaho spuds happy.  We purchased one for all four of us.  It was more than enough.  After that we had to drop off some Capilla Abierta invitations to the sisters in Pan de Azucar so we took them up the coast to see Punta Del Este.  I have said before, that this is basically Miami beach in South America.  It was a beautiful drive and we had a wonderful visit.

On Wednesday we went to the Temple which is always a good way to start the day.  After that we kept busy doing some things for the missionaries and other sightseeing around Montevideo.  On Tuesday they wanted to try and catch up with one of the missionaries, Santiago, that served in the office with them in Neuquen.  We stopped by his office in Montevideo and they were able to visit with him.  We agreed to meet for dinner.  As we were visiting he said something about serving in Comodoro Rivadavia.  I asked him if he knew Jared Montiel.  He said that his family served him an asado or barbeque the last night of his mission.  He still keeps in contact with them.  You may remember that Elder Jared Montiel spent 6 months in the office with us.  They remember each other.  It is definitely a small world.

On Thursday morning we said good bye to the Johnsons just in time to go to the mission conference.  Elder Allan Packer is in the Area Presidency and came to our mission last week to visit.  We had a conference with him on Thursday and Friday with about half the mission coming in each day.  We were able to meet with him individually on Thursday morning.  It was really a good experience.
Renee helped with the cooking as they served chili on potatoes on Thursday and Stroganoff on Friday.  The missionaries ate and ate and ate.  I can’t believe how much they can eat.  Elder Packer and President Eddy taught some real important principals.  They emphasized the need to teach family history as we teach the Gospel.  Many people are interested in their ancestors so it really helped.

They had a leadership conference on Friday morning for the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders, so the missionaries that were on hand for the Thursday conference stayed over for Friday morning.  They worked with some of the local missionaries and then stayed in the Hostal by the Temple for the night.  Renee and I were asked to pick up the pizza.  It was fun to spend time with the missionaries.  You can see from their faces that they are so happy and so full of the Spirit of missionary work.  A special blessing that we received as part of our assignment is we picked up the pizzas from “Papa Jorge”.  You may remember that we have been stopping by to visit him and his wife from time to time.  He told us how he enjoyed doing the Priesthood lesson last week.  His testimony of the Prophets and the Gospel is really inspiring.  We love him.

Back to the weather.  We woke up Friday to a heavy rain storm.  As we walked up the ramp to get our car out of the garage I pushed to button to open the garage door.  It turns out that the garage door is also a dam.  The water came pouring out and filled our shoes.  What a great way to start the day!
Friday night we are pretty tired and ready for a good P-day.  Too bad we didn’t get one.  On Saturday morning instead of relaxing, Renee had to get ready to feed the Assistants.  Elder Mora is going home and we wanted to feed him and his companion before he left.  So at noon Elder Richmond and Elder Mora showed up for lunch with the new assistant, Elder Hunt.  You can tell from the pictures that we had a great time.  Renee made stir-fry.  It was excellent and a good beginning for the banana cream pie.  I think they liked it.  Who wouldn’t?

As we finished with them we took off for the Capilla Abierta in Pan de Azucar.  They have a new Chapel that was dedicated today.  They had a special Capilla Abierta to show it off to the community.  Included in the guest list were the mayor and Deacon from the Catholic Church.  Both men were very friendly and respectful.  They spent quite a bit of time learning about basic beliefs of the Church.  It was another good night with the spirit of the missionaries stealing the show once again.  The newspaper was there and took our picture for an article to be published this week.  Butch and Gene Jones would be so proud of me!!  Too bad I don’t have time to explain that one.
After that we took the Piriapolis Missionaries home, just because we could.  We got home about 10:30 P.M.  We had another good day at Church as we get ready for another change week.  Look for some more fun pictures next week.  Now we are sitting in our apartment with a sweater, slippers and other clothes as it is cold inside and outside.  Looks like winter is on the way.

We love the opportunity to serve and help the mission.  We are so grateful for the love the missionaries have for us.  We sure love them.

Gordon and Renee

Just This Side of Normal

After the trip to Iguazu Falls last week it is time to get back in the swing of things.  One thing I forgot to mention from last week was what we did with money.  I purchased some Argentine Pesos and Brazilian Reales to go with the Uruguayan Pesos and Dollars.  It was kind of like playing monopoly.  When they would tell us the price I would put a bunch of money on the counter and let them pick what they wanted.  It also helped when we could use the credit card.  At least we looked like we knew what was going on.

We said good bye to our good friends the Wibergs this week.  We had a game night on Monday night and then said good bye at the airport.  We really enjoy getting together with the senior couples.  It won’t be the same without them.  The Jensen’s are still here and I am sure we will spend some fun times with them.

We are getting close to the end of the change and we wanted to invite Elder Childs and his companion, Elder Ucanan to lunch.  So we did that on Monday.  Elder Childs wanted hamburgers and hot dogs.  They each ate two burgers and a hot dog, including the buns.  Lunch also included macaroni salad, chips and milk shakes.  I honestly don’t know where they put it all.  As Elder Childs completes his four changes or six months in the mission office it is going to be hard to see him go.  He is so happy and fun to be around.  He kind of likes to boss me around and I get a kick out of it.  I don’t listen or do what he says but I do get a kick out of it.

We had one last big trip to finish the inspections for all seventy houses before the cold comes.  We had to go on the Minas, 33, Melo trip.  This is a long two day trip.  Normally we start this trip before 8:00 A. M. but left later so we could get in come exercise.  Our first stop was in Minas at the house of Elder Munoz and Elder Cristobal.  I want to mention them especially because their house was so clean.  The cleanest I have ever seen this house.  I just love how they respond and take care of things. 

From there we went straight to Melo.  This is over 400 kilometers or about 250 miles.  The houses in Melo were clean also.  We are so grateful.  One of our stops was to visit Sister Campbell and Sister Luker.  They were in the middle of preparing food for a “pioneer night”.  We picked them up at the church and took them back to their house.  They had a lot of food including corn bread and honey butter.  I asked them how they planned to get all of the food to the church.  Sister Luker put the little smirk on her face and said, “We were hoping you would take us.”  That’s what we are here for.  We love helping.  I hope you can see the happiness in their smiles and in their eyes.  They are a great companionship.

Now we had an unusual assignment.  There is a small town about 45 minutes from 33 named Vergara.  We have had missionaries there, but not for six months.  We decided to stop and see how the house was doing.  But, first we had to find the key.  Step one, call the Zone Leaders.  They had no idea where the key was.  Step two; call the Elders that left the house.  They said they left the key and phone with the Plaza Elders to give to the Zone Leaders.  Step three, call the Plaza Elders.  They have no idea where the key is.  Step four; call the owner to see if he has a key.  Step five; stop at the house at about 8:00 P. M. to see if the owner has the key.  Nope.   Step six; search the zone leader house with no luck.  Step seven, go to the Plaza house.  They have a set of keys that might fit.  Step eight; drive out to the Vergara house to try the keys.  Step nine, become very happy when the key opened the door.  I was very very happy.  I mean biggest fish you ever caught happy.  I mean, the Yankees won the World Series happy.  This saved us so much time and money that I can’t even count.
The picture of Elder Cole and Andersen doesn’t even begin to show how happy I was.   When I called to tell Elder Andersen the key worked he was quite happy too.  I told him that to celebrate, they needed to find a family to teach.  Well, about 9:00 P.M., Elder Andersen called.  He was excited.  He told us that they were teaching a lady and two teenagers came in to listen and were real excited about the Book of Mormon.  It was definitely a great day for all of us.

Friday morning we helped with the Oro Conference and then headed off for Castillos.  This weekend was District Conference so we concentrated on visiting as many members as we could to invite them to come to conference.  We had some real good visits.  We are good friends with the people of Castillos and enjoy our time with them.  I wish I had room to tell about all of the neat experiences that we had.

I will mention one.  We had heard several members talk about a certain family but we had not met them because we did not know the address.  We finally got the address and stopped by to see them.  They welcomed us and we had such a good visit.  Both Renee and I commented on how peaceful the house was.  We visited for about an hour and really got to know them.  We expect to see them in Church the next time we go to Castillos.

On Friday night we went to the adult meeting of District Conference.  President Eddy asked us to bear our testimonies.  Renee did a good job with her Spanish.  It is definitely a learning experience.  We love the people of Castillos and can see the changes that are happening over time.  It was such a wonderful experience to enjoy conference with them.  Each time we go we look forward to the neat experiences the Lord has in store for us.  We are never disappointed.

I hope all the mothers had a great mother’s day.  We love you all and appreciate your support.

Love, Gordon and Renee

The Big Fall

Last week was a little different as we took a few days and traveled to Iguazu Falls.  But first, I thought I’d let you in on what else we did.  A week ago Saturday we were in the mall getting some stuff for our trip and ran into the Zone Leaders.  They were going to buy Subway Sandwiches for the Zone Conference on Monday but couldn’t as, May 1st is Labor Day in Uruguay and everyone was going to be closed.  So Renee helped them purchase the stuff for BBQ beef sandwiches and they were all set.  On Monday we attended the Conference and were able to hear some real missionary stuff from President Eddy.  It was real good.  I think the missionaries liked the BBQ beef sandwiches as most of them ate three.  They also liked the peanut butter bars she made for dessert.  In the evening we attended FHE with the Temple couples where we led a discussion about the early leaders of the Church.   That got us ready for our trip.

We left Tuesday morning and took a flight to Buenos Aires and then to Iguazu.   The airline, Aerolinas Argentina, had a reputation for long lines and late flights when I was in Argentina forty-two years ago.  This has not changed; in fact it is probably worse.  In spite of that we had a good time.  The Iguazu River is the border for Brazil and Argentina.  On Tuesday afternoon we took a tour of the Brazilian side.  This is a pretty short trip and was really interesting.  From the Brazil side you basically can look across to all of the falls.  Our tour guide was named Roberson and we were the only two on the tour.   As a picture is worth as thousand words I’ll let the pictures do the talking.
Tuesday night we ate Argentine food at the restaurant “El Quincho del Tio Querido”, or the roof of the beloved uncle.  I thought it was real Argentine.  It was excellent.  We took a taxi home and our taxi driver had been an investigator of the church some years ago.  We are going to send him as a reference and hope they make contact again.

Wednesday was the big day.  We took off early again with Roberson and four others.  Again a small group.   It is a long walk but we handled it pretty well.  On the Argentina side you walk up to the side of the falls and also on the top.  It was incredible.  The main fall is called the “Garganta del Diablo” or the Throat of the Devil.  My favorite part was when we were right up next to the Garganta with all the water.  It was really impressive.  To put it in perspective, in the ‘80s there was a flood in Delta and 5,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) were coming down the river.  There is about 20,000 cfs going over Shoshone Falls in Idaho right now with the high water.  The average at Iguazu is 61,000 cfs with a high of 100,000 cfs.  It is quite a bit of water.

I had to include the coatia in honor of Bart Gardner.  This has got to be a cousin of Raccoons in the USA so you already know how much I liked them.

Included in the tour was a boat ride up under some of the falls.  It is like the shower from hell.  A good thing to do once but I don’t need to do it again.  They also took us on a ride down the river and then on a jungle tour.  It was a real neat day.  For dinner we ate at the smorgasbord at the hotel.  On Thursday we headed home.  The flights were mixed up again but we still managed to get home.  I hope you enjoy the pictures.

We were afraid that we would be behind on taking care of apartments when we got back but it really wasn’t too bad.  We spent Friday and Saturday taking heaters to some of the missionaries and mainly had time to catch up.

One important note, two of the Temple couples leave this week.  The Atkinsons and Wibergs are completing their missions.  We had lunch with them today to send them off.  We are going to miss them.  So this week we are back in the saddle.  We have several things planned and hope we have time to get them done.

The mini vacation was a real blessing as we were able to appreciate some of the wonders the Lord has created and also get a little rest.  We are so grateful for the Gospel and the chance to serve.   We appreciate all the support we get from home.  We love you all.

Gordon and Renee

Trying To Make Things A Little More “Snappy”

I heard from my publisher/editor last week.  She told me that my blogs haven’t been as “snappy” lately.  Well, after about 70 of them and a couple of long weeks we sometimes get tired and run out of things to say.  So I’ll try to do a little better.

This was the week of inspections.  We inspected the Este, Maroñas, La Costa, Florida and Durazno Zones.  That is almost half of the mission.  We drove well over 600 miles.   We did this while we were also doing some office work.  We took some pictures of some of the missionaries.  They make us so happy.  They seem to really like Renee’s cookies.

One of our stops was in Paso de Los Toros.  These Elders really have it going on.  They just got through painting their house.  Doesn’t it look nice?  I am so proud of them.  The feeling in the house was incredible.  Too bad it is such a long way from Montevideo.  We also couldn’t pass up a chance to take a picture of the bull.  It’s a cool statue.

One of the things that we do when we inspect the apartments is to check the smoke alarms to make sure they are operating and that the missionaries are reporting it correctly.  The missionaries are supposed to check them every month and report it to the mission president.  It is pretty important.  We have had some problems with alarms failing so we take extra just in case.  Elder Holland and Cuenca have a weak alarm so we left them a new one.   One problem that showed up this week is evidence that someone may be losing a little hair on top.  I guess that’s why the Yankees and John Deere make hats.

So when you hear Durazno you should immediately think of El Gaucho and a “Bauru”.  We have featured it in the blog before and made sure we stopped this time also.  I think this is my third time at El Gaucho with Elder Ruiz.  I can’t think what I like more him or the Bauru.  Good that I don’t have to pick; I can enjoy them both at the same time.

In the middle of the week we had to work on a contract that needed to be renewed.  There were some problems.  The Real Estate guy was super nice even though we had some significant problems with the Utilities.  He gave us the stuff that we needed to fix them so that made us happy.  Normally we go into downtown Montevideo, take a number and wait and hour or so to get helped.  Then we usually forget that we need a photocopy of my identification to complete the transaction so we have to go around the corner to make one.  Then after another hour we go through the song and dance again.  Well, this time we just stopped at the local water company and they fixed it in a hurry.  Of course, we still had to go down the street to get a photocopy of our documents but still it was really slick.
I was feeling pretty good about how slick we got the water changed so we stopped at the power company too.  They wouldn’t let me change the power to my name because we have a couple of bills from other houses that are due, not past due, but due.  So, using inspiration, I had them use Renee’s documents.  Great idea, right.  Now I was really on a roll.  In past blogs I have talked about how hard it is to find an allergy medicine I take.  I still needed one prescription to fill so I stopped at the pharmacy right next to the light company.  We were in luck!  So with the water, lights and the prescription, I had completed the trifecta!!!  It was a great day.

Thursday evening we finally had time to visit Humberto and Cristina.  They are doing great.  She made “Bondiolo” for us.  It is basically deep friend apple bread.  We made another great sacrifice eating it to make them happy.  She is such a good cook.

Friday night and Saturday night we had Capilla Abiertas.  First in Canelones and then in Pando.  Both branches were very well prepared.  Between the members and missionaries they were able to teach the Gospel to quite a few people.   We show the “Prince of Peace” video that was prepared for Easter.  We could tell that several people were very interested.  This is a great chance for the missionaries and the members to work together.  We really enjoy them.

Today we went to Church in the Malvin Ward.  This is our “home ward” or where we go when we are in town.  It is the first time we have been there in about two months.  We were able to go to Sunday School with Humberto and Cristina and visit with many of the other members.  It was a good day.  I even made Elder Child’s day by letting him think that we had twin ties.

Elder and Sister Wiberg are Temple missionaries.  They go home in the next week or so.  We finished off the week by enjoying lunch with them and our friend Gordon.  It was quite a treat.  We spent over three hours talking about life in general.  We are going to miss the Wibergs when they go home.  Good thing we still get to see our friend Gordon.

So I hope that is snappy enough for you.  We have some rather big things coming up so stay tuned for more exciting blogs.  We are having a great time keeping busy helping out the missionaries.   We appreciate all of the support we get from home.

We love you all.
Gordon and Renee.

A Flash From The Past

When I started my first mission to Argentina forty-four years ago, my companion was Nick Mazanis.  We ended up not only spending the Mission Home and Language Training mission together but also our first three districts, Cordoba, Tucuman and Jujuy together.  To top things off we served as Zone Leaders at the end of our missions.  He is my closest companion to say the least.  They started a mission in Salt Lake City the same time we did.  As missionaries, they found a man named Roberto from Uruguay.  They started to teach him but he had to return to Uruguay for a time.  Nick gave me his name and address and we sent some missionaries to visit.  Elder Rodriguez and Elder Guerra were the Zone Leaders in the Maldonado Zone and taught him while he was here.  On his return to Salt Lake, he was married last week and baptized yesterday.  I have included a picture of Elder Rodriguez and Elder Guerra when they found out.  They were real excited.  That’s what I call team missionary work.

The past week was fairly typical of our assignment.  On Monday we helped a little with the Zone Leader Conference.  Renee helped with the cooking, while I was busy in the office.  On Tuesday we spent time catching up in the office.  This is important work but not really the stuff that gets into the blog.  To make things more exciting I included a picture of us with the Temple Missionaries in the Peruvian Restaurant.  Peruvian food is a little different than Uruguayan food.  It is very delicious.

Wednesday we inspected the Las Piedras Zone.  I really like this zone.  They have some of the best areas and the missionaries are always excited.  It is so fun to hear them tell us about their experiences.  We capped off Wednesday by stopping with the missionaries to buy pizza from “Papa Jorge”.  I included a picture of him cutting up the Pizza to show the unique way he cuts them and also to show you how much cheese they put on the Pizza.  The other toppings, ham and pineapple are under the cheese.  This is really good.

On Thursday we had to work on some water problems in three of the houses.  They had problems with toilets and also broken pipes in the walls.  Good thing we have some people that can help us.  The highlight of Thursday was going to the charla with Papa Jorge and Veronica with Elder Cheney and Elder Fix.  They had a good message and it was a good lesson.  At the end of the lesson, Renee asked Veronica if she believed the Gospel was true and if she felt the Book of Mormon was also true.  She said yes.  It was kind of an “ah ha moment”.  Veronica is making progress and we hope she continues to move forward.

Friday we were off to Castillos for the weekend.  We had to do some work on the water problems and also had to stop off in San Carlos to fix a bed and drop some other stuff off to the Rocha Elders.  I probably should have taken some pictures of the missionaries but we just ran out of time.
The weekend was filled with visits.  We were lucky to have Oreales and Rosanna go with us to visit some of the members.  It is so much better when members go with us.  We were able to talk to several different families.  It was good to share our testimonies and hear from them.  I wish I could tell you more about how they are doing.  It is sufficient to say that everyone has challenges and the good people of Castillos are working to meet these challenges.

Today was an exciting time in Castillos.  Twenty-four people came to Church.  It was one of the best Sundays we have seen.  We have come to love them so much.  They are working hard to come and participate and help the Church grow.  Elder Xavier is serving as the Branch President.   He was serving in the office when we arrived and helped to train us.  It is so good to work with him and the other missionaries.  It is amazing how much we have grown to love the people in Castillos.  We are truly a family.  We pray for them continually that they will continue to progress.

To end the week we made a detour on the way home and picked up some propane tanks from La Capuera and delivered them to Los Ceibos.  This added a couple of hours to our trip but it did get a few things off our list of things to do.  We are now home and hoping to get a good night’s sleep to do it again next week.

We continue to be grateful for this opportunity.  We love the missionaries so much and love to serve with them.

Love
Gordon and Renee

Welcome Home

First, we hope you all had a wonderful Easter.  It is such a good time to get together with family and enjoy the love we share.  We can hardly wait to get home to do it next year.  I must say that the Jelly Beans that I received from home are soooo appreciated.  Also, I hope we appreciate the blessings the Savior gave us through his Atonement and Resurrection.  As I said today in Church: “where would we be and who would we be without the Savior."  I hate to think of it.

Whenever we have an odd number of missionaries, we request part time missionaries from the Stakes.  I often have the opportunity to pick them up or take them home.  It is one of the best parts of our job.   Our friend Pablo served for a month and did a great job.  You can tell how happy his family was to see him.  He plans to put his papers in this summer.  Some mission president is going to be real grateful.

Another one of our jobs is to keep the missionary apartments in good repair including appliances.  For some reason, the missionaries really like blenders.  Here the assistants were more than excited to get a new blender.  They couldn’t stop talking about it.  I guess it doesn’t take much to keep them happy.

The new missionaries came in on Tuesday.  Well, they were supposed to come in on Tuesday.  One of the sisters leaving from Salt Lake had airplane trouble in Miami and didn’t get here until Wednesday.  We only had four missionaries this time including one Elder from here in Uruguay that is waiting on a visa to serve in the Salt Lake City West Mission.  So the change went pretty smooth.  The new missionaries were enthusiastic and excited to get going.  I made a few shots of them milking alfajores.  This has kind of become a tradition to show the new missionaries how to do it.  You can also tell that the office missionaries don’t have any problem taking part.

I decided to put in some extra pictures that I call “the faces of Elder Childs”.  A few things you need to know about Elder Childs: 1. He loves being a missionary. 2. Loves milking alfajores and 3. We love him.  These shots show just how much joy there is in the mission.

Now for the ones going home.  We only had a half a dozen going home.  The sad part is that all but one of them is from South America, so the chance of seeing them again is diminished.  Sister Mejia and Sister Alonzo both lived next door to us.  We attended several charlas with them and fed them a few times.  They are great missionaries and we will miss them.  Next we have the Elders.  We managed to work with them several times and became very close.  In fact, as I have said before, it gets harder and harder to say good bye each change.  I can’t think of them without tears coming to my eyes.  I hope you can see how much we love each other by the pictures.  We didn’t get the usual airport pictures as they left on several different flights and we were not there to see them all off.  I’m telling you, it gets harder every time we say good bye.

As we were waiting to send off some of the missionaries there was some commotion at the arrival gate including TV cameras.  It was the Peñarol soccer team coming in.  This is real big news in Uruguay.  About 90% of the people in Uruguay are Peñarol fans.  The rest are just misguided.  Maybe we can convert them at the same time we baptize them.

To end the week we spent Friday inspecting apartments in the Maronas zone including cutting grass on some of the apartments, checking heaters and smoke alarms and doing general repairs.  I took another picture of the “bird of paradise” flower.  This is so cool.   I really wish I could grow it in Blackfoot.

Saturday we took a much needed rest and cleaned the house.  And I had nine shirts to iron.  It was good to take a break.  This morning we were on the road by 8:00 A.M. to do a presentation in Canelones which is about an hour from our apartment.  This is a community in the country.  The people are so friendly and eager to help.  Our presentation went well and we look forward to an exciting time in two weeks.  Renee not only did her normal presentation but also spoke in Sacrament Meeting.  She is getting braver all the time.  I am proud of her and all of her efforts.  I would say that our Spanish is not quite ready for General Conference but the people do seem to nod once in awhile indicating that at least they act like they understand.

So how do you end off a perfect week?  How about a turkey dinner with the Temple missionaries in the afternoon and dinner with the Sisters at night?  Ya, it works for me.  The Wibergs and Atkinsons go home next month so this may be our last hoorah.   We try to do the dinners with the Sisters when the Sister Training Leaders come in for training.  It is always good to see Sister Campbell and Sister Luker.  It doesn’t hurt to have Sister Perales and Sister Anderson here also.  We had so much fun.  It was so good to hear about the people that they are teaching.

Well another change is passed.  We have a lot to do in the next change that will keep us hoping.  We hope we have the energy.  We love you all.

Love Gordon and Renee