Argentina: The Sequel: A rainy Open Chapel in the dark

Saturday, February 8 was a dark, rainy day in Buenos Aires. We were up early because our schedule called for us to go present the Open Chapel program in a little branch 123 miles outside of the city, called Bragado. We were excited to go to Bragado because the Branch President and his wife (Tony and Lorraine Alldredge) are a couple that we met in the MTC who are serving as MLS missionaries. We had made plans to spend the weekend with them at their pension since he had asked us to speak in Sacrament Mtg. in the Branch on Sunday.

It was a long, rainy drive out there behind semi-trucks on very narrow 2 lane roads. Once the GPS took us off of the highway and we wandered around in a little city that we did not know, but we soon got back on track.

We had forgotten how the “siesta” is in a little town. From noon until 5:00 p.m. the town is dead, literally. We drove into town and there was not a car, not a pedestrian, not a business that was open. We drove up to the chapel and it, too, was deserted, so we made our way to the Alldredge’s pension where they fed us chili and cornbread and we visited about the branch and about our program as the rain continued to pour.

We got to the church at about 5:00 and parked the van under a shelter at church and hurried the materials inside so that they would not be ruined by the rain. It took quite a while to put up chairs, clean floors, and set up our materials, but we had good help from 2 outstanding zone leaders and 2 great Sister Trainers. The rain continued. A few members arrived and we began our tours. When we had completed the recording of the words of Christ the power went out and everything went black. So we hurried and pulled back curtains and opened cell phones and used a couple of old flashlights and somehow managed to have an amazing Open Chapel experience.

The Lord brought 7 really prepared visitors to us out of the rain. They had been invited by either members or missionaries during the week, and in spite of the rain, they came, and in spite of the dark they felt the spirit. Two of them accepted baptismal challenge dates right there on the spot. One lady whose son had been baptized just two weeks earlier came with a niece and her mother and after being taught at each of the gospel panels by the sisters in the dark with a flashlight, she exclaimed, “I didn’t know the gospel of Jesus Christ was so beautiful!” She later visited with the Branch President who was planning a trip to the Temple for Branch members which would cost 200 pesos each. As he visited with her and told her about going to the Temple, she said, “If I can go and feel the same spirit that I have felt here tonight, even if I can only walk around the outside, I want to go.” She then paid the entire amount for the trip for the 4 of them in her family.

We went home to delicious deli sandwiches and caramel corn with the Alldredges. Sunday morning we had to be to the Church at 8:30. I went to get my suit pants off of the hanger from under my suit jacket and there was nothing there! I searched high and low and they were simply, not there. I had no choice but to wear my brown slacks from Saturday with my gray jacket. It was not what I usually would do, but no one said anything or probably didn’t even notice.

Janet and I were the Sacrament Mtg. speakers. She spoke about family scripture study and just as she was sharing her testimony at the end of her talk, the power went out. With the power out they began the rest hymn, but it was not right, so Janet and I had to get them on the right tune. I spoke about the Book of Mormon and there was a great spirit in the meeting when we were finished.

What was so awesome was that all of the investigators who came to the Open Chapel were at church on Sunday morning. There were even more investigators and new members in church with us. Two sisters that Janet sat next to were so happy because they were both getting baptized in 2 weeks. One sister told us that her life had changed so much because of the gospel. She had a son who had been baptized recently and her husband was already a member. She said she had completely changed and was so much happier with the gospel. What a great experience to be able to share in the stories of the non-members and the members.

P.S. Never did find Doug's pants! (and that's another story!)