World Cup to the MAX!

It has been a crazy month here in Argentina.  Life has been completely dominated by the Soccer World Cup.  Every 4 years teams from all countries play each other to earn a position as one of 32 teams invited to the finals.  The finals this year were hosted in Brazil and lots of people there were furious at how much money the government spent on stadiums (8) for this huge event.  We had not really followed the tournament before coming here, but in Argentina you really don’t have a choice.  You have to get involved!  The Area presidency brought huge TVs into the office so that all of the games involving teams from around here could be viewed, and they were.  Argentina did very well advancing through all of the rounds which meant that we saw lots of soccer games!  They have a great goalie, Romero, and the best player in the world right now, Messi, who carried the team to the final game against Germany, which Germany won 1-0.  Our favorite game was the semi-final game against Holland which Argentina won on penalty kicks.

 

Our floor during the World Cup

 

This has been a month to get better acquainted with Jorge Zeballos, a member of the 1^st Quorum of Seventy, who is directly responsible for our program.  He spoke at a special Devotional, came to our FHE, with his wife to tell us about his conversion to the Gospel and his life as a General Authority, and then had a 30 minute PPI with us where we discussed our personal experience, the Open Chapel program, and our work as District Leaders.  He is a man of great love for the Lord which just radiates from him.  We felt very understood, supported and loved as we worked with him.

Elder Zeballos in the middle with red tie

 

This month we worked with a Stake President of Chinese descent named President Wu and transferred all senior missionary couples, who work in the Area Office, into wards in his stake.  There they will be teaching the Gospel Principles class and working through technology to help retain the new converts in that ward.  They might even be asked to go out and do some visits on the weekend.  When we made the switch we treated it as a “transfer” and most of the missionaries seemed excited.  There were some that seemed a bit disgruntled, but are coming around.  Before this change most of them just went to church and sat in a corner and did very little, but this will force them into the missionary work.

The highlight of the month came as we learned of the birth of Maxwell Darin Knapp!   He joined the family on June 30, a healthy, big boy born to Darin and Ashlee out in Manhattan, Kansas, where Darin is studying to earn his PHD in Marriage and Family Therapy.  Pictures from Kansas show Max as being chubby, with lots of dark hair, a small, button nose, and beautiful, big, blue eyes.  We skyped and met him in person and he is adorable!  It was hard to keep Grandma from running down and buying a ticket to Kansas!  I would have loved to be born into that family, what a blessing for Max!

 

Ashlee, Darin, Maxwell

 

July 9 is the Independence Day for Argentina so they closed the office and we had the day off.  We decided to go and visit the Alto Palermo Mall, which is huge and filled with modern shops and stores.  We felt like we were in a building described in Lehi’s dream.  Later we went to “the Ateneo” which is an old theater that has been converted into a bookstore.  It was incredible!  The box seating has been replaced by shelves of books, but the décor has remained and all is as it was when it was a theater.  A concert pianist plays full-time and they have a section where you can sit, eat, and read.  We loved it!

 

Inside the theatre bookstore El Ateneo

 

We had a unique experience with an Open Chapel in a ward called Hurlingham.  Several people who work in our office live in this ward so it was really fun for us to get to present the program there.  Lots of good people came.  In our training on Sunday mornings we always tell our story of our being missionaries here more than 40 years ago and always having the dream to come back some day.  Dad always tells about me wanting to send in mission papers for my birthday.  The bishop was really impressed with that and said it touched him and he would always remember that when it was his time to serve a mission.

 

Bishop Lastarria and wife with us at Hurlingham

 

Bishop Lastarria and his family brought several investigators, his daughter 2 friends from school, his son a friend, and the family the bishop invited himself.  He was so excited.  The Monday following the Open Chapel we received a call from the stake president thanking us for our efforts there.  He was very excited because several of the investigators had come to church the next day after the event and sacrament attendance was the best it had ever been.  We were pleased to learn this because we don’t often get much feedback as to what happens in a ward after our presentation. 

We have been pleasantly surprised with the winter here.  It has been in the 50's and 60's.  Most of the Argentines have their coats and scarves and always talk about being cold.  We wear jackets and are loving it.  We could get used to this kind of winter!