A New Record!

August has been an exceptionally busy month for us as far as the number of Open Chapels we have done as well as trainings.  We had 7 Open Chapels with 5 trainings.  It was great! 

The Vazquez family originally from Argentina that we met in Idaho Falls recently returned to Argentina to live.  Santiago Vazquez had been our Branch President in the Mesa Branch back home.  We loved his family.  They always called us their North American grandparents.  We were blessed to have a little time to visit with them here in Buenos Aires before they headed off to Mendoza.  In the church the world is so small.  A man that we work with in the office, rents his home from Santiago Vazquez’ father.  We also met a bishop in the Vicente Lopez ward who was good friends with Santiago and knows his wife, Eliana.

Vazquez Family

 

August 16, 17, & 18 we had an Open Chapel in different parts of Buenos Aires.  That is the most we’ve had on one weekend.  We were so impressed with the bishop in the Atalaya Ward.  He delivers mattresses for a living.  We never met his wife as she didn’t come to the training or the event.  But he was so humble.  In the training, he bore a strong testimony and encouraged his members to do their part.  They got behind him very well as we had over 100 visitors and 35 nonmembers come.

 

Bishop Lescano

 

The next night we had an event in Ciudadela.  This one we were happy to finally have.  It had been rescheduled about 4 times because of conflicts with the building.  Even that night we had to move to a different chapel (this building has two chapels) to accommodate a stake choir practice.  This ward meets in a building that is not in their stake boundaries so it is hard for them to schedule events.  Bishop Miguel was great.  We spoke to him many times on the phone and he was always so patient and humble.  He really wanted to do this and we think it turned out well.  The first person we met when we drove up was a young man who had just been confirmed that morning in church named Alberto.  He came to help make sure the chapel was clean and do anything else we needed done.  Doug asked him what his favorite part of the Book of Mormon was and he said he had not read it, he can’t read.  He has only learned about it through what the elders have taught him.

Alberto

The following day was a holiday and the Moron 2^nd Ward asked us to come for a special Open Chapel.  We trained them with just one week of down time for them to prepare and didn’t quite know what to expect.  It was a sunny special day for Janet and so we stopped for ice-cream at “El Caribe”.  There were lots of members there when we arrived and they were completing their displays, and cleaning the church.  Brother Marquez, who is very tall, was cleaning the windows.  He was great help all night.  The Bishop of the Ward, Bishop Aguirre, had not been a member of the church very long. During high school he had hair down to his waist and a mustache (there were pictures).  He dated a Mormon girl all of that time and when he was 18 he became interested in the church.  He read the Book of Mormon and was told to go on a mission.  He cut his hair and took institute classes for a year as he prepared for a mission.  When he turned in his papers, she cried and cried, but he knew this was what the Lord expected and so he went.  She proposed to him after he had been home 3 days and now 8 years later, they have 3 children and he is a very young Bishop.  Again the Open Chapel was great with over 100 visitors with 22 of them being nonmembers.  The bishop’s wife was so good with the investigators-staying with them on tours and helping with questions etc.

Bishop Aguirre and wife

We were able to watch Elder Bednar’s talk on social media from BYU education week.  We have felt like we needed to have our own Facebook page for our program.  There has been a link to it on the mormonesdelsur.org web page for our area; but we felt like we wanted our own page.  Working through our contact in Salt Lake and asking lots of questions of our technology specialist in the office, we finally will have an office Capilla Abierta (Open Chapel) Facebook page.  You will be able to access it by going to  www.Capilla.Abierta.SAS.  There you will see photos and see our schedule for the whole South America South Area.  Can you even believe it? …us

We, the senior missionaries, sponsored an employee appreciation day here in the Area Office.  We put up a big banner saying we appreciate them and we all brought cupcakes for all 200 of them.  It was really fun to go to all the nooks and crannys in this building delivering the cupcakes.  They were surprised, but it was great fun for us.  We love these good people in our office!

Dad enjoyed homemade butternut squash soup and chicken empanadas for his birthday dinner.  Thanks to all of you for remembering him on his special day.  He is still the baby in our group of missionaries.

We love you all and want you to know we love the Lord.  He has blessed us so much!