Visitors from Salt Lake City

Mark Lusvardi, the director of Visitors Centers for the Church surprised us with a phone call and offered to take us to dinner and review our program. We picked him up at the Sheraton Hotel (pretty swanky place) in a Remis (private taxi).  He took us to La Estancia a very authentic Argentine restaurant. We had milanesas, empandas, and flan.  It was great food.  Mark listened to us and our concerns for the program and the direction we want it to go.  He was very encouraging and gave us the green light to change the name from CVC to Capilla Abierta (open chapel).  He was supportive on our expansion program to be able to take the program to an additional 12 missions.  That was great news!  He seemed pleased with what we are doing and encouraged us to keep it up.

                                                                     Mark Lusvardi

 

 

November was also the time for the yearly Area review.  Ulyses Soares, D. Todd Christofferson, and Jeffrey R. Holland brought their wives for a week in the area.  They presented a special devotional to us in the area office on Thursday, November 14.  We got to shake each of their hands.  Awesome! Later the senior sister missionaries had a special luncheon with their wives.  Sister Christofferson was at our table.  She seemed to be a little shy.  Sister Holland spoke to us for a few minutes and expressed her love.  She gave me a big hug!  For a gift we were all given a small flower arrangement which I have on our dining room table.  What special blessings we have to get to meet such great people.

Six General Authorities

Soares, Christofferson, Holland, Gonzalez, Zeballos, Vinas

 

 

Our table at the luncheon.  Sister Christofferson in Pink

 

We have had 4 open chapels already this month.  November 2 we were in the Villa Crespo Ward where we had been asked to film one of our open houses and get feedback from members and nonmembers for Salt Lake.  We had about 80 visitors and the filming went just fine.  Two bishops who spoke English were interviewed and gave their thumbs up to the program!

 

Last week we had an open chapel both Saturday night and Sunday night with a Sunday morning training  and a coordinating council meeting all on Sunday.  That was exhausting, but great.

 

Yesterday the Bishop's family from Guttierrez Ward, south of Buenos Aires, invited us to lunch before the open chapel.  He met us at the chapel and took us through winding dirt roads to their humble home where they had prepared us an authentic asado (Argentine barbecue).  They had grilled up some beef steak, pork ribs, chicken and sausage.  We also enjoyed the Argentine version of green salad--a plate with shredded carrots, shredded lettuce, and red cabbage.  You could mix them on your plate if you wanted to.  Strawberry torte finished off the meal.  It was delicious!  How blessed we are to get to know so many humble people and become a part of their lives for just a short time.

 

                                      Bishop Botto and his wife Gladys and their son Gustavo

 

 

 

 

The Army of Helaman

Senior Elders from the Area Office

These are our friends who work on our floor with us each day

Osmar, Alejandra, Julio and Pablo

 

 

November is hot down here so it's kind of hard to think about Thanksgiving being just a few days away.  While you are thinking of turkey and pumpkin pie, we try to stay in the shade and turn on the air conditioner.

 

Know that we love you and appreciate your prayers and support on our behalf.

 



Up, Up, and Away!!!

This last week we have been traveling.  We were asked to translate the Mission Presidents' seminar in a beautiful city, San Carlos de Bariloche (look it up on the internet!) where I served 42 years ago as Branch President for 6 months.  Then there were 12 members of the Branch and we met in the living room of the same house where we lived as missionaries.  WOW have things changed!  From a little mountain village of 30,000 it has blossomed into a huge city of 120,000 with a stake and two beautiful chapels.  It is the chocolate capital of South America and of course skiing, fishing, and tourism are what makes this town thrive. We held the conference in a world famous (one of the top100 hotels in the world) ski resort called Llao Llao (look it up on the internet) and it was truly amazing! 

We didn't get much chance to visit my old stomping grounds in the city, but the bus driver made a special pass by the old house where we lived just for me!

The best part of the conference was what happened inside the resort, with 3 General Authorities teaching, testifying, and sharing life stories, it was truly GRAND!  Their wives were just as amazing and we really had a spiritual feast.  I figured out that in the 3 days of conference I translated, with Janet's help on scriptures and references, 31 different talks, presentations, role plays, as well as various discussions and group activities.  I was truly exhausted when it was finished.

The food was so beautiful!  Really!  It was all about presentation, but we ate trout, and deer, and lamb, and chicken, and beef, and sausage and water cress!  It tasted so delicious, but they made sure that it looked absolutely like it was right out of the magazines! 

Here are some pictures of our time there.

Conference Room from the front

From the dining room

Tronador ski mountain behind us

Hotel Llao Llao from across the lake

Area President Walter Gonzalez and Zulma

The BYU Boys--1st Counselor in Area Presidency Jorge Zeballos

Region of the seven lakes

Suicide by Chocolate (name of dessert)

Llao Llao (Indian for a seed meaning sweet sweet)

Love the red carpet stairway (for princesses)

Lamb, deer, or chicken right off the grill

Plaza at Bariloche

Doug's first home and first Chapel in Bariloche

not red then

Picture with Pope Francis from Argentina in

Cathedral

Ride to the top of CampAnario

 

The Translator

 

 

 Wind and flowers at Llao Llao

 

We got back from Bariloche Thursday night and 1st thing Friday morning we flew to Uruguay to check on the CVC program there in Montevideo.  It was a short flight, about 40 minutes across the Rio de la Plata.  We met the Binghams, a couple from Carey, Idaho, who took really good care of us.  They had planned for the other CVC couple, the Hills to meet us for dinner and had prepared a freshly grilled salmon and sweet potato meal with hot rolls and peach cobbler.  It was so good and such a switch from Bariloche food!

 

A couple in their mission had to go home to the States unexpectedly because of gall bladder surgery and so we stayed in their apartment.  Saturday morning we went to the Temple, which was a real treat.  They don't have temple clothing to rent but they do have some they lend, which means it didn't really fit really well, but hey....The little Temple is beautiful and of course we enjoyed being there.  The Temple is located on the "Temple Manzana" where there is a chapel (huge for here), 2 mission homes and a hostel, which is a huge place for visitors from out of the area to stay while they come to the Temple.

 

Saturday evening was a Visitor Center in the Chapel presentation in a ward on top of the mountain for which "Montevideo" was named!  It was a really pretty view of the Atlantic Ocean and the CVC had lots of visitors.  We met some great people!  Isn't that wonderful how everywhere you go, you meet some pretty amazing people?

 

Here are some pictures of our Uruguay trip.

Janet at the chapel on top of the "Montevideo"

Montevideo from the airplane and the edge of the Atlantic

Shoes off, you are standing on Holy Ground!

The Hills, us, the Binghams   CVC couples

Atlantic Ocean from apartment window

 

At Montevideo Temple in the rain

Fort on top of the Cerro, can you see the LDS chapel steeple?

 

Being away from the Area Office for a week has left us with lots to do this week.  We have to film our CVC this next Saturday for the Missionary Dept. in SLC and prepare the script for that, and Sunday we have a Coordinating Council Meeting to plan our CVC presentations for 2014!  That is a lot to do for this next week, I guess we won't have time for trick or treating!

 



Spring in Argentina

Spring has come to Argentina!  Look at the beautiful roses!

 We went out today after our training meetings in the Villa Crespo Ward and walked around the rose gardens without suit jackets and sweaters.  It felt really good!!

We found a fellow who must be related to Big Chief Surprise From Sky!

 

 

We enjoyed General Conference and we watched it on a projector from our little computer at the Area Offices 3 hours later than it was SLC time.  Priesthood Mtg. started at 9:00 and went to 11:00.

There were lots of references to missionary work and we decided that it was a great time to be a missionary. We both really enjoyed President Monson's poem about Timber.  We are excited to have the talks online so that we can re-read and re-enjoy them.

 

We missed being out in the chapels, but got back on the road this weekend with a CVC event last night and a training this morning.  We had a great experience last night with a lady and her little boy who we invited in from the streets.  She spent 2 hrs. talking with the sister missionaries and the R. S. president and accepted a challenge to be baptized.  I was reminded of Elder Andersen's comment in conference that with so many more missionaries working in the missions of the world, the Lord is preparing more hearts to be opened to receive the gospel.  It is true here in Argentina!

 

Our training went really well this morning.  We were preparing the members of the ward for a special event that we have that Salt Lake Mission Dept. has asked us to film.  We are the only Area that is currently using the CVC program and they are thinking about expanding it to other areas, so we will have this one filmed and sent to headquarters to see what they think about what we are doing.  NO PRESSURE!

 

We are also getting ready to do the translation at the Mission Presidents Seminar (28 missions) which will be held in 2 weeks in Bariloche.  I served there 42 years ago and was the Branch President of our little branch of 12.  It is without a doubt the most beautiful ski resort in Argentina located way up in the mountains.  It is surrounded by 7 lakes.  Go on the Internet and look up San Carlos de Bariloche or Lake Nahuel Haupi or Hotel Llao Llao and you will see what we will be doing.  Anyway now there is a stake in that city built on the spot of ground where we lived and held our Sunday meetings.  It will be really fun to return!

 

We also have to fly to Uruguay by the end of October to renew our visas and to check on the CVC couples there, so it will be a busy couple of weeks for us.  We are learning much and meeting some really humble, great people down here.  As I said earlier, it is a great time to be a missionary!



Training in Castelar and more

Most every Sunday we get to attend church in a different ward.  We generally get to go to the three hour block.  The training is about 40 minutes during either the Relief Society/Priesthood hour or Sunday School.We love meeting the people and especially the Bishops.  There are some great Bishops down here! and Bishop's wives....some of them have been the gospel principles teachers and  wow! are they good! Bishop Mussi and his wife from Castelar are two of the best.  They invited us to come to their home after the meetings to have dinner with their family of 3 boys, 10, 8, & 5. We followed them to their home and went in to this little humble place with no living room, only a kitchen and bedrooms and a bathroom.  We had a great meal with milanesa, (kind of like chicken fried steak) and our favorite dessert, alfajores.  We sat around and talked for a couple of hours.  It was so good to just sit and visit and get to know them and some of the concerns he has for his ward as a Bishop of only about 6 weeks.  We got to hear how they met and about her parents serving a  mission in Peru.  We left to come home and our GPS did not work.  The Bishop directed us to get on the freeway, but from there we got lost and I think we hit 2 or 3 major freeways until we finally stopped and asked at a gas station how to get where we needed to go.  It was quite the adventure.  We decided that from now on, we will for sure take a map even though the GPS never takes us the same way google maps show!! at least we might get an idea of where we are...think of being lost in a city of 13 million people and in every little community the streets all have the same name but are never connected!  I'm thinking of Cameron on this one!!!

One of the really excellent parts of our work is getting to meet with General Authorities.  All 3 of the members of the Area Presidency are from the 1st Quorum of 70, President Walter F. Gonzalez, 1st Counselor Jorge Zeballos, and Counselor Francisco Vinas.  We had a devotional with them on Wednesday and then a PPI with Elder Zeballos later that day.  He really complimented us on our Spanish.  We seemed to think that the work we are doing is going well and the next day while he was flying to SLC we emailed back and forth a couple of times. 

Yesterday we went to the celebration of the Day of the Immigrant here in Bs. As.  This is where citizens of Argentina celebrate their nationalities by having little booths with food and other commodities to sell.  They also put on dances from their countries to entertain people while they ate.  It was really fun.  We saw dancers from Mexico, China, Bolivia, and the Mid-East.  We ate chocolate from Chile, tacos from Mexico, a saltena from Bolivia, empanadas from Chile, strudel from Germany, and cakes from Greece.  It was really good.

 Today we went out to do training in Berazategui and El Cruce Wards.  It was a good thing Darin's kids or some other angels were watching out for us.  We almost got smashed, seriously, by a huge truck and then nearly got rammed by two cars on a round-about.  But we were protected by our angels again.  The training went really well, but we have been feeling sad all day for a little family out there.  The first ones at church, in the rain were a little man and his 3 children and a teenage girl.  We greeted them and hurried inside as soon as the Bishop came to open the building.  The little family was obviously from very humble circumstances.  The Bishop later told us that 2 months ago an explosion in their home had resulted in it burning to the ground killing the mother, who was president of the Relief Society at the time, and 2 other children.  WOW!  How can I complain?  This little man was there with these clean, smiling little children, probably 7, 5, and 2 years old.  The teenage girls is a niece who comes to help with the kids.  It makes you appreciate the challenges you have in your own life, when you see someone who still hangs in there under such circumstances.

Boulogne

The chapel in Boulogne was small, but very quaint.  The people there in the ward were awesome.  It was another rainy day, not especially good for the CVC program.  But Hermano Pinto, the ward mission leader, had faith that the rain would stop by 4pm and it did for a while.  But in spite of the rain we had a lot of people come.  One of the highlights was that Bishop Feduzka himself invited four friends to come and they did!  Even better than that was that his father-in-law came...his wife was so excited.  They didn't think he'd really stay or pay much attention and they were so shocked when one of the missionaries got him to commit to read the Book of Mormon and set up a time to visit him!  That is what this program is all about---getting people interested in coming to Christ and learning about His church.  Right across the street from the church was a unisex salon for cutting hair (peluqueria) that was pretty colorful.  Right at the beginning, Doug was outside waiting for people to start coming and a young man came walking down the street in front of the salon.  He stopped him and asked if he would be interested in coming in to the church to see what it was all about.  The young man, Marcelo, said he would.  He had read about the church on Facebook and was interested.  He went through the tour and stayed quite a while.  When he learned about baptism at the font, one of the elders asked him if he would be baptized by following Jesus Christ's example and he said yes.  The elders got his contact information and hopefully they will get back to him and help him to come unto Christ.

Colorful Salon for Hair Cutting

Hermano Pinto, Doug, Hermano Ponce's look alike

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 







September 15,2013 (Chacarita y Pacheco)

Greetings from Argentina! 
We are sitting here watching out of our patio at the "sheets" of rain.  This past couple of weeks we have had lots of rain and it has been cold.  The rain doesn't just come in drips and drops, it POURS down here for hours at a time.  The thunder and lightning can be really frightening and it makes us glad that our apartment is only 3 floors up and not 30!!  We have noticed that the weather gets worse when it is time for us to have one of our presentations and that the foul weather discourages people from coming to our meetings.
Last weekend we were in a little area called Chacarita and following an all-day rain, we only had 32 visitors and 31 of them were branch leaders who were there on assignment.  The Bishop was very positive and continued to reassure us that this evening was a great blessing to his ward.  One of the members said that he had learned how hard missionaries work to get people interested in the Gospel because he worked all night and no one that he invited from off the street came in.  The picture below was inside the foyer at Chacarita and the Bishop is standing next to me.  He works in the Area Office with us.  His name is Marcelo Miliotto.

Last night we were in a beautiful little area called Pacheco and it was so cold that all were wearing coats and gloves.  We were so impressed with the members.  They were all there early in the afternoon scrubbing their chapel and all of the tables and floors.  There was no carpet it was all tile and it really shined.  Here are all of those young people who were cleaning-

 

 

Laurie, the tallest boy was on a mission in Chile Santiago West with President Jones and recognized our last name.  He thought he knew you. His name is Coria and he is married to the girl next to him.



 

 In spite of the cold weather we had almost 200 visitors and it was awesome!  One of the little Elders challenged a boy from off of the street to be baptized Sept. 29 and he accepted!  Lots of the visitors were young people from the plaza across the street and members greeted and accepted them with warmth and caring.  Bishop Callero was out in the cold for 3 and a half hours inviting people into the presentation and the ward missionaries were doing the same, especially a lady that is Argentine's version of Sug.  The sisters knew that Janet and I were cold and brought us MATE to drink.  I really enjoyed it, mom wasn't quite as enthusiastic.  Here all of the members drink it and I may be hooked!

 

 

 

The primary children made this replica of the Bs. As. Temple and we loved it.  The visitors all have the opportunity to tour the church and see what the different auxiliary organizations teach and do.

 

 

 



The pictures above are a close up of the Temple, the members around the Christus, the young men and women in their display, and us with Bishop Callero.  It was great!

We loaded up and hit the GPS button for "Home" at about 8:30.  After about half an hour of driving we realized we were in unfamiliar territory and began to question Adelina (she is our GPS).  We kept driving and saw signs for places we have never even heard of so got off of the freeway and regrouped.  As we were searching for directions we saw on the map a little place called HOME and knew we were in trouble.  So we put in the address of the Area Office where our materials are all kept and after an hour and 15 minutes were there.  The trip should have taken 25 minutes total.  We had to walk home from the office late at night which was not fun, but collapsed safely in bed at 10:30 way past curfew hours.

This morning Janet woke up with a terrible headache and we are sure it was all of the tension with being out lost in the dark.  But we had to present training (Power Point) in a ward here in Belgrano which is just 15 minutes from our office.  Elder Francisco Vinas from the 1st Quorum of Seventy and a counselor in our Area Presidency was attending that ward with his family today.  We enjoyed Sacrament Mtg.  They sang "Count Your Blessings" in a new way that only Doug could duplicate and we loved it.  We made our presentation later and it went really well.  We had lots of participation from the members.  The Stake has arranged for us to present a program in that Ward on November 10 and we were there today for training.  It was intimidating to have to do it all in front of a General Authority!

While Janet slept off the headache I made Spanish Rice for lunch and then she got up and made a real treat!  Hear it from her...

This week I have had fun trying out the oven.  I really have missed not having one, except that for a couple of days it was too hot to use one.  Anyway, I made French bread--a version without salt--not on purpose.  It looked really nice and we ate it anyway with dulce de leche, and a salt shaker.  The second loaf I made into a really delicious bread pudding which we had for lunch dessert today.  It will also be breakfast in the morning!

This past week dad and I made it a point to go meet a little (about 4 foot tall) lady named Susie.  The Garvins who we replaced told us about her.  She has a little stand on the street where she sells crocheted and knitted items to support herself and a granddaughter.  They are beautiful.  She makes some of the prettiest scarves I have ever seen...we may have to buy one from her next winter or even now if the cold weather keeps up.  Anyway, I asked her where to find yarn and hooks and she just gave me one of her hooks-a gift she said.  I found a place to buy yarn not too far from our apartment and have started on some hot pads (which you don't find here).  Susie is not a member of the church, but we have made a good friend and will try to visit her when we can.  We took her a copy of the Liahona magazine and she said she would read it.

The first Tuesday of each month the Area Presidency wives put on a luncheon for all the missionary sisters that work in our office.  This month it was a birthday party for all the sisters with birthdays through July.  They had special cupcakes and gifts for each of us and we played games and enjoyed great food.  It is awesome to meet with such great women.  I feel so blessed to know them.

We really enjoy getting copies of the family newsletter.  We love reading about what each family is up to.  Thank you Laurie for all your time and effort!!!

We understand BYU plays the Utes this week....GO COUGARS!!!

What we are doing in Argentina

 

August 25, 2013 we held our first Visitor Center in the Chapel without the Garvins, our trainers, who have since gone home to Iowa.  Let me explain.  About 3 weeks before an event is scheduled in a certain ward or branch, we meet with the members during their Sunday block of meetings to explain what the program entails, and how they can plan for it.  It is actually directed by the Bishop or Branch President and Ward Mission Leader.  The idea is that we try to bring the Visitor Center experience to the local chapel.  We always start with a great big figure of Christ, which is made of  wood and is a duplicate of the Christus statue in the Salt Lake Visitors Center.  We play the same words of Christ you hear in all visitors centers.  Sister missionaries then teach from 18 different, beautiful posters what the message of the gospel of Christ is all about.  There are posters about Christ, the Church he organized with apostles and prophets, the apostasy, the restoration of apostles and prophets in our day, the call of the prophet Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, families, the Temple, the Plan of Salvation (including where we came from, why we are here, and what lies ahead after this life)...it is really beautiful.  The guests are then given a tour of the church and the different auxiliaries explain their functions.  Of course there are refreshments at the end and a chance to fill out reference cards.  Below you will see pictures from our first one in the Vicente Lopez Ward.  It was a great success with lots of visitors both members and non and a great spirit.

 

Our job is to bring all of the supplies and make it happen!  Members do all of the work and young missionaries do all of the teaching.  We share our testimonies and smile and be friendly, which is a real challenge for us being so shy and timid.

 

Above you will see the poster at the entrance to the chapel and some of the couples that work with us here.  These two couples are both from Idaho Falls.  Roger and Diane Brunt are on your left and Dan and Vicky Smith are on your right.  They are both doctors who volunteer to look after all of the missionaries in the same area that we have, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Paraguay.  They came to support us for our first event.  The two sister missionaries did lots of work that night!



 

 



Above is Brother Roig and his family from the Vicente Lopez Ward.  He is the President of the Sunday School and made these huge copies of the Scriptures for his display for our program.  He is really talented.  They look so real.  He gave them to us so that we could use them for future chapel visitor center events in other

 





 

The whole zone of missionaries came to work the event.  They were out in the street inviting people to come in for a visit and passing out lots of pamphlets and copies of the Book of Mormon for 4 hours.  It was fun to get acquainted with so many fun, good young people.

There is a family that has lived across the street from the chapel for 20 years and the Elders went over to invite them to come to the CVC event 4 different times.  Finally, the last time, they came and were really impressed.  They had no idea that the church had so much to offer for families, children, and young people. They asked lots of questions and said that they were sorry they had not become acquainted with their "neighbors" earlier.  Another family from the area said that they had tried to come and find out more about the church, but that every time they came it was all locked up and there was nobody there.  It made me think of what Elder Perry said in that recent All-Church Broadcast about opening up the chapels and getting our message out.

This morning, Sept. 1, we visited a ward north of Bs. As. called Boulogne. What humble, sweet people we found.  This is a poorer section of the city and the people were very real and not proud and haughty.  It was testimony meeting and it was great.  Mom shared her testimony and later I did the training for a CVC event that we have scheduled there later this month.  The hymns were barely recognizable and we sang one that we didn't even know was in the hymnbook.  It was great!  We really felt the spirit among these beautiful people, many of them descendants of Father Lehi.