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!

 

 

 

 

 

La Luz de la Verdad

We have been so very busy lately and while we have been hustling somehow it is the middle of June.  We have one year to go!  There have been some pretty interesting developments at the Area Office.  We had a change of department managers that took our manager, Dante Roig, out and brought in Daniel Moreno.  We loved Brother Roig, who currently serves as a counselor in a Stake Presidency and Janet baked chocolate chip cookie bars for the office for his farewell, which they all loved.  His office was just two away from ours and we love him a bunch.  Brother Moreno was just released as an Area Seventy and will be a great new neighbor.  We also had a visit from our boss in SLC, Mark Lusvardi, who took us to dinner at a very expensive restaurant here and surprised us with the news that they are taking our program, the Open Chapel, to all of the Areas in the Church!  They will be using our banners and the instruction manuals that we have written, once they have been translated.  They will start in Brazil and then go to Africa.  We were really excited to think that this great missionary tool will be available to the Areas that choose to implement it.

A team of a dozen men from Salt Lake spent two weeks in the Office to do an audit of each department.  They were not directly involved with us as missionaries, but everyone in the office was sure walking on eggs.  We did meet a fellow who had been on President Obama’s secret service squad.  His name is Ken Shelton and he knew Doug and Mary in Green River, Wyoming.  He is in charge of church investigations when there is misuse of or disappearance of funds.  It all climaxed with the visit of Elder Lynn G. Robbins of the Presidency of the Seventy who came and gave us a special devotional message where he challenged us to catch the VISION of what we are here for, set GOALS to get us excited, and then create specific PLANS to make it happen.  He had been Area President here before, spoke excellent Spanish, and delivered a powerful message.

We had two other special devotional messages from General Authorities this month.  Elder Gonzalez called a special meeting and taught us about using the Book of Mormon in all of our work and challenged all of the workers here in the office to learn English, “the language of the Restoration.”  Elder Vinas also gave us a beautiful devotional about his life.  He is 68 years old and has been a Seventy in the 1^st Quorum for 18 years, which he referred to as suffering for 18 years in joy.  He was a counselor to Elder Holland when they were together in Chile and is a wonderful, humble man who reminded us that numbers and reports can help us measure performance, but the souls of individuals are what really count to our Father in Heaven.

We sneaked off after a day at the office to see the Argentine Ballet Folklorico Nacional.  This group of 36 dancers gave a WOW performance, gratis, of many different dances from periods of the history of Argentina.  We got great seats and it was truly amazing.  One of our favorites was when a man and lady danced a Tango on top of table about the size of a card table.  The footwork was so precise, it had to be, and the energy was so powerful, we could never figure how they didn’t fall off of the table or tip it over.

The missionary work is going very well!  We are booked solid for every Saturday and Sunday for the rest of the calendar year through December 6 for presentations of the Capilla Abierta.  We just trained two new couples to start up the program in the Santiago Chile South Mission and the Buenos Aires Argentina South Mission.  They are great couples, one from the States and one from right here in Argentina. 

We have been trying to do our part with people we know.  We shared the gospel with our friends at the fruit shop, Robin and Victoria.  They are from Bolivia and are rather illiterate which makes reading the tracts and the Book of Mormon a challenge, but he has been to church and prays and we will be patient, like I said earlier, we have a year.  Janet shared a Book of Mormon with a friendly lady who washes sidewalks across the street and works as a maid at the hotel.

We enjoy sharing the gospel each weekend with brand new people.  It is a great blessing to know that there are so many beautiful people in every little ward or branch that we visit.  Last week, on Fathers’ Day we had to speak in Sacrament Meeting, which we do about twice a month.  When we had finished, the primary kids had presents for all of the fathers and they gave me an Argentina baseball cap in the colors of the flag of Argentina, and just in time for the World Cup, which dominates everything right [now.  The people here are really into their soccer!

Well, while most of you are making plans to be outside enjoying the sunshine, we are getting out the winter coats and gloves.  The people here have been all bundled up since it dropped into the 60 degree weather, which makes us chuckle.  They all go around with scarves over their mouths so that the “cold” air will not harm their lungs.  With no central heating systems, the coldest places for us are the chapels, which are actually very cold at 9:00 a.m. Sunday mornings.  We keep our coats on in the church and sit close together and sing hymn #171 “La luz de la verdad”  (“Hark, All Ye Nations” in English) at least once each week.  We are really enjoying our missionary service right now.  We do love and miss our dear friends and family, but this is a great way to begin our retired life together and to get re-acquainted.  In all of our prayers, which there are many in the life of a missionary, we mention you to Our Heavenly Father and are confident that he is blessing you and caring for you in our absence.  

 

Ready for winter

 

Elder Vinas & his wife (center) with senior area missionaries

 

Mark Lusvardi from the missionary department-choosing meat from spit for lunch

 

Elder & Sister Pina from Argentina-new to Capilla Abierta program in BA South Mission

 

Father's Day hat from San Alberto primary

 

Autumn in May

It seems a bit unnatural to see the days shorten, the temperatures drop, and the leaves falling in May. For so many years May has been a time to plant the flowers, watch the trees bud, enjoy longer hours, and shed the winter clothing.  Experiencing May in the other hemisphere is strange.

We had a treat as Senior Missionary Couples and went to see an opera at the Teatro Colon, which is a famous theater here in Buenos Aires that was built in the 1800s. The opera was, "The Barber of Seville".  We felt a bit out of place because we didn't have tuxes and formal wear, but where our seats were located, (3rd tier), Sunday dress was acceptable.  There were some very unhappy people who were not allowed to sit on the main floor because of their dress.  The show was fantastic.  The orchestra was imported from Italy and the leads were all Italians and of course the show was in Italian with Spanish sub-titles, but it was very easily understood and so beautifully performed.  It was amazing!  As a farm kid from Idaho, I will admit that I felt a bit our of place.

We have seen a real boost to our work in the past few weeks.  Elder M. Russell Ballard came here the 20th of February and dedicated Argentina for missionary work.  South America had been dedicated back in the early 1900s by Melvin J. Ballard, but the Area Presidency requested that each country be specifically dedicated, so it was done.  We have changed our approach to the Open Chapel a bit, placing more responsibility on the local leaders and members and they have responded very positively by working with the missionaries and taking the responsibility to invite others.

On April 24 we were contacted by a member of a Stake Presidency here in Buenos Aires to see if we could help them celebrate the dedication of a new chapel in their stake by having an Open Chapel.  We were very excited to help but panicked when he told us that the date for the event was May 2, just 8 days away!  We usually have about 4-6 weeks lead time, but we accepted the challenge and the invitation and met with the Branch leaders in a part of Buenos Aires called Virreyes.  They were all so very young.  The Branch President was just 27, recently married with a brand new baby only 3 months old.  The rest of the ward leaders were just like him.  There were many returned missionaries and seminary and institute graduates and they were really excited to have the new chapel for their Branch and to have the Open Chapel to celebrate the dedication.

We prayed a lot and gave them assignments and they amazed us with their faith and dedication.  We have not seen better displays, more member participation, or move love and concern for visitors in any of our Open Chapels.  There were at least 339 visitors and over 100 non-members that accepted the invitation to come and see the new church.  It was truly a WOW experience for us and for all of the members of the little Branch.  They had community leaders and church leaders in attendance as well as neighbors of the church who wanted to see what it was like on the inside.  We started at 3:00 in the afternoon and were busy until the Branch President finally called it quits at 8:00 and sent out for pizza and empanadas.  Needless to say we were beat, but in such an incredible, wonderful way.

It is great being a missionary!  We have had some great Open Chapel experiences this month with big turnouts and lots of people accepting challenges to read the Book of Mormon and to be baptized.  We have had a young man who is our buddy at the fruit store into our home to be taught the lessons by two Sister Missionaries that we know through the Open Chapel program and we hope that works out well for him.

An article was published in the April issue of the Liahona magazine which explained the Open Chapel program and gave our names and addresses as contact people.  We have been contacted from lots of places here in Argentina where we have not yet visited, from northern Chile, from Arizona, and even from Chicago by a member of the Stake Presidency who wants to have the Open Chapel in Spanish for members clear up there.  Our SLC representative asked us to send him all of our materials and the designs for the banners that we use so that the Missionary Department could translate them into Portuguese for possible use in Brazil and into English for use in Africa. We are so blessed to be involved in this great missionary work and appreciate all of your faith and prayers on our behalf.  As you can tell be are busy and happy, but we miss you and love you.  It makes our day to get an email and Skyping with the family is the BEST!

                                                Barber of Seville cast takes a bow.

                                                     We are seated on the 3rd tier.

                                                          Teatro Colon from the outside.

A look at the stage from the center of the theatre

 

                                               President Florentin and family at Virreyes

                                 Lots of visitors at the Virreyes dedication of the new chapel

 

The brand new chapel at Virreyes

 

La Pascua en la Argentina (Easter in Argentina)

April has been a busy month for us.  We loved General Conference, especially when Elder Ballard told the story of Ioshua, a boy who invited the family of his best friend to one of our Open Chapels and they came.  That was really great for Ioshua and his family to hear and it brought lots of attention to what we are doing!

The April Issue of the Liahona also featured an article about the "Open Chapel" program in the South America South Area.  It was prepared by the missionaries in the Neuquén Mission and it has generated phone calls and lots of emails from places all around about how the program works and how to get a program going in different areas.  We have heard from lots of places in Argentina that are far away, Tucuman and Comodoro Rivadavia and then today I opened my email to find a request from a Brother Cabrera who is a counselor in a stake presidency in Chicago who works with Spanish speaking people there.

April 15 we spoke in the weekly devotional for the area.  The brother in charge asked us the day before because his original speakers had canceled on him.  We could speak on whatever we wanted so we chose Jesus and the atonement.  We used our large Christus and played the words of Christ. The words of Christ is the recording used in all visitor centers when the people gather around the Christus.  It really brought the spirit to the meeting and many mentioned that they felt it.  We bore our testimonies of Christ and were glad as missionaries to share this with the people that we work with.

Easter in Argentina was preceded by two national holidays on April 17 and 18.  The 9 missionary couples that work in the office decided to visit a theme park called La Tierra Santa (The Holy Land) for Easter. We were surprised at how authentic this little bit of Jerusalem seemed right here in the middle of Buenos Aires.  The park was centered around different points in the Bible starting with a 10 minute portrayal of the creation with moving animals that growled and moaned, and mannequins for Adam and Eve. 
We went to the stable for the presentation of Christ's birth with lots of cherubim in the sky with wings and a light show for stars.  We watched a celebration in the "Temple Court" where young ladies danced and one in particular really got into it shaking her head around and around so much that we all got dizzy, poor girl must have a terrible headache and be in a neck brace today.  We then went to see the Last Supper and to taste unleavened bread which was kind of like a saltine cracker without the salt. We walked up to Calvary for the portrayal of the crucifixion of Christ and then watched as a huge statute of Christ rose out of the ground depicting the resurrection.
There were lots of little shops and displays that were supposedly typical from Jerusalem.  We saw Christ cleansing the Temple from the money changers.  We saw the wailing wall.  They had a special portrayal of Christ praying in the Garden of Gethsemane and another of him teaching in the Temple as a boy.
All in all it was very well done.  It was strange to all of us who have been more familiar with the way we have always learned about Christ from our religion because it all ended with Christ's resurrection.  There was nothing about our lives before mortality or what awaits us after this life, which is what really gives Christ's Atonement meaning. We thought it ended darkly.
There was much to see and much to do and we could have spent much more time there, but it got cold and a couple of the sisters had been sick, so we left before we really wanted to.

On Sunday, April 20, we will celebrate 41 years together and it just keeps getting better!

Visit from Darin, Laurie and Dan

March 14th brought us some great company...Laurie, Dan, and Darin.  It was so good to see them after many months.

Highlights from the first day:

Darin's suitcase did not make it from Manhattan

Buenos Aires Temple

Meeting people at the Area Office including shaking hand with Elder Walter Gonzalez (area president)

Caught in huge rainstorm at La Boca with a bus strike

Eating Milanesa at The Cottage (once is enough)

Day 2:

Facturas for breakfast

Recoleta (outdoor market/feria) Cemetery with little Cathedral and Eva Peron's tomb

National Art Museum

Open Chapel in Pilar

Day 3:

Church in Moreno 3rd Ward where Laurie's missionary companion lives--Doug and I spoke in church, Laurie bore her testimony, and Darin and Dan sang Lord I would follow thee (beautiful)

Argentine asado (barbecue) at Laurie's companion's mother's house

Day 4:

Train to Tigre

Boat ride around the delta

Steak dinner at Las Cabras

Day 5:

Subway ride to downtown BA---Teatro Colon 

Obelisco

Florida and Lavalle streets--pedestrians only and lots of shops and "cambio"

Lunch in The Estancia

Catholic Cathedral where the remains of San Martin are buried

Japanese Gardens

Rosedal Garden

Ice cream as much as possible

Day 6:

Meservys to the airport

Darin to La Boca

Darin to the airport

 

Asado on Sunday with Fratonis

La Boca with cobblestone streets and bright colored houses

Japanese Gardens

Recoleta Cemetery

Inside Teatro Colon

Captain of the boat (lancha) we rode at Tigre

Move over Spiderman

Do people really live in glass houses?  (Sarmiento's house preserved behind glass)

We hope you enjoy these pictures as much as we enjoyed the visit!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two different churches in Lujan

This month we visited Lujan

This month has brought us lots of different experiences.  One day it rained so hard on our way to the office that we had to take our shoes and socks off and put them next to the small portable heater we have in our office to dry them out.  On the other side of the room was the air conditioner blowing cold air!  Weird.  Anyway, one of the other couples said they had taken a taxi to work since it was raining so hard....that thought never crossed our mind...but it would have been smart since there are so many taxis that we dodge every morning on our way to the office.

We continue to have great Open Chapels.  We meet the cream of the crop when we go to the various wards. We meet some of the best bishops and counselors in the church.  In a ward called Lopez Camelo we met one such counselor ,Brother Arcos.  He was so enthusiastic, meeting the visitors at the front door of the chapel.  From there he made sure each one had a member to go with them on the tours.  Several visitors came off the street so this was a big help to the missionaries.  The members love these Open Chapels.  It helps the unity in the ward and reminds them of their responsibilities to be missionaries.  We see great things happen when the missionaries and members work together. Pte. Monson has said, "Now is the time for missionaries and members to work together".  If they can catch the vision and bring friends and families to these events, the spirit really works to help both have great spiritual experiences.

We had a unique experience at a small branch called Lujan 1.  The largest Catholic Cathedral in all of Argentina is in this city. It is called the Basilica of Lujan.  It was built to house a tiny 18 inch tall statue of the virgin Mary.  Now it is called the Virgin of Lujan.  People crawl on their hands and knees during the Holy Week from the plaza up to the place inside the church where they pray to the virgin for forgiveness.  We saw a man doing just that when we visited the cathedral.  These humble people believe what they are taught.  It helps us to know that there are many who are ready for the gospel and we need to be ready to take it to all the world.

The branch president, President Saitta, was so excited to have an open chapel.  They had had one last year and want to have at least one every year because they like how it brings the spirit of missionary work to their little branch.  During our open chapel that night, there were 5 people baptized.  One was a 90 year old woman who needed two elders to help her into the water and baptize her.  Her son was really touched by her baptism; he is not a member.  Most of the investigators who came were brought by the members.  These are the best kind because they already have a friend in the church.  The missionaries were so awesome, too.  They were out on the street trying to invite people in and the sister missionaries did such a great job teaching them once they came inside.

There are so many people here who are really sincere in their beliefs, but their beliefs and traditions are wrong. It is awesome when they recognize this and begin to look for more.

Five baptisms for the Lujan Branch

 

Sister Knapp in front of our humble meetinghouse in Lujan
 



Blessings with Holy Water

Crawling for forgiveness

 

 

18 inch statue of the Virgin Mary
 

Sincere people praying inside ornate basilica
 

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!)



3 investigators on the left

Sister Knapp in the rain!

In the dark

Fantastic Missionaries



      

Relief Society Display






 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lucia (our van) drenched