MISSIONARY MIRACLE

 When we arrived at church Sunday, the missionaries were anxious to tell us about their miracle during the week. Two Elders were walking along the street and passed a young woman on a bench. One of them felt inspired to speak to her. They went back and he thought, "No, it was nothing" and they continued on their way. Then both of them had the impression they should go back and speak to her. They went back and saw that she was smoking and just assumed she wouldn't be interested. They continued on, and this time they both had a very strong impression to go back and speak to her. They did, and she said she would love to talk to them. They made an appointment to visit her in her home. They realized that she didn't live in their area, and they referred her to the Elders in the La Boca Ward (our ward).

Our Elders knocked on her door the next day and she welcomed them. When they told her of the Book of Mormon and offered her a copy, she said that she already had one. Someone had thrown it away and she had seen it in a box and picked it up AND READ IT! She had a testimony that it was true and she was ready to quit smoking and wanted to be baptized! She came to church Sunday and attended our Gospel Principles class. She spoke up many times during the lesson and sounded like she had been a member for years. It was amazing how much she knew and felt about the Gospel. It was a huge testimony builder for all of us and a reminder that we must always listen to the Spirit, and act upon it.

After the lesson, our Bishop called Dean to teach the Gospel Principles class and he gladly accepted. We had about 30 people in class that day. The missionaries are very successful in our area. He also asked us to organize, with the Wallaces and the other ward, a missionary open house.

The building above is a school down the street from the Bellgrano Chapel. The architecture is wonderful, with faces all around the building. The missionaries call it Hogwarts of Bellgrano. The photos below are inside the Institute building next to the Chapel. It is a gorgeous old home that has been repurposed as a school. The classrooms are in the  various rooms and there is a beautiful courtyard where they have BBQ's. The area missionaries celebrated the Fourth of July with a BBQ here.

THE WORK GOES FORTH

 We go to "work" every day in downtown Buenos Aires. After riding the subway for about 20 minutes, we walk through the plaza of the "pink house" and then walk another 2 blocks. The pink house is like our white house, where the President of Argentina, Christina, works each day. It is not her residence, but a big government building. The plaza in front is very beautiful, but there are a lot of police and many demonstrations there. We are told to stay away when there are demonstrators around. We encountered a lot of demonstrators yesterday as we were leaving, but there was no place to go but through the crowd. The police had everything else blocked off. It was very peaceful.

Our office is one of two. The area office is presently being remodeled, and they have all of the staff split into two offices. The other office is about 10 minutes by subway in the

other direction. We will work in both, because the publishing staff that we work with is in one, and the only available desks are in the other. We will go to meetings and such at the other office, but work in the downtown location. It's good we are working in digital communications. We can do it anywhere remotely. We have worked from home a few days this week because we have been waiting for people to show up at our apartment to deliver or fix.
        The men that we are working with are wonderful. They speak excellent English for me and they have been so kind to help us with anything we need. Fernando left his office to take us downtown and introduce us around. He made sure we knew the way, and showed us a great place to eat on the way. It was then that we realized he had an ulterior motive. His darling wife works in our office and was waiting to have lunch with us.

     Dean and I sit side by side at desks across from Elder and Sister Wallace from Idaho Falls. They are the area auditors and they travel a lot. They check out a car each weekend and they take us to church. There isn't a subway going close to our chapel. Each of the eight senior missionary couples is assigned to a different ward. We have become members of the La Boca Ward. La Boca means "the mouth" and it is near the mouth of the huge river where it feeds into the ocean.

This is our chapel. The Wallace's ward meets in the same building and starts 1/2 hour before ours. They have Priesthood and Relief Society first and we have Sacrament Meeting first. They wait for us to take us home. Our first week was so sweet. Everyone welcomed us so warmly! One dear sister came up to me after Sacrament meeting and said she is an English teacher and will be happy to translate for me. When I came out of Gospel Principles, she was there to take me to Relief Society. I was able to understand more than I expected and it was a very spiritual day. Dean is amazing with his language skills and has taken such great care of us. He has arranged so many things from Internet to finance.I'm so proud of him.

WE'RE HERE!

The night before we left was both fun and difficult. It was so hard to say goodbye to them all. Jonathan hosted a fun family dinner for all of us at Squatter's. We really missed Matthew and Trisha's family.

So here are all of our bags dropped in our cute little apartment. We were expecting much smaller than we have. Our home has two bedrooms, two full baths, a kitchen and a living/dining room. There is a warehouse filled with household items left by previous missionaries and they fill up the apartments with what is at hand. It is kind of a mish mash of things that don't match, but we have been working to solve that. Wait until you see the finished product.

The photo below is the view we have from our living room window, which goes out to a balcony. We love the view. We back up to a large convention center that is very beautiful (in front). We are a few blocks from a gorgeous park that is 3 miles long. It has trails, gazebos, an art museum , bridges,

and many other things. We are also near a horse racing track and a polo field. There is a huge open market once a month that just happened to be going on our first weekend.It had so many wonderful things to eat! Everywhere we turn, there is dulce de leche, CARAMEL! It is my favorite flavor in the world, and I think I have died and gone to heaven. And all the pastries are amazing. Linda Hoffman told me about them, but I really had no idea. There are at least 2 bakeries on each block. And in between each bakery there is an ice cream shop. It's good we have to walk a lot.

GOOD FRIENDS

 A few weeks ago we found out that Terry and Linda Hale were going to be in the MTC at the same time as we were. Terry and Dean were best friends as little boys and teenagers, living just 7 houses apart on 30th St. in Ogden. Linda and Terry live in Idaho Falls and we see them occasionally for reunions, but keep close on Facebook. A few years ago they served a mission in Salt Lake City at the Family History Center. They loved it so much, they decided to do it again. We have had such a wonderful time together in the MTC. We were put in different Districts, but spend most of the rest of our time together, including eating and evenings. Linda

and I have always known about many of their boyhood adventures, but we are really getting an earful now! They should have been in a lot of trouble for all the pranks they pulled, but they seldom got caught.
    It is a great blessing to spend time with them here and learn more about their life and their beautiful family.

MISSION TRAINING CENTER

It's hard to believe we are finally here in the MTC in Provo, UT. What a wonderful place! There are 130 Senior Missionaries here this week, many more than the average 60. We are going to all parts of the world and it is so fun to talk to all of the others and hear about their mission. Everyone is just as excited about their mission as we are. Last evening we had an awesome Devotional. President Russell M. Nelson came to speak to us. It was the first time he has given a talk since he was set apart as the President of the Council of  The Twelve. Dean and I were privileged to sing in the choir with 1100 young people. We sang "Be Still My Soul", which was chosen as a song of comfort for the new President with so many burdens on his shoulders. It was a thrill to sing to him. He gave us an inspired talk full of great advice for missionaries at this time. Several things he said spoke to me. He said, "The doctrine of Christ should be engraved on our hearts." He also said, "If you have only one convert on your mission, I would hope it would be yourself."
     We are eating like we will never see food again!!! Tonight, as we stood in line for our dinner, (chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, and tomato basil soup), there were two young elders in front of us heading to Tokyo, Japan. They were in line for the second time to get a full plate again. They said they had heard that the helpings of food in Japan were not as big and they needed to store it up. Watching how much many of the young Elders eat often makes me lose my appetite. But today is my birthday and it was also ice cream day. They had huge pots of hot caramel and hot fudge and many other toppings. I was pretty sure it was for my birthday, so I had a little ice cream with my caramel, which is my favorite flavor of anything! They sang happy birthday to me everywhere I went today, (5 times), but it was pretty awesome when they did it in the cafeteria. We all eat together, all 2400 of us!
     Our lessons and classes are amazing and we have great teachers with giant testimonies. We love them. We have 16 Seniors in our district and already love them all. We role play all day. We thought it would be uncomfortable, but it's not. It strengthens our testimonies as we have so many opportunities to testify of the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I will never tire of hearing the testimony of my dear companion. He has already grown so much and it's wonderful to see. We are so happy here!