Finding old Baptism Friends and Weddings - So cool!

I have written about the Orellana family who we have seen each time they have come to the temple.  They were the first family baptized in La Banda.  Another family that left a big impression on me was the Quinteros family.  They were the first family I got to teach and see baptized.  

I was in my first area with my first companion, Elder Clark, in Godoy Cruz, Mendoza early in 1970.  It had been a very difficult week, and we had both worked very hard with very little success to show for all of our efforts.  We had no contacts and so we had tracked all day with no success.  We were walking our bikes home feeling very dejected and hoping we would spot another place to knock on a door.  In other words, it was the typical set up.  You expend your greatest effort with no avail and then the Lord does His work and places a family in your path. 

The whole wonderful Rostelli family with the new bride

Elder Clark was ahead of me and I was looking at the ground when two young women walked up behind me and spoke.  I stopped and one of them asked if we were missionaries.  I said yes.  I was not sure what to do next and hesitant to schedule anything since we had been told to never seek out young women.  I was offering some of our pamphlets when my companion looked back and hurried back to rescue me and we ended up scheduling a meeting for the next day.  We worried all night and asked every member we could think of to go with us to the visit.  In the end, we were by ourselves and decided it only the girls were there we would reschedule when we could have a member with us.  We got there and the mother and younger sister were there so we had the whole family, sister Quinteros, Anna, Adriana, and Mabel. 

the happy couple

another wedding pic

Some families that you meet as a missionary really make an impression on you.  The Quinteros was one of these families.  They were committed and were active from the beginning.   Sister Quinteros was wise and kind.  I started my mission in Godoy Cruz and ended it as the district leader in the same place.  I got to see how they had progressed after nearly two years.

The Buenos Aires temple is a beautiful background

I met Carlos Aguerro when he was translating for Elder Cook.  He was very good at it and I spoke to him at the break.  He said I know you.  I thought how could he know me.  He asked where I had been and it turn out he was in the Godoy Cruz ward when I came back the second time.  He knew the Quinteros family very well and he was going to Mendoza soon so he told me he would look them up and give them my contact info.  Adriana and I exchanged emails and then I called her and we spoke for the longest time.  Their youngest son was getting married soon and they were all coming to the temple in Buenos Aires for their temple sealing.  We got to spend three days with her wonderful family.  Her husband was the first councilor in the Mendoza Mission presidency and I would have gotten to work with him if we had gone there.

I got a car and we met them at their hotel and took them to the temple Nov 28 2013.  I got to take a lot of pictures of the wedding and it was so much fun.

The next day they came by the office and we went out to eat.  The following day we went to the historic Boca Soccer Field and then came back to our place to walk in the park and finally send them off to the airport.

This is the soccer field for Boca Jr. team in Buenos Aires

Adriana told me some of the rest of the story.  Her grandmother had been a Catholic but decided it was no longer living the precepts of the gospel and joined a protestant church.  She later decided that they also were not living the precepts of the Bible.  Sister Quinteros had grown up with this background.  She had married and had her three daughters and had also visited different religions.  There had been some recent family problems and a protestant church was being built across the street from them.  She told her daughters that they needed to be a part of a church and to find one or they would likely attend the one across the street.  That was why they approached us.

The whole family is amazing.  Anna had worked to support the family and for Adriana and Mabel to go on full time missions.  They had all served as ward missionaries very actively.  Anna was married to the other councilor in the Mendoza mission presidency and Mabel is married to a man she converted and his current calling is the area auditor for the church. Adriana’s three children had all gone on missions and her oldest two had graduated from universities in the US.

We have been here a year - Some Pics of our Activity days

I have a smattering of pictures of activities that we have done over the last several months that I hope you will find interesting.

Some months ago we had a meeting in a hotel in downtown Buenos Aires with the area seventy and I took this photo from the top floor looking down on the clock tower given to Argentina by England with part of the water front (on the right) and ocean in the background (back right)

This is Joan and Ziada with a family we were visiting.  We were having family home evening with them.  We really miss Ziada.  She was so amazing.  She re-activated this family.

There are a lot of flowering trees in the city.  In the spring we have the Jacaranda trees with thousands of blue flowers and in the fall we have these lovely trees with pink flowers that look almost like orchards everywhere and here is another tree with yellow flowers.

Here are the flowers covering the ground

Here we are with another couple (Elder and Sister Ford - also from Arizona) headed downtown on a Saturday for dinner.

We have a small ward but the members that have been here awhile are truly amazing.  These are the children of the Elder's quorum president that was just released after 7 years to become the 2nd councilor in the bishopric.  They get put in to their callings for a long time because they are good and there is no one to replace them.  We find many bishops that have been in 9 to 13 years.

The Switzers (also from Az) are having their last meal at one of their favorite places.  Well every restaurant was John's favorite.  Here he ordered one of his many favorite dishes.  Milanesa or a thin slice of beef that is breaded, fried, covered with tomato sauce, a slice of ham and melted cheese and sometimes slices of tomato. We figured this meal would last him until he got home.

One P-day (Saturday is Preparation-day for us because the office is closed) we went with several other couples to China town for Chinese food and to shop in their market for spices, peanut butter and salmon.

This is one of my all time favorite characters.  It is Mafalda.  She was famous when I was here on my mission and still is.  She was somewhat like a Lil Abner cartoon because it was a very political and social commentary andis a wonderfully delightful comic strip written by a very astute and perceptive person.

Here is a cartoon I found that was translated and one I remember from when I was here.  A follow on to this cartoon she rushes into her father and tells him she has figured out why Argentina is still a third world country.  She says since we live upside down all of our good ideas fall out of our head.

Shops in front of the Basilica.  There are
hundreds around the square.

One day we all went to the Basilica of Our Lady of Luján.  Brazil gave Argentina a silver statue of the Virgin Mary that is 18 inches tall and they built this basilica around it.  There were hundreds of little shops all around the square selling religious trinkets.  Quite the sight.

We have meet some wonderful missionaries here.  We try and take them out for lunch at least once a month.  They suppose to eat lunch with the members but many of the members can't feed four growing, starving young men.  We are usually are working so we take them out for lunch so they love to go with us.  This was this elders last few days before he left for home to Chile.  He was a great zone leader and so we took him to a real restaurant that served steaks, french fries and a picture of soda and two scoops of very good ice cream for desert. By the way, Argentina has very good ice cream.

Here we are eating all of that food.  Argentine, Chilean, Mexican and Idahoan from front to back.  They were all Zone leaders But I think the two in the middle were the seniors.  The elder from Mexico will be a GA some day.

And I just got back from an Area Council with all of the Area Seventy.  This one was held in Chile.  We are in front of the Hostel for the Santiago Chile Temple with the CCM (language training mission) to our left.  Amazing group of men and note I am the only one from the US.  Great that South America is lead by South Americans.

Dedication of Argentina by Elder Ballard for the work of Salvation

I thought I would start out with what I sent to the 28 mission presidents:

Elder Ballard giving his introductory talk

I thought it would be appropriate to not only send you the MP seminar photo but fill you in on another of his activities while in Argentina.  They spent only two days and a night in Buenos Aires but it was one of the reasons that the First Presidency sent him here.  His grandfather Melvin J Ballard dedicated South America to the work of the Lord 89 years ago.  Elder Ballard stated that in reviewing the list of countries that had been dedicated all had had their own dedications except Argentina.   Although it may have been dedicated, there was no record of it. So, Elder M Russell Ballard was sent to dedicate Argentina to the work of salvation.  It was an early morning event in the same park and as close as we have record to where his grandfather dedicated South America.  

Joan is on the left and I am on the right helping everyone
to the area that had been set up for the dedication

Elder Ballard said that all the other South America (S.A.) countries have had their own dedicatory prayers but there is no record that Argentina had. 

The story of missionary work in S.A. started in 1925 with the Apostle Melvin J Ballard taking a boat to South America and in a park in Buenos Aries dedicating South America for missionary work.  (We live just one block and an 8 lane road away from that park and we often go for a stroll through it and the beautiful rose garden there.)  Well since then each individual country has been dedicated by an apostle except Argentina.  So the first Presidency decided it would be appropriate for the grandson and current Elder Ballard to dedicate Argentina.  

Here is Joan helping Sister Ballard

We were asked to invite 30 or so people to the dedication of Argentina which would take place back to the very park in the very spot where his grandfather dedicated South America for the work of the Lord.  Nothing was to be said until after the first presidency reviewed the proceedings and a copy of the prayer was published.  Well your mom and I were there.  We helped arrange and make sure everything went off well.  I did the audio recording on the digital recorder that I used for blessings and gathered all the photos that were taken and sent them to Elder Rasband's office.  We got a copy of the prayer sent to us and I will put it at the end.  

The notice came out in the Church news the article is at

http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/64501/Elder-M-Russell-Ballard-Day-of-the-sons-daughters-of-Lehi-is-blossoming.html

and here is a little excerpt of how the article starts.

Church News

Elder M. Russell Ballard: 'Day of the sons, daughters of Lehi is

blossoming'

By Jason Swensen

Church News staff writer

Published: Saturday, March 15, 2014

Almost nine decades have passed since Elder Melvin J. Ballard, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve

Apostles, gathered with a small group in a park in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and dedicated South America for the preaching of the gospel.

The year was 1925. Only a handful of members from Europe could be counted in all of South America. Yet after 8 months there, Elder Ballard,  an ordained prophet and seer — envisioned a prolific future for the Church across the entire continent: “The work (in South America) will go forth slowly for a time just as the oak grows slowly from an acorn. It will not shoot up in a day as does the sunflower that grows quickly and thus dies. Thousands will join here. It will be divided into more than one mission and will be one of the strongest in the Church. The work here is the smallestthat it will ever be. The day will come when the Lamanites here in South America will get the chance. The South American Mission will become a power in the Church.”

Definitely a once in a lifetime experience!

Argentina Dedicatory Prayer

February 21, 2014

Parque Tres de Febrero

Our Beloved Heavenly Father,

As thou canst see, we are gathered as a small group of leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints here in the Parque Tres de Febrero, as near as we know to the place where Apostle Melvin J. Ballard, Elders Rey L. Pratt and Rulon S. Wells of the Seventy, and others gathered 89 years ago, to dedicate, at the direction of the First Presidency, all of the lands of South America.

By Assignment of the First Presidency, our purpose this morning, dear Father, is to offer and record a dedicatory prayer specifically upon the land of Argentina. And so we ask thee, dear Father, to pour out thy Spirit and power upon the leadership and the members of the Church here in Argentina. We invoke a blessing as part of this dedicatory prayer upon the area presidency and the area seventies, upon the stake and district presidents, the bishops and branch presidents, the Melchizedek Priesthood leaders, and upon all of the sisters who carry such a great responsibility in building up the kingdom of God. We invoke a blessing upon the youth of Argentina, the young adults, the young married couples, the boys, the girls, that thy Holy Spirit will fall upon them, and that they will have spiritual experiences and insight come to them beyond anything they have experienced thus far in their lives, that they will have those feelings and inspiration come from thee as to what they can do in their individual lives to enhance and move this work forward ever more effectively and powerfully in the future than it has in the past.

Now we know, Heavenly Father, there were a handful of thy children at the dedication of South America 89 years ago. Today, in Argentina, there have been baptized over 425,000 of thy children who are living today, and we pray thy blessings to be upon them wherever they may be living and whatever their circumstances may be, that we may find them, we may bless them, we may bring them unto thee and to thy Beloved Son, that they may receive the full blessings thou hast in store for thy faithful children.

We have, Heavenly Father, in this area almost 7,000 young full time missionaries; it is a miracle. We thank thee for this miracle and we pray thy blessings upon every full-time missionary serving in Argentina, that they will draw close to thee and to the leaders, to the bishops and the stake presidents, the Priesthood Quorums, and the Relief Society and Young Women and Primary, and they will work together to find those that have lost their way, who once had testimonies. Bless their efforts to reignite in their hearts the testimony of thy Beloved Son, the Savior and Redeemer of the world.

We pray thee, Father, to bless every branch and every ward, and every stake and district, and every mission in Argentina, that they will see a clear vision of how working together with all that has been given unto them since that day 89 years ago and that they will hasten the work of salvation that we have been asked to do by President Thomas S. Monson.

We pray humbly this morning for thy approbation, thy blessing, thy mercy, Heavenly Father, to be able to accelerate thy cause in preparing Argentina along with all the other lands of the world for that day when thy Beloved Son will come again. By the authority of the holy apostleship vested in me, and in the name of thy Beloved Son, I dedicate this land to thy work. We ask thee, dear Father, to reach down and touch and bless the lives of the leaders, the political leaders, the civic leaders, the business leaders, all of those who have a voice or a responsibility of any kind in affecting and strengthening this country, that the current challenges and problems that they are facing that there will be men and women of integrity raised up by thee with a vision to know what to do, and how to do it, to stabilize the economy and to stabilize the affairs of Argentina so thy work can prosper and go forward.

We are so deeply grateful, as part of this dedicatory prayer, to acknowledge the life and ministry of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and for the Priesthood that was restored to the earth to him through John the Baptist and Peter, James, and John. We are grateful for Moroni and the Book of Mormon, and to all others whom thou hast sent to restore to the earth the fullness of thy everlasting gospel.

And now we ask thee that all those blessings pronounced upon all of South America by Melvin J. Ballard 89 years ago may be accelerated as part of this dedicatory prayer of Argentina. May there now be a new day, a new enthusiasm, a new commitment in the hearts of all of thy children, both member and those who are not.

We are grateful Father as a family to be here this morning. We have had sons and grandsons who have served thee in Argentina. Heavenly Father, we thank thee for the privilege to dedicate this land unto thy work, and leave this blessing upon these leaders that sit here and all other leaders within the boundaries of Argentina, to move forward thy work of salvation with a renewed spirit and enthusiasm to build up thy Church. This prayer of dedication and blessing we ask for humbly, in the sacred and in the beloved name of thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.

Mission Pres Seminar in Chile w/ Elder Ballard and Elder Rasband

Area Pres, Elders Ballard & Rasband w/ wives & E Ballard's 2 daughters

February 13-24 Elder M Russell Ballard came to the South America South Area.  He stopping first in Chile and then Argentina.  He came with his wife and two daughters and Elder Rasband and his wife.  We worked very closely with the secretaries planning their visit, especially the Mission Presidents seminar, Elder Ballard’s dedication of Argentina and we helped on just about everything else.

 

Mission Pres, Area Pres, E. Ballard & Rasband w/ wives & us in back right

We spent two days with Elder Ballard in Santiago Chile during the mission president’s seminar.  Tuesday Feb 18 we received the mission presidents at the Language Training center in Santiago Chile and enjoyed a temple session with all of them.  

here we are in the garden of the Santiago Chile Temple

That evening we had a lovely dinner and fantastic music and dance presentation by a local LDS group.

Wednesday Feb 19 was an intense day of training by Elders Ballard, Rasband, Gonzalez, Zeballos and Vinas.  The theme was "Hastening the Work"  D&C 88:73.

Elder Ballard said that sometimes he thinks Satan laughs when we say we must organize ourselves to move the work of salvation forward because it means we usually have a lot of meetings with no one responsible to do anything.  So he gave the mission presidents this challenge:

Private Dinner with an Apostle

That evening we attended a dinner with Elder Ballard, his wife, two daughters and the local area seventy followed by the same local folklore dance presentation for Elder Ballard.

Elders with the music an dance group

A young man was taking the picture, and I was getting everyone
spaced so everyone could be seen.  We had to change locations
because of the sun and it still did not turn out so good.

P-day visit to La Estancia or dude ranch

This blog is just for fun.  It was Saturday Dec 11 which is summer down here.  Saturdays are our Preparation day or P-Day.
   
One P-day about 20 of the senior missionaries went to the “campo” or country

















to an “Estancia” or a Gaucho Dude Ranch.  

 our friends the Switzers

Looks like all my lawn equipment

They had horseback riding, 

Here's my cowgirl

me with my Australian Dude hat

wagon ride, zip line, old fashion games, 















a hotel with some rooms made from the horse stalls,

Former horse stalls now hotel rooms

decorations of old Argentine stirrups on the wall 

new uses for old sowing machines

and ending with traditional music and dances during the “asado” or BBQ dinner.

a little gaucho music and dance

Senior Missionaries are good people to be around and they still know how to enjoy themselves.

Area Review- A Blessing to be with living Apostles

I have not had any spare time lately and my blog reflects it.  Working as an executive secretary to an area presidency is definitely a full time job (like 10 and sometimes more hours a day).  I have used all my spare time to try to finish editing my patriarchal blessings book manuscript.

Elder Christofferson, Us, & Elder Holland- so it's not all work

There has been so many wonderful things happened since my last blog about 4 months ago I do not know where to start.  Let me begin with one of the more exciting ones.  We had the “Area Review” for the South America South Area Nov 14 2013.  This happens once a year when usually an apostle comes down to tour the areas that have not had a general authority for a long time and have priesthood leadership and stake conferences with area devotionals and two or three days to discuss the area one on one with the Area Presidency.

We were blessed to have Elder Holland, Elder Christofferson and Elder Soares come down.  Elder Christofferson and Elder Soares are the general authorities assigned to our area.  Elder Christofferson speaks Spanish and always conducts his meetings in Spanish.  Elder Soares is from Brazil but also speaks Spanish well.

Elder Gonzalez asked Elder Holland to address married couples as one of the devotionals.  It was broadcast to the four countries that make up our area.  I am not sure I have ever heard a better discourse on marriage.  Elder Holland and his wife took up most of the time (Sister Holland understands Spanish and corrected the translator a couple of times).  It was a spiritual crescendo of their visit.

The Sisters' luncheon

During the Area Review, there was a luncheon for the wives with all the sisters and area seventy’s wives.  There was a traditional asado lunch with the three general authority visitors and the area presidency, which I was able to attend.  

Cynthia singing with the Senior Sisters

There was entertainment planned for the sisters.  First, Joan had been working with her an autistic sister that comes with her parents.  She had been practicing singing “I am a Child of God” in English.  So, they organized a choir with the sisters to sing some of the verses with her.  (Joan said she wanted to work with her so she would have a friend in the celestial kingdom)

Elder Christofferson and his wife talking with Joan
Elder Gonzalez is in the background with Elder Soares' back to us

Next, they had a couple do some beautiful traditional folk dance, a type of zamba and the panuelo or handkerchief dance.  During that folk dance, the brethren came into the sisters’ luncheon and watched and I was able to take some pictures.  

Sister Holland in the middle

Everything was very nicely done and they kept the General Authorities busy without a moment to breath.

The secretaries that work so hard to ensure everything goes well

Later as the Area Review was winding down, the secretaries that had been helping all came to the presidency’s office area hoping to get a picture.  Elder Holland is very gracious and when he saw them he said let’s have a picture. 


I took the picture and then the secretaries started all saying the Boyles, the Boyles so we got a picture with them as well (the one above)

Hugging and crying

Afterwards the secretaries all started hugging, crying and squealing. 






Definitely a once in a lifetime experience!