Meals and missionaries

            As I was scanning old posts looking for inspiration, I realized I have duplicated a few pictures, so sorry about that.  If I have also duplicated subjects, I apologize for that, too.  President was trying to give me suggestions about different aspects of mission life to cover, but I told him I have just about analyzed every single facet of mission life I can think of.  By the time we go home, some of them will have been covered two or three times, so thanks for your patience.

            This is that last week of the transfer when we try to cover a lot of ground before the cambios next week.  On Monday the missionaries are supposed to do a deep cleaning of their house or apartment and have an inspection by either the zone leaders or a coordinadora.  I am certain that your missionary would benefit from any cleaning suggestions you might send them.  Also, on Monday night all the missionaries who are going home come to the mission home for training about being self-sufficient. 

            Since A_____ is still out I will be doing a lot of cooking this week.  I will serve a snack after Monday's training, a light breakfast and then lunch after we go to the temple on Tuesday, again with those going home.  Wednesday we will do our last session of family history training in Santa Cruz; thank goodness I already have the cookies in the freezer. 

            Thursday is mission leadership meeting, which includes breakfast and lunch, and I am making our lives a little easier by serving pizza; always a hit with the missionaries.  Friday we are meeting with all the new missionaries and their trainers from this transfer, which again requires breakfast and lunch.  I have figured that with all the activities of the week, we will be serving around 230 individual meals, not including Wednesday’s cookies.  Thankfully, the senior couples are always a huge help.

            The missionaries are always very appreciative of the food they receive no matter what it is.  A couple of sisters told me today about the times they have had pig feet and chicken feet for almuerzo.  It is one reason why we try to have a delicious, nutritious, and slightly less adventurous meal whenever we feed missionaries.  See you next week.

One missionary in each zone is training the others about
Family History.  It is going well.

The missionaries are fascinated to see each other's family
trees in Family Search

Seminar in Uruguay

            The subject of this post will be a little different since we were at the mission president’s seminar in Uruguay.  I hope you will enjoy a short report on our experience.  It does affect the missionaries because we come back ready to share what we learned at the seminar, and also with ideas to improve both our service and that of the missionaries.

            The seminar is held twice a year as I’ve said before; last year in October we went to Iguazu Falls in Argentina.  This year we went to Punta del Este, Uruguay, a beautiful coastal resort town on the Atlantic.  One of the major benefits of the seminar is the chance we have to be with other presidents and wives.  We exchange experiences, laugh together and enjoy being with friends we don’t see often but who are “in the same boat” as we are.

            The purpose of the seminar is for the area presidency to present information we need to improve ourselves and our missions.  They help keep us firmly on the right track and let us know of their concerns about how the South America South area is doing.  They teach us how to be better missionaries because like our young missionaries our focus is inviting people to come to Christ and be baptized.

            After, laughing together, eating delicious food, learning how to improve and feeling the spirit testify of the truth of what we are doing we have come home renewed and ready to work harder here in our part of the Lord’s vineyard.

            I hope you'll enjoy some of our photos from the seminar and next week I promise to have pictures of missionaries!

The wind blew fiercely much of the time.
We enjoyed a tour of the city--that is why we are casually dressed.

Punta del Este is a peninsula with the River Plata on one side
and the Atlantic on the other.

Our hotel--we were on the 15th floor so we had a great view.

A sculpture of five fingers coming out of the sand.  And the wind, again!

An amazing sunset and back to work after a great seminar

Focus on Family Search

            We really enjoyed conference last week and we are really grateful for the technology that allowed us to listen and watch each session as it was broadcast.  The priesthood session did not start until 9:00 with the three hour time difference; President went to San Fernando to be with the missionaries and members there so he didn’t get home until 12:00 a.m.  He said it was worth it to be there and they were thrilled to see him.

            We have been counseled that our focus should be not just on baptism but baptism as a necessary step toward the temple.  We presented this concept in our mission leadership council for September, so every missionary then heard about it in their district meeting last week. 

            Since October is our month for specialized training, President decided we would meet with each zone and have a presentation by a missionary about how to create an account in Family Search and some basic information about adding or finding names.  Then each person had a short time to find their account and make sure they could access it.  They also have an extra hour in the cyber this week to work in their account.  Of course, we have a wide range from families with most of the work done to new converts who have their name and little more.  The point is that they will be able to share this concept with their recent converts and recently activated members.  Even investigators can create an account and start working on their family history.  We are hoping to see an increase in temple attendance by the members in our mission, even for baptisms which can be done as a family with the older children.

            We met with four of the eleven zones this week and really enjoyed each meeting.  I hope the missionaries enjoyed it as well.   We rewarded them with cookies as they left, which they are always happy to receive.  We are always happy when we can be with the missionaries, so we had a great week.  I hope you did also. 

Missionaries accessing family search in the mission office

This elder is explaining family search to one of the Tupahue zones

It's a picture week!

            I’m assuming that most of you who are reading this post have been enjoying the conference this weekend.  It has been inspiring and uplifting and also a call to improve and do better.  Rather than try and cram an additional message into the mix, I am going to just send pictures for you to enjoy.  But please remember—we love our missionaries and we are so grateful for this time to serve with and be with them.