Estancia Santa Susana

Temple Trips 

February 28 was a holiday (Carnival, the Tuesday before Lent or, in Brazil, Marti Gras) and our ward hired a bus to go to the temple. It was a wonderful, bright day and 65 members of the ward showed up. It is wonderful here when wards go to the temple here. We leave at about 9 am for a 10:30 session and the bus gets back about 3 pm. It is a pretty full day. There aren’t many baby-sitters so they take the little ones with them and let them play outside on the temple grounds and the adults take turns going into the temple to do ordinances. About mid-way, everyone pulls out their picnics to have lunch. About half of the group were youth, so we helped at the baptistry. We had a great time.

 

Villa Crespo Ward at the Buenos Aires Temple, February 28, 2017

Juan Jose Borjes, who Elder Love had the privilege of baptizing in January, has been working hard on family history and a few days before our temple trip, he had gone to the temple to do baptisms. He baptized, or witnessed proxy baptisms for, 7 of his ancestors for whom he did the work. We are really proud of him and he is just blossoming. He is working hard in his calling as a facilitator for Self-Reliance classes. Here is a picture he sent us of him at the temple for the first time. We’re sure there will be many more.

Juan Jose Borjes at the Buenos Aires Temple, February 24. 2017

This past Friday, March 24, was another holiday (Memorial Day) so the ward scheduled another bus to go to the temple. This time, there were about 70. We didn’t go on the bus this time but rode with the Nortons. We had tickets to see Beauty and the Beast with the Nortons, the Smiths and the Switzers, who came to replace the Wieses, and we were afraid we wouldn’t be back in time if we took the bus. Anyway, it was a very full session. Sister Love felt comfortable not wearing headphones to do the session in English this time!

Dinner With the Missionaries

February 27 was also a holiday, so we decided to go to the Recoleta Artisan Fair with the Nortons and the Smiths, where we ran into several pairs of sister missionaries enjoying their preparation day. We recognized one of them, Sister Allison, from Iowa, whom we met at the Ilumina el Mundo event in the park at Palermo on December 3 and we invited her and her companion, Sister Warnock, from Salt Lake City, to call us if they are ever free for Sunday dinner. They were assigned to the Belgrano Ward, which is not our ward, but they live just a few blocks from us. A couple of weeks later they called, and that Sunday, we had a great time hosting these 2 sweet sisters for Sunday dinner and getting to know them better. They loved Sister Love’s roast beef and mashed potatoes. Then last week, we showed up for church in our ward, the Villa Crespo Ward, and Sister Collado had been transferred and replaced by none other than Sister Allison. It was good to see her again. We have made arrangements for them to come to our apartment for dinner twice in April and on Mother’s Day in May, so they can skype home.

Sister Love Gets Her Hard Rock Cafe Buenos Aires T-shirt

Earlier this month, the U.S. Embassy had a special night at the Hard Rock Café, here in Buenos Aires. The purpose of the evening was for U.S. citizens living in Buenos Aires to learn more about the services the embassy offers. We went with the Smiths and the Nortons but it just looked like a big cocktail party so we went to the restaurant part and ate dinner. Sister Love was anxious to get her Hard Rock Café – Buenos Aires t-shirt. Dinner was good and we enjoyed the company.

 Estacia Santa Susana

On March 12, all of the Senior couples except the Williams rented a micro-bus and went to the Estancia Santa Susana. A young couple named Josh and Kelsie Sorensen also went. Josh is a graduate of BYU Law School, and Kelsie is a BYU grad in accounting. They work in New York but accepted a one year assignment in Buenos Aires. They attend the same ward one of the senior couples attend.

An estancia is like a ranch, or a gaucho station. Santa Susana is a picturesque one near Los Cardales, on the Pampa, about 50 miles north-west of Buenos Aires. It has been turned into a bit of a dude ranch that caters to tourists, but in an authentic environment. We ultimately found out there were people there from the United States, Russia, England, France, Switzerland, Spain, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Guatemala, El Salvador, Ecuador, Brazil, Peru, Chile, New Zealand, Australia, and Argentina. We were all met by men dressed as gauchos and women with baskets of freshly made empanadas. They were delicious!

 

Estancia Santa Susana museum

Gaucho serving empanadas at Estancia Santa Susana

We wandered around the well-manicured grounds,

and enjoyed the old house that has been turned into a museum.

We also enjoyed the lovely flowers.

Those who wanted, went for a short horseback ride around the place.

Then we were treated to a wonderful Asado, which means cook-out. There was Argentine sausage, sirloin, chicken and loin (lomo), as well as fresh salad. It was really good.

After dinner, there was wonderful entertainment, including singing and dancing. One of the dancers did a wild gaucho dance that included swinging the boleadoras. If you watch the Argentine dancers on America’s Got Talent, it was the same style of dancing.

After the entertainment, we were treated to an exhibition of gaucho riding ability. The gauchos ride a full gallop toward small rings suspended from a high bar. The gauchos are holding small, pencil-like metal rods and they try to catch the rings on them. When they do, they give a ring to a pretty young lady and expect a reward. It was all very impressive.

After the demonstration, one of the gauchos gave horseback rides to some of the women there. Sisters Norton and Hancock were adventurous enough to go.

After a quick stop at the gift shop, we were on our way. It was a wonderful, very enjoyable day.

A Little Success in our Church Assignment

We have been working with a sister in the ward who is going through some very difficult times. The bishop asked us to do whatever we can to help her. She has fainting spells, like seizures, and doesn’t dare go out, as she has ended up in the emergency room several times after passing out in the street. She has no family close and has kind of turned away many of the ward members that have tried to help her. We have been able to visit her a number of times to encourage her, just listen to her, teach and counsel her, and invite her to go to church. She has generally not felt like going to church but a couple of weeks ago, she surprised us. It was wonderful to enjoy the meetings with her and watch her enjoy feeling the love of the members who came up to greet her and feel the spirit that was there. She was quite emotional during the sacrament and some of the hymns that were sung. She took a bad turn this last week and ended up back in the hospital. The doctors are not sure what is causing these spells, though she has some significant stress in her life at the moment and no one but the members of the church to rely on. We ask for your prayers and faith in her behalf. Her name is Daniele.

Well, there is much more but this is long enough. We will tell about visiting 2 palaces and a beautiful cathedral on St. Patrick’s Day in our next post.

We are truly enjoying our time here. From our posts, it might seem like we are just having fun times. We assure you, we are working hard, but just can’t say much about what we do. We also get to play hard and we also get to sneak in some “real” missionary work. Almost every time we go on one of these activities we carry pass-along cards and we engage with people, on the subway, the bus, in the restaurant or even just on the street, and invite them to learn more about the Savior and his church. Sister Love was practicing her Spanish with a young man on the subway on the way home from one of our activities not long ago. She learned he is a psychology student here in Buenos Aires and she was telling him about what we do here. She gave him a pass-along card and she was so engrossed in the conversation she just barely made it off the train as the doors were closing at her stop. We so love the great people here and getting to know them and looking for those who are prepared to hear the gospel message.  We know it is true, that God lives and Jesus is the Christ. Until next time…..

A BAPTISM AND THE WIESES GO HOME

We wrote last time about going to choir practice at our ward building before Christmas. Some of those practices were on weeknights and we would run into the young missionaries assigned to our ward who were teaching investigators at the church. One evening, we were just leaving choir practice when the sisters, who at that time, were Sister Singleton and Sister Collado, had just finished giving the first discussion to a man named Juan Jose Borjes and we stopped to meet him. There was an instant connection with this good man and his story is very interesting.

Juan Jose comes from a Catholic family but had become dissatisfied and was looking elsewhere. He joined the Seventh-Day-Adventists but was still not satisfied and was still looking. He was viewing The Piano Guys web site and he saw that they are members of the LDS Church. He read what they wrote about their beliefs and was impressed, so he clicked the link to mormon.org, and ended up calling Church headquarters in Salt Lake to find out more. He was referred to the Buenos Aires North Mission, who sent Sisters Singleton and Collado to contact him because he lives in the Villa Crespo Ward boundaries. By the time they met him, he had downloaded the Gospel Library smart phone app and was reading the Book of Mormon and other Church literature. He was anxious to be baptized and really, the sisters just needed to be sure he knew about the Church and the commitments he would be making. At church, we attend the Gospel Principles class, where the investigators go, and we had an opportunity to get to know him, along with other investigators and newly baptized members. He set his baptism for January 8 and he asked Elder Love to baptize him, which he was honored to do.

The Villa Crespo Gospel Principles Class

Elder Love, Juan Jose Borjes, Sister Fraga (replaced Sis. Singleton), & Sister Collado

The following week, he also asked Elder Love to confirm him, and the week after that, he received a calling and also received the Aaronic Priesthood. Elder Love was also privileged to participate in his setting apart and his ordination to the office of priest. Juan Jose has been faithful in fulfilling his assignments, blessing the sacrament and attending his meetings. Yesterday, we attended the evening session of stake conference and learned that he has been doing family history. He is fulfilling his goal to index names and he already has 7 names from his family ready to submit for temple ordinances. We introduced him to the manager for family history for the South America South area, who later indicated that they would love to do a video of his story for the area. He is a great example for us all.

The Wieses Go Home

Although the senior couples really don’t have trainers like the young missionaries do, the closest thing for many of the senior couples here has been the Wieses, from Farmington, Utah, whose assignment was Public Relations, working closely with area seventy, Elder Salas. Because they were assigned to the La Boca ward, which is quite a long way from Palermo, where we all live, they would check out a car on weekends to go to church. When new couples were arriving, usually on Fridays, they would also do the long drive to the airport to pick them up and deliver them to their apartment. Then, they would show them around the neighborhood – where to buy groceries, where to get the subway card, where to catch the subway or bus to get to work and to church, etc. They would feed the young proselyting missionaries from La Boca nearly every Sunday, often 6 missionaries, and Sister Wiese was the unofficial social coordinator who kept track of interesting activities for the senior couples on the weekends. In the days before their mission was coming to an end on February 2, we enjoyed having them for dinner, as did most of the senior couples. We also took one Friday evening and all went with them to their favorite restaurant, Lai Lai, in Barrio Chino (the Chinese neighborhood). It was a wonderful evening with great food and great company.

The senior couples in front of Lai Lai in Barrio Chino

After dinner, we strolled to Barrancas de Belgrano park, which is not far from Lai Lai. There is a small pavilion in the park where people go on weekend evenings to dance the tango. There are old and young, who all put their purses, backpacks, etc., in the middle of the floor for security and then they dance. It was a little like a stake dance, sometimes, with the men on one side and the women on the other, but there were still a lot of people dancing, and it was rather sweet. It is very traditional here. Typically, a man would approach a woman and ask her to dance, and they would take the floor. Many of them are very good dancers. Then, after that dance, he would accompany her back to her place. We enjoyed watching them for quite some time before we had to go catch our bus. 

Dance pavilion in Barrancas de Belgrano Park

Couples dancing the tango in Barrancas de Belgrano Park pavilion

A few days later, all the senior couples had a wonderful pot luck dinner with the Wieses, where we celebrated Elder Wiese’s birthday, and the Williams did a photo presentation of them, the activities they had been involved in, and their favorite pastime, going out to dinner. 

View from the top of Wiese's building where we had our pot luck dinner - you can see the Rio Plata and a ship if you look closely

A few days later, they were on their way back to Farmington to get new phones, a new car, a new home, and see their wonderful family. We truly miss them and we wish them all the best.

The Loves and the Wieses

A Beautiful Place to Work

Buenos Aires is a beautiful place with wonderful old homes and classic architecture. Here are a few miscellaneous photos of houses near our office in Begrano.

Beautiful restored courtyard at the LDS Institute in Belgrano

A home near the office in Belgrano - notice the lovely carved faces

Diverse architecture on a street near the office in Belgrano

Hamburger Fest

As we have mentioned before, there are frequently food fairs at the race track hear our apartment. We went to a hamburger fest a few weeks ago and got a chuckle out of the menu item at one of the food stands:

We both had the "Combo Trump"

Stake Conference

We attended our stake conference today in the Belgrano stake. Our old stake president has been called to serve as a mission president in the Salta, Argentine mission so a new stake presidency was called and sustained today.  Elder Alan Packer, of the Seventy, and a member of the area presidency and of the Belgrano stake, and Elder Batalla, area seventy, were the assigned authorities. The Belgrano stake has excellent leadership. Many of the area managers live in the stake so the list of Melchizedek priesthood holders who would be capable of being called as stake president was longer than many in the area. The brother who was called as stake president was the stake executive secretary and he works in the area planning department. The first counselor was the former second counselor and the second counselor is the area finance manager, whom Elder Love knows rather well. The Belgrano stake will be in good hands.

We know this is the Lord’s work and His hand is in it. We love you all. Until next time,

The Loves