First Spit Fire Steak / Capilla Abierta for Las Piedras Wards 1 & 2

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Before the Capilla Abierta, Mike took me out to lunch at the local Pizzeria for Mother's Day. 
It was our first "spit fire" steak.  Yum, yum.
I didn't have to cook and Mike didn't have to do the dishes!  Very nice break for both of us.

Last week we did Obelisco Wards in the city of Las Piedras. Today we traveled to the same city to do the Capilla Abierta for the Las Piedras Wards.  

The members were very good at bringing members of their family to this event. Their enthusiasm and participation was outstanding. The refreshments were homemade and also excellent. 

Reference Card Comments: 

"I liked Jesus Christ, how he talked about how he gave his life for us, his sacrifice." 

"Great tour of the temple (chapel). I especially liked the words that Christ spoke, his message." 

"The message heard in the chapel brought me peace, the tour helped me to know the road my son has chosen to walk." This comment came from a mother whose son recently joined the church. He wants to go on a mission, but his mother has not been comfortable with him joining the church until tonight.

Stats:

VISITANTES

# de misioneros:     14

# de miembros en recorridos (tour):  9

# de miembros no en recorridos:  20

# de no-miembros:   19

TOTAL:         62

REFERENCIAS:  44

Video Link:   Capilla Abierta Las Piedras

Our First Visitors

I love to watch the children as they visit.

Ward Members and the missionaries

Their family history consultant.


We treated them to dinner and of course we all loved it!

12 Hungry and Hard Working Missionaries

"When what to our wondering eyes did we see?"

Monday, May 5, 2014

P-Day

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

President Cook called us this morning and asked if we would be available to pick up two missionaries coming from the CCM (MTC) in Brazil. Their flight was delayed and everyone from the office were involved with a 3 zone conference and could not pick them up.  Now that we have a van we could most certainly accomodate them and their luggage.  The airport is about a half hour drive. We arrived and found out that their flight was not just late, it had been cancelled.  They were scheduled for another flight from Air France and would arrive around 11:30 am.  So, we left the airport and went to Geant (Walmart sort of) to kill some time.
We had some visual aids we wanted to see if we could find. We have an object lesson in mind to help people understand why coming to Sacrament meeting is so important.
We often have people come up to us and ask for money.  Mike is uncomfortable not taking care of the poor and I am uncomfortable in giving money because I know it is probably not going for food.  We decided to keep some apples and crackers in our vehicle so we could just had that to them.  So we needed an ice chest/ igloo of some sort.  Plus, it would be nice to have an igloo for our long trips that are coming up shortly.
We were also looking for an inexpensive, small picture frame so that we could put a picture of Christ in it and give it as a gift to people who have been so kind to us here.
We were a little hungry because we left in a hurry, so we ventured forth to McDonald's that was in Geant and ordered a bagel/egg sandwich.  I would have ordered a hamburger, but they weren't serving those yet.  Yep, hamburger would have been MUCH better.  The bagel had nothing on it and it was very dry. Never again!
We went back to the airport and "what to our wondering eyes did appear?", not just two missionaries but quite a few more!

Two belonged to our mission and the rest were going to the other mission.  We called President Smith to find out why his mission was not there to pick them up, but he did not answer.  We finally called our President Cook and he found out that they were on their way.  It seems the airport had told them 1 p.m.  Meanwhile these wonderful "oro" missionaries were starved because of all the flight delays, so we treated them to the only food available at the airport.....McDonald's!  I should have waited an hour and I could have had a hamburger!

We took our two missionaries to the Zone Conference as instructed by President Cook.  They were just finishing lunch and we were able to have pictures taken with the zones.

Video Link: Zone Conference Craziness

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Nice charla with Aida y Miguel.  Sweet Aida was all nervous about her temple recommend interview. She thought the questions would be about her knowledge of the gospel. Got a call later tonight saying that they both now have their temple recommends from the Bishop.
It is so wonderful to participate in the lives of so many people. And not just the ones here on this earth. We are helping their family on the other side as well!  Truly a marvelous work and a wonder.  

Thursday, May 8, 2014
Office day.  

Friday, May 9, 2014

We were called to work at temple in the afternoon.

Hija De Un Rey

Sunday, May 4, 2014

We did a great presentation for our great ward, Malvin. This ward should see great results. After church we said our prayers and ended our fast which we had begun on Saturday afternoon.  Our prayers went out of course to our family.  They are doing so much to support us. 

We had a charla at 3pm with Pedro and Ema.  We taught about the Sabbath Day and why church is important. I think we made progress with knowing now what the difficulties are and now hopefully we can help solve some of the issues. 

At 5 pm the young women did their Nuevos Comienzos (New Beginnings) which was great.  The musical number Hija de un Rey (Daughter of a King) went really well. They served great refreshments too!  Is it any wonder I have a hard time with my weight!

Video Link:  Nuevos Comienzos

Beautiful Invitation

Beautiful Cake

Beautiful Young and Younger Women

After the young women's program we had another charla with familia de Ariel y Roxanne and discussed the priesthood.

They loved the lesson and loved seeing Mike's priesthood line of authority.  He has made a picture one which I think helps them visualize better the priesthood power and where the line of authority actually began with Jesus Christ. 

BUSY weekend!  We need a P-Day!   

From the Eyes of a child....Capilla Abierta Barrio de Obelisco 1

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Capilla Abierta con Obelisco 1

A comment from a reference card: "I loved everything they told me and I would like to attend and learn more."

YES!  This is what is so wonderful about these events.

Stats:
VISITANTES
# de misioneros:  20
# de miembros en recorridos: 15
# de miembros no en recorridos: 10
# de miembros menos activos: 3
# de no-miembros:  30
TOTAL: 78

REFERENCIAS: 60

Video Link: Obelisco 1

This night was VERY long. We had to drive sisters to Santa Lucia like last night and then another 45 minute drive further north to San Jose de Mayo. We then had to drive back to Las Piedras (1 hour 45 minutes) and load up the van and then drive one hour to the mission office and then 10 minutes to our apartment.  1 a.m. we finally dropped into bed. Not sure our schedule matches the missionary handbook!

Hermanas Lanuza,Bullock,Smouse,Gines,Neuffer,Nelson

My favorite moment of the evening.

Lots of missionary power tonight!

There is some fun mixed in with the work!

Can you guess how pizza is delivered? The mode of transportation
is on the corner.

Yep! A wood box on the back of a small motor bike.

Capilla Abierta Barrio de Obelisco 2

Friday, May 2, 2014

Capilla Abierta con Obelisco 2.  Location: 1 hour north of Montevideo in the city of Las Piedras.

I noticed that 2 women of different tours that were visibly moved by the words of Christ in the chapel. The young people from this ward were huge participants in bringing people off the streets and into the meetinghouse. The members did a great job with their booths and refreshments.

Stats:
VISITANTES

# de misioneros: 14
# de miembros en recorridos (tour) : 18
# de miembros no en recorridos:       10
# de no-miembros:  36
TOTAL:   78

REFERENCIAS:  44

We didn't have to pack up the van tonight because we have another capilla abierta with Obelisco 1st Ward tomorrow.  We did have to drive the sisters to Santa Lucia. That is about 1 hour further out from Las Piedras which is the city where the chapel of Obelisco 1 and 2 are located.  So we got home around midnight.

Here is the video link: Obelisco 1

Plaque in Las Piedras Central Plaza.
Can you see our reflection?

Las Piedras Central Plaza

Bought some warm winter boots.

Barrio de Obelisco 2

Hermana West and Hermana Miller

Hermanas Baird, Altamirano, Peterson, Bertuoli

Elder Hughes

Elder Torres

Elder Vega

Elder Romero

Elder Poulter

Priesthood Power

72 Hour Emergency Vest

Asado de tacos...Is there such a thing?

May 1, 2014

It’s May, It’s May!  The lusty month of May…  Song from Camelot.  I always sing this song on May 1st.   Oh, wait.  Can I sing that song?  Well, even though I am a missionary....I am still totally in love and married to a great man, my missionary companion, my eternal companion.  

Mike bought me some beautiful roses too!

It is also a big holiday here. It is their Labor Day. Everyone is off.  No buses running and very few taxis out.  No grocery stores open either.  The air is filled with the smell of burning wood because everyone is doing their “asado”.

We fed the assistants to the president at lunch time.  We couldn’t do an “asado” for them so we did TACOS because I found corn tortillas at Inglesia.  We did almost the whole thing. I made fresh salsa. I made refried beans.  We used our delicious taco seasoning that was mailed to us.  I made Mom’s Amish apple cake and added blueberries because I found some of those at the Granero.  That was yummy, warm out of the oven with fresh whipped cream on top.  Yes, I spoiled the elders, but they deserve it.  Oh, I also baked bread because I was out and tomorrow we have a capilla abierta and I won’t have time to cook or bake.  So, I sent them out the door with some fresh salsa, fresh bread, and a fresh dessert.

We had a charla with Yisel. She had requested that we teach her about how other churches came to be.  So I prepared my part on the restoration and Mike prepared his part on the apostasy.  I found a nice video in Spanish about the First Vision from mormon.org.  So, my part was easy.

English Language link: Joseph Smith's First Vision 

I did prepare my own testimony to add to it. When we arrived at Yisel’s home, her sister was there with her daughter.  We invited them to join us and they accepted.  Wow, what a strong spirit prevailed.  Her daughter was probably 15 or 16.  They both had tears flowing as Mike taught them and as they watched the video.  I had tears come as I shared my broken Spanish testimony of Joseph Smith. Yisel’s sister had questions about the name “mormon”. Other questions about why God is letting the world get worse.  We spent over an hour in Yisel’s home.  After all was said, we asked Yisel if we could set another appointment and the sister spoke up and said she wanted to be at the next one.  She doesn’t live close she said, but she wanted to come!  I could feel the sweet spirit of her daughter too. I told her daughter that I could feel something very special about her.  WHAT A POWERFUL afternoon.  We have another charla set for Mother’s Day Sunday.