I Get Audience Participation from some Primary Children!

Saturday, July 11, 2015

What other work do we do on Saturday except our wonderful Capilla Abiertas!
This one was in La Paz.  We have really great weather considering it is winter.  It is so different than last year.
La Paz did a beautiful presentation for their capilla abierta. All of the organizations did exceptionally great things. They also brought their friends and family members. It was busy most of the night.  Two little brothers probably ages 6 and 4 brought their grandfather. They were so proud to have him their at their church. He was tugged around all night!

YouTube: Capilla Abierta de La Paz

15 minutes before we start, we invite the members into the chapel for
an opening prayer. The Bishop conducts. 

The children come in their Sunday best.

This was the best display I have ever seen done by the Elder's Quorum.

Baking skills were the highlight of this Relief Society display.
They had to use the kitchen and they did a beautiful "make-over" job.

Our great hermanas.

Sunday, July 12, 2015 

We did our capacitacion in Canelones and brought the Ness' and Andersons' with us.  It is always nice to share our Uruguay travels with them.  

We arrived a bit early so we toured the town a bit.
Every town always has a central plaza.
This was the biggest monument placed in a plaza that
I have ever seen in Uruguay.
It is a woman dressed for battle.
She represents protection for their flag.

The teacher for our Relief Society class.

 

                     

I always begin and end our presentation.

I had audience participation today, up front and personal!
My story includes a picture of La Tortuga and El Conejo.
 I asked the question, " Who wins?". La tortuga
o el conejo."  He came right up front and pointed to La Tortuga! 

Mike always gives the major part of our training, aided by a powerpoint
presentation that the area gave us. I did modify it a bit. I added some
uniformity and some background music and a video clip from Elder Ballard.

The Bishop.

Another young participant today. Her name is "Milagro" and
she wants to give these invitations to her 3 non-member friends.

A Very Happy Reunion

Friday, July 10, 2015

I had the most wonderful, happy day today.  We went to the temple today and sealed families together forever!  The Ness', the Anderson's and Mike and I did my family names.  They were all people that I had personally worked on to find records to be able to put families together.  Some were from my Stephens line, the Ackerley line and the Helm line.  I had decided through some more research I did this last month, that I had the correct brothers and sisters for Thomas Helm (3rd grt grandfather) and could seal them as a family.  We had a wonderful temple sealer and he spoke slow and distinctly for each person's sealing ordinance (in Spanish of course). Each one mattered. And because he spoke slow, I could understand.

As we were doing sons, he stopped when he saw the date of 1781 in England. He was amazed at how long this person had waited for this ordinance.  As he started the ordinance, he was visibly touched and tears came to his eyes and his voice trembled as he obviously felt what we were all feeling now, a great spirit of love and gratitude from the other side of the veil.  Mike shared with him the great effort that was made to even find this family after 50 plus years of researching and he also told him that we felt that my Dad (who had died) was very much a part of finding this family on the other side.  There is no doubt in my mind or heart that the spirit world exists and that the veil is very thin in the temple.  The family of my 3rd great grandfather were very happy today.  We all felt it!
As I was reflecting on these ordinances while sitting in the sealing room, a mental image came to my mind and I could see them running across a wide open field and jumping into the arms of their loved ones who had been waiting for them for a long time.
Today, we empowered them with the ordinances of the holy priesthood so that they could move forward with God's power to help themselves and their familes and friends progress.  And all of this is possible because of Heavenly Father's love for His children, that He gave His only Begotten Son, even Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer.  Although I know I do not comprehend all, I do know that it is all real and it doesn't negate my profound gratitude for the opportunity of mortal life that prepares us for eternal life with our Maker, our Redeemer, and our families.  Of these truths, I testify, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Thar She Blows! and The Casas are Returning to Their Casa

Thar she blows!  At least we think this is a whale.  They are running but usually you see them more up the coast.  This is outside our window apartment.

Monday, July 7, 2015

We sadly say good-bye to the Casas.  They were full time missionaries and worked in the temple.  They are returning home to Minas, here in Uruguay.

Hermana King and Hermana Garrido sing beautifully together.

The Ness's invited us over to say good-bye to the Casa's.

We had spaghetti, garlic bread, salad and dessert.

The Casa's.

A great group of devoted saints.

Closing a Chapter

WE HAVE A NEW NURSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are officially retired.  We have Hermana Paul who arrived with the last group of missionaries and she is a RN.  President Cook has asked her to field the calls now.  My, what a blessing for us and the missionaries.  I have felt very inadequate in this job as "nurse".  It was really more Elder Burnett's job because he could communicate better with the missionaries. I did the medical logging and offered weekly email tips for health.

RETIRED!

Friday, July 3, 2015
Mike and I were invited to speak about using Family History as a tool for missionary work.  At first we were given 45 min per session but then they found out that our Area Seventy (Elder Cabrera) would be joining our concilio and they wanted to give him time to talk.  So we prepared for 35 minutes instead.  After Elder Cabrera did talk, we were down to 25 minutes. We taught 3 groups. We wanted each person to be able to upload a photo of themselves, but time hampered us and only 1 person from each group was able to use our iPad, iPhone, and Android to upload a photo.  I conversed in Spanish off the cuff and it was okay.  At least they understood my efforts.  Mike said I did wonderful, but I know better.  It was the Spirit that taught and not my language skills, thank heaven!  This was the outline we tried to follow:

Group Activity: Share a photo and a story       5 min

 I showed them a picture of my Grandpa and Grandma Stephens when they were on their mission in 1950. 

Este es mi abuelo y mi abuela. Ellos fueron algunos de los primeros matrimonios misioneros. Sir-vi-er-on una misión de proselitismo en un mil novecientos cincuenta en el centro de Estados Unidos. Tambien, mis padres sir-vi-er-on una misión juntos y ahora estamos a la tercera generación servir en una misión con usted.

This is my grandpa and grandma. They were some of the first married couples to serve a mission in the church. They served a proselyting mission in 1950 in Central United States. My parents also served a mision together doing family history. Now we are the third generation to serve a mission here with you. 

(Divide into 3 groups) Comparte con nosotros su foto y un recuerdo en un minuto. You now have 1 minute to share your photos and story with your group. 

Group Discussion: Feelings we just received and why    5 min

¿Qué estamos sintiendo?  Por Que?

Las familias son eternas.  Esta es una verdad eterna.

Group Discussion: Define the Spirit of Elijah    5 min

Elder Bednar nos dio la definición del espíritu de Elías. Qué es?

 “una manifestación del Espíritu Santo que da testimonio de la naturaleza divina de la familia”

 ¿Qué más nos enseña Elder Bednar?

El espíritu de Elías es fundamental y esencial en la obra de proclamar el Evangelio.

El Libro de Mormón cambio de corazón, y el del espíritu de Elías en que se vuelvan los corazones.

Group Discussion: How to use this Spirit for missionary work. Elder Burnett  10 min

Hands On: Add photo and story to familysearch.org  10 min

HandOuts: How to create a familysearch account.

                 Oct 2014 Ensign Article from Elder Bednar

Sharing their photos and story.

Our hermana leaders.

Because of our time commitment here, I had the Anderson's come and help in the kitchen. Elder Anderson took this picture of Mary and Ana, who work for the church in cooking and maintaining the mission home. 

Saturday, 4TH of JULY!

We helped the Anderson's with more moving and then at around 4 o'clock we had everyone over to our apartment for a BBQ.  No fireworks though.  We did the traditional hamburgers and chips, and I made PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES!  I splurged and used some of the peanut butter sent to us from home.  We all loved them!  We had all the couples including President and Hermana Cook.
I listened to patriotic music all day via Pandora.  Hola.org will change your IP location so that Pandora thinks I am in the U.S. I even heard ads from Utah!  I loved Johnny Cash's "Ragged Old Flag".  Brought back memories of my Dad who liked to listen to Johnny Cash.  I wore red, white, and blue along with my Tinkerbell sweat shirt (remember it is cold here) and my Tinkerbell earrings.  I thought what could be more American that Walt Disney and Tinkerbell?  

Can you Bake a Cherry Pie, Billy Boy, or How About Apple Cake

I baked 7 pans of Amish Apple Cake.
Added whipped cream on top.

Sunday, June 21, 2015
We did not have any capilla abiertas or capacitaciones this weekend.  On Saturday we took the trailer and helped the Anderson's deliver furniture around to the different Stakes.  Their huge "Employment Center" in the middle of Plaza Independencia is being closed.  The church is making the transition from the old program of LDS Employment and moving to "Self Reliance".  This program is to be run in each Stake Center throughout the country.  They are sharing the FHC where one is available.  So all the wonderful resources from that employment center are being dispersed.  But alot of the Stakes do not have the resources (truck, van, trailer) to come and get large pieces of furniture. So, we with our handy-dandy trailer are helping.
Sunday was nice to spend in our own ward just to let them know we are not too "menos activos".
Then we had a delicious "Happy Father's Day" lunch at the mission home.  Uruguay celebrates their Father's Day in July, but we decided to celebrate today, because we knew all our kids were celebrating as well and we wanted to join them.

Hna Cook made a delicious butternut squash soup.
Remember it is winter here!

We had salmon again because it was so easy and so good last time.
I baked 1 hour rolls that Candiss had posted on Facebook and they
were perfect!

Wednesday, June 24, 2015
We had a multi zone conference today.  Last week Elder Olivier called and asked for the recipe and the count of how many items to buy for (guess what???)...........Burrito Bar!!!
The missionaries love it!  They were going to do all the preparing and cooking.  Unfortunately, Elder Olivier got super sick on Monday.  I told him to stay home and get better and not worry about Wednesday.  We (Mike and I) could handle everything just fine.  So we did.  We did enough burritos for 75 people to have 3 each.  I initially thought that I had made too many beans again, but we ended up right on the money!  Everything was perfect.  Hectic, but perfect.

Saturday, June 27, 2015
We left Friday because we had some deliveries and apartment repairs to do in the same area as our capilla abierta.  I did most of the driving, just to give Mike a break.  Country driving is pretty easy.

Today was the perfect capilla abierta. It was a blend of two branches, Asamblea y Estacion.
Hermana Sanhueza reported the following: She wrote it in Spanish and Google translated it so it is a bit off.

I'm so happy! .. This week was of miracles!

Saturday we went to an open chapel in Florida and it was so spiritual!

The first tour we did was a family currently being taught by the missionaries.They are a couple with a child of 14 years, They came because they are fulfilling their promise to come.  They shared their feelings of Jesus Christ and the family with us and we really felt who they are,  the elect of the Lord. His eyes shone with such feeling and they were happy to have attended.

Another tour was the sister of a young member.  She had never attended our church before. She came alone to the chapel with her two daughters. As we were doing the tour, talking about Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon, she had her eyes with excitement and told us that she had never had that feeling so much peace, so much emotion. She prays and attended another church with her daughters but never had that feeling in that church. We talk about the manifestations of the spirit and how we can recognize them. We shared the plan of salvation and the temple.  She was very interested in hearing more.

Another experience I had was:

In our city named "Hospital" in Durazno, all the members say I look like a member who was a missionary in Paraguay. and is now less active and lives in Florida,(Uruguay). Her name is Anna (name changed for lack of permission). We called her family and visited them a few weeks ago here in Durazno and they told us she was going through bad times and would not give her address for anyone to visit.

Her mother died when she was very young, she joined the church as a youth, her father married again and formed another family, the little sisters were baptized before her mission but her stepmother has not yet taken the desicion. Currently the only active member is her father. 

When traveling to Florida for the open chapel I felt that we should ask for the phone number to invite her parents.

We called her and she said if she had time they would attend.

We were starting another tour with 2 girls and they canceled it and said they had to leave, and then comes Anna! We hugged and she wanted to start a tour. We asked a member to accompany us. It just happened to be that this member and Anna had been friends before serving their missions! They embraced and they began to cry, the Spirit was very strong. I felt like the Prodigal Son, one deep feeling of love. As we begin to share our testimony of the atonement of Jesus Christ, we started to cry again and a the Spirit filled the room. She did the tour and she looked happy as we taught the Restoration, the plan of salvation and we were reminded each time and received a testimony of each one of those things and feelings that had to acknowledge the truth of it.

After the tour, she gave us her address so that the missionaries could visit her. She lives in Piedra Alta where Hermana Fragapane and Hermana Aquino serve. Now get this! Hermana Aquino is from Paraguay, and Anna knew and visited her family. Hermana Aquino went with them to many missionary discussions there in Paraguay. So Hermana Aquino was a missionary for Anna and now she is still a missionary for Anna here in Uruguay!!!

It was exciting to help and she returned to feel what you felt before inactivity. Now the mission will visit and help.

Another experience this week was out with the bishop to the talks. The told us he quit his job to work more years in the Lord's work, his boss went to look for him back home he said that this God first and then earthly things. Now he is taking a difficult decision, and says he will go to the temple to fetch guidance and answers.

I am happy here and I'm taking to the last minute of my mission to help those miracles for the Lord.

(Hermana Sanhueza goes home this next change)

These two branches gave one hundred percent and the results were incredible! 33 no miembros all brought by members. 8 menos activos. The BEST ever!

YouTube: Capilla Abierta de Asamblea y Estacion

"I want to play the piano but I have no piano at my house."
Elder Burnett: "You can come to my house and play the piano."
"Where do you live?"
"I live in the United States, in Utah."

"Uhh..., I have to ride a plane to get there and I do not have
enough money right now. Maybe soon though!"

Anna and friend. Read the story above.

Can't do these wonderful capilla abiertas without these faithful missionaries!