October Finales

Newest Investigator:
We were a little surprised today when a dog wandered into church. No one seemed to notice or mind.



However, surprised is an understatement of our sentiments when the dog made himself at home to listen to the speakers. He stayed the whole meeting pleading for love from branch members from time to time.


We asked one of the branch members if she thought the dog was a member.

We see plenty of stray dogs all over Argentina. Most homes have several dogs and the gauchos have 5-6 trained dogs to help them herd cattle. I suppose a dog at church should be acceptable. What do you think?


We have finished painting for the time being. Since we had rain all week, we had plenty of time to complete the task at hand.

Remember this old bathroom? I still need some American cleaning supplies to get rid of years of hard water build up. Otherwise, it's good to go




The tile below was cracked and coming up. After gluing and caulking it down, we mixed some paint to hide the repair. Good match on the paint don't you think? Thanks to grandma Joyce for teaching how to mix colors. The floor is much safer too from crawling things even if the toilet isn't (remember the frog?).


The tile below was broken and coming up all over the place. It's not a perfect fix but at least it's not dangerous and bugs aren't hiding anywhere.

We started by painting it beige but gold won out in the end because it didn't jump out so much.

Much of the tile you see has been repaired and painted so that you can't see the fix. Only a few places had to be removed and filed with cement patch.


Check out the rooms below.... no more big cracks or falling pieces of wall.



Love these big windows. Can't wait to get some cleaning supplies from the States to clean them up. In the mean time, it looks like a home don't you think?





This is our school library. Not too many books but at least a few. The books in the left bookshelf are in Spanish while the ones on the right are in English. The kids choose the left almost exclusively.





Our last painting project was the enclosed patio in back. It was a mess as you see below.


Now check it out! It may not be perfect, but at least it's not scary looking.



We used gray paint that blocks mold growth under the screened windows. That's our favorite part.

We are still going to clean off the pillars. They are too textured and dirty to paint. We used unneeded screens from other windows in the house to block off the missing screens on this end of the patio. We should be able to enjoy this part of the house bug- free come summer.

The crack in the left corner of the room below was probably 1 1/2 inches wide. The tape that we told you about last week worked well. The drapes came from another area of the house which served no purpose. Behind the drapes now are all of our painting supplies, tools, and miscellaneous items that needed to be hidden from view. For a curtain rod, we concocted two pieces of metal that happened to fit together to stretch the needed distance. We wired the metal rod to the wall after resting it on two metal shelving units.

Waist not....want not!



The washing machine is not on level ground so we used old tile to raise up the lower end and then wired it to the wall so that during the spin cycle it no longer walks away from the drainage wall spilling water everywhere.


Regular maintenance:
Once a week, usually Friday after we have taken the kids home, Gregg cleans the truck. The rain stopped on Wednesday so by Friday we could function again.



This ranch car wash is free for all who dare straddle the lifters. Amy's job is to spot as Gregg drives up the cement walls. It works great for cleaning mud from the bottom of the truck.


All of the water drains off into the hay field to your left. Pretty efficient I'd say.


While Gregg cleans the truck, Amy cleans and weeds the walkway leading from the ranch office to our house.


She also sweeps the dirt driveway. Yes, you read that right. Dirt roads can and are swept regularly here. One time we saw a man sweeping his grass. That seemed a little eccentric but what do we know?


Speaking of cultural differences, another oddity is the hitch hikers we see everywhere. It is not uncommon at all to see school teachers and policemen out hitching a ride. Today we saw a grandmother and small child wanting a ride. We are told as missionaries not to pick up hitch hikers. However, we want to check out that policy more closely when the Hynes, our directors, come to visit next week. It seems like a noble thing to do when it comes to babies and their grandmas.

More Spring Rain

Una Adventura:

This week's potential disaster came out of the blue (no pun intended….okay maybe it was a little intended) so we’ll thank you in advance for your prayers. We had a week of rain so heavy that we hadn’t been able to go anywhere. When it finally stopped, and we had a couple of days to dry out, we headed for Federal to get groceries and more paint supplies.  As we left the ranch, the roads were dry but the drainage on the sides of the dirt roads were full of water. Clearly the heavens had opened and a great deal of water had collected.

We innocently took the shorter route to Federal not knowing the disaster in front of us. As we circled around a blind corner, we saw that the road ahead was covered with moving water. It looked only a foot or so deep and no more than 20-30 feet across so we forged ahead. However even with the four-wheel drive engaged, the mud was sluggish and the truck began to slow and slip. Soon we felt the tires as they gripped the grating that was surely the bridge underneath us. Our spirits lifted as the truck picked up speed. However, the road continued to circle and our view ahead was not pleasant. 

The crossing was not 20-30 feet like we first thought but more like 300 feet and we didn’t know how deep it would get before getting to dry ground. It was certainly too late to turn back so we continued strong but not fast.

Somehow we made it through to dry ground and had no other problems. We don’t want to guess how deep it was but acknowledge the blessing in our safety. We could have easily been swept down stream. Needless to say, we went home the longer route. You should have seen Yuca’s face when we reported our plight for the day. He advised that we never ever go that route after a rain. I think we learned our lesson.

Some sweetness:

Some have asked what we eat here. Dulce De Leche is usually on the list. Here you see us spreading it on a cookie. It is sweet caramelized milk that can become quite addicting.

Home Repair

So here is a good idea for repairing cracks. Looks like a roll of toilet paper below...right?"

Well actually, it is much stronger than paper. You use paint underneath it like glue and more paint on top to make it disappear. It may not be as smooth a finish as you get with drywall mud, but so much easier, cheaper, and cleaner.

Some cracks almost disappeared entirely while others can barely be seen. Most importantly when we sweep the floor, we don't see pieces of wall on the floor anymore. The good news for Amy is that there are fewer places for aranas (spiders) to hide.

Much better don't you think?

We bought the primary colors, red, yellow, and blue, to match colors for tile around the house.

We'll show you the finished products later since were not quite finished but pay attention in your art classes. You never know what skills you're going to need.

Hunting for Bird's Nests

We took the kids to school one day this week. On the way home the kids wanted to stop and look for bird's nests. We knew they were close by due to the mothers swooping and scolding.

Que lastima (too bad)....no luck !

What do you do when you just need a couple more inches to reach that high corner?

That's right... you put a four inch block on the top step.   Ahhhh. got it!

After our trip to Federal and observing spring blooms along the route, we decided to bring a few transplants home. This planter box had been a favorite digging spot for the dog and chickens so before planting we buried old metal pipes that were going to go to the trash. The animals now leave the spot alone so the plants may have a half a chance.

View from the learning center

We finished the majority of the painting on Saturday. Rain is predicted again on Tuesday so we plan to finish touching up the tile and repairing one of the bathrooms. Unless the rain stops, we'll have to think of some other project. Amy is good at that so not to worry.  :)

Time spent productively when it rains

We've had more rain this week so not many teaching opportunities. However, after the third attempted trip to Federal, we were able get the needed painting supplies before the rains hit too hard to travel.

Below you see a pile of mold growing on the cement. After picking brains at Federal Ferreteria (Federal Hardware store), we found a solution.


We were told to paint the cement floor with this special solution that blocks moisture. After painting with the special solution, we smoothed off some of the bumps with a product called Enduido.


Enduido is similar to drywall mud except its more like plastic when it dries. We kind of like it because it's not so dusty and you aren't required to paint over it if you're putting white over white.

Prior to the treatment, we swept the floor everyday and each time collected piles of mold crystals. Hurrah for fixes because our sweeping muscles are wearing out.

We're back painting again.


The paint rollers here are more like a spiny-finn fish on a stick. The paint trays are regular buckets. We had to get creative to make it work but in the end it was better than a four inch brush on big walls.


Here is our adventura for the week. A picture is worth a thousands words.

Yes, that's a frog in the toilet bowl. No one knows how it got there, but he's big. He got liberated so don't you worry. However, new law of the land here is--never, ever, sit on the toilet without careful observance.

Below is what we found after a heavy rain storm. . . just when we thought we were safe.

Is that a leach in the formal dinning room?

 This is a worm close by under the coffee table.
(Their fate was not in accordance with political correctness, but don't tell anyone.)
Spray foam from Home Depot can't get here soon enough. 

Silver lining in the cloud:
We were off school for 2 days and finally the roads dried enough to take the kids to school which starts at 8:00 AM. At a little after 11:00  the Director of the school called me. She had received a call from the mother of the 4 year old who was worried that it would rain too hard to get the kids home safely if we waited until noon and requested that we immediately bring the kids home. (It's amazing how observant the people are who have spent their whole lives here. They can read the sky like a book.) We loaded the kids in the camionetta (small truck) and rushed them home. As we dropped off the last student, it being Vale the 4 year old, it began to rain. The roads were barely passable by the time we arrived home. It was perfect timing and all turned out well for us.

However, the teachers were not so lucky. After about 10 minutes of traveling home toward Feliciano, the vehicle was sliding all over the road so they told the driver not to go any farther. The teachers called our ranch and requested that they be picked up and returned to the school. We invited them into our home for the afternoon while we waited for the storm to abate and had some good conversations with them.

By late afternoon, the rain subsided, but the roads were still a mess. The teachers spent the night in the guest house next to us. We thought they had the life of luxury since the home is new and beautiful but found out the next day that they had been without power all night with no back-up generator like we have. (The power goes out every time someone sneezes.) The next day late in the afternoon Amy and I drove the teachers to Feliciano. We had a good conversation and they were kept entertained by my (Gregg's) wit and charm.

Two Month Report ... Ay Caramba ... How Time Flys

The biggest disappointment we had this week was not being able to go to Los Perales again. It rained one day and of course that had to be Wednesday.

However, we had a better week teaching here at the ranch.  Here is what we’ve discovered.

Listening to the book, Tom Sawyer, in Spanish was not successful the first day, so we switched it up and had reading near the beginning of our teaching before they got too wound up and ready for the day to end. It worked much better. We only got 5 minutes of reading before they became unsettled, but hopefully, Tom will grab their interest soon so we can lengthen our book reading time. (We are reading Spanish to them primarily to help lengthen their attention span.)

It is also working better since computer time is now at the end of the day rather first thing in the morning. The summer schedule started this week with our day starting at 7 am. We get the kids to school by 8. Public school ends at noon so our English class goes from noon until 1 with another hour for computer time for half of the kids on two different days. Only a couple of times we had to remind disgruntled kids that computer time would only be for those who cooperated. Awesome! We were able to keep most all of the kids engaged with one little motivation. Thank you for computers.

Here is an example of one of the games we played. The kids took turns matching up the English word with the actual object. All of these items were part of PowerPoint and are review. The older kids did well. The younger kids may have learned a word or two..

 

We’re also gearing our teaching to the older kids. If we can keep them happy and engaged, they pull the other kids with them. If we slow down for the youngest kids, we lose them all. Splitting the group by ages didn’t work because the youngest kids wanted to be with their older siblings and the kids in the middle work better with the peer pressure they feel from the older kids to keep up. As you see, little by little, we’re figuring out what’s going to work best.

We have found that our kids like worksheets and art projects so we’ve been scrambling to find ideas.  They are still motivated with PowerPoint and writing down new vocabulary words, cooking projects in the kitchen, short action songs, and games that we make up though they are not very responsive to competition. Interesting that they like everyone to win. That works for us too but it does change the structure of our games.

They are still engaged with sending messages to their Pen-Pals. (Thanks to our grandkids and parents for supporting us.) The youngest, Vale, really wants to help steer the truck like her big brother. She wants to know if her pen-pal who is also 4 years old can drive in the United States. Perhaps, Argentina is unreasonable in not allowing her to drive. What do you think?  :)

We also renewed a membership to Kids A-Z. This program allows the students to log into their own account, listen to a short book in English, read it again themselves into a microphone, and then we can review it with them later. Often the younger kids need one-on-one help so we don’t get to listen to the recordings of the older kids until after class is over. However, it’s a good way to keep all the kids busy learning independently so we can work one-on-one with the younger kids or with pen-pals.

Visiting Teaching

We were able to go Visiting Teaching this week for the first time. I say we because Gregg was supposed to Home Teach while I Visit Taught but his companion had to go to Buenos Aires to pick up his wife so Gregg came with us instead. I was glad to have Gregg along since my Spanish comprehension skills are still pretty bad.

We’ve almost been here two months but I’m told that it will probably be six months before the language starts making much sense. I still struggle with the Argentine "Campo" dialect. Argentine's don’t sound much like the audio Spanish class that I work on every day. I’m certainly learning empathy for others who have to transition to a foreign country with a foreign language.

I wrote a message to take visiting teaching with me in case I had a chance to talk. I didn’t, but I thought I’d share it with you instead. I had fun translating it into Spanish anyway. Here it is:

May I add my testimony of the importance of families? My family is the most important thing in my life. Without families the plan of Salvation would have no impact. Nothing can take its place. Let me explain our situation a little.

We try to blend in here in our new home, but we probably stick out like a sore thumb. Sometimes people get brave and ask us why we live in Argentina away from our family. Since they probably do not understand personal inspiration it is hard to explain. We tell them that it is a beautiful place and we like being here. They look at us incredulously. Why would we leave our children and grandchildren to go to a foreign country where we do not know the language very well and we are strangers?

Here is the answer. We believe in the Holy Ghost and personal revelation. Gregg and I have already served a mission together. We were in Nauvoo where we explained to visitors about church history. It was really fun. It wasn’t very far away and our family came to visit many times. The eighteen months we served there went really fast. We noticed that our family was blessed in many unexpected ways.

While we were gone we were blessed to be able to sell Gregg’s business. We knew it was a blessing for having served a mission. We are not rich but we have enough that we do not have to work anymore.

We are very grateful and decided that we wanted to serve another mission to show our appreciation. However, we had only been home about 5 months when this opportunity to go to Argentina came. We were going to tell them, “no” because we thought we wanted to be home with our family a little longer. But when we prayed about it, we knew that the Lord wanted us to come to Argentina now.  Nothing else really matters because more than anything we want to say, “yes” to our Heavenly Father who loves us.

We are happy here even though it is very hard. I am starting to understand your beautiful language and feel great love for the children we teach at El Quebracho. But we are happy mostly because we know that it is the Lord’s will for us at this time.

It is very hard to learn a new language. It is hard to disappoint you good people who must be frustrated to not be able to get much response from me at church. Sometimes I cry but not because I wish I were at home, but only because I feel impatient with my own faults. I know that eventually I will understand and be able to speak your beautiful language. I know this because I was promised I would when we were set apart as missionaries. I know that as we are obedient to Heavenly Father, He will bless us and our families.

My greatest desire is for my grandchildren to come to know for themselves the truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I cannot just give a testimony to them and neither can their parents. They have to find it themselves. But I can set a good example for them by doing hard things when asked.

As a missionary, I feel God’s love all the time. It makes me happy. It makes me want to keep trying. It motivates me to want to give away all my sins to know the Savior.

I am grateful for families. I love each of my family members with all my heart. I love them even more since we came to Argentina. 

Attending a Baptism

One of our students wanted to bring his dog to school for a minute so we could take a picture of him and his dog together for the Pen-pal project we have.



His sister clearly doesn't like the smell as is obvious from her nose pinching below. Actually, the smell was atrocious and the dog's owner smelled like his dog for the whole class time. Note to self: "No more pictures of pets so long as any of us have a nose."


Finally...classes in Los Perales!

Beautiful children, don't you think?










Next projects:

Now that the house is clean, we are going to do a little repairing. First project will be one of the bathrooms where the tile has fallen down. We used some random tile that had fallen down in some of the closets to patch the hole. However, we ran out of caulking so we'll show you the finished product next week. There is no longer a Home Depot around the corner.



We also found a little paint that was left by other missionaries. The house will be torn down eventually so we don't want to get carried away, but Yuca thought it was a buena idea to paint a little. As you see, most of the wall is fine so we'll just paint over the worst part. There are walls all over the house with this problem so it will take a few weeks.


Finished walls will have to be next week because it takes more than one coat to cover the exposed cement wall.

Baptism:
We were finally able to attend a baptism in Feliciano. What a beautiful Spirit we felt as this young woman chose to enter into the waters of baptism.

Note to anyone taking piano lessons--keep it up! 

You never know what skills you are going to need while on a mission. One of the young sister missionaries played the piano while all the young missionaries sang Cuando me Bautice, a Primary song. I thought of our numerous grandchildren  plucking away at the piano. Remember: it feels really good to be able to help out in the music department. You don't have to be a super star at it either, but it sure helps in a foreign country to be able to accompany.



The branch celebrates by decorating the chalkboard and following up with lunch together. We brought pop for the group but couldn't stay for the food.

Check out the baptismal font. We kept hearing about the font being in one place or another. Thinking that there were two fonts, we were confused where they were. Now we get it! The font can be outside if the weather permits or in the Primary room if needed. It is still cool here so the baptism was held inside. The room was packed and the window was open so that more people could see. Clever don't you think? (The water felt pretty cold so don't know if it helped much to be inside.)


No adventura this week....it was a good one.

We are constantly striving to improve our teaching. Yesterday we purchased some audio books in Spanish to strive to increase the kid's attention span. Tom Sawyer, Christmas Carol, and The Wizard of Oz were the choices for our rambunctious group.

We are also planning more work sheets and art projects. Our kids have to have a ton of diversion.