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.