Exercising Faith

We love our new lawn service. With all the rain, horses were left to graze around our house sine the yardmen from Federal couldn't get in. Lucky us!

Horses are so....something. What do you call it? Majestic? Graceful? Intelligent? Perceptive? I guess compared to cows, all those words fit.



Is that a lemon meringue pie sitting next to home made rolls?


It sure looks like it. So beautiful, so longed for. We've wanted to make lemon meringue pie since Thanksgiving but couldn't find corn starch. We even tried to make our own corn starch, but that was a disaster. (We ended up with crystallized corn syrup instead.) So, when our son Aaron searched our blog for items he could surprise us with, he brought corn starch with him to Buenos Aires a few weeks ago. How thrilling! Our own corn starch!

So, for Amy's Birthday (a day late due to no electricity on Monday and the need to do laundry on Tuesday) we worked together and made empanadas, rolls, and a delicious looking lemon meringue pie.


One bite, and we ran to the new bag of (what we thought was) sugar to discover the problem. It was not sugar at all but rather salt. We've been storing salt in the freezer for months to keep sugar ants away and it was salt all along...two bags of salt!

We've had sugar/salt stories before but this one takes the cake. (Okay, pun intended)

At least the rolls and empanadas had sugar not salt, and we have more corn starch to try again. It's taken another five days to get back to the store for sugar, but this week should bring another mouth watering pie that tastes as good as it looks.

Thoughts from Gregg:

When one of life's vicissitudes is not what we expected, how should we respond? The following is taken from LDS.org

Steve Jones knew what he was going to do with his life. He was going to be a stand-up comedian. God gave him the natural ability-the flair for making people laugh. Life was good until he got married and life started to get real. He now needed an adult job, one that would offer a consistent pay check, hours and heath insurance. He took on a 9 to 5 job with health insurance. After the first day of boredom he reassessed his decision.

He believes God cares about what we do with our lives, and wants to help us but expects us to act. He expects us to do something about our dreams. After thinking and praying, he came up with a question he now lives by. "Will this matter in 1,000 years?" So, he quit the job and focused on the dream of being a high school religion teacher. I applied for the program, threw myself into student teaching, and did acting and entertainment gigs on the side.

When it came time for them to hire, he got an email that read, "I regret to inform you ..." he was crushed. In this program, when you get a "no", it's usually pretty final and you shouldn't try again. Even though he had't been hired, they said he could continue to student teach and wait to see if something opened up which he did.

Toward the end of his student teaching, he was finally offered a job out of state. It didn't feel right to either he or his wife. they graciously turned them down, kept student teaching. and saw the debts mount up.

However, he realized this was "who I am--this is what is going to matter for me in 1,000 years. I need to teach and it felt right. And... it was hard." The acting gigs started to dry up. he began to wonder if his faith and hope in God was even working.

And then the answer. Two months after saying "no", the phone rang. He was offered a job near where they lived, right when he needed it, right at his lowest. After that call, he looked up and said, "I trust you, I trust you."

Steve declared, "God knew me. He had answered my prayers. But He made me wait on it. He made me stretch. The point is if you trust Him, He will deliver, because He looks out for us today, tomorrow, 1,000 years from now, and for eternity."

So what are you worried about right now that's not going to matter in 1,000 years? And what are you going to do that's going to matter in 1,000 years? Answer those questions. Ask Father in Heaven for help and clarity. And then trust Him.

Because sometimes the greatest "failures in life" turn out to be just what we needed.

Missionary Zone Conference in Buenos Aires

In most missions throughout the world, missionaries meet in larger groups called zones every six months to uplift and fortify each other. In our mission, we are basically alone so for the first time that we know of, the three sets of ranch service missionaries in South America met for that very purpose.

The Nielsen's, from Brazil and the Johnson's from Chili met with us in Buenos Aires since there is a great hotel near both the international airport and the LDS temple. We were happy not to have to travel by plane and the other two couples were happy to visit Argentina so it worked great.

Our plan was to drive in Buenos Aires sometime on Thursday and start our conference Friday morning. As the day approached, we realized that our only chance of leaving the ranch would be on Wednesday since a storm was predicted early Thursday morning. So after school on Wednesday, we took the kids home, dropped the teachers off in Feliciano, and headed straight for BA.

All went well on the trip, even remembering at the last minute that we had not received current proof of insurance. We were given the documents in the nick of time and, of course, were stopped by the police just outside of Feliciano. Not seeing clearly the expiration date, the policeman asked if we didn't have anything newer. What relief that we had been shown the information he needed to see. (We hear you can be detained for hours if everything is not in order.)

We drove a little over half way and stopped at a hotel in Gualeguaychu (say that fast ten times). We had chosen the hotel because it was close to the highway and should have been easy to find, but without a phone we couldn't get clear directions, and according to the map, it wasn't where it should have been. However, we found a friendly Argentine neighbor who described the way. It was not an easy find, and we were grateful for the kind stranger.

The two hour drive Thursday morning was no big deal since we were on paved roads. However, as we entered Buenos Aires, we saw 50-60 policemen with machine guns under one of the underpasses. We were glad to be missionaries while in a foreign country and to have our home in America once again. We had lunch and then attended a temple session that afternoon.

Friday was a perfect day! After breakfast, we attended a temple session again in Spanish.







We are good at packing people into our truck so it became the mode of transportation.

Then we returned to the hotel and after a good lunch, drug four chairs into our room for an uplifting meeting. Amy and I talked about keeping the Sabbath day holy. That is a unique challenge for us since we can't get to church all the time.

We also talked about our particular challenges and successes on our individual ranches. The Chilean ranch has an olive grove, and the Brazilian ranch has a farm with crops such as corn, sorghum and legumes. The Brazilian farm recently discontinued raising cattle (not profitable). We are currently the only missionaries on a cattle ranch in South America.

Saturday, we were going to tour BA together, but Sister Nielson wasn't feeling well. So, Amy and I went to the temple again. We are practically pros at Spanish in the temple...well, I am and Amy is getting better all the time.

Saturday afternoon, we helped Elder Noel Johnson get more cash at the BA airport using the free shuttle system, and then we played the game Crown Five. It was fun and relaxing and of course the two women beat all three men. It was gallant of us to let them win. :)


Sunday, we attended church in BA together, and then we headed for home. Originally, we were going to stay until Monday morning, but we felt driven to get home in case the roads were dried out enough to have school.


There were no problems on the road back to the ranch until we got to the dirt roads just outside the ranch. There had been so much water on Thursday, that the roads were still almost impassable on Sunday. However, we made it without sliding into any deep pits despite the sliding we experienced.

Monday, the roads were still not good, but we had school anyway. Tuesday, we tried to have school and got one student to the learning center and was on the way to get the other kids before rain came and we had to abort. Rain is expected the rest of the week.

Good Books we've read with all the rain:
Worth the Wrestle by Sheri Dew
Losing It: 5 Keys to Successful Weight Loss
For All Eternity by John Lund (good for marriages)
Continuous Atonement by Brad Wilcox

Stuck in the mud...

Happy Mother's Day to mom's everywhere!

One of the mom’s in Los Perales has turned what she learned in our sewing class into a business. Our first project was to make a purse. From that first bag, I gave her a copy of the pattern and she made purses for her sisters for Christmas. Last month she made six more purses and sold them. Below are some of them.

 

This month she plans to make 10 more bags and is half way there. The round bag is her design and so is the flower.

What to do when the salt in your shaker is paste due to so much humidity?

We tried everything that we could find on line to get the salt to come out of the salt shaker. The salt was so wet that it was more like paste so as you can imagine, grains of rice, pieces of broken crackers, or toothpicks were not going to help us. Inspiration told us to treat the salt like fruit leather and dry it out in a slightly warm oven. We turned the oven on until the temperature reached about 300 degrees, turned it off, and then added the salt which was spread out over a pizza pan. 

It worked great! The only problem is that we have to keep drying it out every week or so because we continue to have high humidity.

Featured story of the week is Stuck In The Mud:

The Lord sometimes works in mysterious ways:

Let me set the stage for the situation we found ourselves in on Wednesday of this week.

• ·        Yuca and Ruben were both out of town and only a skeleton crew of gauchos were left on the ranch.
• ·        Sunday, we had invited the sister missionaries to our home for dinner, but we had to finish up quickly and get them home when we saw a storm roll in early. In our rush, the back door to the truck was damaged. We were able to get it shut but weren’t sure if it would open and close again without a repair so we locked it hoping to keep anyone from opening it.
• ·        Rain fell heavily about 15 minutes after we got home from taking the sisters home and continued all of Sunday evening and through the night ending Monday about 9 AM. Deep puddles and mud were everywhere.
• ·        Our phone broke on Monday afternoon. We could get service but there was a short somewhere, blocking our ability to input any numbers or access the menu. We had tried trouble shooting the problem but to no avail. We were able to return calls from the teachers on Tuesday morning, but then it stopped working altogether.
• ·        Tuesday the teachers called to see if our roads were passable but we had received more rain than Feliciano where the teachers live and our roads were still a mess. So, school was canceled for Tuesday. We all agreed that by Wednesday we should have dry enough roads to hold school.
• ·        Raul is the main heavy equipment operator at the ranch. Raul stopped by our house Tuesday evening wanting to borrow our cellular so we knew he didn’t have a working phone either.
• ·        We had canceled our appointment in Los Perales on Wednesday partly due to potentially bad roads, (since we didn’t have a phone we couldn’t call the chicas (los perales moms) and they had not responded to our message on Facebook so we didn’t know what conditions their roads were in). The biggest problem of course was if we had problems, we didn’t have a working phone to get help.
• ·        The campo roads connecting most of the gauchos’ homes were not bad by Wednesday, but the public road between our house and the school was terrible. There was one section about sixty feet long where a river ran across the road. It was only about 8-12 inches deep, but the water was moving, and the mud is always so terribly dangerous with that much water with no hard surface for traction. However, it was necessary to use it because it is basically, the only road to the school as the back roads through the campo were completely impassible.
• ·        The teachers needed us to help get them through the river as their vehicle is not as powerful or reliable as ours (or they just didn't want to risk it) so they had parked their vehicle near the river road and we had shuttled both kids and teachers across the death trap. Every trip included a silent prayer.
• ·        There is one family, the Espinosa’s, who live on the other side of the school. They have a moto (motorcycle) and sometimes can get themselves to and from school, but there was still a great deal of mud and water on the road to their home so we shuttled them to school as well.
• ·        We were successful all morning without incident shuttling the teachers and kids despite the mud and water, but we were exhausted.
• ·        After lunch while waiting for school to finish, we took the time to catch our breath and call family members to strengthen relationships and get some relief. Well, that was a total disaster as one close family member, decided that day to inform us that we are "selfish and greedy" for serving missions. They thought that we should be taking care of their needs though we can’t think of anything we could possibly do to help their situation if we were home. Don’t worry, it wasn’t any of our kids or grandkids (who might be the only ones to stake a claim that we have abandoned them). Needless to say, we were both rattled for the ensuing situation we were headed for.

Okay, now that the stage is set, we’ll continue our story.

After school, we asked the teachers to let us take the Espinosa’s home first so that we could limit the number of times we had to cross the river road. The teachers didn’t want to wait, so another parent from the other ranch offered to take them to their car. That was all good except that meant we couldn’t leave our little kids at school with the teachers while we took the Espinosa’s home so the kids had to come with us the 6 miles or so of bad roads in the opposite direction of their home.

In the process of rearranging teachers and kids, the back door got unlocked by one of the kids just trying to help, and as luck would have it, we couldn’t get it shut again. Mother, Maria Espinosa, bravely sat by the broken door holding it shut with one hand and clamoring to stay inside the vehicle with the other.

Well, as you can guess, we hit a terribly muddy wet part of the road which pulled us off the road just enough to get us high centered. A four-wheel drive is of no use if none of the tires are touching the ground. What were we to do?

Well, Amy had the tall boots so she got the shovel out and started digging in an attempt to free up the wheels while Maria pulled out her phone, basically stood on top of the truck outside the broken door so she could get service, and with our list of phone numbers which we had fortunately left in the glove compartment, started calling everyone and anyone she could. Gregg was in charge of the three boys who thought this was the best day ever.

After 30 minutes, we were nowhere. Raul of course could not be reached who was in charge of all the tractors. Almost no one answered, and the few who picked up could not or would not help. No amount of digging or packing with branches did any good either. Amy and Maria tried to push while Gregg was at the wheel, then Maria and Gregg pushed while Amy was at the wheel…still nothing.

One time while Gregg and Maria were trying to push, Amy asked the kids if they would like to pray with her. One of the 8 year old kids asked, “Are you loco (crazy)?”  “No”, she replied “let’s try it”. So after getting the kids to stop doing summer salts in the backseat, (Who do you think might be loco?) she said a short prayer asking for divine help.

We tried two more times to push the heavy vehicle. You’re probably hoping that we’re going to say that it worked the last time, but no…nothing. Feeling undaunted, however, we didn’t let go of our optimism but only thought to ourselves, what did the Lord have in mind for us? In what way would our prayer be answered?

We decided that there was only one last option—walk back to the ranch while the Espinosa’s walked the opposite direction to their home. Espinosa’s would be fine as we were only a couple of miles from their house. On the other hand, we wouldn’t get back to the ranch until after dark, and we’d have to carry two kids across the river road. But, what other choice did we have?

Just as we started to put our new plan into action we spotted a tractor down the road coming toward us about a half mile away. It had been less than 5 minutes since our prayer. Gregg mentioned to the kids that our prayers were indeed answered. They didn’t reply, but they probably thought about it as they looked in astonishment at the relief tractor coming for us. Apparently, Roberto had heard of our plight though we hadn’t called him, and he made time to come to our rescue.

So, why you ask were we not protected and kept from sliding into the mud in the first place? Why was our prayer asking for help not answered with the ability to pull out of the mud with superhero strength? Before you suspect that there is not always a God in heaven to answer prayers, stop and think.

You should have seen the joy Roberto had when we gave him the hallelujah shout of gratitude for being at the right place at the right time with the tractor. You should have seen him glow the next day, when we told him in front of other gauchos that he was our hero.

Though drenched in mud and yuck, you should have seen the three adults when they realized that they would not have to hike into the night with kids on their backs. You should have seen the look of accomplishment when the gaucho, Minyon, was able to get the back door latched again so we could use our truck without losing a kid, an arm or a leg.

Note the locked and taped shut door. We added the words, "Gracias por no molestar la puerta" (Thank you for not bothering the door) over the door handle.

All is well that ends well, and most importantly, we know that a loving Heavenly Father is watching over all of us. We are all better friends having gone through the adventure together. Two men are feeling really good about having saved the day, and Gregg and Amy have the reassurance that though some people are not pleased with their choices, our Father in Heaven is. Nothing is better than knowing—really knowing—that you are where the Lord wants you to be and doing what He wants you to do especially during the trying times. We felt it clear to our bones and it filled our hearts.

So people of every religion and every age, it is NOT crazy to pray. We invite you to try it next time you are "stuck in the mud" so to speak. You must pray with faith and keep an optimistic attitude even when it doesn't work out the way you may have first envisioned, but we believe that the Lord WILL answer you one way or another if the request is a righteous one. (If you are praying to win the lottery, you will probably get a "no" since in the long run it would most likely not be good for you.)

Oh, and when it turns out maybe even better than you imagined, don't forget to thank Him. 

Is it May already?

We are thrilled to have turned off all of the air conditioners and are welcoming fall with cooler weather and fewer bugs.

New project:

Christina, the cook and house cleaner, wants to make a bath mat out of tela (fabric) so I went on line to find some ideas. We also need one so I decided on a braided mat made out of terry cloth to take the place of the old towel we use for a rug.

First cut strips 2 1/2-3 inches wide and sew them together at an angle so the fabric isn't too thick at the seam. Make three long pieces.

 

(Sewing the pieces together at right angles is a trick we learned in Nauvoo making rugs)

Then fold the three long pieces in half width wise, right sides together, and sew them together.

 

Turn them right side out using a big safety pin that is taped shut for security.

Then have a talented husband help you braid the three strips.

Roll up the braid to the desired shape.

Then hand stitch it together with the strongest thread you can find. I used a big suture or upholstery needle.

Tada...like it?

Much better than an old towel don't you think?

Helping Juancho and Argentina  Healthcare

Tuesday, we were asked to cancel our responsibilities with the kids’ school and take off to Parana to help Juancho. Apparently, Juancho received an appointment to do some testing on his liver cancer. I guess when an appointment is offered at an Argentine clinic, you jump on it regardless of anything else going on in your life (or your chauffeur’s life). We spent time on Monday on MapQuest trying to find the best way to maneuver in the streets of Parana. The GPS is not good at deciphering one way streets, and in the past, we have wasted too much time and risked our lives a little too much for our liking. It worked! Thanks MapQuest.

We got up at 4 AM Tuesday and was out of the house by 4:45. We picked up Juancho and his wife in Federal and got to Parana right on time—8 AM as requested. However, much to our dismay, 15-20 other people had been given the same 8 AM appointment, and they had all arrived early before 8 AM, so Juancho was last to be seen. He was fasting, and by the time he was given dye in his veins for the test, he was worn out. Instead of a few hours in Parana, we were there all morning, but mostly, we were sad for Juancho. He is usually so upbeat and patient, but this time…not so much. He’s never angry, but he was certainly beat up.

We are also sad for many Argentine's who are losing their teeth. Pulling teeth is a covered benefit while filling cavities is not. One of our older students had to have one of his permanent teeth pulled recently. So much for free socialized medicine.

Truck registration and safety inspection:

Because of our long day in Parana, we decided to get the truck registered and take the safety inspection test on Wednesday before our trip to Los Perales instead of Tuesday afternoon. So, we left Wednesday 8 AM for Concordia. All went well, and we didn’t even have to wait very long, but it was quite expensive, and we couldn't see any good to this annual requirement.

The price was fourteen hundred pesos ($90) which is almost one fifth of a monthly wage for most workers. No wonder many people don’t have more than a bicycle. Even a moto is a luxury. No wonder large families are such a rarity. For the past century or so, the government has robbed the people blind. It’s heart wrenching to watch and know that there is very little we can do to bless lives with extreme poverty so abundant. So, we don’t think about it and just do what we can—take Juancho to Parana, teach and chauffeur the ranch kids, and keep a smile on our faces.

Food for thought by Gregg:

In the last days, the gentiles shall build up secret combinations which shall spill the blood of the saints and seek to destroy the people (2 Nephi 26:22; Ether 8:25; Mormon 8:27).

Preaching the word of God destroys secret combinations (Helaman 6:37).

Speaking of a secret combination built up by the devil, master of lies, in our day, the Book of Mormon  tells us that those who build it up do so to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries (Ether 8:25). One of the purposes of the Book of Mormon is to show us the work of ancient secret combinations so that we may repent and suffer not that these same murderous combinations should get above us (Ether 8:23), and that we should awake to a sense of our awful situation when we see these things among us (Ether 8:24).

“We are in the midst of the greatest exhibition of propaganda that the world has ever seen. Just do not believe all you read or hear. The elect are being deceived.”  Reuben Clark, Conference Report, October 1941).

“Satan…plans to destroy liberty and freedom-economic, political, and religious, and set up in place thereof the greatest, most widespread, and most complete tyranny that has ever oppressed men. He is working under such perfect disguise that many do not recognize either him or his methods."

“Satan has control now. No matter where you look, he is in control, even in our land. He is guiding the governments as far as the Lord will permit. That is why there is so much strife, turmoil, confusion all over the earth. One master mind is governing the nations. It is not the President of the United States…it is not the king or government of England or any other land; it is Satan himself.” (Joseph Fielding smith, doctrines of Salvation Vol. 3, pp. 314).

“Concerning the United States, the Lord revealed to his prophets that its greatest threat would be a vast, worldwide ‘secret combination’ which would not only threaten the United States but also seek to ‘overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations…’(Ether 8:25)”  (Ezra Taft Benson, Conference, October 1961).

“Gadianton robbers fill the judgment seats in many nations. An evil power seeks to overthrow the freedom of all nations and countries.” (Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, General Conference April, 1980).

Today many people view conspiracy as something strange, on the fringe or to be dismissed, and that those who speak of conspiracy must be a little crazy or extreme. This is a very perplexing viewpoint because it is a matter of historical record that conspiracy has been with us from the beginning. Plots, intrigues and secret combinations have plagued government and societies at large from the beginning of time. We need to, as Moroni put it, wake up to our awful situation.

Humor:

#1 The young sisters ate lunch with us again today. They told us of the need to travel to a neighboring pueblo and the need to stay in a hotel there. Check out the toilet which is located inside the shower. 

Looks like a step saver bathroom to me!


#2 We are still dumping our dish washing water outside since the plumbing is so poor in the kitchen. Well, this week as I opened the door for Gregg to take out the dish pan full of water, a spider the color and size of a mouse whipped through the door. I couldn't help emit a little scream. Well, okay, maybe it was a loud and long scream. Gregg gallantly flattened the spider with the dish pan (but not before joining me with a scream of his own). With the spider under control, we spent the next ten minutes laughing. 

The Often Rainy Month of April Turned Out Rather Successful

School update:

The roads dried quickly last week allowing more days of school than expected. We only missed one day due to rain rather than three. That was a welcome surprise.

Good Book:

However, school or not, we found time to read, read, read. One of Amy’s favorite books is Be Happy by Hank Smith. A few tips to brighten your day that he suggested were to write down three things each day for which you are thankful, recognize your trigger points and start to be proactive rather than reactive in response to them, when trying to change behavior, it takes 15 days and no less to make a new pattern. There were of course many other tricks for a happier self. It was very entertaining so I’ll let you discover the rest yourself.

Ranch update:

Below is a new baby horse at El Quebracho. We see plenty of terrneros (baby cows), but this is the first fowl we’ve noticed.

 

 So sweet!

Service:

One of the sisters in our branch has only one skirt to wear to church so the Relief Society President asked me to make a pattern for the sisters in the branch to use to make another one for her. Service can make one happy.

Is that a porta-potty in the middle of the road? 

Wow… Yes it is! What could possibly be the rationale behind putting a porta potty in the lane of traffic? Hmmmm….It would be safer for the workers on the other side of the outdoor facility. Hmm... What else? If I were a road worker, I would not lollygag at all, but get right down to business because there are plenty of ancient vehicles on the road that could feasibly lose their braking capacity at any moment. Okay, that must be it! Put the porta potty where workers will be reluctant to spend much time and they'll get back on the job quickly. 

At least they have an appropriate arrow to guide us around their privy because otherwise, we just might not know to go around. :)

What do you say to earnest seekers of truth who have been told that the Bible is complete and anyone attempting to "add" to the holy work is evil.

The Book of Mormon does not add or take away words from the Bible, but rather it supports it contributing another testimony of Christ from an entirely different nation. Why murmur about having two witnesses to the same glorious event (the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ)? Why reject a supporting explanation of how we can overcome sin and error and return to our loving home in heaven. God has commanded prophets in many lands throughout time to write the truths of eternity. The Bible and Book of Mormon are just two of them, and coming from the same source, they will teach and clarify the same principles. Cool if you think of it in that context don't you think?

New way of assigning visiting teaching:
For those of you reading this blog who do not belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I will explain what visiting teaching is. The women's organization is called the Relief Society. The President of the Relief Society is asked to oversee the women under her stewardship. In order to reach all of the women (we call them sisters), the visiting teaching program is organized so that every sister has a "friend" who visits her home and seeks ways to help and uplift their friend. Visiting teachers are called in pairs.

So, yesterday, the Relief Society President asked who went visiting teaching for the month of April. No one had...nada...no one! So rather than getting upset, she said, "Let's change everything." Then she and her counselor proceeded to ask who would like to visit with whom and who would they like to visit? With a few additions and suggestions from the president, the women were all reassigned. (I was included as a visiting teacher but am too far away for visitors to come here.) 

I've been a Relief Society President a few times, so I know how beneficial and important the visiting teaching program is, but I've never seen assignments divvied out in such a way and so quickly. It usually takes hours of thinking, pondering, and planning. Way to think out of the box Feliciano Branch Relief Society!