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.