July 2013 - Breanna & Zachary

July 2013 - Scott & Ann

7-28-2013 

Our friend, and branch member, Jorge has been in the hospital now for two weeks trying to recover from frostbitten feet and legs.  He drank for two weeks straight and didn't realize his heater wasn't turned on and just about died.  The landlord finally called the police and they got in and took him to the hospital.  We have visited him just about every other day now and are even showing church movies to the other two guys who are in his hospital room.  He has read half of the July Ensign (Liahona) and has committed to come to our Family Home Evening after he gets out of the hospital.  He is walking again with the help of a walker and is in good spirits.  The members have been very supportive and he has had lots of visits.  This is good for our branch to see what happens when you forget about new members and stop fellowshipping them.

About ten minutes after getting home on Sunday after district conference, we were notified that our branch's oldest member (93 years old) had passed away three hours earlier.  We had just started dinner and decided to go ahead and finish cooking and eating before running over to his house to talk things through with his daughters.  A few minutes later, our building maintenance rep called and asked if the family could use the building for the viewing and of course we said yes.  About thirty minutes later we had finished eating and decided to head on over to the deceased member's house to help the daughters make funeral plans and sort out what they wanted the week to look like.  As we drove to his house we passed the chapel and there was a large van unloading a coffin.  Holy Cow, what is going on here!  We stopped and sure enough they were taking him in to start the viewing.  He was still warm!  From that minute forward the church was swarming with people.  They would have stuck with tradition and held a candle vigil all night long, but we instructed them that the Church does not allow all-night vigils in our buildings and so we shut it down around 11:00 PM and told them to come back in the morning.  During that afternoon vigil we hurried to put together a plan because they had nothing and there are no "do-it-all" services like Berg Mortuary around here.  So we made assignments for speakers, musical numbers, prayers, etc and created a printed program.  Then we went to their house with a niece and pulled photos from their computers to make a slideshow with music that the friends and family could enjoy.  We were so tired you could have pushed us over and had a double funeral.  The next morning we opened the chapel at 9:00 AM (which by the way, is VERY early here) and instantly the church was full again.  We tried to help it be more of a happy time with pleasant music (Tabernacle Choir, etc.) rather than the traditional mourning experience that is typical in these parts.  It shocked a few people, but hey the daughters told us to put together a funeral the way their dad would have wanted - so we did.  Then at 10:30 we sent the friends out and passed around the microphone so the family members could share their favorite memories.  At the conclusion, we let the friends come in to pass by the casket for one final good-bye and then excused them again so we could have a family prayer (offered by an Evangelist grand-daughter in law) and have the children close the casket.  We started the funeral at 11:30 and took the opportunity to explain the plan of salvation.  Every time any of us said "Heaven" or "Jesus Christ" some people in the audience would exclaim "AMEN!"  It was awesome.  Can I get another AMEN???  At the conclusion of the funeral service we all got in the cars and drove to the cemetery where we sang a hymn, had another prayer (offered by his Evangelist grandson) and then dedicated the grave.  The coffin was placed in an above-ground cement box (made by the grandson) and then covered with a six-inch layer of cement as we all stood and watched.  The entire process from last breath to cement enclosure was about twenty-seven hours.  WOW!  His daughters had him buried holding his oil vile in his hand and were touched by the last song, "Families can be together forever" which was his favorite song.  They are now taking discussions from our sister missionaries and both daughters came to church today! 

7-21-2013 

We celebrated the "Day of Friends" this week with a party in our chapel.  We had a lot of youth come out to participate - even six or so from the neighboring city.  It was a four-hour party and was great.  One of our youth created a multi-functional Book of Mormon to put on the wall.  We ate hot dogs - they don't use ketchup and mustard but mayonnaise instead.

Gustavo was baptized yesterday and confirmed today.  He will receive the Aaronic Priesthood within the next few weeks.  We hope to have mission papers processed for him before we leave next year.  The sister missionaries found and taught him, but he belongs to all of us :)

Key learnings this week:
1 - Always call to confirm appointments an hour before
2 - If investigators are not reading the Book of Mormon they are not progressing

7-14-2013 

Earlier this week our investigator said, "I know the Book of Mormon is true because I have read parts of it and listened to it on CD."  We are now helping him understand the blessings of keeping the Sabbath Day holy.  Today is the first time he has not worked on a Sunday.  We are making progress.

We had a three-day youth conference for the three branches in our district.  We had a lot of kids attend and four of them are not even members.  It was a huge success and the youth made a lot of new friends with the other youth in the neighboring city.  I got to do a little jig in the talent show on Friday night with a young man from our branch - we danced to Duelin' Banjo.

What we learned this week:
1. "Mission rules protect you from the lack of emotional intelligence of the people you work with."

2. "The Lord is sustaining us and our family in many ways."

3. "We have nothing to complain about - now or when we go home."

7-7-2013

We taught a Family Home Evening (FHE) at the home of a less-active family this week and talked about media and how the adversary puts a little bit of garbage into our ice cream a little at a time so we won't notice.  We used a real cup of ice cream along with a gift from our neighborhood cat.  The kids were shocked by the demonstration - probably traumatized for life and ice cream will never be the same again.  We served ice cream for dessert that night (two kilos - that is a TON here) and we hope the lesson sticks.  The mom tasted the ice cream which is called Bariloche Chocolate and said, "This has whiskey in it." Hmmm...how would she know?  We were concerned about that because we love the flavor so much, but after further research it has been proven that the ice cream is whiskey-free!

Ambar was baptized on July 4th.  Everything went perfectly and the font was like a hot tub it was so warm.

We went to teach our investigator family in the mountains and ended up helping him put together a chain saw he was repairing on his kitchen table for two hours before we could give the lesson.  Once he got the chain saw put together, which by then it was 11:00 PM, we prayed really hard that it would work so he wouldn't have to take it apart and start over.  Miracle of prayer...it worked and at eleven o'clock at night he was out there in the front yard running around, happy as a lark, with a chain saw going full blast.  I'm sure the neighbors wondered what was going on.

I did a baptismal interview for a nine year old boy from another city this week and as soon as I got him in the interview room he said, "Where are you from?" I told him the USA and he said, "That's what I thought because you don't speak Spanish very well - none of you from the US do." Later on in the interview he told me again that I didn't speak very well so at that point I said, "Fine, we will do the rest of your interview in English," and I immediately switched over and started asking the baptismal questions in English.  He was lost in an instant so I went back to Spanish and he didn't make any more comments about my poor Spanish after that.

We did a service project for an inactive family this week and made 192 empanadas for them to sell to raise money for their son's school.  It was a good experience.

Today we got a first counselor in the branch.  The bishop who moved in accepted the call and his wife is our new young women's president.  How lucky can we be?

We had an activity yesterday for the youth and we went and picked up two less active boys who are usually a real handful.  By the end of the activity everyone wanted to tie up the older boy who is twelve because he was so distracting to the other kids who were trying to pay attention to the movie we were watching.  We took the two boys home along with Ambar and her two brothers at the same time.   Once the boys exited the car, every one of the three Cañiu kids said, "What a relief."  I asked them what we should do with the older boy and Amber piped right up that we should "roast him over a  BBQ pit!"  Kind of funny coming from an eight year old girl who was baptized two days ago.

June 2013 - Breanna & Zachary

June 2013 - Scott & Ann

30 Jun 2013
We ran out of gas on Friday night coming back from our investigator family in the mountains after teaching another lesson.  It was about 11:30 at night and everyone we called was partying or something and we couldn't get a taxi because they are not allowed to carry gasoline so we ended up calling our investigator family to come save us.  We were truly in the middle of nowhere on a dark desert highway in the middle of the Patagonia and we were FREEZING cold.  They brought the whole family to save us and we piled into their VW to go get gas in Trevelin.  They don't have normal gas cans around here so we had to siphon the gas from the gas can through a hose and into the gas tank.  The poor dad got gas in his mouth in the process.  We were okay with that because we knew he wouldn't go home and smoke that night.  We didn't get home until after 1:00 AM that night and we were really worn out.     

It was worth it because we had a good lesson with them.  We asked the dad to explain the origin of the Book of Mormon to us once we realized he wasn't really focused on reading it very much.  He was confused and after explaining it all again for the third time (with his wife shaking her head the whole time explaining it along with us) it seems like he finally understands. He went home that night after saving us and read two pages of the Book of Mormon and another two pages the next night.  He seems to be serious now and understands the promise in Moroni which we explained in detail. 

We start our English classes next Saturday!  A lot of people are excited so we are expecting this to be a good tool for us to meet people.

24 Jun 2013
We finally made it to Chile.  We have 52 members of our Branch that live in the town of Futaleufu, Chile and we are trying to figure out how to help them.  The trip there and back was crazy.  It was a dirt road through mountains and two border patrol stations.  It took us about 30 miles each way, but by the time you go through the red tape at the border of each country (4 times - 2 each way) it takes a little under two hours to get there and another two hours to get back.  Now we can see why these folks don't come to church as often as we would like.  The trip here and back takes them more time than the three hours they spend in church, and the hassle factor and the wear and tear on a vehicle (for the few that have them) is tremendous.  We will keep searching for ways to help these wonderful people.

Homemade Chilean Hot Tub - just add fire!

17 Jun 2013
When our sister missionaries arrived we introduced them to a young girl who will be turning eight next month and wants to be baptized.  She is the little sister of two of our most faithful members, a thirteen and a nine year old boy.  The sisters taught the seven year old girl the word of wisdom this week and after explaining it all they said, "Will you keep the word of wisdom?" She responded with, "I don't think I can give up my coffee!"  We thought that was a pretty honest answer from a seven year old. :) 

We are also reading the Book of Mormon each week with a less-active member and each time we go to his home he tells us he has read, but then can't seem to remember what he read.  Recently, we asked him to read 1 Nephi Chapter 8.  When we sat down to read, as usual, he said that he had read.   As we reviewed it and asked him to explain what the fruit was like on the tree of life in Lehi's dream, he blurted out with an air of pride, that it was "tempting."  As we suspected, he had not read... 

We are witnessing many miracles as people are starting to read the Book of Mormon.  We even had a member who finally came to church last week for the first time in a LONG time show up today again for the second time.  He was excited to tell us that he had bid his wife good bye as she left to go to church and had climbed back in bed to go back to sleep.  It's really tough around here because we start church REALLY early, at 10:00 AM.  Anyhow, he got back into bed and then something told him to get up and go to church. He hurried and dressed only to arrive at the bus stop after the bus had left.  He stood there a bit depressed wondering how his wife would ever believe that he had tried and the a truck zipped by him, hit the brakes, backed up and asked him if he needed a ride.  This guy lives way up in the mountains and it was nothing less than a miracle that someone was even on the road going that direction that time of day.  He was really impressed that he had experienced this miracle and was able to go to church.  Once there he connected with a fellow who is trying to stop smoking and gave him encouragement since he had recently stopped smoking himself.

Our investigators came to church today.  They stayed the entire time and seemed to like it.  In fact, they went to his mother's home for lunch today and told her all about it and now she want to go to church with them the next time.  By the way, his brother owns and runs a local Evangelist church so we are sure it will go over like a lead balloon once the brother finds out the rest of the family is converting to Mormonism... 

Interesting day at church today because many people were away for Father's Day. I was the only Melchizedek Priesthood holder in the building.  I taught the priesthood lesson, conducted the Sacrament Meeting, blessed the bread and the water and then gave a talk in church because the guy who was supposed to speak didn't show up - HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

The pipes in the church freeze so we had no water in the building today.  Next time we will plan ahead now that it is winter.

10 Jun 2013
We got our hands on a violin and a piano/organ (small portable version) and are starting music lessons for some of the youth in the ward this coming Friday.  They are excited and it should help to reactivate some of the less-active youth. 

We finally got home and visiting teaching set up and handed out the assignments today.  It seems like most people are excited to get it up and running again. We think it will really help the branch a lot to have people other than the branch president making visits.

We had a service project at the church where we cleaned all the windows (outside) to remove the ash from the volcano that erupted a few years back.  We also fixed all of the chairs and replaced all of the missing or broken plastic pieces - you know, the ones that are missing on the bottom that always ruin our hard-wood gym floors back home....we had a good turn out with even a few non-members that jumped in to help. 

Our family home evening went well.  We have found that the best FHE lessons are as simple as downloading a quick conference clip with a story from mormon.org and then discussing it with everyone after watching it. 

We continue to read the Book of Mormon with some members in their homes to help strengthen their testimonies and help them create good habits.  Our friend who survived the heart attack came to church today for the first time in a long time.  We have invested so many hours with this brother that we stopped counting a month ago.  The hook today was that his wife gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting and he was assigned to bring the bread for the Sacrament.  On top of that we prepared ahead of time and sang his favorite hymn and he knew we were doing it for him.  We'll see what we can come up with next week.  Maybe we will invite President Monson to come down and pay the fellow a visit or something.

We called and set apart two new Aaronic Priesthood presidents today (Deacons & Teachers).  After the new Deacon's Quorum President was set apart he stood up and his mother gave him a big hug and said, "Son, this is the first step towards being a member of the Quorum of the Twelve."  It really caught him off guard and he just smiled in a daze....

We took one day this week with the regional property managers and fixed all of the broken things at the church.  We fixed doors, lights, locks, the baptismal font pump (because we plan to use it soon), vacuums, and a ton of simple things that we take for granted back home that cause problems around here.  It was a great day and the church is now better prepared for investigators and members to enjoy.

We had a great visit with our investigating family this week.  We taught them the first lesson about prophets, the apostasy, and the Restoration.  We visited them again tonight and read Joseph Smith's Testimony about the coming forth of the Book of Mormon.  They are doing well. 
We went out to dinner with President Giorgi and his wife last night.  They took us to one of the nicest places in the city where we had squid, cow tongue (surprisingly good), and a few other things.  Luckily we avoided the frogs that they encouraged us to order.  Then we had a steak and salmon (Pacific coast to be specific) for the main course.  Dessert was berries with cream and creme brûlée.

We continue to have people put in our path at very specific times and ways to get us into conversation with them.  Amazing to see it happen over and over!

3 Jun 2013
Our conference was cancelled due to the dangers of the volcano that is letting off some steam. So Elder Cook was stuck in Buenos Aires and didn't make it to Neuquen. Rather than go to Neuquen for a mission conference and meeting with Elder Cook, we ended up having a satellite training from Buenos Aires and I drove to Bariloche with the local leaders instead.  Still a long day, but great training and advice.

We just returned from our second visit with our investigating family in the mountains.  They had a bunch of questions related to the Plan of Salvation so instead of teaching about the Restoration we switched gears and taught them about our pre-mortal live, why we are here on this earth, and where we will go after we die. It went well and we even had their 12 year old daughter there the whole time as we explained it all.  They invited us back this coming Wednesday.

We spent a good portion of the week putting systems together for the branch.  Things like a teaching schedule for Priesthood, Relief Society, and Sunday School; Agendas for Ward Council and Missionary Correlation because they have none right now; a monthly calendar showing all of the activities for the ward and the YM; Youth Interview Schedules and a form to use during the interview; Setting up monthly firesides and service project schedules; a cleaning schedule for the church, a FHE Schedule so we can share the love with weekly lesson preparation, a checklist to use when issuing a new calling to someone so nothing is forgotten, Melchizedek Priesthood preparation training; a schedule of all auxiliary meetings for the rest of the year showing date and time; and a few other things I can't remember right now.  Our focus is on the youth because we really think they will come out and be the future of this branch.  

May 2013 - Scott & Ann

We have had an interesting month with highs and lows.  Highs, when someone catches the vision of who they are and who they can become, and lows when they forget and return to their natural-man ways.  We have determined that a mission is as much for the missionary as for the people he or she serves.  With every day comes a new awareness of our shortcomings and weaknesses; the mission experience accentuates all of that and has made it clear to our view. 

We have seen some good progress with members and investigators who are coming out to activities and worship services.  We even celebrated “25 de Mayo,” Argentina’s Revolution Day with a big party at the church where about sixty people came to celebrate and eat “Locro” with us.  Locro is a traditional dish made up of cow stomach, cow tail, pig skin, pig feet, chicken wings, various sausages and a few beans and vegetables.  It took hours to prepare and, along with live guitar and accordion music to sing and dance to, provided the main attraction for the party.

One of our favorite experiences in teaching the gospel so far has been with a family that lives out in a small hamlet near the mountains.  They have been members of various churches (Evangelist churches in particular) in the past but are still searching for the true church of Jesus Christ.  When we first met them, they wanted to talk about prophets.  We explained how the Bible is a record of prophets from the middle east (Jerusalem and surrounding areas) and how The Book of Mormon – Another Testament of Jesus Christ is a record of prophets in this, the American continent.  As we explained how prophets were led from Jerusalem to other parts of the world and that God still loved them and wanted to speak to all of his children through prophets regardless of where they lived, you could see the light go on in their heads and they understood.  The father even said, “so, that means there are probably other records written by other prophets that we don’t even have or know about right now that will come to light sometime in the future.”  We explained how the Bible and the Book of Mormon work together to testify that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that he was crucified for the sins of the world and that he resurrected and lives today.  Having two witnesses (books of scripture) that both testify of the same Savior and his Gospel helps all of God’s children know that what the Bible teaches really is true, that we have living prophets in our day, and that God always has and always will work through his prophets to teach his children.  They are really excited to have this new knowledge and are reading parts of the Book of Mormon to gain their own testimonies of its truthfulness.  I know it is a true book of scripture because I have read it and felt the witness of the Holy Ghost as I read from its pages – it has changed my life.  Anyone can know of its truthfulness with surety if he or she will read and sincerely ask God if it is true - he will answer.

May 2013 - Breanna & Zachary

Breanna & Zachary - Just updated