San Miguel de Tucuman

Hola!

On Tuesday of this past week we traveled to Tucuman Province, which is northwest of Buenos Aires.  We traveled with two people from the MSR (membership statistics and records) department.  We took a plane from the national airport in Buenos Aires.  The two people that we traveled with are thirty something and the nicest people ever!  Osmar and Axel.    We were scheduled for two trainings; one on  Tuesday evening and one on Wednesday evening.  Our plane left Tuesday morning around 11:00 and the flight was about one hour and forty-five minutes long . Osmar and Axel brought several pieces of luggage as their training sessions involve people sitting down at computers and learning the church software program (MLS) for tithing, membership records, fast offerings, and many other purposes.    They packed up about 12-13 laptops and all of the equipment that goes with them.  When the session begins, bishops, counselors, and clerks, are seated at long tables with an up and running computer set before them.  

Our first training was in the smaller town of Concepcion about an hour out of Tucuman.  We were scheduled to meet with the leaders of  the Argentina Concepcion District.  We met with the district president, branch presidents, counselors and secretaries.
We also had scheduled a few audits to do.  Above is Michael and Osmar joyfully working on a couple of audits and below is our very devoted AAA (assistant area auditor), Miguel Gonzalez who traveled a distance of several hours to meet us there. Concepcion and Tucuman province are part of the territory he is responsible for.   The training went until about 10:00pm.  At that point the district president had someone bring in a wonderful meal from a local Panaderia.  Fresh sandwiches, empanadas, and three luscious desserts! We visited with people and introduced ourselves around, and ate the food and had a wonderful time.

We met a couple of young missionaires; one from Uruguay, (just newly out) and a boy from Utah who had been out a while.  The elder from Utah is temporarily filling in as a branch president until a new one can be found.  We talked with them for quite a while and gave them lots of cheerful encouragement in their temporary assignment.  

We visited with the District President and his counselor and secretary in the office for a while to review the status of their audits and the needed follow-up on a few audit exceptions that needed to be resolved. We listened to them and encouraged them.  We have some follow-up work to do to help them get better internet access and a few other things.  

This particular district is filled with wonderful giving people .  They were very gracious to feed us and visit with us in such a warm and friendly manner.  

We left that evening with our hearts filled with gratitude and joy from such an enriching experience.

Abrazos!