A LEADER'S VISIT TO BUENOS AIRES

Hola!

We recently had one of the twelve apostles visit here in Buenos Aires...... Elder Quentin L. Cook and his very lovely wife, Mary.  (she was truly adorable) They are a very wonderful couple and we were able to hear them speak on several occasions.  The purpose of their visit was to give encouragement to all, and to meet other religious leaders and community leaders in the northern part of Argentina.  He and his wife met with Catholic leaders throughout the area and also the Jewish leader Rabino Skorka, who is, I believe the central Jewish leader in Argentina and  they also met with Archbishop Nanez of Cordoba.  It is a great feeling to witness the cooperation of all of these religous groups together to form friendships and a greater understanding of one another within the religious community.

Elder Cook and is wife are about in their early seventies and appeared to have a lot of energy!  Their schedule was hectic for sure but they took time to shake hands and greet people on a personal level.
We had a special missionary meeting last Wednesday that was really wonderful.  There were many young missionaries at the meeting...... they were missionaries who are assigned in and around Buenos Aires.  Here is a picture of them in the chapel..... each taking a turn to shake hands with Elder Cook and his wife and the area presidency. The church recently changed the age requirement for which missionaries can serve.  Young men can now serve at 18 instead of 19 and young women can serve at age 19 instead of 21.  It is estimated that the number of missionaries will increase by 50% and it is estimated also  that 40% of the missionaries will be women.  So in a year this gathering below will look quite different!

There were actually sister missionaries but they were sitting in the front rows so you can't see them in this picture!

This is acutally our church building where we attend church.  The missionary meeting was here.

We have almost finished training Joan and Garry Boyle now to take over the executive secretary position in the area presidency office!  They are a wonderful and energetic couple from Arizona , about our age.  We have enjoyed spending time with them and "teaching them the ropes!"  It has been quite a journey over the past three to four months taking on this extra assignment and then passing it on and teaching another couple to do all of the many tasks that are involved in this position.  Now we are returning to our audit work with lots of new ideas and we are feeling quite energized from the many wonderful experiences we have recently had to give us new insights and ideas  for the next nine months!

We will begin our travel once again in about two weeks or less.  We will be headed down south to Northern Patagonia, Comodoro Rivadavia, and Coleta Olivia where we will help our dear friend, Ricael Sosa with some trainings.  We will be returning to Asuncion, Paraguay  to help our auditors there.  There is a new mission in Posadas, Argentina (on the Paraguay border) where we will be training a new auditor.  We will also be headed to Uruguay and Chile in July and August to  help in those countries.  There is also a new mission in Santiago South (Chile) which will take an existing  auditor so we will be training a new auditor for Rancagua which is just south of Santiago.  So we have a lot of work ahead.  We will have our annual Assistant Area Auditor conference here in Buenos Aires again during the first part of December.  We will also be traveling to Salt Lake City in mid October to attend our annual training for the Area Auditors, which will be for two days.  So we have a lot of work to do and we are excited and looking forward with great anticipation to the second half of our mission!

Our family is doing well.  Michaell's mother turns 104 next month and is still going strong!  My mother will turn  95 in August!  Both mothers are doing well and keeping busy while we are away.  Rebekah will hold a family party for my mother in August and most of our children will be there to assist her with that.

We continue to be very grateful for this amazing experince we are enjoying.  It is a journey of great learning, laughter, joy and challenges!  We appreciate the continued support of our family.

We hope all of you are enjoying the beginings of summer!  We are having winter, 65-70 degrees!  Some of the leaves have fallen off of the trees , but we pass a fruit laden orange tree everyday on our way to the office!  We hear it does get colder... but I will believe it when I feel the cold!

This is from a couple of months ago at the Estancia, but I just received the picture.  These are our missionary friends!