Missionaries!

On Monday we had the zone over again for pancakes with maple syrup and dulce de leche.  The maple syrup is a treat and the dulce de leche doesn't get eaten as much. 

From top right with the grey sweater:  Elders Gilman/ID, Kohler/UT, Skinner/UT, Draut/VA, Hernandez/Chile, and Chavarry/Peru all enjoying their pancakes.

 

Back row:  Elders Draut/VA, Marquez/Chile, Bridge/MT, Gilman/ID, Xavier Carrizo, Hernandez/Chile behind Skinner/UT, Larson/AZ, Gallacci/WA

Front row:  Hnas Castro/Uruguay, Paz/Argentina, James Gossling, Elders Thorup/UT, Chavarry/Peru, Kohler/UT, Melendez/CA

Xavier was spending the day with some elders and James was a missionary who served in Catamarca for 7+ months and he was enjoying time with a former companion.  He came back down after his mission to visit.  Elders Puma/Peru and Short/CA didn't arrive in time for the pictures.

 

 

We had 4 young men from our ward over last night to talk about preparing for a mission.  The zone leaders came to talk to them, too.

Ruben Ceballos, Pablo Olima, Elders Larson/AZ and Gallacci/WA, Gabriel Rasgido, and Jonatan Castro.

 

We saw another tiny car so had to take a picture.  Don't know if it looks all that small, but believe me, it's a tiny one!

 

 

Tucumán

A week ago we drove up to Tucumán, the province/state north of Catamarca.  We enjoyed seeing the Catholic church's cathedral again as well as a drive up into the hills outside the city. 

The stained glass windows were beautiful!

This peaceful, beautiful hillside is just west of Tucumán.

They grow sugar cane in Tucumán and we saw many, many fields of it along the way.

For Mormons, CTR stands for Choose The Right, so natuarally we had to snap a picture of this when we passed it along the way!!

Zone Leaders and other missionaries

We are part of the Catamarca Zone and the zone leaders work very hard with all the missionaries.

This was Elder Goggins last night in Catamarca at the end of his mission.  We went to their pension to say goodbye to him.

 Elders Gallacci and Larson are working on a project for the zone at our home.  They recorded  interviews with all the bishops and branch president in the zone and made CD's for missionaries in each unit to share with them this week at zone meeting.  They are always looking for ways to energize the missionaries.

                                                  Elders Bethers and Bridge are another great pair of hardworking missionaries.

Elders Barraclough and Gates were able to come to Catamarca from Aimogasta on Elder Barraclough's last P-day of his misson.  We took them up to the lookout point east of the city for an overview of Catamarca.  It was very windy and cold up there!

 

They're working very hard opening up the new area of Aimogasta and have been teaching many people with more baptisms scheduled this month. 

Baptisms in Aimogasta

Last Saturday we drove down to Aimogasta, a small town of 10,000 people in the northern part of La Rioja province, to attend a baptism.  The mission president just opened this area and they were having their first baptism.   

Elders Barraclough (left) and Gates just moved to Aimogasta.  The Barrionuevo family have been the only members of the Church in that city for more than 10 years.  The father was able to baptize 3 of  his children and it was a very special day for them.  They're holding the church services each Sunday in their home.  Elder Barraclough served in Catamarca for 7+ months and he called to invite us to attend this baptism.

This is the entire family plus two friends on the far right.  Fabian, on the left, was a youth missionary in another city for 6 weeks and he told the mission president that he had about 400 references to give to the missionaries when they arrived.  As you can imagine, they're very busy finding these people and teaching them the gospel of Jesus Christ.

                                                     The baptism took place at this spot where warm thermal water joined in with the cold river water.  It was the best they could do without a baptismal font.  As it's winter right now they were so happy to find something a little bit warmer.  The other great blessing is that this windy town had a very calm, windless day.

This beautiful cake was served following the baptismal service.  Yum!