Memories with members, missionaries, and the country

Since I last wrote we've celebrated a birthday, did some sightseeing, had a zone conference, and met with some members.  Here are the pictures to prove it!

Little Esperanza Parmigiano celebrated her 4th birthday on Sunday, March 25th.  Here's her family:  Eli/mother, Claudio/father, Mariana/aunt, Victoria/sister, Julieta/cousin, and Esperanza holding her newly received kitten.

                                                      Victoria, Julieta, and Esperanza

This was such a pretty drive and we came upon this little pueblo/town with the cows by the side of the road.  As you can see, the clouds were super low.  We also loved seeing the rock turtle waiting to greet us.

Below they were growing something in the lighter green area in the middle of the picture.  See how the clouds are starting to dissipate?  By the time we returned home it was sunny and beautiful!

Another day we drove up to the nearby dam, El Jumeal, so we could take a few pictures.  It's literally about 5 minutes from our home. 

Here are some pictures of the city from that vantage point. 

It's hard to see in the picture below but right in the middle, that large white building just below the first range of mountains, is Catamarca's soccer stadium.

Our zone from back row, left to right:  Elders Correa/Chile, Kohler/UT, Bethers/UT, Neville/UT, Bilbao/Chile, Critchlow/UT, Egbert/UT.  Middle row:  Elders Hughes/UT, Puma/Peru, Kayser/CA, Mosmann/Argentina, Gilman/ID.  Front row:  Sisters Steward/UT, Brown/UT, Sister and President Salas/Argentina, us, Elders Gallacci/WA, Cerda/Chile.  All great missionaries and all great to work with!!

Finally, we went by to visit a dear member and saw that she was reading her lesson manual and scriptures and enjoying her mate.  The Argentines drink mate every day of their lives.  Mate is an herbal drink that's prepared from steeping dried leaves of yerba mate in hot water.  They sprinkle sugar over the dried leaves and sip through a straw with a sieve at the bottom of it.  They always share the same straw with whomever they're with. They relax with it, socialize with it, and savor it!!  Missionaries aren't allowed to drink it as it's a time waster for us as well as not super healthy to share the same straw with everyone.

Sister Martinez

These are the flowers in her front yard and are so pretty.