Aug 26, 2012

If you are still interested in Argentina...

Remember how I was going to tell you all about our trip to Argentina?

I have been seriously sidetracked, but I have to finish telling the stories I set off to tell! And I will try not to be too long.

DAY 3

We spent another day in Bahia Blanca visiting with several different people. All of these people were members of the congregations Taylor was a part of in that area.

We first visited Juan ("Juanchie") and Veronica. It was a cold day- remember it is winter- and their tiny home looked very inviting. It was a very small house- the front door led into an open room with the kitchen on the left, and a sleeping area on the right. Juan and Veronica slept in the main room with their youngest, and the two older children slept in another small room in the back. Though it was very small, it was very nice and very new. And they were so happy. Juan told us all about how he built the house himself, but Marcos his son made sure to jump in with, "the house WE built". He made the windows, the door, everything. I was very impressed.

Juan insisted on driving us to our next appointment, and on the way he counseled us that we must always keep our marriage strong and never fight, because the children need that. If we can't be good to each other, how can we be good to our children and give them that security and happiness they need? He was a good man, I could tell.

We had lunch with Guillermo and Estella Barroso, and Estella's brother that they take care of whose name I cannot recall.I was feeling glad that lunch was looking light, until they announced the asado- my stomach was already feeling so meat heavy, but it was certainly delicious.


Estella has some 30+ siblings, isn't that an incredible number? And she said she knew them all very well! Her father was married many times. The brother living with her was the youngest of all. Guillermo is a professional violinist and graced us with his beautiful music. They both shared their conversion stories which I am dying because I cannot recall them, but I remember being amazed.

And I have to tell you about their cat. Two things: 1)The sofa is next to the front door and 2) the locks on the doors in pretty much every house require an old style key and they have to leave the keys in the door when it is locked. This cat will jump onto the sofa, bat at the key until it turns, jump down onto the floor and jump up and grab the door handle until it opens! Freaked me out every time.

Side note: the cat at Susana's house could also jump up and open the door into our bedroom. What's with these cats?
I stole this photo from their facebook, but would you look at these two back in the day? Love it.


Guillermo insisted on driving us to our next destination (noticing a pattern here? The people were so kind and always went out of their way for us).

Our last stop for the day was to see Sergio Duran. We arrived at his house at 4:00 and we then sat at his kitchen table talking (in Spanish, of course) for 7 hours! I was enjoying the company, but I was so miserable. I was really tired, speak no Spanish, and because of all that meat and soda I had been consuming my gut decided to wage war against me and cause the most tragic crampy awful pain. By the time we at dinner at 9:30(!), food was the last thing I wanted. I just tried to endure and keep a smile on my face.
Sergio Duran on the right, Alicia & Sergio in the middle

Around 8, another woman Taylor had known arrived with her husband- Alicia and Sergio. This was the woman who told Taylor during his mission that to cure pink eye you take a knife and leave it sitting outside over night, and in the morning you take the knife and wipe the dew across your eye in an X. I'm not sure about that, but she was hilarious.

Alicia shared the story about waiting to go to the temple until her husband decided to be baptized. When Taylor was there on his mission, he was not yet a member. Taylor remembers him as being very grumpy all the time, and was amazed at his now gentle and friendly demeanor. He told how the gospel as changed his life. When they went to the temple, it was a 16 hour trip and they told of their caravan of 6 cars, not enough food, cars breaking down...such a difficult sacrifice!

Something I was seeing at this point was that all of these people I was meeting were incredibly spiritual, had amazing stories, they all had these amazing dreams that were apart of their conversions, and were very dedicated to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

2 comments:

  1. What a cool thing to be able to go see Taylor's mission! How are you guys doing out there?

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  2. Thanx for sharing such great information...........

    www.vishvabhraman.com

    ReplyDelete