Los Refuerzos...The Reinforcements (March)

 

We have been very excited for these missionaries to arrive! Because of knowing that twenty two missionaries would go home this month we have been anxious for at least that many to get their visas to take the "Fieles" places here in the mission! We feel very blessed to have these wonderful missionaries arrive this week! Five of them are the ones that we talked about in a previous post called "Visa News!" Last week we also received word that Brother and Sister Asbell were also able to come this transfer. They will be a leadership couple here in the mission. We cannot call them a senior couple because they are much younger than we are! They took some great pictures of all our "Refuerzos" in the Buenos Aries airport and their arrival here in Neuquén. They are all included in the "Missionary Photos" on the blog.

 

 

I usually have to take our first pictures of our new missionaries through the frosted glass at the airport but the Asbells were right there to get some great pictures from inside the baggage claim area!

 

They are prepared for anything!

 

Here we are on the other side of the glass catching the first glimpses of these new missionaries!

 

 

We took the Elders to the Casa Grande (The home where the Ehmkes, the Assistants and the two mission secretaries live) and the Hermana's came to stay at the Mission Home with us. We had some taco soup and empanadas outside. It was a beautiful evening!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After dinner we came into the Mission Home to learn a little bit about each other and about the mission.

 

The next day they had all their paperwork to fill out and they were able to have their first interview with President Lovell. These interviews are one of the things President Lovell enjoys most about being here in the mission!

 

There was also pictures to be taken, journal entries to write and time to relax just a little! 

 

 

Everyone enjoyed the time we had to just visit with each other! 

 

Hermana Ehmke is our mission nurse and is always there to train and answer questions. She takes very good care of the missionaries in this mission! Everyone feels better after just being able to talk to her!

 

With the help of these wonderful missionaries we quickly had things ready for lunch!

 

Remember to double click on these pictures if you want to see them bigger.

 

 

Then there was more training by those who work in the office. Elder Ehmke wears many hats here in the mission. Here he is explaining things about the pensions in the mission. The new missionaries also met with the mission secretary and the financial secretary.

 

One of the things I do in the mission is to help the missionaries who are learning a language. There are of course the missionaries that are learning Spanish but all of those who don't know English are asked to learn English. This will be a great blessing to them in their lives and it is also fun! The church has a program called Companionship Language Study that they make available for us to be able to teach English. This was the perfect group of missionaries to have a very fun training about this program. There were the exact number of English Speakers and those whose main language is Spanish.

 

 

One of the activities we did was for each of the English speakers to work with a missionary that speaks Spanish in a practice that is part of this Companionship Language Study program. They all seemed to have a fun time with it!  

 

 

It was fun for all of us to get to know Brother and Sister Asbell better. Brother Asbell is a great story teller and both Brother and Sister enjoy being with the missionaries! As you can tell...the missionaries enjoy being with them! The Asbells will serve in the branch of Trevelin.  

 

 

There were actually a few more minutes to just visit and relax! 

 

 

This Hermana was so excited to take out the garbage and try out the containers that hold the trash here in Argentina. It is just so fun to be around these enthusiastic missionaries!

 

The next day was a day of training with the new missionaries and their trainers. It was so exciting when the trainers arrived. No one knew who their companion would be but it was so fun for them to all get to know one another. It is always an amazing experience to see trainers that are just learning English and new missionaries that are just learning Spanish start working together. It really is a miracle! 

 

 

Much of the training the next day was in the chapel at the church so I didn't get pictures of it but there was such a good feeling among all the missionaries. The missionaries that arrived earlier this transfer were included in this training. Since they arrived in the middle of the transfer cycle they have been in trios for the last few weeks. They were all here to be trained and to find out who their trainers would be. It was so exciting to have this many missionaries together to be trained!

 

 

We had a little break before dinner. These Hermanas helped us finish prepare the meal for the evening. They were always there volunteering to do whatever they could to help.  

 

Dinner was a success and a good time to get photos of your missionaries! 

 

We served chocolate pudding for desert and had quite a bit left over. The missionaries are always willing to help me with that kind of problem! 

 

The group of Missionaries that arrived this week 

 

The same group of missionaries with their trainers 

 

The group of missionaries that arrived in February and their trainers 

 

All of the missionaries that arrived this transfer cycle and their trainers