Mission tour with Elder and Sister Viñas

We have just finished our mission tour with Elder and Sister Viñas.  It has been one of the highlights of our mission.  Elder Viñas has served in many positions in the church.  He has been doing mission tours for 18 years! It was a  great blessing to have him and his wife teach and inspire each of us.

 

Here is more information about Elder Viñas.

 

https://www.lds.org/church/leader/francisco-j-vinas?lang=eng

We combined the zones to only have three separate meetings.

(Remember to double click on the photo to make it bigger to be able to find your missionary!)

 

Elder Viñas was also kind enough to do two extra meetings while he was here. Tuesday night our missionaries and members could bring less active members to hear him speak. Wednesday the missionaries and members could bring investigators to a meeting with him.  He talked for part of the time but he also opened it up so they could ask their questions.  They were both very well attended.  One of our districts in Roca brought 32 investigators to the second meeting!

 

Before the meeting on Wednesday we had a dinner with the Stake Presidents and their wives from the area.  It was wonderful for them to get to know Elder Viñas better and for us to be able to spend more time with them!

 

 

When we have a general authority in the mission I am grateful that we have the travel that we do because we get to learn from them during the hours we spend in the car together.   The time went very fast for me as we traveled to Bariloche.  Elder Viñas was so kind to share so many things with us and answer our many questions.   We saw this as a great opportunity and wanted to learn as much as we could from him.   He talked about how he studies the scriptures...how he looks for patterns.  For instance many prophets talk about the atonement but instead of taking one verse or chapter as his information, he reads what many prophets write about the atonement and then looks for the patterns in what they write.  He also talked about linking the doctrine to gain better understanding.

I loved the way Elder Viñas taught. The missionaries were involved during the entire conference. He had asked that each of the missionaries come prepared with their feelings of how the atonement has blessed their lives.  During part of the conference he asked for those who would like to stand and share these feelings. The spirit was very strong during this time and their experiences and testimonies strengthened each of us in attendance.

He had lists of those men in each of the wards that had been baptized in the last two years but had not been ordained to the priesthood.  He read off their names and asked the missionaries in those ward what they knew about these men and why they had not been ordained.  In most of the cases the missionaries knew of their situation and that many were progressing toward receiving the priesthood. He was very complimentary to our missionaries and their efforts to reach each one.   He taught the importance of having worthy priesthood leaders to lead the wards and stakes as the church continues to grow in  our wards and stakes.

We are very grateful to our wonderful assistants, our office secretary and many other missionaries who worked so hard to organize everything during this special time with Elder Viñas. 

On Wednesday we had a special lunch with Elder Viñaz and all of the missionaries who work in the office.  We have several who are training replacements right now so it was a large group!

 

We had all worked so hard to have everything perfect for when he arrived!

 

Sister Viñas enjoyed seeing the beautiful 3 dimensional wall hanging Sister Arnaudin made for us.  It is amazing and took her many hours to make!  She is very talented!

 

Elder Viñas was so kind to each of us and we enjoyed getting to know him better.

After our lunch together they both took a tour of the office.  He was very complimentary of how organized things were and how the missionaries handled the areas they are responsible for.  That was nice because our office missionaries work very hard!  There were many times that he said how good the missionaries are here in the mission.  We definitely agreed!