Lovells In Argentina: Argentina Neuquen Mission 2012-2015

Stake Conference in Argentina

On the Sunday before Easter all of Argentina had Stake Conference! It was transmitted from Salt Lake and it was wonderful! Elder Bowen, Elder Clayton, Sister Stevens and Elder Nelson spoke to us. Everyone except for Sister Stevens spoke to us in Spanish. (She had a translator.) All of the talks were great, but it was especially interesting that Elder Clayton talked about the difficult economic circumstances during his time living in Argentina. They were many applications for us today.

The spirit was so strong during the conference. I was talking to two of our missionaries about their experience with the conference and they said I could share it with you. They have been teaching a husband and wife with two children for about three months but they didn’t seem to be making any progress. They invited them to the conference and they came! Their questions about tithing and marriage were answered during the talks. They loved the emphasis on the importance of the family and the importance of teaching and training children. They said they have heard many important people speak before but they have never before felt the way they felt during the conference. They are getting married next week and baptized on April 20^th. Another Miracle in the Mission!

Since all of Argentina had this Stake Conference on the same day President and I will not be traveling around to the nine stakes and two districts like we try to do to attend all of the Stake Conferences. We attended this Argentina Wide Stake Conference with the Caleta Olivia District in the southern part of the Mission.

After the Conference there is always a light lunch prepared for those who have several hours to travel to return home. They are always so nice and invite the missionaries to eat with them!

There are many people we love here! This mother and daughter are someone I watch for when we visit. The first time we attended the branch there in Caleta they saw that I was totally lost and helped me know where to go and what to do. I found out later that their husband and father had died the week before. What an example of being willing to serve even when things have been difficult.

This is the District Relief Society President. She and her daughter fixed a very nice lunch for the Mission Presidency and the District Presidency between some Leadership meetings that were held the day before the conference.

This is the Second Counselor in the Mission Presidency. It has been a joy to get to know him and his family. They just found out the day before the conference that they are expecting their fourth baby!

The Brother on the far right is one of the Branch Presidents in the District. He speaks very good English. I asked him how it has blessed him in his life. Among the things he told me was how many of the things he needs to read for his work are on the internet in English. I asked him if he would share his experiences with some of our missionaries that are working hard to learn English. It looks like they are listening well!

These are some of my favorite people! The Sister on the far left translated for me when I gave my first talk last July. If you notice...the sister to the right of her is not wearing earrings That is because I told how much I liked her earrings and she insisted that I have them!

The Sister on the right is President Castro's wife. President Castro is the District President. She is full of life!

Isn't this little girls cute? She is still eating the treats her mother brought for her to enjoy during the Conference!

We feel so at home in the Caleta Olivia District. It is one of our very favorite places to be!

Interviews

We are home from touring the mission for interviews. We have been gone almost two weeks and we have driven almost 1700 miles! We took a little longer this time because we wanted to spend some time with the ward and stake leaders in some of the Zones. With this extra time we were also able to spend some extra time with some of the missionaries. It was amazing how the time we planned was needed for things that came up.

We wanted to take advantage of the time together so along with interviews we also did “Specialized Training” with the missionaries. We met together before beginning the interviews in each zone (or sometimes in a district if it was far away from their zone leaders).

This gave us time to recognize those who achieved the mission “Standard of Excellence” and to discuss things we wanted to talk about with all the missionaries. I showed them all the blog and clarified that the blog was only for the families at home and that they can enjoy it after their mission. We asked them to fill out a self-evaluation on how they are doing in many areas of obedience and in their own personal spirituality. Then President talked with them which set the tone for the interviews.

Before they met with President, I had an opportunity to talk to each of them. We talked about how they are each doing with their language study and set goals with those learning English for the next time we meet for interviews. I talked to the North Americans about questions they had about the Companionship Language Program so they can help their Latin companions. I also talked to the North Americans about how they are continuing to study their Spanish during language study time. Then if there is time before President is ready for his interview we are able to talk about some of the miracles they are having in their area. This is my favorite part.

Then they meet with President Lovell for their interview with him. It is such a good time for President to get to know each missionary and for them to talk about specific things that are important to each of them.

While President and I were meeting with each missionary the assistants did other things with those that were waiting for their interviews.

The church has changed providers for phones and for Bank Cards. We brought the new phones and the new bank cards to give out to the missionaries. The phones have more features such as texting so the assistants took some time to talk about how the phones should be used and to answer questions.