A New Branch in Rincon de los Sauces

In January of 2014 we established a "Family Group" of the church in Rincon de los Sauces. Rincon de los Sauces is in the very Northern part of the Mission.  It is about 3 hours North of Neuquén near the boarder of the Province of Neuquén and Mendoza.   

 

This is the first meeting that was held with the Ponce family and the Bogado family.  It was held in the home of Brother and Sister Ponce.  These two families and many other families have worked very hard to establish the church in Rincon.

 

 

During this last year the numbers grew and grew until the "Family Group" looked like this!

 

 

Those first missionaries also worked hard to strengthen the members and find those who were prepared to hear the gospel.

 

Then the numbers grew to large to continue meeting in the Ponce home.  The church rented this home to hold their meetings.

 

There was room for Priesthood meeting for the young men.

 

Relief Society for the Women and all of the other organizations.

 

It was a very exciting day when they were able to have their first Primary Program!

 

This month we received word that they would be able to become a branch.

 

When we arrived at the church on Sunday the Hermanas were putting up the announcement for General Conference!

 

The auxiliary meetings were held during the first hour.  I attended Primary.  It was so fun to see the children learning and sharing what they were learning.  I thought of what a blessing it was for these wonderful families to have the gospel in their lives!

 

There was a wonderful feeling in the meeting as the new Branch Presidency was announced.  They and their wives all shared their testimonies. 

 

 After the meeting we all went out for a Branch Photo!

This Grandma and her granddaughter were the first to be baptized in Rincon and they are so grateful to have the church in their lives!

 

There have been several new babies born into the Branch.

 

The missionaries were so excited for this great day and had several investigators at the meeting!

 

The New Branch Presidency

 

The Branch Presidency and their wives.

 

The church is in good hands in Rincon de los Sauces!

Leadership Council

We rescheduled leadership council this month to accommodate a new, church-sponsored initiative called Because He Lives.  Normally, these councils take place on the first Wednesday of each month, but because of the time sensitive nature of the initiative, the April Council took place instead on the last Thursday of March. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We began the council with a short testimony in English about the Book of Mormon.

 

 

Following him there was a short talk about the essential role of obedience in missionary work, especially staying with our companions at all times. 

 The assistants then followed up on our current mission focuses and we counseled together about the miraculous success that God has brought to pass recently in our mission.

 

After the preliminary exercises we studied the prayer of faith.  Several missionaries and President Lovell addressed us drawing upon five key passages of scripture: 2 Nephi 4:20-35, Alma 34:17-28, 3 Nephi 12:9-13, Moroni 7:48, and James 1:5-6. 

 

Following the instruction, we role-played teaching prayer to investigators in a practical way that meets their daily needs and helps them feel the hope of a relationship with God.

These role-plays made us excited to help our actual investigators and so we made some mission goals using a calendar and the names of actual people we are teaching.  We are very hopeful about the month of April!  With our goals in place, President gave us a powerful tool by introducing Because He Lives.  He showed us an amazing video the Church put together.  Share it with your friends and bear your testimony of the power and reality of prayer!

 

 

One of our favorite parts of the meeting was having our daughter Brittany and her husband Alex with us!  They each shared their testimonies and talked about how to stay strong after the mission.  It was so fun for them to meet so many of our wonderful missionaries!

 

Alex was excited to see one of his best friends sister here.  She is one of our amazing Hermana Leaders!

 

All this learning in the Spirit made us hungry, and so we took a break for lunch. 

 

 Elder and Sister Arnaudin surprised us while we were eating with too beautiful cakes!  It was actually my birthday that day!  They were delicious!

  

 

After we got started again they surprised me by singing Happy Birthday in three languages and showed a video the Sister Training Leader´s put together with photos of and notes from each zone of the mission sharing wonderful thoughts about my birthday!  It was so much fun and I felt very special!

 

You have to know this gift is very special.  I am always talking about the importance of eating more vegetables. In an earlier zone conference I explained to all the missionaries how easy it is to cook butternut squash whole in the oven!  These squash are President and I!  They even have little missionary tags on them!  These Sister Leaders are so fun and creative!

 

Elder Arnaudin stayed with us after lunch to teach us important life skills and to remind us of the importance of taking care of our apartments. 

 

When he left the assistants worked with us in another role-play to show us how to use Because He Lives in our daily proselyting efforts

 

 

President Lovell concluded by bringing everything we learned in leadership council back together.  He helped us have a unified vision of the future and understand what the Lord expects of us as missionaries and leaders. 

 

 

 

 We left with renewed faith to share what we learned with our zones.