New Members - Saturday, Dec. 5, 2009

We tried to sleep in, but it's no use. We were both mostly awake at the 6:00 hour trying to force a few more minutes of sleep. I think black out drapes would help, but maybe not. Our inner clocks just wake us up at the scheduled time. If it could just by pass Saturday, it would be so nice. Oh well!!

We really like leisurely Saturday mornings, but we couldn't dilly dally around too much today because we had to be at the Tigre chapel at 11:30 because our sister missionaries had a baptism at 12:00, noon. So we got showered and ready, cleaned the house, washed some white shirts, and Rich even made some pancakes for breakfast, with enough to freeze in portions for breakfasts later on. Yum!

It was another rainy Saturday. This is beginning to be a trend for the weekend and we are not liking it one bit. At least if we can't sleep in, we should be able to look forward to doing something in nice weather on our "P" day.

It was actually quite cool and very wet when we left the house to walk to the bus stop. We wore our coats to keep our clothes dry, and they provided a nice wind shield for warmth. It was needed today.

When we got to the chapel, the sisters were there with everything set up -- but no one else was present. There were two young boys, 18 and 19 getting baptized and one had come to get some white clothes, and was going home for his family. The other hadn't arrived. We waited, and waited, and waited. Finally the sisters left to find Matias who was going to do the baptizing. He didn't forget, was just running late. He, in turn, called the 19 year old who was just leaving to get on the bus. The other witness hadn't shown up, nor had the person giving one of the talks. Time isn't a big deal here in Argentina. Being punctual is not a priority.

Finally at 1:00 the main participants were present. The 19 year old came in huffing and puffing and told Elder Kroff that he missed his bus and didn't want to wait for another, so he ran 50 blocks. But, he said, "It's worth it." Good attitude!! The young man giving the talk came in when it was almost over, but not to worry because Elder Kroff took his place.

Sisters Cano and Collinwood pose with Matias Torre, our Branch President's son and returned missionary, who baptized Etson Hurtado (18), and Guillermo Sardo (19). They are really nice young men and have made this commitment without much family support. Hopefully, they will grasp hold of the gospel and be strong members.

The sisters didn't have a lunch appointment with a member today, so we treated them to Burger King. Since we ate at McDonald's last night, I wasn't in the mood for another hamburger and fries, so the salad they offered was great for me. We had a nice visit over lunch, then we hopped on the bus and headed home.

We have another baptism to go to tonight at the Virreyes branch which meets in the chapel connected to our office. Elder Curtis, one of the AP's was having a baptism and he invited us to come. Along with our office elders and the sisters, the AP's and their companions are the ones we see the most so we become well acquainted with them too. So, these eight missionaries are our little family away from home.

While waiting for the next baptism, we decided to try to get into the Christmas spirit by putting up our little Christmas tree. At home, we always have our tree up by December 7, which is Melissa's birthday. So we decided we better do it today to keep up the tradition. We purchased the tree at WalMart several weeks ago. We only have room for a table size one, so this is a BIG change for us. It certainly didn't take long to straighten out the branches and make it look like a tree.

When we bought the ornaments at WalMart, we searched and searched for hooks to attach to the bulbs for hanging them on the tree. Such an item does not exist. The ornaments are made to just stick onto the end of the branch. No hooks needed. So all ornaments are just attached to the outside edges of the tree. Nothing is hung deep into the tree. But it looks okay. Finished pictures will be on tomorrow's entry.

The Virreyes baptism started at 8:00. Rich thought he must have heard wrong because that is so late, so we went to the church at 7:00 just to be sure. But, the stake had a big outing today in the campo (country), so this baptism was scheduled later in the evening in order for branch members to return from the outing and then come to the baptism. However, there was just a handful of people there. We were glad we went. An older gentleman was being baptized. We didn't catch his name.

This stake outing had been postponed once before because of rain, but they went forward with it today. We heard that 800 were expected, but only 300 showed up. There is some sort of a pavilion out in Pilar, so hopefully it provided enough shelter from the bad weather. Wards and branches hired buses to transport their members.

We got home after 9:00 and then Marianne called in on Skype. We called it a day and went to bed.