Speaking in Church - Sunday, Jan 31, 2010

We can tell the days are getting shorter because it isn't as light in our bedroom anymore at 6:00 when the alarm goes off. My internal clock wakes me up between 5:30 and 6:00 every single day. I peek at the time to see how many minutes I have before it is actually time to get up. I should go to bed earlier each night to accommodate for that half hour.

Today was Missionary Sunday (as the Branch President calls it) at church today. The sacrament speakers consist of all the missionaries in the branch -- that would be five of us right now. A new sister joined our present ones to make a trio. Her name is Sister Sandoval and she is from Chile. It is beyond me why we didn't take a picture of her today. Next Sunday!!

Sister Sandoval and I bore our testimonies, and Sisters Rivera, Collinwood and Elder Kroff were the main speakers. I gave my testimony in Spanish with notes to rely on along the way. Someday I hope the thoughts will come naturally and I won't have to write them down. But, I don't know if that will ever happen.

The 15 ceiling fans in the chapel just couldn't keep up with the muggy heat today. Elder Kroff's classroom with the doors closed and fans on was worse. It actually felt a little cooler outside than inside the building. It seemed like the humidity was trapped inside and it was so damp and thick.

In the combined Relief Society and Priesthood meeting, the Branch President gave another pep talk about cleaning the church. He talked about it in Priesthood meeting last Sunday with no volunteers offering help. Today it was decided that Tuesday morning at 9:00 anyone who could make it was to come to the church to clean. No sign up sheet??? Sometimes that makes people more committed. Having the members clean the church down here is new to them. It was just introduced a couple months ago. It is going to take a while for it to catch on.

There are some nice people in our branch in Tigre with hardships and some pretty sad stories. This is Katherine Bonatti and her three month old son Sebastian, along with her mother Graciela Guzman.

Katherine is only 13 years old and was the victim of a family member taking advantage of her. She has been robbed of her childhood. When we came to the branch, she was pregnant and looked like such a child -- still does. She, of course, cannot go with the girls her age to their Sunday School class or to Young Women's, so she attends all the adult classes and Relief Society. The Relief Society gathered things for the baby when he was born as she and her mother are struggling. The mother was involved in an accident several years ago so has some physical disabilities. She wears a patch covering one eye, and has a bad leg that causes her pain.

The baby is just darling and Katherine seems to take good care of him. It is a sad situation.

This is Silvia Romero with her four children, Nazareno Jesús (2) in her arms, Iris Marilyn (3), Keila Ayelen (4), and Luz de Estrella (6). No sign of a husband, if there is one. She has just been coming for the past couple of months. Signs of a very humble existence are evident, with limited supervision and discipline for the children. We have to hand it to her for making the effort each Sunday to get on a bus and come to church so early in the morning. She was late today because she said she had a hard time rounding up enough pesos for the bus. After church while we were waiting at one bus stop, she was waiting across the street at another. Rich went over and gave her some money so she could have it for their ride next week. Who knows, it may needed for milk and bread.

We came home and had left over asado for dinner. The warmed up beef and chicken tasted good the second time around. Thanks Silvio!

We have been wanting to watch the movie, Forever Strong, so today was the day. Rich downloaded it from the internet to his iPhone, and then played it from his iPhone to the TV. It was a great story and even more interesting because it was Salt Lake based.

We enjoyed a skype call from Paul and Denise, and Marianne. Always a great Sunday activity!!