End of a Month - Sunday, Feb. 28, 2010

It was a peaceful morning as we prepared for the Sabbath. As we study the Book of Mormon each morning, we realize how blessed our lives have been to be living in this dispensation of time. Whatever we did in the pre existence to enable us to come to earth at this time is truly a blessing. Life in the Book of Mormon times was stressful -- fleeing to the wilderness, participating in or being victims of countless slayings and wars, plus many other atrocities just doesn't seem like something we would want to be a part of. How thankful we are!

Not much traffic on our street at the early morning hour that we leave for church. Rich captured a picture of where we wait in front of our building for the remise to pick us up each week. We call for the ride at 8:15 and get to the chapel in Tigre at 8:30. We are not the first ones there either. The Sunday School President opens up the building and our two faithful sisters who come early to visit with each other and listen to the music are always there prior to us.

There were about 54 in attendance today at church, and a couple people we hadn't seen for quite a while. Sacrament meeting started by Presidente Torre talking about the importance of the youth taking seminary. Since school is starting in a couple weeks now that the summer break is ending, seminary will also begin. It is held in our chapel at 6:00 a.m. and four members of the branch have been called as teachers who rotate with the lessons. Today, the president had a couple young people come forward and share with us a scripture they had learned while taking seminary and it's importance to them in their lives. Then Presidente Torre took the rest of the time speaking about the importance of the scriptures and how they apply to our lives.

Elder Kroff's Sunday school class had a good group in it today. Most were investigators brought by the sister missionaries. There are some who attend that are coming back into activity, and then the branch mission leader, Brother Soler, is always there plus Brother Baldovino who comes to lend support. It is a friendly group who seem to enjoy the lessons and Elder Kroff's humor.

Brother Soler always passes around a candy dish at the beginning of class with wrapped hard tack candy in it. Everyone looks forward to it. Little Nazareno Jesús didn't feel he had his share, so came forward for some more. He was surprised when his picture was taken snatching the goods.

We enjoy our hermanas. Sister Rivera is from Santiago, Chile and reported today that her family was not affected by the earthquake. Sister Collinwood is from Visalia, California by Fresno and goes home on March 10. She is sad to leave the mission field. Sister Sandoval just came in January and she is from Pichilemu, Chile. It will be interesting to see who will be serving with us in Tigre in the coming month.

After church, we sat in on discussion the sisters had with William who is being baptized next weekend. They were teaching him about the Law of Chastity and keeping the Sabbath day holy. An adult member has to be in attendance when the sisters teach a male investigator.

We arrived home at 1:00 and enjoyed a dinner of leftovers from yesterdays meal. It tasted so good the second time around, and was easy. Love it!

We both succumbed to Sunday afternoon naps, but I didn't want to sleep as long as I did. Two hours later I woke up startled at the time.

We studied Spanish for about 45 minutes and Rich has finally convinced me that I need to read, read, and read to learn how verbs are used and to become acquainted with common phrases. I am reading simple stories with pictures from the Friend section of the Liahona. It is easy elementary reading and I can see the benefit of learning this way. I read the paragraph, then translate it. He is by my side, of course, to correct me along the way. It is one thing to see it in print, but to try to pull out of the air what I want to say on the spur of the moment is what I find difficult. I just can't put it together quickly. I feel bad that I may go home a failure.

It's only 8:00 and this entry is done. Hallelujah!! Maybe we can watch an Olympic Ice Skating event. It'll all be history tomorrow, but we'll be enjoying it for a few more days.