Mission Conference - Monday, Feb. 8, 2010

We were excited to begin the week with a special conference we were having with Elder Aidukaitis, (I-do-kite-chees) who is a member of the Quorum of Seventy and also a counselor in our Area Presidency. He is going around the mission speaking to two zones at a time, and today was our turn.

He is from Brazil and has served as a mission president there before being made a General Authority and being called to serve in this Area Presidency. He and his wife spoke and they were excellent. Rich did a good job of interpreting for me today and we really enjoyed the four hour meeting. Of course there were stand up breaks and a walk around bathroom break, but we all sat spell bound listening to first President and Sister Argyle, then Sister Aidukaitis, and then Elder Aidukaitis.

The meeting started in the chapel of the church at 9:00 and there were about 50 people in the congregation. Forty three missionaries, our Stake President and five or six guests. Both couples stood in a reception line as each of us filed by having the opportunity to greet them and shake their hands. That is always special for the missionaries to shake hands with an authority.

Elder and Sister Aidukaitis speak fluent English, Portuguese, and Spanish. They have four children and the youngest is around six years of age, if I remember correctly.

Elder Aidukaitis is only 48 years old, so he was a young mission president like President Argyle. He is a very dynamic person with high energy and is a master missionary. When he took over the mission in Brazil, the first week they had zero baptisms. By the time he finished, they were having 100 per week. During his instruction to us today, he showed the missionaries how to be successful in finding new investigators to teach, and how just opening their mouths and talking to people can be productive.

He spoke about miracles and that miracles can happen in the mission field if the missionaries have enough faith. The examples and experiences he related were inspiring, faith building, and hopefully we will find our missionaries motivated to work harder and reap the results. He had everyone right in the palm of his hand as he taught us. It was a wonderful meeting and the spirit was present.

The Aidukaitis and Argyle foursome willingly posed for a picture.

When the conference was over at 1:00, Maria Vecchiarelli from the San Fernando ward fixed lunch for everyone. She made Empanadas and served chocolate mousse and fruit for dessert.

During this time, Elder Aidukaitis wanted to have random interviews with some missionaries, so he and President Argyle summoned for us to come join them. He mentioned he was going to school in Utah when Salt Lake and Tooele had the floods going down city streets back in 1983. He asked if we learned anything in the conference that would help us in our missionary work and our response was favorable. The things he spoke about were not only helpful in missionary work, but would serve us well in all aspects of our lives. He thanked us for our service as a missionary couple. We met a great leader today.

I had to get some elders to load the President's car with the bins of supplies and Book of Mormon boxes to take to the last of the conferences here in Buenos Aires. Wednesday, the four of them fly south for two more conferences down there.

We spent the last couple hours of the afternoon back in the office after everything calmed down and the crowd left. President Argyle lingered around for a little while signing some things for Elder Kroff and recapping some instructional highlights of the conference. We enjoy his one on one talks with us when he has time.

Elders Coria and Hales were going to use Elder Kroff at a cita they were having in the church, but the appointment fell through. It was a no show! So we left for home and enjoyed a visit with Susanne and Thale on skype -- happy that new medication for Thale's Parkinson's disease has improved his condition and has him looking and acting much better.