Bill Sharman Passes Away

Bill Sharman passed away this week.  Most people are remembering Bill Sharman as the championship coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, or executive with the Boston Celtics.  However I remember him from before the Lakers, with the Utah Stars, 1971 championship teach.  He was the coach of the team which featured Zelmo Beaty as the center who could always get a basket when needed, Willie Wise, as the small forward who provided the moves, Wayne Hightower as the defender and rebounder, Glen Combs as the three point specialist, Ron Boone as the sixth man and energy off the bench, Red Robbins as scoring off the bench and Mervin Jackson at the point. 
Weldon and I would follow the games on the radio, on TV when they were shown, and a few games at the Salt Palace.  I remember one game Weldon and I got their early for the game, and went to the Jazz office in the Salt Palace.  They gave us the media guide pamphlets from the year before.  It was a good experience.

Vance Douglas and our Boxing Bout at the Turkey Farm

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/hjnews/obituary.aspx?n=randy-vance-douglass&pid=167464326

Vance Douglas passed away this month.  Back when we were both in Junior High School, we both worked at turkey farm.  It was a job that paid one dollar per hour, but it was work.  We fed turkeys, cleaned the turkey pens, gathered eggs, washed feeders, or what ever job we were assigned to.  Sometimes we road a tractor to the pens farther away.  There were also vaccination and de-beaking days.  Those days were hard work.
But back to Vance.  Vincent Olagie was was the Mexican foreman.  One time he had the idea of organizing boxing matches.  I was involved in several, and held my own. These were bare-fisted bouts, no gloves here.  One day Vincent pitted me against Vance.  We were both about the same size, and pretty evenly matched.  I must admit I think Vance got the better of me, but Vance called it a draw.  I never had such a bloody nose in my life, but I was still boxing with the blood dripping down my face.  However Vance gave me credit for one blow I inflicted, however I actually was embarrassed by the blow.  I went for Vance's face and missed, hitting him in the neck.  I guess it was a pretty good blow, but I didn't want to hit him in the neck.  That seemed sort of like hitting below the belt. 
The boxing bout had nothing to do with animosity, but fun, mostly the boss' at our expense. 

Argentina Thanksgiving 1978

I was in Argentina for two Thanksgivings.  Thanksgiving is not a holiday in Argentina.  However my second year, just before I came home, Hermana Diaz wanted to do something special for us.  I suggested banana cream pie would be just the thing.  This is a tradition in our family.  They did not have banana pudding mix in Argentina at the time, but vanilla pudding was very common.  I never helped much at Thanksgiving so suggested putting bananas in vanilla pudding and that should be it.  It tasted very good, but not quite the same thing.

Hermana Diaz with vanilla banana cream pie

Diaz family

Corsi Family Mementos

Hermano Corsi worked for the City of San Miguel, and as a result I was given some scrap papers.  I had a bunch of dog and cat papers, and could write notes on the other side.  He, and his family were always talking about taking care of animals. 

They were also always looking out for me. This is from Teresa, their baby at the time.

They had a party for me the night before I left Argentina.  They gave me a big sucker, which I did not eat, but kept as a memento until it went bad.  Lilly and Lucy drove me to the airport the next day.

Mission: Rama San Miguel

My final area to serve was in San Miguel.  In this area I had three companions, and made many friends.  Hermana Diaz made our meals for us.  Another sister did our laundry, and we lived with the Rosas family.  We worked hard and had some success.  The branch was large, but lacked priesthood leadership.  Hermano Zopetti, who had lived across from the church in San Fernando, had moved with his family to the area and was the ward mission leader.  We did lack priesthood leadership.  The branch president was from another ward in the stake. 

Flores family, baptized

Lucy and Ita

Elder Perez

district

Corsi family, Hermana Rosaura, Lusu, Ita, Ticky, Teresa, Lilly and Hermano Ricardo.

with Teresita

Lilly's baptism

Elder Steed on the left

San Miguel

Elder Petersen

Diaz family

Barrientos family

Papers from Argentina: Drawings and Letters

Homemade Christmas card, Perhaps from Diaz family where we passed Christmas

I think this was done by Elder Brad Gibbs

Heidi by Monica Monos

Nancy Tovar San Miguel

Lula Tovar San Miguel

Recipe for cream pie

 This pie is very good.  It is not a pudding pie, but more a custard pie.  It is made with eggs.  Irene use to make this.  Hermano Cassani ate so much his grey hair started turning yellow.

Letter from Zgot family, San Fernando

Mission: Don Torcuato, Barrio Dos and Pacheco Branch

Elder Findley and I were transferred to Don Torcuato, and took over half the area of a different companionship.  The zone leaders took our residence as they were moving into the area.  In Don Torcuato we had to find a residence.  We looked at rentals, and they were all out of our budget.  We asked many people if they had a room to rent, including knocking on the door of the brother of an ex president of Argentina, President Urumburu.  He had been assassinated and his brother was still very bitter.  He didn't rent us a room, but did invite us over for dinner, and served ceso, cow brains.
We found a room to rent with Hermano Cassani.  We told him we would stay until we could find a place to stay.  We never did find a place to stay.  I lived there eleven months.  We did not pay rent, but paid some money to his housekeeper for laundry etc.  He was not a member, but his wife had been.  She had been the relief society president, but had passed away.  His children were grown, and he rented us a room
I don't remember when, but during this time, we were divided as the Pacheco Branch.  Pacheco was a city next to Don Torcuato.  We continued to meet in San Fernando, until after I was transferred.   We continued to have success in this area.  Elder Findley and I purchased bikes.  We kept busy contacting and teaching. The oldest of the Apata children, had previously been baptized.  We continued to teach the rest of the family, and baptized more of the daughters.  However we were never able to teach their parents.

We were blamed for the puppies by leaving the back gate open

Don Torcuato Train Station

Elder Findley was transferred, and Elder Freeman took his place.  We continued to work hard.  We had a period of limited success.  However, a taxi driver contacted us one night, and asked him to teach his family.  The Diaz family was baptized.  This lead to meeting another family in their complex, the Ledesma family.  We also taught and baptized the Toledo family in this complex. 
My greatest frustration was that we did not have our own branch in Don Torcuato.  I use to pray for this, and count the members.  We had about 60 members in Don Torcuato at the time. 

However we did lack priesthood, hat was for sure.

Branch President Andres Walker

Apata family

MariaInes' Baptism

Elder Freeman

Toledo Family

Our district, Elder Jacobs district leader

Club Hindu

Monica Franco and her mother.  Monica taught English

Don Torcuato from a taller building

With my next companion in Don Torcuato things were not easy.  Elder Roldan was a native, and taught me about local customs.  I just had great difficulty getting him to work.  He would stay in his pajamas all day.  It got so bad I couldn't even talk to him.  We both had birthdays in August and we made amends by buying each other presents.  We also went to movies and ate out a lot.  Those were the things that made him happy.  This was also the time of the World Cup, when it was difficult to work as everyone was watching soccer.  Our best goal during this time was to watch it with an investigator if possible.  We also watched once with Sister Franco, who was so excited that the keeper, Fillol had stopped a penalty kick. 

During this time the Church was trying to find a suitable arrangement for our branch in Pacheco.  We were meeting in San Fernando, and this was far enough away to be a financial burden for some of the members.  The above letter talks about the search for a meeting house.

Ledesma Family

Elder Roldan

Hermano Cassani and Irene, where we lived