My Baptism Interview

Bishop Blaine Nielsen interviewed me when I was baptized. 

The interview took place at his home.  It really wasn't too bad.  Bishop Nielsen had a way of making you feel comfortable.  There were some questions about the articles of faith, but to be honest I don't remember much of what he asked. I do remember the experience in general and it always stuck with me.  He lived a block from our house, so I assume I walked over.  It felt like he had to pass me or fail me, but I am not sure if I could actually have failed. 

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

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

Mission to Argentina: Barrio Dos San Fernando

From Barrio Uno I was transferred to Barrio Dos in San Fernando, which was in an area North of Buenos Aires.  We had an apartment very close to the river.  Tigre and the delta also pertained to this ward.  There was another set of missionaries in Tigre.  Durin g the time I was there we went to the delta a couple of times.  One time for a district P-Day with a member of the church. He was fishing and caught a piranha.  I examined it closely, and touched its front tooth which cut my finger.  The tooth was razor sharp.  We heard to story about how the cattlemen would cross the river.  They would send a sickly cow across downstream, which would attract all the attention of the piranha, and then cross the herd of cattle in safety upstream. 
Barrio dos was interesting as it had lots of dignitaries in the ward.  This included the stake president, Presidente Lindheimer and his family.  They had lived in the U.S. for sometime, and remembered some of the American Holidays.  Also in the ward was Elder Robert E. Wells and his family.  As such I met the future Miss America.
My companion was Elder Reed Findley.  We did have some success.  We baptized the Zgot family.  All women, and I became known as being able to bring women into the church. The Zgot family was very poor.  They had us over for dinner, and served polenta with tomato sauce.  It wasn't my favorite, and for a while I had a negative opinion of polenta.  However made with lots of cheese, it is very good.  With the Zgots we watched a Catholic processional which was very interested.  The lived in like the garage of a storage area.  Very humble circumstances.

Zgot family with myself and Elder Reed

It was on a cold night that we were headed back to our place, maybe a bit early.  I insisted we try one more contact, and we contact a couple waiting at the bus stop.  The actually lived in Pacheco, and were leaving their parents home to take the bus.  We actually contacted them as they were returning home, and it took us a while to be able to teach them. We taught them just before we left the area.  They Elders who cam after us finished teaching them.  However they were baptized. 

impromptu P-Day party

View from the San Fernando Water Tower

Argentine Mission: Bueno Aires North: Barrio Uno

My first companion in Buenos Aires was Elder Larsen.

We served in Barrio Uno, in Liniers.  Elder Larsen and I worked mostly in Mataderos.  We had plenty of people to teach in that area.  Ruben Diaz had been baptized shortly before I arrived, and he was very excited about the gospel.  We taught his mother.  Hermana Duarte was baptized shortly after I arrived.  She was older, but very faithful.  I saw her when she sang with the choir for regional conference a year and a half later.
We also taught the Graciano family, and they accepted the gospel.  Hermano Graciano was the first person I baptized. 

Chapel Barrio Uno, Graciano car and family.

There little girl was learning how to talk.  She had the cutest little two-year-old accent.  She had a hard time with s's and would say a ti instead of asi.
During this time we lived with Hermana Gallardo.  Her children wore guardapolvos to school, which was common throughout the country.  The children would wear whatever under, but the all wore a white overcoat. 

The had a flat roof, and on this roof had built a couple of rooms.  The roof also had a lattice work covered with grape vines.  Hermana Gallardo also fixed our meals, and did the laundry.  The bishop, Obispo Hoffman lived in our area.  He was a barber and we visited him once for haircuts.

Elder Scaugard (the artist)and Elder Klingler

Elder Woodhouse

Elder Ellsworth, my companion

After a couple months, I was transferred inside Barrio Uno, but I had a new companion, Elder Ellsworth, and a new area, La Tablada.  La Tablada was on the other side of the freeway which circled the federal capital.  We actually moved into the area, and lived with a member of the bishopric, Hermano Rodriguez and family.  Our bathroom was back of the house, but it had water.  We installed a small apparatus which attached to the shower to fill with water, which you would then heat with an electric coil, for your shower.  Otherwise the did not have hot water.  We would still travel to Liniers for meals and laundry.