Learning Every Day

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Typical afternoon in Buenos Aires

Another wonderful week. When I write this, it doesn’t mean that everything is easy, all lollipops and rainbows 24/7. Nope. It’s not like that but all the wonderful things are the result of the hard things. The adjustments are slowly getting easier. 

 

Have to tell you about the Humanitarian Aid missionaries with whom we work. There are two couples, the Richardson’s from Arizona and the Taylor’s from California. (Bill Taylor grew up in Hacienda Heights, right next to Rowland Heights where I grew up.) These people travel throughout the area (Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay) delivering musical instruments to various schools, wheelchairs to communities in need, hospital equipment, etc, any number of things to meet the needs of people. In addition, they have a lot of paper work to do to keep track of things, order needed items, submit projects and budgets to get needs met. AND they do not serve only members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The Richardson’s just completed a musical instrument donation to a Jewish school orchestra outside Buenos Aires. The Taylor’s did a follow up of donation of wheelchairs to ensure that the wheelchairs are still in good shape and don’t need repairs, etc. 

 

The legal folks in our office, including Mike, are in the background helping the Humanitarian Aid missionaries, along with all the other things they do, get the government clearances handled, if there are any. Mike found a law in Chile that effects a project there, doesn’t exist in Argentina, but the legal team needed to be aware.

Another thing I saw this week is the huge reach of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. There are two sort of divisions of the church: spiritual and temporal. The temporal events are triggered by the spiritual principles that the church teaches in Matthew 25:

“35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

Most missionaries share their spiritual experiences but sometimes it’s tough to put those things into words. Needless to say, we are growing, learning, understanding more and more about life, our individual spiritual journeys, our spiritual journey as a couple, and the reasons we are here in Argentina.

We are still new here, not quite two months, and the learning curve is steep. We’ve been given tremendous support from the other folks serving here and from the Lord himself. We are very grateful. 

Love you all! 

 

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