Getting to experience a second Christmas in Argentina was awesome. On Christmas Eve everyone gets with family to celebrate the “Good Night.” Most families have nativity sets. Some are just small figures on a table inside, while other families have huge models of Bethlehem that cover their whole front patio. At midnight on the “Good Night”, the baby Jesus gets put in the manger of the nativity and food is served. We spent the “Good Night” with the Diaz family. Our friend Josue got baptized on Saturday. There isn’t a baptismal font here in Cafayate, so we do baptisms here in a small irrigation water control pool. While it is cool to have baptized someone […]
Almost Christmas
This week we got to travel to Salta for a Christmas conference. After a devotional focused on Jesus Christ’s birth, we had lunch and a small gift exchange. It was fun to chat with people I hadn’t seen in 5 months. Due to bus schedules, we left Cafayate at 4am to arrive in Salta on time. We had some extra time, so we got breakfast and took some pictures in the main plaza in downtown Salta. In a lesson with our friend Marcos, he told us he works 2 full-time jobs and is working on earning a teaching degree so that he can better provide for his family. After what I felt to be a […]
Cafayate, But For Real This Time
After 3 days of traveling by plane and bus, I finally got to my area, Cafayate. Cafayate is a small tourist town in the province of Salta a 4-hour bus ride to the southwest of the capital city. I actually came out here in July as the missionaries were first getting started to bring chairs and other supplies for their Sunday meetings. My companion is Elder Miller. He first arrived in Salta after I had gone home, but he is already great at teaching in Spanish. The other companionship here is Elder Shelley and Elder Kinghorn. Elder Shelley and I served right next to each other in Tartagal, so we are already good friends. Elder […]
What Had Happened Was…
I’ve not been on my mission for a while. Back when the Tuberculosis outbreak was happening in August, I tested positive for it on a skin-prick test. With my parents and mission leaders, I decided to return home to the US for what we thought could be the end of my mission. Once I got back to Idaho, we were all stunned when bloodwork came back negative and it was deemed that I did not have TB. The CDC required that I wait until November for follow-up testing. While I waited, I was able to work for my uncle’s home construction company. I also volunteered weekly in the Meridian Temple, helping run sacred worship services and […]