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 Kinghorn is actually my second cousin (our dads are cousins), but we had never met until both got to Cafayate. All 4 of us are from Utah, which is surprisingly uncommon.
Missionaries first came to Cafayate 5 years ago, but then soon left after the Covid-19 Pandemic started. We’ve started up again only 8 months ago, so there’s not structured church leadership yet. In fact, right now the 4 of us missionaries run the congregation. We do things like manage official records and manage our rented meeting hall. We also conduct and give talks (short sermons) during regular Sunday meetings as well as teach a gospel study class afterward. Our goal is to add some stability by transitioning most of the day-to-day happenings to the local members, but for now it’s all on us. It’s kind of a lot to manage, especially in Spanish, but it is so rewarding to know that our tiny congregation is able to worship each week because of our effort.
I’m not going to pretend that it is all sunshine and rainbows, but I am so glad that I chose to come back and enjoy the privilege of preaching the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Elder Hansen
