Letter 5

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We are happy, healthy and strengthening our testimonies of Jesus Christ.  We are grateful for his gift to all of us.  We know the gospel is true and that each of us can touch another’s life with a kind word, hug or a smile. 

It is great to be in the mission field during the holidays.  The missionaries are great.  We have a new appreciation for these young missionaries.  They work so hard and are dedicated, teaching and following their leaders council and reaching out to so many.   They are valiant and an example to all.  It is amazing their energy and willingness to serve.  Parents you should be so proud of all they do.  Being here we realize more and more what they do.  They are amazing!

One of my favorite sayings is “Gratitude is the Hearts Memory”

Today my heart has such a full memory of all those good things and life. 

We are so grateful.

We were able to attend the Buenos Aires Temple with the Area Missionaries and the Presidency last week.  They are all such great examples, talented and in the place they each need to be.  Each leaving loved ones at home and knowing that sometimes loving is leaving.  Hard to do but so important to understand what truly is important in this life. Each couple striving to do all that they have been called to do and much more and helping to bring others into the gospel.. 

Sunday night we attended a Christmas Cantata.  The music was wonderful and such talent.  We love Christmas music and so fun to hear our favorites sung in Spanish and knowing what they were singing. 

The sisters went on a field trip today to see red carpet and Christmas decoration and visit one of our couples who are archiving the area history items .  Fun day.  The senior couples have much more leeway than the younger missionaries.  So we have quite a few activities planned for the holidays.

We are excited to share Christmas with the sister missionaries from our ward.  Their request was mashed potatoes and gravy.  I think they get a lot of rice and beans.  What an easy request.   We even made ice cream cake roll, one of our family favorites.

Still getting use to what things are and not being able to find normal US things.

But finding favorite Argentine foods.  Fruits and Vegies are amazing.

Will close for now with our love and prayers for each of you to a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year! 

Buenos Aires Temple

Area Presidency and Senior Missionary Couples

Letter 4

Hi!  The time is going by quickly and here it is two weeks and I haven’t written.  We have been pretty busy and are learning more each day.  Loving the people and the experiences.  Although I wonder sometimes what is going on. Ron is my rock.  He is taking such good care of me and making the experience even better.

I am studying Spanish and catch words here and there but never realized how vulnerable and helpless you can feel when you really don’t understand what someone is saying.   Especially when you want to.  It has given me time to reflect and learn from these beautiful people and also put life into perspective.

I am so grateful for the faith I have and the understanding that I am a daughter of a loving Heavenly Father, also for the understanding that he loves each one of his children and only wants the best for them.  Today as I set in Relief Society I thought about the many things that the Argentina culture teaches.

They greet you with a hola and a hug and kiss on the cheek.  A smile to let you know that you are not a lone and that you are welcome.  They greet everyone that way and it’s fun to watch them go around the room. 

They are very dedicated and bring their friends and family with them.

We have the experience of working with the open chapel program which is very busy this time of the year.  It is like an open house where people can come in and see what goes on in the church.  Each ward and stake in the area plan an event  during the year where they can welcome their neighbors to come and see.  It can be very effective and touch many lives.  They have a banner of Christ in the chapel and banners in the cultural hall with missionaries explaining the basics.  The tour takes about 10-15 min.  The organizations set up rooms to show what the benefits for families are.  It’s fun to be a part of this and see how they can touch the one.

Also today was our primary program.  It brought a sense of love and calm to me knowing that no matter where you are that the little children in the gospel are learning the same songs and principles. It is so fun to watch them on the stand, smiling at parents , grandparents, friends and members singing their hearts out, and melting ours.  The music is universal.  It is fun to sing the songs in Spanish.  I can put many of the words to the music and love the Christmas songs.

Last Saturday night we had a big event in the park for the Light of Christ.  Was so fun with balloons for kids to write and attach notes on and let them go, beautiful choir and digital choir.  So fun to be there with the other missionary couples.  They are each so great and such an example of love and devotion.  Love there examples and humor. 

The temperature is getting hotter.  89 yesterday, lots of humidity.  They say it will be hot through the middle of February, sometimes into march. 

On Saturday we went to Recoleta to the artisan fair and to the cemetery.   Fun to see their wares and the cemetery is hugh and amazing.  We will go back when it’s not so hot.

Well I will close for tonight.  Our love and prayers are with you all.  We hope that this holiday season finds you remembering, serving and loving others.  What a wonderful time of year to celebrate Christ and all that he has done for us.  It’s true!

Abrazos,

Fourth Missionary Post

Sometimes I have a stupor of thought

   In keeping the poems alive

But we’ll work on keeping them going through,

   Even though it’s only followed by five.

A “Light the World” program in a nearby park

   Got the season started off right.

They had lots of singers, a big screen too,

   And balloons headed up in the night.

We did a a training in a far away ward,

   Each visit is never the same,

And got the privilege for fighting the herd,

   As we drove home in the driving rain.

We met a couple who were called serve

   To run the the kids treks down here,

They run from January  to April,

   Then are off for some months of the year.

A solitary home on a far away farm,

   Few groceries out in the sticks,

They asked us if we would like to help,

   And all that I thought of was “Ick!”

We are getting better with our good old stove,

   Even though the racks are wavy,

Helen really hit the spot,

   When she made hamburger gravy!

Then even taking the next step up,

  We had an ice cream social,

She baked a cake, got some ice cream here

  And made an ice cream cake roll!

They have had some artisan fairs nearby

   Where craftsman showed off their wares

We got some great looking Nativities,

   To bring Christmas into the air!

We continue to love the people here,

   A couple named Castro came,

 And taught us about loving and serving and such

       Would that all of us could be the same.

  Getting closer to Christmas,

         hope all there are well

  If you have some good Christmas stories,

        We’d like to hear them, tell!

Letter 3

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just a note to tell you we had a great week.  They don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in South America but we did as missionaries last night with a dinner.  There are 10 couples serving in the area office and its great to get to know them.  About half from Utah and the others from North Carolina, Virginia, Arizona, Washington and Idaho. 

Monday was a holiday here and we attended a Christmas concert.  They had an Orchestra, Choir and Dancers. . It was really good and fun to start the holiday season.  It was pouring rain also so we had our first experience of drenching rain, and downtown subway.  

We do our first training in the morning ( I mean Ron does.  His Spanish is wonderful and it is so fun to watch the animation in his face as he speaks to the people)   I am getting to understand a little more.   Doing my Duolingo and studying with Ron. The conjugations of the verbs I still am mixed up but it is making more since. 

We had Stake Conference tonight and it was wonderful.   Ron translated for me and it was great to know what they were talking about.  One of the songs they sang was Battle hymn of the Republic.  It is so fun hearing the singing and for me singing a song that I knew the words to. 

 Pres. Teixeira spoke telling of his conversion and how important our choices are.  Our  happiness is determined by the level of our conversion.  He talked about how early decisions can make such a difference in your life..    It was a great meeting.   Sunday Ron did training in the Buenas Aires West mission!  He did great.  They loved him.  It is wonderful to see the faith and dedication of these families.  The children are beautiful and all so loving. 

We are having a busy week, Monday night family night.    Tuesday & Friday dinners and Saturday Capilla Abierta and the Illumina el Munda.  They are having a big presentation in the park where they have big signs illuminated write on cards and attach to white balloons and let them go.  Should be amazing. 

It is really different seeing Christmas decorations and Swimming suits, and summer things out.   The kids are getting ready to get out of school for the year.  Ready for summer break.

Hope you all are doing well.  We are loving all the people and having a great experience.  What a wonderful opportunity for us to be completely dependent on each other and the Lord. Knowing that he is in control.  We feel his strength and support.   This is His work and we are here to help.  Enjoy the holiday season and take care of each other.

                                                                      Service and love!!!

Abrazos

PS  We have a pressure cooker from one of the couples going home It was in their cupboard and hasn’t been used for a long long time.   It’s an old one Hope we don’t blow our heads off.   Still testing it! Cooking and shopping are an adventure here.

  Did receive our first card.  So looks like we can receive letters in mail but not pkgs.   Will send the story of the pkg.  .   7 cents a chocolate chip???

Third Missionary Post - Happy Thanksgiving!

We had our first experience of going to our church,
 We got to ride the city bus, with shaking and a lurch,
 But we got there, introduced ourselves, and said a word or two,
 And asked for all the members there, to try and see us through.
 We’re working on the appliances here and deal with gas and power,
 Helen cooked a cake this week which cooked for a whole hour!
 But the new stuff we work out, and sometimes pretty late,
 The cake came out just like it should and really tasted great!
 We took our first trip clear downtown with Grandma’s GPS,
 And braved a 12 lane highway, and did OK we guess!
 The second trip was out of town, Cabilla Abierta One
 The program is amazing, our hearts were really won!
 The words of Christ, baptismal font, our prophets oh so dear
 The sisters there do a fantastic job, the people there to teach,
 The elders were out on the streets beside, getting people they could reach

It’s Thanksgiving day this week, we’ll think of you all there,
 Take some time for “thanksfuls” after eating and your prayer,
 We’re thankful for you all you know, each one is in our heart,
 We’re thankful for the work you do, as each one does their part.
 We’re thankful for your kindness, and love for family,
 We’re thankful that our grandkids know they have a place to be.
 We’re thankful for our Savior most, and for the gospel plan,
 We’re thankful for the freedoms we enjoy in lving in our land.
 We’re thankful for the prayers you send, and Heavenly Father’s hand,
 We’ll work hard, with all that help, and do all that we can!


 Este es el major din de mi vida!
 Happy Thanksgiving week!

 We just want to send a note to express our gratitude and love to each of you. We are making progress each day and loving the Argentine people.. I still get turned around but we venture farther, yesterday we drove to our first Capilla Abierta at the Haedo ward. (Ron is getting so good at the driving and Google maps what did we ever do with out it.)

The chapel open house (Capilla Abierta) was such a wonderful experience to see how they present their wards to their neighbors. They have Banners that are displayed. In the chapel they have the Christus banner and then when the visitors come in they play the words of Christ. It is so beautiful in Spanish and you can feel the spirit so strongly. They then visit the cultural hall where they explain more about Christ. Then they go in to the room with the baptismal font. They have 2 missionaries dressed in white with the font full. Explain the purpose of baptism. Very powerful. The YW, Primary and RS have a table set up explain their program. This is such a powerful missionary tool., so effective in our area. The cultural here is such an open and family cultural that they respond so favorability to this open invitation. We are looking forward to helping organize and train for these great events.

 The area we live in has all these small café’s and fresh fruit markets. The fruits and vegetables are wonderful. It has been fun to eat at some of these small cafes. We went to a Peruvian one that the meat was so good. You know I really don’t like red meat but this steak and vegetables were wonderful. With grilled onions and peppers.

 In my Spanish class at work we have been reading Frozen. At close to the end Olaf was given a permanent cloud over him and exclaims “this is the best day of my life” , because then he wouldn’t melt. I decided that each day here this should be my motto.
 “Este es el major din de mi vida!”
 Abrazos,

2nd Missionary Post - Dad/Grandpa Version

We’d like to say that things slow down,
But that would be a lie.
We seem to keep the candle burning,
And the days keep flying by.
We went to our first shopping place,
 We hoped it not be hard,
They are kind of like a Smith’s marketplace,
  But here they have some guards.
To use your standard credit card,
   You don’t insert or swipe,
They have to see your passport
  Or ID that they like.
We’re in charge of chapel events,
   Where the missionaries come and talk
They invite non members to come and see,
   As through the chapel walk.
Three hundred events and more are set
   Throughout the next few weeks
Thanksgiving and Christmas are great times,
   To find what people seek.
For the engineers electrical who study hard out there,
  110 Curling irons in 220 sockets will really burn your hair.
And when you try to drive an unknown width of car,
   And you try to squeeze too tight, you may just leave a scar.
Some words of truth we like to use when life just seems to blacken,
“Look with optimism, work with faith and things will start to happen!”

Elder Ron y Helen Dalby

letter 1 - Helen

HELLO FAMILY AND FRIENDS:
11/9/17-11-12-17

Just a note to let you know that we arrived and are safely in our new abode.  What a crazy week we have had.  We spent 2 days at the Provo MTC.  What a wonderful experience and the Spirit was so strong.  I have a new empathy for our boys when they ventured out into the great world. The not knowing what the conditions and where and what you would be doing.  Just having strong faith.
I had no idea what we were getting into and still am in a fog.
Enjoyed FHE which was a talk by Elder Bednar given to the missionaries on a Christmas morning.  Character of Christ.  Such an example of what we all should be striving for.

Really made me think a lot about what we are doing and the love and service we can give to others. What really is important.

The flight to Buenos Aires was good.  Fun to see LeAnn, Nick and Justin at the airport.  Even got in a few games of Nertz.   A new family favorite.
We were able to sleep a little and then were met at the Airport by the couple we were replacing.  They took us to the office, lunch, and then to our hotel.  They took our bags to their apartment because we wouldn’t able to get into until Monday pm.
We had a busy weekend going to a Argentine barbecue, English class, Training, hospital to see a sweet little girl from Venezuela.  Made us so grateful for the hospitals in the US but also gave a glimpse into a how the other part of the world lives.  We had dinner with Nortons and Smiths. They have made us feel so welcome.  It is so fun to hear about all of their experiences.  I think we have a great adventure ahead of us.
Monday was training and then home to move into our apartment.  Fun disasters or experiences:)
     We have a combined washer and dryer,  We thought we knew how it worked but our first load we turned  the wrong way; and it dried for over 2 hours and didn’t wash at all.
So we found the direction manual (Ron says Argentine Spanish is way different) and line by line wrote down the instructions and then started over again. Thank heavens for Google translate.   2nd wash worked! ( still figuring it out)
      I plugged my curling iron in to a converter on Tuesday morning.  First experience of totally frying my hair.  The hair singed.  And the curling iron is now in the garbage.  With a lock(singed powder0 of hair. 
 We had a devotional at 9.  We arrive right before and as I set there listening, feeling the Spirit but not understanding anything they were saying with the cooler blowing on me I could smell burnt hair.   Made me laugh.  Although I thought about crying.
      We both were able to get our computers hooked up and are now trying to figure out what we are suppose to be doing.  They have 380+ Capilla Abierta’s Scheduled between now and Christmas in our area.   We went to training on Sunday for one ward and saw how they set up for it.  We will be attending one next weekend.  What a wonderful resource for the church.  They are tying in a facebook, Twitter campaign to bring people.  Have displays set up and it really touches the people. 

We got our drivers licenses today.  I think it will take me a while before I am brave enough to give it a try.  But Ron is doing great.   He drove 2 places on the weekend.  Training.  It is almost easier to walk.  We are only ¾ of a mile from work.  But with traffic it is almost faster than driving.  And then you only take your life into your hands as you cross the street.
   Our parking place is in a tiny corner.  Quite the maneuver.   Many a scraped car,
   Our first scrape today. 

Wow here it is Saturday night and I will add just a little more.
We spent 2.5 hours in the grocery store today.  So fun.  Looking at items and trying to guess what they are.  Hopefully it will get easier.  Thank heavens for Google translate.
You can convert Spanish to English and on the camera put it up to the label and it will put the English words on. 
They check your passport each time you buy groceries and use your bank card.

Dad cooked macaroni and I had tuna tonight.  We are going to have to figure out what to cook.  Guess we can’t live on corn flakes, yogurt and scrambled eggs.

Funny things happen to us.

Noticed tonight when I was putting things away that I had been wearing Elder Dalby’s name  tag.  He had mistakenly put mine on this morning and I just grabbed the other one.
Funny we didn’t notice it while we were out.  Guess we need to check each other out before we walk out the door.

Sure there is going to be much more.

We are excited to be here.  I need to write a little every night so we remember what we did.

Tomorrow is our first day at our ward.  Another couple has invited us to dinner.  It will be a while before we do because we are still figuring out the stove.

I have a greater appreciation for our missionaries who served before us. Had no idea but are seeing the blessings that come with serving and learning. And they didn’t have google translate.  Working on a duo lingo.  It is great.  And helps with the Spanish.  You should all try it.

Hi!  Its Sunday.  We had our first day in the Juncal ward.  We met the Cheneys out front and they showed us how to ride the bus to the ward building we have a car but parking is terrible around here and it will be used for outer areas.   We met Bishop Lima and went to sacrament meeting.  They had us introduce ourselves. I have know idea what Ron said but they were all enjoying it and I just smiled.  Ron introduced us and then I told them they were a beautiful people and we were so glad to be there.   The speakers were great I think.  But could feel the spirit and the choir sang.  It is so fun to see these missionaries at work.  We went to gospel doctrine class and then to RS.  I didn’t understand one word The teacher and speakers make Spanish look so easy.   I know we are going to love it here.  The children are beautiful.  I think I will try to see if I can go to primary some times.  They just melt my heart.  We were invited to dinner she is a great cook.  It was so good.  Pork loin and flam.  Hopefully we will be able to figure out which meat to buy and how to make our stove work.

Got a little emotional but I guess that is expected after being here only 10 days.

The main thing we have seen and have learned so far is that this culture is a very loving family culture.   Many of them are are trying to learn English because it gives them many new opportunities.  And they are each God’s children.  We are all trying to survive and do our best.  It makes me want to express my love to family, friends and loved ones.   We all can make someone else’s day a little brighter.  Enjoy and know we love you.

Love you!

Dad & Mom
Ron & Helen
Grandpa & Grandma
& Elder and Hermana Dalby 

First missionary post – after only 8 days

It started in Provo the MTC way
Instead of five days, we only stayed two,
But learned lots of things that we knew were true
The character of Christ was Elder Bednar’s tone,
And we learned there’s no growth in one’s comfort zone.
Steve and Steph took us to the airport for an overnight flight,
LeAnn and boys in Atlanta to make going light.
First thing in the morning the pick up was made
Full day at the office, dropped at the end of the day.
The weekend was crazy, so many to meet
The city is beautiful, the people so neat.
You greet with a hug and a kiss on the cheek
Everybody is helpful, and the food’s quite a treat!
They turned the car keys over for me for drive
It’s a miracle after that we’re still alive!
It will take a while for us to figure it out,
But meantime, we’re happy, no reason to pout!
Our apartment is nice, but the kitchen is small,
We’ll get to invent some new cooking, that’s all.
Helen’s amazing and patient with the language down here,
And there’s a lot I’ve forgotten, but we’ll get it – don’t fear.
We miss all our family, and our friends that so dear,
But we know without doubt that we’re supposed to be here.
We leave with a testimony strong and so true
The gospel can make such a difference to you!
Love,
Elder Ron and Helen Dalby

Mission Training Center in Provo, Utah

Atlanta airport...here we come Buenos Aires!

Figuring out the washing machine
Dinner with missionaries in Argentina

Talks Rocked!

Farewell Sunday - so thankful for dear friends and family!

Mission Call

Mission Call came Tuesday, September 19, 2017.  We opened the letter in the evening with the kids and grandkids on facetime and phones around the USA.