Pictures: Better late than never!

So I'm sure you all have been anxiously awaiting more pictures. I didn't think there were that many, but with the length of time that I have been remiss in my picture-posting duties... it is safe to say that there are plenty for you to enjoy! :)



Ben and some other missionaries participated in a service project back in April. They helped re roof a house of a local woman. Ben said that the house is the oldest in the area.



They helped mix cement.




And did a lot of work for the woman before the winter weather hit!




The chapel in Villa Maria:



Sunday Dinner: Asado

The following is a tour of Ben's Pension:

Ben says that the bathroom they share is the largest he has seen in the mission...

The left bed is Ben's

This is the table they eat at and behind the table is his closet.

Elder Gardner on the phone with the zone.

Elder Kelsey with Kiara, Ariana and Matias

This green concoction is "Locro". I'm not really sure what that is... but it looks like a huge pot of split pea soup! :(

The Baptism of Ana Vives

The Baptism of Matias Franco

New Zone Leaders: 2nd Concillio

The following are pictures from a Baptism, unfortunately I could not find a name of the young man being baptized! Keep up the good work Ben!

The area Ben was serving in is called Lamadrid. He wanted to remind us that he is still in Argentina and did not get transferred to Spain! :)

Outside the pension:

Passageway to the Pension:

Pig Tongue with vinegar! :p Ben is no longer a picky eater... Mom, he better not complain about food again! LOL

Pig-Lechon

Concilio with President and Zone Leaders

Ben's Package face! :)

Ben's group that all entered the MTC at the same time! It should be time for the sisters to be

heading home pretty soon then!

PACKAGE FACE!!!! :) Gotta love Texas being represented in the back!!

This is a pic of Ben with Betty. She owns the pension they live in and he states that she would feed them daily!

After almost 1 1/2 years in Argentina, Ben finally entered an Argentinian Walmart and bought grape juice and Peanut Butter! He was very excited! :)

What a stud... I mean what a professional looking missionary! :) Love you brother!
This was his last day at the church in Villa Maria

The following are pictures of a woman named Raquel at her baptism:

This is her with her son and her daughter:

Ben and Raquel:

Another!

We are almost caught up! Here is Ben's new companion. Elder Correnti from San Francisco, CA. I cannot get over how tall he is. Ben is 6 foot something and this Elder has a whole head on him! Ben states they are great friends and companions and they have a lot in common! Elder Correnti has been in the field only one month less than Ben.

Now here's a game I like to call: Where's Ben... It's similar to Where's Waldo. One, Two, Three, GO!

Did you find him? He is the third head from the left... LOL! An Elder from our stake in Lubbock, Elder Adams (third head from the right), was called to the same exact mission as Ben... In fact, Ben is his zone leader... I think... Or something like that! :) Anywho, his mother sent this pic to us after she "spotted" Ben! LOL! :) I don't believe that he was even supposed to be in this pic! Funny boy!

Well that's it for now! Hopefully I can be more diligent in updating this blog for Ben in the last remaining months! No promises, but I will try!

I am so proud of Ben and all that he has done on his mission and I know that he has much more to do before returning home! He is so dedicated and passionate! He truly was called to serve and is a shining example of what that means! His work will bless many people, as it has already blessed our family so much! Love you brother! I'm so proud of you! Keep up the good work!

I'm back!!!! And with much to tell you about Elder Corbett!

Hello there! Yes, we are still alive and well here in Lubbock, Texas and Elder Corbett is still serving his mission in Argentina. Since it has been two months since my last update, you may have been wondering about us. All I can do is blame it on “those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer.”

Well, what I will do is share some of the highlights and there have been plenty. In June Benjamin noted that winter was arriving, with some cold, windy and foggy days and that he loved it. He thinks like his father, it is easier to stay warm than it is to keep cool, especially as a missionary and without air conditioning. During the first week of the month they had a district conference with one of the leaders of the Church from the U.S., Elder Zivik come speak to them. He indicated that they had about 500 in attendance and that he and his companion had 3 of their investigators attend.

The second week of the month was full of interesting experiences. To begin with a member who had just returned from his mission introduced Benjamin and his companion to a couple of his hearing impaired friends This gave Benjamin a chance to learn some sign language as they presented the gospel lessons in Spanish, and their member friend signed. One of the most significant and challenging events during the past two months, perhaps during his entire mission, was that he had to say “adios” to his mission president, President Olsen, and his wife. They completed their 3 year mission and returned to their home in Utah. Benjamin indicated that they had a very spiritual zone conference with them in which the president gave some inspired parting words of advice related to when the missionaries finish their missions.

Also during that same second week the World Cup of soccer started. This is how he described what life was like there in Argentina during this time: “It’s crazy here! It’s on every TV and no one is in the streets [while games are going on.]” He also described how most of the people wore the country’s jersey(he even saw a dog with one on) or had their faces painted with the team’s colors. Once during a game they were invited to eat lunch with a member family and the family didn’t want to turn off the TV. But they did put it on mute and had the missionaries sit with their backs to the TV. Benjamin noted, “That was the biggest temptation of my whole mission!” Knowing how he loves soccer, the 4 weeks of the World Cup must have been pure torture there in soccer crazy Argentina during the most important soccer event in the world, which is only held every 4 years. However, Benjamin kept things in perspective as evidenced by how he closed his letter to the family that week: “We are a team in the Eternal World Cup and together we will win!” He also noted that “Each week I learn more about who I am and my purpose here.”

The third week of June was highlighted by the baptism of Valentino, an 11 year old boy from a member family that, up until a month ago when Elder Corbett and his companion visited them, had not been attending church for a number of years. Many members attended along with 7 investigators. Also during this week they had transfers(they occur every 6 weeks) which resulted in (1) Elder Corbett getting a new companion, Elder Islas from Chile, since Elder Gardner completed his mission and returned home and (2) Elder Michael Adams, from Lubbock, Tx, being transferred into Elder Corbett’s zone.

(To be continued in the very near future!)

I forgot to tell you about Mother`s Day!

I forget to report about the most exciting thing that happened during the past two months. It was the opportunity that we had to speak to Benjamin by phone on Mother`s Day. In case you didn`t know it, or didn`t remember, we are only able to speak with him on Christmas Day and Mother`s Day. And this chance was extra special since all our family was able to be together for it. Benjamin sounded enthusiastic and it was great to hear his voice. He spoke to us a bit in Spanish and his father, the Spanish professor, was impressed with his fluency. And, since Benjamin speaks the Argentine dialect, at times it was hard for his father to understand him. Hasta luego.

Still in Villa María Enjoying His Labors

Wow! I really broke my previous record for the amount of time between posts to Benjamin´s blog. Some of you may have figured that I decided not to continue with it.
Well, I am now in Mexico with the TTU program and will have quite a bit more free time.
As one would expect, I will only be able to give you a few of the highlights of Ben´s past two months. At the end of the last post I noted that he had just been made zone leader. Let me tell you a bit of what this new calling has involved. He is the leader over 21 missionaries living in different cities, some as far as 2 hours away by bus, and he has to work with each pair at least once per month. So this means that about 2 days per week he is on the road and the other 5 he is working his own area in Villa María. He also has to stay in touch with the missionaries by phone to get their weekly reports which he then compiles into a zone report which he sends to the mission president. He has zone meetings on a monthly basis and also a zone leaders´meeting with the president in Córdoba city. It is keeping him extremely busy, but he loves it. As he put it, “The weeks are going by insanely fast. Being a Zone Leader means more work, more work means less time, less time means fast weeks!!!” One negative result of his new call is that he has had less time to write us detailed letters.

Now a bit about his companions. The first 6 weeks as zone leader he had Elder Clayson from Spanish Fork, Utah. Although they were quite different in personality, etc, they learned through open communication to work together well. On May 10th he got a new companion, Elder Gardner, who happens to be from the same city as Elder Clayson, and is in the last 6 weeks of his mission. Benjamin indicated that he spent 7 months of his mission working in the office as financial secretary and so he´s very excited about working hard to finish off his mission. Ben observed that he is really patient and that they have gotten along very well. They have also had a number of very inspiring experiences. Let me share one with you. One Sunday they went to invite some investigators to church, but none of them were home. Benjamin then thought of a man, Roberto, that they had invited to church earlier in the week so they stopped by his house. Roberto´s friend answered the door and let him know they wanted to talk to him, but he called out that he was getting ready to go to church. They spoke with the friend for a bit and learned that he had spoken to the missionaries 5 years ago and that he still had a pamphlet they had given him. Well Roberto went to church and really enjoyed the meetings. He then had to go visit his family in another city, but said that when he returns in June that he plans to attend every week. Benjamin and his companion are looking forward to teaching him at that time. Benjamin mentioned in one letter that he really has come to love the Argentine people and their culture.

He and his companions have continued to have the opportunity to participate in service projects. In April he wrote about a real interesting one. A woman who was recently baptized had a leaky roof so a group of missionaries and some members cemented her roof(Photos coming soon). Basically they covered her metal roof with cement. When I asked if it solved the problem, he said yes.

Benjamin mentioned soon after he arrived that there are many stray dogs in Argentina. Well, he had his first dog bite about a month ago. They were walking on the sidewalk and startled this little dog and it rushed at Ben and bit him on the calf. He said it didn´t do much damage; he only had a small bruise mark. But the next day he did go to the owner to make sure that it had had its rabie shots and all was well.

Ben also recently had his first bike ride. He indicated that they rode all day. He didn't say so but I imagine he may have been a bit sore the next day.

Since Ben has been zone leader, it seems that he has been organzing a weekly soccer game with a number of the missionaries and members. He told us that they played 4 hours one day and that he was real sore afterwards. There is much excitement going on in Argentina for the upcoming World Cup in South Africa. Soccer is very big there and they are hoping(praying?) that their national team does well. Ben indicated that it will be hard to choose a favorite if the USA, Argentina or Mexico play each other, but that he will always support the red, white and blue.
With Mexico vs. Argentina, that would be a tough one for him.

The weather in Argentina has changed from very hot to quite cold over the past two months. They are now in fall and moving toward winter. Ben likes the cool weather much better.

On May 25th Argentina had its Independence Day celebration and it was extra special since it was their bicentenial in which they celebrated 200 years of freedom from Spain.

To end this entry I will leave you with some bits of good advice from Benjamin: "Life is supposed to be enjoyed, not just endured." "Prayer is powerful and God listens to us." "Hold to the rod(the word of God)." "Never give up!"

I hope to do a better job this summer keeping you all posted. Benjamin always notes how he loves to get letters from his friends and family.