Sunday night we had dinner at our home with Karen and Carlos. What a wonderful evening! We enjoyed an evening of visiting, catching up and watching the tail end of the Super Bowl. Karen was my mission companion over 32 years ago. She was my trainer in Resistencia, Argentina in 1976 and we had many adventures together. We became fast friends right from the start. Coincidentally, she grew up in neighboring Heyburn, Idaho, so we knew many people in common.
Karen married Carlos after she returned from her mission. Their story is one for the books! Carlos was a convert from Argentina and they meet at the Church Office Building where Karen was working after her mission. They have had a wonderful life together with their son Jason and now have a daughter-in-law and two grand sons.
In 2003 we were fortunate to have some of the people we taught in Argentina come and visit us at our home. It was a very meaningful reunion and we enjoyed reconnecting with these dear friends who now live in Atlanta. We taught their entire family and they were all eventually baptised. The man in the picture was the single branch president serving at the time we were missionaries. He has very happy that we taught his future wife (the one in black) the gospel. Their daughter (named Karen!) is inbetween them in the picture.
About 14 years ago, Rick and I went on a whirl wind vacation with Karen and Carlos (and two of their dear Argentine friends) and returned to our missions in Argentina (me and Karen) and Peru (Rick). We spent more than two weeks touring Chile, Argentina and Peru by plane, cruise ship, bus, and rickety boat. Carlos is a travel agent in SLC and he set us up with the trip of a life time. Here we are seen in Iquitos, Peru deep in the Amazon jungle. Our plane had just landed and it was pouring buckets of rain. We got off the plane on the tarmac and made a run for shelter. As you can see, we got soaked in the process. Since we were in the Amazon jungle, it was hot and humid that we didn't get cold even though we were soaked to the bone.
Here is a picture of us as sister missionaries. This couple in the picture with us is the same couple shown earlier in our living room. This was their wedding day and our mission president gave Karen and me permission to travel back to Resistencia to attend their wedding. It was a marvelous day!
I love Hermana Karen and I'm so privileged to still call her friend after all these years. We had some of the best times together and we grew to love each other, the country and the people we served. I'm so very fortunate to still have her as a friend through these last 32 years and look forward to that continued friendship with her and Carlos for many years to come!
4 comments:
Wow, that is so cool that you are still such good friends with one of your mission companions! How fun!
Great post, Vonnie. Amazing how the benefits of a mission keep coming back and back. Thanks for your service then, which has meant so much to our family for so long.
I love that in the one picture you kind of look like an Argentinian (?) with your severe tan and all. Why oh why did I not inherit that characteristic???
I love that you have kept up with Karen and I hope to do the same thing with my mission friends.
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