Se Corta La Ruta (Detour)

Today, Diane and I left for a District Conference in Apostoles...about a 4.5 hour drive from Resistencia. Pretty straightforward trip.



Except that today and tomorrow is a pilgrimage to the town of Itati, which is along the way to Apostoles...



Where followers of La Virgen de Itati pay homage at the Basilica...






They will arrive by the tens of thousands on foot, bicycle, carriage, car or bus. To protect them the police supervise the roads and create detours for cars traveling the same route. Our detours would have made our trip 7.5 hours from Resistencia south to San Antonio...


And then from San Antonio up and over to Apostoles...



So, after inching along as far as Corrientes in an hour, I called up the Visiting Area Seventy and explained my situation. Fortunately...one of my counselors lives in Posadas which is just an hour north of Apostoles and he will fill in for me. We inched our way back to Resistencia..."all dressed up and nowhere to go!". No problema, there is always plenty to do.

You Do The Math!

14 new missionaries arriving from 5 different countries causing
77 missionaries to move on the same day, traveling by bus across 5 provinces in northern Argentina.
(+) plus
1 on again and off again national bus strike which could strand who knows how many missionaries, who knows where, for who knows how long.
(-) minus
Every computer in our offices, which have been infected by a virus, which means no email to communicate instructions, changes or plans to missionaries and no internet to find out what is going on.
(=) equals




Wacky Wednesday! Why not? The good news is we will figure it all out...¡por eso estamos!

Bragging Rights

Grandkids, of course...exclusive members of "The Club"!



The newest member of The Club, Charlotte...



The Club with Elder Heyman...



The Club monkeying around...



The Club showing off their "I Love My Papa" t-shirts and their "I Love My Papa" faces. I think Diane and I started something pretty incredible...2 more Club members are on their way this fall!

Elder Taylor Scott Heyman, Chile Concepcion Mission

Taylor was set apart as a full-time missionary last night. He said his good-byes to grandparents as well as sisters-in-law and brother-in-law.




He said his good-byes to his nieces and nephews.




We Skyped good-bye last night. He said good-bye to Jennifer this morning. Chris took him to the airport and said his good-bye there. Curtis is flying with him to Utah where he, Allison and Sam will drop Taylor off at the MTC and say their good-byes.
Jen had to spoil Taylor one last time with his favorite combination of Toaster Struedels and customized message from Jen (she did this for him all while he was growing up)...




Here is a picture of Taylor wearing his big brother's suitcoat at the airport when we said good-bye to Curtis when he left on his Mission in 1999...




Here is Elder Heyman geting ready to board the plane in Phoenix this morning...




He can receive emails (and can respond to non-family members by regular mail or sending a message through a family email response) at taylor.heyman@myldsmail.net.

Bienvenidos al campo misional, mi hijo. Te quiero. Hasta ver. Mizpah.

What a Weekend!

A lot happened in our family this weekend...and thanks to modern technology we were able to participate a little bit!

First, all of our children and their children got together back in Arizona for the festivities...this meant grandchildren reunion!



And a little wrestling with Uncle Taylor...



Then it was a baby shower for Allison on Saturday morning...



Followed up by the blessing of Charlotte Saturday evening...






This morning (Sunday) our son Taylor spoke in our Ward Sacrament Meeting as he leaves for his mission to Concepcion, Chile this Wednesday. Our Stake President permitted the meeting to be broadcast over the internet so that Diane and I could watch. No one from the family knew (except Jen) until it was announced during the meeting. Here is what the miracle of technology can do to bring the world and families closer...



Greg Hatch emailed us a copy of the program (of course he was involved in this project)....



The setup...



Diane with the tools of the trade...(we did have to field a few phone calls during the meeting)



Me, trying (unsuccessfully) to keep my composure...



As fine of a young missionary as you will know...



And a proud father who was not only spoiled by watching his son speak, but also received cards and presents from all of his children and his wife on this most happy of Fathers' Day. We are going to Skype this afternoon, and on to the evening if the internet holds up! And tomorrow I will receive about 200 more emails from my missionaries! How great is that?

This Has To Be True Because You Can't Make These Types Of Things Up!

We had two water coolers in the Quincho. This old one that was connected to the water faucet and used a filter that had rarely been changed...



And this new one that dispenses treated bottled water...



So, I mentioned that I would like to get rid of the old one before Monday's Zone Leaders' Council. Moments later these two amateur "plumbers", Elders Gochnour and Gochez (my Assistants) came to take care of matters...in their own hands, so to speak. They seemed confident, eager and knowledgeable, so I let them go ahead.





What a Keystone Cops fiasco!!



First, they cut the waterline without shutting off the water, causing us to call in the bucket brigade for a few hours...


Then in an effort to cut off the water in order to fix the waterline they shut off the water to our neighbor! When the water kept pouring out of the waterline from the water cooler, they undertook a search for the real valve that would shut off the water to our house...which took a turn for the worse when Elder Gochnour found himself "in a most precarious position"!



You would think if he could get his head into that space, he could get it out...and you would be wrong! After a lot of laughing (Elder Gochnour is a great sport) we rescued him.

I figured the adventure had gone far enough and called a real plumber to come save us from the flood...and ourselves. Fortunately in Resistencia when you call a plumber at 7:30 pm on a Friday night he is at your house in 10 minutes!


The water shut off valve was actually on the roof! How did he know that?



Well, after that little surprise we all decided to just sit back and let the professional do his work...



Within a few minutes the flood had ceased, the neighbors had their water back on, we had our water back on, the old water cooler was disconnected and carried away, and the buckets were put back in storage. So, what did we all learn from this experience? Nothing, we were laughing too hard.

Just a Little Heads Up!

We noticed during Zone Conferences that about 45 minutes after lunch we were starting to lose the missionaries...drooping eyelids, blank stares and nodding heads. I was sure it had nothing to do with my spell binding presentation! Nevertheless, we decided that at right about half an hour after lunch we would interject a little mixer game. We put the names of characters from The Book of Mormon on post-its, placed a post-it on each missionary and gave them 10 minutes to go around and ask "si" o "no" questions to try and figure out which character they were. It was just what the doctor ordered...check the energy level out for yourself...




















No, I did not have a post-it on my forehead.




Then it was back to more role playing.




And everyone lived happily ever after.




So, guess whose idea it was to mix things up with the little game? I will give you a hint...she's the magical one in the middle...

Good Morning, Charlotte!

As we were going to bed last night Diane decided to put the phone next to the bed just in case our daughter-in-law Candace went into labor. At 1:30 am the phone rang and our son, Curtis called to say they just arrived at the hospital. Good-bye sleep! We stayed up and talked and waited. Not too long, though. At 2:17 am we received an e-mail that our granddaughter, Charlotte Marian Heyman, all 7 pounds, 12 ounces and 21.5 inches of her had arrived and that Mother and daughter were fine. Father was ok, too! He called again after Charlotte was born. Diane talked to Curtis and Candace and heard Charlotte making her presence known in the background.
The emails kept coming steady throughout the early morning hours...












Oh, Charlotte get plenty of rest while you can...




Because the Three Amigos are planning your welcome home party!




I have hidden Grandma Heyman's passport just to be sure temptation does not get the best of her!