la Republica Argentina

There was once a girl who felt so grateful for all she had in life, she left her life and family behind and embarked on a journey of a lifetime for 19 months... She went here:

The Neuquen phonebook.

The sunsets were beautiful, the streets were foreign, the customs strange, the wind blew in her eyes and her feet ached after the day was through.

The sunset in Caleta Olivia, Santa Cruz, Argentina

She met people from all over the world, learned to work with them and teach with them the joyful message of Jesus Christ. With these special people she worked and cried and laughed and struggled...to bless the lives of our fellow men.

Veronica Otano (5th companion) from Uruguay, at the Atlantic Ocean in Puerto Madryn, Rio Negro, Argentina

She met people she knew she must have known before and gave her heart in helping them feel the love God has for them. Sometimes they scorned them, sometimes they listened politely, sometimes they changed their lives to live according to that love of God.

Hna Melanie Tracy, Cristian Renee Durand, Cristina Millan. Caleta Olivia.
And the things that were first strange to her she learned to love. This new world of life, of people, customs, beliefs, sayings, and lifestyles gathered together into a new and tender part of her heart.

The Fillipponi farm. Gaiman, Chubut, Argentina

Sometimes people said they were waiting for her, that they knew God had sent her to them.

The Garrido Family. Gaiman, Chubut.
She saw beautiful sights she had never seen and opened her eyes to a new way of looking at things.

Denis Bachmann. Perito Moreno Mountains, Rio Negro, Argentina.
She lived in conditions she had never had to before, but still saw she was so fortunate to have what she needed, and have people she loved.

Hna Rubiela Tocamo from Panama (8th companion). Outside our "little tin can" in Centenario, Neuquen, Argentina.

People saw her for who she was and learned to love her right back.

The Torres family we taught in Centenario.

It took her a long time and many heartfelt, tender prayers to know that she truly had made an impact and had influenced the lives of those people nestled away at the end of the world

Gisel and Carla Bachmann. El Bolson, Rio Negro, Argentina

Then the time came when she had to return home...back to her life, back to the heap of responsibilities life brings us, back to her family that she had come to appreciate and love more than ever before...

Looking across Lago Puelo outside El Bolson. The mountains in the background are in Chile.
Her parents came to taste this new world and place and people she had discovered, and they too felt the magic and spirit of it all. They felt how she loved them, and how they loved her.

The Martinez Family. Humberto, Luz, Fernando, Rodrigo, and Carolina in Centenario. The day after Mom and Dad got to Neuquen.
The sun set on that time of life, only to bring another dawn on a different horizon.

The view from our bus, traveling through Bariloche in Rio Negro.

She will never forget those 17 months spent in service and single conviction to the work of God.

Nely and Marlene in Centenario with the pictures we gave them.

After the journey back home, she realized how blessed she was to have had this experience and that her family could be a part of it vicariously.
Machu Picchu, Peru.

At the airport, with all the sisters, minus Tara.

This is a video that pulls at my heartstrings...how i realized that our long journey on this earth will someday end and we will return to our Heavenly parents. What a joyful and long-awaited reunion that will be. This was my glimpse at how that moment will be.