What a Story……

In the late 70’s Tom was not a member of the church. He liked a girl who was.  Her name was Linda Orchard. Linda had sisters, man, did she have sisters. Four of them.  They were all beautiful and outgoing, quite a combination. All good members of the church. The girl’s dad was the Ward mission leader.  His name was Bob.  Bob did not have the opportunity to serve a mission, so he loved his calling, and served with enthusiasm.

Every now and again, one of the girls would bring around a young man who was not a member of the church.  Since they were beautiful, outgoing, and fun, they attracted a lot of attention from boys and girls.  Whenever these friends would come over to the Orchard home, they were always greeted warmly and as one of the family by Momma Orchard. (Beth) Bobs wife and mom to all these girls.

Well Tom came over and felt something that he had not felt before.  As he got to know the family, he soon learned that they were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon).  Soon he wanted to learn more. Bob invited him to be taught about the church, in his home by the missionary’s.  Linda and Tom stopped dating, but Tom’s desire for the truth only grew.

With the help of the Orchard family, Bob, Beth, Karen, Suzanne, Linda, Lisa, David, Julie, and Robby, Tom Kauffman was baptized into the church. Now fast forward, 30 years or so. 

Suzanne (Orchard) Wessel has a son Clay who was called on a mission for the church to Neuquén, Argentina.  A very remote mission for the church. She was on the mission web site and noticed a post by a Father of a missionary who was just called to Neuquén, Argentina.  His name….. Tom Kauffman.  She wondered, could this be the same Tom Kauffman who was taught the gospel in my home?  She reached out, and it was. Tom expressed his great love for the Orchard family, and what they did for him. Here is a picture of the two missionary’s, they happened to meet up on a transfer. It is truly a small world that is full of tender mercies.

Elders Wessel and Kauffman



Chapter 20: LAS MONTAÑAS‏

This one is of me when we run in the morning..about a mile to the lake every morning

So Bienvenidos de la Ciudad de Lago Puelo, El Bolson.

So that you know, I am no longer in Argentina.  I am in a different province.  It is called Chubut.  CHEW BUT! pronounced chewboot. haha we make some really stupid jokes when we can walk around for a long time! haha

This is my Area

So the area is ginormous.  It is as big as Salem and Spanish fork combined.  So, we use the collectivo to get around town and our good ole classic feet! collectivo means bus here.  It has been hard and a lot of walking.  They did not have any investigators except for some people that they contacted in the street.  So finding people to teach has been hard.  We have done a lot of walking.  Some how i still have my shoes. We have actually had some good luck and found some really good new investigators. We have found 4 really good people that are receptive and want us to come back. We have only taught once to all these people so the next week should be very fun.

We set a fecha bautismal with this guy named Ambrocio and we taught the restoration with his mom and it was really spiritual and we taught two by two. Our first lesson together as a companionship and the spirit sure helped us and filled the room.  We spoke in very broken Spanish and the spirit testified! I’m super excited to help him more this week! He is a straight up Gaucho.  He still uses the yokes for the cows and he has the cows pull huge logs around the streets and they are huge!!! We are going to help him this week! I’m going to send some pretty gangsta pictures your way!! You pumped?

We also met this guy who is the president of the junior soccer club franchise. They are very poor club and this guy built them a dirt field to play on and he has helped them out so much. He is the perfect example of pure love of Christ for kids.  He just wants to help everyone he can.  We taught him the book of Mormon, and we have helped him clean up the field a little bit.  THROWING ROCKS OFF OF IT!!! haha it was fun! Now we have set up some good lessons with him next week and he is exciteto continue on studying with us!! :)  HIs name is Lucas Bermudas!!  HE is Awesome!! Please pray for him.

We also are teaching this mother and this daughter, Anahi and Ailin. And she is willing to listen and had a lot of questions about joseph Smith and so we answered here and now we have lessons set up with her this coming week as well!!  We are going to set baptisms date with them.  I have a feeling we will see some baptisms this transfer family!! Please pray for these people!

We had a lesson with Anahi this week and we had a member there at the lesson and we asked him how the gospel has blessed his life and he talked about when he was inactive and he didn’t pay his tithing and how we should pay our tithing always.  It was good but it was the first lesson with her so we had to change the subject really quick and give him something else to talk about!! hahah I love the members here.. Not very educated but very funny.

Also pray for gisela!  She is just a lesson we had and she accepted a book of Mormon and we are going back to teach her and help with some service! So pray that god will prepare her for us and we can teach with the spirit!!

 A little bit about the Beautiful area,

 There are no asphalt roads. They are all dirt roads and log cabin houses.  You just need to look it up on the internet. Google maps.  LAGO PUELO, CHUBUT, ARGENTINA.  Its gorgeous! We are going to go to some waterfalls today for the p day.  We are about 45 min separated from any other elders so we will be by ourselves and become best friends!!

Ill send more pictures this coming week! I’m just getting settled in, in my little log cabin house!! I LOVE IT HERE!!!!

Love you guys more than a fat kid loves cake!  Keep it frosty and icee!! I’m blazing!!!

ELDER WESSEL