Miguel and Natalia

Preston picked up Miguel and Natalia in Las Vegas on Thursday morning at 6:00 a.m then turned around and drove them to Salt Lake. They made stops along the way including the Temple and Visitors Center in St. George.

Miguel was intrigued with the big trucks and motorhomes traveling on the freeway. They were both impressed that people actually obey traffic laws and they were thrilled to be in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Miguel and Natalia are converts from Villa Ballestar, Argentina. Miguel travels quite a bit for business and when the trip to Las Vegas was so close to General Conference time, Natalia decided to make the trip. They became interested in the church over three years ago, but because getting divorced and getting married is not an easy thing to do in Argentina, they were only able to get everything in order to be baptized a month ago. Needless to say, they had contact with many missionaries, many of whom live in Salt Lake City.

Preston took them to a Football game, which they said was boring. They were able to meet Judy, Annie, Elliott, Wyatt, James and Molly.

After to game, they rode home with Evan and Parker. I was only able to spend about a half an hour with them, but felt their love for the gospel. I showed them the "countdown" poster of Preston's mission, they took a picture of it. We showed them the wedding book , they "ooo'd and aahd" about the pictures of the temple, the bride and groom, and all the cute kids - and they took a picture of the book. They actually make wedding cakes (Miguel is a baker of some sort) and Natalia's mother designs and sells wedding dresses. She has a website, which they quickly showed us on their laptop.

As they left our house, they took a picture of us with them and gave me the "warmest" hug I think I have ever had, which said to me thank you for letting your son go on a mission. In their broken Spanish, they told us what a great missionary Preston was. Evan (who can still communicate in Spanish) thanked them for listening to the missionaries and for supporting our son in the mission field.

It was great having them in our home!