A Christmas Gift to Our Ward in Adrogué Argentina!

At Christmas time Linda Howard wrote us and told us that her family was not going to buy gifts for each other this year, instead they were going to collect the money from the family and send it to us in Argentina to help someone in need here. We thought and thought about what we could do that would be of the most benefit to the most people.
Finally we came up with what we thought would be the "Perfect Gift."

Above is the Steben Family, at least part of them. They have 6 children, 5 of whom have served full time missions, the youngest being just 16. Brother Cristobal Steben, (Bottom left) was just released from our bishopric and is now the stake Sunday School President. He, along with his wife who is our Primary President, (next to him in light blue) would do absolutely anything for anyone! They are constantly helping with the Elders and Sisters apartments throughout the mission. He often accepts jobs from the mission to go make repairs in apartments as far as 5 hours away.
They are the ones who cleaned and painted our little apartment before we could move into it...pictures of that are in our first Argentina post.

This is their van, looking really good here...but just a few weeks before Christmas it broke down! It was in really bad shape! The transmission had gone out, the old engine was seeing its last days and the tires were all bald. This was a serious blow to a man who makes his living working odd jobs for the mission and whatever other handyman, odd job work he can find. And at least two of his sons and a son-in-law work with him.

But, the part that touched us the most was this...

As we were sitting in Fast and Testimony meeting the first Sunday in December several sweet elderly members got up to bear their testimonies. Each of them talked about how difficult it would be for them to get to church each week because Brother Steben's could no longer come and get them. Until then Brother Steben would get up early each Sunday and go from home to home picking them all up, and then taking them all back home again after church ended. And our ward boundaries are giant!

Not only would this be a hardship for the elderly in the ward, but Brother Steben wouldn't be able to go and do the work he needed to do to provide for the family.
So many people seemed to be affected by Brother Steben's van breaking down, as there are literally only about 5 cars in the whole ward, and one of those is ours! (the ones in the background above is ours and the AP's, the rest of the lot is empty)

So, this is what all the money went to...fixing the "Ward Van"

Here you can see some of the wonderful people that Brother Steben helps each week. We had to wait to post these pictures until the first week the van was back in service.
Thank you to the Denny Howard family for your contribution toward helping not only a family, but an entire ward! What a great idea! They were all thrilled beyond words for the kind gift.
And yes, they all pile in the van...what a beautiful sight!