The Canvassing Institute in Buenos Aires
By Maximo Trummer
At the close of the Argentina camp-meeting, we had the largest canvassing institute ever held in South America. We had planned to hold an institute for the students of the Colegio del Plata in the province of Entre Ríos, and another at the camp-meeting; but as the school term closed at the time set for the annual conference, we held both meetings in one. Though I have been in the field less than a year and a half, I have been able to get a good start in the language, and conducted the institute entirely in Spanish. The canvassers who had been in the field all winter were with us, and their good experiences were a great help in making the institute a success. All returned to their fields of the best of courage. At present we have twenty canvassers in Argentina, two in Uruguay, and one in Paraguay. Four of these are young women, working for our periodicals with a good degree of success. Four are canvassing for “Patriarchs and Prophets,” and fourteen for other Spanish books. A good beginning has been made. I worked with two of the boys eight days, and we received one hundred ten orders. The Lord indeed blessed us. We sold to the mayor of the city, his secretary, the city treasurer, to four officials in the court-house, to two priests, in three banks, and to most of the leading business men. Having sold to the wife of the governor of the province formerly, we are placing our books in the highest society, and in this way the message is entering homes which we could never hope to reach in any other way. To our kind Heavenly Father we give all the praise and honor. The past year our orders amounted to $7,500 gold; and I see no reason why we can not double that record this year. In this connection, I wish to speak of our special success in Uruguay. In three and one-half months, two of our brethren sold and delivered nearly one thousand dollars' worth of our books. The latter half of our delivery fell in the time of the recent revolution, and, though the conditions were anything but favorable, we lost only about fifteen per cent. Now it is about quiet again, and our two faithful canvassers will soon be at work once more, this time on horseback in the country. Truly the field is ripe for the harvest, and the blessed Master is very good to us. The greatest burden of my heart is that we may prepare the ground and sow the seed of truth in such a way, in South America, that it may yield a rich harvest of souls for the eternal kingdom of Jesus. MAXIMO TRUMMER.