Update from Argentina

We finally have access to a computer to update our blog and let you know what has been happening the last several days. We will have the internet in our apartment, but right now we are at the mission office on a Saturday morning. This is our ¨P¨ day, and two of the office elders are here with us.

We left the MTC on Tuesday, March 10. While at the Salt Lake airport, many people recognized our missionary tags and came up to us and asked where we were going on our mission. One couple was on their way to Chile to get their daughter who was serving there. Our flight to Dallas served a complimentary drink, but no peanuts or cookies. There was a $3.00 to $4.00 charge for snacks. So we passed. At Dallas, we had very little layover time. Upon arriving at the gate, we boarded the plane within 1/2 hour. But after doing so, the captain announced that there would be a delay due to the plane needing a new battery. We sat there for almost 2 hours waiting for the repair. The captain would come on every half hour and say, ¨Just 30 more minutes.¨ We left at about 9:15 p.m., having eaten nothing all day. They did feed us dinner on the flight, and we gladly welcomed it.

The flight to Buenos Aires was 10 hours and we slept better than we thought we would on the plane. We arrived March 11 at 10:30 am. Argentina time, which is 6:30 a.m. Utah time. There is a four hour time difference between here and home. The first thing we noticed after leaving the plane was the humidity....very obvious. Due to the delay in leaving, we, of course, arrived later than the mission president was aware of. But after going through immigration and customs, we went through some doors into a room full of hundreds of people waiting for passengers. Immediately, we saw two hands waving at us and recognized the president and his wife. We were so glad to see them!!!

They warmly greeted us and off we went to the mission home. On the way through Buenos Aires, we stopped at the temple for a photo shoot. It is right off the freeway. We can't attach any pictures yet until we get on our own computers, but we'll do that later. The ride from the airport to their home was over an hour. The mission home is in a well-to-do neighborhood. It is behind gates and fences. In fact, all the churches we have been in the last couple of days have been behind tall fences, where a remote opens the gate.

The mission home is really pretty and has been there over 30 years. Sister Argyle said most of the furnishings are the same. It has a grand piano. All of the president's four children play the piano and are taking lessons while here. And, they have a housekeeper that comes in 2 or 3 times during the week. She is a member of the church, and herself, has two children serving missions. We chatted a while and the two of them gave us an orientation to life in Argentina regarding shopping, health issues, important phone numbers etc. First thing. . . . no drinking of the water. Bottled water is a must! They do have water purifiers that are connected to the sink faucets. We have one on our kitchen sink water. Now I know why they told us to be sure and buy 4 water purification bottles from the MTC bookstore. However, we can fill water bottles with our filtered water at home to take along with us as we are out and about. So all the missionaries have bottled water that they carry with them. If a member or a contact offer them a drink or juice that they can see is being made with tap water, they need to politely decline.
We can bathe, wash dishes, or do laundry with the unfiltered water, but anything being ingested needs to be filtered.

We all went to lunch at a restaurant called Kansas, where North American food is served. It is one of the most popular restaurants here and the food was delicious!!!! While there, Pres. Argyle went over our individual assignments. He is very organized and on top of things. (More about him later.) I, Julie, will be the mission secretary, but will need to learn most everythng that goes on in the office, so I can help train missionaries as they rotate in and out. Elder Clegg, who is Rich's relative, will train me (such a cute missionary). I will also be helping Sister Argyle with the health of the missionaries. They will eventially call me (hopefully not in the middle of the night) when they are sick or need assistance. I will learn how to assess what they need or how to refer them to the area doctor. Elder Kroff will be the Finance Secretary. Elder Whitmer will train him, and we understand he is a whiz at the job and things have been in tip top shape around here. These Elders are being transferred out into the field at the next transfer day which is in 3 weeks. Does the President think we can learn our duties in THREE weeks?????
We are a bit nervous and overwhelmed!!

After lunch, on the way to our apartment, we stopped at the mission office to meet the Elders. I sadly had to break the news to Elder Clegg that the peanut butter we were bringing to him at the request of his parents, had been confiscated at the Salt Lake airport. We had it in our carry on baggage instead of in the checked baggage, and that was a no no. I will make it up to him.

Our apartment is in a gated area also. It is in a new building and our apartment is brand new, never been lived in. It consists of three rooms. a bathroom, bedroom, and the kitchen and living room are all connected. It is on the 5th floor (top floor) and has a balcony. There is an elevator to use. It is small, but accommodating. President and Sister Argyle are so wonderful. They bought us a queen bed, sheets, pillows, bedspread, etc., plus we have a T.V. a bookcase, four padded folding chairs, and a church size banquet table for now. They have ordered a kitchen table for us. She had the cupboards and fridge stocked with foods of all kind. The bowl of fresh fruits were¨out of this world¨. We devoured them in a couple of days. We have pots and pans, 6 plates and glasses, silverware, hand beater, bowls, dish towels, iron and ironing board......just everything we need to get started. Some things were new, and some she had rounded up. She even gave me a curling iron, and blow dryer that work with the electricity here. We were so overwhelmed and grateful for all they had done. We also have a new washing machine..... no dryer, however.

President Argyle said the mission will absorb the costs, as since it has been quite some time since the last couple left, they had given most of their furnishings away to missionaries. So these things were to replenish those items. Then next week, Sister Argyle is taking us shopping to get things we need that aren't here. They told us to make a list of things we find we are in need of. I imagine some of those things we may buy ourselves. But who knows, maybe the mission will foot the bill on some of it. We do need some type of love seat size couch for our apartment.

At the end of the day of arrival, we were exhausted, to say the least. But we slept good and the President picked us up at 7:00 a.m. the next morning to go to our first zone conference with the General Authority. The¨tour of the mission¨ we came early for consisted of two zone conferences. The mission here in Buenos Aires has 8 zones. Then the part of the mission way down south in Tierra del Fuego has 2 zones. A zone conference with four zones meeting together was held on Thursday. Elder Claudio D. Zivic of the First Quorum of Seventy was the visiting authority. He is a counselor in the Area Presidency here in this part of the world. I am not sure how many countries it involves. He actually is from Buenos Aires. The Area President and the other counselor are from somewhere else and live here due to their assignment. Elder Zivic is one of the Argentines that does not look Spanish. He probably has the European background in his genes. He speaks flawless English - no accent at all. It is remarkable!! He is such a gracious person. I think he has spoken in General Conference before, and we will look forward to hearing him in the future.

Anyway, there were about 70 missionaries at the conference. Each was greeted by President and Sister Argyle, and Elder and Sister Zivic. We filed past to shakes hands with them. Then each of the four spoke to us, along with musical numbers performed by the Elders and Sisters. Elder Zivic takes most of the time teaching and instructing the missionaries. The bad part for me is that it is ALL done in Spanish. So I sat through 5 hours of Spanish. Enough said!!!!

When President Argyle spoke, he called Rich and I up to the stand to introduce us and gave us one minute to introduce us and bear a short testimony. Rich, of course, spoke in Spanish.
After the conference, we went back to the office and waiting until the president and Elder Zivic came to have a meeting with the office staff. We were included in the meeting, but didn't have to say anything. It was all in Spanish too. But it was fun to be with the general authority.

Friday, we did the same thing again, but with the four other zones in this area meeting together. We traveled to the outskirts of Buenos Aires to a chapel there for this conference. But this time when President Argyle had us come up front for the introduction, I shared my testimony in Spanish. During my Spanish tutoring lessons, I had to write down my testimony in Spanish. With encouragement from my companion, I decided to do it in Spanish, however, I had to use my notes. I did just fine, and everyone was so impressed. In fact, when Sister Zivic spoke, she made reference to me bearing my testimony in Spanish, even though I wasn't fluent in the language, so she, at the end of her talk, bore her testimony in English. She does speak English well, however, but it was probably more comfortable doing it in her native tongue.

So for the past two days, I sat through 10 hours of Spanish. It was so hard to stay awake. So I started writing down all the things I wanted to share in our blog. I still found myself nodding off once in a while. Now, the Mission President and Elder Zivic and wives left today by air to go down to Tierra del Fuego to conduct another conference down there. I don't feel bad we aren't included. I didn't want to sit through another 5 hours of Spanish. So that is what the tour of the mission was about. . . . taking the General Authority around to speak and teach all the missionaries. But, it was fun to see the Elders and Sisters. Many came up to speak to us and we met an Elder Crane from Tooele. I heard he was here. There are surely alot of handsome, good looking Elders in this mission. Good grief, they are cute!! There are 16 Sister missionaries here. They are cute gals too.

We really enjoyed going with the missionaries to these conferences. It was fun to be around these wonderful young people. The only thing I regret is that I missed out on a lot of valuable instruction and wisdom because I didn't understand the language. I hope I learn more Spanish in the days to come. Rich would interpret a few things, but it was hard to tell me everything going on. However, he had a hard time understanding Elder Zivic because of this speed, accent, etc. But, Sister Argyle surely does well with Spanish. She understands and speaks great, I think. So this ended day three in Argentina.