Conference Day

What a wonderful day we have had. It started out at 8:00 a.m. with breakfast at the mission home with the president and family. During transfer week, he has the office staff to breakfast. There were whole wheat pancakes, homemade syrup (which was to die for - she makes it with part white sugar and part brown sugar) It was delicious!! Rich will try that when we get some maple flavoring. Then there was an egg, potato, and ham quiche, and fresh cut up fruit. We don't think one can ever cook too much food for hungry Elders. They really enjoyed it, as did we.

Having breakfast with our six best friends: Elders Whitmer, Valente, Owens and Clegg, and Presidente and Hermana Argyle.

After breakfast we all went our separate ways to get ready for General Conference. The Elders had to ride the train back to San Fernando to our church where conference was being broadcast. Here in Argentina, we get all the sessions. Because of the time change, the first session began at 1:00 p.m. The Argyles were going to go to our church too for the sessions.

We, however, were taking the office car to go about 45 minutes away through city traffic to the downtown Area Offices to meet with other senior couples and watch conference there.

It was a fun ride to see an area we had not been to before. We commented on the way that we never dreamed we would be driving in this crazy Argentine traffic after just being here three weeks. There are no stop signs whatsoever . . . just traffic lights. So at corners and intersections on the side streets, it is a free for all. The most aggressive driver gets across first. Marked traffic lanes don't mean a thing here. It is just a suggestion as to where one should drive his car. People are weaving in and out and they drive where they want, sometimes straddling the marked lane. If you are in the right hand lane, you might come up behind someone who has pulled over with lights blinking, but the driver has gotten out of his car to look at something outside a store, or to buy something inside. No thought or consideration of the person stopped behind his car.

But the surprise of the day was when we arrived at the Area Office, a couple serving there as Welfare Missionaries happen to be one of the missionaries Rich served with in Mexico. What a reunion they had!!! His name is Gary Allred. He is from the Salt Lake area. They recognized each other immediately as we have seen them in the past at missionary reunions that used to be held before their president passed away. This is there second mission. They served their first one in Mexico. They were home two years and then someone they knew on a mission in the Dominican Republic solicited them to come there to serve. Arrangements were being made, and they even knew about when they would be going without receiving the actual letter. They had started to pack for that climate etc. and then came the call to Argentina. They were in total shock. They live in a pretty expensive apartment building. They took over an apartment from another couple. Their rent is around $1000 and they aren't too excited about that, but they are getting by. We drove them home, but didn't go inside. It looked pretty fancy. We live in the ghetto compared to where they live. But we'll take our little $450 apt.

They want to get together with us sometime. Maybe we can meet up on a Saturday and they can show us around the "greater" Buenos Aires area, so that we will know some sites of interest for visitors should we have any in the future. We are excited to have more friends!!

We thoroughly enjoyed conference. . . . every minute of it. We were spiritually fed, and for me it was a needed experience to hear it in English. We are going back tomorrow to watch it again with the group. Today we had Sloppy Joes and salads. It was wonderful. There were about 6 or 7 couples, plus some single guys there that are here working in the area on some projects. We were welcomed by all and really had a great time associating with the older generation.

The offices in this building have been recently remodeled and they are gorgeous. It is a big area with halls going every which way. Beautiful furnishings and pictures make it pleasing to the eye. Serving there would have been good duty.

These are the Peterson's. He is serving a mission as the area doctor. He takes care of Uruguay, Paraguay, and Argentina which is about 14 missions and about 2200 missionaries. We had a

nice chat. If Sister Argyle wants me to help her manage our missionaries when they become ill, I might be calling him a lot. So we got to know each other a little today. He is a nice man.