A Day with the President

We sleep so soundly with our earplugs, that we are amazed every morning when we remove them to hear the thunderous noises outside.  We remark often that we can't believe how silent the world around us is while using them.  We have to make sure that we are all locked up at night because we would never hear a burglar, should someone intrude upon our privacy again.

President Argyle was with us at the office all day long. This is a first!  He had some interviews with a couple of missionaries in the morning and then we had a pre transfer scheduling meeting in the afternoon.  He said the meeting would be short, but it lasted two hours. That is because we were trying to work through how some additional duties being assigned would impact the office. From now on, each mission here in Buenos Aires (there are three of them) will be responsible to get the visa work done on it's own missionaries. President Argyle and his family had to renew their visas for one more year, and he went through the grueling two day process of going to the civil registry place that checks for a criminal background and takes fingerprints. Then they returned the following day to go to immigrations at the huge warehouse type building where you take a number and wait for hours.  

Having seen first hand what we will have to deal with in taking all the new missionaries through this process, prompted him to decide how this should be done and who should be taken out of the office to do it.  It isn't going to be a fun thing to do, but there is no way of getting around it.  It is now our job.  However, Elder Nelson will be the one in charge of seeing that all the missionaries get this legal work done . . . . not to mention he and Elder Valente travel to get the packages that are in customs, and they take missionaries to get their DNI clearance.  (This is another legal thing that the missionaries have to do)  So they could be out of the office a substantial amount of time each week. And, of course, this is in addition to traveling around on all the apartment issues that Elder Valente needs to resolve.  Oh dear!! Can they do it?  

Then, we discussed the increase in baptism that we are having and what I need to do to insure that the zone leaders and district leaders are trained in accurately filling out the baptism registers so that the number of telephone calls I make each week are at a minimum. This is necessary because in about a week, I will be over all the medical needs of the missionaries. Sister Argyle is transferring this to me.  She has so much to do that she needs some things removed from her "plate."  I am a little nervous about it because with 160 missionaries, someone is always sick and the calls are frequent.  It could interrupt my work during the day a lot, and then in the evenings I may be on the phone quite a bit too.  I hope I can do it and remain positive and happy.  I will be in constant contact with Dr. Peterson, our area doctor, so if either of us should have a problem, I will feel comfortable contacting him.

This week is busy for Rich because he is getting all the rents ready to be paid, money to the zone leaders, and money added to each missionary's card for the month. The work goes on. We never have much down time at our jobs, but we are enjoying serving in any way we can.

It took us the longest time to figure out why bottles or jugs were always sitting on top of cars around the area. We thought at first that the cars were being waxed and the jug was left on top so they could come back and finish the job. We have since found out that the bottle on top means that the car is for sale.  Odd, huh?  

These cars are right across the street from our apartment building. This place is actually a small car dealership, so these might be cars that the business is trying to sell, not individual owners. So instead of "For Sale" signs in the window, it's a jug on top of the car. Whatever!