viernes-12 de junio

About twice a month, someone has to go retrieve all the packages for the missionaries that are at the correo (post office) up at the capital where the Area Offices are located.  These are the packages that have to go through customs. . . . large boxes or heavy items with more merchandise in them.  Padded envelopes come straight through to our address. Anyway, the drive takes about 45 minutes to get there.  Usually the office elders have that duty, but since Elder Clegg left, no one has an international driver's license but Elder Kroff.  Elder Nelson is anxiously awaiting his to come in the mail. Elder Valente, our Argentine Elder, doesn't have an Argentine driver's license, so he isn't eligible to get an international one.  The elders tossed around the idea of taking a remise to get the mail, but along with having to pay for the ride up there, they didn't think there would be enough room to bring all the packages back. So they asked Elder Kroff if he would take them.  The big concern in doing that is that Sister Kroff would have to stay at the office alone, without being able to answer the phone or handle things that required Spanish.

We decided that we couldn't leave the phone on night mode for half the day, so I wrote down some things I could say to the callers to tell them that I didn't speak Spanish and they would have to call back later.  I felt confident I could handle that, so off they went.  They left at 8:00 in order to get there early and secure a good spot in line for when the correo opened at 10:00. Imagine that!

When they brought these pictures back, I was dumb founded that the line would be this long just waiting for the post office to open.  Who would have thought??? They arrived an hour early and were right at the front of the line.  Our two elders are there leaning on the wall.

Once inside, you take a number and a seat and wait your turn.  So far, so good.  BUT, when they got to the window, they could only get three packages because their computers were down and they only had three of our packages logged in the computer.  Unbelievable!!! We know how many packages are up there, because we get a card in the mail for every package that they have waiting for us to pick up. Why then, we wondered, weren't the packages already in the computer?  We've had the cards for days, probably over two weeks.  So it took three elders out of the office for half of a day, an hour and a half of driving time, waiting time outside and inside, and they only could bring back three packages.  AND, now they have to go back again for the loot.

 Elder Valente gets creative with the camera to capture this photo.

Rich said the traffic was horrendous.  Here they are mired between all of these semi's.  He said it was the worst he has seen it up at the capital.  I hope Elder Nelson is ready to take on this zoo.  He has never driven in this country.  It isn't easy.

Back at the office, I did just fine.  When I would answer the phone saying "Mision Norte", the elders calling would hear the feminine voice, knowing it was me, and then start speaking in English.  I had a few of those calls.  I had to answer the door (or gate) outside a few times to get the mail, let an electrician in, and receive some supplies.  I could understand what they wanted, but I couldn't express myself in Spanish very good.  But I did okay.  So now I feel more confident that if I am left alone to man the office, I can survive.  I kept my notes for future use.

I furnished lunch today for the elders and us.  I made spaghetti and jello with fruit cocktail in it. Then we had some pan (bread) from one of the panaderias. 

After eating lunch, Rich walked to the correo here in San Fernando where a Western Union is located.  We were down to $7 in our pocket, so we had to have Marianne wire us some cash. Where are our cards???  I didn't go with him because I wanted to finish up getting all the baptisms entered and submitted.  There were 26.

We decided to leave the office at a more decent hour because we wanted to check out Tigre in the daylight. This is an area about a 10 minute car ride from here where we will be attending church in about two weeks. We took the office car to do our exploring.  We were sure the GPS would have the church in Tigre listed, but it didn't.  From our list of missionaries that we have at home, we found the Sister missionary's address there. So, we put that in the GPS.  Well, we never found their apartment, nor did we run onto the church, but we did run into a gated community that had guards allowing, or not allowing people in.  We were just trying to find a shopping area!  

We made our way home and crashed for the night.