Lights Out

It was raining when we woke up this morning and never quit all day long. Most of the day it was a heavy downpour. Elders Nelson and Valente were glad today that they were office missionaries. I felt so sorry for all the missionaries who were out in this cold, wet weather today. I just wanted to take care of all of them. One companionship, who live in our area, came to the office to drop something off and one had an umbrella and one did not. The one without was just drenched. As he was talking to me, water was dripping off his nose. I couldn’t stand it, I felt so sorry for him. I had to get him some paper towels to wipe his head and face. Then we found an umbrella that had been left by someone and gave it to him to use today. He promised me he would buy an umbrella.

Elders Nelson and Valente had to get up really early today and take the Argyle family to the airport as they were flying to Tierra del Fuego to meet up with the President. The children are out of school, so the family is going to have a little vacation in the South after the zone conferences are over, which end today. Then they had some things to do in a couple zones in the outlying areas. They wouldn’t be back in time to pick us up and take us to the office. So, we decided that since it was raining, we would get a remise to take us to work. We have two remise outfits right in our area. Rich called one and didn’t make it clear that we were at our apartment and wanted to go to the office. They understood that we were at the office address, not our home address. So when we weren’t there, they left for another call. Now they didn’t have another car available for a while. He called the other company and they said they wouldn’t have a car available for 20 minutes. I guess rainy mornings are good for their business.

We decided all we could do was walk to work . . . very slowly. We bundled up and put our carry items in a larger plastic bag to keep them dry and off we went. I was holding the umbrella over the two of us, as we made our way carefully over the cobblestones, crutches and all. Surprisingly, when we got downstairs and started out, the rain had lessened and it was just a light drizzle. It really wasn’t bad at all. We made it just fine, and Rich’s leg held up really good. Then!!!! Just as we unlocked the gate to the office, and approached the door, the heavens opened up and it just started to pour down. We know we were being watched over and blessed because we had to make that trip on foot. Heavenly Father couldn’t hold the rain back any longer.

Right at 9:00 my cell phone started ringing with some medical problems, and I had other follow up calls on my list to make. So I was busy with my doctor duties for a good hour and a half. Dr. Petersen and I are becoming well acquainted. He is always so kind, and helpful, and pleasant to me. I sometimes feel like I am bothering him too much, but I don’t know why. This is his mission.

Elder Kroff spent the day entering the apartment data into IMOS. That stands for Internet Mission Operating System. It will take him the rest of the week to get his task accomplished. I need to work on my next order of supplies from the Distribution Center, plus start preparing the binders for the incoming missionaries arriving in August. And on it goes.

When Elder Nelsen was transferred to the office, he didn’t like having to balance the phone between his shoulder and ear while he was taking data over the phone and entering it into the computer. So he asked the President if he could purchase a telephone headset to wear so his hands could be free. President agreed, so he is a happy camper now.

Elder Valente still answers the phone the old fashioned way. The majority of calls we receive in the office are for him due to the nature of what he does. It is really helpful to have an Argentine in the office that deals with other Argentines. He can communicate better with landlords, and businesses, and everyone. He always knows who to call when we need something. He’s great. . . and has such a cute personality. He doesn’t know very much English (says he doesn’t have time to study) but he always hollars, “I love you” as he rushes out the door at 4:00 to go teaching

The Elders think I need a “Blue Tooth” type ear piece so I can answer my doctor calls and write things down without holding my phone in my hand. It’s a good idea, but I don’t know if I will get used to wearing something on my ear. It is a little hard to hear the voice on the other end. I would only need it for the two hours I receive calls in the mornings. We’ll see.

I was anxious for the rain to stop or lessen some because we needed to go to the post office today to mail Mekhi’s birthday gift. It was high on the priority list, but I was worried how we would accomplish it with the bad weather and Rich’s bad leg. About 3:00, however, it looked hopeful, so we got in the car and found a parking spot on a side street around the corner from the correo. Because of siesta time and the rainy weather, there were only 2 people ahead of us. Hallelujah! We were in and out of there in 10 minutes. That was another blessing today. Whew!!

When 4:00 came and the Elders had to leave, we had to leave too if we wanted a ride home. They would not be coming back by the office later to give us a ride. The weather was so nasty that we closed up shop and took the offer of the ride home. I had great plans to make cookies or catch up on emails or something, but right after we entered our apartment, the power went off. Luckily we have a gas stove, so I was able to make us some dinner. And we could see to eat it because it was still light outside.

The lights came back on a short time later, but then at 6:30 they went off again and stayed off until 9:30. As we looked out our balcony window, we could see that there was a large area as far as we could see that was dark. So the rain or something had caused a blackout. Rich had battery power in the computer, so he worked on Sister Argyles DVD. I sat on the couch and dozed as our room got colder and colder.

Finally when the lights came back on, we talked with Paul and Denise and Susanne and Thale on Skype. Then, as we were winding down for the night at 11:00, the lights went out again. We didn't care, because we were going to bed.