Never a Dull Moment

We had a busy day in the office today -- we always do. The faxed copies of the baptism registers kept coming in, but I couldn't get to them because I had to change my focus to the pedidos (requests for supplies). First I sorted the packages mailed from home for the missionaries and then started on the letters and cards - things in envelopes. I will have to continue with the envelopes tomorrow. Once that is done and put in the bins, then when the District Leaders fax me the pedidos form, I can fill the orders with the supplies from my supply room.

I have the boxes of mail and supplies partly ready to go down South. That is on my to do list to finish tomorrow as well. Everything is important and needs to be done right now and it is hard to decide what to tackle first. Sister Argyle called for something and asked if I was swamped. I was honest and said I was.

To add to the stress I haven't felt well the past few days. I came down with my usual bronchial congestion which starts with a sore throat and turns into a never ending cough. I know what medicine helps (I am the Doctora, you know) so we went to the Farmacia and bought some. I hope to have it mostly gone by the weekend as I don't want to be bothered with it during General Conference. We are so looking forward to conference. It has been six months since I have heard a sermon in English. I can't wait.

Because of the doble deadline (doubling of baptisms), the President didn't want to disturb the companionships during transfers last week. He made minimal changes which only related to pairing up the four new arrivals. Very little movement of missionaries was conducted. To the surprise of many tonight who think that was the extent of the transfers, they will receive calls to pack up and prepare to move to to a new area and new companion tomorrow. The President didn't want to announce that transfers would be a week later because he didn't want them to take their minds off working towards the goal. He never gives more than a days notice because too much time causes the work to slow down or stop as the missionary's focus is on his new area and not where he is presently serving. So, tomorrow should be interesting.

That is one reason why my work has stacked up right now. I couldn't sort mail until I had the new schedule of where everyone was going to be. The President didn't get it all finalized until yesterday and we, in the office, received it this morning.

One transfer that caught us all off guard is that a replacement for Elder Nelson is coming into the office tomorrow to start being trained. We'll tell about that in tomorrow's update.

On our computer, we have a lot of pictures that Elder Whitmer took while here in Bs. As. He was Elder Kroff's trainer and has now gone home. I was scanning through them tonight to see what there was and I saw two photos that I wanted to share.

Here is an arial view of a common occurrence here in Buenos Aires. No organization in following traffic lanes. If there is a space and your car fits, then go for it.

This is a sample of the money we use. Their system is just like we have in the U.S. They have bills of 100, 50, 20, 10, 5, and 2. But $100 pesos is worth a lot less that our $100 dollars. $100 pesos is a lot of money to an Argentine, but it amounts to around $30 in U.S. money. Their bills are larger than our bills and come from the bank folded in half. For coins they have 1 peso which equals a dollar, then 50, 25, 10, & 5 centavo pieces. The coins are like gold to them. They are sometimes hard to come by, and people like getting them because they are needed for the train and colectivo. We, somehow, have an abundance of them.