Conference Day

We were excited for today to come as we get to watch General Conference with our senior couple friends at the Area Offices.

The weather was beautiful and got up in the 70's today. We talked with Paul and Denise on Skype at 9:30 to firm up some plans for their trip to Buenos Aires next Friday. We can't believe the time is here. They have had this plan to come in October since we left last March. It will be fun to be with them and do some sightseeing to places we have never visited up in the Capital area. Then we are taking them to church in Tigre on Sunday and will show them around San Fernando.

But today, we discussed how we wanted to get to the Capital. We could always take the blue train (the common folk mode of transportation), or we could take the coastal train. It is called the "rich man train." Elder Kroff thought if we took a bus to Tigre and went to the regular train station, that perhaps both trains left from that same area. Then we could ask questions and find out where the stop would be that would take us close to the Area Offices.

We found out with one question that the other train's station was about 5 blocks away from the main blue train station. We decided to walk quickly to it and take our chances. As we were walking towards the ticket booth, the train pulled away. Rats!! On the schedule, we saw that it left every half hour. Good Grief! So we decided to walk back to the other train station and take the blue train. But it was going to be iffy if we would make it before the opening song at conference. We bought out tickets and had to wait about 15 minutes for the train to arrive.

Since we were getting on the train at the beginning of the route, there were plenty of empty seats, so we were able to sit the whole way to the Capital. Once there, we spotted a taxi stand on the corner by the station. We hopped in one and made it to conference about three minutes before it started. Whew!

We loved listening to the choir and it seemed to us that they sang more songs than usual. All the talks were great and we loved partaking of the spirit of the conference.

After the first session concluded, we went with our friends the Allreds to lunch at a Chinese place called "Yankies". The lunch crowd had come and gone and we were the only ones in the restaurant. The food was good and we enjoyed the visit and the meal.

The Allreds are from South Jordan and they leave November 16. They are Welfare missionaries and get to travel around a bit to train wards and stakes in the welfare program. Elder Allred was a West Mexican missionary with Elder Kroff way back in the 1960's. We will miss them because they always call us and include us in the activities they have. After they leave, we might not get included as much.

The afternoon session of conference started at 5:00. We were excited to hear from Tad Callister, a Seventy, who was Susanne and Thale's mission president in Toronto, Canada. When we went to visit them, we went to a little gathering at the mission home, so we got to spend some time with him. He was a great mission president and is a grandson of the late apostle, LeGrande Richards (who performed our sealing in the temple in 1965)

After conference was over, we walked a couple blocks and hailed a taxi to take us to the train station so we could catch the train back to San Fernando. It was more crowded this time and we had to stand up most of the way. We can't believe how brave we have become after living here a few months. Since becoming more confident in taking public transportation, we can get to where we need to go with a minimal amount of money. It is a good feeling of freedom.

We arrived home at about 8:15, just enough time for Rich to rest a little before walking to the San Fernando church to attend the priesthood session which began at 9:00.

It has been a good day! And we are excited to do it over again tomorrow.