Beautiful Day - Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009

It was a perfect morning walking to the office today -- no chill in the air at all. It was so pleasant. The temperature got up to 76 today. Tomorrow it is suppose to be around 84.

First on my agenda was to call Dr. Petersen about a health matter. A funny thing happened relating to it. While we were down at the Capital yesterday doing our immigration thing, I received a call from a missionary who had an ear ache that had been bothering him for about a week. We were walking amidst heavy, noisy traffic and it was hard to hear him. I told him that when I got home and it was quiet I would get in touch with the doctor and call him back. Actually, Rich had to speak to him because I couldn't understand him very well. He is a Latino elder. It turned out that I forgot to call, and the elder did not call me back either. So I planned on doing it first thing this morning.

About 7:30, the elder called to see if I had talked to the doctor. I could hear him better, but still gave the phone to Rich to tell him that I would call the doctor at 9:00 right when I got to the office. I did just that and the doctor prescribed some Amoxicilina. When I called the elder, I was glad his companion, who spoke English, answered the phone. I proceeded to tell him what to get at the Farmacia and how often to take it for this bothersome ear ache. He took the message and said nothing.

Later in the morning, the sick elder called again and wondered if I had called the doctor. For heavens sake, didn't the elder's companion tell him that I called with the medicine he was to purchase? I gave the phone to Elder Kroff to explain what the doctor said and what he was suppose to take for the problem. I heard Rich say, "She just called and left a message with your companion, didn't he tell you?" Well, it turned out that Elder Segura has the ear ache, but I thought Elder Urra was calling. So I left this detailed message with Elder Urra's companion. He never questioned me about it. You would have thought he would have indicated that his companion didn't have an ear ache, and that he was just fine. I laughed at what Elder Urra must have thought. When I discovered the error, I quickly called Elder Urra back and told him that he was not sick and didn't need the medicine.

The four of us in the office all worked quietly at our computers. The President has had Elder Coria on the phone quite a bit these past few days trying to work out transportation for the missionaries to get to the meeting with Elder Bednar next week. Elder Kroff went to the banco, walking both ways to exercise his knee, Elder Paz and Silvio were at his computer discussing apartment matters, and I entered baptisms and made copies of a few items that need to go into the December binders for new missionaries. My push to get them done is close, but I haven't had much time to devote to that project yet.

We came home anticipating the repairman to come at 5:30 like he did last night, so we just had french toast for dinner so it could be cleaned up quickly. It was close to 7:00 and we had written him off when the buzzer rang and here he came. He went to work on the inside stuff first, and then went outside to sand off and paint the ceiling of our balcony. Water damage had occurred there also and it was looking pretty bad. The sun went down before he finished and yet he continued to sand and paint in the dark. We did turn on the outside lights for him, but he said it was quite difficult to see. He is returning tomorrow at 4:00 so he doesn't run out of daylight.

Since we have no pictures to document today's activities, we want to share a couple more of our Gaucho experience.

These are the Argyle brothers - Seth, Quin, and Austin modeling their panchos and gaucho hats. Austin has his over his ball cap, but at least he posed for the picture. Seth said he knows what he is going to be for Halloween next year, and nobody will know what he is because in the states they don't know about Gauchos. They are great kids.

Here are two modes of transportation on opposite ends -- horse drawn carriage to a motorcycle. The family was dressed in gaucho attire making their way to the festivities.

Couldn't resist taking a picture of the Argentine version of a motor home. Notice the door of beads hanging from the one in the distance. Click on picture to enlarge. Quite unique.