Goodbye November - Monday, Nov. 30, 2009

I woke up feeling great today, but Rich said he didn't feel so hot. He said he had pains in his stomach (been there, done that) and that he would skip breakfast.

We walked to the office pulling our shopping cart with the two boxes of Christmas gifts that we were sending to our hijos (children) and nietos (grandsons). I would wrap them in brown paper, (requirement of the post office) address them, and we would mail them after work.

I spent most of the morning and early afternoon getting the supplies and mail together for the zones of Litoral and Sarmiento. Those are the two that have conferences tomorrow. Litoral is the zone we are in so those bins just need to be carried into the church. Our conference is first at 9:00 a.m.

Since this is the last of the month, all baptisms and confirmations performed in November need to be in the computer by the end of the month. Well, we are given a grace period of a few days to get them entered, but I don't let the missionaries know that. Our baptisms increased last week. There are 27 to enter before the grace period deadline comes. The increase is wonderful, but stressful for me during this busy time when I have all the mail and supplies to deal with this week. And, zone conference is tomorrow which will take me away from the office for a few hours. I wish I could be excused just this once from the conference because of my work load, but I don't dare ask. I imagine I'll survive.

Throughout the day, Elder Kroff remained ill. He couldn't go home because Elder Paz was gone with a ward member who was chauffeuring him around doing some apartment things, and Elder Coria couldn't stay alone with me in the office. He said he would go home to lie down when Elder Paz returned. But, that never happened. He got phone calls and emails that had to be addressed, and pretty soon quitting time came, so we all left together.

Elder Paz and Elder Coria are fun to work with. All the elders that have been in the office with us have been true gentlemen. They are so respectful of us and jump at the chance to help. We become attached to them all. Yesterday, Elder Paz said to me, "Sister Kroff, this week I want to learn everything there is to know about English. I want to be able to speak it really good. Will you help me?" "Of course," I said, with my mind reflecting on all I had to do. Today that didn't happen because he was gone most of the day. But he studies all the time and really does understand most things and speaks well. I wish I could say the same for me with Spanish. Elder Coria struggles a little more with English, but we can still communicate. They love helping me as I try to speak their language.

A few weeks ago, a new Correo opened up just a couple blocks from the office. It isn't a big post office like the one on Peron, but handles all the same things (I think). We decided to take our Christmas packages there, and immediately ran into a road block. To send anything airmail, we have to use their boxes and they can't weigh over two kilos per box. They offered to take our things out and repack them, but we opted to buy the boxes $6.00 each and come home and repack them ourselves. Then she said it takes 12 working days to reach our destination. It must be a slow plane, for heavens sake. If we want them to go out with the mail tomorrow, we need to have them there by 1:00 tomorrow afternoon.

We came home and Rich tried to eat a little something, but only could eat a few bites and said his stomach was complaining. I hope he feels better tomorrow.

This picture is from the rain storms yesterday. It was interesting how the cloud cover hung over the city with a break on the horizon. It was really pretty.

The weather today was beautiful. Warmish/cool and no humidity. The temperature reach into the mid 70's. Perfect!!