High Humidity - Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009

Last night was a bit on the warm side. We had to have a fan going in our bedroom, and no blankets, only a sheet on us. We remembered well last March when we came and the dreaded summer months were just ending, but it was still hot enough to have some uncomfortable nights. Those days are returning rapidly.

Today the humidity was really high. I was so glad that we had a cool office, but felt so sorry for Hermanas Reese and Ruiz that came to the office today for documentation one of them needed in order to get some money her parents sent her out of the bank. They were hot and steamy and dragging in. We let them refresh themselves in our cool office, but hated to send them out again into the street. They say this is just the beginning, that we haven't seen anything yet. Oh dear!!

Our first zone conference involving two zones is this Friday. So my day was spent filling the requests for supplies for those missionaries in those two zones. With the increased amount of mail and packages that have arrived, the bins are overflowing and I have to use more than one for each zone to handle just the mail.

I will be glad to get these conferences on their way so it will clear out this overload of mail. From now until Christmas we will be sending our runner up to the Capital to customs each week to retrieve all the packages that are there. Tomorrow he will pick up thirteen.

We just found out that any package that is insured stops at customs. We often wondered why some came directly to our office and some came through customs. But, it is because of the insured issue. Sister Argyle is going to include that in the welcome letter that we send to the missionary's family when we receive notice that he/she is coming to our mission. If they insure the package, it will be delayed in arriving to their son or daughter. Then the missionary is responsible for the cost it incurs while sitting at customs before we pick it up. The first four days are free, but after that there is a two peso fee for each day it sits on the shelf waiting to be picked up. And, customs randomly opens packages for some kind of a check. Those come to us opened and I have to re-tape them closed so things aren't exposed and fall out. I stick a note on it to alert the missionary why the package looks tampered with.

At lunch time we had a nice surprise. On Wednesdays, Hermana Bolentini always makes two dinners for our office elders. They eat her food on Wednesdays and Thursdays. She is the wife of Silvio who works with Elder Paz on the apartments. He is the fix it guy who repairs things and paints and finds new apartments when needed. Occasionally, she has included a salad or a dessert with our name on it. Well, today she sent us a whole dinner. It was milenesa (thin breaded meat baked in oven with a slice of ham and cheese on top), mashed potatoes, fruit salad, and rolls. Wow! Did we feel special! She really doesn't have to feed us -- it's the elders who need the food. But, we chowed down with them and really enjoyed ourselves. She sent us four pieces of the meat and there is enough of everything to eat it again tomorrow for lunch. She is such a nice person, and a really good cook.

We left the office at 5:00 and it was one half hour too late. We could see that it was getting darker outside with cloud cover, but we kept doing just one more thing. Just as we exited the door, here came the rain with huge pelting drops. We both had umbrellas and decided to keep going. We could make it home in just a few minutes. Our heads remained dry, but the bottom of my skirt from my calves down was soaking wet as were Rich's slacks. We tend to tip our umbrellas a bit forward, so rain dripped off the back of them onto our back sides. My blouse had big wet splotches on it and Rich's shirt was pretty damp. Maybe we need larger umbrellas!

Since our main meal for the day was what we ate for lunch, we just had creamed tuna on toast tonight. Simple, but good.

While eating, I glanced out of the window and saw this beautiful rainbow. We went out on the balcony to take a closer look and it formed a complete arch. In fact, in looking close, there is a second rainbow to the left of it. It was pretty awesome to see. The picture doesn't capture how vivid the colors were, but gives an idea of the size.

As I type, Rich is doing a good job of cooling down the bedroom. Hot air gets trapped in there big time. The cool air from the front room doesn't go around the corner to the bedroom. But, he has our fan pointed towards our opened window sucking up the hot air and blowing it out the window. It seems to be working.

Seems strange that this is Thanksgiving eve. There won't be any "over the river and through the woods to Grandmothers house" for us this year. It's a normal day at the office, and our two latin elders who don't celebrate Thanksgiving don't know much about it. They will leave the office at 4:00 for their normal teaching appointments. We hope to talk to our girls and grandchildren on skype tomorrow night. Melissa will be in Tooele at her inlaws, and Marianne has been invited to Paul and Denise's for dinner.