Goodbye 2009 - Thursday, Dec. 31, 2009

How can it be the holidays when there is no snow? It just doesn't seem right! But in a way it was good because since it didn't seem like Christmas, it didn't make us as homesick as we thought we would be.

Now it is New Year Eve, and it is strange to think that tomorrow starts 2010. We got a call today from Sister Petersen, the doctor's wife, and she invited us to join the other senior couples from the Area Office for an evening of games at the apartment of one of the couples. She said they probably wouldn't stay until midnight, that it was just a get together. Then tomorrow night they are having a movie night at one of the couples apartment, and she invited us to that also.

We decided we wouldn't go tonight, but would go tomorrow night. If we went tonight, we would have to take the train and a taxi to get there and then we would be coming home late on the train. We feel a little uncomfortable riding the train after dark if it is very late, and especially on a night when there is a lot of drinking. Besides we wanted to be home to see what kind of firework activity goes on to celebrate New Years. We have a great view from our balcony.

Elders Coria and Paz help us display the last day of the year on Elder Kroff's wooden block calendar that he purchased in Costa Rica several years ago. Goodbye 2009!!!

Tomorrow morning we have to be up and ready to leave the house by 7:45 a.m. The Argyles are going to Ushuaia for a week to attend zone conferences and to play, since the children are on break from school until February. We, and the office elders, are taking them to the airport. It will take two cars to accommodate them and all their luggage. Then we will have two cars for the week while they are gone. However, the President's car needs to be taken in for servicing while he is away.

One of the reasons why we decided we could join the other senior couples for movie night tomorrow is because we will have access to a car. Since tomorrow night will be a late one also, we can come home in a car and not the train. The apartment we are going to is on the same street as the Area Offices, so we can park in the secured parking and then just walk a block or two. It will be perfect, and much safer. We are all about safe.

Today was a productive day for both of us. I worked most of the day on the baptisms without many interruptions. The other three elders left me alone because they had to go to the bank and to buy a fridge. Elder Kroff is the only one that go alone. If one of the others has to go with him, then they both have to go. That was the case today. They took the colectivo one way and then walked back.

President Argyle had Rich working on an interesting assignment today. The father of a young man who had served a mission here in Argentina (not our mission) had contacted President Argyle for some help. His son had returned to Argentina after his mission and married a girl he had met while here. Then he joined the Air Force and had to go back to the U.S. They have a daughter, and while he was gone his wife applied for a visa etc. He has come back for her and the child and was flying from Mendoza, Argentina to Buenos Aires today for the overnight flight to the states. The father was coordinating getting the visa from the American Embassy to the airport and in the hands of his son when he arrived from Mendoza. He was calling our mission to see if we could help in picking up the visa and then meeting his son at the airport.

President Argyle was busy with zone conference and some baptismal interviews from morning till night, so he told the father to work with his competent senior missionary, Elder Kroff. As it turned out, the visa can only be picked up by the person to whom it belongs by showing a passport. Understandable!!! So we were unable to help the father and this little family. They will have to lay over in Buenos Aires until Monday when they will be able to obtain the visa themselves.

We came home to a quiet New Year's Eve, but did talk with Melissa and Urban on skype and also Joel and Marium. Plus, we called our good friends, Kent and Mary Alice Fairbanks over the phone on skype because they enter the MTC on Monday preparing to go to Greece on a mission. She is a nurse and will be the area medical advisor, and his call said he would be an office specialist. However, he is being put in as a counselor in the District Presidency right when they get there. It is an English speaking branch. But they have been learning Greek for the past three months. They are going to spend the first six months in Cyprus and then go to Athens for the remainder of their mission. He was a counselor to Rich in the Singles Ward. We are excited for them.

It's one half hour until New Years and the booms and bangs are starting outside. We plan to watch until at least 12:05, and then go to bed.