Argyle Adventure - Monday, Jan 11, 2010

We slept comfortably during the night with the fan blowing into our room from the doorway, but when we got up at 6:00, we had to turn the air conditioning on. It only went down to about 74 degrees last night and the humidity was still quite high, so the apartment felt quite warm and muggy. We would perish without AC.

Rich learned an interesting thing about humidity on the computer this morning. Humidity has a dew factor which is when the moisture in the air turns back to water. When the dew factor is between 59 to 68, people who are used to a dry climate become noticeably uncomfortable. People who are used to humidity are not bothered as much by it until the dew factor reaches around 78. Never heard of the dew factor, but now Rich has something else to monitor.

Elder Kroff is smiling, but he and Elder Paz have had a stressful day trying to get all the dueños (landlords) paid today. They are suppose to have their money by the fifth of each month either by an electronic transfer or hand carried to them by the zone leader in the area. Understandably, if it isn't there, they call in a huff starting the day after. So all last week calls came from upset landlords who hadn't received their money. Elder Paz would assure them that it was on it's way. Elder Kroff finally called his financial guy in the Area Office to find out when this or that landlord was going to be paid, and it was revealed to him that a couple of them wouldn't have their money show up in their bank account until today. Good grief, the month is almost half over.

But, Rich said that starting in February, IMOS will allow him to set up payments from his computer and they will by pass the Area Office. He will be so glad to have control over it. And when a contract is negotiated on a new apartment, everything that is needed to set up the payment electronically will be handled at that time. The problem that exists now is finding all the landlords who are being hand delivered the rents and setting them up for electronic payments. That is a major undertaking of many, many hours and miles and miles of traveling to accomplish. There isn't the time nor man power to do it. Hopefully, as time goes on, these landlords can be contacted and the change will be made. A financial secretary's dream come true, for sure!!

Sister Kroff spent ALL morning working on medical matters. Calls come from the missionaries, then a call is made to the doctor, then the missionaries are called back. The problem is dated and documented, etc, etc, etc!!! I even had to refer a missionary to a Mental Health Area Advisor, Dr. Davis, who is located in Chile. This is the second time I have had to call her. She will call our missionary and interview him over the phone and try to assess his problem and help with a remedy. Most of these matters deal with anxiety issues, sleep problems, and stress.

My afternoon was spent preparing the carpetas for the nine new missionaries arriving on January 26. I only have three left to finish tomorrow. Then I will start on the eleven packets for the ones leaving on January 27. I have to get them done early, or the pressure of leaving them to the last minute would send me calling Dr. Davis for help.

Sister Argyle stopped by the office to pick up some mail that came for them and we had a nice visit with her about their trip to Ushuaia and the points of interest in the South. The President is still there and will return tomorrow. The family had a wonderful time and her play by play account of each day and what they did was interesting and entertaining. The President is a real outdoorsman. He loves to fish and hunt. He is into it big time. She said it was fun to see him have a couple days of fun mixed in with his rigorous schedule of zone conferences, firesides, interviews, and meetings to reorganize districts. He serves as a "Stake President" to the zones in the South that are in our mission. They aren't stakes, but rather districts. So I guess he is a District President. He is one amazing man.

Aside from regular fishing and fly fishing (which she said was next to impossible in gale force winds that always blow down there), the highlight of the trip was going to see the penguins. They went to a place that most tourists don't see because public transportation does not go there. It is a three hour ride over a dirt road. They went there with President Argyle's counselor and family. The President has one counselor here in Buenos Aires and his other counselor resides in the South. So the Fernandez family took them on this all day excursion.

Sister Argyle said there were thousands and thousands of penguins at this place. She expected to see snow and ice where they were, but they lived in bushes. These were not huge penguins, but just regular smallish birds waddling along and squawking up a storm. They do not like the cold, and after the end of April, they all leave and swim to Brazil for the winter. Then they come back at the end of September and go back to the same home/bush that they left. They could walk among them, but any sudden movement would make them scurry off. They had to be calm and rather subdued around them. She said it was just the most amazing thing to see. There are other places to observe penguins down there, but this place sounds like one I would like to see. We just don't know how we would get there. . . and it would have to be before the end of April.

We didn't get home until 6:00 and while I prepared a pizza for dinner, Rich went to find fruit and vegetables. The usual corner fruit stand we go to was closed today. They were on vacation, so he had to walk a different path to find one. I wondered what was taking him so long.

The hours left in the evening only allowed enough time to eat dinner, talk with Marianne on Skype, and work on this journal entry. It is time for bed (and I didn't fall asleep at the keyboard tonight)