Asado Rico (delicious) - Saturday, Jan 30, 2010

Was that thunder we heard during the night? Were we really going to get some rain and cooler temps for morning? Well, it did rain a little, but cleared by 10:00 and the sun came out again heating things up. We were hoping for a cloud cover due our roof top activity later on in the day.

The morning was spent getting up at our usual 6:00 hour to get ready for visitors at 11:00. We were able to get our Book of Mormon reading in and a chapter in The Undaunted. We are really enjoying this book and look forward to reading each day. Then we cleaned the house and waited until the Bolentini's came.

Silvio and Gabriela Bolentini with 3 1/2 year old daughter, Antonella, came at 11:00 to get the charcoal wood chunks burning and ready for our Asado today. The office elders arranged with Silvio to cook an asado using our roof top barbeque area and party room. He did this a few months ago when Elder Nelson and Valente were here. He is a wonderful chef, but won't let anyone help with the cost of the meat. We offer, beg, and try to force him to take money, but "No" is always the answer. Then his wife brings lettuce and tomatoes for ensalada, and today she brought what she called another salad, but it was cooked carrots, peas, and potatoes chunked up all together in a bowl. Mayo could be added and stirred around a serving if desired. It was very good also. So they are asked by the elders to cook the meat, and then end up furnishing the whole meal without any help. They did let us bring the drink and ice cream.

Gabriela has been the Primary President in the San Fernando ward for a year now, and before that she was either President or counselor for four years in Young Women's. She also cooks two meals a week for our office elders. It doesn't matter who rotates in and out, she provides food for two days a week. This week when Elder Hales went with the others to pick up the food, he was astounded that she loaded them down with so much food. She is a sweetheart -- and a really good cook. She often times includes a serving of food, or a dessert, or a salad for Elder Kroff and me. It makes me tired to think of all the cooking she does weekly. Then today, she does more!

Here we all sit enjoying the air conditioned party room waiting for the meat to cook. Poor Silvio is outside sweating to death over a hot barbeque. Pictured around the table are Sister Bolentini and Antonella, Elders Hales, Coria, Paz, and Kroff. They did take turns going out to give Silvio moral support. The elders are looking quite comfortable in their "P" day clothes.

Here we are surrounding the barbeque pit. This area gets used frequently, but usually not in the middle of the day. Most Argentines eat late at night.

The assortment of meat cooked was beef ribs, pork ribs, chicken, chorizo sausage, and a couple other cuts of meat that were unfamiliar to us. It was cooked to perfection and oh, so good. We all ate until we were stuffed.

Silvio is the one who works for the church and our mission, to find the apartments for the missionaries and then fixes them up when needed. Before taking on that job, he cooked for all the zone conferences for the Buenos Aires North, South and West missions. Now, that is a lot of zone conferences and a lot of miles traveled to get to the various areas. But that was his total source of income. He is on the High Council in our stake -- and a very likable guy.

As the party came to a close, we posed for a picture and then cleaned up. The elders needed to leave to go to the office and do their email home to their parents. I insisted that since the Bolentini's brought all the food and cooked it, that their duty was over and I would clean up. No way! Sister Bolentini pitched right in and had the dishes washed before we could clear the tables and put everything away. She won't stop. We need to think of a thank you gift or something to do for them for all they do for us in the office.

We had a surprise phone call this afternoon from "Ex Elder Clegg" as he put it. He was calling to see if we could get him the name Elder Swan's father, and maybe an address and phone number. He lives in Salt Lake and returned home on Thursday. Elder Clegg thought perhaps his homecoming would be tomorrow and he wanted to attend, but didn't know how to get ahold of him. So he had to call 6000 miles away to get some info. Glad we could help. It was great talking to him.

Our evening was quiet while I worked on this entry and Rich worked on his talk for Sacrament meeting tomorrow. It's been a fun Saturday.