Such a Contrast - Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010

We actually saw the sun today -- no rain, and the temperature was in the 70's. Beautiful day! But before the bad weather of the last several days gets too far removed, we wanted to post a picture of what the sky looked like on one of our days of terrific downpour.

It really was quite a beautiful setting to see the clouds hover over the city with a break in the distant horizon. But those clouds packed quite a whallop. Now, we are suppose to be rain free for a whole week.

This is what it looked like today. There was lots of sunshine, and beautiful grass, flowers, and shrubs looked healthy after the good drink of water they received over the past week. This is the front yard of the church that was pretty flooded last Friday night.

What did we do today? Oh yes, I continued printing baptismal invitations from the website and Elder Peterson continued cutting. We decided to keep going until we got all the ones completed for down South too. All done!! The reason for this project is because the Distribution Center has discontinued stocking and selling these card type invitations that the missionaries love to use. Giving these out to investigators helped in reminding them of where and when a particular baptism was being held. A renewed effort is being made in the mission now to invite and bring investigators to baptisms. Witnessing another's baptism and feeling the spirit of the occasion has been a positive step in getting them to commit to baptism themselves. So the President wanted something reproduced to give to people as a reminder of the date and time a baptism was going to take place. He told the missionaries to "fill the chapel" with investigators. So hope this helps!

Elder Hales took Elder Peterson with him to do an apartment contract up in the Capital. They took a remise to their appointment, had the driver wait 20 minutes for them to complete it and then he brought them back to the office. It didn't seem like they were gone very long at all.

In the meantime, Elders Kroff and Coria made a trip to the banco, went to find some reams of copy paper at another liberia, (since we have depleted the paper from the store by us) then went to the postoffice. That left me alone in the office for a little while. No worries as I can answer the phone and tell the caller when the elder they want will be back. I only had one call.

At lunch time, the elders did something that no other elders have ever done in the eleven months we have been here. They had no one bringing them lunch today, so the three of them went out for lunch to a Pizza Buffet. They invited us, but we thought we shouldn't close down the office, so we declined the offer and just ate our sandwiches. They came back full and happy. We will have to try that place some time in the future. It will be a good change from always eating at McDonalds.

It was a somewhat short work afternoon for me as I had a hair appointment at 4:00 with Javier in Acassuso. The remise was suppose to pick me up at 3:45, but didn't arrive until 4:00. Eeek! That is when I was suppose to be there, but it wasn't a problem because the 4:00 hour is just a suggested time for the appointment. I was a little late, but still waited a few minutes more before I was put in a chair. After the color was done, I moved to the station where Javier would take over. I said "trim" this time, so I don't look as scalped as I have done in the past.

I took a remise home and missed my companion as he was at the church teaching his English class. Tonight he had about 20 students in attendance. It keeps growing -- the word is spreading. But school starts next week, so he thinks that some of the younger attendees will drop out. He said it is better with a smaller class, but he can't and won't turn anyone away.

While I was by myself waiting for Rich to come home, I spent some time looking through my recipes and Susanne's cookbook that I brought with me to finalize the meal I am preparing on Saturday to feed five elders. I wanted to find a couple salads that I can make to add to the BBQ beef on buns that I plan on having. I don't know why it is such a big deal, but it is because of the difficulty I have in finding ingredients that my recipes call for. Missionaries will eat anything, however, so I don't know why I worry.

No time for Olympic watching tonight -- maybe tomorrow.