View from the Top - Thursday, Feb. 4, 2010

We had a wonderful night's sleep without the fan blowing. All the rain we had yesterday cooled things down enough that we had a fairly cool room with the window open, so we opted to leave the fan off. Rich said he wished we would have had it on low to just keep the air circulating, but he didn't want to get up to turn it on for fear it would wake him up too much. He survived!

Rich had to get in and out of the shower and get dressed to meet the AP's downstairs at 7:00 to give them some moneda (it means money, but the Argentines use it to mean coins). They called last night saying they needed some to ride the train and bus to get to the zone conference today in the Capital -- and they didn't have any coins on them. Luckily Rich didn't have to go to the office to get them some as we have a box full here that we use for our own train and colectivo fares. It is really cheap to ride the train and buses, so he just gave them some from our pot.

It seemed strange to see the elders walk in as a duo instead of a trio now that Elder Paz is gone. Elder Hales is getting his baptism by fire in his new job as the phone kept ringing for him. But, he handled everything in stride and was calm, cool, and collected. He'll do well.

I worked steadily at my desk and in the supply room feeling a sense of accomplishment in entering all the baptisms for January before the deadline, and getting the supplies packed and ready for the conference tomorrow. With no more to be done in those areas, I spent some of the afternoon getting Stake President mailing labels typed and ready to attach to the envelopes for the Missionary Certificates that we mail to them. I also printed off the flight itineraries for those going home in March, to be mailed to the Stake Presidents and parents. Then, there is one for the missionary, of course. This project will be continued tomorrow.

Yesterday, the President called and asked me to call Dr. Davis, the mental health doctor who is serving a mission for the area and is living in Chile. One of our latin sister missionaries is having some problems and needs some counseling. Dr. Davis doesn't speak Spanish, but she has a volunteer who has a practice in Chile and she counsels the Spanish missionaries. However, because of her own practice, she doesn't get around to calling the missionaries very quickly. I was told she probably would not get our sister called for a couple weeks. When I told President Argyle that, he asked if I would see if there was another option. Dr. Petersen said there was, and directed me to the missionary department in Salt Lake. They have Spanish speakers who deal with these issues. Elder Kroff called and got someone on the phone for me and this counselor is able to call tomorrow to speak to our sister. That is so much better than waiting two or three weeks.

At 5:00, the elders had a cita (appointment) over in the church to teach a single lady. They needed a third party adult, so they invited Elder Kroff to accompany them. I finished what I was doing and walked on home.

Last Saturday when the Bolentini's came to cook the asado for us, we walked around the roof area of our building and Rich shot this picture of Sister Bolentini, daughter Antonella, and myself. There is another level that can be accessed by a metal stairway leading to the water tanks for the building. Our picture was shot from that area. Behind us we can peer down into the back yards of some homes. From the street, nothing is visible to indicate what is behind the stone fronts of the dwellings. It is deceiving, to say the least. They do have grass, and one place has an above ground pool.

This is taken from our balcony and the street is called Peron. It is named after Juan Peron who was the President of Argentina. There are many streets in Argentina named after Presidente Peron. Every city has one. This is a very busy street and is right below our bedroom window, thus the reason we wear ear plugs to sleep. The sound of cars, buses, and motorcycles is amplified as they race by at all hours of the night.

Dinner was, you guessed it -- spaghetti!! Rich said he had been looking forward to the repeat dinner all day. How kind of him.