Wonderful Change - Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2010

As I sit writing todays events, we are not in need of having the air conditioner on. Unbelievable! Our balcony door is open with a cool breeze coming in and keeping the room at a comfortable temperature. Today has been cool from the start, with cloud cover and some rain lasting all day and now into the evening. It has been wonderful. Wonder how long it will last?

Our mornings move right along on schedule, but today we must have been extra organized and efficient because we were ready to walk out the door by 8:20. We puttered around a few more minutes trying to wait until at least 8:30. We had read, or listened to, a chapter in The Undaunted which is becoming a morning ritual. Today we were anxious to find out how the traveling group dealt with the indians. We look forward to the few minutes we have each day to follow this story.

Each day when we leave for the office, we are met by Andrea. She is the housekeeping gal that sweeps and mops the entry way of the building and also the steps, and each floor of our five story apartment building. The windows always sparkle and she also cleans up around the building on the outside. She is such a pretty gal, always with a big smile and a happy "Buen Dia" for us as we leave each day. Sometimes we have to walk through water and suds to get to the front door. There may not be much security living here, but it is clean.

A few minutes before 9:00, the President walked in. We were surprised, but happy, to see him. He had his brief case and water bottles, so we figured he came to work and would be here for a while. He is quite a private person, so didn't announce the reason for his presence. He chit chatted for a couple minutes, then went in his office and closed the door, leaving us guessing why he came. We thought, perhaps, since he has been so busy, on the go, and tied up with all the conferences he's been to over the past two weeks, that he needed to make himself available to us should we have things for him to sign, problems to discuss, or questions to ask. We had little or none of each.

Later, the Assistants came to the office and went into the President's office. Elder Coria then told us that the Assistants were having a meeting with the President, but they were late because the temporary elder who has been in a trio with them has just received word that his visa is ready and he will be going to Venezuela this week sometime to finish serving his mission where he was called. The Assistants went with him up to the Venezuelan Embassy to get his visa. So that explains the President's visit today. The office elders came in after the President this morning, so they didn't have a chance to let us know what was going on.

Elder Hales said the President told them he is coming again tomorrow from 9:00 to 11:00 to work in his office. I am taking advantage of him being here, so I prepared some welcome letters for him to sign that go in the new missionary binders that I have started. Maybe I can prepare the four certificates for the ones leaving in April and have him sign those too -- but then, maybe not.

Elder Kroff worked on getting the "ajuste" ready to send. This is extra money the mission pays monthly above what the church sends each missionary. Then he burned some practice CD's to give his English class. He had a larger class tonight - about 12 people. Word is spreading as his class doubled in size from last week.

We came home at 5:00, had some dinner, and Rich went back to teach his class at 6:30. I should go with him sometime to get some pictures, but it is hard for me to get dressed up again once I get out of my missionary clothes. I will do that sometime, though.

We felt bad that we couldn't attend a baptism that was taking place in our Tigre branch tonight. Since they have been few and far between lately, we wanted to support the sister missionaries. We expressed our desire to be there along with our apology for not being able to attend. Tuesday is an unusual night for a baptism, but was necessary due to the work schedule of the one being baptized.

Today, the President forwarded us an email from the Senior Missionary Coordinator for the church. They are updating the costs of missions for senior couples in various missions around the world. Missions in Argentina are on the list. We need to supply our costs for food, transportation, rent, and utilities on a monthly basis. They may be surprised at how little we spend. The email said the President is to choose his more frugal couple living in the most expensive area of the mission. Well, frugal would be us, however we don't deny ourselves anything if we really want it. And, we don't live in the most expensive area of the mission. We'll do our best to calculate our expenses.

It is only 9:30 and this entry is done. Yippee!!