No Elder Today- Thursday, July 1, 2010

It had rained during the night and the streets were wet, but the forecast today said no rain, just clouds with the temperature in the low 60's. I didn't trust it so I took my umbrella anyway.

We didn't have to get up early again, but we were going to be to the office by 8:45. President and Sister Argyle were going to the airport to pick up one lone elder who was suppose to come over a month ago, but broke his ankle or injured it badly playing sports in the MTC. He had to recouperate before being released to come. They were bringing him directly to the office to conduct his training here since the mission home has lots of activity there with the remodeling going on. We tried to calculate how long it would take them to get to the office after picking him up at 8:00, so we all decided to come a few minutes early just to be sure we were there and ready to greet him.

So it was a suit day for the three elders in the office. Even if it is one soul to train, the formality in dress is required. Elder Hales and Elder Kroff collected their thoughts and planned what their part of the training would require.

By 10:00, there was still no sign of the President, so Elder Peterson called to see where they were and approximately when we could expect them. To our surprise, the President said that after the elder didn't come on time, he looked at the itinerary and saw that it was July 2nd not July 1st that he would arrive. He was leaving on July 1st. He said that with all of us having looked at the flight plan, it is a wonder why none of us zoned in on the correct day. Oh dear!! A wasted trip through all that traffic! And now to do it all over again tomorrow. I really didn't study the itinerary very good as I concentrate on those leaving because of ordering their flights. I don't pay too much attention to the time of the ones coming.

It was a good day for me in the office. I entered 13 more baptisms into the computer and have them all done now. I will have a few days reprieve before I start on them again next Tuesday or Wednesday. That is a good feeling!!

Having them done freed me up to catch up on a few things that I have put on the back burner. I got caught up on all the welcome letters I needed to send for the missionaries coming in the near future. It is easy to send off the letters for the American missionaries as the addresses are easy to find and to understand. I find the letters to the Latinos' families sometimes time consuming. I have to find the names of their ward and stake and prepare an envelope to be sent through the bolsa (pouch mail) to their leaders and then they deliver the envelope to the parents. Safer that way. It isn't too hard, but seems to take me much longer to get those letters on their way.

Elder Kroff left to go pay some bills, and to mail three things for me at the post office. He passed a little panadaria and decided to go in and check it out. We have passed it before on our way to catch the train, but never took much note of it. He brought back some cookies that had chocolate frosting on them and we took a break to have a treat. We each had two. They were delicious and if it were a little closer, we would have sent him back for more. He said everything there looked tempting and worth trying. Little sweet pastries are called facturas. We will stop there another time when we are in the area to sample more.

Lunch time came and our elders shared their lunch with Elder Lazo. His companion, Elder Lowry, went on an exchange with some other missionaries, so he came to the office for the afternoon. He will stay the night with the elders and become the trainer/companion to Elder Neuffer who will be picked up at the airport tomorrow by the President.

The elders left promptly at 4:00, and we were not far behind them. I had a pretty cleaned off desk area and so did Rich. My big project tomorrow is to get my supplies ordered and I didn't want to start on that so late in the day. I need to be rested and fresh to figure out what we need and start the laborious task of preparing the spreadsheet to send to the Distribution Center.

Our evenings are always the same; however, our branch president called to see how we were and to ask if we needed anything. That was nice of him. We just love the Virreyes branch and the people in it. We loved Tigre too!