Day in the Capital - Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Our day started soooo early!! We left home about 6:15 and had to stop for gas before heading to Zarate to pick up one of the hermanas who the President asked us to drive down to the Capital for some business she had to take care of at the Area Office.

It was interesting to see what was going on at that hour of the morning as we know most Argentines don't start their day early because they eat and go to bed so late at night. But there were a fair share of people waiting for buses and walking about even though the stores were not opened yet.

One street vendor trying to make a living caught my attention as he was rolling out his flour tortillas on a small wooden table and then cooking them on small grill with briquettes for heat. He even had a customer who was passing by. Trying to survive is hard for some here in Buenos Aires.

At first we thought we were taking all three of the sisters with us, as they are in a trio. But, when we got there we found out that two were staying to work and Sister Gillum would be with us. We really didn't need to leave home as early as we did because we arrived there a half hour before the designated time. So we just sat in the car and I tried to take a little nap while waiting.

We had a delightful time visiting with this new sister who has just been here for a week. She is a remarkable young lady and had story after story of faith promoting experiences that have happened in her life to bring her to serving a mission. She is a sweetheart and so darling. She will be a great missionary!!

When we got to Bonpland, we met a senior couple that we knew were here but had never met before. Mark and Linda Zobrist are from Las Vegas, Nevada, and will be working with Perpetual Education and some Humanitarian work. He is a past mission president having served in Mexico, and also served a mission there in his youth. They were very friendly and outgoing and expressed disappointment that we were going home soon as we could have had some good times together.

While visiting with them and others, two of the wives of the Area Presidency joined the group. We had met Sister Arnold when her husband came on the mission tour a few weeks ago. She remembered us and then asked what we were doing for Thanksgiving tomorrow. We told her that it was just a normal day for us and we would be working in the office. Then she invited us to join them and about 30 other people for dinner at their place at 6:00. Wow! All of the Area Presidency live in a building that just has three (probably massive) apartments. One on top of the other. On the roof is a big terrace, BBQ area where they entertain. So they are having the Thanksgiving dinner up on the roof top area.

We gladly accepted the invitation and in asking what we could bring to add to the dinner, they said all of it had been assigned out and there wasn't anything left -- to just come. How nice of them to include us and we are excited to go. This will be the first and last time that we will ever have Thanksgiving dinner with General Authorities. We better be on our best behavior! Hmmm, now what to wear?

Because we needed a car today as did Elder Peterson who was taking elders to Immigrations, the President let us borrow his car. Since he is down South for the week, it worked out good for us. We drove the office van in the morning to pick up Sister Gillum, but the air conditioning doesn't work. By afternoon it was quite hot, so Elder Peterson changed cars with us and let us drive the brand new car with air conditioning back to Zarate. He had some business at Bonpland too, so we exchanged cars when he came. Such a gentleman!

Outside Burger King where we treated Sister Gillum to lunch, Elder Kroff took our picture to document our day together. The traffic was horrendous in the Capital today and it made me nervous because we were in the Presidents brand new car. I could just see us getting side swiped by all the crazy buses swerving in and out. It was wild today.

We called ahead to let the other hermanas know we were almost back to drop off their companion. After waiting about fifteen minutes here they came. They are a terrific trio consisting of Hna Gillum (St. George, UT) Hna Keele (Orem, UT), and Hna Allen (Highland, UT).

On our way back to San Fernando, we were so close to WalMart that we stopped there to pick up a few things. We are buying a few food items to put in the Schoeny's apartment so they can at least fix some breakfast, and I had to get the fixin's for our American breakfast that we are cooking for the six chicas on Saturday.

Our packing is going a little slow right now. I just need some uninterrupted time. Yikes!