The Benton’s picked us up from the hotel where we had our training with the Area Presidency and other area workers yesterday. They took us to the mission home. There had been some problems with the water pipes and some pretty extensive work was done to correct that.
After lunch we went with them to the Mission Office where we were presented with a very thoughtful gift.
Welcome to President and Sister Carter,
personally signed by each and every missionary.
We are traveling in a group of 11. Five presidents and their wives and Brianna, who is the darling of the group. She has five moms and dads to look after her! About halfway through our flight from Salt Lake City to Dallas, the airline attendant came and explained that our flight to Buenos Aires had been cancelled. We were sooooo disappointed. The Presidents then began negotiations with the gate agent to see what our options are.
There was an incredible amount of luggage among the 11 of us.
We gathered up all of our luggage again and flew to Atlanta the next morning. From there, Delta managed a safe corridor into Buenos Aires. After a sleepless night, our first glimpse of the mission was a spectacular one.
Good morning, Buenos Aires.
Tonight after classes we had the opportunity to meet the elders in the MTC that are going to our mission. It was amazing…or rather, they are amazing. They are excited and enthusiastic about their missions and generally they seem like great people. We had an hour and half together and got to know a little bit about each one of them. I took individual pictures and notes so that I won’t forget because by the time 12 of them get to Argentina the middle of August I will have met another 172 missionaries. One of them is coming the week after we arrive. We are receiving 6 other missionaries that day that are coming from the MTCs in Lima and Buenos Aires. 
Here they are,
the first missionaries that will be totally ours
from start to finish…
our missionary sons.
We left Provo early this morning and went to the Church Administration Building. We had an appointment with Elder Neil L. Anderson.
He set Doug apart as the Mission President and then Elder Pearson set me apart as a full time missionary.
We dropped Brianna off at EFY this morning at the University of Utah. She is excited to have the opportunity to see some of the church sites in Salt Lake City as especially for the opportunity to do baptisms in the Salt Lake Temple.
This afternoon we enjoyed lunch with Truman and his family. I was telling Melanie how amazing it is that everywhere we go, people want to talk to us about our mission and in almost every place we have spent money, we have been given a “missionary discount.” Melanie looked at me, smiled, and then said:
Welcome to Zion!
*
I have been so excited looking forward to meeting, in person, Sister Alencar. She has been my Spanish tutor for the past five months. She has also been the Preach My Gospel tutor for Doug and I.
I have met with her three times a week for Spanish and once a week for Preach My Gospel. Suffice it to say that she has been a very important person to me, and literally between my lessons and my homework, time with her and preparing for time with her has pretty much taken over my discretionary time.
I have been the recipient of her prayers, her teaching and her love. She has been the catalyst through which the Holy Ghost has been able to work to teach me Spanish. After so many years of trying with little success, I have been very blessed.
We chatted in English for about half an hour, which was totally weird! but Melanie was with us and we didn’t want to be rude. Then she told me that we would keep in touch, which brought me comfort. I look forward to continuing to learn in Argentina and sharing it with her.
*The first picture was taken later when I asked Doug to walk with me over to where the tutors work so that I could take a picture. I hadn’t expected to find my very own tutor there, but I did!
Truman is an extraordinary young man. His special thoughts about the purpose of baptism was a highlight for me:
Afterwards, we were invited to the Evans Home to enjoy some of Truman’s favorite desserts.
There were so many things to do today, but this evening, we girls slipped out for a bit and enjoyed being girls together.
Later, I slipped off my wedding ring and gave it to Tricia for safekeeping
With special thanks to Brianna, we had such a lovely evening together last night at the Temple and then out to dinner at Villa de Flora.
Megan made a beautiful book including pictures and testimonies of many of the youth in our stake. It will be a wonderful remembrance for “President Carter.”
Ours is the last name on the mission board. It is our turn to go.
