game on

The office elders wanted to play some tennis for P-day and invited us to join them. Looking back now, I realize that it was the last day of summer- type weather, and I am so glad that we enjoyed with them doing something that we all enjoyed.

traveling companions

 

Like Alma and the sons of Mosiah, we have been off on our missionary adventures. We started the journey together, and we have proof positive that we are all alive and well. We are ready to sally forth armed with the instruction and inspiration of the past few days.

All of us were enjoying watching the windsurfers as we traveled to the airport. The parts of Montevideo that we saw were well-kept and the airport was gorgeous.

I’d like to come back!

doubly blessed

The Mission President’s Seminar was held in Uruguay. Since our friends, the Heymans, are serving in Resistencia, they needed to fly into Buenos Aires the night before the seminar started. They understand all of the spiritual highs, as well as the rough times of being a mission president. We laughed our way through dinner and stayed up too late chatting.
The seminar was amazing in every way. The last day four of us had a couple of hours so we went out for a little shopping at Manos de Uruguay. It is a cooperative for women so that they can stay at home, but market their handmade goods. It is one of the most successful ventures of this kind. I was very pleased to support the effort!

We returned home on different flights than the Heymans, but we already had our plans in place for dinner in town. We hadn’t planned on getting gridlocked into our parking place. Thank heaven, President Heyman has experience with these kind of issues, so it was just a temporary inconvenience.

We look forward to seeing them again in six months!

elder baudon

Elder Baudon has been in the office with us for 5 transfers…that’s 30 weeks! His mom is a faithful mission blog reader and commenter! It was such a pleasure to finally meet the Baudon Family! They are from Cordoba, Argentina. While Elder Baudon had a good head start on English, he really perfected it in the office, and to date, he is our only missionary that has scored the Advanced Level on the Language exam that the Latin missionaries take at the end of their mission. As a special gift to his family, I made a mini Pastor video exclusively featuring Elder Baudon. It is all in Spanish, except for his testimony at the end.

saturday with the seguines

When there is no power and water, people do crazy things, like light stuff on fire, loot and riot. And so today my Presidente and his assistants had to organize the mass removal of 54 missionaries from their apartments to other locations in the mission. It wasn't ideal for our last with the Seguines, but they were charitable and said that it was fascinating to watch how the inspired the leaders of the area worked together to efficiently accomplish this task.

We did get into San Isidro to the craft fair and they bought a few last minute gifts and keepsakes. We also went to the grocery stores so that they could stack up on Leche sweets and alfajores.

The zone leaders brought a bag of all of their favorite Argentine sweets delighting our sweet-toothed grandkids!

It has been wonderful to share our lives with all of the Seguines the past two weeks…oh how we will miss them!

friday with the seguines

This morning, we decided to play some doubles tennis. Unfortunately, the courts where we normally play were closed. We were lucky that the courts at Brianna’s school were open and available!

Then the four of us went back to the city for a few more adventures. It is a holiday, so the fair at Recoleta was up and running. We stopped by our favorite artisan dealer and Tricia bought the cutest leather purse. I was happy to find out that my favorite restaurant opens at 7:30 since we were starving by then. We only had to wait about 15 minutes and were the first ones to arrive. Presidente was busy with numerous calls today organizing the big move of our missionaries this weekend. We were so happy to have him with us though!

thursday with the seguines

We went to Palermo Viejo this morning to get some new shoes for Dan. It is a great shopping district between our home and downtown. Presidente bought me a cute hat to help keep me warm this winter. For right now though, it is a beautiful fall day.

We had been promising the kids a trip to the kiosko for several days now and finally made good on that! We have these little shops all over the place. There must be five or six within walking distance of our house. I think most of the Argentines have that kind of access to these little shops.

They had a great time choosing their treats and they were really surprised to see that Beyblades are called Kerbacs here!

Carmen

We have been looking forward to the ballet for weeks. Brianna did a special hairstyle on Courtney for our big event.

 At the ballet!

Tonight we went back to the Teatro Colon to see the ballet Carmen. We left The Littles at home with B and headed into Buenos Aires for a night on the town. Carmen is not exactly a happy story (seriously, three people get stabbed!) but the music was incredible and the dancing was delightful. I was surprised how much of the music I knew. (The kids, of course, recognized some from Little Einsteins.) It was such a privilege to hear and see such beauty.

There was a big storm that blew through while we were in the theater. We saw all kinds of trees damaged on our ride home. Of course, there were no police directing traffic around the trees, but Argentines manage to figure out a way around downed trees including driving on the wrong side of the road, in the mud, and on the sidewalk just fine.

We stopped at Morelias on the way home for a late night dinner and dessert.

tuesday with the seguines

This morning Dan took Carter to gymnastics for his final lesson with Jorge.

Carter got to meet Vladimir Makarian, the men's coach, today. It turns out, he and Carter's coach in North Carolina worked at the SAME GYM in Russia. Small world!

Presidente had to go into the office, but I went with Ed and Kathy to check out some chocolate places around town. We went to the Chocolate Lounge in Acassuso and then got on the train to Martinez were we visited the Vasilissa chocolatier. I am confident that Ed knew more about their chocolate that they did. Luckily, for us he said that it was great quality chocolate that originated in Belgium and then he purchased various pieces for all to enjoy!

Later, Dan, Ed, Kathy, Tricia and I went into Buenos Aires. First stop was to Comme il Faut where Tricia purchased tango shoes. The shop is really just a room with chairs and mirrors. The sales people bring out shoes for you to try on. You have no idea what your options are really, but they decide what style looks best on you and they just start bringing out different color combinations. I went here a couple of weeks ago to check it out all by myself and I was the only one in the store. However, today there were several shoppers. I got in trouble for taking a picture of the cute shoes that Tricia ended up with inside the store!

 

 

Then we went to find some fabric stores for Kathy. We found a great little shop that carries fabrics from Argentina and Brazil. Kathy had made me a fabulous quilt in Argentine flag colors and quilted it in a sunflower pattern. I couldn’t be more delighted!!!!

 

Doug arrived home in time to make the trip to the airport to drop off Ed and Kathy. There was quite a bit of traffic and it took awhile to get there. However, we saw some pretty normal stuff for us that was very interesting to our non-residents! Like, a man on the freeway getting let out of the car, and walking up the off ramp. Same thing happened with a collectivo (bus service). The bus just pulled over and let someone out on the freeway. We saw cops pushing their own non-functioning police car and people burning trash on the side of the road. Fun driving in B.A. I tell you.
After saying goodbye, the four of us went back to the city to Puerto Madero. This part of town is new since Dan was on his mission. In those days it was a nasty port area but now it is an area of upscale housing and great restaurants. Every street in the area is named after a woman and the bridge in the distance (which we walked across) is called The Puente de la Mujer (Women's Bridge). We enjoyed a great restaurant there and an after dinner stroll along the river.