Week #7 in Argentina

 This week was our first experience saying goodbye to missionaries leaving the mission and welcoming new missionaries at the airport and participating in their first (and only) day of training before they are sent out to areas with their trainers to begin their service as full time missionaries.   We were able to attend the temple with the 4 missionaries that were leaving last week.   

We haven't been here long enough to get to know these missionaries well so I'm sure as we continue to get to know the over 200 missionaries in this mission we will feel very sad to send them home.  I made the observation after these two days that it was hard to tell who was more nervous, those going home after their missions to begin the next phase of life or those that are arriving, often to a new culture, language and work.

We really liked going to the airport to welcome new missionaries from both the Mexico City MTC and the Brazil MTC.  It was a late night but these new missionaries were prepared to work and help in the effort to bring souls to Christ.   

The missionaries from the Brazil MTC come in about two hours before those from Mexico City so we had around two hours with those missionaries to get to know them, eat some McDonald's and try to get them more comfortable after long flights.   These missionaries come from all over the world, we even had an elder from France who was learning Spanish, its remarkable how willing they are to serve at the tender young age of 18.  We find ourselves inspired anytime we interact with the missionaries we serve with.   

Going to the temple in Spanish is a new experience but somehow when you have to pay alot of attention to the words to understand them you learn new things in a way you didn't if you listened to it in English.   We will be blessed to go to the temple frequently when we are here if we don't mind the traffic to get across town.   

Driving in Buenos Aires can be quite entertaining at times and we never know who or what entertainment we will have as we stop at stoplights.  People are always protesting some thing or other in our time here and we were part of a protest at a stoplight earlier this week.

Unlike in the United States these days, these protesters came out and blocked the street during the red light but right before the light turned green they cleared out so everyone could pass.  I thought that was a very kind thing to do, they had their say but didn't inconvenience us by blocking us from passing.   We have also seen a wide variety of jugglers, including one with flaming sticks, those wanting to wash our windshield, singers, guitar players and people selling a variety of things, all timed to the cadence of the stop lights.   It makes for an entertaining drive since, with people back in town with summer ending, the streets are busier and we are spending more time in our car helping with supply runs, contract signings and looking at new apartments to see if they meet the basic requirements for missionaries to stay in.   We looked at this one last week we said "No" to with the light bulb hanging down right by the shower head

In addition this bathroom was so small the shower head was pointed right at the toilet.   Missionaries have far from luxurious housing but we do have standards of safety...ha.

We did take a day to go down to a mall near downtown that was beautiful with the artwork on the ceiling and lots of upscale shopping.   

We have found that Buenos Aires has a lot of great shopping, we brought a lot of stuff thinking we may not be able to get it here but it has most everything other than Diet Dr. Pepper (Sigh, frowny face).   We also went to an old theatre build in 1904 that closed but they transformed into a bookstore in 2000, a very brilliant way to save an old theatre and make a thriving store and tourist attraction.  We liked it quite a bit even if almost all the books were in Spanish.   Was a fun day as we continue to see what Buenos Aires has to offer us.

The mission set a goal of 200 baptisms for the month of March which will require a significant amount of work but the leadership meeting we attended were all for the goal and committed to working with their zones to achieve the goal.   In my prior life in the business world we always scoffed at people who "sandbagged" or set goals so low they would be easy to achieve, that doesn't happen in this mission!!

Every week holds a new adventure and we continue to learn we need to be prepared at anytime to help with anything as we attend Church.   I was asked to give a talk in Sacrament meeting this coming Sunday so that will be a challenge to speak for 15 minutes in Spanish.   I'm sure I can do it, I'm just not sure anyone will understand me, I will pray before I begin they are all blessed with gift of tongues and can understand my odd mix of Spanglish with a Peruvian/Mexican accent.