Week #22 in Argentina

 This past week was another three days of zone conferences which we really enjoy as we get to see missionaries we have gotten close to and moved to other areas again.   Something about serving together as missionaries creates relationships that are very different than what I am used to.   I think of missionaries I served with as a young man and how much I still feel for them and the feeling is very similiar even though I'm an old 64 year old missionary.   Linda and I love serving these missionaries and doing little things to make them happy.   Linda's banana bread and cookies continue to develop a reputation with missionaries.   We spent last night delivering items to missionaries in Escobar and Sarmiento; sheets to a new missionary that didnt bring any with him from Chili, a "Villa Phone" to another pair that is a cheap cell phone that missionaries utilize when they go into "villas", which are some of the poorer areas of Buenos Aires, where their cell phones often get robbed and some items a hermana left in her previous area.  Each item was joined by a loaf of banana bread and cookies.   The photo below is from one of our zone conferences where apparently every hymn we were to sing was hymn #67...yes, 6..7 has arrived in Argentina also.   I blamed with assistants in the pic for doing it but they denied knowledge...either way, another example of entertaining things that happen when you are working with 220 young people

We continue to visit families and new members of the Pilar Ward on a regular basis, it may be one of the favorite things we do as we are inspired by their faith as they learn the joy that comes when they follow the teachings of Jesus Christ.   

One of our responsibilities is to inspect missionary apartments to ensure they are clean, safe and they have what they need to be healthy and safe also.  We always leave them with a short spiritual thought to get their day started...I liked this picture of Linda as she gave a spiritual thought at end of one of our visits.  Note the heavy sweater Linda is wearing, it is getting colder here in Buenos Aires!

And writing about Linda, we were visiting a vaquero museum and found this little newspaper named after Linda, everyone loves Linda...Ha

I liked this picture to, it is from a Ward Family Home Evening in which a scavenger hunt with teams was the activity.  One of the things was to take a picture with the Ward Mission Leader who happened to be on our team so if you look closely you will see his legs as Santiago and I were hiding him so other teams couldnt take a picture with him...it was an entertaining evening.  We probably spent to much time hiding Bro. Chullo and not enough time finding things as we came in last place.

Linda and I also took an afternoon to go visit the Art Museum in Tigre which displays art from Argentina.  The highlight was the building it is in which is an old social club from the late 1800's where the rich and famous socialized.   The two architects were from France, hence the very French style of the building.  

And finally, two pictures that show little things I find fascinating about living here.  First is the number of orange trees that line some of the streets here.   I didnt expect citrus to grow so well here but apparently it does and we can buy mandarins for about 5 cents each.   Trees are a highlight in Buenos Aires and they line most streets.

This is a picture of a window in our apartment.  No, its not raining outside, it demonstrates how high the winter humidity is here in Buenos Aires, it is most often over 90% humidity which makes for moisture on windows when it is cold outside and warm inside.   

I love the adventure of living here and the blessing it is to interact with people here, they bless me every day with their examples of love and service to each other.   I am learning a better way to live when I return home in a year.