A New Week and New Adventures

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Mission Leaders and one of their assistants introducing new missionaries. 

Eventful week. 

 

Here in Argentina, if you are going to be here for a while, you need a document called a DNI. It’s a national ID card. We completed step one last Wednesday, aided by a driver named Alejandro and a guide named Luana. Before we met them, we asked the lovely man in our office who handles these things, if we needed to prepare anything, would there be questions to answer. He said, “Don’t worry. Just follow directions and keep your Passport with you.” Okie Dokie. I then asked someone else and he said the same thing. It did turn out alright but now we have another appointment this week for the second step to “get registered”. This is concerning but hey, we choose to be here and when you’re on someone else’s turf, you play the game their way. 

 

A, who sets these things up for all the senior missionaries, texted to let us know that we now have an appointment at another government department to complete the second and final step of the process. We have to be there by 8:00 am in the morning. When we asked a couple of questions, we were told, to just have your passport with you.

 

Well … there was a document that needed to go with us. It was generated as a result of last week’s appointment and it wasn’t received until late Monday night. So … our appointment is now Thursday at 8:00 am. The driver, Alejandro, will be here to pick us up at 6:45 am. We are both planners. Needless to say, it’s a struggle to not be able to plan for ourselves. HA! We are definitely getting over ourselves and understanding how things get done here. 

 

In general, things here move slower than we are accustomed to moving. Two of the three projects I’ve been assigned require more information and I’m waiting for that information to proceed. The people providing the information also have to track some of it down so they are patient as well. 

 

The people we work with are still amazing. Another new couple will be joining us soon. Looking forward to getting to know them. 

 

My Spanish tutor is a young man based in Provo, Utah and I’m at the point now where I need to get over the reluctance to try to speak Spanish more. My niece, who learned Spanish in Peru, told me the key for her was to just try, make the mistakes and it will get easier. Got a prescription filled earlier today. Missed a good opportunity to do it in Spanish. Oh well. 

 

Mike’s Spanish definitely continues to improve. He’s noticing the subtle differences between the Spanish he learned previously and Argentine Spanish.

 

When we are in the office, there is a great spirit. Everyone here, paid employees and missionaries, are all here to serve. It’s an incredible experience overall.

 

One of the cool things I got to do was accompany my friend, Bev, to welcome new missionaries. There were about 21 of them. They came from all over the United States as well as Mexico, Ecuador and Spain. Photo below.

The senior missionaries go on an outing each month. This month, we went to a town called Campanopolis. It was built by a man who had been told he was going to die soon. This was back in the 1970’s. He ended up living for 22 years. Each building has a different theme but overall it appeared to be an old Tudor town. It reminded me of an old town in Germany that has been preserved for centuries. Photos below. 

 

We love you all. 













 

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