A Big City Can Be Loud. Who knew?

Sister Jackson, one of the Mission Leaders, telling the 21 new missionaries about how

Elder Melvin J. Ballard predicted the immense growth of the gospel in South America 100 year ago! 

One of the coolest things I get to do is accompany my friend, Bev, every six weeks when new young missionaries arrive to serve in the Argentina Buenos Aires North mission. These fresh faces, sometimes nervous, sometimes joyful, usually a mix of both, are a real energy booster. 

For several years, senior missionaries in the area office host Trick or Treat for the children of employees. It was so sweet to see these beautiful little faces light up when missionaries in costume (I wasn't in costume. Will be next year) give them candy. They were each taught how to say Trick or Treat in English. Sooo darling. 

The families then have a Halloween party in the lunch room. 

Elder Richardson (above) says "it's great to be king". Just kidding.

He and his wife are two of the Humanitarian Aid missionaries.

They and the Taylor's, (below) the other two humanitarian missionaries,

are incredibly hard working. 

I have been assigned a big project working with the Area Historian. There is a hard deadlne coming up and I'll be assembling all the information and writing an Executive Summary. it will be fun. Well, it will be fun when I figure out how best to do it. 

What does this headline have to do with anything? Police sirens, yelling fights, machinery used to lay down and resand the cobblestone street in front of our building,  car horns honking. The apartment wall between us and our neighbor is pretty thin. So noise of all kinds are something for us to get accustomed to here. Please don't misunderstand. This is not a complaint. It's simply one of the things to which we are adjusting. It's easy to romanticize a mission. The goal is to give it to you straight. 

YESTERDAY was a highlight. Put your humor hat on for this one. A few weeks ago, I ordered some things on Amazon and had them sent to my daughter who then shipped them to us via US International Priority mail. Reasonably priced. (Order consisted of a few clothing items made from cotton or linen because most of what I brought is polyester and it gets very, very humid here). 

Last week, received an email from the Argentine post office telling us we could go on line, set up an account and pay the customs fee. Okie dokie. BUT you can only use this option if you have a DNI. We have applied. Just waiting to receive it. DNIs are notoriously difficult to get. Didn’t know that until we tried this option. So … Friday morning, at about 10:30 we caught a cab and headed to the central post office and the adventure began.

 

The cab driver said he knew where we needed to go and then dropped us off about three blocks from the actual destination. And it was raining. The rain wasn’t hard at this point. We were dropped off at a Naval installation with lots of security. One of the nice guards explained where we needed to go. So we started walking. Found the building but we had to go around the block for the International packages. Rain was still light. 

 

Remember the last time you were at the DMV? Well this is rather like that. Stand in one line to pay. But FIRST, after standing in that line, get your documents stamped by the guy who is going to give you the package on the other side of the room. Then get back in line to pay. How much did we pay? The Argentine Peso equivalent of just over $5.00. Yep. That’s all. Then sit in chairs to wait for your name to be called. It was 15 or 20 minutes, just like the DMV. Mike’s name was called, he went to the open door where others were picking up their packages and had to wait again.

 

Box in hand, we call for an Uber. Rain picked up quite a bit as soon as we got into the Uber. This fellow serenaded us. Off key. VERY OFF KEY. What time did we get home? 1:38 pm. Three hours, the cost of an Uber and a cab to pay about $5.00 to customs. Try not to envy us. 

Love you all!