La Boca and Iguazú Falls

Well, it’s been two and a half months since our last post. It’s not because we haven’t been doing anything. In fact, quite the opposite. Too often, we are just exhausted when we get home in the evening from the office or after church on Sundays, and it’s just too easy to say “We’ll catch the blog up next week.” Unfortunately, next week has now turned into months later. So, we’ll do some catching up.

Today is Sunday and again, Danielle came to church. She has really struggled with her health in the last 2 months, with multiple trips to the hospital, and even more falls and blackouts. She lives all alone, so it is actually quite dangerous for her. She frequently doesn’t feel well, so she doesn’t eat well, and it has turned into a vicious cycle. We have been praying so hard for her that her health will improve and that she can find a way to have someone live with her to take care of her. Well, today, she came to church with a young woman, Agatha, who is 18 years old, who is now living with her. Agatha is from Brazil and speaks Portuguese, like Danielle. We also understand that Danielle is making plans to move to a different location. Both of these changes should help her.

Also, we got a new bishopric in the Villa Crespo ward today. Bishop Cascallares and his family are moving to a new apartment, which is only 5 blocks from his present home, but it is outside of our ward boundaries and in a different stake. He has been bishop for nearly 5 years, so it is time. We have come to really love him and his family. He has been an excellent bishop. His first counselor, Alejandro Rossi, was called as bishop. He is the husband of our good friend, Yamilla, who is the secretary to President Packer and President Bragg, of the area presidency. 

Bishop Rossi with Yamilla and their 2 sons, and Ariel and Blanca Cascallares with their 4 daughters

Last post, we said we would be going to La Boca with the other senior couples. We had a great time. Although we went together, we decided to all split up and explore on our own. Caminito Street, in La Boca, is a big tourist attraction, with lots of restaurants, street vendors, artists, and souvenir shops. La Boca means “the mouth”. It is by the mouth of where the Matanza River flows into the La Plata River. It is a port area and is very colorful. The tradition is that it is so colorful because people would make houses out of shipping crates (true) and would just paint them with whatever color of paint was available (probably true). The result was strangely attractive to tourists, so locals started to go there to sell their crafts and art work, and it grew from there. It is also home to what is probably the most famous, and popular, soccer team, La Boca Jr., and their stadium is located there. It is a fun place in the day time but not a place to be at night. Here are some pictures:

 

A colorful cobblestone sidewalk in La Boca

A side street in La Boca

A singer at a restaurant in La Boca

Tango dancers in La Boca

The senior missionary couples who visited La Boca

In La Boca, there are a lot of venues where they dance the tango. In August, the senior couples had a fun opportunity to have a tango lesson from the bishop of the Juncal Ward, who used to be a professional tango dancer and instructor. So, on a Saturday night, we went to get a fast food fix at KFC, and then to the Juncal building for our lesson. All of the senior couples, and a few extras, were there. Bishop Lima also invited his former partner, and current professional tango dancer and instructor, to come and help him. After our lesson, they gave us a demonstration of a tango and a milonga and they were really good. We have a video but it is too big to upload. We went home tired but exhilarated.

Bishop Lima and Natalia Puccioni

The senior couples who are assigned here get an opportunity to take a couple of trips during our missions to see other parts of the country. One of the places everyone wants to go is Iguazú Falls. Iguazú is one of the seven modern wonders of the world, and it is spectacular. In late August, we had been working hard and were ready for a couple of days of relaxation. We were fortunate enough to get reservations at the Iguazú Sheraton, which is located right in Iguazú National Park, so we didn’t have to travel back and forth, a half-hour each way, from Puerto Iguazú. Our room was on the falls side of the hotel, so we could see the falls from our balcony. 

The border of Brazil and Argentina goes right down the middle of the largest of the water falls and the Iguazú river, and each country has established a national park to preserve the area around the falls. It is mostly jungle and is home to jaguars, monkeys, coati, capybara, deer, and other wildlife, as well as all kinds of parrots, toucans, and dozens of varieties of other birds. The morning after we arrived, as we ate breakfast, we saw people outside staring up at the rooms above us and taking photos. We were curious so we went out and saw about a dozen monkeys on the balconies of the rooms. They were working their way along, trying the patio doors of each room to see if they were locked. If the doors are unlocked, the monkeys can go into the rooms looking for food, including the candy and snacks in the mini-bar. However, during check-in to the hotel, there are strict instructions about keeping the balcony doors locked, and the reason. Apparently, this day, everything was secure.

Later in the morning, we met up with our Paraguayan guide for the day, Mario Duré, who is a member of the Church, and we headed off to the Brazil side of the falls, a visit to the Bird Park, and to a Brazilian churrazquería for dinner. We also drove to where we could see across the river to Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, but we didn’t have time to go into Paraguay. Lastly, we visited the place on the Argentina side that marks the common border of the three countries, Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina. It was a full day and very enjoyable.

Entering Brazil

Our hotel from the Brazil side

Lots of rainbows

Bird Park, Brazil

Bird Park, Brazil

Bird Park, Brazil

Bird Park, Brazil

Three Borders

Mario at the three borders monument

Mario dropped us back at the hotel, where we ordered dinner and met a nice young couple, with their 2-year-old daughter, at the next table. As we got to talking, we found out that they live just 2 blocks from us in Buenos Aires. We had a nice visit and then gave them a pass-along card and Elder Love’s business card before they had to go feed their little girl.

The next day we spent the entire day visiting the beautiful falls on the Argentina side. Iguazú Falls is higher than Niagara and, at 1.7 miles wide, it is the largest waterfall system in the world, with 275 discrete water falls, most of which are in Argentina. It has been featured in such movies as Moonraker, The Mission, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Captain America: Civil War, and many others. From our hotel room, we could see the Garganta del Diablo (Devil’s Throat), with the giant spray it creates, and from the Brazilian side we had been down at river level and up rather close to it. This day, we started by taking a little train to the upper part of the falls, and walking about a mile on catwalks across the river, to the very top, next to the Garganta, where we could see and feel the power of all that water and all the spray it generates.

By the Garganta del Diablo

The top of the Garganta del Diable

Catwalks across the water

 

We then took a lovely, quiet, floating boat ride through the upper system of water ways to near where we had gotten the train, earlier. We saw toucans and lots of other birds, and just enjoyed relaxing for the half-hour ride. The only other couple on the boat was a young Brazilian couple and we got to know them and the boat skipper as we floated.

The rest of the morning and early afternoon, we walked along the catwalks of the middle and lower falls, viewing each of the falls and stopping for lunch at a Subway for sandwiches. The Coatis are everywhere, and are quite aggressive. We watched one steal a sack of food from a lady and run off with it, and they wanted to come into the Subway but they were afraid. They, and the monkeys, can be pretty dangerous if they get it into their minds to take your food.

The last thing we did this day was take a ride in a power boat that takes you right into some of the falls. We expected to get wet but it was like having a firehose pointed down directly on you. We were totally drenched, but certainly refreshed in the 90-degree heat, when we got done.

One of the falls they took us under

Two drowned rats

After returning to the hotel and changing, we enjoyed another dinner. We became almost addicted to the milkshake-like fruit drinks they serve, called liquados. During dinner, ran into our friends from Buenos Aires again. We also met people from Spain, Germany, England, the United States, and elsewhere during our stay.

On Saturday, our flight was not scheduled to leave until about 6 pm, so we took advantage of the time to visit the visitors’ center and gift shops. We learned a great deal about the ecosystem, wildlife, and history of the falls and the Guaraní Indians who live in Southern Paraguay and Brazil and Northern Argentina. Iguazú is a Guaraní word that means “big water” and the official language of Paraguay is Guaraní, although they speak Spanish there. Unfortunately, many factors have caused the jungle that is the home of the historical Guaraní people to shrink to only a fraction of what it was formerly. The governments of the three countries are taking major steps to keep it from shrinking further. After buying a few trinkets, we headed back for lunch and preparations to catch our flight. We arrived in Buenos Aires to chilly weather and rain. However, we had a very relaxing and enjoyable few days.

Well, a lot more has happened since August, and we will do our best to catch this up soon. One thing we should mention is that we have been called as the district leaders of the senior couples in the area office. Our former district leaders, the Hulings, will be leaving in mid-December. They have been serving a district leaders for 14 months, so there are some big shoes to fill for the short time remaining in our mission – did we mention that we hit our one-year mark last month? Anyway, we will be a little busier, but we have such great couples here, who are mostly pretty self-sufficient, so we don’t anticipate any serious problems.

We have also been busy at work. Elder Love has been doing a deep analysis of old cases to see if there are some that should be settled to get them off our books. In addition, our Area Legal Counsel has been gone again quite a bit, so we stay busy at work, but we like being busy. We continue to see Heaven’s hand in our work every day.

Until next time.

Fourth of July and Pioneer Day in Buenos Aires

Well, today is another holiday in Argentina, San Martin Day. Because today is Sunday, it will be celebrated tomorrow, so the office will be closed, and the senior missionaries have an activity planned for those of us that have not yet been to Caminito Street, a major tourist area in the La Boca neighborhood, where there are lots of artists, craft sellers, tango dancers, musicians, etc., and the buildings are really colorful. We will post more pictures next time.

Caminito Street, La Boca, Buenos Aires

We are especially happy today, because our friend, Danielle, who has been so sick for such a long time, and was even in the hospital for a while, came to Church. She looked great and It was really good to see her. Her mother has been visiting, but had to go back home to Brazil, so we may be going back to visit Danielle more in the next while to check in on her.

Danielle Andrade with Sister Love

Last week, we were invited to visit the Cansteñeda family. They moved here from Venezuela about 2 years ago. He is the High Priest group leader, although he only in his thirties, and she is in the Relief Society presidency. They have a son who is 9 who was baptized last year. Brother Cansteñeda works for the City of Buenos Aires, taking care of their web site. Sister Cansteñeda will start Pathway classes in a couple of weeks, and will be in our Institute class. They were so kind to invite us to visit. Their apartment is quite humble, but they were excited to make Arepas for us, since they know Elder Love was in Venezuela on his mission. We had eaten lunch with the sister missionaries, so we were still quite full, but we each ate an arepa and enjoyed them very much. We hope to invite them for dinner soon to return the favor.

Arepas

Thursday night, we were invited to visit the San Pedro family. They are also from Venezuela, Valencia, to be exact. Aronda is 21 and will start law school here next month. She really wants to learn English, so we are trying to help her practice. She lives with her brother, Carlos, who came here from Venezuela about 2 years ago. He works in construction with the Ward Mission Leader, Brother Montero. Their mother just came to get Aronda situated and then, in a couple of weeks, will go back to Venezuela to be with her husband. Sister San Pedro was telling us how hard it is to travel from Venezuela. Hardly any of the airlines want to stop there, so they had to travel for 5 days to Brazil to catch a plane to Buenos Aires. They were traveling on a highway but it was through the Amazon jungle. The sacrifices people make here for things we take for granted is really inspiring and makes us appreciate our blessings so much. While we were there, they wanted to share some food with us, orange juice and “medialunas”, which means "half-moons." They are croissants with a sort of glaze on them. We noticed there were two drinks and two medialunas and none of them took food. It was really humbling and inspiring, how much they respect our callings as missionaries and make sacrifices for us. We will also have them over for dinner or treats before Sister San Pedro leaves.

Well, here are some other happenings since our last post:

Ballroom Dance. Our last post, in June, was so long that we didn’t say anything about the visit to Buenos Aires of the BYU Ballroom Dance team. The team made a tour through Chile and Argentina, and made a stop for two performances in Buenos Aires on May 19 and 20. The Public Affairs office, together with the Legal office, took advantage of the show to invite about 150 government officials and other opinion leaders to the performance to help us build relationships with them. We got to help pass out tickets to the VIPs who attended, and direct them to a little reception that was held before the show. We also got to go to the reception. We had a lot of fun rubbing shoulders with all of the VIPs, after which, we also thoroughly enjoyed the show. Sister Love connected with a former student from Bonneville High School, Robby Cromwell, who is a member of the team. He was very surprised to run into her so far away from home. The show on Friday night was pretty much sold out, and the feedback from the government officials who attended was very positive. The team did another show the next day, and also had a good crowd. Click the link, above, for more on the tour.

BYU Ballroom Dance Team getting after going to an Argentine tango show in Buenos Aires

Here we are with Robby Cromwell

Dressing the Dead. Elder Love had a unique experience a few weeks ago. When members of the Church pass away here, if they have been endowed, if they are going to be buried in their temple clothes, the family and ward members have to dress them. An older member of our ward passed away and Elder Love and other members of the High Priest group got to participate in dressing him. It was a humbling, and quite thought-provoking experience.

An Inspiring Conversion Story. We have written about our Institute class, which is currently on break between semesters. We have thoroughly enjoyed our experience there, and so appreciate the young people who make such great sacrifices to attend. We had a pretty neat experience there about three weeks before the last semester ended. We senior missionaries are not involved on a day-to-day basis in actually teaching missionary lessons, like the young missionaries are, since we are called to other duties. However, we have all gotten into the habit of carrying pass-along cards with us to give people we meet on the subways and buses, to waiters and waitresses in restaurants, taxi drivers, etc. We never know whether the people we are interacting with have been prepared by Heavenly Father to be taught, so we just give the cards to people we come in contact with. That night, the Institute director brought a young man, possibly in his late 20s, into our class after we had started. He sat in the back, but soon moved up to be with the rest of the students. One of the other senior couples, the Nortons, had been attending our class to support some of the members of their ward who are in our class, and to give us a ride home, as the class ends at 10 pm. After class that night, the young man, Cristian, approached Sister Norton and thanked her for giving him a pass-along card on the subway. It was during the Christmas season Prince of Peace initiative. She had engaged him in conversation, and he told her about some of the problems he and his sister were dealing with. She gave him the card, and told him he could find all the answers to his problems at the web site listed there. He took the card, went to the web site, and indicated his interest. He subsequently received a call from the missionaries, one of whom was from Idaho, took the lessons, and was baptized about 6 months ago. He loves the Book of Mormon, and came to our class to learn more about it, when he saw Sister Norton there. His life has changed dramatically from how it was before he was baptized, and his whole family is being blessed by his conversion.

Cristian with Elder and Sister Norton

The 4th (and 9^th) of July. We senior couples had a fun experience on July 4. There are 8 couples who work at the Bonpland building and most of us eat together every day in the lunch room, where the Church employees also eat. Of course, most of them are from Argentina. The Argentina Independence Day is July 9. So, we planned a joint celebration. We brought large flags from both the United States and Argentina, and the senior sisters made red, white and blue cupcakes and a large cake, frosted like an American flag. Then, we handed out papers with the words to the U.S. and Argentine National Anthems, and everyone sang. The U.S. National Anthem first, because our Independence Day comes first, and then the Argentine National Hymn. Then, we all ate cake!! It was a lot of fun. Yes, the 9^th of July was yet another holiday here, but it was on a Sunday so we didn’t get any work days off.

July 4th and 9th celebration at Bonpland lunchroom

The cake makers, Sisters Smith, Norton, Cheney, Love, Ashton, Switzer and Huling

Shopping for Leather and Crock Pots. Argentina is known for its leather products, which are pretty inexpensive, and of excellent quality here. We have been wanting to go to the “leather district” of the city to buy some leather jackets, so, not long after the Cheneys arrived, the Loves, Cheneys, and Nortons, all loaded up on a bus and headed for Murillo Street, in the Villa Crespo neighborhood. Because we had been there before, we were like the tour guides. There must be 50 leather goods stores on Murillo street, and they all sell beautiful hand-made jackets, boots, purses, wallets, brief cases, suit cases, and souvenirs galore. We had a great time popping into and out of stores trying on leather. Elder Love found a nice sheep skin coat and Sister Love had previously found a jacket and a pair of boots. All of the senior missionaries saw items they plan to go back for later.

After our leather tour, we caught another bus that took us to the Chinese neighborhood to have lunch at Lai Lai restaurant and then look for a crock pot for the Cheneys. We had been there a couple of weeks before and knew exactly where to take them. We had a great time, a great lunch and a full day.

Livestock in Buenos Aires? July 24^th was a Monday. The senior couples rotate responsibility for family home evening and one Monday per month is an activity, instead of a lesson. The 24^th was designated as an activity night and the Nortons were in charge. They chose for the senior couples to attend an agricultural show, kind of like a state fair, that was going on in a large venue called La Rural, right in our neighborhood. Sister Norton talked the guards into letting us all in free as retirees. In the various buildings in La Rural, there was animal judging, with blue, red and white ribbons for the winners and runners up, horse stables, riding and roping competitions, bull pens and auctions, poultry cages, farm equipment, crafts and commercial vendors, food a ’plenty, and much more. It really reminded us all of going to our local fairs, back home, and was especially fitting for a July 24^th activity, and it even sort of smelled like the fairs back home in our neighborhood for a few days. We bought some souvenirs and saw pretty much all of the animals and displays before it closed but many of the couples had such a good time they went back several times during the week.

Prize bull

Prize sheep

Big chicken

Turkey

Peacock

Golden pheasant

Silver pheasant

Big bunny

We will be going to Iguazu Falls this week for a short vacation. We are really looking forward to it, as it is one of the modern 7 wonders of the world. We will post about it next time. We will also post about our tango lesson! We are now more than half-way through our mission. We are very busy at work and learning lots, but we are having a great experience. In the next couple of weeks, things should get back to “normal” for a little while, then our Area Legal Counsel will be gone a lot during the last 3 month of the year, for meetings, training, and annual leave.

We can attest that Heavenly Father lives and in involved in His work, as we have seen undeniable evidence of His influence in the work we are doing. Please continue to keep us in your prayers.

Until next time.