GETTING STARTED

ARRIVAL AND GETTING SETTLED

We touched down in Buenos Aires a little after 9 am local time on October 21, 2016. We had been given instructions by the Area Legal Counsel, Brent Gardner, how to negotiate immigration and customs, where to pick up our bags and where our hosts, Sister Ann and Elder Dean Wiese, would meet us (Brother Gardner had planned to meet us but was tied up in a meeting with the Area Presidency). The instructions were right on and after about an hour of landing, we said hello to the Wieses and we were on our way to our new home for the next 18 months. On the way, we passed the Temple and we drove on the largest avenue in the world, 9 de Julio Avenue, with 14 lanes of traffic, and many other new, strange and wonderful sights. There are many parks and the people use them a lot for picnics, running, fairs, walking dogs, and other activities.

Elder and Sister Wiese

We arrived at our apartment in the Palermo neighborhood, unloaded the car and got settled in a little. The apartment is in a building with 12 floors and we are on the 3^rd. There is an elevator and the buttons are for floors -1 (the basement, parking, laundry, etc.), 0 (the ground floor), 2, 3, etc. The Wieses explained some of the apartment systems, such as water, gas, electric, toilets, etc., that are a little different than we’re used to, and then gave us some time to unpack before they then came back to take us to a late lunch at one of their favorite restaurants, Coco, just a block away from our apartment. Then we walked around our neighborhood while they introduced us to the stores, currency exchange, where to buy and recharge our subway cards, where the other missionary couples live, etc. We walked to a large nearby grocery store, Jumbo, and a Home Depot-like store named Easy, to get an idea what they have. They had bought us a few groceries and after our tour, we returned to the apartment and finished unpacking and organizing. Elder and Sister Huling stopped by to meet us. Elder Huling is the district leader for the 9 missionary couples and 2 single sisters assigned to the Area Office. Elder and Sister Ashton also stopped by and brought us some spaghetti. Elder Ashton is one of the 2 doctors assigned to the Area and they have been assigned to a ward that meets in the same building as the ward we have been assigned to, the Villa Crespo Ward, so they have been assigned to help us get to church on Sunday. After a very long night on the airplane and a busy first day in Buenos Aires (BA), we were exhausted and ready for a light meal and a long night’s sleep.

SOME PICTURES OF OUR APARTMENT

Kitchen

Dining Room

Living Room

Our bedroom

The view from our balcony

On Saturday, the Wieses had organized an excursion to the Temaiken Zoo but Sister Nielsen, wife of the other Area doctor, Elder Nielsen, was sick so it was postponed a week. Instead, the Hulings dropped by to take us shopping to Jumbo. On the way, we ran into Elder and Sister Smith, who were returning from Jumbo. Elder Smith is the executive secretary to the Area Presidency. We had made arrangements with the Wieses to go to a nearby food fair at a park adjacent to the Hipodromo (horse race track). These food fairs and/or craft fairs are held frequently in the area and this one was to feature hamburgers. We ran into the Wieses at the store and they had checked out a car to take to church the next day so they gave us a ride back to our apartment. We met Elder Nielsen outside our apartment and then met up with the Wieses (Sister Nielsen was sick and stayed home) and headed to the hamburger fair. We had our choice of probably 30 or more vendors. We chose Hard Rock Café and the food was truly scrumptious. We ran into the Hulings and we all sat and ate and got to know each other. Sister Wiese, who has a reputation as a social secretary/tour organizer, and Elder Wiese then accompanied us to find a bus to take us downtown to look for a crock pot. They are hard to find in BA and quite expensive. We found some but for what would have cost about $75 back home, they are charging about $200, so we passed and will continue our search. We did pause for some refreshments and found that the store had wifi so we connected and sent some e-mails and text messages to our family and others back home. The Wieses then introduced us to the Subte (“SOOB-tay”, the local name for the subway) to get back home, since we had gotten our subway cards the previous day. Elder and Sister Norton, the Area Open Chapel coordinators, stopped by with a salad and we had a wonderful visit with them. Their assignment takes them all over the area and they are gone nearly every weekend on an assignment. They are headed to Chile on Tuesday morning. After another busy day, we hit the sack early and slept soundly.

CHURCH

On Sunday we met the Ashtons and headed to church on the bus. After about a 20-minute ride and a short walk, we arrived at the small building where the Villa Crespo Ward of the Palermo Stake meets. We were warmly welcomed and enjoyed getting to know the ward members. The secretary to Elder Packer, First Counselor in the Area Presidency, attends the ward and saw to it that we were introduced to the bishop and the congregation. Dennis introduced us and bore his testimony and Robyn also bore her testimony is Spanish. After meetings we headed back with the Ashtons. The Wieses had invited us to dinner with the sister missionaries at 5 pm and we snuck in a short nap before heading over to their apartment. The missionaries were Sister Muro, from Peru, and Sister Anderson, from Utah. In fact, her father works at GE in Logan and, we found out later, knows our son-in-law, Jonathan, who also works at GE.

WORK

Monday, we met the Smiths so we could learn where to go to catch the Subte to get to work, where we finally met Brent Gardner, the Area Legal Counsel, Marcos Cardoso, a Senior Legal Coordinator, David Frol, also a Senior Legal Coordinator, and Julia Villasboa, Administrative Assistant. These are all really good folks with excellent legal skills. Because the Area Presidency has to travel most weekends for ecclesiastical assignments, they are off on Mondays but the rest of the Area staff was there. There is an Area devotional each Monday morning to begin the week so we attended and then had a staff meeting to get acquainted with the legal staff. Brent assigned Dennis to be responsible for all matters in Chile until someone comes to take over for the prior Associate Area Legal Counsel (AALC) that was in Santiago until September. He also made other assignments to us and, because of our training in Salt Lake the prior week, we were able to hit the ground running. Although we don’t yet have computers or a permanently assigned space in the Area Office, we were busy all day.

FAMILY HOME EVENING

Monday nights, the senior couples have family home evening together so we got out our map and headed to the apartment of Elder and Sister Williams a little before 7pm. There, we met the other couples we had not yet met, Elder and Sister Licursi, from Argentina, and Elder Williams (Sister Williams had to go home for a brief visit and wasn’t back yet). We played a game, ate cookies and generally had a good time getting together.

 CHALLENGES

Did I mention that we don’t have internet or local phone service in our apartment and we have turned off roaming on our cell phones so when we are in our apartment we can’t contact the outside world? People can call us on our local number but we can’t figure out how to make local calls yet. Elder Huling has called in the problem and they are working on it. Also, they came Monday to install the clothes washer but it is too big for the space, so that will have to be fixed. However, we are getting along just fine. We have plenty of cash and can get to and from the store, so we won’t starve. We can connect to wifi at the other missionaries’ apartments and at work so we can catch up on messages and e-mail. And we have each other to rely on. What more could we need. (Sister Love says “wifi and a clothes washer!”)

We don't look too much the worse for wear

Well, as the week progressed, the wifi and clothes washer situation got resolved. We were able to set up our Ooma phone so we could have instant contact with family back home, pay bills, read the news, etc. so all is well. More soon.