GETTING TO KNOW BUENOS AIRES

One Month In the Mission

Last Friday, we realized we had been on our mission for a full months so we decided to celebrate and go on a date for dinner. We really enjoyed Coco, the little cafe we went to for lunch the first day we arrived, so we changed clothes after getting home from work and headed to Coco, just a block away from our apartment. The food there is very good and we had a nice time.

Coco Cafe - Bakery & Pleasures

View from the table

Handsome couple

Recoleta Shopping and Cemetery

Last Saturday, there was yet another food festival at the Palermo Race Track near our apartment, and we had planned to go get some lunch, watch a horse race, go shopping and then do a little laundry while we watched one of the only BYU football games we will be able to see this year, when we got a call from Elder Mike Williams. Elder Williams was in the Central America Mission at the same time as Elder Love (about a hundred years ago) and, though they didn’t know each other before now, they have spent quite a bit of time reminiscing about mutual acquaintances from their mission time. Elder Williams and his wife, Gail, were going to Recoleta to do some shopping at the flea market and invited us to go with them. So, we made a quick trip to the store for groceries and met up with the Williams for a bus ride to Plaza Francia, where one of the best artisan flea markets in Buenos Aires is held every Saturday.

Recoleta flea market

Sisters Love and Williams showed themselves to be committed and skilled shoppers, while Elders Love and Williams found ways to otherwise occupy themselves. The little artisan shops are truly wonderful, with handmade jewelry, woodwork, clothing items, maté cups, dolls, artwork, etc., and, as you may imagine, there are a lot of tourists there. We heard Portuguese, German, French, English, Japanese, several Middle Eastern languages, and more. We worked our way up the hill, along a winding sidewalk with vendors on both sides, until we arrived at the Plaza Intendente near a beautiful white Catholic church, Iglesia Nuestra Señora del Pilar, and the famous Recoleta Cemetery.

We had been told that the Cemetery is worth seeing, so with the Williams as our guides, we took a break and went in. The Cemetery is a true landmark. BBC lists it as one of the world’s best cemeteries and CNN has listed it among the 10 most beautiful cemeteries in the world. It contains the graves of many notable people, including many presidents of Argentina, former Argentina first lady, Eva Perón, a granddaughter of Napoleon, and many other famous military, government, and business people. It is laid out in sections like city blocks, with wide tree-lined main walkways and sidewalks. There are nearly 4,700 vaults, all above ground, and there are many elaborate marble mausoleums, many decorated with statues. The vaults are built and maintained by the families of the deceased. According to information on the internet, most materials used between 1880 and 1930 in the construction of tombs were imported from Paris and Milan. We enjoyed wandering the “streets” of the cemetery, seeing some of the beautiful architecture and material, and learning the history of some of its occupants. We found Eva Perón’s final resting place and we were particularly interested in a statue of a woman and her dog at one of the vaults. Here are some pictures:

Recoleta Cemetery

Woman and dog

Elder and Sister Williams

Sisters Williams and Love

Recoleta Cemetery

More Recoleta Cemetery

Recoleta Cemetery

Eva Peron Vault - Recoleta Cemetery

After visiting the cemetery, stopped in to the beautiful white church and were amazed by the exquisite carvings and artwork. Construction on the church began in 1715 and it was finished in 1732 and has been well-maintained since then. It is the second oldest Catholic church in Buenos Aires and, according to information on the internet, it best illustrates the colonial baroque style of the time. More pictures:

Iglesia Nuestra Señora del Pilar

Another Food Feria and Horse Racing

After breaking for the cemetery and the church, Sisters Love and Williams were refreshed and ready for more shopping as we made our way back to the bus stop. They had a great time and bought some fun things. Our bus stop is near the race track so we decided to go have a late lunch. The entrance to the Palermo race track is a beautiful shaded area, near the paddocks, that looks like a park. Just inside the entrance there is a promenade where the horses are paraded before the race, and because a race was about to begin, some horses were being shown. So, before hitting the food trucks, we took a few minutes to stop in the shade and view the beautiful race horses. After the jockeys had picked up their rides to head out to the track, we went the opposite direction to the food trucks and got our lunch.

Just a word about these ferias, although most of them involve food trucks, the food is truly excellent and the senior couples here take pretty much every opportunity to go to the ones that are nearby, as the food is good and not too expensive. This feria was a gourmet fest and there was less emphasis on meat and a greater selection of food. Sister Love and the Williams enjoyed some crepes while Elder Love headed for a hamburger truck (Hard Rock Café). It was nice to just sit and eat lunch and visit and get to know Elder and Sister Williams better. Elder Williams is a retired accountant and he serves here as the Area Auditor. This is their third mission. They have served previously as Area Auditors in Santo Domingo and in Vanuatu, in the South Pacific. After they received their call to come to Argentina, just a month or so before they were to leave, their home burned to the ground. They delayed their departure long enough to take care of the essential details and then left for Buenos Aires, where the rest of the details have had to be resolved from a distance. They are good, faithful people who are really fun to be with and we have been impressed with their spirit of consecration and sacrifice. 

Palermo Race Track Promenade

Promenade

BYU Football

After lunch, we all watched a horse race and then headed to our apartment to watch the rest of the BYU football game. We had made arrangements with Elder and Sister Norton to come and watch the end of the game with us after they finished with an Open Chapel meeting. It would be our first opportunity to have company, so we stopped at Panadería Boulan for some delicious pastries. We were able to hook Elder Love’s iPad up to the TV that is provided in our apartment and tune in to BYU TV to watch the game. The game started at 1 pm in Provo, which is 5 pm here. Unfortunately, we missed most of the first quarter but enjoyed watching the rest of the game as BYU soundly beat Southern Utah University. The Nortons were delayed and came about 9 pm, after the game ended. However, we discovered that KBYU was rebroadcasting the game so we were able to enjoy the rebroadcast of the first half together with the Nortons and we thoroughly enjoyed the Boulan pastries and some juice as we cheered BYU on before we had to say our goodbyes and hit the sack.

Work

Of course, between weekends with their food fairs and shopping, etc., we go each day to the office and work, where we are very busy and where we are getting more and more comfortable with our duties. Brother Gardner and David Frol had to go to Paraguay early Wednesday morning to take care of some very sensitive business, so we were left behind with Marcos Cardoso and Julia Villasboa to take care of things. This brings me to a request of those who may read this. Our office is working on some very, very important and difficult things right now that we can’t say much about, as is virtually every Area Office of General Counsel around the world, and we would ask that you dedicate a portion of your faith and prayers to the Area Legal Counsels and their staffs around the world and that you ask Heavenly Father to guide, prepare the way, and touch hearts, where needed, so this critical work may be successful. Since arriving here, we have been able to take over some administrative duties and free up the others in the office a little so they can dedicate more of their efforts where it is truly needed, which makes us feel very good, but we all still definitely need the help of Heaven. Thank you.

On Wednesday morning, Elder Rasband was to preside at a devotional for all of the area employees and the senior missionaries who work in the Area Office. We left earlier than normal to drop our things at the office and walk 4 blocks to the Belgrano Chapel for the meeting and we were in a bit of a hurry. The sidewalks are pretty uneven and, as we were walking to catch the subway, Elder Love tripped on the sidewalk near our apartment and, as he fell, he dislocated a finger on his right hand. He quickly snapped it back into place and was more concerned about getting his suit dirty than his finger. We cleaned up as well as possible and continued on to the meeting, which was broadcast to all of the area offices in Uruguay, Paraguay and Chile. We got to be on the second row in the Chapel where Elder Rasband presided, along with Elder and Sister Craig Christensen and the Area Presidency. Elder Rasband had Alan Walker, the Church’s Director of Temporal Affairs, bear his testimony, and then he opened the meeting for questions. One of the questions concerned his feelings when he was called to be a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, and he told how his calling was extended by President Monson a few days before General Conference just a little over a year ago. As he told a few of the details, he was full of emotion and it was very powerful and inspiring. After the meeting, Elder Rasband asked to shake hands with everyone present, so we made our way to the stand to shake his hand, which was a little painful for Elder Love, but we could feel his warmth and sincere love for each of us. We left the meeting uplifted and inspired again.

Follow-up: One of our docs, Elder Ashton, looked at Elder Love’s finger and said it looked like he might have torn some ligaments but it seemed stable and should be ok, but would be more painful and swollen the next day, which turned out to be true. He called it a subluxation, which Elder Love thought sounded a lot more impressive than just a dislocation, even though a subluxation is probably less serious. At any rate, it is getting better. The swelling is going down daily and he can use it to type, etc., and it will soon be fine, even though he is reminded of it each time he puts his hand in his pocket or shakes hands with someone. It could have been so much worse. Oh, and Elder Love had the suit cleaned and it recovered well.

We love you all and certainly can feel your thoughts and prayers. ‘Til later.