Easter is in the Fall in Buenos Aires

Well, this is being written on May 1, and here in Argentina, that means two things. First, the trees are turning yellow, orange and brown and falling off the trees, and the days are getting cooler and more pleasant. Second, it is Labor Day, a national holiday in pretty much all of Latin America, and our office is closed, so we are relaxing and looking forward to doing some fun activities with some of the other missionary couples.

It has been more than 6 weeks since our last post and we have been busy with work and many activities. We watched General Conference on April 1 with the other senior couples at the Williams apartment, and we all especially liked hearing Elder Bragg’s message Saturday morning, as we have an opportunity to interact with him regularly as a member of the area presidency. We enjoyed a pot luck lunch between sessions. We still had some root beer extract so we made up a batch of syrup to mix with soda for root beer floats. It is always a hit, since root beer is not available here. In fact, Sister Smith just sat there for a few minutes sniffing the glass and savoring the smell of the root beer. We watched the Saturday priesthood session and the Sunday sessions in our own apartments. We thought the messages throughout the conference were wonderful.

Sisters Redd and Hancock, the area mental health missionaries, finished their missions the first week in April so we all gathered at their favorite restaurant, Santillo, for a farewell dinner. It was a new restaurant for us and the food was very good.

The Saturday after conference, our ward held a capilla abierta (open chapel) activity. For capilla abierta, the ward building is, essentially, turned into a mini-visitor’s center. The Nortons are responsible for capilla abierta throughout the area and we got to help them with this one because it was in our ward. For a capilla abierta, the various organizations do displays in the class rooms and the missionaries take visitors through a series of panels that explain our beliefs and the words of the Savior. The members of the ward invite their friends and family members who are not members of the Church to come and visit and see what it is all about and the missionaries contact people on the street in the vicinity of the chapel to invite them in. Unfortunately, it was raining hard that afternoon and we only had a handful of visitors. However, there were about 60 members of the ward there. We all had a great time, even though it was really slow.

Relief Society display for Villa Crespo capilla abierta

Sunday School display for Villa Crespo capilla abierta

Chapel display

Panels explain the Church's teachings

Baptism font display

Hermano Lubomirsky stood out in the rain the whole time inviting passing people into the capilla abierta

Four pairs of sister missionaries braved the rain to invite people into the chapel

During April, the missionary couples did several activities together. We went to Beauty and the Beast and then enjoyed some good old American fast food at a nearby KFC restaurant.

Senior missionary couples at Beauty and the Beast

We also attended a Chinese dance performance, Shen Yun, put on at the Opera Allianz, which was spectacular. The performance ended after the subways stopped running for the night, so about 5 couples were wandering around in downtown Buenos Aires looking for a bus to take us back to our apartment. And we and two other couples attended a performance of Sound of Music, put on by the Lincoln International School, where the children of President and Sister Smith, of the Buenos Aires North Mission, attend. One of their sons was in the play. It turned out to be quite an adventure. We went with the Smiths and the Nortons for about an hour on the bus and the coastal train to get to the school, which is located in a neighborhood north of Buenos Aries. However, when we got there, it was sold out. We decided to wait outside (with the mosquitos) to see if there were any no-shows. After the first number, we were allowed in, but we didn’t get to sit together. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the show, and President and Sister Smith and their family were touched that we would make the effort to go. After the show, we walked 2 blocks to catch a bus back to our apartments. However, as we neared our neighborhood, the bus unexpectedly turned and started to get farther and farther away. We had gotten the wrong bus. So, we got off, found our way to a familiar street, and walked the last mile-and-a-half, at 10:30, through dark streets. We didn’t get mugged, and we even noticed a Mexican restaurant, which we visited the next night, with the Smiths and the Hulings, for Sister Smith’s birthday.

Place setting at Maria Felix mexican restaurant

The Thursday and Friday before Easter were holidays so we didn’t have to go to the office. We enjoyed going to the temple with the Nortons, the Hulings, Elder Williams and Sister Smith, on Thursday, and Sister Love even felt confident enough that she didn’t use earphones for the English Translation. We had an enjoyable time. The following day, Good Friday, we did a tour, in English, of the Teatro Colon, a world-renowned opera house here in Buenos Aires. It is widely considered to be one of the top 5 opera houses in the world and one of the top 3 in terms of acoustics. It is truly a beautiful, remarkable facility.

Teatro Colon from the stage

Ceiling in the opera hall

Stained glass ceiling in the Teatro Colon

Ceiling in the lobby of the Teatro Colon

Recital hall in the Teatro Colon - the gold is real

After a stop at the Teatro Colon gift shop, we made our way to the National Museum of Fine Arts, in the Recoleta neighborhood. This wonderful museum holds over 12,000 works, including pieces by Picasso, Monet, Degas, Manet, Van Gogh, Rodin, Gauguin, Modigliani, Rembrandt, and many other classical and contemporary artists. We truly enjoyed our visit there.

We then headed for the heart of town, stopped on Avenida Florida for a bite to eat, and hopped on a subway to Plaza del Congreso, across from the Congress building, to meet Brent and Kris Gardner and the Smiths. Every year, on Good Friday, thousands of faithful Catholics gather and walk from the Congress building along Avenida de Mayo to Plaza de Mayo in front of the Casa Rosada (the Argentine version of the White House), in what is called the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross). Most carry candles and many groups carry large crosses. They stop 14 times to do the stations of the cross. It is led by the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, who is a Cardinal. Then, they have some type of cultural event designed to remember the crucifixion of the Savior. We decided to participate just as a way to enjoy some of the local culture related to Good Friday, though we didn’t carry candles or crosses. But there was a lot of singing, and we even knew some of the songs. When we arrived at Plaza de Mayo, the Archbishop addressed the crowd and, at one point, invited everyone to reach out to someone standing nearby and give them an “abrazo”, a nice big hug. Interestingly enough, there were some nuns standing nearby us, so we all hugged each other and wished each other peace and love. In all, it was kind of a neat event. The Gardners stayed to watch the pageant but we had been on our feet for nearly 12 hours and it was late so we made our way to the subway and back to our apartment before the trains stopped running. 

Looking east along Avenida de Mayo on Good Friday

Looking west along Avenida de Mayo on Good Friday

At Plaza de May near the Metropolitan Cathedral on Good Friday

It was nice to attend church on Easter Sunday and enjoy the spirit of the resurrection, which is what we, as LDS, emphasize. We enjoyed a traditional Easter meal after church, and took the opportunity to Skype with our family later in the day.

Our Easter Basket

The following week was ward conference. We have been rehearsing with the ward choir for a couple of months and we finally got to sing the number we prepared, Mirad los Lirios del Campo (Consider the Lilies). It was fortunate that we had good, intensive rehearsals early on, because many activities came up that caused later rehearsals to be cancelled as the conference date approached. We felt like it went well.

A couple of weeks ago, President Russell M. Nelson, President of the Quorum of the Twelve, came to visit Argentina and Chile for 10 days. He was busy with the area presidency, presiding at stake conferences and having priesthood leadership and mission president training, doing public affairs events, and doing broadcasts to the adults and young single adults in the area. On Monday, April 17, we were invited to attend a missionary meeting with him that was attended by the Buenos Aires North and West missions and the missionaries at the MTC, about 800 missionaries all together. It was held at the Belgrano chapel, which is only about 4 blocks from our office. All of the missionaries had the opportunity to shake hands with him and his wife, Wendy, and listen to them speak. Then, the next day, we and the other senior couples, were invited to attend a special temple session with President and Sister Nelson, the area presidency and their wives, the temple presidency and their wives, the MTC president and his wife, the Director of Temporal Affairs and his wife, Brent and Kris Gardner, and a couple of area seventies and their wives. The temple had just closed for renovations, but they made arrangements for this special session. Sister Love especially liked it because it was in English.

At the Buenos Aires Temple with the Gardners April 19, 2017

The following night, President and Sister Nelson spoke in an area broadcast, and he said he felt impressed to give his talk in Spanish. He did a great job. We also enjoyed listening to them speak the next night to the Young Single Adults. We have been asked to teach institute classes and it was supposed to be our first class of the semester but classes were cancelled that night so the students could hear President and Sister Nelson.

Since we have been here, we have been working in temporary quarters in a building that was previously the home of the area presidency, while the actual area headquarters, the Bonpland building, was being remodeled. The area presidency, the Director of Temporal Affairs, FamilySearch, Medical, Public Affairs, the Office of General Counsel, and a couple of other groups, were in our building, and the rest of the employees and missionaries worked from a building about 7 miles away, in downtown Buenos Aires, near the Casa Rosada. Due to permitting issues, the Bonpland building was pretty much finished, but we had not yet received an occupancy permit from the City of Buenos Aires. Bonpland sat unoccupied for about a year. In a pretty miraculous way, partly as a result of an apostolic blessing by Elder Rasband in November, the path was opened for us to occupy the building while other permits are obtained, so those in the building we have been working in moved to Bonpland last week. The others will move there in late May. Previously, we in the Office of General Counsel were on different floors, and we were co-located with medical and the Director of Public Affairs, which was difficult. Now, we have one floor all to ourselves, so we are really enjoying our new digs.

Where the senior missionaries ate lunch in the Virrey del Pino office

Our Legal Assistant, Julia Villasboa, in Virrey del Pino

Our first office in Virrey del Pino - on moving day

Gabby Orleansky, secretary to the Director of Temporal Affairs, Virrey del Pino

Our second office at Virrey del Pino - on moving day

 

Outside our new office at Bonpland

Our new office at Bonpland

There are other activities we need to write about, but this is long enough for now. We will write more soon.

We are truly enjoying our time here. We have passed the one-third mark, and now have less than a year to go. In so many ways, it doesn’t seem like enough to do and see all we would like to, but we also miss being near our family and friends back home. We are so grateful for the Lord’s blessings, both our assignment here, as well as the blessings that permit us to have the freedom to come. We are both still healthy, and certainly do not feel our age. We know we are involved in the Lord’s work here. We see His hand each day in the work we are involved in.

We pray for you always, and hope that all is well for you. Until next time.