PART III - AAA CONFERENCE

On Saturday morning Jeanine Perry helped me prepare a few things for the breakfast and lunch.  She was a big help and she is a very, very, lovely lady!

The breakfast consisted of fresh fruit, fresh, warm croissants, four kinds of muffins, scones and orange juice....

Elder Zeballos especially loved the blueberry muffins and the fresh scones.....  he had me wrap some up for him as he ran to catch a plane mid morning!

This was a wonderful conference!  We made so many new friends, and renewed newly made friendships.....There was a great "esprit de corps" in the room..... We have received many emails since everyone arrived home telling us how much the conference meant..... and how much more connected each person feels to others in the group.  They all have the same purpose and belief and tasks ahead..... and this draws them close together .. We look forward to next years conference next year.... a few months before we return home....By the way, this was the first time all four countries have come together in this conference... since Chile was added in August.

PART II - AAA CONFERENCE

All of the Chile AAA's really love Elder Perry.... He is a wonderful person!

Hola!

Just a few more pictures of the conference.....

We recently moved our office to a new space.. Michael has great vision for office space so he had the furniture repositioned.  We have a very large map and because we are surrounded by windows, we decided to put it under the existing glass on the shared desk.  We placed a picture of each Assistant Area Auditor in the location he is responsible for.  Some of the AAA's came up to our office during breaks in the conference and they enjoyed looking at the map!

We had a dinner on Friday night.  Alberto who is in charge of scheduling catering for events lined up  the dinner.  I ordered the cakes from our very favorite pastry shop,"moremore".  The shop is owned and operated by two young Japanese/Argentine women.... one is the pastry chef.  Everything about their shop is amazing .... from the packaging to the absolutely delicious food.  We actually had them provide the cakes for the dinner, and also breakfast and lunch.  Everyone loved the food!

This was amazing!  The Argentines do not use nearly as much sugar  so the desserts are not quite as sweet.  This had hazelnuts in it.

This was a lemon cheesecake with gnache on top.....

Lemon chiffon .......... this was gone in a minute!  South Americans love desserts!

Hermano Figueroa from Chile in front , and our three Paraguay AAA's,  Jose Grau, Carlos Beraud, and Jose Vidal.

More pictures on the next post........

En la Fuerza del Senor...........

"En la Fuerza del Senor Podemos Hacer Todas las Cosas"  -  AAA Annual Conference

Hola!
"In the strength of the Lord, we can do all things."  This was the theme Michael and I set for the conference several months ago.  It was a talk given by Elder David Bednar in October 2004 when he was called to be an apostle.  All of the AAA's were given the talk about six weeks ago and were asked to read it and study it.  At the conference Elder Zeballos, (our audit committee chair, and lst counselor in the area presidency) conducted a great discussion of this talk with the entire group.

 All of the AAAA's (Assistant Area Auditors) came to Buenos Aires for a two day Conference.  They came from Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina.  This is the entire group and we had great fun taking this photograph.... there was much laughter and joking...... The couple next to me is Jeanine Perry and her husband, Elder Perry. They help with the Chile AAA's and they live in Santiago.  Dale and Michael have talked on the phone and emailed frequently but this was our first meeting!   Dale and Jeanine are in their late 70's and are serving an18 month mission.  Jeanine has been very sick for several months, but has now recovered and is doing well.  We enjoyed them very much.

We have been working on the conference since we arrived here in Buenos Aires.  President Arnold wanted this conference to take place in mid December so the date was set and everyone informed about it around September 9!  Michael and I have discussed the conference almost constantly for these three and a half months... even on our travels!  It took a lot of planning and preparation.  Michael had to prepare all of the materials in Spanish including power point presentations which I did help with.  It was a great learning experience for him in particular.... I was in charge of feeding everyone!!  This I totally enjoyed as those who know me would understand!

Our travel person at the area office, Alejandro, was wonderful as he had to arrange flights from four different countries, arrange everyone's lodging and a remise to be at the airport when each group arrived.   He has also been working on this for a couple of months.  We had to put together a complete list of arrival times and preferences of each AAA .... so that was a huge task in and of itself!

In the front:  Jose Vidal, Michael.... in the back Jose Grau, and Carlos Beraud

On Friday, we had several of the AAA's come in early and talk over issues and existing problems with some of their areas.  One meeting in particular we had was with our great group of "three" from Paraguay;  Carlos Beruad, Jose Grau, and Jose Vidal..  We were so happy to see them again and we had a really great meeting with them!

Before they arrived we finished putting the room together for the arrival of everyone!

Elder Zeballos delivering his message... Elder Zeballos is originally from Chile.

Rodrigo Fernandez - Chile Concepcion Sur

Chile was just added to the South America South Area in August of this year, so this was the first time that all four countries had joined together for this yearly conference.... they all seemed to enjoy meeting
one another and enjoyed some fun during the break!

Elder Perry chatting with Romulo Cabrera from Montevideo, Uruguay
Daniel Aranda on the side - Resistencia, Argentina

PATAGONIA DEL NORTE

Hola!

Last Saturday, November 24, we left on a week long trip headed south of Buenos Aires, about five hundred miles.....The purpose of our trip was to visit with and discuss areas with two of the AAA's ; Hermano Merino in Santa Rosa, and Hermano Sosa in Trelew and also to have two trainings with three stakes.  It was a wonderful trip, and very insightful in every way. Trelew is part of the Patagonia Region, so inbetween meetings we were able to see a few sites of Patagonia.  (An area that our entire family has been talking about for years!)

Our trip to Santa Rosa was beautiful! There was a lot of gorgeous farm land and some unique and beautiful birds that happen to be by the side of the road.  Most of the highways are two lanes so the driving can be very challenging with all of the many, many trucks on the roads.  However, we were able to enjoy the countryside inspite of the traffic!

We arrived in Santa Rosa on Saturday evening and stayed in a hotel just outside of the city.  Santa Rosa is a rather beautiful little community and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay there.  We attended church in the morning in a great little branch where we were warmly greeted by two sets of missionaries and other members of the branch.  It was the "Primary Program" and the children were adorable!!  There were only 12 children, but they sang out and did a wonderful job!

Later in the afternoon we met with Hermano Merino.  He is an exceptionally nice person and we talked with him for about two hours.  ( I forgot to take his picture!)  He works for the government and is actually a certified accountant like Michael.  After talking with him we went over to another church building to meet with the Santa Rosa Stake.  There were about 35 people there.  We took some time and talked with the Audit committee and Audit Committee Chair person and had a really good discussion.  Michael was able to answer questions and also take questions that we will get answers for this week.  After all of these meetings we have we come away with a list of emails to send and a list of things to do to help the members that we talked with!

Monday morning we made our way towards Trelew for a meeting with two stakes and also Hermano Sosa.  It was a long distance to go, so we stopped overnight in Las Grutas, on the Gulf of San Matias.
It was a gorgeous day and the color of the water, just took our breath away!

We took the opportunity to walk along the boardwalk  and with the wind it felt amazing....

On Tuesday morning, we got up early and headed to Trelew for a meeting that evening.  We arrived in time to get our things together for our meeting with the Trelew North and South Stakes.  Hermano Sosa picked us up at our hotel and we headed over to the church.  There we met the nicest people ever!  I had pulled up alot of reports and worked over some of the statistics so we knew that both of these stakes were actually in really good shape.  Michael conducted a discussion with them and learned how they were able to get all of their audits done on time and resolve all of their exceptions!  It was great!
They do have some problems with internet connections in some of the "barrios"   (wards) and also have some difficulties with online audits because of that,  so once again, we made a list of items we need to follow-up on , and obtained email addresses and we will start that process tomorrow at the office!  I summarize all of the  meetings, and keep all of the follow-up lists going.... Michael and I have worked out a great system!  (though not without a few flaws!)  I guess all of those years working so closely together in his CPA practice are really paying off!!

On Wednesday evening we met with wonderful Hermano Sosa for about three hours.  We met with him in the hotel and we had gone out to see a few sites during the day so didn't change back into our missionary clothes as you can see!

We learned alot from him and we made a long list of things to help him with.. While he has the two stakes that are doing so well, he has another stake and district that are not doing so well and so we will plan another trip in the new year to help him with those.  He was a delightful person!

Inbetween these meetings we were able to see a few remarkable sites in the Patagonia Region.  There is an amazing diversity of animals that all dwell together!  The Argentine government has done a fantastic job of preserving the Patagonia region and building visitor's centers with all of the information one needs to understand this pristine area.  It is a highly protected area.... we had to go through several check points as the authorities inspect every car to make sure no fruit or vegetables are brought in.
The area is very wild and rugged..... and very, very windy.  People from all over the world visit Patagonia..  We visited a penguin colony, and a whale area..... we missed the Flamingos, but in October there were hundreds of them there.  We saw amazing species of birds, wild llamas, (Guanacos), penguins, rabbits, bugs and unusual plants. Here are a few of the photos we took.

We are preparing for our AAA conference which will be held here in Buenos Aires at the area office on December 14 and 15.  All of the AAA's will come here from Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina.  Michael and I are in charge of the two day event .... we have done a lot of planning but we have alot of work to do over the next two weeks!  We will have two people coming from the church audit department in Salt Lake as well.

Just a few photos of Patagonia del Norte......

It was amazing to see the Guanacos and the penguins in the same area!!

ASUNCION, PARAGUAY

Hola!

During the day on Friday we went to see "Monday Falls".  The desk clerk at the hotel told us it was just straight ahead from the hotel a few miles. .... Well it definately was not straight!  By stopping and asking many people directions we found our way there .  Below are some of the pictures from that wonderful visit to this very beautiful park and falls.

 Very, very beautiful mango trees!  my favorite color of green........These trees were breathtaking...

After our Friday night session, we left for Asuncion early Saturday morning.  Hermano Vidal in Asuncion called us in Ciudad del Este to make sure we were okay and told us to be sure to leave early on Saturday morning and the traffic probably would not be too bad.  We took his advice... and the traffic was still alot but definately not as bad as Thursday!

We arrived in Asuncion around two or three and used our same method of finding this  hotel... asking people!  Our hotel was great... and very restful.

Sunday morning we walked to church .... it was only about four blocks away.  We met with Hermano Beraud for about and hour and a half then attended church in a small branch there.  We met dear wonderful people who were very welcoming to us... here is a picture of this wonderful chapel and some flowering shrubs close by....

There are flowering shrubs everywhere in Asuncion

On Sunday evening, Hermano Vidal came to the hotel and we met with him in the library area.  We had an amazing visit with him and loved meeting him!  He had called to check on us throughout our time in Paraguay.  He was very thoughtful of us.  We visited with him for over an hour...... then Hermano Grau came and we had a great visit with him.  These three men are very dedicated to their callings and are extremely friendly and warm people!  We loved this experience!

On Monday morning, we drove to the temple and church office building.. which are in the same complex.  Brother Beraud gave us perfect directions and we found our way perfectly!

At the church office building, it is fairly small, we met with Elder Di Giovanni, the area seventy.  He was very welcoming and so happy to meet with us.

We spent some time on the temple grounds.... we were very impressed with the great simplicity of the temple.... it is truly lovely.  It is very small, and the grounds are very beautiful.  The wooden doors seem very much in keeping with Paraguay.... we enjoyed this experience very much.

After some quiet moments ... and talking of our marvelous experiences and how wonderful we felt , meeting these wonderful people of Paraguay... we headed back to the airport for our journey home.

This last picture is  of an amazing musician in the airport who sat and played his Paraguayan harp  for two hours while many people were waiting for flights...