MENDOZA

STAKE AUDIT COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN FROM TWO STAKES:  GODOY CRUZ AND GUAYMALLEN.  US AND CARLOS ACOSTA OUR AAA IN MENDOZA

After we finished our time in Cordoba, Catamarca and La Rioja, we drove to Mendoza which is in the western part of Argentina and located very close to the Chilean border.  Mendoza is a very beautiful city and the people who live there love it!  The province of Mendoza is well known for it's olives, olive oil and many, many fruits and vegetables.  Since Argentina does not import anything (or very little) the goods from the province are all over Argentina.  We have found a small store about four blocks from us that sells only products from Mendoza.  I have to say, they are incredibly delicious, from the jams (which have little sugar), tomatoes  in beautiful jars, garlic, artichokes, syrups and many other products.... The olive oil is amazing as well.  As we drove in and viewed the vineyards and olive groves we were quite taken with the thousands and thousands of acres devoted to this agriculture.  

Our AAA in Mendoza is Carlos Acosta, the nicest person in the world!  We arrived late on Thursday afternoon and he picked us up at our hotel and we all drove to a nearby chapel where we met two committe chairs from the Godoy Cruz Stake and the Guaymallen Stake.  They are very nice and we had a really good meeting with them.  We discussed their audit problems and some other issues that have come up in their stakes.  As always it was a pleasure to meet these men and they were very gracious to us.  Our meeting ended about 10:30 or so and Hermano Acosta wanted us to go to his house for a light supper.  So we gladly accepted.  We went to his home and met his very lovely wife and his daughter.  We visited until about 11:30 and then he drove us back to our hotel.  It had been a wonderful and very long day!  Note:  The Argentine people do not even think about eating dinner until 9:00 at night or later!  This was not our first late supper, we have had several!

The mountains on our way to Mendoza from Cordoba.  It was amazing!

Our next meeting was the next evening, on Friday, with the committee chair of the Mendoza Stake.  His stake has all of their audit exceptions resolved and they work really hard to keep all of their books in order and their auditors well trained.  This was a great meeting as well.  (Michael always has his eyes closed in these pictures , it seems but oh well..!!)

Our next meeting was in San Juan, about 2 hours north of Mendoza on Saturday evening.  Hermano Acosta drove up with us in our car and we stayed overnight as the meeting was late and the two lane roads are not good to travel on at night.  We had some time during the day on Saturday so we enjoyed a few hours in the city walking to San Martin Avenue where we spent about an hour looking at many of the Mendoza crafts located in a special shop and eating a delicious lunch at a local restaurant.  Every city large or small, has a major street named "San Martin".  He was the most famous general in South America as he liberated Peru, Chile and Argentina from the Spanish.   

One of several mosaics on a very large statue in the city of Mendoza.

Every avenue and street in Mendoza is lined with these trees.  Hundreds and hundreds of them.  It provides a lot of shade which is really nice on a hot, hot day!

We received a call from our area president, Elder Gonzalez on Thursday night , when we arrived in Mendoza.  He asked us to return to Buenos Aires and take on an extra assignment for three to four months and be the executive secretary to the area presidency.  The current couple who had that position has just unexpectantly been called as Mission Presidents to Antofagasta , Chile.  They have to leave immediately to go home and get things in order before leaving for their assignment.  So after our training in San Juan, we headed home to Buenos Aires.  It took us two full days of driving.  We will also be doing our audit assignment at the same time, but will not travel now until this extra work is finished and a new executive secretary is found.  We had about 12 meetings planned in Chile so we had to notify all of our AAA's in Chile (which was hard)...and let them know we were not coming.  However, they were very gracious about it and we will travel to Chile later in the year.  So yet another surprise for us!  We are here to serve.... so this is fine.  Elder Gonzalez is origianlly from Uruguay and is a very kind and energetic man!  His two counselors are also from South America, Elder Zeballos from Chile and Elder Vinas from Uruguay as well.  It will be very hectic for us, as the new assignment is very demanding as well.  But it is an adventure and we are embracing every moment!