CENTRO DE CAPACITACION MISIONAL

Note the beautiful kiwi juice !  It was delicious!  The kiwis here are really large thus perfect for juice.

The buffet table.  

The first day of the conference we were in the hotel and had a lovely lunch and dinner.  A lunch we sat with a lovely young friend of ours, Marianna who did much of the translating for the conference.  She is one of the secretaries at the office and we enjoyed getting to know her better through our association in planning the conference. At dinner we met a mission president and his wife who are from Central Point, Oregon and they knew some people we know in our daughters ward in Grants Pass! On Tuesday morning there was a long question and answer period with the area presidency on missionary issues.  (of which there are many)  At 11:30 or so we had to make sure everyone was checked out of the hotel and boarded a small bus and two vans with their luggage .  Two vans for those returning to Chile and another bus for those going to other destinations within Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.  That was a trick!!  Michael stood there with his travel papers with everyone's flights listed and we had to check everyone off and make sure they were headed in the right direction!

After loading the buses, we headed about five minutes away to the Buenos Aires Temple grounds where we had a fabulous lunch at the CCM.  (MTC).  They have a "real" chef that cooks there and honestly the food was totally fabulous!  We had been over to check things out a week ahead of time and had visited with President and Sister Openshaw who are in charge of the CCM.  They are a wonderful and very dedicated couple.  They role up their sleeves and help with everything.  This CCM houses and feeds about 70 missionaries who are headed to Paraguay and Uruguay.  Now with the increase in numbers of missionaries, the Openshaws  are a little worried about the space.

The meal was wonderful with homemade kiwi juice (I had three glasses!) , freshly made foccacia bread with sundried tomatoes, four different kinds of meats, rolls, bread, empanadas, dips, ..... it was totally amazing... and for dessert delicious chocolate cake and freshly made fruit tarts!  These missionaries are lucky!

Most of the mission presidents and their wives attended the temple.... we had too many tasks to finish up so we were not able to join them.... when they started coming out of the temple, once again we had to check off names and make sure everyone was accounted for.

It was a great experience and one we will never forget!

The CCM

The Buenos Aires Temple

SEMINARIO DE PRESIDENTES DE MISIONES

Our desks where we did alot of the planning!

About two months ago, President Gonzalez asked Michael and I to be in charge of all of the logistics
for the seventy's council meeting and the Mission President's Seminar both of which were held last weekend and Monday and Tuesday of last week.  We had to work with travel and make sure that they made reservations for flights and hotels for about 75 people.  Along with one of the secretaries, we had to choose menus for four days and make sure that the snacks and all food was in place and in the right rooms.  I can't name all of the many tasks that we had to do!  Anyway, it was a lot of work but we learned alot and totally enjoyed it.  Here are some pictures from the mission presidents seminar and some of the preparations that we were engaged in.

President Gonzalez likes to go paperless, but we did have a folder for notetaking and one handout!

This was a very large conference room and we had to make sure it was all set up correctly for that amount of people!  We had a table for translators and tech people as well.  We had to set out place cards and make sure everything was in order on Sunday night.  Mike in the background!

ASADO

This is my dear friend, Ellen Garvin receiving an Argentine kiss on the cheek that we all love!  The dear little lady giving the kiss is the sweet grandma that lives in the cottage at the back of the property.

We all took food and it was really delicious.  This is the salad I took.... roasted beets, red onions and fresh cherry tomatoes with the fresh oregano as a garnish.  I grow the oregano on our balcony.

A few weeks ago we attended a small Asado with our fellow missionaries from the office.  A member
of the office staff invited all of us to the home of his family for an asado (BBQ) and picnic and a wonderful game of croquet!  We went in groups in a few cars as David's home was over an hour outside of Buenos Aires.   It was a delightful day and Michael and I ended up winning the croquet game which was so very fun!  We came from behind to win and we all had such a great time!  Here are a few pictures from the very lovely day!

The little cottage in the back!