BAHIA BLANCA AND NEUQUEN

Hola!

We have hit the road again and are visiting many of our assistant auditors one by one and participating in trainings and meetings.  We packed up and left Buenos Aires on Thursday, June 20.  Our first stop was Bahia Blanca where we were invited to the home of Hermano Camilo Merino and his lovely family.  We had an hour long meeting with Hermano Merino and then had a wonderful and delicious dinner with his very charming family.

Hermano Merino and his lovely wife and their three sons and daughter-n-law.  The boys all spoke English fairly well and we enjoyed wonderful conversation!  Left to right the sons are :  Santiago, Baltasar, and Juan

Bahia Blanca is a beautiful port city and has some amazing old buildings and is very clean.

After spending the night in Bahia Blanca,  Buenos Aires Province, we spent about 7 hours traveling westward to Neuquen , in Neuquen province where there are thousands of apple and pear trees along side of the road.  It must be very beautiful in the spring!

On Sunday Hermano Saade traveled from Zapala to Neuquen to have a meeting with us and an audit committee.  The meeting went really well and as usual it was great to meet new people!  They had a lot of questions for Michael and it felt good to be able to answer them!  I am beinning to be able to say a little more in Spanish now .. but it is very limited... but this is what I say at the end of each meeting:  "Me gustaria un foto, por favor!"  "mucho gusto y muchas gracia!"

Hermano Saade

After this meeting on Sunday evening, we began our journey southward to the very famous city of San Carlos de Bariloche on Monday morning!  We were excited and left just before daylight under the light of a  full moon.....

SAN CARLOS DE BARILOCHE Y ESQUEL

Outside of San Martin de los Andes

After our great visits in Bahia Blanca and Neuquen we headed westward to San Carlos de Bariloche and then south to Esquel.  The trip to Bariloche was truly one of the most beautiful of our life time.  The first part of the day we drove through the Patagonia region that are much more barren but  many beautiful and fascinating rock formations are scattered throughout the area.  After a couple of hours outside of Neuquen, and leaving the much smaller town of Zapala, we began to see in the distance the Andes Mountain, white with snow and jagged.

Each few miles brought us closer to the foothills of the Andes mountains and the Chilean border.

We drove through two lovely towns that lay at the base of these hills and mountains....Junin de los Andes, and San Martin de los Andes.  The drive was amazing on a two lane road, part of which was dirt!  

San Martin de los Andes

We drove all day through incredible sites of lakes, streams and mountains. Much of the drive was throught the Nahuel Huapi National Forest. We were thrilled with the beauty and embraced each moment to the fullest!  We saw a small herd of pretty large sheep in the middle of the two lane road.

Municpal building in Bariloche

Late in the afternoon, we arrived in San Carlos de Bariloche late in the afternoon to more incredible views.  Bariloche sits on the very enormous lake...... Nahuel Huaupi Lake......the city sits at the end of the lake.  We drove along the lake for many, many miles and we came around a corner and there was Bariloche in the distance.... it was an unbelievable view!

Here are a few views of Bariloche.  There is a tremendous European influence there and many of the buildings are very distinctly German.  We noticed many German Shepherd dogs, and also St. Bernard's!  

We had a meeting scheduled in Bariloche but it was canceled at the last minute so we were very disappointed..... but we enjoyed walking around the city and drinking in the very unique beauty of this city that sits at the base of the Andes Mountains.  

We walked along this shore which is only a few blocks from the downtown area.

After spending one day in Bariloche, we drove south further into Chubut Province and had a wonderful meeting in Esquel, a small town which is known for it's access to great outdoor recreational activities.  We had a wonderful meeting with a great group of people, for about two hours.  Our favorite part of our trips is meeting these amazing and gracious people!

Tomorrow we will head across  eastward to the east coast of Argentina and Chubut Province to Trelew and meet up with Hermano Sosa and travel with him to Comodoro Rivadavia, and Caleta Olivia.

SAN ANTONIO DE ARECO - part two

This is a general store in San Antonio that is beautifully situated on a corner.  Bill really wanted us to see this amazing old building and the inside and meet the adorable little Argentine owner.  It was a very unique experience!  The owner  is in his 80's probably..... his father owned the store.... the current owner was born in the store!  It is truly an old family business!  The owner was delightful.  The store was clean as a whistle and as neat and tidy as it looks!  Enjoy the photos!

The streets of San Antonio are lined with orange trees !  They were beautiful and laden with fruit ready to be picked!

This old refrigerator on the right was the first electric fridge in Argentina.  It is still in use.  He stores pop in here and keeps it cold!

SAN ANTONIO DE ARECO - part one

The chocolate shop!  This is the best chocolate we have ever had!

Bill and Joy Wingo

Asado at a Parilla- we had chicken, Joy had trout and Bill had pork.  It was delicious!

Organic cheese shop

Grapefruit tree in a "secret garden" Joy and I found

Hola!

On Friday afternoon, our good friend, Bill Wingo called us on the phone in the office and asked if we would like to drive to San Antonio De Areco on Saturday morning and spend the day in this wonderful small community about an hour outside of Buenos Aires, with he and his very lovely wife, Joy.  We readily agreed and we did indeed spend Saturday in this amazing small town of tiny shops, a gaucho museum,  a silver and leather museum, small shops filled with handwoven goods, and handmade jewelry, leather goods , parks, friendly people and simply prepared food in a Parilla.   It was truly an amazing day and one that was very special in every way.  Bill is the legal advisor for the area, (an employee of the church) and he and Joy have been here three years and are leaving for home in two weeks to retire.  We are leaving on our long trip this week and this was our last opportunity to visit with them and enjoy a day of leisure and friendship.  (Bill and Joy are very special friends of Mike and Judy's as well)  .  Bill and Joy had previously spent  time in San Antonio so they were well acquainted with the special shops and restaurants and the absolutely fantastic chocolate shop that are there. There is an amazing general store from the turn of the last century still in use.  I will do a separate post of that. (actually it will probably appear before this one!) Bill and Joy were the perfect companions for such a visit and our day was truly memorable.  We laughed and visited ..... and felt surges of excitement over each new item we discovered!

The Wingos have lived all over the world.  Bill has traveled for the church a great deal and also for a law firm.  He has traveled to over 75 countries.  His travel stories are extrodinary and it was great fun to listen to him share some of his adventures with us as we rode in the car to and from Buenos Aires.

San Antonio is a reletively quiet little town situated on a river , and the town itself has several beautiful parks.  We hope to return again a couple of times before we leave, and perhaps invite another couple along to share the experience with.... as the Wingos shared with us.

This was the prettiest cat in front of a beautiful cottage.

Joy, in fron of the same cottage.  We both fell in love with the door!

A LEADER'S VISIT TO BUENOS AIRES

Hola!

We recently had one of the twelve apostles visit here in Buenos Aires...... Elder Quentin L. Cook and his very lovely wife, Mary.  (she was truly adorable) They are a very wonderful couple and we were able to hear them speak on several occasions.  The purpose of their visit was to give encouragement to all, and to meet other religious leaders and community leaders in the northern part of Argentina.  He and his wife met with Catholic leaders throughout the area and also the Jewish leader Rabino Skorka, who is, I believe the central Jewish leader in Argentina and  they also met with Archbishop Nanez of Cordoba.  It is a great feeling to witness the cooperation of all of these religous groups together to form friendships and a greater understanding of one another within the religious community.

Elder Cook and is wife are about in their early seventies and appeared to have a lot of energy!  Their schedule was hectic for sure but they took time to shake hands and greet people on a personal level.
We had a special missionary meeting last Wednesday that was really wonderful.  There were many young missionaries at the meeting...... they were missionaries who are assigned in and around Buenos Aires.  Here is a picture of them in the chapel..... each taking a turn to shake hands with Elder Cook and his wife and the area presidency. The church recently changed the age requirement for which missionaries can serve.  Young men can now serve at 18 instead of 19 and young women can serve at age 19 instead of 21.  It is estimated that the number of missionaries will increase by 50% and it is estimated also  that 40% of the missionaries will be women.  So in a year this gathering below will look quite different!

There were actually sister missionaries but they were sitting in the front rows so you can't see them in this picture!

This is acutally our church building where we attend church.  The missionary meeting was here.

We have almost finished training Joan and Garry Boyle now to take over the executive secretary position in the area presidency office!  They are a wonderful and energetic couple from Arizona , about our age.  We have enjoyed spending time with them and "teaching them the ropes!"  It has been quite a journey over the past three to four months taking on this extra assignment and then passing it on and teaching another couple to do all of the many tasks that are involved in this position.  Now we are returning to our audit work with lots of new ideas and we are feeling quite energized from the many wonderful experiences we have recently had to give us new insights and ideas  for the next nine months!

We will begin our travel once again in about two weeks or less.  We will be headed down south to Northern Patagonia, Comodoro Rivadavia, and Coleta Olivia where we will help our dear friend, Ricael Sosa with some trainings.  We will be returning to Asuncion, Paraguay  to help our auditors there.  There is a new mission in Posadas, Argentina (on the Paraguay border) where we will be training a new auditor.  We will also be headed to Uruguay and Chile in July and August to  help in those countries.  There is also a new mission in Santiago South (Chile) which will take an existing  auditor so we will be training a new auditor for Rancagua which is just south of Santiago.  So we have a lot of work ahead.  We will have our annual Assistant Area Auditor conference here in Buenos Aires again during the first part of December.  We will also be traveling to Salt Lake City in mid October to attend our annual training for the Area Auditors, which will be for two days.  So we have a lot of work to do and we are excited and looking forward with great anticipation to the second half of our mission!

Our family is doing well.  Michaell's mother turns 104 next month and is still going strong!  My mother will turn  95 in August!  Both mothers are doing well and keeping busy while we are away.  Rebekah will hold a family party for my mother in August and most of our children will be there to assist her with that.

We continue to be very grateful for this amazing experince we are enjoying.  It is a journey of great learning, laughter, joy and challenges!  We appreciate the continued support of our family.

We hope all of you are enjoying the beginings of summer!  We are having winter, 65-70 degrees!  Some of the leaves have fallen off of the trees , but we pass a fruit laden orange tree everyday on our way to the office!  We hear it does get colder... but I will believe it when I feel the cold!

This is from a couple of months ago at the Estancia, but I just received the picture.  These are our missionary friends!