COLONIA, URUGUAY

Building in Colonia

Two auditors in Colonia

Saturday morning we headed to Colonia early as we had a meeting set up with the district president and a couple of auditors.  We had a beautiful drive and a very productive and wonderful meeting!   Colonia is northwest of Montevideo and is a very old, old, city sitting right on the water.  It is a very popular spot for tourists and weekend visits.  We enjoyed the drive and were happy that we were able to see the countryside of Uruguay and also meet some other people from this very amazing small country.  (Our friend, Dante, describes the country of Uruguay like "One great big spa!" Everyone seems to be relaxed and happy!)  Probably a bit of an exaggeration but certainly that is a definite feeling here.

A couple of miles outside of the actual city of Colonia, the main road is lined with these amazing palm trees.  There were beautiful!

The church in Colonia.

We drove back to Montevideo late in the afternoon on Saturday.  We had an early morning meeting on Sunday in the Montevideo West Stake.  Hermano Paredes was there as it under his jurisdiction for the audits.  We met with six auditors and the audit committee chair who is the first counselor in the stake presidency.  A particularly friendly and warm group of people.  After the meeting the Committee chair, went around the room and gave each audior an abrzo and expressed his love and appreciation for each person there.  It was quite moving for me to watch this.  While I don't speak the language flently , I can understand quite a bit.  At the same time, there are many great moments for me to "observe and watch", my wonderful husband as he speaks in Spanish, and look into the joyful and expressive faces of those dedicated individuals who attend the trainings, to watch their love and devotion to one another and the Gospel is a gift for me which I share with Michael at the end of the day.

We embraced each moment of Sunday.  After our training we attended Sacrament meeting and met some great people.  We went back to our hotel, enjoyed a lovely meal and took a walk among the beautiful surrounding neighborhoods.  We returned home to Buenos Aires on Monday late afternoon.  I quickly unpacked after arriving in our apartment and headed out to shop for some groceries!  We have been really busy in the office since our return and we are now preparing to head out to Asuncion, Paraguay early Friday morning, where we will have a full schedule of trainings and meetings and we will be training a new auditor there, Hermano Cabanas.

More next week from Paraguay!