A MORNING AT THE BUENOS AIRES TEMPLE

Michael and I were asked to speak to a large group of youth at the Buenos Aires Temple very early on
Saturday morning.  There were about 95 youth.  They had traveled from Rosario, it was about a five hour trip .  We enjoyed the experience.  I gave a short talk in Spanish, and Michael gave a great message to the kids in Spanish as well.  It was fun and we really enjoyed the challenge and the experience.

Saturdays are very busy at the temple ….. there were some sweet little families and adorable children to take pictures of.  The gardens were beautiful as well.

Our good friend Hermana Acosta from Rosario.

A SPECIAL LUNCHEON!

Last week was a really busy week!  We returned from Ushuaia on Wednesday evening and the next morning we had an office devotional with two of the apostles:  Elder Holland and Elder Christofferson and also a 70, Elder Soares from Brazil.  In the afternoon, all of the office missionaries, and the Buenos Aires mission president wives (three of them) attended a luncheon in the office.  It was a beautiful luncheon arranged by Renee Costa, and Andrea Spannaus.  (Their husbands are area 70's )  Every month Renee and Andrea arrange a luncheon for all of us and the presidency wives…. the first Tuesday of every month.  We all take food and it is always a really lovely event.  On this day, the luncheon was just a little more special as Sister Holland, and Sister Christofferson and Sister Soares were attending.

Andrea is a designer and has an eye for arrangement and this was truly beautiful!  We all had place cards so we were assigned seats which was perfect.  I sat at a table with Sister Christofferson and we all enjoyed conversing with each other and with the special guests!  She is very unassuming and it was fun to chat with her.  We all took special dishes, and Andrea had special artesian bread made to go on each table.

For the program, Renee had arranged for  a couple who perform native dances to dance for us and that was very fun!  Then we have a young girl, Cynthia, who is with her parents who are serving a local mission as mission president of the area service missionaries.  Cynthia has been practicing singing, "I am  a Child of God" in English and so  we as a group of missionaires sang with her.  It was very special.  She actually sang the first verse in English by herself, and then we all sang the rest  of the verses in Spanish.    
We had been practicing for quite a few weeks so it was fun to perform it!

Our husbands all went out to lunch as they were not invited!  It was a really lovely event and very memorable for sure.

All of our husbands!  Chelsea met most of these people.

Starting on the far left:  Elder Soares, Elder Christofferson, Elder Holland,  President Gonzalez, Elder Zeballos, and Elder Vinas.

Hermana Walker and Cynthia

Asparagus is in season now so I made a roasted asparagus salad.

THE MARCELINO TOSSEN FAMILY

After we returned from our boat ride around 2:30 in the afternoon, we walked around Ushuaia a bit more then went back to our hotel to get ready to go to Hermano Tossens's home.  He picked us up at 5:00 pm and drove us to their lovely home to meet his family and have some desserts.

Lorena his wife is simply lovely and so very gracious and beautiful as well.  Two daughters, Cristal and Camil, and a little boy, David.  Lorena is an artist and paints the most beautiful designs on china plates. She set a beautiful table and we all enjoyed special drinks of one kind or another and a lucious strawberry pie and a yummy lemon pie.  We really enjoyed visiting with the children and asking them questions about their schooling.  We were also very interested in Lorena's art work and Hermano Tossen brought out a large pile of china that had been painted by his darling wife.  It was gorgeous!

This lovely table set by Lorena.

After spending a couple of hours visiting with the family, the girls had to go to their English lessons,  so Hermano Tossen took us back to our hotel  for an hour or so until the girls were finished with their lessons then we would all go to dinner.

Many, many young Argentine families live busy lives, with both husband and wife working.  Lorena teaches school every afternoon plus she teaches early morning seminary.  The children return from school very late in the afternoon and then have separate English classes from 8-9:00 in the evening.  Then they usually eat dinner after English lessons in the late evening.  

Hermano Tossen came with his family to get us at the hotel around 9:30.  We went to a lovely restaurant and had a great dinner and great conversation!  It was such fun I would have a hard time describing it!  Here are a few photos.

We finished eating dinner around 11:30 in the evening which is quite common in South America.  It was fun though and we embraced the experience!  We have had a number of late night dinners in Argentina!

One of Lorena's beautifully painted plates.

THE BEAGLE CHANNEL

Puerto Williams, Chile  There is a small branch here and Hermano Tossen is responsible for these audits being completed twice a year.    In the winter Puerto Williams is often inaccessible ...

Penguins!

Imperial Cormorant birds….. they were beautiful

Leaving the harbor of Ushuaia

On our last day in Ushuaia, Hermano Tossen told us that we must take boat ride into the Beagle Channel to see the southern most lighthouse, seals and thousands of birds, and also Sea Lions. He made arrangements with a boat company that would give us a five hour tour of the channel.   We enjoyed a brisk walk to the harbor early the next morning and arrived early enough to get a good seat on the small boat that would take us onto the channel.  The boats are called Catamaran's  …….  the channel was pretty rough and it was quite a ride!  Here are some of the sights that we saw…..

The harbor in Ushuaia.  I love the red boats!

The Beagle Channel

EL FIN DEL MUNDO - USHUAIA!

Arriving in Ushuaia was very exciting even though it was at night.  The days are very long there right now so darkness doesn't fall until around 10 pm.  We got settled into our hotel and had a really good nights rest after such a great adventure that day!

Ushuaia is known as the southern most city in the world.  It has a rival for that position, however, Puerto Williams, Chile which I will show you a photo of later in another post.

One of the nice things about the location of our hotel was that it was only a couple of blocks away from  the church where we would attend a small branch on Sunday.  We arose early and had a nice brisk walk to the meeting house.

The branch we attended was really great! The branch was a pretty good size and the people were very friendly and welcoming.  We really enjoyed all of the meetings.

Hermano Tossen arranged a meeting for that evening and it turned out to be a great meeting and the people we met were exceptionally nice.  They seemed to have a really good working relationship with each other and it was fun to watch and listen to them interact with each other.

Hermano Tossen gives excellent trainings and Michael closed the meeting with a great message as well.    
We thought the brother on the far right looks like our bishop in Goldendale, and the brother standing next to Michael thought I looked like his sister in-law and he showed me a picture.  It was funny and we had a good laugh over all of that!

The Ushuaia District!

The next day Hermano Tossen arranged for a local person that he knew, Hermano Flores to drive us to the Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego.  It was almost a full day of seeing the park and it was beautiful!
It was so peaceful and the wildlife was amazing and we really embraced the moment.

On our way, we passed by a car that had gone into the ditch and Hermano Flores wanted to help the man so he quickly turned the car around and he and Michael got out of the car to see how they could help.

An adorable little boy across the street was watching intently and we were able to capture these photos of him!

He was absolutely adorable!

The national park was breathtaking and I cannot begin to show all of the photos… but here are just a few.

Michael and I at the southern most point of the park!  It was cold but very beautiful!

Two Fuegian Red Fox!  They came right up to the car!

The Martial Mountains

We had a really wonderful day…. the peace of the country made us a bit homesick. ….. That evening, we had a meeting with two people from the Mount Olivia Branch …. and we had a wonderful and produictive meeting.