The
spring weather here is turning blustery, raining in waves for entire
days, then it turns hot. The mosquitos are showing up and they’re
hungry! We saw just one firefly one evening…
Wednesday, the
Internet was out. It’s then that we realize just how dependent we
are! Evenings, I kept trying to bake – cookie dough, apple
empanadas, but the oven just won’t stay on… re-lighting several
times is just too fruitless! Carlos Camacho, one of the maintenance men, came over twice, finally
tweaking the valve and thermal coupler, until the oven will
stay lit. It runs really hot (we have an oven thermometer left to us
by Thea when she returned to the States), so I’ve got to really pay
attention when something is baking! When the internet returned Janet did some Christmas
shopping online to get the kids and grandkids gift certificates.
We brought fewer
clothes this year (in their place we’d packed work clothes, for the
Work and Witness project, that we wore and left in
Costa Rica), so our Saturday project was finding a couple of shirts
for Dan. We were successful in a cute shop in downtown Pilar!
Sunday night’s
service at Iglesia Altos del Pilar was an awesome production called
“Sorpresa en el altillo”
(Surprise in the Attic)! This church has a very dedicated bunch of
young adults who work hard at their theater productions. They are
all good actors and their dedication is evident in the quality of the
plays. It was also an evening to honor the end of the Sunday School
year and all who had completed their course of study. Two adult
classes even got certificates for finishing their levels of Master’s
Plan Discipleship study. The best part for us is that we understand so much more
of what’s happening this year!
Week of December 10 – 16, 2012
Tuesday was the
Claytons’ last day in Argentina. We’ve been grateful for their
presence and work since the end of March so we could return to the
States for a few months. They’d been packing for several days, so
we took them out for lunch at Babette, their favorite restaurant (but
our first time there). The Plato del
Dia (plate of the day, the “special”)
was “creps” (chicken or ham and cheese crepes) and dessert was
included! The meal was delicious, as was the lemon pie! After the
meal, we returned the Claytons to their apartment at the Seminary to
load up the boxes of stuff they had for us; some things were
“inherited” from previous missionaries and some things we had
loaned to them. We cleaned out their pantry and refrigerator too!
Their ride to the airport was already scheduled and they’ll return
to Arizona, via a few days with family in Texas.
Wednesday was
Cindy’s birthday and we’d been invited to join her (and Dani,
Seyda, and Anna Melva!) at Kansas – an upscale restaurant here with
a great menu! On our way, Dan and I stopped at Freddo’s – an ice
cream shop – to purchase a gift certificate for Cindy’s
birthday, but were unsuccessful (I guess that idea was too North
American), so we just tucked some cash into a card I made on the
computer earlier. Seven o’clock turned into 8:30 (hey, we’re on
Latin time) before we arrived at this busy and classy place, but we
certainly enjoyed our shared cedar-plank salmon!
Work-wise, I’m
doing some translation of articles from South American ministry
events for the Communications department. It’s fun to turn a short article
from Spanish, with the help of an online translator, to English, then
polish up the English for American readers. Also for Communications,
Dan did some voice-over narration and I did the translation of
subtitles for a short film about Carlos and Noemi Fernandez, our
friends and missionaries here! They are leaving soon for deputation (fund raising) in the US until April.
Iglesia del Nazareno Nueve de Julio, Argentina |

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