A quick note about the week

In Elder Merrill's letter this week, he shares his thoughts on how fast time is going by and that he got to watch the Buenos Aires Temple Re-dedication and participate from a chapel (maybe the equivalent of a stake center?).

How are you all doing? I hope that things are normal as usual around the house. From what I hear though, with the tree and all that, things may be slightly different. [a crazy windstorm tried to knock down a tree in the front yard.] I know that 2 years can be a long time for things to change but I feel like I've barely been away for a month. Can you believe that the 14th is my 6 month mark? That's crazy! I hope the mission feels like it is going fast for you guys as well.  I know that there is work to be done here, so that makes it super fast to me. I just get into the mindset that I can find people to teach pretty much anywhere!  I went to a chapel on Sunday in another city to watch the re-dedication of the Buenos Aires Temple. It was so cool to do that in Spanish! I needed my temple recommend and a white handkerchief for it. It was a cool experience.

He also answers some questions about his area:

The area that I go tracting in is small. Bolivar is a small city on the edge of the universe, so there's really not many places to go. It's easy to get around. There are miles and miles and miles of fields surrounding the city that we work in sometimes and then there is the city that we work in most of the time. The branch here is small, that comes with a small town I guess.  There are about 100 members in this city but only about 25 come to church. That's a whole lot of less actives.
My spanish is coming along great.  I can speak it pretty well and now it's becoming easier to understand people.  The food that I eat the most here is pizza, empanadas, chicken, bread, spanish cereal, fruit and eggs.  I like the food here, it's good. I hope you all have an awesome week, I love you all!!


Here is a photo of the Buenos Aires Temple after it was dedicated and some interesting facts about the temple:








Located just a few miles from the international airport, the temple's native granite walls and six sentinel spires are a welcome landmark for all who travel to Buenos Aires.  During the new construction period, 2 wings were added to the original building, dramatically increasing its size.  The renovated temple is encircled by gardens, benches and walking paths. Fountains can be found at both ends.  Prominent throughout its exterior walls are vertical stained glass windows that feature the familiar blue and white colors of the Argentine flag. Patriotic gardens have also captured that same color pattern in many of the flower designs bordering the edifice. (this excerpt was taken from an article by Jason Swenson, Church News staff writer).

Suggestions for Mailing stuff to Argentina

It's another superb Monday with our next email from Elder Merrill. He talks about the passing of time and foreign keyboards:

Hi ya. How is everyone doing? Whenever I think of something to write home about, I put it in my planner, which I have open in front of me right now. I am always excited to hear you guys.  I have found a surprising switch here with time. I have really fast days but really slow weeks. It feels like forever since I wrote you, but the days themselves have been so rapid. I know that seems strange, you'd think with fast days would come fast weeks, but that's not how it is right now. Well, maybe that's just because I'm new at the moment...I have a feeling that the weeks will feel faster as I go along here.  It's funny, as I'm typing, the computer spell-check is on and so every word I type has a red squiggle line under it to show that I've spelled it wrong, because none of these words exist in espanol.

He also gives us some warnings and advice about mailing items to Argentina:

If you ever want to send me a package for something like Christmas, my year mark or I don't know...my birthday or something (cough)...I have some instructions for you. When you send packages here, there's a danger of 2 things happening. The package gets lost or some of the contents get stolen by the people in the post office.  There's nothing to do if it gets lost but if you want to get a package to me around the time of a special date, you may want to send it about a month in advance. Now, to prevent it from being stolen, wrap the package in tape nice and tight, to make it too hard to try and open it. The final thing is to put 2 pictures on the package and make sure they won't fall off. Put a picture of Jesus Christ and a picture of the Virgin Mary. That may seem a little weird but the Spanish people don't want to get on the wrong side of the virgin and stealing from missionaries that might (or might not) be from her church would probably look bad.

He talks a little bit about the local culture:

I have to take a bus to another city every week for a meeting and the buses are all double-deckers. It's so fun riding them! You would think, being in Argentina, that this place would be more hispanic-like but a lot of people (and I agree) have told me that this place is a lot more like Europe instead.  Dogs litter the streets like cacti do back home in Arizona.  Not a day goes by without me seeing more than 30 different dogs. Naturally I like animals but the problem is that a lot of them don't have any homes, so they are wild, and wild they are nice to humans and make me want to pet them, they probably have fleas and mites and ticks, so I'll have to refrain from touching them at all. Not a whole lot of cats here.

Then it's a few words about the weather before he signs off:

September is when spring should start, so things should start warming up a bit.  I'm not thrilled to be going through another summer, but that's all good really.  I made it through South Carolina walking all around there and that place was so  humid, I could feel the water particles on the air as I walked around.  We had a lightening storm here a couple of nights back and boy was it LOUD! It felt like the storm was right above our heads and then moved off...I wonder if we'll be in store for any more? The stars here are awesome by the way. I bet I see a couple of different constellations then you do in Arizona, makes me wish I'd paid more attention to what constellations there are in the night sky.  Don't worry about food here. It's all good. I just wish they had a bit more variety. I eat pretty much the same things for dinner every week, but like I said, it's all good, so I can't complain.

What a great letter this was from our dear son this week. We are glad he is doing well and he sounds like he is adjusting nicely to Bolivar.  Keep up the good work Elder, we are keeping you in our hearts and prayers!