It has been such a long time since I have sent an update to the blog. A lot has gone on in the past several weeks. As most are aware Brice had heart surgery on September 29th. It so happened that I was asked to transfer a sick elder to Utah and was able to lay over for a few days and be with the Brice and Heidi through the surgery. Brice was able to come off life supports early on in the recovery and did so well that I felt comfortable returning to Argentina. Heidi has been amazing in taking care of him. I know she missed the kids but what a great blessing to all of us that Val (her mom) was able to come to Utah. It helped immensley in maintaining consistancy for the children. I know Brice is experiencing an amazing recovery because of the faith and prayers of many. Thank you. I only wish there were words to express the feelings we have for you.
A couple of days after I returned to Bruenas Aires we received word from Alan’s family that Virginia (his mom) had suffered a stroke and was not expected to make it to the end of the week. We could not imagine her lasting even 3-4 days but by time the 5th day had come Iwas beginning to feel that Alan needed to go home to Utah. We had decided earlier, we would follow our Area Presidents suggestions about going home. When his answer returned in the positive we called Karen (Alan’s sister) and within minutes she had arranged the flight, we had Alan packed and was on our way to the airport (thanks to our great missionary friends, the Grieves). Alan made it home in time to spend about an hour with his mom before she passed away. We feel this was a true blessing for us and also feel she was hanging on to see Alan.
As I stayed behind I stayed abreast of the funeral plans and gatherings by Magic Jack. By the reports I have received the time together as family created much reminiscing. It also increased our testimonies of the Masters plan that includes families being together forever.
Alan and I keep very busy preparing for Paraguay. I kept thinking… certainly could not be that much to do. But…since there has never been a couple in Paraguay in this capacity we have had a fair amount of groundwork to complete before actually moving there. Isobel Ibola, our director and Caudia The BA supervisor have been nothing but the greatest in teaching, helping us meet people and make arrangments. They have sincere and wonderful testimonies of the Perpetual Education process and there is no question in anyone’s mind of their conviction.
Alan and I teach an English Book of Mormon class on Thursday Night. Institute here gets going at about 7-8 pm and classes run until midnight. Where the instructors get that kind of energy; we will never figure out. We have about 15 students and they all try so hard to use English. I am expecially compasionate with them…I am in the same spot with Spanish. The students are good to help me with words and phrases. They have also been great cheerleaders concerning the language. “Hermana, at least you are learning Espanol..English is much harder”. I just chuckle. Tonight I will take the bus and find my own way to the Institute. Several other couples have there phones on just in case I get into trouble. Alan was great to teach me were to hit the buzzer and where to walk to get there the safest and quickest way. The Grieves will pick me us so I am not walking the streets alone after dark.
To kind of fill you in on the everyday routines:
Baking without a built in oven thermometer is a blast…the oven is either too hot or too cold. I would say…nothing really turns out…but it is definitly manageable and most of the time eatable.
There are about a million busses…eventhough they have a number on them that doesn’t always mean they go where…they say they go. This requires being extreemly aware of the surroundings and an okay attitude about walking along ways…anyway (Because you missed your bus stop). There have been times when we would have been better off walking by time we spent the time running around the city on the bus and ended up just as far away as if we had walked in the first place. Oh life is good…at least we are walking off the factura that we have been eating on a daily basis.
Catch the next chapter to hear about our factura habit.