Winter? and the Exposition

Once a year, the Argentine farmers, cattlemen, horsemen, food producers, machinery salesmen, and leather goods venders gather at the Rural, which is a huge events center right outside our balcony for “La Exposicion”.  This is like a huge State Fair because it includes people from the entire country.  There are 10 days of horse shows, cattle shows, gaucho riding events, food and clothing demonstrations, pick-up and machinery demonstrations, and lots of empanadas eaten!  We decided to visit on our P-day and it was GREAT!  The appaloosa horses were beautiful and they had some really powerful looking Hereford bulls.  Janet didn’t enjoy looking at the pigs who were all lying on their sides and snoring, but the chickens and rabbits were entertaining!

We watched a 3-D video presentation on how everything comes from “la pampa” or the grassland.  This is where the crops are grown, the livestock lives, the machines are used, the pick-ups are needed, the gauchos work, the leather goods are produced and of course the recipes invented.  It was very entertaining and we stayed there for 3 hours.  I bought a leather belt because my K-Mart special was dead after various paint jobs with permanent marker over the cracks and creases.

A HUGE  rooster

Here's the Beef!

The Horse Show--notice the high rise apartments behind
 

Winter has been interesting.  We were expecting it to be much colder.  It is a humid kind of cold which makes it different, but we seldom take jackets, rarely use coats and the temperature usually varies in the 50s and 60s.  We see the Argentines all bundled up with their coats, scarves, gloves, and boots and wonder what they would think of a good Idaho winter.  There are no central heating systems and so many of the apartments are like ours and have radiators in the rooms that are heated by the hot water that is generated in the hot water heaters in the kitchen.  They take the chill off for the most part.

The coldest places we go are the Mormon Chapels on Sunday morning.  All meetings start at either 9:00 or 9:30 a.m. and after a few days or in some cases an entire week of no use, the buildings are like refrigerators.  Members come and stay in their coats, gloves, and scarves for the entire 3-hour block of meetings.  We usually wear an extra sweater, but the toes can get cold!

Typical Church-this is from the parking lot where maybe a dozen cars can park

 

The rains are the funnest part of the winter.  Once or twice a week it rains and it really pours.  The water just shoots our of heaven and sometimes for hours.  The streets fill and spillover onto the sidewalks which become footbaths for all of us.  Cars splash water on pedestrians and buses splash water on all!  Many people don’t bother with umbrellas and choose to be soaked.  The venders on the streets huddle under trees as their wares are drenched and anxious taxi drivers are more busy than usual hustling people about who are trying to avoid the showers.  The rain, when it is really coming down is truly awesome.  I don’t know why, but when it starts to rain like it can down here I always think of Noah!

 

We passed our one year mark of the mission on July 29th.  We can't say it has whizzed by, but at times during the month we wonder where the week has gone.  We love the work and we love the Open Chapel Program.  It has been a great missionary tool in many wards and we feel very blessed to be a part of it.  We feel very privileged to meet with Mark Lusvardi, from the Missionary Department, for lunch at the Estancia every once in a while to report on what's happening.  We are getting ready to open up a new mission in Paraguay as soon as supplies are ready.  It is so exciting to see the interest in this amazing tool to promote the gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

Mark with us at the Estancia