Argentina Day 15

Today we went shopping for alpergatas and dress shoes for Matias. I had given a pair to Cristian Etchegaray and wished I had held them for Matias because he didn’t have any dress shoes. We didn’t see any we liked, so that was a bummer. We got facturas and sat by the laguna to enjoy the morning. We also went to some book stores to see if they had anything good and to get our postcards. We went to visit Ulises, a fluent English speaker. It was good for Hayley to be able to talk in English to someone else! He is always depressed because he has health issues and is not married. It was a good visit—he talked about how he doesn’t remember many elders but he does remember me because of the impact I had on him and on that ward. That was very rewarding to hear.

We also went down to the new mall they were building while I was there. It was SO nice. Nice floors, it totally felt American. They had really nice stores and a food court! We ran into the missionaries there, and said hi. They were kinda lame and really didn’t respond at all. We had met the sisters at church and at Matias’s, and were not that impressed with them. Oh well. We had yummy lomo sandwhiches, and then went on up to the Azocar’s house. They decided that we should go visit Gaiman, so we drove on out there. It was fun—we went to the famous Casa de Te to visit, and then through an old scary train tunnel. They also gave us tons of alfajors for our trip—much appreciated! We had gone alfajor hunting earlier in the day and had already bought some, so we came home with extra alfajors. We ate some pizza with them and had a good little devotional where we all shared our favorite scriptures and I shared a handful to give them the peptalk they needed. They are doing very well, just needed a little pep talk. Afterwards, they drove us up to the airport. They were so nice in shuttling us around everywhere.

Turns out Beto's isn't just a Provo thing

 It was hot, so I sat in the window. Also, this is an obligatory fat picture we have to take every time when we see each other. 

Notice the name tag he has on?

When we got to the airport, it was a clash of cultures for them. They didn’t know how to get through the automatic gate (you have to pull the ticket). Then, they were in awe with how nice the airport was and the decorations and such it had. They ad no clue about security or checking bags or any of that, so we explained it all as we went. It was hard to say goodbye to them—they are such good friends and we really have a deep spiritual bond. They are great people who have also had the enormous blessing of being sealed in the temple. We boarded our flight and begun our trip back home.

The hotel we stayed at in Buenos Aires was awesome—it had a kitchen, a really nice bed and bathroom, and was right across the street from the Recoleta Cemetery. We had a taxi driver that ripped us off from the airport to the hotel though—we paid way more than we should have for that short drive. She was lost a bit. She offered to drive us to the airport the following day, and before I knew what I was doing I agreed and told her when to be there. Oops. Oh well. On to a good night’s sleep!