WOW!!! Can't Believe it's Been 3 Weeks

Yes, since I have posted it has been 3 weeks.  Anyway, exciting and busy days.   We are tired.  We are old.  Anyway, let's start with Argentina Bethel.  How beautiful.  Just like every Bethel I would suppose.  We got a wonderful room that was way too nice for us.   The next few photos are all of  the grounds and our room.

 

This is the Bethel Turtle.  So Adorable.

 

 

Neil and he's so adorable too.

 

Now we will take you into our guest room.  We did not get to tour anything because it was on the weekend, but two members of the Branch Committee came to lunch here in Ezeiza and told us to be sure to come back during the week and tour everything.  Well, that is hard to do since we work during the week, but we do have to go to Uraguay to get our passports stamped in November so perhaps we can go then.  That would be great.

 

 

Did you notice the TV?  It is so funny to watch.  It is all in English with Spanish subtitles.  Now we know what the brothers mean when they say they learned English on TV.  Thus the funny questions they ask us.  Such as "Does OK mean Zero Dead or Zero Killed?"  Anyway, it was funny at the time.

 

 

I really was doing dishes.  This was no staged photo.  We were able to buy some homemade chocolate chip ice cream in their commisary and Neil got Mango.  He tries to eat healthy.

 

The next morning, last Saturday, we walked awhile, and made it to the subway and went to downtown Buenos Aires.  There we hopped on a tour bus that you can get on and off whenever you like.  We never got off till the end and it was three and half hours long.  We had gone to the Casa Rosada before but didn't take the tour.  So we decided to take the tour.  They were only offering it in Spanish but we took it anyway and there was an English-speaking tour guide visiting and she translated for us.  These Argentines love their Eva Peron.  On our way to the Casa Rosada, Neil got a friendly gentleman to spray fake bird poop all over him and then helped to wipe it off.  It smelled like sulfur and he really was helping him get it off his pockets.  Alas, Neil had his most important stuff in the front pocket.  That was an experience.  Then off to Eva's house.

 

 

 

This was her desk that she always used and just to the left of the photo is where she could go out that balcony.  We also saw the fabulous dining room and some of her clothes, etc. etc. etc. but we didn't want to bore you with that.  They really love her here even though she is dead.  Their  new money will have her picture on it.  They tried it once but it would get stuck in the ATM's so they had to abandoned it and they are working on new money.

 

 

On the way home from our tour, we took the subway again and about five or six stops before we were to get off five people got on.  They were all dressed in suits and the two women were dressed so nice.  Neil said, "They're witnesses."  So I got out our Guest Badges for Bethel and showed them to the brother there with the white shirt.  They all got excited and started talking all fast and crazy.  Well, it turns out that the brother with the white shirt is a Bethelite named Jonathan.  The brother and sister on the left are a CO and his wife visiting from Brazil on vacation and staying at the Bethel as guests like we were.  The other standing brother and his wife (she's taking the photo) are friends of the CO.  He serves the sign language circuit.  They invited us to their room for pizza and we spent the rest of the evening with them.  None of them spoke very much English and we spoke only a little Spanish but then that didn't help very much because they speak Portuguese.  Anyway, we had an awesome time and the brother kept quoting Zephania 3:9. So nice.  Also, when we would say Spanish words he would also say, "No, you say it like this."  And then he would say it in Portuguese.  So not only were we struggling with Spanish now we were struggling with Portuguese.    His friend works for some computer place or something like that (not sure) in RDJ (Rio) and when he looks out his office window he sees the statute of "Jesucristo".  You know, the big one with his arms stretched out.  He laughed when he told us about that.

 

 

Last night at our meeting, Neil was asked to give the closing prayer and the brother said he could say it all in English.  Well, Neil decided to say some Spanish in there. They said they have had English prayers and Spanish prayers and now they have had Spanglish prayers.  They were all so excited and telling him how wonderful it was.  It was a nice prayer.  Now tomorrow is the first Saturday we work, then we get an extra day off during the week but we are saving it to go to Uraguay to get our passports stamped.  So this wouldn't be complete without mentioning something fabulous Gaston has prepared.  Yesterday it was Paella and the brothers were so happy.  Neil and me, not so much.  But since the Branch Committe Members had come from Buenos Aires, they brought some homemade ice cream for us and that made up for everything.  I am showing you a photo of one of Gaston's salads and let me tell you, he even makes beets taste good.

 

 

 

 

 

Hasta la proxima fez!!