President Vargas

We had stake conference last weekend and one of the visiting leaders was the mission president's counselor, President Vargas, who came with his wife from the Cordoba area.  He grew up in Buenos Aires and lived in one of the wards Doug served in as a young missionary.  While they didn't remember each other, they were able to talk about some people from that ward and it was very special for Doug to learn of people and how they're doing from that era and area. 

Wires just outside our house

I've noticed since we've been here that the city wiring/electricity is definitely above the ground.  I went outside and snapped pictures from our street to prove my point.

Sometimes you wonder if there's a super windy day - and it's definitely windy in Catamarca - if the wires and poles would come crashing down.  We certainly hope not!

This is our house and don't you love that we're also enjoying green energy?  We love the plants growing on our roof!  No weeding required...  :o)

Argentine Gauchos

This past weekend was some sort of gaucho/cowboy activity and we loved seeing the gauchos arriving on Saturday.  As we were leaving town to drive down to La Rioja both Saturday and Sunday, we saw them arriving on Saturday, and then heading out of town on Sunday.  As you can see, Saturday was a cloudy, rainy day.  Today we saw more gauchos up in the mountains east of Catamarca as they were returning to their pueblos/towns in that direction.  The paper said there were 10,000 gauchos in Catamarca for the weekend. 

Hey, wait a minute.  That doesn't look like gauchos.  Oh right...we took the sister missionaries up to the mountains this morning to see the view of the city.  It was gorgeous being up there, as always!

Man oh man, were they excited!!

Memories with members, missionaries, and the country

Since I last wrote we've celebrated a birthday, did some sightseeing, had a zone conference, and met with some members.  Here are the pictures to prove it!

Little Esperanza Parmigiano celebrated her 4th birthday on Sunday, March 25th.  Here's her family:  Eli/mother, Claudio/father, Mariana/aunt, Victoria/sister, Julieta/cousin, and Esperanza holding her newly received kitten.

                                                      Victoria, Julieta, and Esperanza

This was such a pretty drive and we came upon this little pueblo/town with the cows by the side of the road.  As you can see, the clouds were super low.  We also loved seeing the rock turtle waiting to greet us.

Below they were growing something in the lighter green area in the middle of the picture.  See how the clouds are starting to dissipate?  By the time we returned home it was sunny and beautiful!

Another day we drove up to the nearby dam, El Jumeal, so we could take a few pictures.  It's literally about 5 minutes from our home. 

Here are some pictures of the city from that vantage point. 

It's hard to see in the picture below but right in the middle, that large white building just below the first range of mountains, is Catamarca's soccer stadium.

Our zone from back row, left to right:  Elders Correa/Chile, Kohler/UT, Bethers/UT, Neville/UT, Bilbao/Chile, Critchlow/UT, Egbert/UT.  Middle row:  Elders Hughes/UT, Puma/Peru, Kayser/CA, Mosmann/Argentina, Gilman/ID.  Front row:  Sisters Steward/UT, Brown/UT, Sister and President Salas/Argentina, us, Elders Gallacci/WA, Cerda/Chile.  All great missionaries and all great to work with!!

Finally, we went by to visit a dear member and saw that she was reading her lesson manual and scriptures and enjoying her mate.  The Argentines drink mate every day of their lives.  Mate is an herbal drink that's prepared from steeping dried leaves of yerba mate in hot water.  They sprinkle sugar over the dried leaves and sip through a straw with a sieve at the bottom of it.  They always share the same straw with whomever they're with. They relax with it, socialize with it, and savor it!!  Missionaries aren't allowed to drink it as it's a time waster for us as well as not super healthy to share the same straw with everyone.

Sister Martinez

These are the flowers in her front yard and are so pretty.

Corn and cats...

We were driving home from our visits one day last week - in town and in our area - and we noticed HUGE piles of corn at every fruit and vegetable stand.  So we stopped and bought 4 ears.  They cost about $.25 each and were humongous.

Looks pretty big, doesn't it?!

We had 2 elders over for lunch and enjoyed sharing the corn with them.  But...I do have to say this:  the flavor wasn't as good as at home.  That part was disappointing.  Nevertheless, it sure was fun having fresh corn-on-the-cob!








Now look at these darling cats I just found out in our backyard!  The one in front is just a little kitten.  That was a fun find this afternoon!  I was sitting in the kitchen reading my scriptures and having some study time online when I looked up and saw some friends in the backyard.  They look pretty comfortable so I'm guessing this is a fairly frequent thing they do.  It beats our coming home one P-day and finding a dog in our backyard, barking away frantically.  Later that week I saw a dog up on the back wall and decided that's how the other one came to be in our backyard.  At least cats can jump fences and leave whenever they want.

A Grand Birthday Party

Little Anita Ledesma had a birthday party for her 9th birthday and we hopped in to wish her a Happy Birthday.  They had a jumping castle, face painting for the girls, tons of food for everyone, and party favors.  This is the fanciest birthday I've seen down here.

The face painting table.  Girls like this no matter where they live.

Margarita Ledesma, Carlos Verandi, Nildo and Silvina Ledesma - family and a friend to help Anita enjoy her day.

Lucila Ledesma, Bianca Hammon, and Camila Ledesma enjoying the evening and helping Anita with her party.

Matias Quiroga hurrying to jump in the castle.

Goodbye Elder Gossling!

Elder Gossling has been in Catamarca the entire we've been here, arriving 2 days after we did.  He finished his mission this week and now we miss him.  Thanks for all your hard work, Elder Gossling!

          This picture was taken outside the bus terminal as he began the final leg of his journey home.