orientation continues

It has been a little bit tricky finding the hours and minutes for orientation with our new group of refuerzos. Fortunately for us, they are enthusiastic and patient with the unusualness of it all.

This morning we met at the mission offices and found out that the bus that was sent to us for the day did not have enough seats to accommodate everyone. A remis was hired, which followed us through the city so we could give everyone a little look at downtown, which is not in our mission.

We had a field trip to the park for a little church history and a mid-morning snack, at which point, we realized that we had not only our mid-morning snack, but their companions, (who were back at the offices receiving their own training) as well. Everyone gladly ate double their portion however!

Then, we traveled to the mission home. Normally when we ask for questions, there aren’t many to be had. I guess they have all been here long enough to have a ton of questions, and we tried to field them before lunch.

After lunch, we gave them some more information about the training program that they will be completing with their companions, which spawned a new set of questions.

The bus that came back to pick them up and take them home decided it was done waiting and took off, leaving us to hire 5 remises, which caravanned them back again to where we began this morning.

It was another gorgeous day. Most of them are sporting suntanned faces from their daily adventures. In between all the things we needed to share with them, we learned about their impressions of their first Christmas in Argentina as well as their successful and, unfortunately, some unsuccessful attempts to call home yesterday.

Generally, they tell us that they are super tired at the end of every day and sleeping better than ever. They are experiencing the fact that the “gospel vocabulary” that they learned in the MTC was great for church on Sunday, but there is a whole lot more. They are learning an incredible amount of new words and phrases everyday, even surprising themselves as they are beginning to communicate with others on the streets, in the trains and on the buses. We think they are doing great!