What a great weekend we had. It began with our taking the bus to the and attending the wedding of two of our young friends. It was our first wedding in Uruguay, and the first time we had heard the ceremony performed in Spanish. The couple just shined, and we were very grateful to be invited. That evening at 7PM, they performed the temple wedding, which was wonderful, and later we went to the wedding reception. It was held about 50 yards away in the neighboring chapel.
There was good food, (excellent hors dourves that I had never tasted before), music, (they had a DJ9, and dancing. When the bride and groom entered,they played the beginning of ¨From This Moment¨, but then immediately shifted into the Blue Danube Waltz, (see 2001, A Space Odyssey), and the bride and groom waltzed.
Then the parents waltzed with them, then everybody began to waltz. And...I mean....they could all really dance. Whether old, medium or young, They were good!! Later on, as they played faster music, it became apparent that almost everyone there was skilled in swing dancing. We were, and are, a bit baffled. Do they teach it in school here?
Anyway, we did some unimpressive dancing of our own, but spent more time holding the baby of a young couple who really enjoyed the chance to trip the light fantastic, almost as much as we enjoyed holding the baby. When we left, at 10:30, the party was still going strong.

The next day the other senior missionaries had invited us for a Tex-Mex dinner at the mission housing near the temple. We all really miss Mexican food here, and some of the ladies here had the Tex-Mex cooking skills, and figured out where to get the ingredients. Wow!! It was amazing! They say they will try for Chinese next time.

Today was stake conference, and it was being held across town in an area we weren´t too familiar with. We figured we would catch our regular bus to the city center, and then see if we could find one that was going our way. However, as we were standing in our regular place, wondering where the bus was, we noticed that they were blocking the road. It turns out there was a race scheduled, and we need to find another bus. As we began to walk up the road, a car stopped beside us. An older gentleman leaned out and asked, ¨Where are you going?¨ We told him we were headed to church, some distance away. He said, ¨Get in! I will take you!¨ We, of course, politely tried to turn him down, but he was insistent, and we got in the car. We weren´t even very clear in our minds about where the church was, but he took us across town, stopped twice to ask directions of passers by, and there we were. We thanked him and he drove away. It wasn´t until later that I figured out that he was one of the three Nephites.

It turned out to be a special stake conference for the 26 stakes of Uruguay and Paraguay, broadcast from Salt Lake, with Elder Ballard and Elder Packer, among others, speaking to us in excellent Spanish.

On the way home, (no Nephite waiting for us this time), we grabbed a bus that we hoped would lead downtown. Instead it took us.....right to the hospital where our friend Myrna, the stroke victim, was staying. We got off, looked at eachother, and decided we were supposed to be at the hospital. We had a good visit, and then found the proper bus and headed home. I guess you could say that we felt abundantly blessed all weekend.

The Christmas decorations went up in the stores this week, immediately after Halloween. It is going to be a lot of Christmas to deal with, since there is no Thanksgiving to break it up. Today, Nov 2, all of the banks are closed, as El Dia de los Muertos, (the Day of the Dead), is a national holiday. Sure enough, even though we are at work, it is kind of dead today.

This week we began teaching the 12 hour workshop by ourselves for the first time. Betty taught one of the sections, and did quite well. I am very proud of her.


I apologize in advance for the light-minded moment, but....the Giants have won the World series!!!!! This, of course, is a sign that the Millenium really is coming soon.