Argentina Documentation

Elder Hill (with Glasses) the mission secretary, called and said we needed to do some paper work. Paperwork here is called Tramites. So we walked downtown, met up with him and a dozen other new missionaries from all over the mission and got ourselves finger printed...again. We had to have an FBI check with finger prints to get into Argentina and then now more finger prints to stay in the country! I think they plan to match them to see if we are legally able to stay.

It was very different getting finger printed down here at the police station vs Draper Utah's Police Station. The police station was very old (in its day it would have been nice) and it had a glass ceiling right above us with a couple of broken panels. It didn't look very safe! They had a big jar of dirty, gritty soap and they gave us a small scoop in our hands to rub together and then go wash off.  It took us so long to get the ink off our hands and of course there were no paper towels to wipe our hands on (they did have a dirty rag that was hanging but not even the locals used it).  I guess that's why missionaries wear black pants.  Maybe this is why they call this paperwork "tramites", lots of trauma!

The floor was beautiful! Notice the ink on the floor! I hope that 'glass ceiling' doesn't serve as a metaphor or prevent me from learning Spanish. I can do it!

We also went to another place to have our photos taken with the other new missionaries. The Photo studio reminded me of Napoleon Dynamites friend, Debbie's photo studio. It looks pretty normal in the photo below, but it had a mirrored-disco ball, sparkly motion lights and other hanging shinny stuff. It was fabulous!  

One Elder from Riverton reported that he was robbed at knife point on his first day in the country! Welcome to Argentina! He had his watch, camera, and money stolen. He didn't plan to tell his mother but his brother spilled the beans....I mean frijoles. It was nice to speak to some to the English speaking missionaries! May the Lord bless these missionaries with safety and success!