On Saturday, Elder W. and I traveled to the small town of Rocha so that he could conduct an interview with a young woman wanting to be baptized. Rocha is about a 2 hour drive from our home. It is probably the largest chapel I have ever seen and it only houses two branches, no wards. I took this photo of the Elders in Rocha the last time we were there. The young man in the jeans is not a missionary. They are a great group of fine missionaries.
We don't see many mountains, I know this is not a real mountain, but it is about the biggest we see here. We are right on the coast, so we see and feel the ocean more. Our apartment is about 5 minutes from the ocean. We get wonderful breezes and sometime "squalls" too. Short bursts of very strong ocean winds, even now in the summer they can be chilly.
Everywhere we drive (yes we both drive here), when we get a little bit out of Montevideo, you see nothing but green pastures. Cows, horses and sheep are grazing all along the roads in pastures. There are huge groups of trees. It is like a "Johnny Apple Seed" was in Uruguay and planted literally thousands and thousands of trees in sections. Some are squares and some are rectangles literally. We have been trying to figure out why they are the way they are...no answers from anyone we ask. Here is a great example.
It is a pleasant drive, if you are drugged as the passenger! For any of you who remember, my sweet husband drives like he is still behind the wheel of a police car with the lights and siren on. The speed limit in much of this rural area is 90 kph, but you have to drive at least 120 to be with the traffic. Now that equates to only about 75 mph at home. But the difference is, I am NOT at home. We are in a foreign country and I don't want to go to jail. And everyone passes two and three cars at a time. There are more motorcycles, bicycles and small cars (that don't run well) and some very large trucks too. The motorcycles can have 1 to 4 people riding them, sometimes with children.
This chapel is one of the largest I have ever seen. This is the main hallway. The cultural hall is on the right side of that wall and the chapel is more to the right of this bench. That is a wall of the original building used to build the ward house. It is so gorgeous, it reminds me so much of Machu Picchu. It is over 100 years old. The stones fit exactly with (in this case) very little if any mortar. This next photo is of the corner of the chapel. The organ sits at the front as usual with this wonderful wall behind it. There is great woodwork in these old chapels.
We attended a Sunday meeting here months ago. It was a District Conference, two branches. An interesting thing happened; when we arrived we were greeted by a brother and sister. She was wearing a pair of slacks. I thought, oh they need to learn more appropriate dress standards for Sunday meetings. NO, they had invited a special local choir who were mostly non-members. The women in the choir wore a black blouse and slacks with a vibrant color scarf. This sister did not want them to feel out of place or awkward. How very kind and generous of her. And...they were wonderful, they sang two of our hymns with no accompaniment and stayed for the rest of the meeting. It was a very nice meeting for sure.
I wanted to post one other photo but, alas I do not have it. The driver of this trip was driving at a speed that made it impossible to take the photo. It was a sign on our way out of Montevideo. The sign said: "Las Vegas"! Can you imagine my surprise...Las Vegas. I guess people everywhere know our town. I'll try again next time we go to Rocha.
I love being here with my wonderful husband. I do miss our family so badly!!! But the time is passing so quickly, we will be home in no time at all.
My love to you all,
until I write again,
xoxoxo
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