Saturday, August 8, 2009

A Tour Of The Mission

Mauro was baptized just a few months ago, found by Elder Hawks but taught by Hermana Arrieta. He comes to church by himself, and he has gone out with the missionaries and "opened the mouth" with a man on the street. He came to the training to help the Assistants demonstrate one of their techniques on finding people in the street and on the bus. Mauro is darling, and has the longest eyelashes, he would melt the heart of any person on the street with his sweet spirit. He is 12 and looks forward to serving a mission one day. His dad (inactive) will not marry his mom and so she can not be baptized.
The is a picture of Elder Malakai and Elder Phippen and I at the entrance to the city San Luis.
The most amazing picture. As we drove from Mendoza to San Rafael we saw out in the field a man plowing his field, with the old style plow of our ancestors. He and his horse were out in the cool winter breeze plowing. We had to stop, I even got it on video. The plow is hard to see, but trust me, it was the kind of plow our great grandparents used. Out here in the countryside of Argentina you would never know it was 2009.
The Diamonte River showing the slow flow of the winter. We receive most of our precipitation in the summer time. You can see the fields of pampas grass stretching for miles. The cattle freely roam in the grass. The sun was beginning to set and we had miles yet to go on the thin two way highway. We would drive for five to ten minutes and not see a car. It is a lonely stretch of road between San Rafael and San Luis.
Indepencia Plaza, the center of San Luis. It was constructed in the early 1930's. Like most plaza's in Argentina, there is a cathedral on one side, a government building on another, a bank and school on the others.
The renovated train station which was built in 1884. It is a beautiful building with it's green corrugated roofs and decorative ironwork.
On the south side of the Plaza Indepencia is the Iglesia de Santo Domingo and its convent built in the 1930's. It is a reproduction of the Moorish style of the 17th century building they replaced. On the front area where it is fenced in, is the excavation of the original footing to the first building.
The provincial Casa de Gobierno- the government house is on the northern side of the main plaza. It has the most beautiful iron doors. The building is quite ornate.
In the center of the city of San Luis is the beautiful 19th century San Luis Cathedral. The provincial hardwoods such as algarrobo were used for the cathedral's windows and frames, and local white marble for its steps and columns. The cathedral was closed so we couldn't go in.
Just a close up of the detail work on the cathedral.
This photo is taken way back on the side street so you can see the full depth of the building, and the rotunda. As we travel the mission and see these old buildings in San Rafael and San Luis, it makes me sad that all the colonial buildings in Mendoza and San Juan were destroyed by earth quakes in the early 1900's. The center of the city in Mendoza is no longer in the same location. In the 1930's they reconstructed the Plaza Indepencia (central Plaza) farther south east. It is now three blocks from the area where we live and where all the main hotels are (Hyatt, Sheraton). I would love to have seen the colonial buildings of this city, it would have brought the history of Mendoza city to life.

1 comment:

Tara said...

It is beautiful, especially for winter time. Now I want a tour of your room,, your car....did Ryan Kay get my email? Love you