"La Casa del Señor"

As we entered the beautiful Buenos Aires temple and prepared to participate in an endowment service, so much felt different and odd; but yet so much was very familiar and comfortable. It's fascinating to experience something in a foreign language that you know well in your native language. As you try to make sense of the words, there's a need to focus and concentrate that can bring new insights and comprehension. This was particularly the case for us today as we were asked to be the witness couple. Though we may not have understood every word, we knew exactly what was happening and why, and didn't miss any of the "cues" for our responsibility. Attempting to interpret the language was relatively easy. It got perhaps a little more challenging when our turn came to participate in the spoken portions!

A wonderful senior sister who works in the area office with us, Greta Shumway, invited us to join her on our second Saturday morning in Argentina for a visit to the Buenos Aires Temple. It turns out that this is generally a long excursion. While we are accustomed in Utah to having a commute of less than 15 minutes to the temple, here it takes closer to an hour (or more depending on the traffic situation); and then sessions are spaced out 45 minutes (Saturdays) to an hour (weekdays) apart, as opposed to every 20 minutes in Provo, so you may end up waiting even longer. But there's nothing wrong with enjoying more time on a temple visit!

Photo of the temple from the car as we approached

This temple was originally completed in 1986, the third in South America following São Paulo Brazil and Santiago Chile. It sits prominently on the outskirts of the city, alongside a major freeway that leads to the main airport.

View of the temple's main entrance

It seemed to me that the ordinances were presented today, not just in Spanish, but in an Argentina version of Spanish (distinctive accent and pronunciation). I thought about the recent changes in how that presentation occurs, and recognized how dramatically easier it is now to adapt the presentation to other languages. Though I miss many aspects of the previous implementation, I can see the wisdom in the change.

It was fun to see the support of the people at the temple. There were perhaps a dozen large buses that had brought people to attend. Many of them come from remote parts of Argentina, or from Paraguay where the temple is currently closed for renovations. There were many family groups, the youth there to perform baptisms while parents were involved in other ordinances. Most of them seemed to have their own family names.

Adjacent to the temple are buildings that used to house the CCM (Centro de Capacitación Misional, or Missionary Training Center), which was closed last year as the Church made changes to improve efficiency in use of facilities. The buildings are now used for patron housing.

We look forward to returning regularly to this beautiful building during our time in Argentina.

I found this link on one of the Church's official Argentina websites. It describes the rededication of the temple in 2012 after renovations, and includes a number of beautiful interior photos.

Incidentally, there is one other temple currently operating in Argentina, in Córdoba, about a 7-hour drive from where we are; we would love to visit there as well during one of our "road trips" for our humanitarian projects. Two other temples have been announced, for Mendoza and Salta (circled on map) where we also have active projects.

Temples in southern South America, courtesy of http://ChurchofJesusChrist.org