A Great Week....A new companion and a fun Pday at The Cross of Santa Ana

Luke had a great week....  They had 5 people at church and his friends Gustavo and Natalia were there and they are really clicking with people from the ward.  They had dinner the other night with 2 other couples!  So awesome!  Other exciting news is that Luke is in a threesome now!  Elder Kinikini joined he and Elder Childs and Luke is loving it!  They all get along great.  Elder Kinikini is from Utah and went to West High School.  He is going to be playing football at BYU when he gets home.  Luke said it is his mission to convince him to go to Utah State instead :) 

We didn't get much time to talk because Luke and his mission buddies went on another outing for P-day today!  I'm so glad they are getting out and seeing the sights!  Luke said it is so rejuvenating to get out and do stuff instead of being stuck in a church all of P-day.  I love seeing him so excited and happy!  

He actually called me from the top of a HUGE cross!  It is so funny because Luke is deathly afraid of heights so I could tell he was nervous.  In fact let me quote him "Mom this is so high I think I'm going to poop my pants!"  ha ha ha!  Then as I was talking to him his mission buddies decided to go even higher!   Luke wasn't going to but they talked him into it.  I could see everyone else walking around up there but Luke was standing nervously close to the center, staying away from all railings that looked out :)  He said "I don't trust Argentinian architecture."  ha ha ha!  I felt like I was there with him!  It was so fun, he did a panoramic for me and I could see the rainforest down below.  Wow what a view!  They also went in a little butterfly garden.  What a fun day.  

Here's a little bit I found on the internet about the park that he went to...

The small village of Santa Ana shelters the theme park known as Parque Temático de la Cruz a few kilometers away from the City of Posadas. This is an excellent tourist and religious attraction. The native rainforest, known as selva paranaense, is the hostess on a tour that offers viewpoints, trails, a museum, an auditorium, a butterfly house and an orchid house, among other attractions.




Excellent tourist and religious attraction


A panoramic view of the surroundings


A height of 82 meters



The perfect finale for our visit was to see the imposing main building upon which the metallic cross rests. The whole set reaches a height of 82 meters. Featuring an elliptical outdoor shape with ramps, we made our way up and took advantage of the different levels where the vantage points are located to observe the vegetation from above the canopies.

As regards the ascent of the cross, a system of staircases and a glazed elevator led us to the different balconies, where we caught an astonishing view. The tour ended at the height of the arms of the cross and it is a curious fact that the second stretch should be called Ascensor del Cielo (Heaven's Elevator). That was what we felt: some vertigo and the thrill of perceiving that this giant transparent box was holding us up in the heights.

This novel undertaking has managed such a magnitude that it is considered the tallest monument in the country. It even surpasses the height of the National Flag Memorial in Rosario (70 meters) and that of the Obelisk in Buenos Aires (67 meters).

In spite of the usual fog in the area, this point shows off a 360-degree panoramic view and is appreciated from several locations in the surroundings. At night, the lit-up cross becomes a spectacular visual attraction.