Another great letter;
Hello from Ibarreta, Formosa, Argentina everyone,
This week went by pretty quick for me. And slow at the same time. Quick because we had Pday on Monday and then we went to Formosa Capital for our multi zona. Which I found out at the multi zona, is zone conference in English. So that was interesting. Here in Argentina they have lots of stuff for rent. Cars, vans, motorcycles, and other stuff like that. We also have lots of buses. Instead of taking a bus, our zone rented a van in Campo, that picked everyone up by companionship by companionship. For us they came by at seven fifteen so we were able to wake up like normal and get ready basically like normal. The multi zona was really good. Some parts I didn’t get because the entire thing was in Castellano but I got most of it. They fed us lunch, which was really good. (Milanesas are my second favorite thing that I have eaten here. I like ham and cheese empanadas better.) After the multi zona, we stopped by the Changomas again. Changomas is just the Argentine ripoff of Walmart. I think that it is also owned by Walmart or on Walmart property. I’m afraid that I did not eat as healthily as I should have. I ate a box of Argentine donuts on my own. I did much better over the week though. Then we came back just in time for bed.
After the Multizona it was work like usual. We went contacting and to our citas and all the usual stuff. That was pretty fun and pretty boring. On Friday though we did something different. In the morning, we had an amazing charla with an investigator couple and placed a fecha for both of them. They both have huge potential for us. They are a little hard to pin down though. We talked to them about the Plan of Salvation, that was kind of our go to lesson this entire week. We taught that one most. After we talked to them we went to lunch at a members house. They made, guess what, giso. With rice this time. I have to say, I prefer noodle giso to rice giso. Then we went home and did our weekly planning for this week. It started to pour rain. Now there are certain times of day when the Argentine people, at least in Pirane, don’t want to talk to anybody, least of all the missionaries. That is early in the morning, during the siesta, and later in the evening when the sun goes down (that’s when the mosquitoes come out too), and when it’s too hot or too rainy. And frankly the missionaries don’t want to go out then either. So it started to pour rain during our planning session, so we didn’t leave until later. When the rain let up enough for us to go out, we went straight to the bus terminal. There we hired a Remis (Pronounced Re mees with the stress on the ees part) to take us to a neerby pueblo. The pueblo is called Palo Santo, which is also an incense wood. We went there because we got a reference from Formosa for a family that lived there and aparently it is in our area. We taught the family and called the Remis to come get us. It took forever to pick us up and when we got home, it was again time for bed. We missed going to church with an investigator (that is an interesting story) and a cita we had with the investigator who is going to be baptized this Saturday.
So we got a reference from one of our members for her next door neighbor, and we went to talk to them. We invited them to church on Sunday and they said we’ll go to your church if you come to ours. So we called the Presidente Patania and asked if we could go. Presidente said yes it was okay and we were going to go, but it turns out we were on the way back from Palo Santo, and our hosts were unable to go themselves. So we didn’t actually go. We’ll see if they try to get us to go again next week. The people here go to church so often. Many times two to four times a week. There is also a different church every cuadra, so when we call people and say, “It’s the missionaries” They say “From what religion?” That surprised me a little. It seems like most of them are Evangelicals though.
The Argentine and Latin people as a whole make me laugh sometimes. They all will wear shirts or jackets that have English lettering on them and they have no idea what it means. Some of the things are really very insulting and they have no idea because they don’t understand English. I sleep on a mattress named after Cannon. That made me smile. We were driving on our way home from the multizona and we almost ran over a couple of pigs that were just walking in the middle of the highway. Alfajores are delicious. But they are super cheap here and not so much in the states. So just add it as a permanent thing for my Christmas and Birthday wish list. Alfajores. Sorry to my friends who have served or are serving in other Latin American countries but out of all that I have met, I think the Argentines and the Brazilians are the nicest and my favorite. You know that fresh smell that Utah gets after it rains? Yeah Argentina doesn’t get that smell, at least Pirane doesn’t. It smells like Zeus was urinating on the earth. I think that’s because of the cesspools on the side of the road that fill up a lot. Walking in mud is an art and a workout. And I don’t think that I will ever master it. I almost fell so many times the other day. Sorry Questin but I want to learn how to play the guitar now. I’ve watched two movies so many times (Coco and The Book of Life), and listened to some crazy guitar music that made me want to learn. So when I come home, Jack, be prepared to teach me how. All the roads are dirt so every pueblo has a bulldozer type thing that is for the sole purpose of flattening the road.
Sorry for that paragraph that didn’t make a lot of sense in any way. Just a lot of stuff that I liked or noticed from Argentina. Going back for a second to alfajores I think I’m going to bring a box or two back with me. So now a couple of things about people that I’ve talked to and stuff like that. We met a guy who after we introduced ourselves as missionaries who said, “Oh yeah? I’m a missionary too?” I asked him for what religion, and he said, “No I’m from Misiones” which is a pueblo here in Argentina, I think that it is in the Posadas mission though. Then on the other hand we tried to contact a guy who just told us to get lost. He wasn’t speaking castellano though I don’t think, because I didn’t understand a lick of what he was saying. Hermano Aguilar, the elders quorum president and my favorite person in my area, knows how to dance hip hop or something. We had a day of the dead party two days after Halloween, which really sucked for me by the way. No candy and all of our citas dropped, we went to the creepiest Barrio (neighborhood) in Pirane, and it was wet. Anyway we were listening to some music and he started to dance. And then when wer were in the capilla, he started to do the street breakdancing you see in movies where they get on the ground and do all the spin moves and stuff. That made me laugh and think of Mike. Then the day before that I was walking home for lunch and there was this stray dog that followed us all the way there. That made me smile.
Last paragraph. Mom and Dad, if you decide to remodel, you HAVE to keep the carpet. I am so sick of brick and tile floors. So keep the carpet. Dad, do you remember that huge rainstorm that we had in Hershey? The one where the parking lot flooded? That is how hard it rained for us here. There was so much water on the ground, and my boots leak. I’m going to get a new pair when I go to Tucuman. That is why the last week went slow for me too. Because I am looking forward to seeing all of my friends from the CCM in Tucuman at the end of this week and all the way to the beginning/middle of next week. Yesterday on the bus to Ibarreta, they had Star Wars the Force Awakens playing in English on the TV’s. I was more excited about it then than I was when it was in the theatres. I could barely contain my excitement.
Well that was a really long email. Hope everyone finds time to read at least part of the Book of Rees. Happy Birthday Uncle Adam and Uncle McKay and Aunt Bekah as well. I’m sad I am not there for it. But I am doing the Lord’s work and finding people that are ready to hear the gospel. At least I am trying to find those people. We’ll see how it actually turns out. I love and miss you all. Hope you found my note in the pictures I sent last week. Or was I going to send it this week? I don’t remember. Look for the note written on the green blackboard.
Love your favorite missionary, well most of your favorite missionary,
