¡Hola!
I LOVE ARGENTINA!! This last week has been a crazy adventure for me for sure, and it feels like forever since I have been able to write. I can´t believe that it has been a week ago that I was leaving the MTC!
We had a nice flight and arrived in Argentina about 8:30 in the morning! The Airport in Buenos Aires, ya no Sky Harbor. Honestly Argentina is dirty. Everywhere. So the airport definetly was.All of my mission is basically the poor part of Buenos Aires (The state or Province, Buenos Aires the city is referred to as Capital) So the area is pretty run down, but there are still some sections that are nice! Like the mission home is in a very nice area which is the picture all of you seen last week! Anyways...we had a wild bus ride to the mission home after getting our luggage. First lesson learned in Argentina, they are the craziest drivers on earth!! They fly down streets, slam on brakes, and get like no kidding less than 6 inches from eachother! And still manage to not crash the assistants told us that they are the World´s Best Bad Drivers, or in other words they are really good driving like maniacs and not killing themselves!
After arriving to the mission home we had pizza, and empenadas, which oh man are delicious! I could eat them all day, then we had our interviews with President Thurgood, and then we were assigned companions! Now I have to be honest that was the only thing I was concerned about,was what my companion was going to be like. I was assigned to Elder Brigham Spencer Garcia. He is 20 years old, and is from Peru. He has been out for about 10 months now. Elder Garcia speaks some English, enough that we can communicate (especially now since my spanish is getting better), he speaks just enough english that I don´t get frustrated when we can´t figure it out, and where I have to learn spanish and get better. So honestly it is the perfect combination. We live with two other missionaries, one is an American who came over with me, and then the other is Brazilian. Seriously, Latinos crack me up! They aren´t weird but they have a different kind of personality, that I just sit back and laugh all the time. Elder Garcia, is such a blessing in my life, and we get along great. He is a hard worker as well, so I think we are going to just fine together!
You will really have to excuse my writing this time, I am seriously at the stage where I don´t know spanish or english. Some words now are just starting to come in spanish, other words are still english. So it is a bit mentally exhausting! I never know what language is going to come out of my mouth! haha But my spanish is improving. It is a totally different language here. I didn´t realize it, but Castillano is an actual language, that is almost the same as spanish but just different enough to throw a twist. However spanish speakers understand castillano and castillano speakers understand spanish. So it is very similar. They talk so fast down here though, so I have issues following what is going on. By the time they are on their fifth sentence I am still figuring out the 1st. So I am having to learn very fast. But I am enjoying it!
The people here are great, like all of the members and nonmembers alike have treated us so good. Like all places there are those people who obviously are going to be mean, but the majority of the people I have met are super nice. Most people after realizing I don´t speak spanish that well are willing to help me out, because they can see I am trying.
The Food. I am probably going to have to watch my weight here. After gaining almost 17 pounds in the MTC, I realized I can´t eat whatever I want all the time! :) On sunday we had the famous Argentina Asado which is slow cooked beef, and other meats! AMAZING! It was so good, I haven´t had anything to strange though. They all love mayonaise, like they eat it with everything,(kinda gross), something I thought was strange, which actually wasn´t that bad, was hard boiled eggs in mashed potatoes! Overall the food though has been super good! They have amazing desserts, and places called Panaderias were they sell all kinds of breads, and baked goods. There is this type of cookie call alfajores which is a triple layer cookie, with dulce de leche (kinda carmel like but way better) in between each cookie and then dipped in chocolate. I decided it is Argentina´s gift to the world! The milk here comes in a bag, so that is different for sure! Still though everything is good!
Our Apartment. Well...it surely isn´t the Hilton. But I never expected that. Everything here is old, and kind of run down (including our apartment) However our apartment still is better then what most of the families live in. I didn´t realize how much I had,till I saw how little they have here. We have a tiny kitchen and the bathroom is the weirdest part for me. The toilet, and a beday, and the shower are all in one room. Like as in the entire bathroom is a shower. So that has been weird getting used to. I spent a good amount of time scrubbing the walls of our kitchen and just cleaning it all. So I am adjusting just fine.
I love Argentina though, the circumstances here aren´t the best, but I am learning alot. I already love the people in my area, and just wish I could talk with them. As of this week we have 3 investigators with Baptismal Dates, and this week we are going to get even more! This area was kind of headed down hill, in terms of progression, but Elder Garcia and I have plans to speed things up! We have a branch or rama here. On sunday we had about 45 people total, and there was only 1 kid in primary. Much different then Palo Verde Ward. My goal for my mission is to baptize a family the same size as mine. So 7 people in a family, or at least as many who can be baptized! I think there is alot of potential in this area, but only time will tell! I hope everyone is doing great at home! More to come next monday!
Con Amor,
Elder Hall
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