So first off before I forget...
FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS
MAMA!
And Lady America... Have fun having fireworks and pool parties while I freeze mi freaking nalgas off and waiting for a Christmas package because it feels like Christmas here.
But there is mud here instead of snow and dogs instead of reindeer.
We have a mini christmas tree on our table and we´re going to celebrate Christmas on the 25 of July :)
Soy Incomoda
I knew the moment I became a missionary I would become the single most awkward thing that ever walked the face of the planet. Because, ya know... Missionaries
But.
Never have I ever felt more awkward because there is a language barrier and so I just smile a lot and say "si, si" a whole lot haha.
It´s not as exactly bad as it sounds. A lot of the other missionaries here tell me that I speak really well for being so new in the field. But the problem is, I can speak but it´s sooo hard to understand the natives here. Especially when they are missing all but 4 of their teeth. Which is more common then not.
So I´ll say something to them in Spanish and they´re like "Oh, ella entiende!" (Oh, she understands) and then they speak to me faster than I can run for a donut and then I stare at them blankly and ask "Uh, como?"
And then they laugh and say "Oh, no entiende nada!" (Oh she doesn´t understnad at all)
This is the story of my life.
Or I say something and they stare at me, and then they turn to Hermana Nomellini and ask what I said and then she says the exact same thing I said and then they´re like ooohhhh.
Pero, esta bien. I think it´s funny.
It´s Super Chill Here... Literally
So one thing that´s different here is like the attitude of life they have... They´re chill here, (and it´s so cold!) and they just kind of don´t care about anything. They kind of don´t work for a better life because necessaties are given to them. They just do what they want like they don´t have to work or go to school because the governor provides money for them. Also the governor gives a lot of money to girls in their teen years who get pregnant so there are a lot of girls here who are only a year younger than me but they have like 3 kids and live in shacks. It´s kind of heartbreaking.
But other than that the things they do here are so funny and careless and would never fly in the Estados Unidos.
Like fitting five people on one moto.
Letting your horse roam the neighborhood.
It´s normal to have five dogs follow you into the bus terminal.
Letting your 5 year old play with a steak knife and poke his sister with it.
And then watch as she takes scissors and chases him around the table with it
Or if your 2 year old is being distracting during a lesson, give him an axe to go play with alone with his 1 year old sister outside...
This is not a drill people! These things have actually happened!
And the traffic laws don´t mean anything...
There is a reason the missionaries don´t get cars here, and I have a feeling it´s not our fault...
I´ll just leave it at that.
I Love the People!
But really the people are so loving here and they´re sooo cute. They just love to talk and talk and talk and talk and drink mate and try to feed you bread, cookies, and alfahores. They all love me for blue eyes and blonde here haha. I get called linda, bonita, hermose, princessa on a daily basis haha.
Speaking of princess, we have this family who have been investigators for like a year and a half. All they´re kids have been baptized but the parents have been waiting for a divorce from a different marriage so they can get married and be baptized. But they´re basically members, so we call them dry members haha.
Anyways, they have the cutest little boy and he reminds me of Elijah so my heart just melts everytime I see him. He loves sharing his toys with me and grabbing my face and kissing my cheeks haha. He prays before he eats anything and guys there is just nothing cuter than listening to little kids speak spanish. And he does this thing where he calls all the girls in the room "princesas" and bows to them like a prince. Ugh, my favorite person!
There are so many great people here. We went on splits the other day in Punta Magotas with the other Hermanas in our zone and I went with Hermana Child from Farmington (by the way, I´m pretty sure that she is neighbor´s with my cousin Bryce...) to visit this recent convert. He´s 82 and gold I tell you, gold. He built his own house, but then found this 18 year old boy and 17 year old girl with a baby and so he gave up his own house for them to live in. And then he lived in a little shack (it´s the middle of winter here too!) And now he´s building himself another house. He was adorable and reminded me a lot of my Grandpa Penrod.
And I love going to church and to members houses. The Spirit feels the same to me there and it is such a huge comfort because I feel like I´m living in a totally different world. It´s nice to know you can feel Heavenly Father´s love wherever you go :)
Werk, werk, werk
I´m still getting used to the work, but I love it! We have about 7 investigators right now which I super grateful for because everyone else in our zone have close to none. I love looking into their eyes when they´re feeling the spirit for the first time and they´re understanding everything we´re talking about. They´re eyes literally twinkle. I think that is my favorite part of the work is seeing their eyes twinkle and they look so happy and at peace. The spirit does amazing things. There have been like two or three times where I´m bearing my testimony about something (because that´s all I can do ha) and I walk away not even knowing what I said but they understood me perfectly.
"Es el espiritu!" - Hermana Nomellini.
Right now we have two baptisms scheduled. One of them I´m skeptical about because we only taught him one lesson and haven´t been able to find him since...
But the next one is a cool story. Cirilo has been having lessons with the missionaries since long before I was here buut idk. His daughter, Narea, was baptized like a week before I got here and he was scheduled to be baptized with her but idk. Hermana Nomellini told me that he was a Testigo Jehovah (Jehovah Witness) and kind of arguing with them so they kind of stopped teaching for a while. And then Julia, his wife (she´s taking lessons too and has a strong testimony she´s just waiting to recieve an answer if she should be baptized) told us that he wanted to keep having lessons.
So the other night we had another lesson and Hermana Nomellini invited him to be baptized. He didn´t really give us a straight answer because he just wanted to be sure. So she told him to pray about.
And then he and his family came to church yesterday which really shocked us because
1. It was freezing cold and raining and not even the most faithful members came
2. They live super far away, they´re dirt poor and don´t own a car
3... We just didn´t know where we were with him
BUT THEN
He asked Hermana Nomellini to be baptized!!!
And then he beared his testimony during sacrament meeting about faith and it was beautiful.
That is the miracle for the week you guys!
So that´s pretty much all I have time for to write. Don´t worry about me. My trainer is super dedicated and patient with me. I love her.
I see improvement in the language everyday, both in speaking and understanding.
The only thing you have to worry about is all the Alfahores I eat in a week... It´s like cookies stuffed into a mini cake with dulce de leche layered in between. So good. I´ll send you a box for Christmas of all the ones I collect from the members. If I don´t eat them all haha.
Quotes of the Week
(Me telling someone where I am from)
Me: "Soy de los Estados"
Native: "¿Que parte?"
Me: "... Utah"
Native: "Ohhhh la facotoria"
Cada vez.
If you are missionary and you are from Utah or Idaho, you are from the factory. Idk.
(Hermana Nomellini telling our ward mission leader about one of our investigators but I thought she was talking about me)
Hermana Nomellini: "Ella entiende muy bien." She understood very well.
Me: "Ahhh usted es amable" Ahhhh you are nice.
Hermana Nomellini gives me a confused look: "¿Por que?" why?
Me: "oh"
Elder Schiess and I are still in the same zone (yay!) and now our new zone has picked up on some of the things we say:
"So entonces" enonces means so. so we are saying so so.
"Pues" pues doesn´t exisit in Argentina but it was like the number 1 word we used at the MTC so at our first district meeting we were saying "pues" all the time and everyone else were super confused haha.
Random guy on the bus to an Hermana in my zone: "Linda" cute/pretty
Hermana Jensen: ¨"Ugh feo" ugly.
They have trucks that sell food in Punta Magotas and they drive around the neighborhood with a megahone saying "bananas, manzanas, etc" which sounds like a creepy darth vader speaking in spanish. One of them saw Hermana Child and I and said: "HOLA LINDAS CHICAS"
Me and Hermana Child: "Well, now the whole neighborhood knows where we are. Hopefully the Elders heard it too so they can save us..."
... I´m half joking half kidding haha.
HAVE THE BEST FOURTH OF JULY EVERYBODY!!!
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