#1 A giant spider! They are starting to come out as summer ends here... apparenty they get bigger as the year goes on... yay. #2 My companion.

b

Soccer and siestas and beauty queens--oh my!

I´m going to talk a little about Argentina:  Right now, Argentina is considered as being a second world country, and for the most part, this is pretty accurate.  Most people are living off of close to nothing, but they are all super happy and amiable.  They just went through a significant change in government, so everyone is hopeful and happy.  They absolutely love soccer. Every p-day, the missionaries in my district get together tunuyan to play soccer at the church.  Right now in front of our pench, the street has been barred off and huge nets are on the side of the road, and I think they are going to play soccer.  This week has been loco because of the "reinas".  Every year, in Mendoza and the surrounding regions, each town elects a reina (a hot girl) to represent the town.  They also have a huge fiesta for the reinas with tons of wine.  Right now, almost every five minutes, a huge congregation of cars goes past with a reina on one of them (kind of like a parade, but every car is honking the whole time...).  I tried to get a picture of one of them, but she was moving too fast for it to look good.  Every day, the people here have a huge five hour siesta, and I hate it.  Because of siesta, our proseliting hours are in the morning, and 9-11 at night...

     This week I had a pretty good spiritual experience:  During a visit with a member, the member was feeling really sad (I don´t know why, her Argentine accent was really strong) and I felt prompted to have us all pray on our knees.  After the prayer, I felt that we should open the scriptures and just read whatever we opened it to, and the very first verse was exactly what she was looking for! (I also have no clue what it said, my Spanish is mas o menos terrible). My Spanish is coming along pretty well, actually. I had an interview with the mission president this week, and he said that I am way ahead of other new missionaries (yay!).

 Anyway, I´ll talk to you guys next week.  I´ll try to give a spiritual experience every week, I know my last email was kind of depressing...  I seem to email at 11 every Monday, so if anyone wants to instant messege with emails, I'll try to get on at 11 again.  We´re four hours ahead of you though, so it will be like 7 there I think.  ¡Nos Vemos!

My District!

Today at 7:29 AM

¡Hola!  This week was super interesting! My companion and I have been working hard to find new

investigators and teach and stuff.  During lessons, my companion and I take turns teaching different

parts, so I have had to learn a ton of Spanish just to do my part in the lessons.  Elder Vega had me

do all of the talking and knocking one day, and with my first door, we got a new investigator! It was

really hard to do all of lesson one by my self, but I did it, and the reward was more than worth it.  

Three days ago was probably one of the hardest days so far: we missed our bus ride to Aujnaeo bustos

(thats not right, but it´s close to the name...) so we had to ride bikes for three miles or so.  about halfway

there, due to the heat and hard core pedaling, one of the pedals on the bike broke in half.  When we got 

to bsñlkfñsa bustos, the person we were supposed to meet with was not there, so we found a bike

repair man, and got the bike fixed, then started on our way back.  At this point it was about 2 

(time for siesta), so we made lunch and started our one hour siesta.  Sadly, my alarm didn´t go off, so 

one hour became 3, and it was 6 o'clock.  At this point we took a bus back to ñlakjoe Bustos (gosh I

can´t spell it) and finally met up with the investigator.  while we were in his house, the power went out

(for my whole mission area mas o menos) and we ended up missing the bus ride back.  At this point, 

Elder Vega called up the senior companionship in our area for a ride, and they took us about halfway

back to la Consulta.  From there we started walking in the complete darkness,  we got back to our pench

at 12ish. I have the weirdest sunburn on my arms because of the bike ride from heck.

Life in the pench is weird but fun.  Usually every night, my companion and I try to tell each other about

our home countries (we rarely understand each other, so it´s mostly charades and drawings).  I finally

did all of my laundry, and when I put it up to dry, it rained for three days... Also siesta is the worst.  Our

pench is right in the middle of town, so when we need food, we just run out and get some. (There's 

an awesome bread store right next to us!)  

For some reason, everyone here is OBSESSED with Phil Collins and Abba.  It´s really weird.  Anyway,

I miss you guys, but I´m having fun here so I'm not coming back.

my new digs

I've been here for a week now! (ish) So far, the mission has been great! Argentina is amazing! 
On my first day, I stayed in the mission office because my area was too far away to drive to in
one day. On day two, I got my new companion: Elder Vega!  He is a native spanish speaker 
from Chile, and he cannot speak English (yay!). Once Elder Vega and I got to our area (La Consulta)
we had to clean the fridge out of our mission home (or Pench, as they call it here), because the last 
missionaries left in a hurry and left ALL of their food in the fridge for two months.  It was nasty. 
Also, they don't have toilet paper here, so I get to use a buday (bedai? buh-day? biday? I don't 
have google, so I don't know).  So far the food has been pretty good, too!  Most of the time, people 
just eat bread and maté (which I'm not allowed to drink :| ).  Also, there are no washing machines
here. Anyway, I've already gotten to teach a few lessons and spend time with investigators (whom
I cannot understand), and I'm already starting to love the culture--everyone is so nice.  I'll try to 
post pictures and stuff, but I don't know if it will work in one email.  Bye!