Dear Family!WOW! This is AWESOME! I am so flipping happy here! Right now I am in La Rioja! It’s quite a bit smaller that Cordoba but it’s so beautiful! The people here are wonderful! about the same temp as Colorado right now but it is supposed to get up to 120 degrees this summer! We have special permission to wear hats here if we need them.
My Companion is Elder Chomorro from Chile! He points with his lips like dad said the people do down there! He is very nice and much more obedient than a lot of the elders here. I live with another companionship in a really nice pension (apartment). One elder is a trunky lazy butt. My companion does NOT speak English! AHAHAHHH! lol But I love it. We have had some good games of charades. There is one other gringo in the apartment so he can help me when I am really stuck.
Coming here was insane! After talking to you in Dallas I had an awesome experience with a younger couple in the plane to Buenos Aires! They were very interested in me and because of that they listened to everything I had to say and talked with me and answered my questions. It was VERY hard to understand them because everything was vos and tu! Plus their accents were crazy! They would try to really enunciate well for me but it just made it worse! LOL I taught them about the church and gave them a card for a Book of Mormon! They actually seemed interested... at least a little.
In Argentina we were soooo lost! The airport was very scary. I kept thinking some official person would stop me and have some problem and I would not be able to understand them! But no, everything was fine. We had nobody to guide us through customs and immigration or anything like that.
Between Buenos Aires and Cordoba we ended up taking another flight. I had another opportunity to talk to someone about the gospel. I did the whole first lesson and he was interested in finding out more about the Book of Mormon! I kinda cheated though because he spoke some English. Way nice guy.
My mission president is capo ( or "cool" everything here is either capo, linda (beautiful) or de diez (the best) ) He is super nice and way smart with perfect Spanish and English! His wife only speaks Spanish though. My first night here I stayed in the NICEST hotel I have ever been in! It even had a bidet (French for that thing that squirts your butt clean.... yeah weird.) we did a ton of crazy driving around the city that day and the next for visas and stuff. And I mean CRAZY! There are basically no lines in the roads here! We listened to Prince of Egypt "Deliver Us" while driving around the run down city. There is a lot of broken down ancient buildings here that people are still using. Apparently just about all the housing is government too. The song mixed with the rapid crazy tour of the city made for a powerful experience. I am so excited to deliver these people!
The next day we missed out colectivo or bus to La Rioja! We did some work around the mission home and found a golden family just the next street over who were married with two cuties! They were very interested! I look forward to getting word of them. The bus we ended up taking started at midnight! I slept only because I was so exhausted! When we arrived in La Rioja we went to work! I am now finally catching up on my sleep! between the planes and buses I have been very tired.
Oh I got jipped! When you give someone your bags here on a bus you have to ask for your reclaim ticket! If you turn away they tell you you have to pay money! My comp had my back. Apparently it’s the same when you get change. If you turn your back then realize you don’t have all of it or some of it is fake they just wave you away. You have to count it in front of their face!
It really is another world here. We use skeleton keys (double sided old fashioned), bidet (squirty thing), the paper is a different size. Everything is very European. In La Rioja the houses are very small and made out of concrete. there are dogs everywhere! Big ones and little ones, pets and strays. One lady had six scruffy looking little shihtzu things. There are also huge dogs here called Dogos who illegal in the US. They are known to take on mountain lions! Huge as a Saint Bernard sometimes and just like a pit bull. It’s legal to kill on sight if you see them in the street! And I saw one! but I did not kill it! LOL It was sleeping. Oh also the parrots here say hola not hello! snigger snigger.
Here in La Rioja we have an awesome branch pres and a mission leader too and both are capo. All the members are studs actually. Many of whom served missions. The branch is small but soon to be big! The people here are the nicest ever! Especially in La Rioja. Its relatively easy to talk to people and to get into houses. I have taught several lessons so far! And off of contacts too! If the people don’t want to listen to you they give you three excuses like I am leaving I am working and I am leaving to work. Lots of people lie like that! LOL
I can communicate! One lady said that she thought that I was about to finish my mission! It was only because I was exchanging pleasantries, which is easy, but I am getting a lot better. I can mostly understand people too. Some people talk really weird though. The accent is different between everyone it seems. No one here speaks Spanish though it’s all castillano! So I can do lessons about gospel stuff good and I can do pleasantries good but ordering food? no. buying stuff? no. talking about anything else? no! LOL
Here we eat a lot of empanadas! So good! I had them at my president’s house the first night and a couple other times. Otherwise it’s mostly pastas so far. Water is hard to come by, in my apartment we have a complicated water system that is super slow and doesn’t taste good. Mostly we drink juice and soda.
We have a baptism of a nine year old in a less active family this Sunday but are also teaching a great family who is married (very important here) and awesome! All the kids here are learning English and like to tell me words. LOL It’s great!
Mother I am so sorry about pictures! I can’t do it this week either! My camera is really freaking out and having problems... it randomly turns on and off and such. Next week I will leave more time to try to figure it out.
Congratulations on the house! How exciting! It’s so fun to hear about everything going on over there! I loved conference! For me the theme was get your butt to work! LOL It’s not hard here at all... That means I need to do "many good things of my own free will". I think this is going to be a theme in my mission- learning how to do things above and beyond norm. Or maybe I just need to prepare for hard times to come?
Much love!
Elder Green
Also, can you send more pics of the fam and the cousins and stuff? real photos? everyone wants to look and I don’t have enough! LOL
LOVE!
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