Another week in the books! I already
have almost a month here in Argentina and it’s another Monday it’s hard to
believe. Trying to soak up every moment because this time is just flying by.
This week the weather has been the craziest it has ever been.
Early in the week it was hot, like really hot, pushing 100 hot. The problem isn’t the temperature, however. I’ve
gotten used to the heat but the problem was just how freaking humid it is down
here. We leave the apartment in the morning and it feels like you just hit a
brick wall of heat and you start walking and you don’t really notice until
about 5 minutes in and you’re already soaking wet in sweat and you stay wet the
rest of the day. It’s absolutely
disgusting. Our Mission President told
us to make sure to drink 8 glasses a day of water but we all probably sweat
about 8 glasses in the morning along. I usually drink 1.5 liters in the morning
and that gets me through until lunch where I just chug water the entire 4 hours
we have to eat and study (we study in the afternoons, unlike the stateside
missions, because of the siesta, where the cities shut down and everyone
sleeps). But right now I’m in long sleeves, its dumping rain and we have had lighting
and thunder storms all night long. The weather here can never just be
consistent in a single week. The jungle life, am I right?
We also made a trip to the hospital because my companion might
actually be allergic to dust and earth here so he had to get a vaccine. And now
I realize why all the other missionaries say that this is not a place you want
to get sick. Mold on the ceilings, poor
hygiene, the patient rooms are hardly any better, and there’s, of course, the
dogs... everywhere. I made friends with
the dog under my chair in the waiting room.
And while on the topic of sickness, we had a service project this
week! A member needed help putting in a concrete floor in his house, so we
helped him and other members of the ward make concrete, and after they fed us
asada (BBQ). They make concrete by mashing bricks into smaller pieces
then mixing it with waters and all these different powders and sands. Well
first I had my hand smashed by a giant brick someone threw when I was reaching
into the pile. Then during lunch we ate
the food, and it was not good at all. One of the things they had was blood
sausage. Well I didn’t know what it was,
so of course I took some and when we were walking back to our pension for our
study time my companion told me what it was. All the stuff of the cow they don’t use in
other stuff, including the blood and veins. It’s safe to say I was sick the
rest of the day. So I left that activity
with a hurting, bleeding hand, and an upset stomach.
But other than that we had a pretty normal week. Had 2
investigators come to church this week so we hope they continue to progress!
Hope all is going well back home for you all!
Elder
Peters |
| Making Concrete |
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| The post lunch, asada, with some members. |
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| Hermano Miguel, one of the greatest guys I have ever met. |
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| Just some Argentine sunset for you all. |
Hello,
Things here are pretty much the same. It’s the same thing day in and day out. We did have 2 investigators come to church
this week so that was pretty exciting! but we are still a long ways from a
baptism here. We might have a wedding though! One of the investigators that came to church
isn’t married to her boyfriend and they have 3 kids. And so she is in the process of talking with
her boyfriend about getting married so she can be baptized! She seems really excited about the gospel it’s
great! She lives on the very east edge of our area (about a 30 minute bus ride
from our pension) and she took 2 buses with her 3 kids, the oldest being 4, to
get to the chapel and she just loved it! So she’s our only real investigator that we
have hopes of having some progress, but for the most part, we are back at
square one with finding people to teach.
Our ZLs finally decided we needed some divisions, so tomorrow I’m
working in Barranqueras with one of the other Elders in our ward. I’m pretty excited for it and its going to be
so fun to maybe have some positive energy flowing. Our ZLs are just so awesome
and since they live across the hall from us I’m over at their place most of the
time!
Other than that…the weather has still been crazy, I’m still
getting eaten alive by mosquito's, and the food is still good (for the most
part, I’ll explain in the other email).
The language is coming slowly but surely, every day I try to learn
about 20 new words, although it doesn’t happen every day. I have a good grasp
on what I need to say but it’s the transition words (like although, however)
that are really messing with me because there not really words I put a lot of
thought to when speaking in English. So when I look for words to study they’re
usually not the first ones to pop into my head. The other problem is that those
types of words don’t have a single direct translation, it just depends on the
context or what you are talking about. So it’s hard but the members here are so
helpful at being patient when talking to me so I get a lot of practice with
them, my companion doesn’t really let me talk with investigators, so talking to
members is the best practice I get during the day.
Glad to hear everything is going well at home. I told you so mom. I’m already up to Alma 32 in the Book of
Mormon in our Presidents challenge to read it in a month. I’m reading it in English because the point of
it is to increase our faith, so I don’t really get much out of reading it in
Spanish and its takes 4x longer.
But things are still as good as ever!
Have a good week!
Elder Peters
There are a few people that have learned to speak a little English
on their own or while on their missions so sometimes they talk at me in English
while I respond back in Spanish so that helps me learn sentence structure and
practice my vocabulary. We don’t really
do anything fun on Pdays, just write, clean, and sleep. We are all cutting our
hair today, I really need it, and we might play ping pong at the chapel but we
were like an hour late to Resistencia to do everything we needed to do. I guess waiting by the door for an hour
doesn’t really help speed things up.
Yes I get Chadd’s emails and it sounds like he is having a
blast. I write Austin more than anyone
else because we are both the only 2 in poorer areas for our missions, everyone
is living large so we don’t really relate to them as much.
Have a good week!
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