Hello Family,
I miss you also much! When Agustin (family in her area) told me he'd be traveling to Utah I got so jealous! Freak, I miss Utah. Right now at this moment as we speak I am dying of heat. I don't remember if I told you guys this or not but the first couple of days that it was really hot I nearly died. I got heat stroke bad. I had hives all over and I couldn't eat anything without puking my guts out. Just a little idea of what summer is like in this country. Another summer struggle is that everyone is asleep. ALL DAY. We can't ever contact from 12 to 6 PM at night because everyone eats and then sleeps in until the heat isn't so bad. It's super sucky because everything is close too, the streets are dead. But whatcha gonna do, I'm just glad I only have to live through one of these summers. Oh and the WIND here! Hermana Gimenez and I always joke that we really don't need to eat lunch because we eat dirt all day. In our area the streets are almost all dirt. So when I come home at night my ears, my nose, my hair, and my teeth, all covered in dirt. We can open our windows either to let the air in because afterwards everything is covered in layers of sand. Let's just say, I don't know how the poor people who live here can do it.
The sun rises and the sunsets are unreal. The sun doesn't set here tell super late (yeah it's like 90° from 11 AM to 9 PM). So we always get to see them. I’ve tried to take pictures it doesn't do them justice.
So the pant situation actually doesn't turn out to be too bad. Yes, I do feel weird, they are so ugly and super hot, but with the wind here, skirts would be impossible.
Eating with members definitely has its ups and down. It fun to eat with some other families here, our Ward is super great. We also don't have to stress about figuring out what to buy and what to cook which is nice too. Honestly, Argentinean makes good food, I have loved just about everything but there are distinct differences in many ways they eat. The downsides: they eat so much! Dinner doesn't really exist here, just light snacks. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day. It's super hard for me because they always serve for us and give us a ton of food. It's like they want to give us more than everyone else because we are the guests. Hermana Gimerez is tiny but the girl can eat. Every time she finishes, the members put more food on BOTH of our plates. I talk to Hermana G about it, so now she helps me out by sneakily eating my food or telling the members that only she wants more. Regardless I always leave super full. Usually we leave lunch at 1 PM to 2 PM in the afternoon when it’s scorching outside and then we have to walk at least 30 minutes on the way to our house. I won't lie, there have been many times when I've almost puked at the table.
Other different things, they don't usually eat in variety. For example, the other day Hermana Turner made us Asado! For the first time I tried it. So good. I finally understand why everyone talks about the meat here, but that's like all that there is. Literally everyone just like eats 3 pounds of meat. No salad, no fruit, no bake potatoes, nothing, just meat. When I said I was full Hermana Turner laugh and gave me another piece. I almost cried. So much meat. These people are carnivores.
Another thing is pasta. I have tried about 45 different ways to eat pasta here all super good, super dense, and I still leave the house feeling like I am dying. The exercises have definitely had to get a little more intense in the mornings.
As for the investigators, Argentines are rough. They just are not very receptive, kind of have “I’d rather sleep attitude” about every. And that makes it hard. The area that Hermana G and I are in is also one, of if not the biggest, in the mission. It makes it difficult to be able to get to all of our appointments. We try to plan it out by one section per day but it always depends on peoples schedules. Example: Glady’s works every day but has Tuesday in the afternoon it Is free. If we are contacting in area 2 and we meet someone super great but they only have Tuesday in the afternoon free it's rough because we have to leave Glady’s home, in area 6, and walk almost an hour to area 2 to be able to get there. So yeah it makes it's so we lose a lot of time walking!
We do have one investigator who is Golden name Natalia. She is referred from an older lady in our ward. When we show up to teach she already had lots of questions and is stoked to learn more. She always reads and takes notes on all of the pamphlets and chapters that we leave her with. She has already come to church three times. Her kids are going to be in the Christmas pageant and she is friends with tons of the members. But we just found out that she smokes. DANG. But it's okay we are going to work with her really hard to be able to make it to her baptismal day in January!
Are other investigator who is coming along pretty well is Axel. He is the son of a less active in our ward named Fabiana. We just started to teach him and we just got a baptismal date for him in January, but we haven't been able to teach him sense because he has some family problems. His mom, Fabiana, is like schizophrenic and bipolar. For the last week she's been talking to us on the phone saying there are people who are trying to kill her because she believes in Joseph Smith. It's super freaky, she calls and screams things like that at us and then hangs up. The first time we had no idea that she had mental problems and we were so freaked out. But apparently this has happened before. Anyway, for four days she went missing and they found her in Buenos Aires. For that reason we haven't been able to teach Axel again.
We are teaching some others right now and they are moving along, poco a poco. What I really love (sometimes more than teaching) is contacting. Herman Gimenez hates it but I love talking to new people every day. It's fun. I also love when we are in lessons and things start to click for people, it feels so good to get to be a part of someone's new relationship with our Heavenly Father. Than anything I am just learning that going on a mission is a huge adventure we always have new things thrown at us every day and at first I hated it, it gave me anxiety, but now I just enjoyed it. Otherwise this whole 1 1/2 years would be miserable. We have days here all our appointments work, and the Spirit is so strong in our lessons, and we meet 5 new people to teach, and we also have days where people aren't home when they say they will be or their kids are screaming or the TV is on during our lessons and we know we will have to re teach and on our walk home it starts raining out of nowhere. Everyday is different, but when I go home and go to bed, I know I did all I could to be a good representative of the Savior, I feel great. Dead tired but great. I love you all so grateful to have you guys. You all are my best friends! My glue! Sometimes I miss you guys so much I feel like walking home to Utah, but I am so happy here in this weird country. I have grown and changed so much in these last seven months, the things that you learn and get it to be a part of as a missionary are priceless. I know without a doubt that our lives have a purpose. I know that this time on earth is such a small part of that purpose and the happiest I have ever felt in my life is getting to show people who they are. I hope that each of you never forget that, I love you with all my heart!
