Sense or Sensibility or Not

Dear Mom, 

4:30 your time, 9:30 my time is just about when I was leaving the CCM. Intuition? Inspiration? it could have been either. (Cameron said this in reply to me telling him that I randomly woke up at 4:30 the morning he left the CCM to be transferred to his new area.  I told him it was mothers intuition). Speaking of 4:30, I have been waking up every night since I arrived in Argentina around 4:30 or 5. I usually wake up 3 or 4 times a night before it's time to wake up and go to work. Do you have any suggestions to help with this? I've been trying a couple ideas from the "Adjusting to Missionary Life" book that Dad gave me but they are not proving to be effective yet. 

Some things that have been effective:

1. large bed sheet folded in half and sewn up the sides. This saves me from mosquitoes every night. Thank you so much, Mom. 

2. Water-proof dress shoes. The sinks and drains (and hopefully nothing else) in my area drain into the street. I'll try and get a picture sometime. Because of this, the streets are constantly flooded, especially at intersections. Thank you Sister Tingey for the suggestion to get these and for the rubber over-boots. I haven't used the over boots yet but I imagine they will be very useful during the rainy season. We are in the dry season right now and already have flooded streets. Also, thank you Grandma Sharee for getting me the water-proof dress shoes. They are amazing. 

Food​​

My last few days at the CCM went by very fast. The night before leaving for the field we have a fireside with the CCM president and then had ice cream. The ice cream in Argentina is soooooooo sweet. It's a gift from heaven. Another common treat here is dulce de leche (literally translated into "sweet of milk"). This topping can be eaten with any dessert: cake, doughnuts, cookies, pie, fruits, even oreos. There isn't a good food to compare it to in the US. I would say, think of a combination of Nutella and honey. That tastes pretty close in my mind. 

Alfajors (pronounces Al-fah-hors) are the most common treat aside from dulce de leche lollies. An Alfajor is a wafer/dulce de leche sandwich dipped in fondue chocolate. The overall texture is really dry but it is delicious once you become accustomed to going through a stick of chap stick a day. Haha, they are not that dry but one or two does make you thirsty. My favorite flavor so far is lemon. I would say they remind me of that yellow cake that Grandma Pam always makes but the wafers remind me more of a lemon than the color yellow and it says lemón right on the wrapper. Sorry, Grandma Pam.It's a close one. 

Bebidas: Mmmm, if you ever receive your mission call to Buenos Aires, I hope that you like soda. The three most popular drinks (including water as a competitor) are 1. Alcohol 2. Mate (mah-teh) and 3. Soda. As missionaries aren't allowed to drink the first place and and second place drinks, we drink a TON of soda. The people in my area are very generous (more about this later) and offer us drinks during every lesson. I would estimate that I drank 3 or 4 liters of soda in the past 1 week. That is about as much as I drank in the year preceding my mission. Wow. It's a good think I brush my teeth twice a day. I got to try mate cocido (boiled mate) yesterday (missionaries are allowed to drink this). It reminds me of the random concoctions of spices that Andrew used to make out of our kitchen spice drawer. I drank it all because the investigator that gave it too me was so nice. 

My Food Schedule:

 6:30 one massive bowl of sugary cereal with milk from a bag. 

13:00 lunch with an investigator, member, or part-member family. MEAT (I would decribe the different shapes and forms that the meat takes but it is sufficient to say that it comes from a cow and it is cooked. usually) Always delicious.

21:00 maybe an alfajor or a pizza. more cereal.

If I have scurvy when I get home, this is why. 

Other random things about food:

-our ward mission leader brings us popcorn at night (reminded me Sadie)

- I tried blood sausage for the first time. It's rico to say the least.

- dogs want your food

this is a good transition point

José Loen Suarez

This is the name of my area. I am currently serving in the outskirts of Buenos Aires. The first thing I noticed about this area is that there are dogs everywhere. Literally everywhere. Every street, every house, every room. Well, maybe not every room but close. The dogs are constantly roaming the streets, plotting their next maneuvers to steal your tasty alfajor. I am glad that I constantly carry a bag full of heavy books to defend myself. I've already run off a few dogs who've tried to taste my Book of Mormon. 

The buildings in my area are all smashed together. Yards don't exist. We have dirt roads and buildings. I am amazed by the faith of this area. The buildings are constructed of bricks, cinder blocks and cement combined with varying amounts of sensibility and they stay up! I swear, the faith of the people here has to be what holds their homes together. 

The people in JLS are very humble. Most are of from Paraguay and speak guatanese and Castellano. They are relatively receptive. My companion and I are excited to get to work as we see that many people are prepared to receive the gospel.

The members love us here. We have lunch with members every day. This meal is always more like a feast than a lunch. The members always serve us their best and more. This Thursday, we had lunch with the Maez family. While we were eating, they let the 4 missionaries there (we share a ward with another pair of missionaries) use their 4 cups. The family all waited until we were done and used the cups after us. I feel undeserving of this much respect and am humbled by how cheerfully they share with us. I hope that I can learn to be as humble and kind as these people. 

Elder Ryan (see attached pictures)

This is my companion. 

18

6'4"

Blond

Gringo

Kaysville, UT

Awesome

Elder Ryan is my trainer and also happens to be the best friend of E.Argyle, an Elder from my district in the CCM. We get along great. He has been in the field for 8 months and is really good at Spanish. I'll write more about him in future emails. 

I love you, Mom!

Elder Pratt and Cameron at the Temple in Buenos Aires

Elder Sotar, yo Elder Pratt

Amulek District in action-spent five weeks in this classroom

Leaving the CCM

Elder Ryan- first companion and trainer in the field

Singing in the Shower

Hola, Mom,

It has been another fantastic week in the CCM. The next time you hear from me (which may be in 10 to 14 days) I will be in the field with a new companion. We were just informed that we will be with our trainers for a minimum of 3 months! Wow. I hope that I like him.

Mom, I laughed when I read about your braces and bands situation. I know you can do it! You just have to gut through til the end. Tell Dr. Weeks and Sis Price hi for me.

During our physical activity time, we play massive games of volleyball. The teams usually have 10 players each. After playing, we all head to the shower room to prep for class. The shower room has about 12 separate showers. Each shower is enclosed in three 8 foot tile covered walls. The tile walls provide prime acoustics for projecting your voice into the rest of the shower room. This last Monday, a Latino Elder was humming the tune of "I Feel Good" in the shower. I decided to join in and starting singing the words to the chorus (in a very reverent, missionary manner of course) To my surprise, I had a backup choir of 11 Latino Elders singing "waoo waoo waoo wah!"

I feel good!

Waoo waoo waoo wah

I knew that I would

waoo waoo waoo wah

etc.

I'm not even sure that I sang the correct words but nobody else can tell the difference. We sang the whole chorus and then laughed. Ever since then, Latino Elders will sing that song to me every time I pass them in the hall. It's great.

Elder Pratt and I had a great experience tracting. The morning before we went tracking, we studied in Mormon chapter 9. I remember Dad teaching us out of this chapter at home. We read verse 19 and decided to have faith that God would provide a miracle as we tracted. Jorge was our miracle. Jorge was the last person we talked to on Saturday. We shared a short thought about the plan of salvation with him on the street and them were surprised to be invited into his home. Jorge sat us down at his kitchen table with his three kids and gave us each glass of Coke. After using all of the conversational spanish that we know, Elder Pratt and I taught a short version of the Plan of Salvation. At the end, we invited Jorge to be baptized. He accepted! We honestly had no idea what to do. We took down his name, address, and phone number and told him that other missionaries would come soon. Before we left we taught Jorge and his daughters how to pray. Kneeling on his dirty kitchen floor and hearing him pray with his family was the most powerful experience I have had in weeks. I could feel the spirit there so strongly. I hope that other missionaries go and teach Jorge.

Other cool experiences from this week:

Studying Spanish every night with Elder Sotar, an elder from north Argentina. We have become good friends as we study and play volleyball together.

Singing with Elder Kane. Elder Kane is an Elder in my district who is an incredible musician. He was accepted to the Julliard School of Music and plans on majoring in trombone performance. He is a good singer.

Room prayer at night. All 8 of the elders in my room gather to pray together every night. One of the Latino Elders, Elder Valencia, always does the chicken dance before we pray. No clue why. I love it.

Finger fencing. The new favorite game during physical activity time. Most of you probably played this game when you were in middle school. It is still fun when you're 19.

Have faith! I know that Jesus Christ is the living Savior. He is the Son of God.

Love,

Elder Smith (Cameron)

Exitco con El Espiritu Santo!

Hola Mom,

Thanks for giving me the update from home. I was so happy to hear about your english paper!

Tell Jeff that I would love to hear from him! Im getting better at giving brief responses to the emails I  get.

The weather has been super hot. But, I think I am used to the humidity.

Elder Pratt is my companion. He is a direct descendant of Parly P Pratt which makes our companionship legendary to the Latino Elders. They are all convinced that Joseph Smith is my grandpa so Elder Pratt and I are prophets. Haha, we get a lot of jokes about it. If you want to look up Elder Pratt on facebook his full name is Samuel Roy Pratt. He is from Cameron Missouri. Feel free to stalk him.

E. Pratt and I get along very well. We are both beginners as far as the Spanish language goes. It is nice to learn and struggle with someone.
The language is coming along great! My ability to listen and respond is increasing every day. At night, me and five or six of my Latino friends gather for an informal language class. We take turns teaching each other Spanish and English. I think using the Spanish I learn in class with the Latino Elders is the best way to practice.

Our teachers in the CCM are the best! I think one of our afternoon teachers emailed you a picture from our class. Her name is Hermana Carrillo. She is a tiny little Hermana from Bolivia that disappears into the floor when she kneels down. She is bilingual for the most part and uses the funniest English phrases in class. One of my districts favorite thing to do when we get bored is to use Indian accents and pretend like we are working in a tech support office. (yes, we are all still teenagers). When the Indian accents get to distracting, Hermana Carrillo will say in a fake stern voice "you naughty boys." Haha, I wish I could record her saying it and send it to you.

My district decided that we will make the phrase "qué en el mundo" (what in the world) become popular in Argentina. Its not an actual phrase in Spanish but the bilingual teachers laugh at it. We started using it two weeks ago. On Tuesday, I was walking down the hall and heard a Latino Elder say "¿qué en el mundo?" Haha, it is working.

This is for Maddy Cicotte: I think the janitors and cooks scheme together. We eat a TON of meat and therefore dont use the toilets much. But, one day a week, usually the day before the janitors deep clean the bathrooms, we are fed a HUGE bowel of lentils. The day after the lentils, there is a fiesta in the bathroom. I think this strategy was contrived by the janitors so the toilets would stay clean for a whole week after they deep clean them. Tricky janitors.

I have been in the temple endowment session more times in Spanish than in English. I love that in both languages I can feel the love and Spirit of God! My testimony of the importance of temples has been strengthened over the past month. I know that the temple is the house of God.

Also, I ripped a pair of slacks yesterday. Good thing I have a sewing kit. :) I have also stained two of my ties already and one of my white shirts. Yep.

I love you, Mom. I hope you have a great week!

Your son,

Cameron (Elder Smith)

300 pounds draws a crowd

Dear Mom,

The past week has been fantastic. I apologize that last weeks email was so short. We traveled to Buenos Aires to apply for our visas and didn't make it back to the CCM with much time to email. The city was increadibly massive! We drove on a ten lane freeway to get to the downtown section of the city. Driving through downtown and seeing all of the people made me a little nervous for tracting. But, once we were walking on the streets, I regained my confidence and remembered that they are all just people. Some of them are scary-looking but they are still people. While we were out to get our visas, we stopped by a candy shop. I bought some Nestle Kitkats to eat on my birthday. Mm. I was so happy when I opened my birthday gift and found more candy! We took the Hersheys Kitkat bar from my gift and did the Kitkat challange with my district. Only one person guessed the brands correctly but everyone was happy to have chocolate from America.

Tracting on Saturday was the first time that I've felt like I was on a mission. My district was bussed to a section of the Buenos Aires North mission, given maps with our assigned areas, and was instructed to be back in 5 hours. Whoo. Watching the bus drive away was when the feeling hit me. I had my companion and some Spanish pamphlets in the middle of Argentina and that was it. Our tracting wasn't incredibly eventful. We had about 10 solid conversations about the gospel of Jesus Christ and 10 or 15 more about America and English. One guy we talked with was psychologist who was fluent in English. At first we were excited but then we couldn't get him to stop talking about the social benefit of organized religion. We shared a pamphlet with him and bore short testimonies at the end. 

My birthday was a happy day! It started with the lowest rendition of "Happy Birthday" that I have ever heard. The Elders in my district gathered in the bathroom at 6:45 in the morning and sang to me while I was showering. Haha, it surprised me and I couldn't help but laugh while they sang. I thank God every night for the piano that we have in our sacrament room. For some reason, vocal harmonization doesn't work in Argentina. It must be all the humidity. The self playing organ in the temple is the only consistant source of in-tune music. While most of the group singing in tough to gut, I do love singing "Called to Serve" with the entire CCM. The second to last line is "Dios nos da poder" (God gives us power). After this line we all shout "PODER" and pump our fists in the air. Poder means power or "to be able to." It is a good reminder to me that we are constantly supported by God. -Other good things about my birthday- lots of cake, ice cream, and oreos! I told my district the story of me eating Oreos unitl my mouth was raw at college (I may not have told you about that) and told them that I loved them. The Hermanas in my district got Oreos from somewhere and made me a cute little oreo cake. Yay!

On to some more fun things: 300 pounds is a lot of weight. Elder Kane, one of the missionaries in my district weighs this much and is proud of it. A couple of times a week, Elder Kane lets missionaries attempt the Kane challange where they get into a push-up postition and see how long they can hold it with E. Kane on their back. For some reason, the Latino Elders LOVE it! Last Thursday night we had a group of 40+ Elders packed into one bedroom watching the Kane challange. The current record is 50 seconds. I haven't done the Kane challange but I've been told that the hardest part is ignoring the pain in your joints. Elder Bellus (another Elder from my district) lasted for 45 seconds and said that his elbows felt bruised for the next three days. Hmm, maybe I won't join the Kane challange club. 

I did join the bidet club. I won't speak for anyone else but I think bidets are nice. I'm not sure why they are not more popular in America. 

Another funny thing about the CCM is a man known as "Buen Dia" We don't know his real name but BuenDia is the morning janitor here. At 6:25 every morning, BuenDia turns on the lights in our room and gives each of us a good morning hand shake while saying "Buen Dia Buen Dia Buen Dia Buen Dia....." We got a little annoyed with him after a week but now, on days when BuenDia doesn't come into our rooms, we kind off miss him. 

Everything going great! Spanish is coming faster than it seems like it should. I know that God is blessing me and that He is helping me every day.

I love you!

Cameron (Elder Smith)