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)
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