Letters Home: 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.

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!