Feliz Navidad!!

Dear family,

 

So the first thing i realized when i got off the phone with you guys this afternoon is that i am a terrible son and didnt even say i love you i dont think! so....I LOVE YOU GUYS!!! hope your christmas was great and you all had fun :) you already know what happened with my christmas, so ill just skip that part haha feel free to share with everyone how we almost died on our balcony from the fireworks from below!

 

so we did end up having another baptism last week so that was way awesome.  her son lives in utah like i said and she is going to give me his address today so i can hit him up after the mish! haha but it was really cool, and her daughter was way happy too cuz shes a member already and has been waiting for her mom to get baptized for forever. 

 

christmas was good too, but its definitely not the same as the united states.  its super loud and not reverent or peaceful or at all.  so when we went to the church, it was good to finally feel a little bit of that peace there.  the four of us missionaries in my apartment sang silent night in sacrament meeting and then i got to play that one christmas medley by john schmidt on the piano.  that brought the spirit super strong and i had a bunch of people come up to me after sacrament meeting telling me how awesome it was.  one lady was crying when she came and told me it affected her that much.  but yeah, i definitely prefer christmas in the united states, cuz its just so much more peaceful! haha but yeah, thats how my christmas went :)

 

one thing thats weird here too about christmas is that no one here knows the christmas hymns like everyone does in the united states.  we sang them a lot on saturday when we went out.  that was our lesson on saturday was a scripture and a hymn for christmas.  that actually was way spiritual too.

 

on to the stuff thats not so spiritual, but still pertinent.  i went and weighed myself the other day and i have lost another 2 kilos, or about 15 pounds in all.   when we were at the zone conference the other day, i was talking to this guy from kansas named elder adams.  he asked me if i knew the grants in monroe and apparently he dated amy for 3 years! how crazy is that! haha so we talked for a while about that and it was cool. also, another elder told me that his mom and been talking with my mom and that his mom wanted him to look for me just to say we know each other haha i laughed at that.

 

also, just a side note, if anyone here from argentina adds me on facebook, just accept their invitation, ill sort it through or delete them or whatever when i get back haha

 

but yeah, that is all for this week, it was awesome to talk to you guys this morning! thanks for all the support you give me, and i hope you all have a very happy new years!!! were gonna try not to die next week in our apartment, cuz the fireworks are supposed to be worse for new years eve.  so i love you and hope to hear from you all next week!!!

 

Con Amor

 

Elder Sirrine

 

Side Note:  Taylor said his apartment is on the 8th floor and huge fireworks were going off about 5 feet from their balcony...he said it was really scary because they were so close.  Also, he told us today that summer officially started on the 21st...it was 116* this past week!!  WOW!   So hard to imagine!

Merry "Late" Christmas!!

We waited all day on Christmas to get our phone call from Taylor, but to no avail...  I went to bed last night and said a prayer that he was safe...that is my biggest worry for him is his safety.  This morning he sent us a txt saying that he would call at 10a.m.  We got his call and he said that a member had offered them their phone so that it wouldn't cost them anything to call.  When they tried to call, the phone wouldn't authorize it.  He said they tried for a long time and it just wouldn't go through.  He said he felt terrible when he went to bed last night because he knew we would be worried. 

He sounds great and his Spanish is amazing!  He ended up getting all of our packages except the letters from all of our Stake missionaires and the big Christmas banner from the ward...hopefully those will be there tomorrow he said. 

We asked him lots of questions and one thing he mentioned is that no matter how poor or rich people are in Argentina, they don't have carpet.  Either dirt floors or tile or nice tile!  He said he feels bad that people don't get the opportunity to walk barefoot on carpet!  He had another baptism on Friday and said it was great.
Also, just a follow up on the "murder at the church."  He said the member was a 19 year old boy getting ready to go serve a mission.  Now that he has committed murder (self-defense) he has to talk to the Prophet to get permission to still go. 

Thank you for all of your prayers for our missionaries!  May they all be safe and successful as they serve the Lord all over the world.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Gift of Tongues

Hey family,

So this last week has been really good.  The work is going strong again and we have a bunch of people to teach.  I also can pretty much understand everything now, so im feelin awesome! haha we were at a meeting for the district leaders last week cuz my comp is district leader and one of the guys from my district was there.  we were talking to these 2 guys from mexico and listening to how the other guy from my district speaks, i realized ive been EXTREMELY blessed with the gift of tongues.  so im super grateful for that.

also, something that will probably never happen again in the mission, happened this week.  me and my comp were sitting there studying last tuesday and we got a call from one of the ward members.  her name is mariela and she called saying that her mom wanted to get baptized.  i guess all of her kids are members and both of her sons served missions, but the mom herself isnt a member.  so we went out to her house to talk with her and she is so solid!!! we went out there thursday and she wanted to get baptized the saturday that was coming, so like 3 days haha but it just wasnt possible to get everything together that fast, so she is going to be getting baptized this friday the 23rd! were pretty excited.  and i guess one of her sons lives in utah in west valley, and shes gonna give me his name so hopefully i can look him up after the mission :)

but about christmas....it kinda sounds like its gonna suck! they told us we have the exact same work schedule, and thats its just like any other day! at the least we should be in the pension early cuz everyone is going to be plastered by 4 o clock in the afternoon, but they said 930 like usual! so im a little sketched out...hopefully the president will tell us exactly what were going to do tomorrow in the zone conference.  and from what ive heard we can use skype but only the call function, and not the video, so that sucks! im definitely just going to call, cuz its much less likely to fail on us i think...but i dont know what schedule for calling we´ll have either.  just be ready all day after sacrament meeting! haha im gonna call the house phone, so be ready for it!

but yeah, were just working hard down here in the blazing heat, so dont worry about us! haha also tell everyone on facebook or something that we havent received the bolsa with our mail in it for like 3 weeks so i will be writing them, but it just wont come for a while haha tell ray and rebecca cuz i got a letter from them.  still no word on those other 2 packets, im hopin the president brings them tomorrow! but yeah, thats all for this week, so i love you and cant wait to talk to you guys on sunday! love you all!!!

Con Amor

Elder Sirrine

"Mormon Kills Thief".....soo sad

Hey family,

 

So i actually have stuff to write this week! Awesome!!! haha but some of it kinda sucks and is really depressing :( so well start with that stuff first so we can slowly move on to happier topics.

 

So remember how i said that we were going to have 3 baptisms last week? well everything was completely on track, they were totally prepared and then we went to their house last monday night after i got dont emailing you guys.  turns out the old lady, catalina, who is 81 years old, had a freaking cardiac attack that sunday after church and now she cant be baptized cuz shell die if she does! and every time we go to her house now she doesnt want us to give her a blessing and she wont even let us pray there! it sucks! especially cuz the other 2 said last night that they wont get baptized unless she is there, and she is absolutely confined to the house.  so we really have no idea what to do now.

 

also, something else kinda sketchy.  last sunday night, there was a member waiting outside of the church for choir practice, but practice had been delayed without him knowing so he went there early.  well this thief came up and tried to rob him, his cellphone or something.  so this member was defending himself and the thief pulled out his knife.  i guess the members hands got kind of cut up, but he managed to push this thief or something and the thief fell down on top of his knife, got stabbed in the chest, and freakin died!!! so of course the next day in the newspapers it was something like, mormon kills thief in front of church house.  crazy!

 

but tuesday night, we experienced our first real rainstorm.  turns out my amazing jacket couldnt even stand up to the ferocity of the storm.  my chest and upper legs were dryer than everywhere else, but still pretty wet haha and waterproof shoes do not help at all when there are lakes in the streets! it was insane!  we didnt end up going to our last appointment cuz it was in kind of a sketchy area and our visibility was pretty limited with all that rain and i felt like we shouldnt go, so we ended up just going back to the apartment.

 

So more that happened.  we went back to susannas house and her daughters friend maria from buenos aires came and is staying until like after new years.  so we snagged her up and were teaching her now! haha and were also teaching the other daughter of susanna and one of her granddaughters now too! they all 3 have a baptismal date for the 30th of december, so were pretty pumped.  susanna is seriously like a fountain of references for us and its awesome!

 

we also had a stake conference this week and it was way awesome.  i think its the first stake conference ive ever been to in my life to be honest haha but the mission president ended up coming out to speak at it with his wife and i got all 3 of those packages you sent me! i had to pay like 16 dollars to get them though, so that kinda sucked.  oh, and i read the first scripture today 1 corinthians 13:11 and i kinda have mixed feelings about it and am not quite sure how to intrepret it haha are you saying i should put away my childish things like those dart guns or enjoy them to their fullest? cuz i plan on doing the second! haha

 

we have walked so much here that my feet are just a wreck.  theyre basically one giant callus and its kinda nasty! haha if you thought they were worse before mom, you should see them now! and imagine them in 2 years!  and i am slowly becoming more and more argentinian too.  people here eat super small breakfasts and its always of like a little roll/biscuit thing with a cup of chamomile tea.  when i first got here, i absolutely hated the tea and the biscuit thing, but now i love them both!  i actually went and bought me a package of that tea today when we went shopping haha.

 

something that ive noticed here is that ill learn a new phrase or concept or whatever in spanish and wheras i had never heard it before, now that ive learned it i hear it all the time!  i guess i just never realized what they were saying before. its kinda weird actually, cuz it makes me think what else theyre always saying that i still havent realized.

 

but yeah, thats about it for now i think! so i hope to hear from you guys next week and i love and miss you! we still havent heard if we can use skype or not, so were gonna call the president and see what he says.  i should know by next week! love you!!!

 

Con amor,

 

Elder Sirrine

P-Day Empanadas

Thanksgiving Day Baptisms

 

Happy Thanksgiving

Hey family,

 

so glad to hear that thanksgiving and all went well, i hope you had fun! and tell susan sorry that she puked so much haha that sucks! not gonna lie, i looked at the clock every once in a while on thursday and was imagining whose house you guys were at and what you guys were doing....i got a little homesick haha and that REALLY sucks that ripley died :( to be honest i wasnt really expecting to come back to him alive, i was expecting him to die while i was out here on the mish....maybe not so soon, but still.  i was reading dads letter this morning when we were walking in the street and i freakin started crying because of dads story.  what really got me was when dad said that ripley had followed neccia with his head when she was parking the car and that was why his head was all weird. i told the texan who was with us this morning what had happened and he was just like i have absolutely no feelings for animals because my dad killed 2 of our dogs for pooping on the carpet....it was so terrible i started laughing and it kinda lightened it a little. but seriously, the situation has to be so much worse there, just cuz you guys can all feel that missing part :( but things will get better!

 

so we had another baptism this week!!! it was susanna´s grand daughter and it was way cool.  2 of her grand daughters actually got baptized on that same day, so we all went to their house afterwards for a little party/our own thanksgiving here haha but dont worry! we were doing missionary work while we were there, because we are now going to teach karen´s mom. (karen is our baptism) and also her other sister too! so we are seriously going to baptize like the entire family of susanna and its gonna be awesome! oh yeah, and i had to direct that whole baptismal service too, like giving little speeches and all that.  kinda nervewracking! but good haha and i also confirmed someone for the first time on sunday! way cool :)

 

so the work is kind of slowing down now....all the people we were talking to kind of fell through and like hide when they see us coming and dont want to talk to us.  really the only investigators we have right now are those super old people who dont understand very much and they are going to be baptized the 9th of december, so we kind of have to find a ton of new people.  also, i found out the other day that we dont work in like 3/4 of our area.  the majority of our area is actually in the city and we have never even gone there before.  so the other day we went and its basically like opening up a new area cuz we have absolutely nothing there.  its gonna be kinda hard to get stuff started i think.  we have only been working in the super dangerous part of our mission i guess.

 

speaking of dangerous part, the other day, my comp and i were walking in san cayetano city and 2 girls came around the corner in front of us.  they werent carrying anything, and i think one maybe had a cellphone.  but anyways, this guy came around the corner behind them on a bike and rode up and like jumped off his bike and put one of the girls in a headlock.  at first she just looked at him and so we assumed it was her boyfriend or something.  but then he like started grabbing at her and her friend booked it and the both of them were screaming like crazy.  this is all taking place about 3 feet away from us, mind you.  i froze, cuz i didnt know what to do, if i should help this girl or just stand by.  but this girl finally got away and the guy took off after them and im pretty sure he was about to pull a knife.  so we quickly put distance between us and this guy, and the guy gave up the chase and got back on his bike and drove away.  SO scary.  we were talking to elder ruiz and he said you just have to keep walking and if they come for you to run.  he said he was in an area one time and across the street from them a guy had a gun to another guys head and was robbing him....and you just have to keep walking.  so yeah, thats my scary story for the week!

 

this week, ive been able to understand spanish a lot better....im slowly getting my feet underneath me with everything.  but there are some days where i can understand everything and then days where i cant understand at all cuz my brain is just fried! but its slowly coming along :)

 

also, we had to take some things from investigators this week.  i took my first piercing, a bracelet with all the catholic saints on it, and a pack of cigarettes.  the cigarettes came from the old grandpa, and we saw him the next day smoking.  he saw us and was like absolutely terrified haha he had a bottle of coke in his hand and he started shaking and dropped his lid and was like trying to hide his cigarette from us and stuff...but now he says hes quit and doesnt even feel like it anymore, so we are right on track for baptism!

 

i actually cleaned the war zone that is our bathroom today and it was just nasty! remember how i spent like 4 hours cleaning my bathroom in cedar? well this one was like 50 times worse! so you can only imagine! haha

 

so yes, transfers were actually today and elder ruiz went to salta.  but since im a newbie, my papi and i have to stay in our area together for at least 2 transfers, so that means that ill be here at least until the first of january.  but ill probly be here for like 6 months cuz theyve been doing that a lot lately. 

 

but yeah, thats about it for this week! i love and miss you guys and cant wait to hear from you next week!  and i know its a little early, but happy birthday neccia! ill be thinkin about you on friday! love you guys!

 

Con amor.

 

Elder Sirrine

Don't endure to the end...Enjoy to the end

Dear Family,

 

So i had my first actual baptism, where i got to enter the water and it was freaking amazing! it was that lady thats convinced shes gonna marry me and it was just a cool experience. i took a freakin ton of pictures and stuff, but i forgot my stupid camera cord in the apartment so youre gonna have to wait til next week to see them haha i also have a picture of me in my sexy sombrero :)  but yeah, the baptism was way cool, shes kind of a big woman and i was super grateful that i could lift her back up out of the water. i did have somebody there to help me just in case, elder lindsey was there haha but i just remember after she came up out of the water, it was just like an overwhelming feeling of joy, i couldnt stop smiling, susanna was ecstatic, and me and elder lindsey were just hugging each other like crazy haha now i REALLY know what its like to see how the gospel change people.  susanna gave a freakin bomb testimony after and shes dead set on converting her whole family.  were gonna baptize her grand daughter this week and the rest of the family will follow later.  shes so solid though. she came into church on sunday for her confirmation and she saw some of our investigators sitting with us and she came up and started testifying how many blessing theyre going to receive for being here in the church and how she knows its true and stuff.  its so cool!

 

speaking of those investigators we were sitting by, we call them the Abuelos, or the grandparents.  they like dont understand anything and cant remember anything that we teach, but they absolutely love church and want to be baptized.  we didnt stop by their house one day, and the oldest lady whos 81 told us she was sad all day cuz we didnt come haha the old guy smokes, so we just have to get him to stop that and then we can probly baptize them on the 10th of december. ill let you know how it goes.

 

so really, like nothing has happened here.  i went on divisiones the other day and had to go to a different area. their area is a super small town and its practically dead. they have like no one to teach so im super grateful for my area.  the other day, we got to go to a peruvian restaurante with some members who are a little more well off and it was way good.  i had like rice and beans and them lamb and cow heart.  the cow heart was freaking good.

 

but my stomach is feeling better, im back to normal now and its awesome! so hopefully that wont happen again.  and yeah mom, i can have a little conversation with people most of the time.  they have to repeat a lot, but we still talk haha for example, the other day, elder ruiz and i had a whole conversation about concerts, mosh pits, and crowd surfing, so i can have a semi normal conversation haha im starting to understand a ton more every day!

 

also with the lessons, i participate a lot.  my companion will teach, and then he looks at me as kind of my token that its my turn and then i go off and we just kind of switch off. i still suck at teaching, but thats cuz i still dont have a solid hold on the language.  so once i can say and understand everything, ill start kickin into gear the teaching part!

 

so thanksgiving sounds fun, make sure to tell everyone hi from me! especially clay, i havent heard from him yet! but have fun without me! haha but yeah, thats really all that has happened this week! every day its getting better and im starting to love it more and more every day! so i cant wait to hear from you guys again next week, and i love and miss you!

 

Con amor,

 

Elder Sirrine

 

 

                                                        1st Apartment!!

                                                        1st Baptism

                                                        Bug Bites......

                                                        Taylor the Giant

                                                        P-Day

                                             View from Taylor's balcony

                               Argentina version of Maytag washing machine

                       This one is for you Millie, Cory and Brenna!!

113* and First Baptism!

Alright family, here it is! haha

 

So its been ridiculously hot a couple days here and rainy a lot too.  during the hot days, its gotten up to 45 degrees celsius, i dont know what that is in fahrenheit, but i know its over 100 degrees haha look it up and tell me! but when we played tennis last week it was freakin hot and i got burnt pretty bad on my neck.  but its all better now dont worry. but sometimes its so hot here we cant freakin sleep in the night, even with the fan cuz were sweating.  so something that elder lindseys brother told him is to shower in your garments in cold water and just climb into bed like that.  ive done it once and its amazing.  i slept through the entire night.  and woke up completely dry, thats how freakin hot it is. the other day it was like 75 degrees outside and i was absolutely freezing.  i wore a freakin sweater haha i guess im accostomed to the heat now.

 

so another thing about how weird my comp is....he likes to smell cats.  whenever we go to a members house and theres a cat there, the first thing he does is pick it up and stick its head right in his nose.  the other day he was smelling a kitten and then he bit its ear and just let it dangle from his mouth like that.  yeah. i have no idea either.  those dang peruvians haha.  so here in argentina i have lost something like 10.5 pounds.  when i got here i weighed 90 kilos and i weighed myself the other day and i weigh 85 now.  so im pretty sure thats something like 10 pounds. im lookin good! haha

 

so i dont know if i told you this, but we had to go to salta on saturday because Elder Christofferson was coming down for a mission conference.  i got to shake his hand and it was way cool.  turns out he served in the same area im in now on his mission, so he talked in spanish to all of us.  we were all expecting him to like lay down the law and just rip us a new one, but he actually told us that god is very thankful that were here making all these sacrifices to be on the mission.  he talked a lot about prayer and stuff too.  it was way cool.

 

friday night was my first baptism!!! it was way cool, even though there were only like 7 people there.  it was me, my comp, two ward members, the ward mission leader, Jorge the kid we baptized, and his mom. but he didnt want anyone there so it was alright.  but it was way cool to see how it changes a person. he was so much happier and just had a smile on his face the whole time.  super cool. we also have three more baptisms scheduled for this friday, so we´ll see how that goes.  and the goal to baptize weekly is the mission goal, not ours.  everyone in the mission is expected to baptize weekly, so its a dang lofty goal, but its definitely possible here in argentina. 

 

also, if you guys want a piece of my life here in argentina, go on youtube and look up Watchiturros.  its a music group down here and i hear it all the freaking time.  its basically the music you listen to when youre drinking.  also, me and elder lindsey were talking the other day and he said after the mission youll have learned 4 languages down here in argentina.  castillano, español, tucumanese, and with enough liquor, portugeuse! haha

 

right now, we are talking to about 21 people.  theyre all investigators, but not all are progressing, though the majority of them do have a baptismal date.  hopefully we can get at least half into the water.  and here in tucuman, im pretty sure theres a stake, but i have no idea how many wards there are here.  the members here provide almost every single lunch, and we just dont eat dinner cuz the lunches are pretty big.  for breakfast, i just have a massive bag of frosted flakes that i eat every morning for breakfast. our area that we serve in is the poor part of tucuman centro. theres centro 1 and  centro 2 and i think were centro 1.  our area includes what they call San Cayetano Ciudad.  its basically the ghetto parts on the outskirts of town and we have a little bit of the more ritzy uptown part of centro too.

 

so your story about reading those testimonies out of the ensign reminded me of what happened in the MTC.  i was reading that exact ensign and those exact testimonies and after i had read a few i stopped and wondered why i had never received a witness like that.  i had prayed before about it but had never received an answer.  in that moment, the spirit just came so strong and i knew without a doubt that the book of mormon was true.  so that ensign kind of has special significance and it helped me receive my testimony of the BoM.

 

how we get paid here is we have a separate debit card that we get money on at the end of each month.  we get about 1400 pesos, but about half of that goes for the apartment.  i think the things here are just as expensive, but there are definitely some cool things that i want to buy and send home for ya.

 

so you better make sure that makayla takes voice lessons now, cuz shes gotta do something artsy haha in her letter she said she wants to and i think that would be perfect for her! and i cant believe those guys are coming home already off their missions.  i swear it hasnt been 2 years already....but tell em hi from me.  and also about my crappy punctuation and whatnot, the keyboards they use here are a lot different and i dont know where like any of the punctuation marks are and i dont want to take the time to look for them haha

 

a little about my week.  i had to go on splits with the ZLs and i ended up going to their area.  while we were there, i had 2 members tell me that i could speak better than the guy i was with and hes been here for 22 months....i dont think he was very happy.  but while i was in their area, i ended up giving a blessing of comfort to this one lady and it was really cool.  i had never met this lady before in my life but she wanted me to do it, so i had to go by the spirit in order to say what she needed and it was awesome to feel the spirit working through me.  the lady was crying and stuff at the end, so apparently i said something right. i also had to bless a house while i was out there too.  lots happened haha

 

that one lady thats convinced shes gonna marry me is solid. were baptizing her this friday and its not cuz she really thinks she can be with me haha shes read like half the book of mormon and shes already testifying of the gospel to her grandkids and shes not even a member yet.  she did get pissed when one of her friends came in the other day though and kissed both me and my comp on the cheek.  she started yelling at this lady and how she had kissed her husband and then she yelled at me for letting it happen and it was just hilarious haha

 

i havent received any other mail here, but hopefully ill get taylors letter tomorrow. it should be here by now.  i also showed the picture that i have here with me to a member and she just kept saying what a life you have, what a life you have with the boat and tubing and all that.  so i dont think ill show them very much cuz its almost embarassing how much stuff we have and were not even rich.

 

so i think ill have to drink the water in my apartment at least eventually, cuz the filters on our water bottles only last so long. the texan has been drinking the water for a while now and hes fine.  so maybe the water in the apartment is okay, but not out in the ghettos where we serve.  youll have to do some research on the water here in argentina and tell me what you think.

 

so there are bugs all over in my apartment, when you turn the light on in the bathroom in the morning they all scatter to their hiding places. they are also in the drawers and cupboards. but luckily we dont cook like anything, so we dont have to worry about it.  and no i dont have fleas....i dont think haha but we tried to sleep outside on the balcony the other night and apparently my feet were uncovered and they got absolutely devoured.  ill send a picture of that too.  but thats all for now, happy anniversary! hope you have a good week, and i love and miss you! cant wait to hear back!

 

con amor

 

Elder Sirrine

Finally Some Photos From Taylor's Mission President

   Mission President

 These 4 traveled from Provo MTC to Salta together

Taylor's new companion who is from the Peruvian jungle!

Better Week!

Hola familia!

 

So this week has been pretty dang awesome haha still pretty hard, but the majority of the experiences have been super positive and fun and whatnot.

 

So first off, they just changed the days that we do our district meeting so now im not gonna get the dearelders until tuesday and it kind of screws everything up...so what we can do is you can still just email me, everyone can, and then ill go print all my emails off in the morning on p day, read them, and then respond later, deal? so just email from now on and ill work it out haha

 

so some things that i forgot last week.  the tradition here in argentina is whenever youre like greeting someone, you always kiss them on the cheek, and they do the same to you.  the members know that they cant kiss us as missionaries, but i cant count how many kisses ive received from girls and ladies here on the mission....and a couple of dudes too! haha not many missionaries can say that huh? but after the first visit, we tell them that we dont do that as missionaries and everything is fine.

 

ive already taught a little bit of english here, one of investigators is studying english in school and i had to help him with the homework.  its funny cuz the people here can not say th. any word that starts with th or has that sound in it they cant pronounce it all.  also, ive been to the rich and poor parts of town now, and there is like no separation.  theres a super ghetto building here, and then a building completely on stainless steel and glass right next to it. youre either rich or poor here, and you can definitely tell the difference.  we went to mcdonalds for lunch and its kinda funny cuz youre pretty loaded if you eat at mcdonalds.....its almost classy here to eat at mcdonalds haha

 

so a couple weeks ago, there were a couple of elders walking in front of us under some orange trees that line the side of the street. a bus came hauling down the street and like destroyed some of the branches hanging in the street and these elders got destroyed by all the oranges that fell haha it was hilarious!

 

one of the goals of my mission here is that we baptize weekly....pretty hard but its actually possible.  we have baptisms lined up every week for like the next month, so im pretty excited about that.

 

a lot of people here think that i look like im 25 and they are aghast when i tell them that im only 19 years old.  they are always commenting on my eyes too....we have one investigator and she always tells me i have celestial eyes and shes convinced that when i get home off the mission shes gonna marry me.  i love her to death haha shes like 61.  she also wants me to teach her english so that she can come up to the u.s. and meet you mom, so that she can talk with her new mother in law.  HAH! haha hilarious!

 

so i learned a new trick this week about sending electronics.  you can put them in a plastic bag, and then put this bag inside a container of peanut butter! haha the other elders were telling me about it, and one kids mom sent him an ipod like that and it got here completely safe.  so you might want to try that out!

 

so yes, i have visited those open air markets and theyre pretty sweet.  thats where i bought my super sexy sombrero.  but i didnt use it one day when it was freakin hot and i got sun stroke or something.  i was super tired, had a huge headache, felt like throwing up, and was super dizzy.  so from now on im going to use my sexy but functional sombrero to cover up from this nasty sun haha also, there are ponchos down here, like authentic and i asked the elder in my aparment how much his poncho cost when he bought it.  but i said poncho like a white person, so like pahn-cho. he busted up laughing and said that i had asked him basically how much his weiner cost.  so reminder, if youre ever in a south american country dont say poncho like a white person.  youll look like a fool

 

my stomach has kind of been destroyed this week and it sucks! it started last sunday and didnt really improve until last night...but i think im on the upslope and things are lookin better. im not really sure what did it either, cuz the food isnt that weird.  probly the water.

 

dad, hopefully me and you can understand each other when i get back, cuz i was talking to the peruvian elder and he said he went to brazil once and he could understand everything! he said portugeuse is basically drunk spanish, so well see if we can talk to each other haha

 

one humbling experience this week...we went to the house of a member to eat and it was the little girls birthday.  she was showing us the money that she got for her birthday and it was one peso.  one peso! about the equivalent of a quarter in the u.s. but she was so happy! she kept playing games with it and making us guess which hand it was in.  kind of made me take a step back and appreciate how much we really do have in the united states, and you never know that until you can experience outside of the states.

 

so some more stuff about my comp.  hes definitely from the deep jungle of peru, he was completely fascinated with the little tape dispensor that you sent me in the mtc.  he kept looking at it and pulling tape and was amazed when the little serrated teeth could cut the tape.  he just kept doing it over and over again. crazy.

 

we played soccer the other night for the first time and it was way fun! turns out im not as clumsy as i thought and i actually made a goal! haha i was pretty excited about that.  but every friday at the church theres soccer and we invite kids we see on the streets through the week to come and play. its way fun.  we also went and played tennis this morning and that was way fun too.

 

so yeah, everything is going good, im still learning a ton, and i cant wait until i can actually understand everything and be a bigger part in the lessons and be a real missionary!  i love and miss you guys and cant wait to hear from you!

 

love you and miss you! if winter ever starts sucking up there, just think of me, where its 95 degrees fahrenheit and about 80% humidity at 11 o clock at night when im trying to get to sleep haha and this is only spring! so make sure you enjoy all that sub zero weather up in utah! love you!

 

con amor,

 

Elder Sirrine

A Little Home Sickness

Dear mom,

 

So yeah a freaking ton has happened that first week here! but now that all the excitement of getting here and getting to this new country and adjusting and whatnot has settled down, things are a little bit more normal.  weve been told to have like that same amount of money on us when were walking around, like 15 pesos or so, which equals about 3 dollars in american money. and the people here and in the mission home said that as long as your smart youre not gonna get robbed....it definitely helps that im kind of a big boy and am usually bigger than the people here.  as long as you walk with a purpose, look confident, and dont look lost youre fine.  so yeah! haha

 

so yes we do tract every day and yes we have to walk everywhere.  the church is only 2 blocks from our house so its not bad at all.  we have to walk about 30 minutes to arrive at any of our appointments, so thats definitely a work out.  hopefully im not going to get fat here haha.  our pension is one of the nicest in the mission i guess and its kinda gross.  we were talking about it today and elder ruiz told me that im going to kill myself in the other pensions cuz theyre even worse, like dilapidated and the ceilings are falling and everything is old and busted.  so im definitely going to have to lower my standard of living.  but we did get it cleaner and were going to get it even cleaner today.  we went and bought cleaning supplies for the bathroom and thats gonna be our first project i think.

 

so yes i do feel a little overwhelmed and a little bit inadequate too.  its just so hard! but ive realized more and more how blessed i am with the spanish language.  i was talking to other missionaries who are white and they said they couldnt understand anything for the first 6 months that they were here and no one could understand a thing they said either.  everyone can always understand what im saying, and for me to understand as much as i do now is nothing short of a miracle! for whatever reason, the lord has chosen to bless me immensely with the gift of tongues and i am so thankful for it!  but its definitely still hard.  its super discouraging at times cuz i feel like im not pulling my own weight in this companionship and that i could be doing so much more.  ive had a couple super hard days where ive just been pissed and didnt want to do anything cuz i cant understand a lot and its so hard for me to have the confidence to go up and contact people cuz i know that i probly wont understand what theyre going to say.  but i kind of took a step back yesterday, took a breather, and realized that im bein too hard on myself.  right now im just gonna focus on learning the language perfectly and afterwards ill perfect teaching and contacting and everything else that comes with missionary work.

so yes, ive definitely felt homesick, and its super weird im not gonna lie.  i think about you guys every day and theres always something that reminds me of one of you.  my comp and i were reading the BoM the other day and he pronounced the word down like tanner and rhett say doin, and then that just led to the whole family and whatnot.  last monday was super hard and i was super glad when i got to talk to dad.

 

so yeah, the culture here is kinda different, they share freaking EVERYTHING.  like theres one of those little water machines that are in offices in the church and theres only one cup and everyone drinks out of it.  also, when you go to someones house, to wash the cups to give you pop or whatever they basically just rinse them out and thats that.  its a good thing im not a germophobic haha my companion is definitely different too. theres still a little bit of a language barrier, but ive learned that hes like from the jungle of peru, he doesnt know how to drive a car, he didnt know phones could text and was super amazed by that, and hes very socially awkward.  so its difficult at times.

 

the church here is pretty cool.  its kind of the same and kind of different.  everyone sucks at singing so thats kinda weird cuz most mormons in utah can at least carry a tune.  they all tell me how beautiful my piano playing is and they always just compliment me on that kind of stuff.  i was singing by a sister on sunday and she was like taken back because i can sing and im definitely not afraid to sing, so i was kind of a lot louder than everyone else at first.  she kept lookin at me funny so i backed off a little haha and yes we do get fed by the members almost every day here, so thats definitely nice, we basically have nothing to spend our money on but pop and milk for cereal.

 

yes we do have access to pretty much everything.  there is a walmart, but its super far away i guess and we would have to take a taxi to get there i think.  theres a store called gomez pardo that we can walk to and its basically a mini sams club, where you can buy all this crap in bulk. so far money really hasnt been a problem and i hope to keep it that way. but i need to know how much is on my card again cuz i might buy an argentina shirt or something and i have to take money off the card for that.

 

so im glad things are going good at home, has it snowed yet? probably knowing utah haha here its freaking blazing hot and one of the rules we have is that we have to wear a sombrero when its burning hot and sunny outside! haha so im lookin pretty freakin good, in like a gaucho leather indiana jones lookin hat! haha ill have to send a picture of it home soon haha youll have to tell everyone hi and thanks for the support!

o a little more about argentina.  whenever you can hear blasting music that means people are sitting gathered around the speakers and drinking.  sometimes there are several different parties of music going on in the same vicinity at the same time and you cant hear yourself speak, let alone give a lesson.  there are also guys who ride around on little bikes with megaphones that yell into them about how theyre selling eggs. when i first heard them i was completely sketched out cuz it seriously sounds like an evacuation notice from world war 2 or something and i thought we were about to bombed.

 

people are definitely willing to talk to us, all you have to do is say hi.  even in the ghettos, people are pretty friendly if you wave to them. 

 

so we have an investigator named marcelo who is freakin golden! he knows its true and he was supposed to be baptized on saturday.  he had his interview for baptism on thursday and we found out he had quit smoking the whole week except for like 2 hours before his freaking interview he smoked 2 cigarettes.  so we have to wait another week.  we are also teaching the rest of his family and they are a lot slower to progress than he his, but theyre coming along.

 

so i dont know that theres that much more to tell.....i look forward to hearing from you guys every week and i love and miss you! hope to hear from you soon!

 

con amor,

 

E. Sirrine

 

p.s.  so i forgot some stuff haha speaking of music, it already looks like ill probaly be playing one of my christmas songs here during church and im super pumped about that.  there is also a sister here who can play the piano a little but not very well, so i might end up having to teach her so that she can play after i leave here.

 

also, all the people on the street can obviously tell im american and whatnot, especially the kids.  they all like to yell hello at me cuz thats the only thing that they know in english haha

 

and tell mr costa that i was telling the bishop a story about how someone had used the verb chupar for It sucks! in english.  but it doesnt translate and is kinda bad actually....tell him about it and he´ll laugh his head off haha but thats all! :)

 

 

I think I want him to come home already!!

Dear family,

what up?! youre lucky youre getting this letter cuz you seriously have to like battle for computers with the local kids who are in the cibers playing world of warcraft and its ridiculous!!!  but yeah im going to explain everything that happened after i got off the phone with you guys so get ready!

so right after i got off the phone, i had to board and i made it fine, not a big deal.  we loaded everyone onto the plane and we sat there forever.  we were kinda terrified when we got on the plane cuz everyone spoke spanish and we couldnt understand a thing.  but we got over that quickly and just started talking with everyone to see if we could.  it ended up being really fun.  so then they came on the intercom and said the plane was too heavy and they needed 4 people to deplane...that took forever and the people were finally gone.  then right after, they came on and said there were some maintenance problems that they had to fix before we could leave.  it started raining in the meantime.  then they came on and said volcanoes were acting up in chile and there was too much volcanic ash in the air so we had to wait for that.  then it started pouring like crazy and they said we couldnt leave until the storm passed.  finally, we heard a huge clash of thunder and a few minutes later they came on the intercom in english and said that lighting may have hit near the plane and if we smelt burnt iodine it was normal.  then they came on in spanish and all they said was something had exploded in the front of the plane and that we had been hit by lightning.  way cool haha so we ended up having to deplane and then there was almost a riot at the terminal because all those people going to argentina had been waiting for 3 days and had been delayed every single day.  we ended up having to leave to a hotel in dallas.  while we were waiting for that, all of us hit up mcdonalds, which was amazing, and then i freakin forgot my carry on bag inside of security.  so i had tsa go find it and they said the police had called the dogs to come sniff it or whatever when they arrived and grabbed it and brought it back to me.  super close call.

so the next day, we had a 12 hour flight and i slept for like 8 of it, it was amazing!!! we got out of customs and everything and there were 3 guys waiting and they never introduced themselves or anything and just kinda shuffled us all outside, grabbed our bags threw em in a van, and then shoved us in the vans and off we went.  pretty sketchy, but they did have a sister missionary with them, so we figured it was alright.  they ended up taking us to a best western to stay the night.  on the way there, we were talking to the sister and she served in salta and was leaving the next day.  one of the first things she said to us was if someone tries to rob you, just give them what they want, they will kill you.  hows that for freakin words of welcome?! ridiculous! haha so we were pretty terrified after that.

anyways, we woke up the next morning, went to another airport, where there was another stranger who failed to introduce himself and he just took us by groups to our flights to different missions.  we got on our flight and then we arrived in salta like 2 hours later. we didnt have to take a bus luckily.  we finally got there and our president and his wife met us.  theyre both super cool, but the pres cant speak english, and his wife knows a few words so that was an adventure. we finally all got in vans and headed to the mission home.  we dropped our bags and then went and had lunch at the presidents house and it was way good.  we went back, and got to meet our papis, or our trainers.  mines a peruvian native and doesnt speak a word of freakin english! its been rough at first but now we can talk to each other and stuff.  we had like initiatory training and whatnot, and then they sent us out tracting at like 8.  super fun, but i couldnt understand anything.  i was almost positive we were gonna get robbed when we were talking to this one guy who took us everywhere and tried to get us to come into his house with him to get stuff, which was a giant dark broken building.  we didnt go in haha  but speaking of understanding, i can understand a lot more each day and its getting easier! so thats definitely a good thing.  after tracting, we went to the APs apartment and basically had a giant sleep over in their living room.  there were 14 of us, plus the people who lived in that apartment so it was crazy.

the next day, we had to go do paperwork at immigrations and i had my first encounter with the one eyed monster.  there was a woman breastfeeding in there without shame...its happened several times since then, including when we were giving a blessing, a lady directly in our line of sight in the bedroom just popped it out and stuck her baby on.  it didnt help that shes kind of immensely fat and had to lift her shirt all the way up. 

anyways, we had to go to the giant bus terminals after that and we contacted while we were waiting. pretty fun.  we had a 5 hour drive out to my area, which is tucuman centro. we planned when we got back and went to bed.  but the apartment im living in could be pretty nice, but its disgusting right now.  the shower curtain is almost completely mud and there are bugs all over in the bathroom.  there are also bugs in all the cupboards and everythings dirty.  we cleaned this morning, but its gonna take a lot more than that.  we live with two other elders, one from peru elder ruiz, and one from texas elder lindsey.  theyre pretty cool guys.

The next day, we had lunch with the members and it was way good food again.  i couldnt understand very much and they liked to make fun of me, but it was alright haha they decided theyre going to call me elder sirena, or elder mermaid in spanish, because my last name is too hard to say.  we went out to work after that and we met a drunk guy in the street who said he was a member.  he started bawling and like grabbing my hand and my companion and saying he wanted to leave alcohol and tobacco and all that and he just kept saying help me, help me.  super sad.  we told him we would come back in a couple days cuz we had so many appointments. 

the next day, we had lunch with more members and it was way fun.  i could actually have conversation with them cuz i understood what they were saying sometimes.  ive been told that there are three kinds of girls here worms: who are like 8 year old girls who love you, snakes; who are the attractive or not attractive girls from like 16 to 30, and dragons: or the old ladies who just love you cuz youre young.  ive already encountered all three, especilly because im american and they love the color of my eyes cuz everyone here has brown eyes.  ridiculous! i wish i wasnt american, cuz its like almost distracting for them during lessons.  but, in the words of elder ruiz: flirt to convert! haha

so we went to a members daughters baptism and that was sweet, i got to play the piano and stuff for it.  they all told me how beautiful my playing was and stuff cuz no one can play down here.  i also had to play organ yesterday in sacrament.  AND i had to bear my testimony in front of the ward. one of the members told elder lindsey the texan that i need to teach him how to speak cuz apparently my accent is better than his or something.  he was freakin torqued.  but i would rather understand more than be better at speaking so then i could at least know what was going on.

so here in south america, traffic is freaking ridiculously sketchy.  people do not slow down for you and will not hesitate to run you over and there is no such thing as a cross walk or pedestrians have the right of way.  we had to cross like an 8 lane highway yesterday walking and stop in the median in the middle to wait for the traffic to slow down on the other side.  dont worry though, were safe about it....or as safe as you can be here haha but i have yet to see a posted speed limit, there are one way streets everywhere and i dont know how people know which is which because there are no street signs anywhere, including stop signs.  you just go and hope you dont run into someone when youre driving.  ridiculously scary.  everyone also has a motorcycle and ive seen families of 5 squished onto one that normally holds 2.  the dad sits in front with a kid on his lap, then 2 kids behind him, and then the mom, who may or may not be holding a baby.  so sketchy.

the people here all kind of eye you funny until you say hi and then theyre all smiles and kindness and its kinda cool.  especially at night.  i was so scared the first night cuz i was convinced that everyone was going to rob me because of the way they were looking at me.  then i figured out if you say they really like instantly change and all the tension and fear is gone and no one wants to rob you haha. 

ive already given a blessing in spanish to this lady and it was freaking terrifying!!! but it actually went halfway well so it was pretty cool. oh and tell the bastians they would love it down here, cuz you cant drink the water from the tap its so bad, so they have that nasty soda water crap everywhere! so we drink pop and juice and thats what we survive on here.

but everything is going way good, hope to hear from you soon! love you guys and miss you!

Con amor,

Elder Sirrine

Argentina??

So we heard from Taylor on Monday night while he was in the Dallas airport.  We had been waiting at lunch time but never heard from him.  I guess the bus driver at the MTC decided to take everyone on a tour of downtown Salt Lake before heading to the airport.  Taylor was a little irritated because it made them late and unable to call home!

He sounded so good and so excited to get going.  We was suppose to arrive in Salta yesterday, Wednesday, but as of yet, we haven't heard if he made it yet.  We are assuming no news is good news.  His bus ride from Buenos Aires was 18 hours....longer that his flight time!  Crazy! Hopefully we will hear from him soon that he made it safely!!

Leaving the MTC

Dear Mom,

Thanks for the countdown letters these past few days, theyve been pretty funny haha my district thinks theyre pretty funny too.  So im pretty sure taylor aldridge had his mission call before i left....going to salvador san salvador mission in mexico haha but thats way cool about taylor winn! i didnt even know he wanted to go on a mission...So hosting the other day was way fun, me and Jimmy Larue were running around the drop off zone looking for dane the whole time.  we found oakley mason from north sevier instead, so jimmy went and hosted him.  right after that, i was asking a service missionary when the last names of p were supposed to get there and i turned around and the petersons were climbing out of their car directly behind me. it was pretty cool! haha it was good to see them, and they seemed pretty excited to see me too so it was definitely a good day! it was a lot more fun hosting someone that you know too.  how was 4 wheeling the canyon the other day? find anything good?

So im freakin pumped to leave this monday, but after our twelve hour flight to buenos aires, i think we have like an 18 hour bus ride up to salta cuz theres not an airport up there.  GAY!!! were gonna be traveling for like 3 straight days! i am a little nervous now though too....i got most of my packing done today and i should be able to stay below the weight limit on my bags i think.

 

So last week at the temple, i got to go help in the laundry room after our session cuz they were super understaffed. it was actually pretty fun! me and my comp got to fold socks and of course it eventually turned into a contest of who could fold the most the fastest....i won.  dont mess in a sock folding contest.  haha and i dont remember if i told you this, but while i was there we did sealings and this guy named bert hall pulled me aside after and asked me if i had any relatives from oregon named gordon sirrine.  i guess he went to high school with him and hasnt heard the name sirrine for like 65 years since then.  isnt gordon kenneths brother or somethin?

 

So we were doin a daily contact with Pepe this week, and we were gonna bounce the baptismal interview questions off of him so he would know what to expect in the actual interview.  he ended up answering the questions and when we got to question 4 in PMG, we asked if he had ever participated in an abortion and he said yes.  as soon as he said that it was like al three of us got punched in the stomach, it was the worst feeling ever! we had no idea what to do, we didnt need to know that about him, and we totally screwed up.  he seemed really super sorry about it and we could tell that, so i ended up basically telling him that he could still get baptized, which is not something i should ever do! it was so bad! i basically learned how NOT to do that lesson before the interview haha

 

We got to do a "how to begin teaching" demonstration in front of the brand new elders the other night and it was a way cool experience.  we started talking to this guy and got to know him and stuff and the spirit was startin to come in super strong and then he said that he had had something weighing on his mind for 43 years cuz he broke one of the 10 commandments with a girl and that he still feels horrible about it.  we were totally just about to go into how our message was a message of hope and how those feeling could be washed away and our moderator stopped us so the group of new missionaries could continue the teaching from there.  we were so disappointed!!! we wanted to keep teaching him, he was golden! haha

 

So one of our substitutes the other night went to argentina and taught us some argentina words.  i guess down there when something bad happens you just say "faaahhhhhh" or "wayyyyy" when something good happens.  so if i come home and something bad happens and it sounds like im sayin "fuh" thats not it haha prepare yourself now!

 

Our district has apparently made a name for itself among all the spanish teachers here in the mtc because of the whole no teachers thing at the first.  all the teachers know who we are, and the guy who is in charge of all the teachers who teach missionaries going to south america, brother hallam, is with us all the time in our classroom and i guess hes never in other peoples classroom like that.  so kinda cool.

 

We said goodbye to one of our teachers the other day, Hermano Lucero, and all of us were bawling when he left! that makes me super nervous for sunday night, cuz all of us are going to be breaking down...were all kind of boobs in my district haha and we have to say goodbye to our other teachers tonight, so its gonna be rough!

 

I got to play my armys of helaman song on monday and i get to play my other one at the departure devotional this sunday, so thatll be way cool! im excited for that!

 

The reason i didnt email yesterday is cuz we had an all day in field training...it was awesome! we were all thinkin we were pretty good missionaries before yesterday, but then we learned what it really takes....a ton!!! but it was way good and i learned a ton :)

 

So im basically pumped to leave on monday and hopefully i can call you guys while im in the salt lake airport! we'll see! itll probly be sometime around noon or 1230 so be ready! i dont have anything else, so love you guys, and hope to talk to you soon!

 

Con amor,

 

Elder Sirrine

Getting Ready to leave the MTC!!! Only 7 more days

Dear Mom,

So thursdays come around ridiculously fast, but they also take forever too haha days are a week long and weeks are kinda like days...not really sure how that happens. But we totally got travel plans yesterday! We leave Monday the 17th from here at 1130, fly out at 230, arrive in dallas at 605, fly out at 735, and then arrive in buenos aires argentina around 815 the next morning. Since our layover is so short, i dont know if ill be able to call....but we'll see what happens!

So i saw logan the other day, and he seems pretty alright. i didnt think patty and alex even could cry! haha but thats too bad :/ I didnt end up hosting anyone i knew that day, but all the guys that i hosted were going on spanish missions so that was kinda cool. i hosted 3 guys, and it was kinda awkward getting them from the sidewalk! cuz the cars pull up and sometimes people are already crying, and by the end theyre always crying and youre just pretending like you dont see any of it but try to be nice and welcoming at the same time...and then they asked me to take a picture and i couldnt and i just felt bad! but after that it was alright....the one guy, you could tell his parents had sent multiple missionaries before cuz neither of them cried, they gave him his crap, hugged him and just said see ya and drove away! kind of sad!

Texting neccia last week was so sweet! i loved it! hopefully she can text me again today... So it totally snowed here yesterday and we were ticked! but we did sing a christmas song in honor of it so that was fun haha We have a hawaiian with us who wont get out of bed in the morning cuz its so cold! hes late all the time and hes constantly in a jacket now. so he knows susan's pain! haha does she know that its not even bad yet and she should just wait until its 10 below and your nose hairs freeze? while you guys are freezing, just know that i get to go to where its 100 degrees and 90 percent humidity :) that should cheer you up haha

So how are the Bastians and the Andersons? tell them hi for me! Hopefully volleyball picks it up and they can actually go to state :) keep tellin me how it goes.

So my song, i was scheduled to play the one with the kid with the violin on monday, but the other kid ended up being super sick and had to go to the doctor so it kinda got cancelled :( so hopefully i can still play my other one!

My Spanish is comin along good, i can usually talk about whatever i want about the Gospel but normal stuff is pretty much out of my reach. some of the guys in my district definitely struggle, but thats alright weve all got our strengths. they all come to me for help and i try to help them out the best i can. speaking of spanish, we totally got to teach a native spanish speaker from mexico on monday! it was sweet! hes a member and they volunteer to come and be taught, so we taught him about the power of prayer and how to receive revelation through it. i could actually understand the majority of what he said and it was awesome! it was really fun to talk to him.

So im just pumped to get out of here but a little nervous too! im actually going to Argentina in a week! crazy! but itll be good. i know im gonna get absolutely wrecked with the spanish and im not lookin forward to that but itll be alright after a while. and yes i still want those speakers and one of my teachers told me that i DO want that waterproof backpack and then send me a little flashlight too! and a piece of coffeecake, i was serious about that! haha

so this past week has been way good. we watched freakin 10 hours of conference and it was ridiculous! ive never watched that much conference in my life! but it was so good and i actually liked watching it a lot! its way different than being curled up in a blanket on the couch...i tried to get as comfortable as i could and i took my shoes off in every session, and in the last one some kid next to me asked me to put them back on! i was so ticked!!!

our trio got split up this last week because one of the guys in the district ahead of us didnt get his visa and had to stay behind. so now elder reece and i are companions and elder flores and elder wheeler are companions. he moved into our room and its honestly kind of a little weird just having 2 people! kinda cool though...so thats been interesting. we've started singing abide with me tis eventide in spanish every night before we go to bed and the first night we did it we had the door closed and the kid from hawaii came and laid by the door outside of our room and just sat there and meowed! we kept singing figuring he would stop and he didnt, and then he just started like crying, i wanna sing! haha funniest thing ever, so of course we had to let him in and sing all over again with him.

We went into the outside world again the other day because elder flores had to go to the pediatrist. when we got on the shuttle this guy named elder dantas was like hey i know you! turns out hes that adrielle quadros girl's boyfriend and he recognized me from facebook! haha kinda crazy. so youll have to get on facebook and tell them that i know her boyfriend now.

We got to teach susanna and pepe about chastity this week and that was SUPER fun haha we told pepe he had to break up with his girlfriend susanna and start making things good with his wife. that wasnt awkward at all! we also taught pepes wife yesterday for the first time and it was intense! she was so hostile and as soon as we got in there she told us she didnt believe in god, she was aethist and basically everything we have been teaching pepe was bullcrap. so we just got her to tell us why she feels that way and what she thinks happens after death, and she said nothing and was completely fine with that. so then elder reece brought up her dead daughter and asked her how she felt after her daughter died. she said sad of course, and that was the reason there wasnt a god is because he wouldnt let a bad thing like that happen. so then we told her that she can live with her daughter again forever and death and started teaching her the plan of salvation and she stopped us and was like, my heart is burning. we were so excited and pumped! she went from completly hostile to feeling the spirit and shes totally gonna pray now! haha way cool! and then we also got another neqw investigator because our other one got baptized :) very eventful week of teaching!

But other than that, i cant think of anything else to write! hope to hear from you guys soon! love ya!

Con Amor,

Elder Sirring

p.s. oh yeah, elder flores got a letter today from his mom and i guess there was an earthquake in salta the other day...6.2 to be exact haha but you can tell how freakin rural salta is because there was no property damage, no injury, and no deaths. so thats good! and then we were talking to this guy that went to argentina and he said even though the people in salta live in like little villages and are super primitive, like every single village has an internet cafe! weird! so i think email will be alright down there :)

LOVE YOU TOO!

Laundry Room Fun

Caught in a Rainstorm!

A long way from home!!

The Threesome Companionship....all headed to Salta

Taylor and the boys working hard to learn Spanish

Taylor and other missionaries that are all going to Salta Mission

Elder Sirrine with his companion Elder Flores at the Provo Temple

Half Way Finished at the MTC

Dear Mom,

Hey sorry its so late but its getting sent. Today and last night have been crazy! Thanks on the congrats though, ill let you know when i play for sure :) and im glad the piano reminds you of me! haha i dont remember what song i played for elder harland and spurlin, but tell them hi!

So last week after we went to the temple, we went outside and it was freaking pouring rain! so we ran back in our suits and by the time we got back it was seriously like someone dumped a bucket of water on us.

We committed our other investigator Pablo to baptism and that was way cool and then we've been fighting with Pepe about closing his cafe on sundays. after the lesson, i was feelin bad for him cuz we kept hounding him and i asked my teacher what i should have done. so as an answer, we did a teaching exercise in front of the whole class where i was the investigator and hermano harker was teaching me and i was in a similar situation as Pepe. He started teaching me about the sabbath day and how i needed to close my cafe that day. I was like legitely worried that i wouldnt be able to provide for my wife and two kids, i was that into the investigators shoes. and im sure the spirit put me there so make it as real as possible. but anyways, he kept pushing it and when it came time to make the decision, i was like almost crying! it was one of the hardest decisions ive ever made in my life and it wasnt even real! the spirit was there so strong and everybody in the class was crying. way cool experience to kind of see what its like in the investigators shoes.

So we're super lucky to have conference around the time that were here in the mtc because all the apostles are in town! so we got to hear from another one on Tuesday, this time Russell M Nelson. 3 in 5 weeks!!! he talked a lot about the book of mormon and it was just super cool. i dont know what it was, like maybe i was more in tune with the spirit this week or somethin, but when he walked in i just got hit with like a wall of the Spirit! it was so sick!!!

So last night was insane. We went and played volleyball for gym and e. reece went up to block the ball. i think someone came under the net so when he came down he twisted the crap out of his ankle and we thought he broke it. we were all standing around him and he starts screaming on the floor and we all told him to be quiet cuz he was embarassing himself. he likes to milk things out and whine a lot. so anyways, we went through all this crap and he took like 30 minutes to get from the gym to the dorm room which should take like 2 minutes. he complained the whole time about how bad his foot hurt and he would stop every 5 feet cuz hes kinda fat and cant heave his body around on crutches. we went and got x-rays this morning, thats why this is so late, and turns out its only a bad sprain. from how much he complains though, you would think he got shot. he seriously stops every 10 feet and says how much he hates crutches and he moans and crawls up stairs and its just ridiculous! i want to slap him! on the bright side though, while he was getting all fixed up i totally learned how to jump serve in volleyball!!! legit! haha i cant wait to play tomorrow :)

but i think thats all thats really happened....tell peggy thank you for sending me a letter, i really appreciate it! oh and i dont think you need to send me a backpack cuz they said you need the little cross shoulder bags in south america cuz backpacks get ripped off by people and its just not good. so i either get one when i first get there, or buy one and theyre not very expensive so dont worry about the backpack. love you guys, hope to hear from you soon!

Con amor,

Elder Taylor Sirrine

Week 3

Dear mom/family,

So nothing terribly spiritual has happened this week...the only super cool thing was in our next lesson with pepe we got him to committ to baptism! Apparently that never happens in less than 3 weeks so were doin somethin right! haha No one else in our district has got a committment for baptism and a lot of people in the district ahead of us dont either. It was pretty cool though!

So we had another devotional on Tuesday and I got to sing in the choir again. They zoomed up on my face again I guess...It was one of the 70 that spoke and he spoke about the power of music a lot. He said we need to us it more, so im gonna try to sing a hymn at every lesson out in the field.

Speaking of music, I completely spaced trying out again, but a kid asked me to accompany him while he plays the violin. We practiced the other night and it sounds so cool! Its a Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief.

So I have heard from some people back home, Janessa especially and Syder too, but freakin Mack hasnt written me yet! Tell her to get on that!

We are still in a trio and it still sucks. None of us like it. And they wont put another elder in our room because hes not in our district.

So I was gonna brag about breakfast every morning here. I get as much chocolate milk as i want! AWESOME. And weve all heard how youre supposed to stay away from the orange juice, so we decided to have a little challenge this morning at breakfast. Everyone in the district except for my comp of course drank about 3 glasses of OJ and the last person to explode wins! So far, im not very impressed with the supposed potency of the orange juice, cuz it hasnt done anything to any of us yet.

So this place seems more and more like a prison every day. Were kept under constant surveillance, we cant leave the premises, and at nights they come on the intercoms in our dorms and say Ättention prisoners, quiet time is at 1015 and lights out is at 1030. Thank you and have a good night." The words missionaries and prisoners is basically synonymous in meaning right now. Every time one of our teachers walk in, were like whats the news from the outside world?! Its kind of sad really...

I finally got a haircut here! its like a fight to the death to get an appointment, you have to schedule it like a week in advance and you have to go sign up at like 6 in the morning cuz the list fills up so fast! But it was so awkward getting a haircut!!! It was me and a girl and they made my companions wait out in the lobby. WEIRD!!! Haha im basically terrified of girls already! and you know how when you get a haircut and your person is usually pushed up like right agains you for the best angle on your hair or whatever? Well she stood about as far away as she could while still cutting my hair. Pretty sure its a rule for them and im glad cuz it would have been even more awkward! BUT this girls boyfriend went to Salta and ate good and loved it so that gives me hope! haha

On the way to the temple last week, there was this Jewish guy standing on the corner holding a cross and he started talking to us and was like "What do you think of a Jew for Jesus?"I said "Well anyone for Jesus is good in my opinion"." He laughed and got so happy and said God bless you guys, youre doin the right thing spreading the love of Jesus to the world! Pretty funny haha

But thanks for the packages, theyre awesome! I got both of the and was so stoked!!! i cant really think of anything else, so i hope to hear from ya soon! Love you guys and miss you!

Con Amor,

Elder Sirrine

Great Experiences!

Dear Family,

Haha i laughed when you said that you look at the clock to see what im doing, thats almost creeper status! But TALL is Technology Assisted Language Learning, so we go and do Spanish in the computer lab.

I still have to fix my song some more, so I havent gona and autitioned again yet. BUT i got to sing in the MTC choir Tuesday night when Elder Jeffrey R Holland was there and apparently they zoomed up on my face on the big screen so...cool.

Things are actually coming a lot better with my comp. Hes chilled out a lot and Ive probly gotten a little more uptight so were meeting somewhere in the middle. And yes were together for the whole 9 weeks. I also got a new companion and am part of a trio now...I dont like it at all. One of the guys in my room went home and we have his companion now.

Gym is freakin bomb! I play volleyball an hour every day and i love it! its definitely the best part of the day! I served the ball so hard the other day and it hit a harmana right in the stomach! i felt so bad, but it was hilarious too haha

Theres been so much that has happened I dont even know what to put down. We sang an awesome arrangement of Called to Serve last Sunday at Fireside. We sang super quiet at first (I didnt know 2000 people could sing that quiet) then we sang a little louder and then everyone stood and just belted the last chorus. Awesome. We were supposed to be the 2000 stripling warriors marching to battle and it was so cool!!! And we sang God Be With You Till We Meet Again when my ZLs district left. It was pretty sad, i love those guys and i barely even know them and theyre gone already...gay! We sing that song like its a drinking song though and its kinda fun haha My ZLs hooked us up when they left though! They freakin loved me and the guys in my room so they left us a fan that keeps our room cold now and they gave us all of their food too! We have so much freakin food now!

Porter Ellott was my teacher for a while, that was cool. We talked for a while and he said he would text Cory and tell him hi for me. We had a teaching practice the other day and 2 elders in my district were teaching me and my companion. We were supposed to be a Catholic minister and his wife. We only talked in Spanish to them and we asked super hard questions that got them distracted from their message and got them frustrated and eventually they just got pissed and started bashing on the Catholic church. Then we got mad at them for bashing on our church and we just destroyed their lesson...i felt kinda bad but it was super fun to do it too! haha

But yeah, like i said, Elder Inman left for home on Wednesday. We were all crying after the devotional with Elder Holland. I never really thought about how much someone leaving would affect all the people in his district too. Super emotional. Speaking of the devotional though, we had Elder Holland! SO sick!!! Our ZLs were telling us how they had never had an apostle while they were there and of course they leave Tuesday morning and we get an apostle Tuesday night haha He talked about the image of missionaries and how a lot of people think were perfect. He told us we have no right to destroy or distort that image at all.

We had a way sick experience with one of our "investigators" yesterday too. his son died and hes all angry at god so we decided to teach him the plan of salvation cuz we thought that would help him get over his anger at god. Halfway through the lesson, right after the atonement elder flores shared John 3:16 the whole God so loved the world that he sent his only son. I looked at Pepe and told him that God sent his son to this earth and he had to sit and watch his son die. Then i told him that God knows EXACTLY how he feels about his son and it was just super powerful and Spiritual!!! I was bawling as soon as i started sharing that and he just looked at me and said thank you so much for sharing that. Way cool. My companions were crying too.

So theres really not much else to say....

Love
Elder Sirrine