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 :)