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! :)