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! :)