So things are going great over here in Argentina. The CCM is getting pretty boring so I am so excited to finally get out of here! Yes they are sending us to Uruguay by plane but no I don't get to call you. Nice Try. But I think I get to write you another quick email on Monday because that is our last day here. Maybe I will just upload a picture or something. But anyway its getting pretty hot now days down here....
I haven't really mentioned my roommates, they are pretty funny. At first we had 4 Latinos as well as my comp and me but then one of them ended up going home which is sad but he was not doing well. It was pretty noticeable. So they moved his comp into another room. So now its just the 4 of us. Elder Robayo is from Sweden. Yep Sweden, His parents are Colombian but he has lived in Sweden since he was like 2. So he is fluent in Swedish, Spanish, and pretty much English. He has such a funny personality, and the mix of cultures is just hilarious. For example, He joined the Swedish army before he left for his mission so when he gets home he is probably going to go to Afghanistan He says the army there is a joke and he won't really have to do anything dangerous. His comp. Elder De Oliviera is from Brazil but has lived in Argentina for the last 10 or so years. So he speaks Spanish and Portuguese and fairly good English as well. He is a pretty cool guy too.
Proselitismo this week was really different. We changed areas like I said so we didn't get to go to Mauro's. Anyway we switched to an area called Banfield, It's a suburb of Buenos Aires. Anyway my comp and I were in the downtown area of this suburb. There were big tall apartment buildings and stuff, and all these cool restaurants and shops, and in this one area was a full on street market. It was like an outside mall or something it was pretty awesome. The only problem was everyone was in a hurry and didn't really want to listen to us. We had a residential area as well but it was really rich, the first guy we saw in it we started talking to and he spoke perfect English and he was telling us that this neighborhood was nick named "El Barrio de Ingles" basically the English neighborhood. We didn't have very much success there because all the houses had intercoms and no one would come out. But we found one guy named David and started talking to him for a while. He spoke English as well which turned out to be a blessing because he was a JW and he started talking to us in depth about the bible. Anyway he hadn't ever heard about the Book of Mormon so we started telling him about it and told him Moroni's promise that he can know for himself. He agreed to take it and the read and pray, but he said he was going to study some of it and make sure nothing contradicts the bible in it. He said if he doesn't see any contradictions then he won't have a problem with it. Needless to say our next lesson is going to be focused on what makes our church different. We got that a lot, people saying that all the churches are the same, even when you talk about the Restoration. Seriously everyones favorite word down here is "claro" it just means clear but they say it all the time when they are agreeing with you or if something is obvious. Anyway there was for the first time legit businesses in our area so I got to use my credit card, Mom I would like you to check on my bank and see how much it ended up costing me in American dollars for what I bought. It cost 21 pesos so if you could tell me how much American I would appreciate it. We went to a Shell gas station and they had more lays potato chips. They didn't taste quite the same but it was close. It brought me a little joy. haha
Another mini experience that happened today - We were having our class outside for the fun of it, and we saw a person walking past the fence so we decided to go and talk to them like we would if we were proselyting like normal. anyway I went with another elder, Elder Lythgoe and we started talking to her and Elder Lythgoe asked "Would it be important to you if you could live with your family forever" and I guess she didn't really understand his Spanish or something because she answered back "well of course! I already live with my family!" Anyway so we added "After death?" and she got this look on her face like it just really struck her, and most of the time when we proselyte people just agree with us and don't really think or listen about what we are saying, but you could tell she actually thought about it and it caught her off guard, anyway she was in a hurry but she told us her address, which happens to be right across the street from the CCM, so hopefully we will be able to talk to her again!
I'm really excited to get out of here. For the most part all we ever do now is review and its getting really boring. I'm super excited to be forcibly immersed in spanish because I really want to speak it and I know that is going to be the best way. It's going to be a big change from the CCM, but it's interesting. I was thinking about what my expectations for the MTC had always been growing up and for some reason I never really pictured learning spanish in the MTC. I always saw myself getting out to my area, meeting my American trainer and learning spanish there. Maybe that's what they do in the Provo MTC, but certainly not out here. It is a huge blessing to be in Argentina already, even if it means my mail takes longer and I don't get boxes of cookies every week from mom. But I'm really excited to call on Christmas, and the main reason is so I can talk to Spencer in spanish! hahah sorry mom.
Thanks for all the love and support! I can't wait to get to serve the people in Uruguay!!!!
Love Elder Carlson IV
No comments:
Post a Comment