Week 008 - Argentina Arrival - The Full Story

Hey fellas. Just emailing here with my companero, on a Spanish computer and keyboard. It’s super hard to type, buts it’s all good.

This has been a totally nuts past week, and I’m pumped to tell you all about it. All right, first I went through the candy cane forest, across the sea of swirly twirly gumdrops, and then through the Lincoln tunnel... It was like the longest trip of my life. Kind of felt longer since I was in a suit. I took a bus, that took us to the train, which took us to the airport, where I was talking to my neighbor about the gospel and turns out she was already a member. BAPTISM. Then I made it to Georgia where this guy who was like "I have a son in Argentina, let me buy you all chick-fil-a"... So of course I said "GET IN THAT BUS." Sweet. Then we had free chick-fil-a.

Then we got on our 10 hour flight, and for some reason the church decided to put all the missionaries together, and then put me in the back with all the Argentinians. It was all good because I was talking to this old Argentinian dude for like 3 straight hours about Argentina and stuff, because he’s been there his whole life. He was also saying stuff like he was high up in the government, but I don’t know, maybe he’s full of crap. And this whole conversation wasn’t in English, it was Spanish. Sick... right!

Anyways, 10 hours go by, and we made it, and I hit the biggest wall of heat in my life, seriously. I was dry, and then I was not. Incredible. Anyways, we get off the plane and don’t know where to go, but we found our way to the non-Argentinian section. Cool. Now everyone’s looking at us saying who you are? and why are you here? Instant preaching all over the place. "Jose Smith, mas brillante que el sol´s." So I gave out a few pass along cards. Cool.

Funny story: my ex companero goes up to the visa guy, and the visa guy says "what flight?" and Elder Hopkins says, "Lo siento mi espanol es mal. "And then the visa guy says, "I'M SPEAKING ENGLISH." Yeah we`re white.

Eventually we made it out of the airport and get picked up by a bus (how convenient). But check this, Caleb Trotter from the AZ is there and it’s his last day. I was like, "No way! This is my first day." So we talked, and now I know everything I need to know about anything.

Anyways, we take a stop at the temple and meet up with the Argentina MTC President who is way chill and speaks English, and we then pick up some bandwagoners (natives). Now we take an 8 hour drive to Santa Fe. Finally we made it, and meet Mr. President... President Perez. Who it turns out doesn’t know any English. That was a fun interview. Anyway, very cool, very nice. In fact, so nice that he decided to give us enough food that he made me gain probably 10 lbs. Sweet. It was like tons of breads and meats. We're told the members feed the missionaries all the time. Apparently one guy gained like 60 lbs here. So I might come back fat. Way cool. So we eat and chill and get the whole lowdown. By the way, every native I talk to loves to pull out the fake hand guns and go "boom boom" every time I say I’m from Texas. I should say I’m from Virginia, but whatever.

Time goes by, and now we all hit the hay at the zone leader's place. Packed City. And way hot. We were fine for a little bit because we had a fan, but the power went out. So I just slept on the tile. And I decided that’s what I’m going to do for two years.

Check this! This place has a bidet (I think that’s how you spell it). But not just this place. Every place. Argentina is Bidet City. I will never use toilet paper again. It’s so cool. And uncomfortable.

Anyway... next day hits, and we watch a broadcast with Bednar who spoke in Buenos Aires. It was very good, as he tried to Spanglish his way through a talk. But very good. Sister Bednar made this awesome comment saying that she didn’t want to go on a mission because she was afraid of living in a hut. I almost died because a lot of those people probably did live in a hut. It’s the life.

Anyways, you want to know about my companion, well his name is Elder Ricra, and he is from Peru, and doesn’t know English. Spanish for days son. It’s really good and it’s helping me. But he is also trying to learn English, so he's always saying words wrong and it’s hard to tell if he is speaking Spanish or English. He was trying to ask me if the doorbell was my name the other day. I said "no, that’s a doorbell." Anyways, I’ll send you a pic soon.

Then we were sent to our actually serving location, Galves. It’s like 2 hours south of Santa Fe. We took a bus there which is totally funny because before the buses leave, people start to get on and throw things on your lap screaming in Spanish... trying to sell whatever they put in your lap. Everyone says no, and then the guys pick up their stuff and leave. Anyways, we head down to Galves, which took a lot longer because a bunch of Argentinians decided to have a party in the road, and burn a tree, and then burn a bunch of tires. 3-4 hours later we make it to our apartment, which we are sharing with two other missionaries for right now, and the place is super tiny. Like not meant for two people. But it’s okay because we have a bidet.

Galves is way cool. Actually Argentina in general is cool. It's full of white people that speak Spanish. We live right next to the great abominable church. It’s really cool and like the center of town. The city is pretty nice. We live downtown, so there are always the happenings going on.

Okay, there is an incredible amount of stray dogs around here. And they either chase and bark after you, or they sit and chill, but if you pet the chill ones they start to follow you. I had like 3 dogs following me like I was their mom. Super cool. I think they stopped because they realized I did not have food or anything. Sorry. My companion doesn’t like dogs some reason, so he gets real nervous by houses that have dogs.

Let’s get into the proselyting dealio. For the past 3 days it has been really nice weather, because at night we have had crazy storms that literally just rip out these huge trees. But during the days it has been cloudy and really nice. Everyone around here is super nice, and everyone is down to talk. Everyone does say "I’m Catholic." But we are like, "yeah we know." 90% of the people here are Catholic. So we are always like... "we want to talk about Jesus"... and everyone loves Jesus. But some people get weird. We talked to one guy that said he pulled the spirit out of someone’s body and flew around the world with it. I thought I translated that wrong, but no, Elder Ricra confirmed it.

A lot of people don’t have doors or doorbells, so we have to clap in front of people’s houses. And you know how in the States every southerner calls us Yankees. It’s the same here. Now I’m way south and everyone calls me Shankee. Also, like the dogs ... there are stray children everywhere, and they always want some kind of bible scripture.

People down here totally listen to American music. Like no joke, Phil Collins "You’ll Be In My Heart" right now. Our neighbor blasts his tunes during lunch. Three days ago he played the entire Pink Floyd The Wall album. So it was very hard not to go along and say "Hey teacher... Leave those kids alone."

Okay, so our ward here, or stake, or whatever it is, has like 70 members, but only 15 show up to church. But this last Sunday only 5 showed up including the Branch President, his wife, his kid, 1 other member, and an investigator. It was nuts, and the second hour we hopped in the car of the Branch President and went to go look for members, before we took the sacrament. Too bad we couldn’t get anymore. But we did get a baptism date for the investigator that showed up.

A lot of times, we are teaching less active members, but this one lady we taught who was a member for 28 years, didn’t know we had prophets today... who baptized her? 

Anyways... totally running out of time. Great times. I totally can receive packages, it just costs me like 40 pesos, so don’t send me a bunch, so I can actually afford to eat.

Love you guys!

Week 007 - Argentina Arrival - The Short Story

Que paso! I have made it. And they are having me write an email to let you guys know I am all good!

That was a pretty crazy trip, and I'll give more of the details on my P day.

Super pumped, and I am totally alright!

Week 006 - Taking The Spoon To Argentina

HEY! I am totally jealous of the NASCAR Swag! Daytona ... you could call it the Redneck Superbowl. 

The pics of New York seemed like a good time! Of course Emma destroyed her head on one of the biggest memorials in the nation. You'll have to give me the whole story. Now we both have sweeeeet scars on our faces. 

The situation with Grandpa Greene is super lame, and he is totally in my prayers. Super thankful he caught on to good hospital care. 

But congratulations to Zach and Yevi. I'm physched out of my mind right now, You're going to have to send me his email so I can congratulate him. That is a power couple. 

So I have about two days until I head out for Argentina, I am way excited, and way nervous. it's crazy. The words of Mikey keep popping into my head... "It's their time. Up there. Down here, it's our time. It's our time down here. That's all over the second we ride up Troy's Bucket." Truely motivational. 

It's also been kind of like Cram Week of studying Spanish. Except for the times we get distracted by chalkboard stick figure battles. Don't worry I usually win. 

And this week has totally been package week. I received 3 packages and a sweet letter. And every time was the most exciting moment of my life. You were right, Valentine's Day is the best missionary holiday. That was a good card. So my first package was from you guys which had a ton of snacks. My second package was from Vanessa and Abi, and that had a ton of snacks. And then I received cinnnomon rolls, and I have no idea where those came from. This was all perfect timing, because the harvest above my bed was running out. And now it's more full than ever, with the best snacks around. I also got some Dr Pepper. Not Pibb. But a close second. So now, "I wake up, put my dip in, crack a cold one and start my day." 

I love that letter with the pop-out Brooklyn Bridge, Super cool! And I am going to cherish those truely inspirational quotes (hehe). But now I'm always thinking "My job ain't a job. It's a dang good time. City to city I'm running my rhymes". 

I keep trying to remember lyrics to the best Disney songs ever, and writing them down, because I have a huge plane ride and I want to get my playlist in my head down. So far it's "I will go the distance", "I'll make a man out of you", "Strangers like me", "Just can't wait to be king", "A whole new world", and "I won't say I'm in love". I've been getting help from the district. 

Check this, I'm going to send a picture of the mountain that is behind the Provo Temple. There was something that I noticed about it weeks ago, but this past week I realized what it actually is. I'm goint to give you time to guess.......................................giving you time...........................It's actually the scene in Mulan where the Huns are running down the mountain right before Mulan blows up the mountain and causes an avaalnche. The part where Shun Uh is booking down the mountain in the center, and the rest of the Huns are behind him at the top, and Mulan and her crew are at the bottom just Chillin. I thought that was pretty cool and no one else realized it. 

Turns out a lot of missions allow Disney music depending on the Mission President. So I totally blew it on not looking into that.

I'm  also sending you a picture of our Fajita night in the dormitorio. My companion got a box full of containers last night that had tortillas, salsa, meat... it was hyped. 

So that's what happened last night. 

Today we just had our last four square ever. I did not win the the spoon. But Elder Streuling in my District did, and we are taking it to Argentina. Yuppp!  

This last devotional, Elder Rasband came, and he spoke all about the talk he gave in 2010 that mom sent me a couple weeks ago, and he just went more in depth on the process of how our missions are chosen through revelation. He asked people questions, and shared his new insights, because now as an Apostle, he is selecting missions for missionaries. It's really cool how it all goes down. 

So on Monday morning when I get to the airport, I am alowed to call you guys and talk for 45 minutes. Sweet. So I should call around 10:30 Utah time, so be prepared. I think that's 11:30 for you guys. We actually just chill in the airport for four hours before leaving. So we are hitting up that Mcky D's before we head to Argentina. 

I totally found Bobby Mcgann. He's on the floor under me, I'm going to have to take a pic with him before I go. He's super tall and super pumped for the mission. Matt Simmons left Monday morning so the hype of the week has gone down a bit. 

I'm finally getting a haircut today, I've been kind of putting it off for the past six weeks, and my hair grows super fast, so some might say it's not mission appropriate. It's all good because I'm taking the initiative, like a real man, to cut down the flow. 

Oh wait, check this ... so on the plane we are separated with different companions for some reason, but the guy I sit next to... his mom sent him this small projector with a flash drive of all the mormon videos. So we are totally watching mormon vids on the plane, In spanish of course. 

Well... Can't wait to call you guys up Monday. Should be sweet. Love ya.

Con Amor

La Pelota Rey

Week 005 - Once Again The Lord Provides

Que Paso Familia!

You guys are all looking great. And Grandpa is looking Super Bien. That's what my teacher is always saying everytime I say something. "Super Bien" must be a Chilean thing. 

Totally got my flight plans yesterday. Looking at a flight to Georgia, then leaving Georgia at 9 PM and landing in Buenes Aires at 9 AM. Good times. But check this... we've got like 15 missionaries all going to Santa Fe on the same flight. But when we get there, we have to take a 5 hour bus to Santa Fe. 15 Santa Fe Argentineans - we are bringing the load. So nine days till that happens. 

4 days ago, I get a call on the phone saying that they still needed my FBI Docs. So I was like, "Check this, I got two copies of that document in my dorm right now." Totally saw that coming, and I was ready. So I went to the travel office, gave the doc to a lady, and she calls up the head lady, but it was kinda loud, so she said "Sorry it's kinda loud in here". But what made it better though, was right in front of her desk was a little wood house that said "Don't Open." So I opened it. And it had some contraption that made the whole wood house explode, and wood pieces were going everywhere. Kabing, Kaboom, Kapow ... and the whole office got some big kick out of what I thought was a bomb. Anyways, I felt bad for the lady, it being so loud. It's all worked out though, and my visa stuff should be all set. 

I have recently been upgraded in my position in the zone, and me and my companion are now Sacrament Coordinators. Which means we coordinate the sacraments. We assign all the important duties around here. So no Mail Guy anymore, lame. 

We got to teach an actual Argentinian through skype a few days ago. That was cool. She was totally crazy though. She was speaking English, because she was working on her English, and halfway through the lesson she says, "I'm going to be an investigator now."  Then she starts speaking Spanish and going off on how the missionaries just steal money, and that we should leave her house. So I said that we are in the computer and not in her house, "Somos en un computadora, no somos en su casa". 

Dube, that African guy in the Seventy, came to speak and gave some sweet words I enjoyed. About when he become part of the Seventy, and he thought he was somewhat below the other members, and then received some words from the Lord saying, that the service is not about you, but about the Lord and His church. I started to realize what this mission is all about. Not that I didn't know before. But I think sometimes we get selfish thinking that we come on a mission for ourselves, to either make us feel better, receive more blessings, or make us stonger as members.  These blessings do come. But instead, these should just be an outcome of giving our all to the Lord. I liked that. It's helped me focus on giving my all, and being a REAL MISSIONARY. Because the Lord has called me to do, and to do it with all I got. The called-to-serve man. 

Anyways, Matt Simmons totally leaves to Madrid on Tuesday, because apparently they have "More Russians" there.  So we started doing this thing when we see each other. We get really pumped. Like in the cafeteria... Matt saw me and was like, "NO WAY, IS THAT GREENE" and then I would turn around and be like, "HOLY CANOLI, IS THAT A SIMMONS I'M SEEING." Its kinda obnoxious, but is also funny because everyone around starts staring, thinking that this is some kind of big reunion, but in actuality we do this everyday. Matt's companion is so funny because he started hopping in on it as kind of a side character. 

So cool story... me and the cool cats (my district), were sitting in our room when our Zone Leader came in saying Hi. We thought he was giving us some "business", but instead he was giving some real business. All of a sudden he's like, "which one of you losers is down for a tie trade?" And he lifts up his shirt and under the armpit of his G's are like 30 ties. And then I realized what was about to go down... some black market tie trading. Because apparently that has been frowned upon around the MTC. Anyway that's the new thing, low key tie trading. Our Zone Leader is funny because he has like all these ties from his dad and other people with sentiment, and he belives that the love in the tie transfers over to the next person through the tie trade. Makes sense. Don't worry, I'm no pushover when it comes down to tie trading. 

Highlight - We did get a fridge. Turns out the room a couple doors down had one too, and offered to give it to us because they were leaving. Once again the lord provides. 

Recently we have been trying to prove who is the king in ping pong, and whoever it is, gets to play the Branch President. He's super chill. 

I got to host some new missionaries coming in. Our district was actually pretty much the stand by the hot choclate. And we would wave to all the newcomers. It's super fun because we are all pumped, and every kid comes out of the car crying, and parents are crying, but they can only talk for like a minute, and then we say, "Move along. See ya in two mom and dad". And then we start waving again, and are super excited. 

After like 6 month of not working out at all, I finally got back into a habit, and am feeling real refreshed. So that's good. 

Anyways, love you guys, great hearing from you.

NOS Vemos.

Elder Verde

Week 004 - Great Words Of Wisdom Come From Old People.

Hi Y'all (Texas language)

Super cool trip Dad and Claire are having, By the way, movies and the Neilsons are way better than New York City. I'm super jealous. Like really, because I only watch bible videos. In Spanish. Which are really great. But sometimes when I make it to my bed at night, I'm able to replay all of Ice Age in my head. That's fun. 

I will definitely be praying for Grandpa. That is super lame. It's great that he's getting positive results. Super sorry and sad, and I am praying for him. 

Sorry mom that everyone ditched you yesterday. Fridays... am i right, pshhh. 

And Emma needs to let the secret loose.  I think these "friends" Emma keeps talking about are real, but what they are we may never know. Just like how many licks it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop. Kills me every time I see that commercial. 

Super cool that you saw Russell M Nelson speak. Great words of wisdom come from old people. 

It's just been a usual week here at the MTC. Eat, sleep, spanglish and such. My companion and I received some funny advice this week, where a teacher said we have "Language Confidence". Which means we are really good at helping the investigator feel comfortable, by acting like we know what he is saying, and we really don't. So it's good and bad, So we've been working on that, and our lessons have been going more smoother and slower, because I'm always repeating what they are saying, which is actually better. We have this one guy we've been teaching for the past two weeks, and I swear he changes his personality and issues each lesson. I think he forgets who taught him last or something, cause we'll teach him to pray then ask him to be baptized, and a couple lessons later, turns out he's already been baptized, and then he says he's never prayed before. I say, "I prayed with you 4 days ago son." He's Super cool though, and old. One lesson he got so hyped up on the children in Guatemala who eat trash. And then he started showing us videos of poor kids eating trash, saying "LOOK WHAT GOD HAS DONE." He's a 55 year old stud Mexican. Lessons are going more smoothly though. 

Ok, so funny... I always see Matt Simmons around without his companion. And I'm like "Matt, where's your companion?" and he says like, "I don't know". That's his response. He is king. One day though, he was eating lunch with me, and his companion shows up and says, "Matt, where have you been?" and he says, "I've been eating." His companion was mad out of his mind. 

Recently, one of my fellow district members, Elder Butler, recieved one of those makeshift ping pong sets. I was psyched out of my mind. Now the new thing is ping pong in dorm 421.  We got another table from the other room and now we have this super long but narrow ping pong table. The Branch President came in as we were building the ping pong table, and was like ,"What is this?" and we said, "it's a ping pong table," and his response was, "don't get too crazy." He is a stud. The problem is.. we have to keep this thing a secrret because randomly kids are starting to figure out we have this ping pong set and want to join in. C'mon we don't have time for this.

Super gracias for the Bucees snacks. I've needed some beef jerky in my life. I placed all my snacks under the top bunk so the snacks hang above me. Now when I wake up in the middle of the night, and I'm feeling some sour cherry ball crave coming on, they are right there. It's the candy harvest right above me. 

Also thanks for the super cool letters. You guys are the cats pajamas when it comes to letters. I laugh every time. And thanks Katie for the new four square idea. Everybody loves super four square. its just way better than regular four square. Everyone know it by just the name. 

Another cool story... I was in the ducha (shower) with just me and one other guy in the whole bathroom.  And all of a sudden I hear this squealing,  Ahhhhh ahhhhhh ahhhhhhh ahhhhhhhhhhhh, getting higher as if he was singing, then all of a sudden I realize he's pulling an Ariel. Then I'm thinking he wants me to join in. So I do. And sing, "Look at this stuff isn't it neat" then he says, "wouldn't you think my collection complete". The MTC changes you, for reals. Then some other guy came in screaming, "is that a hymn?" And then I hear the sound of a huge Tongan guy, "na that's my girl Ariel". I was singing Ariel with a huge Tongan guy. That went into the journal. 

Love you guys and miss you. Keep me updated with the good times. Here are some sweet pics.

LOL( lots of Love)

Elder Verde

Forgot to mention that I made a snow angel.