Week 016 - Argentina Is About To Change

Way to kill it mom! After the exercise competition I bet you were just thinking “I feel happy of myself.” You’re awesome.

I’m pumped for this mother’s day so here is the dealio… it’s on! Mother’s day is the 8th. I don’t know what I’m doing yet, because I’m not really sure where we are doing it yet. We have to find somewhere that has internet and a camera. Tricky around here in Galves. I’ll know by next week.

Chris and Madison’s wedding looked way awesome. What a power couple. I was watching a video a couple weeks ago on the Provo Tabernacle Temple. It looks very cool and woody on the inside. The Arnetts are a good time.

Mom sent me a pic of the other power couple. Emma and her "beau"(in the words of Emma). Awesome! I’ve been trying pass off with the president to get a girlfriend on the mission. I learned in Rosario that you can watch Disney movies and listen to regular music on P days. So why not Argentinian girlfriends on P day. Only on P days though.

So I’ve learned I’ve been slacking the whole mission. Elder De La Rosa has totally taught me the ways. They sell these giant donut holes with sugar for like 5 pesos. And also, Argentinians sells these delicious treats called alfajors. It’s like a layered mooncake with dulce de leche in each layer. So it’s not actually a mooncake because it’s actually good. And there are like thousands of different kinds. And they have them at every little kiosco (store). So I’m collecting all the wrappers, and at times they sell like limited edition ones. I’m so pumped to catch them all. Alfajors (in the words of my companion) are "the only good thing about Argentina". But this is “about to change” in the coming years. Randomly people tell me this same thing. Because people assume I’m from America. And as "Obama was here!" … "Yea yea he was.”… I didn’t really get what they were talking about. But I learned that Obama was actually here, because Argentina does like no trade with any other country other than the ones around it like Chile. So now they are going to start to do some trade with America. Which means Papa John's will be coming, and Skippy’s peanut butter, and everyone’s going to realize what I have been eating my whole life. Now I understand why Argentina only has fruit stands and carnecerias. Though nothing will really change for years.

So check this… this is also one of the great things about Argentina. Quinceinetas. I thought this was just a big shebang for those 15 year old girls. Nope. It’s so much greater. So around here in Galves, when their kid turns 15, they throw a party. Then they find the closest mud puddle, and throw the kid. After that, everyone goes and grabs eggs, tomatoes, flour, feathers, and throw them all over the little girl. Then the big finale… they go grab a bucket of slop they have prepared for her, and then throw it at her. Then, she goes and gets cleaned up and everyone eats cake. It’s kind of a "welcome to the world and get some dirt kicked in your face kind of ritual." I didn’t believe it when this family was first telling me about it; but this week we were talking with some cool kids down the block (we like see these same kids everywhere). They were all excited, and we were like" yo... what’s happening capos." and they said "we just got back from a quincenieta, and the girl just got totally wrecked, yea and got so much crap thrown a her.” So I believe it now. I think it’s supposed to be some kind of a cheaper party. Anyways que copado.

Also check this out. What’s cool about a small town like Galves is that you get to hear superstitious stories. One is about the white spirit lady that "lures the field workers with her beauty" to the outskirts of the fields, and they disappear and never come back. So don’t be alone when you are working out in the field. There is also a man dressed all in black that has a chain around his neck and takes people off with his chain to the outskirts of the fields. Sounds like the white lady and the black man are working together on this one. But I heard another story of random people who see "a giant black, really black, like totally black person" that walks around the field. Whhaaaaaaat?... You know it sounds like CAIN to me too. Cain is living in Argentina right now, and has found himself a chain, and a white spirit lady, and they are in cahoots.

Anyways… it turns out my companion is also way good at cooking. He’s cooked for his family every day of his life. So we made good sauces and stuff for our pastas.

Thank Uncle Chris for me for the sweet tune-up on the tandem bike. It’s a good one.

Love you guys. You are awesome.

P.S. Is that really a thing (mom), that mosquitos like people with sugar blood? Because I have a lot of sugar blood right now.  Na… not as much as these other jokers in Argentina.

Love you. I’m out!

Week 015 - I Caught The Spell and Threw It Right Back At Her

Hey Fellas, you guys are awesome! I love how awesome you are. Whoa this is crazy, you are so awesome. 

Shuvia, Shuvia Shuvia, (thats how you pronounce “rain” here, but I think it’s spelled “lluvia”) … There is tons of it. All week it's been raining here, which means everyone is inside, way copado! Because all the people working in the campo are all inside, which is like half of Galves. The people who work in the campo (fields) work all day, and randomly, so it’s hard to have meetings with those people. But check this … So Friday it decides it was not going to rain and the outcome was a ton of humidity, where like all my stuff is wet, or damp. All my papers, and all my envelops are sealed. Dang it. And my bed feels soaked when it’s actually not. It’s weird. But it’s all good, cause a day later it rained again. Always with the rain, and the streets are always flooded, drains are really not a thing here. 

Emma and the boss man look mighty fresh! As always. 

I am so pumped for the next 3 months that there is mail coming. Really it depends how big it is, because this one elder had his birthday like 3 and a half months ago, and he got a package for his birthday yesterday. 

Check it... Elder Ricra is gone and I got a new companion, Elder De La Rosa. He’s a capo from the Dominican Republic. Still chillin in Galves. Sweet! De La Rosa speaks pretty good English, that’s sweet. He says everyone tries to learn English where he’s from because he lives around all these resorts close to the beach. Also because only English speakers are good at playing online video games. I thought that was kind of a funny motivation. 

I actually met two other people who spoke English this week. One lady who lived in Santa Barbara for like thirty years. I could tell she was kind of excited, when I heard behind me, "Where are you from?" in a Spanish accent. It kind of scared me. We taught this lady who has a daughter that teaches in English, so I had a cool conversation. I tried teaching her but she gave everyones favorite excuse, "soy catolico". Yeah, and why do you have the Virgin Mary all over your house and not Jesus? C’mon!

I met this 17 year old this week, and Elder Ricra offered that I can help him with English. What was funny though, was that the boy asked where he was from and  I said the estados unidos, and he said "oh it's alright, I’m trying to learn British English." Ahh I get it, you don’t want to learn my crappy American English. I get it. 

I learned my new favorite word this week… “druchos,” or at least thats how it’s pronounced, but it’s pretty much like fake or poser. But some guy on his porch screamed out to us, "Who are you," and we said, “The missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ.” And he said, "who?” And we said, “Los Mormones,” and he said after, "Oh... los druchos.” So we are the druchos. And we also sacrifice children. Just on Tuesdays though. We get yelled at sometimes, but it’s awesome. And we get hyped like... "persecution yeah!" One lady this week said our salvation is at stake, because we go to church on Sundays. Of course, these other churches are messing with minds, I swear. I actually got a spell thrown at me. This gypsy lady started jibberjabbing some crazy sounds, and pointing her fingers at me outside our pension. She didn’t seem too happy. But it’s ok, I caught the spell, and threw it right back at her. Haven’t seen her since. That was a close one. 

I got a sweet pick this week with this mannequin that has dropped his pants for the past 2 weeks. C’mon man, pull up your pants. 

I got a sweet call from Daniel Catolino yesterday, who doesn’t have a phone. Daniel Catolino had a baptismal date, but we haven’t been able to make contact with him because he’s never home. But yesterday he made the effort to find a phone and call us, and will meet us on Friday at his house. Sounds like he wants this. 

The family of Augustine are great. They haven’t come to church, but we are going to teach them about Sundays. They randomly pop in new members of the family when we come. And they are the only family we teach that have internet and a tv. And the love watching movies, so we showed them the church website and watched the mormon messages. We showed them the restoration video, and we asked the mom if she thought Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and asked why? And she said, "Well, I just saw God talking to him.” So … she might think the actual first vision of Joseph Smith was recorded on video. 

I love you guys and love your pictures.  I have a few also of the the rainy good times.  I’m like the selfie king around here.

    Me and a mannequin, and a goat. Goats are kind of a thing here.

Our competition. They sell gatorade in glass bottles and the fruit punch flavor actually tasts like fruits.  

Mosquitos are going nuts. And the strap of my bag decided to break, so i fixed it.

Week 014 - "Always Look Up"... Is Not Doing It For Us

Oh taxes. I remember those. Wait no, because my boss somehow forgot those while giving us those underground checks. Remember all the good times at the ole Mama Lucci's.

Man you guys sound busy, must be exciting. Glad you guys got my letter. It’s good to know the mail system still comes in clutch. I’m jealous of Katie’s nature walks in the Livable Forest. So many things that could be living in there.  Tell Claire, she is awesome, and to finish school off strong, and that "if you believe in yourself I know you can do it." I just know it.

This week has been pretty awesome. I took another trip up to Santa Fe for zone conference. Bus naps are the bomb. Got to talk to the Prez. Now that I’m like Spanish King, we had some sort of real conversation, of "muy beunos" y "si".  But it was better than that. The best part about going to Santa Fe is that you always get fed, with the good stuff… meats, vegetables, desserts.  Sister Perez loves buying this cake thing called a torta, which is like fired tortillas with tons of dulce de leche (caramel) layered. I swear I can feel the poundage piling in me as I eat that. It’s awesome. Everyone eats dulce de leche here with everything. You can just buy huge amounts of it at the grocery store, so I eat that with my pan all the time. Way good.  

Our finance missionary guy is kind of the king right now, Elder Thompson. Because he like somehow convinced the Prez to give us 2000 pesos a month instead of 1400 pesos. I don’t know… for ice cream and stuff. Everything here is like dirt cheap. Well, not like the American stuff. But when I go to my carneceria, pandaria, polloria, it’s pretty cheap.  

I had my first meal at a member’s house the other day. It was pretty awesome. She's actually less active, and she made us some kind of meat… way good.  And she’s pretty poor, and she said "do you want more food," and I thought she said something like, "do you like it?" So I was like, "yeah." So she ran off and made like a ton of chicken. I kind of felt bad but kind of not at the same time. She’s a Capo. Like Donato. Man, Donato is such a Capo, except he didn’t show up to church yesterday because he thought it was Wednesday. He felt pretty bad, because he was planning on blessing the sacrament yesterday. Come on Donato, Wednesday is like 3 days away.

So we’ve been teaching this guy Augustine lately, he’s kind of one of our younger investigators who’s been having trouble understanding the need for authority in baptism. But he hasn’t answered for like 1.5 weeks, and on Wednesday we decided to go to his house, and it was pouring like crazy-out-of-my-mind rain, where the streets are covered in water that you could swim in, and there’s water up to my shins. But we were like, "oh he can’t let two missionary stay out here in the rain." So we went to his house and he let us in, and like his mom and brothers were all living in his house because her house was having trouble in the rain. So we taught his mom, who has 12 kids and doesn’t feel very close to her family lately. So I told her to read the Book of Mormon, and that if she reads it and tries to read with her family and pray with her family that she would feel closer. So we came back on Friday, and she and 4 of her kids were waiting for us at the table with the Book of Mormon. And we taught them about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, and asked them one by one to be baptized, and they all said yes. It was awesome! They are pumped and want to come to church and stuff. One of the brothers might have said yes because everyone else did. But we are invited back to the house to teach more, so this is good.

VAMOS GALVES! Galves is the bomb, and I don’t want to leave it. Even though I step in dog poo like 5 times a day. No joke. President Monson's advice to "always look up" is not doing it for us. Remember that talk by Elder Cook (I think).

So I hear there is a new Mt Dew and it’s black. I have sources, and my sources are telling me this. If it is true, it has to be awesome. I don’t know, maybe it’s like black licorice flavor. Dad likes that kind of stuff. My sources are also telling me that dad really didn’t like my Kurt Rambis picture. Don’t worry, it wasn’t that cool, that’s why I gave it away to my teacher.

So my prayers have been answered. My companion has this flash drive full of music that he plays on the dvd player all the time, and it’s always this chick named Page who sings songs about Jesus. And she has this song called Joy, and it’s like the quirkiest song. You guys should look I up. But I was searching around on his music, and he’s got a lot more than Page. He’s got like all these Disney songs on the violin… sick.  He’s also got all the Lord of the Ring songs.  I stay away from those. But anyways, Disney is now in the house. Apparently the missionaries get to watch a Disney movie on Christmas and last Christmas was Frozen. Something to look forward to.

Actually, Mother’s Day is in like less than a month. Sweet. That’s exciting. Love you guys and congratulations on the prom date Emma.. Christian is pretty studly.

VAMOS GALVES

Week 013 - The Stray Horse Is Like The New Stray Dog

Alrighty Fam - This week was fantastic. Full of stormy weather and good times in Santa Fe. Every week I just get reminded of how sick nasty my Fam is straight killing it in the Texas.

It was super awesome to see some Gen Con, and I have been doing the calculations, and at this rate, I only have 3 conferences left in the mission, because get this, there is 2 conferences in 1 year. Counting down the conferences. General conference was super awesome.  It’s like Christmas.  We went to the stake center in Santa Fe, which is like 2 hours away… so 2 hour nap, sweet. I thought I was going to have to watch it in Spanish, but I found a bunch of Gringos with the office missionaries watching it in English. So… I got some stuff out of conference. I had the nuttiest headache at the end, because I was staring a computer screen for 10 hour straight (we watched the “world report" in between the conferences).

I thought this was a fantastic conference. A lot of great testimonies. And President Eyring starts off the conference fantastically with his testimony. I love it when he talks, because I feel the spirit every time. There was a ton of talks on adversity, which I thought was awesome. A lot of people seem to think that God does not care about them, because they are having some rough times. Well that’s some crap, because I don’t see anywhere in the Bible that says… life’s completely a wonderfully good time. Those were some serious answers for a lot of or less-active members who don’t come because of stuff like that.

We actually got to go to Santa Fe twice this week,  because earlier in the week we had a conference where Elder Giovanni came from the Seventy. He’s from Argentina, and I didn’t think that, so when his wife started talking to me, I didn’t expect a thousand Spanish words to come at me like that. It was pretty good … for what I got out of it… "Missionary work is important."  

So I’ve slowly seen my mind change on this mission. Like all of a sudden, I can understand books and I like to read. So now I want to read like all the time. Personal study is like the highlight of my day, I read all about Cain, Who is apparently still cruising around the earth, scaring kids on Halloween and such.

I have been able to get a little action with my mission president; I think he does recognize me as a missionary, probably because of my name tag. Usually I just say “hola presidente.” It’s great.

Other than Santa Fe, Galves is still awesome, and still crazy. I recently saw a cotton candy truck. What are people doing with all these ice cream trucks, when you can just work a trailer with a cotton candy machine on the back? The streets are kind of flooded with all the rain and such. I’m loving the rain a lot better than the heat.

Everyone is still getting diabetes. Like no joke. I talk to people all the time about how their brother just got diabetes. My answer to this is, “you probably should lay off the cookies and Mate.” Everyone is always eating these bags full of assorted cookies, and drinking Mate, which is like an herb drink that people load with sugar. So we eat a lot of cookies. It’s a plus.

I’ve been seeing some stray horses lately. I don’t know if it would be wrong to ride one, because we don’t have a car. Horses would be way cool. But I don’t know... the stray horse is like the new stray dog.

We had a funny experience with Donato. He is still kind of having a tough time with prayer. Like sometimes he doesn’t say Jesus Christ. But the other day he said, “in the name of my son, my grandchildren, and the holy ghost. Amen." That was kind of funny. We didn’t know what to say, so we left it alone for another time. I don’t know where he got that.

So Ernesto, who we talked about last week, skipped town. He’s been out of a job for a while, and since we met him we’ve been praying for him to find a new job. So he did. In like a week.  But it was 3 hours away, and we don’t really know where he is, and his mom doesn’t really know either. Hopefully someday he can find the gospel again.

The picture I sent you last week with the stature; I don’t really know who that guy is, and no one else really knows either, but it stands in the middle of a large roundabout, and we can say if it’s the original Galves.

Emma told me about a crazy sick free concert with 21 Pilots and Kendrick. Lame, missed that by 3 months.

It’s all good … I get to listen to people sing Pink Floyd all the time. No joke. When people learn that I’m from America, they go right into Pink Floyd. Funny.

Love you guys. And you are awesome.

p.s. That’s a nice computer.

The Elder Greene