Week 075 - Walking Faster Than The Mormons

Hey pals,

First off happy father’s day to dad and happy birthday to Emma. Sounds like y´all just had the best party week ever. You are both fantastic and I love you guys a lot. I’m glad dad is getting back to the golf life, dads pose next to the golfing statue is hilarious,

Yesterday Osvaldo was once again the highlight of the branch of Juan de Garay because he was confirmed a member of the church of Jesus Christ. It was a wonderful experience and lots of members made it that day as well. For some reason it got extremely cold yesterday. And if it’s cold sometimes think it’s the best excuse to not go to church. Well the member came anyway. Step by step Osvaldo is gaining more knowledge about the gospel. Later in the afternoon, we met with him for a lesson, and Osvaldo wanted tell us all about what happened to hem earlier. He said "yeah the Mormons came to my home and gave me a pamphlet. But I told them that I’m part of the true church" hey Osvaldo you just became a Mormon this Mormon. We are the Mormon, you were talking to the Adventists. "Oh seriously" yeah you just finished the book of Mormon. "Oh yeah, I’m a Mormon" oh geeze.

The Mormons are quite known in Rafaela. I don’t know if this is an all of Argentina phrase but for some reason it has become a thing to say "walking faster than the Mormons" for example if someone arrives at you house really fast when you told them to come over, they would say "wow your walking faster than the Mormons" interesting. I guess my walking speed is impressive to some.

While walking on the highway we were encountered by some North Americans. I actually really threw me off guard. We were just walking and I hear some yell out the window saying "Elders" in here Utah mom voice. And then they stopped in their minivan. I actually didn’t know what to say because it threw me off so badly so I just started saying, "Hola.......hola......Como esta......bien." They were in a rush somewhere so they went off. And then I realized I never even caught their name or anything, so it was weird. Elder Hopkins said, "That was on my bucket list to find someone from the United States visiting Argentina, but it wasn’t as cool as I thought".

So my entire mission I’ve been taking pictures of dogs right so that........i can have lots of pictures with dogs. That’s my mission. And It’s always gone kind of well. But I’ve recently been caught by the owners as I’ve tried taking a selfie with the dogs, it was kind of embarrassing. One time I found a really fat dog. Like really fat. And so I went to take a pic with it, but it started running off, so guess what. My first instinct was to run after it as it waddled away, obviously it was not fast by its weight. So as I caught up with my camera, the owner came around the corner like super confused. I just said "oh hey.....I’m just taking picture with dogs.....hehehe."- Well why are you taking picture with my dog?- "Uh well I don’t know...because It’s big hehe" (saying fat is not as strong as it is in the U.S. for your information) -¨well I take good care of it, It’s just that it can’t have babies so it got really big. "Oh cool". So I took a picture with it, with her permission. It was kind of awkward as she tried to explain why her dog was fat. Then guess what, three days later I get caught again. In front of the house was this super small hilarious dog that would stop squeaking, so I started a video selfie and as I’m filming the owner pops her head out calling the dog. Oh geeze. I turn around and gave her the truth, "SORRY, I’m JUST TAKING PICTURES WITH DOGS." And then we left. Dog pictures are becoming an issue now.

Check this, we totally have bikes now. They are totally lame and crazy, but we got some sweet transportation, they were actually sitting in the apartment in pieces. So we took all pieces together and gave it to a bicycle guy and said "yeah give me your cheapest deal" and man it was cheap. And I guess when you pay cheap you get cheap. So the bikes were put back together just enough....to work. And we also bought some helmets from off the streets and now we are set. But what we learned is that bikes are way more tiring to use. They are faster but tiring. So we’ve been questioning ourselves lately. 

We are teaching a newly reactivated family, the family Guerra. They are super kind and their 9 year old daughter has not been baptized yet, so we are preparing their daughter Erica for baptism. Apparently they used to never let the missionaries over before for a long time, but they love us. Always giving me empanadas and hot chocolate. So sweet. She is also nine years old so it’s kind of hard to teach, so it’s time to bring out all the gospel games.

I love you guys, happy father’s day and happy birthday to Emma! 19 is sweet

Elder Greene

Week 074 - Osvaldo Goes Rag Doll

Hey guys,

You might not know it, but Matilda is totally an Argentine favorite; or it’s a coincidence that I’ve seen Matilda playing so many times when we enter someone’s home. So it will be great to tell everyone that my family is real tight with Danny DeVito now. Not a joke.

This past week is was actually really awesome. Filled with very swell moments. First off, we did have a great p day last week, because I and the district homies got some great asado going. Though it’s cold out, we thought it was great to go to the park a get their grill a brewing. And it was, because an investigator of my comrade Elder Andrew, we got hooked up with tons of meats, and pollos. Of course I don’t know what the names of all the meats in English, only in Spanish. So that´ll be great when I go to target and the meat guy doesn’t know what I want. But all was well, and like always, we get the persecutors that walk by yelling, "YOU MAKIN AN ASADO HAHAHA....DONT FORGET TO COOK IT", thanks dude.

After we played one of my favorite games called "fishing for dogs". Me and Elder Andrew made it up back in the day, and it’s turned into classic Argentine entertainment. It’s like crawdading but with dogs. Because of course when you get the grill going, every dog in the country can smell and decide that they’re going to take what’s cooking. So you just tie some bone with some meat on it to a string, and then throw it over a tree branch and just mess with the dogs. Classic.

This past week we actually helped a lot of people with their gardens. So much so that it was how I started my talk on Sunday; talking about gardens. And our branch president is a very enthusiastic kind of guy for gardens, so when I said "we planted a garden" he thought it was an appropriate time to yell "GARDEN! WHO HAS A GARDEN! You helped with the garden of Maria! Hey Maria what kind of seeds are you putting in your garden?! I HAVE SEEDS! Wow! Just behind the church I planted a couple of seeds, and wow have you seen that tree back there! well Elder keep up the good work!" well actually did spend a good amount of time helping out a member named Maria with her garden, she asked us one day, "Elders can you help me with my garden I’m making" well of course we did, and we showed up at her house and she showed us where she wanted her garden. But all there was behind her house was a forest of tiny trees, bricks, metal and all sorts of crap. Then she says alright fellas get moving and take everything out. Oh geeze. We so we did. The earth is pretty rich here so you can plant whatever you want, and it’ll grow crazy fast.

We are teaching an investigator name Yanina, she has two sons and when we entered the house I was shocked by how many trophies they had in their home, no joke the whole house was filled with trophies, hundreds. I said wow your children are very enthusiastic for them sports. The mother said "yeah It’s a passion of their" well what they play soccer? I said. She chuckled and said of course not, chess. Oh yeah wow, very sporty. Na seriously these kids go on chess tournaments like every week. It’s hard to get some time to teach because we always come during chess time.

We ended our week with a great extravaganza. During church we completely filled the sacrament hall. Of course It’s about the size of a bedroom, but it was filled. We recently did an ayuno (fast) as a district for specific inactive families to come back to church and we are seeing the blessings and the hard work of the members coming about. 

Later that afternoon everyone came back to the church building for the baptism of Osvaldo, which was a wonderful experience. He couldn’t be baptized on Saturday so we did it on Sunday and he’ll be confirmed next week. But it was really nice actually to do it on Sunday because everyone come back to support and brought lots of treats and snacks. The rama (ward) has had problems in the past with not bonding with each other so this was a great opportunity to come together. Man it was a crazy baptism though. Definitely one of the craziest I have ever been to. Osvaldo came 30 minutes earlier to get ready and changed. We gave him the clothes to change and he went off for about 25 minutes. and then comes out with the white pants and shirt over his clothes, not only that but the white button up shirt was on completely backwards, so I don’t really know how he did that. And the first thing he says when I came out was "did I do something wrong" yeah I said "I knew it” so we helped him and he was ready. He was pretty nervous though to get into the font, which I should tell you is the classic Galvez font made out of pipes and a tarp. he got in fine climbing over the ladder to get in. then it was time for the ordinance, the prayer was said fine, but the moment it was time for the dunk, the president of the rama yells "get him in there" and Osvaldo completely goes rag doll and lifts his feet up out of the water, so then president yells "FEET OUT OF THE WATER" and shoves his feet back in! It was a success. But Osvaldo was complaining the entire time after that the water was too hot, like boiling hot. I thought it was fine but, but it was a good day

Transfers just passed and I’m still in Rafaela, but check this, the Brazileno is coming to Rafaela. Elder Campos. So now I’m in a district of 3 of my old companions. Comps are fun. There are so many inside jokes to yourself, because there is no one else with you other than the person you are making fun of.  So it’s just a huge district of inside jokes to myself. Cool spleens.

I love you guys and I take some time to think about some contraband for dad to bring!

Elder Greene

People make drink mate out of these plants so I’m making one