Well first off, happy anniversary to the greatest parents, I’m
glad you guys all had a great weekend.
Wow, would you look at that, a dog. That’s great, it’s
probably one of those dogs that the "puppy barn" uses until the dog´s
cuteness runs out and then they throw it to the shelter. Some might say that’s
unethical, but it’s just business. I had actually thought that the Greene
dog dream was dragging on for too long. It’s great to see dreams become
reality. It’s good though that you haven’t completely decided upon the name Timmy
because... I definitely thought its name was going to be Jimmy, Mikey, Buddy,
or maybe Marty....Doogie Howser. I don’t know, most people out
here name their dogs after Spanish condiments, you can name him Barb, short for
barbeque. For reals though, I think Frank, Kurt, Elton, Rambis, Cher, Abdul-Jabbar,
Dirk, Clyde, Julius are pretty great names.
So I had no idea about an eclipse, sounds like I’m really
missing out. We are celebrating one of the billion holidays here in Argentina,
it’s "kid’s day". One of the funniest things about kid’s day is that
everyone mixes up when kid’s day actually is and everyone celebrates it
whatever weekend of the month depending on their schedule. So for us as
missionaries who pass by everyone home, we celebrate kid’s day every weekend.
So no one is actually in their house. Just out in the park drinking some
verdes. That’s some Argentine lingo for ya. If you want to get along with the
people, just offer to go drink some "greenes" (verdes) or
"bitters" (amargos). Too bad my mission president doesn’t allow us to
drink mate.
Cool stuff happened this past week. My companion had some
visa problems so we headed off to Santa Fe and then off to Rosario for a couple
of days. It was a great trip, minus all the paperwork that has to be done, that was not even my paperwork. The secretary of the mission is Elder Pinkston, who came
with me from the MTC. He is basically like a ken doll with large muscles. He’s
great though because he bought us breakfast and lunch. But he also taught me
some sweet DMV skipping the line tricks. So right before arriving to the office
where we renew our visas, this guy buys like 50 different pastries from a
bakery next door. Passes through the door, and waits until he sees the worker
that he is looking for. I’m serious there were maybe already over 80 people already
waiting in this building just mind blown watching this Yankee kid walk in front
of everyone like he owns the place giving all the workers free pastries, and
sweet talking to get what he wants done.
With all the time we saved, we were able to hit up the
famous Rosario flag monument. It actually was a great monument, but it was under
construction due to some restorations they were doing. Either way it was cool.
But while on this trip I was reminded of the many ridiculous things that Argentina does. For example, I’ve realized that in order
to create more jobs you just have to make the work more difficult. For example
lawn mowers do not exist here, only weed-wackers. So in order to cut the grass
along the highway from Santa Fe to Rosario, you need 50 plus men with weed-wackers
to get the job done. I also learned that if you need to find a parking space to
get out and see the flag monument and there are no space along the sidewalk...
that is not true. You can pay a couple of fellas a few bucks to push the cars closer
together, to then create more space for your truck. The other cars might not be
able to get out because the front and back of their cars are literally touching
other vehicles. But you paid for that space and they didn’t. I also had another
great "BASTA" experience while we were trying to pass one of the
highway checkpoints. There was a backup of traffic at this one specific checkpoint,
and for some reason, someone could not handle the wait. So what did they do? Start
honking like crazy and what does everyone else do? Start honking as well. It
was a classic BASTA honking riot. And after 5 minutes of mayhem, everyone was
let past this checkpoint for free. Thus ending the traffic problem. There are
many lessons to be learned.
We have been teaching a new family lately, Marcelino and his
wife Graciela. They have two kids that have some kind of mental problems, but
they are a really humble and patient family. And Marcelino is actually putting in some time investigating the Book of Mormon and Joseph smith. After our first
lesson we gave them a scripture to read. And not only did he read the scripture
we gave him, be he read everything from the intro to the 5th chapter of the Book
of Mormon. He believes it’s all true and so we told him the god can give him a
confirmation of that belief if he prays about it. Which he hasn’t done. So he
said he'll do so. It’s really nice to teach someone who listens, and at least
tries to investigate, because a lesson completely changes spiritually if the
teacher and the learner are working together to better understand what the
spirit is trying to say. And when we teach people who don’t work to listen, it’s
like taking to a brick wall. And when you feel listened too, it’s really nice.
I love you guys. Hopefully the eclipse goes all well.
Elder Greene
Yeah I should be getting my BYU ecclesiastical endorsement next
week, from my president. The problem is that I don’t have the papers in Spanish,
I’m guessing he knows what to do when it comes up. But once that happens I should
be ready to register for classes. For housing in winter, I have no real
preferences, on anything, I’ll probably room with whoever, and most of my
friends aren’t coming home for winter. I heard Liberty Square is cool, I don’t
know if you want to look into that. For right know I’m getting my endorsement. I’ll
keep you updated.
I saw this commercial and thought it portrayed Santa Fe life pretty well.
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