Ok officially welcome to Argentina!! let me fill you in for real this time...
benviendo! this is Hermana alley from the far away land of
Argentina. can someone find me a map i feel like i'm in Europe. not
that I've ever been but if i were to picture the people and culture in
my mind, this place nails it. dad you've pretty much hit it on the head
with your last letter. Argentinians are Italians who just happen to speak
Spanish. it messes with your mind. everyone personally is so
different from each other, like Seattle its a giant melting pot. i even
see Chinese all the time that speak Spanish. my minion friends would
say waaaaaaaa?¿ in one day i've seen it rain more than my entire life.
yup more than Washington. its taking puddle jumping to extremes, if
you can call them puddles. i think lakes is more efficient. luckily
there is no more Seattle fog and we've had some beautiful blue skies,
and my eyes have a lot of adaption to do... i can hardly see. the
sunscreen is also being whipped out as my sparkling Edward skin hasn't
seen the rays in ages. so for living foreign here is some first
impressions....
- when cars are for sell a bottle will be on top of it. you should see the metal on four wheels people try to pass off as cars... and to try and sell them too.
- Every single bathroom as a baday(no idea how to spell it....) make sure you don't use the hanging towel... gross. oh and no toilet paper in the toilets.
- cats and dogs are everywhere... you needs owners anyways right,
- pedestrians do NOT HAVE the right-away. there are little to no rules on the road and it shows. during the morning and night during rush hour it is hectic and quite loco.
- men are not afraid to honk, yell, and try to kiss you. luckily most of the time i don{t understand however i've gotten some i love yous in broken English. which i weasle out of not understanding. although there is so much diversity it's obvious i{m foreign. hello look at me blonde hair and my facial expression half the time, its difficult to hide.
- "fuuuuuu" means awesome, cool, great!
- siesta time is the worst. form 1-5p.m. the streets are completely empty. not a soul. as missionaries i think we should be allowed to siesta.
- there is no carpet, grocery stores (only 2by2 markets on corners) microwaves, and everything is shrunk. the stove, and frig are tiny. and we have to wash all of our clothing by hand.
- all doors are heavy metal and have multiple locks. you clap from a distance for the people to peep through a small window in their house through bars, across the yard, through a fence to us. you{d think they are trying to keep the missionaries out... golly.
- milk is 88% sweeter here. okay all food is different. but the best pastries ever.. yum! people love there meat and pasta and ketchup and mayo is loved by everyone.
- did you think i was Spanish called? wrong. i am speaking casta llana. its completely different. everyone sings everything and puts so much emotion into their conversations. people here don't consider Spanish to even be the same language. i learned that when people looked at me weird when i told them i{m learning Spanish.
after this week one thing is left imprinted on my mind above all others. this is the younger generation in church is the bomb.com.
why? because we are teaching practically everyone of my same age or
within 10 years of it. not only that everyone who is willing to hope
out on member presence is under 25. the two girls that come with us
most frequently are 16 and 17. Raicho is one of our investigators on
date. yup he is my age, and is progressing so rapidly. we have daily
contact and lessons about 3-4 times a week. during fast and testimony
meeting i was asked to bare my testimony. as i threw together some
words, i sat down complete mortified that i slaughter the beautiful
language. however later in gospel principles class he mentioned that
for the first time he really felt the spirit when i talked. so i guess
even though no one could probably understand me the spirit was in the
room. which is good because most of time that's all i{ve got to give.
my area is haedo. believe it or not its on the wealthier side of
things. i don{t want to even see the opposite knowing this. everyone
here is attempting to learn English. most advertisement and t shirts are
in English. and music as well... it{s extremely strange to me that
people sport things they don{t even understand.
after an exhausting week we met some of our assigned goals and
contacted 109 people. we had some wonderfully filled spirit lessons and i
think over all the investigators are teaching me more than i am
teaching them . progression happens more rapidly here in Argentina.
everything does in fact. i am no longer on Mexican time, everyone
talks a mile a minute and practically runs everywhere. the highlight of
my week was a hermanas conference all day Thursday.
i had the opportunity to spend the whole day with the three other
hermanas from my district in in the mtc. and what a joy that was! and in
English too!! its a relief to see we are all going through similar
struggles and we are such a strength for each other. we got a nice big
bowl of gelato and i was in heaven. it was a good day.
happy halloween!!! no one here actually celebrates it, way to
unsafe. and most people refer to it as teh day of sweets, i got some
candy from people in the ward and for a day dressed put as a
missionary. go figure!!
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| "happy halloween!!!!! boo." (Editor's Note: You can the Boo away from the Halloween but you can't take the Halloween away from the Boo!) |
more about my comp.... (taken from my letter to president)
luckily I was blessed with a great companion, hermana vincinete,
who loves the work, and work it is. She does all she can everyday and
then some. She is wonderful in filling me in with all of the rules
(which there are about a million... no joke) and makes sure I speak the
language and take responsibility in lessons. after planning every night i
work on her English. its comforting to know that its difficult for her
too.
Currently we have five people on date. <ivon, raicho, pilar,
lito, and betti. They are all incredible people and I see so much
potential in each of them. <especially Raicho who attended church this Sunday
and later admitted that he recognized the spirit during fast and
testimony meeting. WOW what a life changing moment to recognize after
so many years on being on earth away from our heavenly father. I am so
thrilled for his progression and all of the others. each have their own
difficulties and challenges, as do we. I hope that although my
vocabulary may be simple and small in Spanish that with the Lord I can
show the importance of the everlasting gospel, it brings so many
wonderful blessings. Currently I am working on (well everything) but in
specific trusting that the Lord will give me the words in Spanish when I
need them as well as being confident and bold. It is difficult for me
to be so when I don{t know the culture or language. However I don{t
want people to mistake it for a lack in my testimony, but only as a lack
of language skills.
kind of a loco letter.... welcome to my brain!!! love you all and
miss you and america dearly!!! know that your in my prayers always and
forever!°
le quiero muchos,
hermana alley
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| "goodbye Dallas runway... it i got to watch the sun go down and rise... " |
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"the view from one of the windows." |
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