April 25, 2016

Jacob wrote a bunch of short emails on Monday.  We'd be in the middle of reading one and - ding! - here's another email.  Here they are:

In the Field!
So I'm here and Iove it!

I am in the city of Tucuman! It is about 4 hours from Salta! I am with Elder Guzman, and he is from Bolivia! He is close to 20 months in his mission, and he has learned English really well! It has been a blessing! I get along with him really well. He is a hard worker, and he is busy with families and investigators!

The people here are super humble. There are some different things here. They burn their trash in the streets. There are horse and carriages. Almost all the houses are cement. Our pension [apartment] is pretty nice compared to the other places. I was told that they don't eat a lot of rice but when I got here I have already had 3 dishes with rice. I have had locra, which is a soup. I have had bombaspapas, I think is what it is called. It is meat with fried potato on the outside. I have had churri pan, which is a churrizo sausage in a bun. The food is amazing..

I mainly just bare my testimony right now. We asked some people where they thought I was from and I have gotten. Brazil, and Bolivia. Kinda funny. My Spanish, of course is not that good right now but a lot of the families have said they can understand me when I do speak. 

Supposedly people from Tucuman are hard to understand and its true. I can understand maybe 1 out of 4 of the people here and the other times my companion helps me out.

The MTC was great but the field is way different. I still have a lot to learn. We played soccer this morning and it was so fun!

I really do love it here. It is different, its a different culture, and its not what I'm used to but its so worth it.

I miss all of you guys and I have been thinking about all of you!

Second email, no title

I have realized that Americans feel entitled to almost everything. Here, people just work together. In driving, and in other things. I was telling my companion that it amazes me how easy it is to say hi, and to receive a welcoming hi back. I told him in america if you did that it would almost be weird. I love how willing people are to talk about religion. I love the welcoming culture. I feel  so important when they offer me food or anything. Its just such a nice culture. 

Sunday!

Their [church] building is actually pretty nice! This Sunday we had 69 in church attendance. I got to present myself and I told them that I know that the church is the same in all the world and that they were like my family. I guess this week was the most in attendance that they have had. We started off the morning trying to get people to come and going to their houses. Three didn't answer and one of the investigators canceled. It was kind of depressing and we went to church. Sure enough they started coming to church and we had 7 investigators there. It was a milagro!! Miracle!!!

Mas

Anyway we cross the street whenever we want even if there's cars coming. haha. There's tons of dogs everywhere. I only pet the ones inside houses though! haha

In addition to a plethora of emails, we got pictures from Jacob and from the mission office.  The mission office has been great about communicating and keeping us updated, and we have even been invited to a Facebook group for the Salta Argentina Mission (The group name is "MISION ARGENTINA SALTA 2014-2017 Argentina Salta Mission")

And tons of pictures!

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