May 16, 2011

Hi!

Okay so that was a lot of information to take in! I'm glad all is going well for you, Dad. It sounds like you'll be all set within the month or sooner! Which is awesome. Balcarce definitely does have a lot of people for being so small so if it was going on 45,000 citizens I wouldn't be surprised. There is a big Statue dead center and then all the streets are a grid and each block is numbered. I'm still super confused about directions but I'm getting it. And all the main streets (del Valle, and the 3 others that stem out from the center plaza) are beautiful! They have a massive median in the middle with a sidewalk down the middle that has a line of trees on either side all the way down. It's like a tunnel. And since it's fall, they have all turned gold. It looks like that default picture on Windows computers. Elder Blackhorse said I won't see anything like that anywhere else in Argentina.

Anyway I eat lots of food here. But only one time a day. Argentines are weird! Lunch is in the middle of the day and it's HUGE. And they feed us so much I almost die every time. And I have to eat a lot in order to not be freaking rude because apparently everyone and their mom will get offended if I don't! But then we work all the way until 9 without eating much at all. So I get home starving. But I've now had empanadas, and facturas, and tartas, and tartitas, and all kinds of awesome food. I love it all. I don't think I'll be gaining any weight here. Which is good.

As for the work? We have been teaching these three boys named Franco, Leandro, and Matias. Their mom was baptized at age 13 and fell away until like 4 weeks ago when she just randomly went to church! (sorry if I already told part of this story I can't remember) But anyway, we are teaching the boys and will be baptizing them on the 28th of May! It is super exciting to teach them and watch them progress and understand and develop their testimonies! And it is great to see the mother, Analia, watch her children learn and her family come closer together through family prayer and scripture study. They all came to church yesterday all dressed up (Elder Blackhorse and I taught them to tie ties hahah). Other than that, we have a 22 year old named Leandro Zapata and we stopped by and read with him because he hadn't read on his own. It was fantastic and we're praying that he will read on his own from now on! I think he saw how easy it was and how COOL is was. We read 3 Nephi 11 of course. We also have an investigator named Larry. He's from Boston and speaks English. But he doesn't understand the importance of our message! So we're working with the boys, Leandro, Larry and quite a few others.

We're also turning this ward AROUND. We're working on getting this program called 15 Families (created by the First Presidency - we ask 5 families each from the Elders Quorum, High Priests, and Relief Society if they want the missionary discussions again) to reactivate families in the ward! We started by reactivating our Ward Mission Leader hahaha but he came to church on Sunday with his wife and we're meeting with him tomorrow! We also went to meetings with the Elders Quorum and Ward Council to discuss our vision for the ward and the 15-family program. Besides that, we're getting the ward excited about missionary work but doing a Training event to teach the youth (and anyone else who wishes to attend) how to present our message, a Book of Mormon, and a pamphlet! The ward can see that we want to be involved and we're here to work. I'm excited to see where all of this takes us. Hopefully to more references and more lessons with members present.

And we did ALL that in spite of having to travel to Bahia Blanca Monday night, return Thursday morning, travel back to Mar del Plata Thursday night to have Zone conference Friday, and FINALLY getting back to Balcarce Friday night. No more travelling for a while now. ONLY WORK.

So that's about it! I'll upload some pictures of my house and stuff! I'm super happy for Jordan and Kevin! Those are amazing calls! Jordan, my buddy Christian Hutchingson is also going to Mexico, to the Mexico City West mission. We will speak Spanish together with Tanner and Taylor when we're all back. Except Tanner and I will sound funny! Que vas a hacer vos? And Kevin that is so cool that you're going to the same Philippines mission as your dad!!

K. Don't forget to send pictures of Jackson when Steph finally has him!!

BYE

-Elder Ryan David Garrison