First off, we had transfers today. Elder Pepito left and my new
companion is Elder Atwood, from Idaho. (See pictures) He is very nice.
I am looking forward to this transfer! It's a little weird to have
Elder Pepito gone, because I have known him the whole time I have been
in Argentina. And now I'm the one who knows our area, instead of being
the new trainee!
We are going to have another baptism this Saturday, with a lady named
Maria Luisa Ilardo. (That's ILARDO in case the letters look the same.)
She is 78 years old, and the mother of a family in our ward. Her
husband is being stubborn. He too is 78 and believes in God, and has
faith in Christ, but thinks he is "all set" with religion. He is a
wonderful person, and does good in his life. All he lacks is the
fulness of the Gospel. Please pray for him. His name is Hector. The
baptismal service is this Saturday at 6:30 PM our time. I'm not sure
what that will be there, with daylight savings and all. We didn't
change.
Here are a few answers to some questions I have been asked.
There are only 2 of us in our
pension/departmento/apartment/
About a year and a half ago this area shared a pension with the
neighboring area, but not any more.
We have Zone Conference once every other transfer. And in the
transfers in between, we have personal interviews with the President.
Elder Pepito explained the reason a while ago, but I have forgotten
it.
As far as my self evaluation of the language, it would be this. I can
talk/communicate with everyone. I sometimes have to ask them to repeat
something once or twice to fully understand, but I eventually get it.
At times I feel like I should be able to do better with the time I
have. And at other times I find myself wondering how I just had a
conversation with someone in a foreign language. Right now if someone
asked me if I speak Spanish/Castellano, I would say "I'm learning."
or "Estoy aprendiendo." I am definitely not where I want to and can
be. I am learning new things every day. Sometimes I get a little lazy,
and my accent turns horrible. I struggle to remember how to conjugate
a word, and end up pronouncing it like a yankee. (Speaking of that,
here they don't call us gringos, but yankees, or in Castellano, Yanqui
(pronounced shaun-kee)) So instead of speaking Spanglish we speak
Castellanqui. So all in all, it is coming, and I can communicate. When
I read, the members say I sound like a native. But that's easy because
the words are already there. I can read the scripures (to myself) and
understand almost everything. It's mostly vocabulary that I lack.
I try to serve the people every way I and We can. We carry bags for
old ladies, help push-start cars, help clean the ditches that they
have in place of gutters, and we have organized servie projects with
our zone, and here in our area with just us. We have cleaned the
Church, painted a patio of a member, gotten rid of crab-grass from a
Sister's yard, painted two schools, and helped a few people move.
Other than that, I do my best to serve them as a missionary, which is
more valuable than all other temporal service I could render. I would
say that I have grown to love the people here, Members or not. That was
something I always remember learning, that you must love the people.
It actually isn't that hard, because they are an amazing people. I
love their culture and their personalities. Every time I meet someone
new, I am amazed that SO MANY PEOPLE can be SO COOL! And they make
awesome food, especially the homemade pizzas, which are nothing like
American pizzas.
We have been seeing a little bit of success here in Pl'anos. We have
several new investigators from the past few weeks. It seems like we
have many, but none of them progress very fast. But I guess thats ok.
Manuel and Olga both took about 2 months before they were baptized.
And Maria Luisa has been investigating for about a month and a half.
Mom, I will prepare a list of names for you for next time.
A couple more quick tidbits. Dad - do you remember those twins that
are the sons of one of the Tue-Thurs basketball guys? I don't remember
his name. The twins that served in Argentina? Anyway, one was Elder
Pepito's Zone Leader for a while. If you could pass a Hello from Elder
Pepito, to me, to you, to him, to his son, that would be great.
Could someone send instructions on how to fix a hole in my dress
shirt. It is about the size of nickel. It got caught on a fence the
other day. I have a needle and thread on hand.
Dad and Mom, can that white tie you gave me get wet? I think so, but
I'm not sure. It's from the Distribution Center and has temples on it.
Any quick updates on Sports would be appreciated. Also, is there a new
Back to the Future coming out? I thought I heard something about that.
I love everyone! Congratulations Summer and Will!
Until next week...
Pictures:
001 - My new companion, Elder Atwood. He's from Idaho, and has about
as much time left in his mission as I have completed in mine.
002 - Some sandwhiches I made, played with, and then ate. And not
specifically in that order.
003 - One of the young Elders in my ward had one of those big
"tagging" pens at a service project, and I asked him to write my
name on my shirt. This is how it turned out! Pretty cool.
004 - This is how one of my socks came back from the Sister in our
ward that does our laundry. At least it was one of the lesser quality
ones.
005 - Let's see if you can spot the difference. Gross.
--
Elder Scot Daniel Stobbe Jr
Argentina Buenos Aires South Mission
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