El Caballero De La Noche

​​HEY,

 

This is the last week of this transfer(6 week period), it's been so fast. It feels like it's only been about 2 weeks. It's crazy.

 

I had Tramites in Salta (Paperwork to make sure I'm legal in Argentina)

I had to take a 4 hour bus to Salta with Elder Rich and Elder Towns, we are all new. We survived and we did well without our trainers. I reunited with Elder McGrath (my companion from the MTC) he is well and it was so great to see him and it was like right where we left of. He's still hilarious.

 

This week was good, my fear of talking with others in Castellano and messing up is gone. Our numbers of street contacts has gone up drastically and we have a lot more new investigators. We had a lot of lessons this week. We were pretty on fire. We've been teaching more with members and the success of the lessons has been more prevalent. We taught one investigator, Jose, with another progressing investigator, Leonel, helping us. It was good for both of their growth in the Gospel.

 

I have been told that my accent in Castellano and my construction of sentences are my strengths right now. I don't sound like a gringo at all. My weaknesses are definitely conjugation in the past tense with preterit and imperfect. I also have a big lack of vocabulary which comes with time. My growth is rapid.

 

I have come to really love the people here of Monteros. I have a lot of time here, but I can't imagine right now leaving this place for a different area. Our Branch is getting stronger and stronger every week and my love for the people here gets stronger.

 

I have also came to realize how blessed missionaries are when we are doing the Lord's work. It's amazing how many people the Lord has prepared to hear our message. We just have to stay faithful and intune with the Spirit of God to find them.

 

Funny Things:

 

My name is circling around Monteros. Random people will yell BATMAN!

It happens multiple times a day in a city of 25,000.

 

A parrot yacked on my shoes during a lesson. Nice.

 

The Man at the VISA place would have me come to the desk just tell me a joke about Batman. It got annoying cause I just wanted my paperwork.

 

Elder Beary, our zone leader, has 1 week left. Kids thinks its funny to yell words in English to make fun of us? These kids we're doing that and Elder Beary just yells in english, SHUT UP AND KEEP WALKING. The kids we're so confused and didn't know what it mean't. IT WAS HILARIOUS. Probably not very missionary esque but hilarious.

 

PICTURES.

1 and 2: These are two out of the three massive cockroaches I killed in the span of 20 minutes. GROSS.

3. DANI, return missionary, He is a stud.

4. Noche De Hogar, (Home Night)

5. Tramites (Elder Towns, McGrath, McGrail, Rich, and Petersen)

6,7,8 : Photos with Hermanas Adams and Flores. And Elder Cloud. I am laughing really hard in one of them.

​​

 

Love you all, Ciao

Elder Batman​​

That Gringo Would Kill You

Hola Familia y Amigos,

 

This week has been good. I am grasping the missionary life a lot better now. I've come to realize that this is my life now and whenever I feel like not doing much or sleeping longer I remember that why I am here and that I came here to work hard and I can sleep longer in two years so there's that.

 

I had splits with Elder Mendez, who is the one of the leaders of our zone, he is awesome. He is from Ecuador and will be finishing in 3 months. I was in downtown Concepcion with him. It is more urban and a way more dangerous than peaceful Monteros. He knows quite a bit of english and I taught him some english slang and he taught me a lot of spanish and what I'm doing right and what I'm doing wrong. He say's my accent is muy bien. I don't have much of a gringo accent.

 

We also had interviews with the mission president. It was good, I learned a lot from him and he said I'm doing well but he motivated me to do more. He motivated me to open my mouth to other persons about the church and worry less about myself or if you don't know what to say. After that interview our contacting has gone way better and I've just thrown myself in.

 

It was Elder Clouds birthday. He is 20 now. We had an ice cream cake with the Branch President's family.

I am starting to have dreams in Castellano and my thoughts that come first to mind that are simple are in Castellano. It's weird. I also forgot a couple english words the other day. They aren't coming as fast to mind as they did.

 

We have a new investigator this week. His name is Jose he's 11 and he accepted an invitation to be baptized on the 22nd of October. He remembers EVERYTHING we say. He reads, he listens and has questions. He's a stud.

 

We had an activity with all the Elders in our zone. We played futbol americano, futbol, y boleibol. It was very fun and we ate chorizo after we cooked on a coal grill.

 

We have been working a lot with Patricio, a return missionary from Chile who is a rock in our branch, with other investigators. It's amazing the result of a visit with a member. He was just called to be Elders Quorum President this past sunday.

 

Funny Things

My first minute in Concepcion a man came up to me asked me for the time (to check if my watch was worth stealing) and he also put his shoes next to mine (to see if his shoes would match up to mine, obviously mine we're bigger) He was drunk and he told his friend I am his amigo (meaning hey he can potentially be a target) his friend said "The gringo would kill you". He scurried off.

 

I broke my bike. We went on a bump and I jerked the bike up and I snapped the handlebars off. (oops)

 

WOMEN ARE CALLED SNAKES BECAUSE WHEN THEY THINK YOUR ATTRACTIVE THEY CAT CALL (LIKE WHISTILING IN AMERICA) BUT THEY HISS LIKE A SNAKE. THIS HAPPENED A LOT THIS WEEK.

 

In Northern Argentina they don't use the Tu (the informal version of you). They take the conjugation of Vostoros - ais, eis(Only used in the spain to be used as informal version of you all)

and drop the a or the e and it's called Vos. As missionaries were only allowed to use Yo, Usted, Usteds, and Nosotros. We have to understand tu but no one uses it and now I have to learn how to understand Vos.

 

EVERY CITY HAS THEIR DIALECT OF CASTELLANO. TUCUMANO IS THE WORST. EVERY SENTENCE IS PUSHED TOGETHER IN ONE BLOB OF A WORD. Santiago del Estero puts much emphasis on the S. Salta doesn't use the S so when they say Como Esta its Como Eta. Íf Castellano wasnt hard enough.

 

All is well here, my testimony of prayer grows every day and how important it is as a missionary. I'm loving it here.

 

Nos Vemos,

 

Elder Batman

"Jesus is coming tomorrow, bring the Mate"

Me and Elder Cloud

HOLA COMPADRES,

This week has been pretty swell. We had zone conference this week, and also I had splits with the District Leader, Elder Brundage in Famailla. 

LAST WEEK WAS SO COLD. This week was SO HOT AND HUMID. I've heard that this is nothing yet. It gets real in December with the heat and humidity. 100's mostly. With a lot of humidity. Elder Cloud says your constantly just gonna be drenched when that time comes.

We have 5 people commited to Baptism this week. Elder Cloud and I met with a family, Familia Brotherson, last week during contacting, we gave the first lesson and it was well. They told us to comeback soon. As I was on splits, Elder Cloud gave his daily report to Elder Brundage and Cloud said that they got La Familia Brotherson to commit to baptism. I WAS SO EXCTIED AND HAPPY FOR THEM.

We also got Leonel, of La Famila Sanchez, to be baptized. He has been investigating the church for 6 months. His family is part member. He will be baptized along with the Brotherson Family on the 15th of October! YES

As a young gringo male missionaries we have to be careful with the women. They are thirsty. The Worms, Snakes, and Dragon statement. The Worms are little girls being trained by the big girls to be bad. Snakes are girls around our age that are very flirtatious and find every excuse to touch you and will invite you in to listen only because they're interested in you. The Dragons are similar to the Snakes except they're like Mom's and Older Women. I laughed when I heard this but the longer I've been out here the more this has came to be true.

We have been teaching with one member of our ward. Patricio, he is a former missionary, and is a rock in our small branch. He's great and he's got a big heart and a great testimony.

I've kicked English to the curb, I solely read my scriptures and study in Castellano and I talk only to my companion in Castellano, unless I need help with a word.

I'm learning at a rapid pace.

The food is amazing. Empenadas, Milanesas, Pizza, all good.

They will feed you so much food, you have to put your silverware a certain way or they will put more food on your plate. I can eat a lot but not that much.

I'm losing weight, and also strength. I started a regiment every day of 100 pushups, 100 crunches, 30 Pullups every morning and every night. It's helped me feel like I'm still keeping in shape and some of my strength.

Zone Conference was good I learned a lot and it was good to meet more missionaries in our zone. I have befriended most of them and I love my zone.

I have been sick this week, but it's all good. I'm still pressing on!

It's the worse when you are given contaminated water, and you got to drink it cause you don't want to offend the family. My body will eventually get used to it.

Argentina is 5 years behind in technology and like 3 years behind is fashion and style. It's interesting to see old fads coming back.

I've never valued sleep so much in my life and I have never been so tired in my life, but I love it. The days go so quick. I love being a missionary.

Funny Things

13 peso sandwiches sound dangerous but are pretty good.

A drunk man told us Jesus was coming tomorrow and that he needs to get more Mate for this occasion.

I've gotten mulitple times this week people saying that I look like different white celebrities (Biebs, Ben Affleck, Ross from Friends) but I think mostly because I'm a gringo they think that....

Argentines are pretty racist

All is well here! I'm loving it here!

I invite you all to read Alma 32:11,21-22,36-42 in the Book of Mormon, and James 2:18-26 in the New Testament. Great scriptures about faith.

All is well, Ciao

Elder Batman

 Me and Elder Brundage

 Polluted sunset over Monteros

 My planner

 Empenadas

 Familia Sanchez

 Argentine flag in the sunset

Godfather esquire pic with Elders Utai, Towns and Berry

Elder Towns

Pesos

Bathroom Selfie

Downtown Monteros

My zone

Batman's Adventures in Monteros

HOLA

Being a missionary is a lot of work, it's really hard. But I'm loving it. The days go by so fast. It's hard especially when I'm trying really hard to learn Castellano (Argentine Spanish). My castellano is growing rapidly, I'm confident by the end of the year I should be pretty solid.

People in Argentina are so kind and willing to invite you in. Monteros, the area I'm in, is very poverty stricken. However the people give so much and are so kind to let us in to their homes.

I haven't had any problems with people. People told me here. Rosario is really rough. Monteros is very peaceful. A lot of poverty but people don't bother us. Theyre very kind here. My spanish is growing rapidly.

There's garbage every where. Dogs everywhere, Everyone has a motorcycle.

CHICKEN IS THE MOST COMMON. Steak is a lot more expensive since the less worth of the peso since dad was here.

People in Argentina are very prideful however, they don't want us to help them or do service for them. 

ITS SO COLD RIGHT NOW. ITS WINTER RIGHT NOW. IT'S THE END OF WINTER BUT MAN ITS COLD.

The food is amazing here. I like it in someways more than American Food.

Also I love Mate. It's an herbal tea. I have it probably two to three times a day. It's good. Everyone here drinks it. 

I have cut this one pretty short I am out of time. I can say however, I love it here. This is where I need to be. I'm witnessing miracles everyday here and The Lord's help in my work. I'm beginning to love the people here. They're very nice, and lovely. I'll tell you more about it next week. I'm now figuring out how to use my time.

Love you all,

Elder Batman