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