November 23, 2015

Such a crazy week. I´ll start out with when we left the MTC. So we left and headed up to salt lake on the train and got to the airport. We then flew to Atlanta Georgia and then to Buenos Aires. The flights were miserably long. On the way down to Argentina, all the Argentine women around me were watching Magic Mike and Fifty Shades of Gray. So that was basically 11 hours of trying to hold back the puke in my mouth. Anyway, eventually I got here. When we landed we went through customs and everything and my mission president and his wife were waiting for us. We then went to the temple really quickly and then to the mission home. After we stayed at the mission home for a while, we went to the mission office. There, I was assigned my trainer. His name is Elder Bell. He has served for about 21 months. He is awesome. I´m the third missionary he has trained. Our area is in the suburbs of a town called Merlo. Apparently it is one of the bigger cities in the mission.

Anyway, Argentina is crazy. It is a lot different than the states. The people here are nice, but they talk so stinking fast! I can barely understand anything. Which has been lovely.... not... It´s super frustrating but it is slowling getting better. The time flies by so fast here. It is kinda scary. We wake up in the morning, we excercise and do our studies, we then go have lunch at a members house, and then we are out working for most of the day until 9:00. They dont really have dinner here. The food here is awesome. Tons and tons of meat. You cant drink the water from the tap here so everyone drinks soda. 

The missionary work has been going well. The ward is super awesome and they give us a lot of support. We have a few progressing investigators, but there is one family in particular that is really close to being ready to be baptized which is awesome. I´m kinda getting tired of being called the new missionary who doesnt know spanish but it is what it is. Luckily, my companions spanish is good so he helps out a lot. He sometimes does a little to much socializing wich is frustrating because that is the part I cant understand. We havent done to much contacting. We have to be really carefully because if we talk to women, especially women close to our age, they will try to kiss us which is custom here. Thats when we have to just shove our hands in their face. Hahah good times. Im slowing getting to exept the culture. It was hard at first but it is getting better. The only thing that is really the same down here is the gospel and the importance of family. Our whole mission is in a very poor area. It is a humbling experience daily. The poorest house i have ever been in in the States makes the nicest house i have been in here look like a dump. 

The people in general are very nice though. They all try to help me understand what they are saying for the most part. Some of our investigators call me Ken because to them apparently my face looks like ken the barbie. grrrr... 

At church yesterday the bishop asked me to bear my testimony and i actually did pretty well! Sunday was also the day the people here voted for a new president. We had to stay inside most the day in case things got crazy. I tried to take a nap so i went to bed at 5:00 and accidently slepped through the night till this morning at 6:30....oops...

Anyway, this week has probably been one of the most hardest, uncomfortable weeks of my life, but it is getting better and better each day! 

Sorry if my spelling and grammar are terrible.This computer is in Spanish and it says all the words im typing are incorrect....

Elder Townsend