Godoy Cruz

Dearest family! 

Well I am finally in Argentina and i love it! The other day I just had to stop and take it all in.... I love it! I am the only american in my pension, so hopefully i will learn castellano faster. I felt so bad. On our trip down hear I spoke the best spanish and ended up translating for everything but to be completely honest when we landed in Argentina I could not understand anything. Not only do they  shhhh the double L but they shhh any Y, and leave out any S´s. If that makes any sense... But I made by all right. And mendoza is so so much better. I can pretty much understand everything, except for my companion.... Just kidding kind of. She just came back from San Juan where they also shhhh all r´s. She is from buenos aires. She is great. She walks crazy fast! I love it!

Man, I don´t know where to start. so much has happened this week. First off, Dad, what wards/branches did you serve in. Everyone is asking me! I am serving in the city. Godoy Cruz to be exact. We share the area with some office Elders but with the amount of people coming in and out of the mission they are mainly stuck in the office so we get the area to ourselves. They just had a white night (lots of people get baptized) the week before I arrived so we are finding. I recognize that I am blessed to know as much spanish as I do but I just want to communicate freely. I got pretty frusterated Saturday but fasted Sunday and had a RRee awesome Sunday. 

A little over 90 percent of the ward is inactive and I am so excited to start working with less actives. This area has so much potential. I am so blessed and I am so excited because I am almost for sure going to stay here next transfer because my companion is headed home. I just hope I get a native companion so I will be forced to only speak the language. Actually it feels so weird to be writting in English, I guess that is a sign of improvement. 

I feel like this letter is all over the place but I will close with a couple of stories. 1. first off, though I was warned by a friend everyone starts to laugh when I introduce myself. Hill which is pronounced gil here means :stupid, dim witted, or idiot. The ward was laughing out a storm. Elder and Sister Aines asked if I wanted to add my mothers maiden name so it was less embarrassing but I have found that it breaks the ice real fast and my companion keeps telling me that she has never had so much success.

2. We walk a lot and I try to say Hello to everyone unless we are close to the plaza then it is hopeless. I cannot help but laugh at peoples reactions. Everyone is so surprised! I have actually had people stop and say they are so sorry that they don´t remember there name. Perfect! 

The A... showing off their dresses for the baptizm. Still Sad I won´t be there! So excited Hna A...Is finally getting baptized.

First day in the field

me and my companion 70 years from now...