Elder Cook: December Update

12/2/13

Well I hit my 5 month mark tomorrow! It's crazy how fast it is going! It is going by way to fast and I need it to slow down! But last week was Thanksgiving and it was good! Kind of a slow week for teaching because everyone was out of town but we had two really good Thanksgiving dinners! I ate a lot of gluten free pumpkin pie! But now its December and we are going to look for a tree today to put in our apartment! I am excited! Also we have a baptism on December 14 and it should go through so that will be way cool! I am excited! We had another person that was set to be baptized on the 13th of December but she just barely moved so that was a little sad. But she will still probably be baptized by the other Elders so that is okay! Ha it seems like all of our investigators who are really progressing and ready to be baptized move out of our area. But that is okay! Well I dont have too much more to report on. But all of the friends are doing well! Tanner Hale gets to go skiing on p-day! I am so jealous! But anyway I hope that everyone is doing well and I have a couple of pictures to send off! Love you all and have a great week.

 

This is a senior couple that just got done with their mission!

We had to knock down all the apples for service

 Elder Cook


12/9/13

Well another week has gone by! It is crazy to see how fast it goes by! But this last week was pretty slow. Not much happened. But we do have a baptism this Friday so that is way exciting! His name is Roger and he is doing really well! He has his interview tomorrow night! But this last week it has been pretty cold and it snowed a little bit!!!!!!!!!!! I miss the snow! But it is Navajo tradition on the first snowfall of the year to go out and bathe in it so we did that and it was pretty cold! But if you do it then you are promised to not get cold the rest of winter. Well you will still get cold but not as cold as you would! But yeah we did it at like 6:45 on Saturday and it was cold! It got down to 5 degrees this morning and it is suppose to get down to 2 degrees tonight or tomorrow night.... But this also on Saturday we went to a stake Christmas party and they had like over 100 nativity scenes on display and across the street was the Luminaries at the college and that was really cool. I got some good pictures and I will send them. Hopefully the computer will work this time! But all is good! Not too much to report on this week! But hope everyone has a great week!

Love,
Elder Bradley Cook


12/16/13
Well I have no time today! We went to Mesa Verde today and got back like an hour ago!  But I got the packages and also the baptism was great! But it was a good week and we had a lot of fun at Mesa Verde! But also with skype... It will probably be around 10 or 11 in the morning after breakfast with one of our members. So I hope that works out with everyone! But I have a lot of pictures to send next week! But I hope you all have a great week! Oh and I might be a little late with Christmas presents... But love you all! Talk to ya next week.

Elder Cook

 

 

12/23/13

Well sorry about last week! I didn't have much time to email because we went to Mesa Verde and we were gone all day so we had like 10 minutes to email President Batt and also you everyone else! But anyway I feel like a lot has happened this past two weeks! I don't even remember it all already because a lot has been going on! But I will try to get some of it in here! Anyway we had a Baptism! That went great! It was a really good program and he is doing really well! His name is Roger and he had his boss baptize him so that is sweet! He is getting married to a member and one of their goals is to get to the temple and get married! We told him that that is a really good goal! Ha but he is doing really well! Also we were able to go to Mesa Verde last week! That was awesome! They wouldn't let us climb on anything so that was kind of a bummer! But I heard at Choco Mountain that they have ruins there that you can climb all over! So if I ever get transferred over there I can go climb all over those ruins! Ha but I got some good pictures! Anyway I will send those after this email! But also transfers are coming up! On New Years eve is when transfers are and we find out this Saturday! I will probably leave Farmington because this will be my 4th transfer here in Farmington and they usually try to keep you in an area around 6 months! But I might get transferred out to the Reservation! That would be really cool! President brought it up in our interviews and so it might happen! I am excited! But if not this transfer then maybe in a couple of transfers! Also I hit my 6 month mark next week! It is crazy! I am kind of mad though because it is going by way to quick! I had a dream I was home and I was happy to be home but I was kind of sad because I felt like I didn't serve long enough! But then I found out in my dream that I was going back for a year and I was so excited! Ha I am still loving it out here! The work is slow a lot of the time! But it is okay! Also about Skyping, I will probably be skyping around 10 or 11 in the Morning! I will probably give Mom or Dad a call right before I do so I can let you guys know when to get one! I am excited to talk to everyone! Ha it is going to be weird talking to you guys but I am excited! But yeah this last week was good! We had a missionary Christmas party and that was way fun! Also we went to a members home last night for another Christmas party and I got some candles! I am going to miss this area but I am also excited at the same time to go to a new area and experience something new! Anyway I guess that is all for now! I will talk to you guys this Wednesday Morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have a Merry Christmas and also I am sending gifts out today. Hopefully they will be able to get there by Christmas! If not I am sorry.... But love you all and talk to you real soon!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh and if I forgot any questions to answer, just ask Wednesday!

Roger's baptism, he is the one next to me!

 Elder Cook

 

12/30/13

 

Well I have no time today! My time on my computer just cheated me a couple of minutes so I have no time! But anyway this last week was great! I hope you all got your presents! But I am being transferred out on the Reservation! I leave tomorrow and I am serving in Round Rock in Arizona! It is really close to Chinle! I am in the Chinle zone so on P-days I might go to Chinle! But anyway sorry I have no time! It was really good to talk to all of you and I hope everything is going well! I will send more next week! And also pictures too! Well I love you all and I have to send this before it shuts down on me!

Love,

Elder Cook

 

 

Surprises and Firesides

Editor's Note:  Last week Coleman sent me a letter for my Birthday and surprised me with a BAPTISM that he and his companion had!  The baptism was the Saturday before, and was from someone he placed a Book of Mormon with the very first day of his mission.  What an awesome Birthday present!!

I never know how to start these letters and it always looks way stupid when I do. Haha, but whatever. Haha, I hope you liked the birthday present Mom. Haha, the real story is that I never really knew what Maria was up to at all, until like a week before she was baptized. More about her later. 

Anywiggle, this week was pretty weird. Haha, Elder Long went home, I got a new companion, and some other cool stuff. Haha, it was way weird to send Elder Long home, because I am about as far away from going home as it could be. I barely hit 4 months haha. My new Comp. is named Elder Henderson, he is from Lehi, Utah, he loves poetry, long walks on the beach, a nice glass of scotch, and of course his dog Baxter. He goes home after this transfer. He spent the last few transfers as an AP, so he knows what's up with all this missionary witchcraft. He is a cool guy, and I'm excited to work with him. 

That is way cool that G. Ma & G. Pa are done/going to Antarctica haha, pretty crazy. But awesome as usual haha. Hahah Mom, always talking about me/ things having to do with me. It sounds like you had a good Birthday month this year Mom! Haha, sounds like a real busy week for everyone as well.

It was way cool, last night they had a little fireside dealy-do where they asked some recent converts to talk, and Maria was one of the 3. She talked last, and she stood up and said "They didn't tell me I was gonna talk in English, so I wrote everything in Spanish." Hahaha, whoops my bad. But she stood up and told everyone her story and it was way cool haha. President Ames was there and he talked a little bit too, it was pretty cool. It was a pretty sweet week for sure haha. 

Anywhey, haha I hope you have a good week and whatnot!

Love, Cole

**See http://called2swerve.blogspot.com/ for photos**

Halloween Random

I was going through old photos on my computer, and I feel I have an obligation to randomly post this here.  Cheers.

H@PPY B!RTHD@Y M0M!!!1!11!!1!

Hey guise, sorry about not emailing yesterday. We couldn't because of the whole MLK celebrating diversity and whatnot. But sorry if I scared you or something haha. Haha Mom, I would love to work aka ski all day, I miss that a ton sometimes. It sucks about D-Train though, I bet he is not super happy about that at all.. I never liked ice skating because it hurt my ankles and my straight pride, but mostly my ankles. Speaking of homosexuals, I heard Utah allowed gay marriage or something? Weird. I don't really wanna go home that much anymore haha. I didn't have my camera for the bunny farm ,but if we can we'll go back and take pictures one day. David got engaged? Haha, that is so weird, he is the 1st engagement of my mission... 

So whenever you go into a new area, there is always something going on, but not always people progressing, so you pretty much almost start over like every monthish from what i've seen. I don't know if that answers your question.. We get a monthly limit for miles so it is something to budget, but we usually do pretty well. 

Elder Long is going home on Thursday, haha so my new comp comes Wednesday. His name is Elder Henderson, and I've heard he is a really cool guy and a great missionary, so I'm excited. He goes home after next transfer. 

Happy Birthday mom, this week was pretty cool. I wrote mom a letter and sent it to her on Monday, so I hope she gets it by Saturday!

Love, Cole

Fried Pig Skin and Habaneros

Hey guys, Happy New Year!

Haha, so firsties, I thought Mom would like to know that I haven't bitten my nails since last Wednesday, which is a record by far. She always got on me for that so I decided to stop for a week. But on Wednesday I'm goin to town on those bad boys. 

Anyway, this week is a normal week, I never have anything to say anymore except the non-missionary stuff because that is the only thing that ever changes. It was a really good week, and we are finding new investigators and I guess we do spend a lot of time trying to reactivate. It is pretty cold here, and the cold in Texas is way different from the cold in Utah, but I don't really need a coat or anything, I should be fine.

 Elder Long and I have a few more weeks together until he goes homesies. That is really cool about G-ma and G-pa, haha they did that forever it seems like.

Anyweigh, this week was pretty normal, except for Saturday. I went on exchange to a bike area that morning. We went to Jack in the Box, then did service with some English elders. On the way back, one of the elders pulled out 2 boxes of Kool-Aid, and asked if I was down to do the Kool-Aid challenge. You think I wasn't down? Course I was, 6:29. Then I threw it all up. After that, we were riding around on our bikes, and the Elder I was with was a super fast guy on his bike, so I was following him, and he popped up onto a curb. I was comin in hot and clipped my pedal on this telephone pole so I took a little tumble... After a short ride in the ambulance to the ER, they said I was fine. Just kidding haha, no ambulance, no ER. Anywhey, I broke the pedal on impact, and took it into a bike shop, where they checked it out and said that the central crank was broken, or something. The thingy that goes in between the pedals, and it should be about $40 to fix. I feel so bad, and I don't really know what to do? It isn't that bad and I can still ride it around, but I don't really know what to do about the bike... Sorry again, I feel way bad. 

After that, I ate some fried pig skin and a habanero pepper. So that was a pretty eventful day. Hope you Had a Fun Week! Happy Birthday Month Mom!

Love, Colembre

Who Ate My Fruitcake??

12/30/13

Well, this week was pretty dang eventful.  My companion is sometimes strict and was saying stuff like "You can only talk to your family for 40 minutes for Christmas." When I told him “Okay but I’m gonna make two 40 minute calls cause my family is split up,” he told me I am going to have to make 20 minute calls. When he called his mom he talked for 10 minutes, then for 20 then for 30 and 40 and 50 and then finally at 1 hour until he ran out of money and couldn’t talk any longer.  Haha 20 minutes my eye. The next day we went to the house of Alex and Skyped on their computer. I got to see my whole family and the changes in their lives. 
That night we went home and talked to the other Elders of Numancia.  We made empanadas with them and at 12 there were a butt load of fireworks going off and it was so dang hot that we all got up and watched them. Argentines are looking for any chance to light fireworks so in the last 3 weeks we have had 3 or 4 firework displays right outside of our window. As soon as the firework show ends, without fail the fire truck alarm goes off for the next 30 minutes and just wails and wails in the dark of the night. Haha kinda annoying but a little funny that something always ends up catching fire.
The next morning we woke up and Elder Gomez was asking us "Who ate all of my fruit cake?" He asked us like 3 times and we never found the culprit.  He shared the rest of it with me and we ate a good chunk of that bad boy.  That night after working all day we came into the pension and while walking in the door we heard something at the window. Then it made a bunch of noise and saw a cat booking out of there. We looked down and that sneaky kitty had eaten the rest of the fruitcake. We found our man.
A couple of weeks ago I was walking past a fruit store and the guys carrying a crate dropped all of these fruits so I stopped to help them out while my companion kept on walking.  After they thanked me but I was in such a rush catching up to my companion so I just said " ITS NOTHING. CONGRATULATIONS! BYE!" I don’t know why I said congratulations, I just did ok?
The next day things were getting pretty slim, first because it was the end of the month and second because I used 250 of my 1000 pesos for the month on Christmas presents for the members so I had no money.  (I think that I bought 15 ties and made a good 200 cookies for all of them haha.) We were walking past the people I helped and were talking about what we should do because we don’t have any money for food. And the guys started saying, "Hey look! Its congratulations!" Haha I felt a little bit stupid because I knew what they were talking about. We talked to them and they found out we had no money so they just gave us a bunch of bananas! Haha what great guys. I guess what goes around comes around, right?
Thursday we didn’t have bikes because my comp`s bike tire popped so we had to fix it.  While we were walking to our lunch we passed over the train tracks and we could see the train far off in the distance.  My comp stopped and asked if I had any money. Then we put the money on the tracks and ran around for 10 minutes giggling like little girls waiting for the train.  Finally the train came and ran over our money and we booked it over to find them and we couldn’t.  We spent a good 10 more minutes looking for the money when the people who invited us to lunch saw us running around on the tracks and the husband ran over and joined us giggling like girls.  With his hawk eyes he found them both in 2 minutes and now I have my first money run over by a train! Woo!On Saturday there is a faria where you can buy fruit for super cheap. So Elder Delgado and I went over and bought ourselves a good watermelon and rode our bikes back.  There is a tent that sells clothes and I always say hi to the people that work there.  So we rode by them and as I was waving to them and I wasn’t paying attention, little by little I drove straight onto the curb and turfed it super hard. And then when I tried getting up my leg was caught so I fell again right in front of them and looked like a complete idiot haha.Anyways after that we went to Alex’s to make some lunch.  There is a stronger type of jalapenos here and it was my job to cut them and deseed them.  As I was cutting them, I found it was a lot faster and easier to deseed with my hands.  After I finished all 20 I washed my face and talked.  About 20 minutes later I started to feel the burn.  Ask me if my face and hands burned for the next 20 hours.  Ask me…Well, I gotta head out but I hope everything is going well.  I love you all and will write again next week.

Love,
Andy 

When We Are Humble

12/23/13

Hi everyone

So I forgot to write my three good things that happened during the day in my planner everyday so I basically I cant really remember what I did this week. But here is a funny story. There is this kid who is 7 years old and he has some kind of disability so he’s in a wheel chair. He’s really loud and bossy and he’s always cracking me up. This week we were at his house (his mom was recently baptized) and for some reason he kept calling me brother and giving me marshmallows to eat. After like 10 minutes of being there he started yelling ‘Marshmallow! Hey Marshmallow!’ I was kind of confused and said what? He looked at me and said ‘No! Marshmallow’ pointing at my companion." Haha for the rest of the night he kept calling me brother and my comp marshmallow. My comp didn’t think it was very funny. 

On Friday we had a dinner party at the church. There are only like 50 active members in the church here and 300 members total so we’ve got a lot of work to do. That’s about as much as I can remember from my week. Haha pretty sucky I know. Ill try and remember to write down in my planner what goes on more.

Oh yeah I just remembered. We had a 70 come and talk to our zone on Saturday as well. He taught us that being humble is key to learning more because when we are prideful we are blind and deaf. But when we are humble, we are grateful for all the blessings in our life and recognize that every good thing is from god. When we are humble, god gives us more to learn and we become smarter.

I love you guys a ton-
Elder Kimball

The Field of Cana

12/16/13

So I sadly left my elder Gonzalez. (He was so freaking awesome.) I made my way to Tres Valles. It's not really jungle anymore but there are mosquitos off the hook here. I’ve learned very very very quickly to put repellent on haha. It’s basically a city so that’s good but everyone here works in the fields of sugar cane. I can’t believe how much sugar cane is here. There is a huge sugar cane factory.

My new companion is named Elder Correles and he’s from Jalisco Mexico. He’s a pretty good guy but he reminds me a ton of a mix between the guy from the office and the guy Michael Scott hates. (I forgot both of their names.) He’s always kinda stressed about something but I think its pretty funny. He’s only got one more transfer in the mission than I do so we’ve got a ton to learn.

I learned something way freaking awesome this week. On Wednesday we had clase de zona and they taught a way good class about teaching with the spirit and not lessons.  

I went on divisions with Elder Nelson on Friday (our zone leader) and we went to Tierra Blanca. On Friday we visited this lady who had a baptismal date for the next Sunday. She said her daughter was saying she’d all ready been baptized in a different church and she didn’t need it. I was going to start talking about how the church has been restored and yeah de yeah de yeah try and prove how she needs to be baptized with proper authority yeah de yea de yeah. But before I said anything Elder Nelson said, "Well have you prayed about it?" She answered 'yes' and said she received an answer that it was true and no more of the discussion. I thought it was way awesome and we ended up baptizing her that day because we couldn’t on Sunday. Elder Nelson also told me earlier that we study the scriptures not to prove how we are right but to build our testimony. I cant believe how much better my teaching has been.

On Sunday we went to Veracruz for some fireside thing that I thought was kinda boring. But a 70 talked and it was actually really good but it was for the members here. There is this guy named José who works in the field of caña (sugarcane field) and every time we go to see him, he pulls a huge stick of sugar cane out and starts carving it with his machete. After he carves it a good foot and a half, he tells me to grab on the end and he breaks it off. So as of one week I’ve eaten about 4 feet of sugarcane already and it's freaking good. 

Well that’s what I’ve got for this week. Hope you guys are doing good and I love you all

Elder Kimball

Oh Holy Night

12/23/13

Well, this week was a good one.  On Tuesday we went to the reunion. On the way home we were passing a fruit stand and I saw a huge watermelon for 35 pesos (5 bucks) and I just couldn’t pass it up.  I dumped off all of my books in my comps backpack, shoveled out 35 pesos and jammed the watermelon in there the best that I could.  I felt like I was carrying a grown man on my back but after 20 minutes I made it home and carved straight into that bad boy.  I ate solid watermelon for the next 2 meals, and did I finish it? Yes, yes I did.

After that we went and taught a family and headed to the church for a Christmas practice.  We had some of the teens help us sing "Oh Holy Night." They didn’t want to in the beginning but my comp and I were stoked because it sounded pretty good.

On Wednesday we had lunch with the family Guarachi and then taught another family a little something something about Christmas and the Christmas spirit.  

Then, it was show time!  My comp and I had been talking with some of the ward members, organizing the ward Christmas activity.  We had the little kiddies sing and do the play about the birth of Jesus. (Its called pesebre here but I cant really remember the word in English.) They sang and did everything perfectly.  We had an older, less active member who is a musician come and play the saxophone for Oh Holy Night and the flute for the song Hallelujah. My companion and I sang Hallelujah in front of everybody and got super shaky and nervous and my voice started squeaking like a 13 year old teen smack dead in the middle of puberty. We got everything ready to sing Oh Holy Night.  We set up the saxophone, the mic, and when we told the teens to come, the 2 boys weren’t there.  We only had 4 teens and 2 of them were missing. The girls said they didn’t know where they were and that “they just left." Gosh dang it. So we booked around looking for them and after 5 minutes of everyone waiting on us, we just decided to go on without the little punks. We had never practiced with the musician and he liked to make it a little "jazzier" and add his own style so it was kinda all over the place but we ended up singing and doing a half decent job.  I was pretty happy with the turn out.  After that we went a wassling and enjoyed the night.

On Thursday we were out the door at 7 because we had to renew my visa. We got there at 7:30 and waited and filled out this stuff, waited some more, filled out some more stuff, paid something, waited some more. And then little by little they called all of the missionaries...except for me. The other missionaries finished in 2 or 3 hours.  We ended up showing up at 7:30 am and waited in the same building until 1:30 pm. haha gosh dang it.  But we tried to make a good day of it.  We found some sweet references that were just eating up all of our questions. They were trying to interrogate us because they were pretty well read in the bible and everything that they asked us we answered right so they were lovin it and we had a pretty dang great lesson with them.  The family ormeno then asked us to make empanadas with them so we booked over there and taught them a little something and ate empanadas for dinner.  

Here is something strange with Argentines. They don’t care how hot or cold something is. They just go at it.  For example, they can have scolding hot water fresh off the stove and they just pour it in their mate and go for it.  It is the same with their food. The night with the family Ormeno cooked the empanadas and were all just eating it casually.  I picked one up and I didn’t think that it would hurt my mouth. Bad, bad mistake.  I took a bite and some of the oil on the inside burnt a straight line down my tongue. I tried spitting it out and it burnt a straight line down my lip and I got a white and puffy blister.  

On Saturday we did our normal bidness then taught Mariel, the Sajamas, a less active Mirta who was a chef who taught us to make orange chicken.  After that we went to Santiago and to Sajamas for a bit of service.

On Sunday we had church and then had lunch with Alex and Nancy and taught Alex if he wants to get a good job he has to pass school first and how the scriptures say that studying is important.  I remember being in the exact same position but I can’t remember why I didn’t want to study.  Haha I love studying now.  After that we taught Kevin and his family but it was chaos with all 12 of them there.  Then we went to the family Gaurachi and taught them.  Then we went to a Christmas special a city away and listened to a choir and watched a movie about Christ.  I didn’t realize before my mission how much I love music but now that I don’t have it that much, I love any chance to listen to it.

Today was our p-day.  We woke up, got ready, studied, and headed out with the other missionaries to find a bank for my comp. After getting the money in Constitution, the President told all 270 of the missionaries to come to his house for a Christmas lunch.  So we went to his house and it was ridiculous. They had hamburgers and watermelon so I went crazy with the watermelon. They would finish one and then pull out another from under the table haha.  It was a pretty dang good Christmas gift and sweet to see some of my friends from the MTC again. 

Anyways I love you guys and hope that all is well.

Love,

Andy

A Run For My Life

12/16/13

Last Sunday we went to the Guarachi family for a noche de hogar.  We watched some videos and played some games.  After that we went and started the anticuchos.  Anticuchos are shishkabobs but with chicken and cowheart slow roasted over coals. They are my 2 favorite meat.  I remembered that we used to put pineapple, onion, and pepper on shiskabobs so I bought some and it turned out to be a hit.  They said they aren’t ever going to make anitchuchos again without pineapple.  

We booked it home after that because it is the season of giving here and what do all of the Argentines do? Rob like crazy during the season to be jolly. That and also all of the police are rioting, but don’t worry Ma, we are real safe.  Most of the people know who we are and don’t mess with us.  So anyways, we have a new rule that during the month of December we have to be home at the latest 8. 

On Monday we went and had a zone activity with a water balloon fight.  After that we watched Tangled and I was literally laughing out loud, almost to the point of snorting, even though it was all in Spanish and I didn’t understand a good 50 percent of the words.  After that we talked to a kid named David who I met the first night I was in Argentina. His family is less active and they don’t want to come back to church but he loves working out and sports so we got along great. We started talking about church and he told us that he is never going back again. I asked why and then he was telling us all of these doubts that he had. My comp has every single scripture by memory and so he was whipping them out like crazy and I piped in occasionally but mainly my comp.  We answered all of his questions and when we did, he told us "Do you guys need help teaching?  I could come help you some day this week." Haha I was stoked at how well things went.

On Tuesday we went early morning to David’s and talked to the parents and the kids. The family loves music so they were playing the flute, the piano, the saxophone, and the guitar. I had never thought that the flute was that cool but the dad played for 30 minutes and I was just in awe the whole time.  My jaw was wide open the whole time and every time he would look over, start to laugh, I would shut my mouth and then he would start to play again and my mouth would slowly pry open again.  We taught for the rest of the day and at 7:30 pm we had 2 members with us and they didn’t have bikes.  I remember Johnny telling me once that he had a companionship that they only had one bike so one ran the whole day and the other biked, so I gave them my bike and they doubled up and then my comp had his bike and I took off bookin it so that we could squeeze in one more lesson. We got to the house and we clapped and a grandpa and 2 little kids answered the door.  We asked if Elsa (his wife) was there and he said "No she isn’t here and I’m not sure when she is going to be back." Good thing the kids were there because one of them told us "No grandpa, grandma is in the kitchen." Haha sneaky Argentines trying to hide from us. So he went and got her and she was actually real happy to be talking with us. So we talked there for a little bit and then we went home.

The next day Elder Delgado asked me if I wanted to go running for morning exercise so I said yes but my comp was too tired so he just sat in the park and watched us run haha.  It felt so dang good to run again. 

The next day we went and we taught some people and did some service and then we had a noche de hogar with the familia Ormeno.  We showed them a video and talked and played some spoons and had some pizza and things worked out real good, except my magic tricks.  Those did not turn out real good. 

The next day we taught and looked for all of these people that were less active and with super super crazy directions. After that we invited all of the teens in the ward to a practice for the Christmas choir. Some kids showed up with some of their non member friends and my comp hopped on them like a wolf on meat and taught them everything that he possibly could squeezed into an hour and a half. While at the church we helped with the ward cleaning. They had started to get ready for the party and they started playing all of this great music like Hall and Oats, Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Eurythmics, and the Beatles so I just loved cleaning. It was the fastest, least boring cleaning session I have ever done.  

The next day we went and had zone conference with the zone and that was dang good.  The president came and taught us some stuff, especially about Genealogy. They were all so amazed at the programs there were and how some people had 3 generations sheets back. And I was pretty close to telling them that they should take a look at my sister’s who has pretty much back to the beginning of time.  

The next day we had church and some lessons.  We were watching a movie at the Guarachis house. And all of the sudden the skys were just black with clouds and it started to rain and the wind was going crazy. We booked it home as fast as we could with the wind just blowing in our face the whole time. And then when we got home it started to lightning again so I thought that it was going to be another tornado but it died down after a couple of hours.  

This morning I woke Delgado up again and we went running and I told him that we could go looking for watermelon because we both love it.  So we went running and we went to a fruit stand and it was closed cause Argentines don’t have set hours.  I saw 2 grandmas and went up to talk to them.  At the beginning everything was great until they asked us why we were in Argentina.  When we said that we were missionaries, they started going crazy. They pulled out the bible and started yelling things out like "You have to be ready if you are going to preach..." and "If you are preaching the word of god you have to know his scriptures." Haha gosh dang it they heated up fast.  So I just tried being as professional as possible, being the older one there and having more Spanish than the other missionary. And I said "Well, I am not understanding too much so can I take your number and address and we can talk another day?" And then we got the heck out of dodge.  

When we were running away from that we heard a deep rumbling around the corner.  I heard it I told the other Elder "That sounds like a dog growling." And what do ya know, it was a huge black dog or (wolf should I say) growling in the defensive position with its front down and its back legs up in the air in the middle of the street facing straight towards us.  When I saw it I tried to keep calm and keep running normal--that was until it started booking it towards us.  Haha the idea came to my mind "Maybe I can out run it." So I turned it on high speed and went for it.  Boy was I wrong.  This morning jog just turned into a run for my life.  But I don’t have to beat the dog, just the other Elder right?  Haha but for real he was coming up quick and I just remembered my old companion scaring away the dogs by saying "CUCHA!" So I figured that I might as well give it a shot.  I turned around when it was a good 5 feet away and just did both hands in the air and the legs as spread apart as possible pose and yelled "CUCHA!" And that pooch stopped dead in its tracks and high tailed it the other way. Haha I do not know how the heck I did it but it somehow worked out, woo!  I get to see another day. We couldn’t even run after that we were laughing so hard. I thought for sure I was a goner when it was getting close.

Anyways, the rest of the week was pretty calm...  It was a good one.  I hope that you are all doing well.  I love you all.

Love Andy.