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.