First letter from Argentina!

Hey mommy, (plus dad and family)

I’m totally loving it down here. I’m in a trio so I have two compañeros but they are both way cool. Elder Halls swims for Davis high and he’s pretty good and then there’s Elder Heckel who is good at anything he wants to be good at.  My p-days are usually Thursdays but Argentina plays tomorrow and all of our teachers want to watch the game. Oh which reminds me, we were outside playing basketball and we heard cannon fire and a bunch of people yelling so we found out that Argentina won their game. It was pretty cool. I love you guys soo much and its hard being away from home but it’s also really good. We are in class most of the day learning "Satan's language" (lol he doesn't really mean it).  I learned that I’m the only one here who hasn’t taken at least two years of Spanish, so everyone is two years ahead of me but its ok cuz I’m awesome. lol!

I would send a lot of pictures but they won’t let us take any yet. : ( but I’m taking mental pictures.

So there are 2 elders here that have been her for 2 weeks and they are both hilarious. One is from North Carolina and has a huge hick accent so it’s pretty funny when he tries to speak in Spanish and the other one is from Canada and is going to the same mission as Bailey, except he is about 6´5 and not a ginger. lol

The food here is way good. Like yesterday they gave us a huge turkey leg. Mmmmm!  We haven’t had a meal yet, without any beef and I hate it. . . . I’m just messin, it’s amazing!

The weather here is pretty awesome, it reminds me of California weather, chilly in the morning and warm during the day. There is a lot of haze here but you can’t see any of the city from where we are. There are no mountains so I don’t know which direction is north. haha.  The Temple is really pretty and the CCM or MTC (Missionary Training Center) is right next to it. I’ll send a picture as soon as I can.

So yesterday I had the opportunity to leave the 30 foot high fences of the CCM and go into the city to receive my Patriarchal blessing.  Haha!  (We tried for months to get him to go get it before he left, but he "never got around to it".  I wonder if the Patriarch said he should really listen to his parents : )) Elder Mendoza and I are the only ones who needed it so they put us into this taxi. : ) with no teacher, and no supervisor we hop on into this taxi with a driver who doesn’t speak any English. Oh, and Elder Mendoza doesn’t either. So I’m by myself.  Then we head out the gates, we hop onto this ten lane freeway, (ten lanes on each side, it looked like a run way) to where I had a better vantage point so I could see the city.  Oh my laaard! This city is soooo massive it makes Las Vegas look like a resort. 

Most, if not all the city was housing projects. It was soo eye opening. On every building they were clothes drying on clothes lines and these were very tall buildings, some of them about 20 stories high but they were so dirty and filthy that people living in the projects in the United States would have been ashamed to live here. 

So we get on the off ramp and are now in the streets (the ghetto) of Buenos Aires. There are hobo villages on every street corner and most of them have tied up some of the MILLIONS of stray dogs and kept them as pets, or so I’d like to think. Haha… no it’s their livestock!!  Winding in and out of these streets we almost get in 4 separate crashes. You know those time when you almost get in a wreck and your adrenaline starts to kick in and your heart starts to pump? Well, that was every second I was in that car. There really are no signs but I did see a couple of lights that our driver didn’t seem to notice. If you drive defensively you won’t move and it’s opposite of the US, pedestrians don’t have the right of way. 

So we finally get to this tall apartment building that we have to call to get the door opened so that people who shouldn’t be in there cant. This little old lady, about 80 years old, comes to open the door and it’s the Patriarchs wife. She leads us down the scariest hallway I’ve ever been in and tells us to get in this elevator that’s about 4 feet by 4 feet with 3 people and her poodle and the ceilings are so short, they max out at about 6 feet 6 inches. We get to the room and I can’t understand anything so I’m just following along. The Patriarch, who is about 85 years old takes me into this back room and just starts giving me a blessing that lasted for about 10 minutes. It so amazing! I couldn’t understand a word he said but I could feel the Spirit so strong.  I’ll send it to you once I get it back.

There’s a lot more to tell but I only have a limited amount of time. My p-days (preparation day, laundry, email, haircuts etc.) are on Thursday and I email at 9:30 so 6:30 your time. I’ll tell you more next time : ) I love you guys.  Tell Owie I say Hi!.

 

Love Elder Petersen