November 17, 2008

This week was indeed insane. We did a lot of divies and man, it was so good. We had interviews with the President and basically he told us that he expected more out of us, and that we are some of his best young missionaries(Judd only has 4 months more than me), and that we need to show it. Judd is a very hard worker, but this week was tough for him. We left the interview fired up for the week. We left that night, and found three more people to work with. Martin is a rockstar in Buenos Aires, but he wants us to help him get away from drugs, drinking, smoking, and sex. We found his parents last week, but we only taught them this week. We have a lot of work to do with them. That was just our tuesday evening. Then, we did divies on wednesday morning-with natives. Well, I am quite proud of the fact that I was able to have conversations with Elder Veliz all morning long. It was so good, and I was quite impressed with myself. We found two people, and Elder Judd with Elder Riquelme found two more. We came back for the siesta(which I am still mad that it exists), and Judd was sicker than a dog. He has had heat stroke. He had headache, fever, diarhea, and stomach pains. So we spent the evening taking care of him, and trying to make him better for the next day. Well, I actually went to Bahia on Thursday, with Elder Steadman. Elder Judd stayed in bed all day thursday. With ELder Steadman, we found a family of 6 people(who now are all committed to baptizm on the 30th, but I won´t get to be there because its not my area). It was so awesome. I was just feeling so good about the week. Friday, I was with Elder Simmons, another Elder in my house, and we went on divisions in my area. (Strange, I hadn´t really been working in my area for like a day and a half) Anyways, we went by an investigator, and we challenged him to be baptized on the 29th of this month. His name is Antonio Gomez. He really is ready-we just have to teach him more doctrine, and bam! He is there. Saturday, we went by and talked to everybody we had been by during the week, and reminded them about church. (here is where you might start to understand the difficulty of ARgentine commitment...practically non existent) We had 12 people committed to come to church and were all excited to go. Lo and behold, the next morning, elder judd and i spent 25 bucks to get 3 of them to church. We had to go in a taxi, wake them up, and then go get them. It was a bit of a bummer of a sunday...but we had a much better week, and a mountain of improvement. There are only two weeks left in this transfer..and I will probably have one more in Atlántida. I love the members, and the investigators, and the people are nice, but they just don´t have any commitment. I will be sad when I have to leave. But that probably won´t be until the beginning or middle of January. The weather here is pretty hot. I guess that during january and february it can be as hot as 116 degrees farhenheit PLUS humidity. But we go outside and we work. ITs a little hot in church clothes if you know what I mean.ha ha ha. Right now its in the 80s and 90s some days. This place is definately crazy, and so are argentines, but you cant´help but love these people.So, this week is going to be really good, I am doing well, and getting a little pleasantly plump. What can I say, its missionary poundage...hahahaha. I would think this walking would do something, but it just makes us have skinny legs with a tire around the waist, and a skinny chest. We are indeed and awkward looking bunch. haha.
Chase Andersen