Primera Semana en Argentina‏ {Week 6}

Hola Familia! 

Wowwza this week has been so crazy!!!  To start out.. thanks so much for upgrading our seats to Buenos Aires.. literally we were the only missionaries that were able to sleep!!!  There was so much room!  I’ll send you pictures of how much room we had!!! I could serioulsy just lay almost flat!  Perfect for an 11 hour flight!!!  Anyways, so yeah that was great because we got to Buenos Aires and everyone was super tired and we felt fine... we were still tired but not as much.. So we went through customs and everything without any problems with anything, except it was kinda stressing me out because the people only spoke Spanish and they kept asking me what the address of the place I was staying at and I just had to keep saying "voy a la CCM de la iglesia de Jesuscristo de los santos de los ultimos dias."  The CCM is “MTC.”  They have a Buenos Aires CCM.  But I got through eventually hahaha.  She looked at my name plaque and was like okay whatever hahaha.

Leg room on the flight

Then we met our mission president. So everyone who was going to any Argentina mission was on our flight so there were probably like 30 of us.  Only 2 of us for Buenos Aires West.  So my mission president met us and he was directing all the other people to the buses they needed to get on and the planes they had to take to get to different parts of Argentina... So me and Elder Trent met Presidente Robertson and su esposa Hermana Robertson! They are incredible!! 

Flight companion Elder Trent

It was cool because they said that we are seriously the smallest group of missionaries they have seen.  They usually have like 10 at the least.... so we got to actually ride in their car with them to the temple and the CCM where there was a missionary from Peru who was leaving for our mission too.  We then went to the mission home and they just gave us this huge presentation on all that we needed to do and know.  We got our bedding and everything and money instructions etc.. Then president took us out to lunch!!!! We were super lucky because since there were only 3 of us, we got to go to a restaurant with president and his wife and the AP’s.  Everyone was super jealous haha.  The food here is seriously AMAZING!!!  Wow! I love it! 

First Argentine meal

Then we went back to the mission home and they told us we were going to go do contacts in the streets!!  I was super nervous, especially because of my Spanish, but we set a goal to get 12 contacts, just the 3 of us and the AP’s in an hour.  We said a prayer and then parted off and Argentines are serioulsy so nice!!!  I realized that there truly is a power in the name of Jesus Christ.  That’s why people listen to us because we wear His name on our hearts.  So that was so fun that I didn’t want to go back to the mission home!!!  I met so many amazing people who wanted to learn more about the gospel.  We got 15 contacts!!!!!!  President said that that was super good for just 3 of us in an hour.

After we had interviews with the president.. that was awesome!  I love him!  He told us that we were super lucky that there were only 3 of us because he was able to pick the 3 best trainers in the mission.  He said sometimes when there’s like 20 missionaries it’s hard to get 20 good trainers.  So we were all able to get the president's favorites!!!  So awesome..

With my trainer Elder Paskett

We spent the night across the street of the mission home in the pench that the AP sleep in.  In serioulsy like a closet.  I’ll send you pictures!  It was a little room with a bunk bed and a mattress on the floor for the 3 of us. Seriously so small, but it was good because it was only for one night.  

Tiny little room on the first night 

The next day we woke up and had transfer meeting!  Wow, it was so awesome!!!  We started out by singing a song as a mission called “I’ll find you friend.”  Of course in Spanish tho and it’s all about finding the people who we promised in the pre-existence that we could come and help.  It was so STRONG!!  I’ll send you the lyrics next week.  And then they had us, the "refuersos" stand up and they all cheered.  Holy cow 200 people cheering and screaming for you!  It was so cool.  Then they played a video of all the baptisms that everyone had this month and seriously the Spirit was so strong.  You would think that cheering would make it less spiritual, but I felt such a strong spirit.  Like everyone was so happy and excited that all these people were able to come to Cristo and they were just cheering them on!  Wow I almost started crying haha.

Then we got our comps.  Mine is Elder Paskett.  He’s from Farmington and he has 12 weeks left.  He’s so funny!  Literally one of the goofiest persons that I know! He makes everything a joke.  We then took a taxi to our pench.  It is soooooo big!!  Only we are in it.  Oh our area is called Castelar-Parque Leloir A.  When I got assigned there, all of the other missionaries were like.. "Oh that's the best area in the mission.”   WE HAVE A WASHING MACHING IN OUR PENCH and WE GET BIKES!! hahah so lucky! I think that it is the only pench in the mission with a washing machine.. so that’s super nice.  I’ll send pics of the pench.

Our Pench

Our living area

Our kitchen..it is huge!

Sorry about all the mistakes right now I'm typing on a computer that says every word is an error because it’s a Spanish computer.  Everything is underlined red.  Super annoying!!!  Speaking of Spanish, holy cow.  I am struggling so bad.  Here they don’t speak Spanish, they speak Castellano.  It’s so difficult to understand.  I feel super bad because in all of our lessons I can only testify and talk a little and don’t know what anyone is saying!  It's super frustrating!!! 

I love the people here!  They are so nice!!!!  We take so much for granted in the states.  Here it’s like when we went to Puerto Rico family.. but a little worse.  All of the roads are dirt with giant potholes.  You think PG ROADS  are bad.... wait til you come here. haha 

My companion on his bike

Oh and we don’t have dinner appointments here.. its lunch!!!  They eat such big lunches and like snacks for dinner!I

I have so much more to write but I don't have time...

We teach so many amazing people.. we have a couple people committed to baptism for next month!!!  I’m super excited!

Love you all!   Tell you more next week!

Love Elder Cook