Week 3 in Argentina? {Week 8}

Hello family and friends.  Okay so this week was soooooooooo cold!!! Like I felt like I was in Utah in the winter time!!  It’s still offically winter here until the end of the month I think.  But on Wednesday there was a huge rain storm and it rained allllllll day!!!  No bueno!  Wednesday was just a hard day in general.  All of our citas (planned visits) fell thru.  Every house that we went to either forgot and couldn’t meet with us anymore or weren’t there!  Argentines don’t like to go out in the rain, so everyone was in their houses, but no one would let us in because that would mean they would have to come out in the rain and open their gate.  Haha so we basically wandered around in the freezing rain all day soaked, clapping houses that wouldn’t take us.  One recent convert finally let us in to teach and after I walked out I remember feeling like I have never been so cold in my entire life!!  I was soaked and FREEZING!  Out of all the times I’ve been freezing in the mountains in Utah in the snow, this definitely topped it haha.  It was horrible!!  So we decided to stop by the pench to get more layers.  I took off all of my wet stuff and put on 6 layers.  I looked in the mirror and looked like I was a missionary in Russia.  haha I had my giant military boots on too!  But after that I didnt freeze!! 

When I was freezing in our Pench in the morning...Yes those are sweatpants haha

This is the day it was super rainy!!

Thursday was almost just as bad.  Actually it’s probably the worst day I’ve had yet.  Not because it was cold, but because I was sick.  I felt like I was going to puke the whole day and I had a migraine!  It was also cold, but luckily it wasn’t raining.  Thursday I also got to give my first blessing in Spanish!  It was actually just the anointing part, but it was hard for me.  Spanish is so difficult for me right now haha.  

This family was just baptized in August!!  I love them so much!  They are amazing!  Sorry it's blurry

Basically, the first of our week was super tough, and we were tired a lot.  But it all payed off for all the miracles that happened over the weekend.  So Thursday was super hard for me, but Friday we went out and the first house we went to, a man came out crying.  He was very upset because his wife just died a week earlier.  It was super sad.  Me and my comp made it a goal to look at every person as God would.  Before we clap the door, we look at each other and say “How would God see this person?"  This has made us have so much more love for the people that we come into contact with.  Because we did this, when the man came out, we were able to have a huge amount of love and understanding for him.  We shared our testimonies and talked to him a little about the plan of salvation.  He was bawling and so was I.  The spirit was SO STRONG!!  When we left he said thanks a 1000 chicos, I feel at peace now.  We made a cita to come back to visit him and he was super excited.  He just kept thanking us.  At that point I told myself that all the stuggles that I just had at the first of the week, all of them were worth it to be able to help that one man.  I know that we have to experience the bad so that we can experience the good.  I have a strong testimony of that.  The Lord tested and tried us, but since we kept persevering, he blessed us to be able to help one of his children.  

Our chains ALWAYS fall off!!

Okay, so everyone has been asking me about Argentina.  Well where do I start? haha It is cold, smelly, dirty, and flat (there are no mountains anywhere, not even hills) but it’s starting to grow on me.  Oh and there are dogs EVERYWHERE!!!  I can’t even explain it and they are all dirty and homeless dogs too.  I haven’t had any bite me yet but they always chase us on our bikes haha.  The food is good, but it’s seriously sooooooo bland!!  Last Monday I kinda had a break down in the grocery store because there’s no food here!!  haha Nothing that I know how to make!!  haha So me and my comp usually starve or eat ramen, noodles, or rice.  That’s all that they have here that we know how to make haha and all the food is SUPER BLAND!  They don’t really have sauces here.  Only Mayo and I hate mayo.  But there’s nothing gross that I’ve eaten here.  It’s all good, just super plain.

Just some houses...if you can see, there are fences around everyone's house..that's why we have to clap 

Their so called PIZZA...just tastes like bread haha

Well I dont have much time, I’ll try and send pics this week! 

Love you all!

Elder Cook