Anywho, I arrived safely in Buenos Aires. It is actually
quite cold here, and I wear a sweater most every day. Once we arrived in
Argentina I realized that I really didn´t know Español like I thought I did...
because I couldn´t understand anyone at the airport. After the airport we were
picked up by a double-decker bus by Presidente Ayre and Hermana Ayre and the
Assistants. We went on a tour of the city, went to the temple, and then to the
beautiful mission home. It is really nice, much nicer than our apartment. We
had a lunch of empanadas which was fantastic, and then we had a whole
bunch of information thrown at us from Hermana Ayre and the Assistants
regarding the mission and such. It was so long and a lot of us were so tired
from the flights that many fell asleep throughout the time. When I finally got
my turn to have an interview with the mission president, it was when we had to
leave really soon, so I only got about a 3 minute interview with him, which was
too bad. Presidente Ayre is a fantastic mission president, and I´m really lucky
to have him. Cool story, South America was dedicated for missionary work in my
mission in the 20s or 30s I believe, and we went to the place where it was
dedicated. In other words, yes, I am serving in the best mission in the world.
After we were done with all of our meetings in the mission home we went to the
chapel by the President´s house and received our companions. My companion is
Elder Cruz from México. He is 19 I believe, and he has 5 months in the
mission. I am pretty fortunate to have a latino companion. We then got in taxis
and went to our respective areas. I am in Constitución, which is right in the
capital. When I got there, we were sharing the pensión with two other
Elders, Elder Cutipa from Peru and Elder Buxton from Orem, but they moved to a
new pensión on Saturday. Let´s just say that when I arrived, it made me realize
how spotless my room was at home. Elder Cruz and I spent a lot of time today
cleaning and organizing everything so it is now clean.
Argentina is definitely not Utah. One thing that is crazy is
that we usually don´t have breakfast, lunch is around 2 at member´s houses
everyday, and they eat dinner around 10 here, so we only really eat one meal a
day. Also, lunch here is a huge meal that lasts for about 2 hours, which is
something I´ve had to get used to. The first 4 days I didn´t finish my plates
because I wasn´t used to eating that much at that hour of the day, but by
Saturday I was able to eat it all, so hopefully I am getting accustomed to it.
We walk everywhere, and excercise every morning, so I don´t know that I´ll gain
any weight here. As a matter of fact, if I gained weight in the MTC, it´s gone,
because my pants are quite a bit looser than they were in the MTC. The
sidewalks and roads here are interesting... they aren´t maintained at all, so
they are all sorts of broken up and you really have to focus on where you walk
so you don´t trip. Also, some sidewalks are kind of tiled, and some of them are
loose, so when it rains, like yesterday, water gets trapped underneath, and when
you step on the tiles it squirts up your pantlegs. It was quite an adventure
yesterday, because you never know which ones are "trampas". We went
to McDonald´s, the 4 of us in our area for lunch today, and that was
interesting. I got a Triple Mac, which they don´t have in the States. Also, the
Coca Cola is actually really good here, whereas in the states I am not much of
a fan. Apparently the water in our pension is safe to drink, but I still filter
my drinking water. I should not have complained about doing laundry at the MTC,
because at least I had a washer and dryer there. Today I washed my clothes in
the bathtub and they are currently hung all over the pensión drying. Also, it´s
so weird, there are lines on the roads, but the cars don´t follow them, they just
go wherever they want, so I´m glad that I don´t have a car and I just walk
everywhere.
As I said, when I got here I could not understand anything.
I still have a really difficult time understanding. I could probably respond to
people if I knew what they said, but I´ve got no idea. The accent here is a lot
different from the accent of my teachers in the MTC who went to México and
Alabama. It´ll probably take me a while to get used to the way people speak and
get to the point where I can understand them. The members are quite patient
with me and do their best to help out, but the children are really tough to
understand because they talk much faster, not as clear, and they assume that I
understand them. Español is definitely going to be a work in progress, but I
know that I can do it. It´s just kind of frustrating right now not being able
to understand people like I would like to.
We´ve got quite a few investigators, but we haven´t taught a
whole lot of lessons this week because whenever we go to visit them they either
aren´t there, don´t have time to visit with us even though they said they
would, or they have decided that they don´t want to talk to us anymore. We´re
doing our best to find people to teach, and I know that there are people out
there that are prepared to hear the message of the restored gospel. I know that
there are people that need to hear it from me, we just need to find them, and
we will. I have already had a few experiences that have been really great where
I have been able to bear my testimony to some investigators and less-active
members and they have said that that was exactly what they needed to hear. It
is so nice to be able to help people come closer to Christ, and I´m pretty sure
I´ve got the best job in the world right now.
Overall I´m healthy and happy. The Spanish will come. I love
you all.
Elder Garrett
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