Argentina!

Wow, so I´m here! I just finished my first week in the mission field! I don´t even know where to begin. The flight to Buenos Aires was long, but we made it! And when we got to the airport...they weren´t expecting us! haa it was kind of funny. So we had to hang around in the airport for 40 minutes and wait for someone to come pick us up. Someone came and got us and took us to the mission home. The driving here is insane...haa it´s so funny and I feel like I´m going to die everytime I´m in a car or on a bus and I just kind of laugh because I´ve never seen any accidents or anything, so they must know what they´re doing. There´s no street signs anywhere, and the only traffic signals are the occassional stoplight.

My mission president is so great! His name is President Thurgood and him and his wife are so sweet. I met my trainer, and her name is Hna. Rodas, from Mexico! She´s been in the mission 15 months, so I´ll probably be her last companion. She´s way sweet, but hardly speaks any english. It´s hard because I like to know what´s going on and how to do things but I can´t really understand her too much and so it´s been a little challenging. It´s good for me though, because it forces me to use my spanish at all times!

Hna. Rodas and I are whitewashing our first area, which means that we´re both new to the area. I honestly feel so bad for her because she knows nothing and I know even less than nothing. We have no investigators, and we´ve been trying to get to know the ward and meet people as well. It´s amazing, how I understand just a little bit more every day. I understand and can speak a little bit more every day and I know the Lord is helping me. The accent here is hard. They speak with so many sh´s all the time that it´s an adjustment for me to try to speak and understand. It is definitely not what they taught me in the MTC!

 So the food here is so great. It´s funny, because our big meal for the day is lunch. We have lunch almost every day at a members house, and then we don´t eat dinner because we have such a big lunch! It´s actually the best thing ever. Something that´s really popular here are empanadas and pizza. Empanadas are like tortillas almost stuffed with all sorts of different kind of things and they roll them into different crescent shapes. Also the pizza is nothing like what it is back in the states! When I say pizza I mean a crust with queso and peppers and onions, or something like that. It´s way interesting.

    

It´s so hot here! Hna. Rodas keeps telling me that it´s only the spring still! haa it´s so great. There´s no air conditioning anywhere really, the only place I´ve seen it is in the bishops office at the chapel and at the stake center. Other than that we usually keep our windows open. Everything here has about 6-7 ft tall fences around them, and all of the windows have bars on them. 

 

None of the windows in our pension have screens, and so bugs like to come and visit us sometimes. One morning when I was exercising, I found a cockroach under a bookcase that we have. When we sprayed it with Raid it started doing this little dance and it reminded me of the song that´s like "cuchara...cha!" I hope you know what I´m talking about. It was pretty humorous. We find an average of about one cockroach a day. Something different here is...there´s horses all over! The recycling men ride horses everywhere and they share the roads with people. 

 

Our pension that we live in is nicknamed hotel, because it´s where missionaries stay if they come from a long ways away, so it´s bigger then normal. The church is amazing, and they have put filters in all the pensions so we have safe water. Most people have filters in their houses, but people here don´t like to drink water. They drink so much pop and tang. One custom I love here is that the women at least great each other with a kiss on the cheek. It´s so friendly, and I think someone should start that in the states. It seriously makes everything so much more friendly! 

 

There are also dogs everywhereeee. Everyone has a dog and our neighbor has this tiny little weiner dog that likes to come visit us sometimes. Hna. Rodas and I were practicing starting teaching a lesson and when I opened the door to go outside he darted in our pension! Haa it was funny.

   

So we taught our first lesson on Saturday to this sweet lady that´s less active in the ward. We have these little targetitas...I´m not sure the word for them in english...that we pass out to people on the street and it´s a video the church made for Christmas called "He is the gift". the link is navidad.mormon.org. Go look it up! It´s just so wonderful. It´s such a great missionary tool as well. One thing I´ve learned this week is to have patience. 

 

Starting out, things are a lot harder than I anticipated. The language, the culture, the lack of investigators...but I´ve been realizing that everything happens according to the Lord´s timetable. If we can learn to accept His will and follow it, we will be sooo much happier in our lives! I love this gospel, and I know this church is true. No matter where you go in the world, Minnesota to Argentina, you will find the same gospel of our Savior, Jesus Christ. It´s such a small sacrifice to make, to follow Him, when He´s given us so much.

Con amor,

Hermana Rachel Feldermann