This week has been rather unusual. Elder Ludwig had to go to a training meeting for all leaders in the mission, including trainers. So I went to work in another area called Constitución. It was me, Elder Christensen (who arrived in the mission the same I did), and Elder Trayner (who has been here about two months). So none of us could really speak spanish too well, but we managed alright. The work is going pretty well in that area. We visited a family who just had a recent death of a brother and talked about life after death and how they can live with him again. We also taught a young man who was baptized this last Saturday. I think that area is more well developed than ours, but we are working hard here.
I had two fun experiences in Constitución. First, I had Argentine beef for the first time, which was delicious. Not that the chicken I usually have here isn´t good, but that beef was amazing. I want more. Second, I got blood all over my white shirt. Not my blood, some one else´s. We were just walking through the street by a store on the way back to the apartment and there happened to be some sort of fight. Right as we walked by one guy punched the other and blood went spraying all over us. That was pretty fun. I was suprised it happened in the middle of town, I expect that type of stuff in the villa, but not in the normal part of the city.
Speaking of the villa my companion pointed some people selling drugs to me the other day. I had never noticed them before but now I see some one almost every time I walk through the street. They see us and think we are police or something and try to hide their fanny pack full of drugs, but then they realize we are missionaries and keep doing what they were doing. It´s pretty funny to watch them try to be sneaky about it. If cops really cared or if they ever went into the villa they would be able to tell what they are doing instantly.
Back in my area we ´helped´ a member build some stairs on Saturday. He wanted help with the cement, but had to finish some other things first. That took him about three hours and we couldn´t really help with it so we just watched. And we cut rebar with a saw, that was fun. The best part was they made us lunch - an asado (Argentine barbeque), which was delicious. There was beef, chicken, and blood sausage. The blood sausage wasn´t amazing, but it wasn´t gross like I was expecting. By the time he was ready for the cement we had to go teach, so we didn´t work at all and we got food, sounds like a pretty good deal to me.
Besides that not much happened in our area this week. With the training we didn´t have a whole lot of time. And they were fixing the pipes in our bathroom. Water has been dripping from the ceiling in the apartment below us so we had to have people tear up the floor and replace the pipes. That means we had to be in the apartment while they were working, which took even more of our time. But every thing is working now so we should be able to get back to work this week.
In the training meeting Elder Ludwig learned about the way they are trying to teach lessons now. I had learned about it in the MTC and now they are training the missionaries in the field. Pretty much we teach through asking questions. It is a lot harder than just teaching people, but it is a lot more personal and effective. We have been doing it since Friday and it has been really good. The spirit is a lot stronger during the lessons. The only problem is it is a lot harder for me since I don´t understand exactly what people are saying when they respond. I can understand the general idea but I don´t understand what exactly they are saying about the church or about the Book of Mormon. It makes it pretty hard to know what to say. But I can understand a lot more now, I usually don´t have to have Elder Ludwig translate for me when talking to members, which is nice.
I´ve made it half way through my first transfer in Argentina and things are going pretty good. The people are all really nice here and we get fed a lot of good food. People are never home when we want to teach them, but we are still working hard to bring people unto Christ and baptism. I´m doing great and God is taking good care of me. That´s all for this week. We are off to go make some tacos for lunch (Elder Jimenez in my apartment is from Mexico City so he is going to teach us to make real tacos).
Les Quiero,
"In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, with a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me. As He died to make men holy, let us live to make men free. Our God is marching on."
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