February 16th

So, my second week in Argentina is over. Our numbers have been tought: Baptisms: 0 Confirmations: 0, Investigators in Church: 0, Lessons with a member:0, Investigators with a baptismal date: 0, New investigators: 0, Lessons: 15. The amazing part about the gospel is that even when we have numbers like this, we can still have hope and we can still be happy. The Power of Hope as Pres. Uchtorf calls it. And Hope is powerful. I´ve been so blessed to have Elder Berezay as a companion. He won't get discouraged, he's always optimistic, always hopeful, and thanks to him, we're happy and hopeful. We're going to find and teach someone. As Elder Berezay said, the Lord is preparing us for a miracle. Sometimes it seems like everything turns as bad as possible right before the lord 'shows forth His mighty hand'. Now we just need to keep working and watch for the miracle.

I've learned so much. The Castillano (spanish) is getting easier to understand every day, but still I'm a long way from fluency. I feel so blessed though because I had a foundation before I came on the mission. Elder Berezay told me that in his transfer he just didn´t speak because his spanish was so weak. My Spanish is very weak too, but I feel blessed that I know enough that I can start conversations with people in the bus or in the street, and then nod my head as they talk and pretend i know what they're saying.

Argentina is more open than the US I decided. People drive with their windows open, their houses windows are open,they're more open as far as they'll talk with you more, and they're not afraid to speak their mind. The people are poor, spend a lot of time out of doors, and are happpier and healthier than Americans for the most part. Definitely healthier. People (at least in my area) walk everywhere. and if they need to go far away, they walk to the bus stop. Most of the everyday grocieries are sold in 'kiosks', someone in the neighborhood who sells bread, food and pop out of their house, so people just walk to the kiosk for their food. Also, for desert we'll eat watermelon, grapes, peaches, pears, or some other fruit. The one unhealthy part is Gaseosa, 'pop'. The water for the most part is safe, but never cold and never tastes very good, and pop is often less expensive. So everyone drinks gaseosa. In the last week, perhaps in the last three days alone, I've drunk more pop than in the privious year of my life.

Well, my time´s almost up. I'd better go shop. I love you all. Thanks for your prayers, you're in mine as well!

Sincerely,

Elder Reynolds

First E-mail from Argentina!!!

So, my first p-day on the mission, myldsmail won´t work. I´ve spent a half hour of my hour trying to get in. Elder Morgan, one of our zone leaders let me use one of his extra addresses.

I´m sad though, because I have so much to write about, but only a few minutes now to do it in. Also, I don´t have anybody elses email so if you could send it to the fam, that would be awesome.  So here is what I was told about emailing friends. If friends want to email me, they should send a short message to you, and then you can forward it onto me, you can scan it as well to make sure that nothing will distract me, like a querido juan, or something like that.

The first week has been crazy, but good. My companion is Elder Beresay from southern Alberta (he thinks he knows Robert Burton, so that´s awesome). He is great, he´s optimistic, he´s a hard worker and he helps me a lot when I´m completely lost in a conversation.

We have two solid investigators, Maria and Jonathan, they´re boyfriend and girlfriend, and they´re awesome. They came to church yesterday and have a lot of questions so we´re going to visit them tomorrow to talk. They are so kind to us, we teach at Maria´s house, (she´s 18 and lives with her family) and she´s always prepared some food for us or something to drink. They´re progressing well and they have a baptismal date for the 21st. YEAH!

A little about Argentina. Our meals are like this: breakfast, something light, cereal, bread or nothing; lunch: An overwealming amount of pasta or rice and meat, with Tomatoes, Fruits, and dinner, cereal otra vez, or nothing. I remember Dad talking about the one meal life in France, now I´m leaving a one meal life in Argentina--all the food for the day in one meal, it´s different, but fun. Also, there is a siesta after lunch. During these couple of hours we don´t prosalyte, but we practice the language, we serve, we plan, or other things like that.

A fun story, yesterday, Elder Beresay and I went to an evengelical church in the evening. We wanted to share our beliefs and testify to this congregation, kind of like Wilfurd Woodruf or the Sons of Mosiah. Elder Beresay asked the Pastora, ¨could we have a little minute to talk and share our beliefs?¨ A resounding no was the answer. We were a little sad, but Elder Beresay said, ¨Maybe they´ll let us sing.¨ We were  given permission to sing. The meeting was loud, all the music and worship was very loud, and we both prayed to be filled with the spirit. It was actually a neat experience, when the meeting was almost over, they turned the time over to us. We sang nearer my god to thee. It was so quiet, so peaceful compared to the guitars and drums, we could hear the crickets outside in the peaceful calm. We left and I learnded once again that the Spirit isn´t in the storm or in the fire, but in a still small voice.

I have to go.

Sincerely,

Elder Reynolds