Week 2 - Buenoas Aires CCM continues

This week Sari had a lot of questions from people so she answered in line.  I won't edit it but just leave it how she wrote it.  The links and pictures are added by me, thanks Google! -Tif

What is the popular sport in Argentina? 

Uhhh... Futbol! Duh! AKA soccer. I have already been forced to play it twice during our physical activity time.  There are so few people here that we all just play one sport with everyone during physical activity time. It's usually soccer or volleyball but the elders and I convinced everyone to play basketball a couple of times! Most people are shorter than Americans so our 6 foot elders weren't much fun during basketball - they just dominated. 

Do they eat horse meat? 

Uh no haha We eat a lot of cow! 

What do the houses look like?

We went out to the city to get our Visas yesterday and the houses that I saw were either short square houses with tin roofs or tall skinny buildings with TONS of little apartment in them. I can't quite describe it but I'll take pictures when I can! 

 

Is the keyboard layout different? 

Yes. It's only a little different. There is a ñ and an accent key for ó and á and everything. 

Are you in the city or the country? 

Right now, I'm a little ways out of the city but not in the country side. The CCM is a very isolated part as far as I can tell, but we do have a Holiday Inn next door! 

 

What is the popular music type? 

IDK! 

Are you allowed to know? 

There is no way I could know haha! We don't really leave the CCM. 

Are you having fun? 

I am having so much fun! There has never been a time in my life where I have been working so hard, having so much fun, with better people (well... better people my age!) or learning so much! 

And most importantly, what is the quality of toilet paper? Is it better or worse? 

Right now, it is exactly like any other public toilet paper, but I have yet to use the bathroom outside of the CCM or the airport. Actually, only the CCM. 

Do you miss Tony's? 

Yes, They do not flavor their food very much here haha, but they do have Tabasco sauce at request of Presidente because he LOVES flavor in his food! 

Are there more sisters than elders in the entire CCM? 

No, its mostly elders. They living space is set up for mostly elders. They have two floors and we have one. 

Is it always like that?  What is the turn over rate? 

We get new missionaries every three weeks! We are getting so many new sisters that each room is going to have an extra bunk bed! And I thought things were cramped now! That means 8 girls per toilet and shower! My room has two toilets and two showers and everything  but twice as many girls as the other rooms with one toilet  and everything. 

What size is your bed?  

My bed is a more narrow version of a long college dorm bed. I don't know if it is comfy or if I am exhausted, but I am knocked out every night! 

How are your sheets and blankie?

The sheets are good! But apparently pillowcases are open on both ends here, so my first day I slid in the pillow and it plopped out the other side! I asked one of the Latina sisters in our room (she speaks fluent English and is going to Temple Square!) if it was normal and she said... yeah! 

Is it getting cold there yet?

The breeze is cold, but I don't need a jacket when I'm not in the shade! 

 

What is your daily schedule like?

Okay, I wake up at 6:30, get ready until 7 and eat breakfast downstairs for 20 minutes, then I come back upstairs and get ready a little bit more or write in my journal until 8. Then I do personal study. Companionship study is at 9. at 9:15, my companionship teaches an investigator (a teacher acting like one of thew people they taught on their missions) and come back from that 20 minutes later for more studying. Then we have classes from 10 to lunch which is at 11:45. We have lunch for half an hour which consists of a large piece of meat, some potatoes or pasta and a salad bar with kiwis and apples. Then we have class at 12:30 which is usually Book of Mormon time. We sit down as a district and read the Spanish Book of Mormon out loud  Then we have another class and physical activity time starts at 2:15 and ends at 4. At 4, we come into the computer lab and work on a language program called TALL. I love that hour! I learn most of my words from it! Then we have language study in our district room. Then we go to dinner at 6:15. We eat for a half hour and class starts again at 7. Then we have classes until 9. We plan for the next day until 9:30. At 9:30, the girls in our district do our daily job which is cleaning the girl's stairs. We sweep and mop and then dry it off. The three flights take a while! Then we go to our rooms, get ready for bed and are in bed at 10:30! 

Some funny things that happened this week! 

My district is a particularly rowdy  distracted, loud group of Americans. Elder Asper was joking that they should put Xanax in our water. Then he said, no no, if they did that it would be silent in here and someone would say !shhhh! Listen! There are some feathers doing sign language on the 2nd floor!' I probably laughed too hard at that joke. 

When we do our computer language program, we say the words into a headset over and over again until we pronounce them correctly. Our teacher was in there with us one day and he sat down at a  computer and to make fun of us started saying 'car... car... car... listen... listen... jump... jump.... jump... jump...' It was hilarious! Cause that's what he hears when we do our program haha

Also, I cant find the quotation marks on here, so sorry! 

Oh... I found them """"""""""""""""""""" " 

I found this quote by Elder Nelson, "[we will be] privileged to watch the unfolding of one miracle after another-- always and only after[we give our] best thinking, most courageous efforts and most fervent prayers to the task." 

I really liked that quote because it shows that we always have to try and put an effort into things instead of just praying for something and expecting, for example, to have some light shine down and enlighten our minds into knowing perfect Spanish!

Also, last week, I was feeling a little bit discouraged because of my language ineptness. Elder Saenz, an elder who speaks perfect English and Spanish came into our district and asked the three elders and my companionship if we would come to his district and introduce ourselves and why we came out on our missions in Spanish. He said his purpose was to ease their fears of going to proselyte the next day. Apparently they were all nervous. We went in and in very broken Spanish, said who we are and why we came our on our missions. All of the Latinos started crying and saying how grateful they were for the opportunities they had and gave us lots of encouragement. It felt a little weird just because their work is just as hard as ours, but it was still really sweet. One girl said, in Spanish of course, "the impossible is only a little further." and that has stuck with me. I thought it was sweet of them because ever since then, that district has been a lot more receptive to us Americans trying to speak Spanish to them to practice. They understand now that we have to practice so it was a good experience! 

Sorry I wasn't able to email everyone... or anyone... back! It wish I could spend more time emailing each of you! Thank you for all of your sweet messages our encouragement and love! I miss you all!