Buen Dia from SAN RAFAEL ARGENTINA!! April 18, 2011

¡Hola Familia and Amigos!

Wow where do I begin?! The last week has been a whirlwind! I think I have gotten more kisses in the last 6days here than my whole life haha (the argentinian hello kind of kisses on the cheeks of course, something that is a little strange to me but I´m getting used to it). Amazing whirlwind but gosh I am exhausted! Here is the schedule I had coming to Argentina:

Monday: Left MTC 7am to the airport. Weird seeing the outside world for the first time in 8 weeks! Flew from SLC to Atlanta and landed at 4pm. Left at 7:45pm for Buenos Aires! Good thing I am a walking pharmacy, I took some motion sickness medicine that knocked me out for about 6 hrs, more sleep than any of the elders had. There was a huge group of us that left for this flight from the MTC (8 in my district) but were all going to different missions in Argentina (Rosario, Cordoba, Buenos Aires West, and Mendoza). About 25 missionaries in all! I was all in the missionary spirit and talked to everyone I saw haha!

Tuesday: Flying through the night was a great blessing because I felt decently rested and was super super excited to see the tributaries and rivers leading to Buenos Aires from my window seat! There were almost all Argentineans on the flight and liked listening to why we going to their country so it was exciting to practice Spanish. We landed at around 8am and went through customs which took a while with ALL my stuff but it was fine.

The first thing I learned here in my new favorite country is that they don´t speak Spanish. Someone at the MTC messed up because I was thrown into a language that I hadn´t been learning for the past 8 weeks haha! Some of them doen´t even relate Spanish to ¨their language¨ which is Castillano. Every ¨Y¨, double l- ¨ll¨, and sometimes whatever letter they feel like it is pronouced with a ¨shaa..¨¨ And the best part is that they love to not say the ¨s¨ in any word they are saying! So yeah, hello headache and confused look! For example: ¨Hola, shhoo sooyy herm diaz de lo etado unido shhegue aqui do dia ante¨. If you know Spanish try to figure that out but a million times faster. Its been interesting to say the least to figure it out but I am understanding it way better than the first day! That is why in the subject is ¨Buen Dia¨, no one says any ¨s¨s here!

Continue: So we flew into the BA International Airport which I guess is different that the local one we would be catching a plane (yes thank goodness not a bus) to Mendoza. We were met by some sketchy looking guy with long hair who said he was from the church and put us on a scary bus to the other airport across town. What a ride! I was again the only Hermana but now joined by the other Elders going to Mendoza. A 30 minute bus ride through 6 non-marked landed through centro Buenos Aires was a blast. I saw much of what I remember in Slumdog Millionaire and tons of poverty- something I was kind of preparing myself for earlier. When we got on off the bus dropped us off and we kind of just sat there, all the world around us in castellano and we looked like white tourists in dress clothes. Thirty minutes later our other travel person came and after 4 hours of fighting to let us on the small plane with our big bags, they finally let us on. Four elders from the Buenos Aires MTC joined us who already knew spanish which reall helped. We were exhausted, thirsty, and very confused. We got to Mendoza about 5pm (2hr + flight) and were greeted by the lovely President and Sister Lindahl ( I hope everyone has a link to their blog). I got to ride with them in their car (since I was the only Hermana) to the mission home and loved them instantly. By the way, no traffic laws here. Or at least they don´t really apply. We saw police around but President Lindahl said he had been robbed by them over 3 times and are extremely corrupt. Oh well haha. We ate a yummy dinner, and then some on the Hermanas in the area picked me up and we walked to their ¨pension¨ (apartment). One of our goals here in to do at least 20 contacts with invitations everyday and they were missing 15 so I helped them with them on the way back. They were extremely surprised by my enthusiasm and spanish so I did about 4 and it was a blast. A bit comical but they got the point. I fell asleep in about 30 seconds since by that time is was 10:45pm.


Wednesday:The apartment was a little sketchy but I wasn´t sure what to expect. I took a cold shower ( I guess in some pensions it isn´t reliable I don´t know) and had saw the beuday ( spelling idk) and realized I really wasn't in Kansas anymore! We walked 20 minutes to the mission home and all took taxis across town to go to some sort of immigration services not sure. We were there for all the morning and then went back to meet our new companions. My companion is Hermana Richins from Logan, Utah. Super sweet and I know we are going to be great. I can tell she is a hard worker and loves the people so I can´t wait begin learning from her! I felt my prayers were answered to have an amazing companion. She has been here for a little over a year so knows a ton. We ate lunch and then headed off to the bus station to catch a bus to my new area- San Rafael! 4 hours on bus south of us, I bet you can tell I was thrilled to travel again haha. The bus was an interesting experience haha, all sorts of people there! We drove through some beautiful vineyards and some very poor areas but I took a good nap. President said that safety had been an issue for the Hermanas lately but he promised me he put me in one of the safest areas to start. Not crime really but the missionaries have been targetted for just petty thefts so dont worry Mom! :) We walked to our apartment at around 8pm, put my suitcases down and went right back out to do our 20 contacts. I did my share of 10 and loved it! I live with Hermana Richins, Hermana Diaz from Argentina and Hermana Resquin from Paraguay (neither of which speak a bit of English haha).

So that was the trip! Everything since then has been hard work but nothing more than I expected. Our apartment in in centro or the downtown San Rafael but that isn´t really our area so I cover a lot of area in the surrounding area. I have blisters to show it! The schedule here is really weird- something I haven´t gotten used to yet. People get up late, have a 3 hour siesta from 1-4 everyday where the whole town shuts down and everyone eats their big meal of the day and takes a nap. So we have to go back to the apartment and study more! So hard not to fall asleep but President said we are authorized to take very short naps if we reall need which is great! Then we go back out at 4 to teach and get bakc at 9 or so. We have been teaching a lot already and finding awesome people. There are lots of people here that we have found that don´t know how to read which presents a problem haha. Also EVERYONE is either Catholic or Jehovahs Witness which makes it hard to even sometimes get into their house. I haven´t got discouraged yet so don´t worry. They love to listen to me practice castellano and that has kind of been a special blessing maybe- a six foot blonde speaking castellano sometimes attracts people to listen. The guys here are very blunt though, cat calling all day which does annoy me. Oh well!

Oh and there are so many comical things here. One of which that there are probably more dogs than people here. Sometimes they follow us while we walk on the dirt roads in the boonies. Super ugly ones that have mated a trillion times! I´m starting to take pictures when I know we will be in safe areas, otherwise I dont take it out. Also guess what? We had a baptism on Saturday!!! So awesome experience! I got to help teach the last lesson but they had been learning for the last 2 weeks but it still was special! A very humble family with 6 kids. They live in a small cement house with toliet, beds, and kitchen all divided by sheets. Sometimes I feel that I am in Juarez, because downtown El Paso (those shopping areas right next to the border) remind me a lot of here. Anyways, we baptized the 3 kids that are old enough and are trying to figure out how to get the parents officially married because they aren´t. It was a precious baptism. Everything with the church is so different here because everyone is new to it. We have 2 more baptisms on saturday that we have been teaching every other day (2 kids) and so I´m pumped for that!

Well, I got to go. I absolueltely love it here. My apartment is one of the nicer ones but still getting used to not having a washing machine, any heater or air conditioner, and other things I am used to with the food. I wouldn´t trade this for the world though! Walking and talking all day is no easy task but I am praying so hard and feel the blessings of your prayers so thank you. I´m running out of time here at this internet cafe but should send pictures next week sorry. This one doesn´t accept them. Love you all and hope all is well in Los Estados Unidos!

PPPPSSSS: Great mission rule!!!! I CAN get emails from friends other than family but you just have to send them to Mom (brenthatcher@hotmail.com) and someone from my immediate family has to send it to me and I will send things to you that way too if that is ok with Mom or Dad or whoever can do that for me :)


XOXOXOX
Hermana Thatcher