I´m in Argentina. All went well.
We met up with many other missionaries who just got their visa as well. I have
three companions until the transfer when we´ll be transferred into the workings
of the mission. We are in the middle of
the city of Buenos Aires. There are many people.
Things that would be more
dangerous outside the inner city are not dangerous here. Villas are always
supposedly dangerous and casas tomadas where we live are as well. But here they
are much safer. The mission issues a bag for scriptures that is small so losses
are inconsequential. Most people who would rob someone know that the
missionaries carry nothing, and frequently they start apologizing once they
realize that all we carry are scriptures and that we´re missionaries.
Nonetheless, we take precautions and are well instructed. I´m going to get
robbed. The only people who never are robbed are the sister missionaries. They
are kept in the safer areas.
President Ayre is new. Three
weeks in the mission. After our interview he said he´d have me accompany a piece
like the one I did in Salt Lake when a General Authority comes in September. He
saw a few things that caught his attention which led me to explain our family´s
affinity for organization and cleanliness of records. He said that he has
particular need for these talents as well, but I need to be fluent. We´re both
praying that I can quickly assume fluency, and it is happening. There are
miracles every day.
Yesterday we were in a member´s
home, and one of them asked me to solve a Rubik´s Cube, because they couldn't
figure it out using YouTube. I solved it multiple times and began teaching how
to solve one, but it was very difficult because I don´t have all the specific
words in Spanish. I´ll be teaching them the next few visits. They live in a
villa, which as far as I can tell are buildings reconstructed and re-purposed for
families. The water and the electricity come straight from the city. But a villa
does not mean poverty. Families have computers, cell phones, tablets, internet,
washing machines, cars, bikes, etc. It´s just a choice that some people make
instead of living in more established housing.
I have a deja vu every day. I
see the number 42 almost every day. I was walking in a group of elders, when I
saw on the street a single sheet of paper with just the number "42" on it. I
pointed at it to an from the MTC, who knew how since the start of my
mission I've been seeing the number 42 everywhere and without reason, and he
think´s it´s hilarious.
I´m paying for internet here. In
Utah we just used the Family History Center, but here the church building
doesn't have one; it´s much smaller.
