In
Argentina after much travel. From the MTC 22 missionaries headed to
argentina got on a bus that took us to the train station, the train took
us to the airport. We flew from salt lake to Atlanta Georgia then we
got on a 11 hour flight to Buenos Aires Argentina. I slept practically
the whole flight. we then went through customs and took vans to another
airport to go to assigned areas, we said goodbye to all the missionaries
we traveled with. We did some teaching during our travels which was
great. We met this one girl named olivia in argentina who spoke english
and was going to cordoba to do community service projects for a month.
We met some native south americans that were going to our same mission. I
love my mission president and his wife! my companion is Elder price who
is from utah, he has been a great trainer. He just hit his one year
mark. There four Elders living in our pension, Elder Clayburn, Elder
Hanson, my companion, y myself. Its definitely a different way of
living here. Houses are made out of practically all concrete. Pretty
simple living and small basic kitchen in our pension. A room with 2 bunk
beds and me and my companion's table and makeshift bookshelf made out
of cinder blocks and a stand up long bookshelf on its side. Then we
have the closet which has four closet shelf things, that rooms light
doesn't work and its cold in there every morning. We then having the
living room which has elder hanson and elder clayborns table and
bookshelf. there is also another bookshelf with all our passalong cards
and BOM, pamphlets and stuff of that nature. We have a washing a small
washing machine in our pension which is nice to have and then we just
air dry. You rarely use toilet paper here and if you do you throw it
away, usually use a bidet. we have a bidet ( sit on it and you turn the
nobs to mess with the pressure to spray your bum) took a while to get
use to but i actually like it! Everything is or gets covered in dust and
dirt because there are a lot of dirt roads besides the main roads. There
are some poor areas and houses, alright, and well off, and the really
rich places. interesting to see the combination on just a single street.
lots of walking in general especially on dirt roads. Lots of dogs and
some trash on the side of the roads. I love the members and people of
Argentina so much. There isn't much variety of food here but its really
good! Had el asado the other day for lunch which was so delicious and i
should've brought my camera. el asado is a huge barbeque of grilled cow
meat all they do is put salt on it but the meat is so juicy and good!
Eat lots of noodles with sauce and with meat. We normal eat lunch with
members and lunches are HUGE! dinner is really late here at like 9ish. I
love the empanadas here. we actually made home made ones for lunch the
other day when we didnt have a lunch cita, and they turned out great! there
are two rules to the road. Stop when there is a red light and dont hit
a pedestrian. That´s it. Mostly everyones houses are gated, you clap
loudly outside of the house. The pizza is pretty crappy ( bread with
tomato sauce ham, if you have the money for ham, Mozzarella and green
olives). facturas (wich is a cresant will sugar or dulce de leche on it.
sometimes a fruit jam called membrilla. and other kinds with different
toppings) these things are the bomb. I love the bakeries here, super
good bread. mate is a herbal custom drink its like hot tea. There is
different ways to drink it but i prefer it with a little sugar cuz just
straight is really strong and bitter. Two favorite candies here and bon o
bons and alfajors soooo good! Really good drink here pritty. argentina
lacks in sanitation and living standards but i've become really use to
the way of living already and it doesn't bother that much anymore. Been
doing alot of work; reactivation and working with investagadors. We
baptized G and elderly women last week, she was baptized by here
son. We cleaned the pensioin today, looks so good!
Love Elder Mendenhall
