The Real Transition

General Conference really does take on new meaning as a missionary. Like Elder Ockey said, it´s the super bowl.

In our mission, you can only attend if you have investigators. Gracias to the language barrier, I never could get a clear reason why promoting investigator attendance outweighed receiving modern revelation. As a result I missed Saturday morning.

When we finally did get to Saturday afternoon session in Villa Vida we had to wait for our investigators to show up. They were running late, and as such I was incredibly distraught. Tapping my foot up and down, pacing back and forth, checking the watch and everything. Why had I never been this excited and desperate for conference before?

Thankfully when I finally did get in, there was an English transmission in the other room.

The next morning we were able to see priesthood session rebroadcast, but this time it was only in Spanish. As such I saw 4 sessions of conference. Missed one, and couldn´t understand the other. I hope we get the ensign out here soon. My personal favorite was Elder Holland. I hope to one day be able to bear a testimony like that of the Book of Mormon.

I couldn´t help but let my thoughts wander back home, especially during the priesthood session. All the guys going off to Rafael´s. Sitting around the table. Dad probably said something like "well Stephen´s all the way in Argentina. Just a few more conference sessions and Jonathan will be somewhere” And Jonathan probably thought, "like that´ll ever happen." I assure you, that day is coming faster than you think.

I guess the true spirit of this week has been transitioning. The real transition. Not just the initial culture shock transition. At this point everything has been new, different, exciting. Now I have to set into a routine. I´ve tried all the new foods (well most of them) and seen most of the, frankly, strange things this place has to offer. Now is the make or break moment. Up until now, it´s just been a fun vacation. Ok, that´s a bit generous. But seriously, more like an adventure. At this point, I have a deep heartfelt yearning for the things I realize I won´t get here for two years.

Random things too. Like cheddar cheese, popcorn, refried beans, limes, and tortilla chips. Essentially all Mexican food. and, surprisingly most of all

Pickles.

I went to burger king today, and they had pickles. Never have I tasted something so delicious in my life. I guess going to BK kind of silenced those yearnings. That doesn´t mean I wouldn´t kill a guy for a slice of cheddar, but that´s beside the point...

I guess the problem is, the problem we don´t realize, in America we don´t really have a cuisine. We eat all sorts of random stuff. We have a HUGE variety of food. Chinese, Mexican, Italian. Here, they eat Argentine. And Argentine is delicious. I guess I’m just hungry for something different.

So I´ve got a problem. I want to cook a roast and introduce Elder Ponce to roast beef mashed potatoes and gravy for Sunday dinner, but after a certain college experience resulting in a piece of meat burnt beyond the point of recollection, seeing as how I’m without Crockpot here I don´t see how it´s feasible. I know I would have to add the water progressively. So here I am with the problem, and I´m sending you what I have. It´s kind of like that scene in Apollo thirteen where they send the materials they have to NASA and they have to figure out a solution. I´ve got six and a half hours (6:30-1:00) and church starts at 9:30. Assume I would be away from the roast for 4 hours with travel time and socializing. Is there any way to cook it without burning it? Like putting extra water in the pot that I cook it in?

Anyways...

This week has been good for me. Minus a small cold I´ve been fighting. I feel like I´m making progress in the language. It´s hard to see though. With Elder Ponce it´s always hard to communicate. Especially after a real long day. I feel like, when I’m on the street doing missionary work, it´s my work. Spanish is my work. So when I get back to the pension, finish planning, and change into my pj´s, the last thing I wanna do is struggle through conversation with Elder Ponce. Which leads to a lot of silence. I kind of have learned to like silence. I´ve.... kind of had to.

The USB for the camera like shut down the entire computer I’m on when I tried to get the pictures and send them. I don´t think it´s going to work, so you might just have to wait for me to send my SD card home. Maybe you could send one down and I could send one home or something like that. I really do want you to see the pics. It was quite a shame. Especially because we went to the cathedral of the Plata today. I was trying not to go all AP art history nerd on everyone, but I couldn´t resist. It was quite amazing. Gothic style. I only dreamed of seeing a cathedral like that in my life. Wow. This really is the perfect place for me. Art history, culture, food like Europe. Warm culture and religiously accepting people of South America.

Random detail dad. You know how they say green olives are strange? Some of the Elders here are convinced their real disgusting, and totally foreign, only to be had in Argentina. Having been raised on green olives in our house my whole life, I fearlessly devoured a ton of green olives right in front of them. Yeah. Fearless.

This week I had an exchange with Elder Wells and went out to Altos de San Lorenzo. This place wasn´t like Ensenada. This was where the immigrants from Paraguay and Bolivia lived. Orient yourself to cliché images of the third world. Dirt roads. Brick shacks with tin roofs. This place had it all. The best part was, we weren´t on bikes. Somehow, I felt like my mission started right there... for real. Something about tracting on foot in the destroyed neighborhood. I wasn´t afraid or anything, very humbled though. Very very humbled.

We ate at a Paraguay family´s house, and I finally met my match for the food. It was this cold chicken cabbage stuff with a real sour sauce. With the help of about two gallons of fanta, I managed to down it fast enough.

I found I understood a lot more of the Paraguay Spanish. This Castellano stuff here really is strange.

I love the work here. I´m starting to actually be able to teach during the lessons instead of just bearing testimony. I know this church is true. Especially el Libro de Mormon. What a miracle that book is. What an incredible miracle. Truly it is the cornerstone of our faith. I love this opportunity, to be out here like saints of old bearing testimony of the prophet Joseph and the word of God.