Dec 19 - 2016

Wow this week went by quick!  I had my first zone meeting on Tuesday and I actually understood it pretty well (it’s all in Spanish).  This week we taught about 20 lessons, which is less than normal cause we’ve been busy with meetings and interviews.  I see so many crazy things happen in a day like I’m pretty much used to it now cause it’s hard to remember some of them.  Out here I wish I had like a GoPro camera and could just stream everything to you guys.  Saturday was my first baptism and Elder Udall let me baptize her.  Her name is Zoe Veronica Prieto and she’s 10 years old and really smart.  It was hard for me for some reason to memorize the baptismal ordinance in Spanish and it actually worried me a lot for some reason, but I said everything fine but apparently I forgot to close my eyes, but whatever.  Her mom gave a great talk about the Holy Ghost.  I couldn’t understand a lot of it cause she was crying a lot.  The thing about argentines is it’s not hard to understand them cause they speak fast, but because they slur their words soooooo bad.  It’s like the equivalent of the famer guy who shoots the cow in front of the bus in Napoleon Dynamite, seriously like exactly the same.  Thankfully not everyone is like this, it’s mostly with the older people. 

Yesterday it rained hard but nothing too bad.  Lots of people came to church for some reason.  We got a baptism this Saturday for Guillermo and he is a beast (spiritually).  He’s in a wheel chair and he’s really old so I don’t really know how were gonna baptize him but Elder Udall has got it covered.  I feel really bad for him, I feel like I’m not doing much to help him sometimes but he doesn’t really need it to be honest.  He’s a great missionary, me and him click really well and he says that he’s really impressed with how much Spanish I know for the first two weeks in the field.  Also, bore my testimony in sacrament and that went better than I expected, actually I think it went well, cracked a few jokes that gets them every time.  They laugh about everything here it’s pretty funny.  hope all is well with you guys, love you   

Dec 12, 2016

Dec 12, 2016 - Hey, it’s good to hear everyone is doing great glad to hear about school and other activities, I’ve been praying specifically for you guys every night.  So we left the MTC Tuesday at about 12noon. The mission president was running a bit late, but we meet met up with President Robertson and took photos at the temple; he should have emailed you guys.  The first day in the field was sweet.  My companion is Elder Udall from Gilbert AZ and he is sooooo awesome, love him already especially cause he can speak English and he’s a good man too.  He helps me out a lot and were having a ton of fun together.  My zone is the Ramos Mejia zone and our ward is the Los Pinos ward which means the pines and its funny cause there is like only one wimpy pine tree here.  My first visit was with hermana Corza and she is what we call and investegador enterno. She’s been visiting with the missionaries for ten years!!  Crazy enough I started telling her about where I’m from and she said Elder Kwazney was teaching her aswell! crazy crazy.  Anyways she is progressing and were going to try to set a date for baptism; maybe in January, soooo awesome.  This area is pretty sweet were able to keep buys the whole day with visits and such.  We got a baptismal date for this Saturday and Elder Udall said I could do the baptizing yeeeeeeee.  We also got a date for Gueillermo for Christmas Eve.  He’s also been investigating the church for a year.  The annoying thing here is a lot of people want to get baptized but everyone either smokes drinks or is living together and isn’t married and I literally mean everyone.  I can’t wait until I find someone who is actually ready to be baptized.

Sunday was cool, it was the primary presentation and the kids here are way cuter, I don’t know why they just are.  We have a lot of great members and the bishop is a nice guy, he is pretty young and has a lot of energy for missionary work.  They didn’t get me to bear my testimony but yet, but I think they will get me to do it next week.  We had a lunch appointment and I had to eat a whole blood sausage, so nasty ugh but everything else was great.  We don’t have dinner appointments here, only lunch appointments.  There lunches are soooo huge and it’s sooooo hot at that time.  I actually understand why siesta is a thing, but the people are soooo lazy it makes me mad.  I love you guys and I love the mission I’m doing great, I miss you guys but not that much ha ha ha.   This church is so true. 

Love Elder Maller  

Dec 1, 2016

Dec 1, 2016 - It’s now December in Buenos Aires and it feels pretty weird with it being super-hot here.  We celebrated American thanksgiving here last week and that was pretty awesome.  We had a huge turkey dinner followed by a devotional from Elder Anderson; he gave a great talk.  It was a great time, but I don’t think Argentines know how to cook turkey as well as they know how to cook steak, but it was still pretty good.  The food here is still incredible, the other day we ate cordon bleu (I think that’s what you call it).  Everyone here treats you like a king.  Even when we go proselyting people give us a lot of respect for what we are doing.  This week when we went tracting, just before we got on the bus we know it would rain but we didn’t think it would rain that much, but it did; it poured.   All I had was a shell jacket, so all my cloths got soaked, and we barely saw anyone in the streets, but we still talked to everyone and were having success; it’s great. When we go tracting, they take us on a bus with your companion to an area at 12 noon and say meet back here at 5pm.  They pull up a map and tell you areas that are restricted because they are too sketchy.  You get your own designated tracting area.  It can be hard to get in the door, but people will are very friendly and respectful.  I think they realize we represent something really special, but there so lazy cause of cesta’s, which is like a four hour nap after lunch, which is in the middle of our tracting time. 

I’ve been studying a ton about Jesus Christo lately, especially in john and I wanna go to the holy land sooooo bad after my mission with the boys - that would be so cool. 

Last district meeting we set a goal to speak straight Spanish the entire week, which has been sooo hard to do but were we are totally capable of it. It’s weird to think I’ll be leaving this awesome place soon, I’ll miss it soooooo much; it’s been the best.  There’s a picture in the cafeteria that I love to look at everyday; I picture it being me and Lance, it looks just like us.  I hope all is still well with everyone back home, I pray for you guys all time here, love you - Elder Maller