Safely in Argentina

Collin made it safely to Argentina and is in his first area.
--------------------------------------------------------
Hey everyone.


so i am using a different keyboard setup so the keys might be a little off... sorry if there are mistakes. a lot of the buttons are shorter so i keep hitting other buttons and there are weird symbols and things.

anywho, so after i got off the phone last night with you all, we boarded the airplane. however we didn´t take off on time. one of the air masks wouldn´t stay in its container thing, so they had to get someone to replace it. that took 10 minutes or so, and then when they got there they said they didn´t have the right parts and would have to go find (read: go buy) the right part, and tha took 30 minutes or so. then they replaced it, and they said they were concerned with another one of the airmask thingys, so they replaced that one too, and took another 10-15 minutes. so by the time we actually left the terminal we were like an hour delayed. anywho, on the plane, i was scheduled to sit in 41A. we were on a big plane, the one with 2 aisles, so it had 7 seats in every row. during this whole plane delay thing, most of the elders being in the very back of the plane, decided they wanted to move up, so 2 of them left to go further up the plane. and so one of the rows of the middle aisle was left with only 1 person, so i moved to it, and i had tons of leg room. it was actually quite comfortable. when i moved, i went to 42E, the very last row in the plane. there weren´t even seats next to me, the last rows on the sides were 41. i talked to the flight attendants quite a bit. it was pretty interesting. they had to help all of the missionaries with their customs stuff? whatever its called. i dunno, but nobody had ever done it before. so they helped us all with that. we were served dinner and breakfast. i actually fell asleep during the night, a good 4 hours or so i think. then we landed, and had to go through emmigration services.

me talking on the phone while in the airport waiting for the flight to argentina. i had to find a comfortable way to stand for an hour, so i look kind of odd, but thats okay. i think i am leaning against the phone...

this is my row on the plane. its all missionaries. but i eventually ended up moving from that position, to the row directly behind, as i had more room.

well, apparently the mtc was supposed to give us our mission debit card while we were still in the mtc. and they didn´t. so when i got to the emmigration services, i had to pay $131 to get in or something like that, and i had to use my wells fargo account card. the mission president said we would be refunded for that. they also called some church services or something, and apparently our cards will be here within 3 days. so until then, i cant make any real purchases, and my new trainer is paying the stuff, as the mission president directed everyone.

so we got off the plane, and they didn´t even make us really go through customs duty stuff, some guy just let us walk through, it was weird. then we walked out and we met our mission president, and he talked to us for a few minutes. we piled all of our luggage in a typical south american truck, and then all the missionaries got into a van. we drove to the argentine MTC and picked up 4? elders and 3 sisters. then we went to the mission home. this place is huge. its a typical home, but it also has the offices in it, as well as 2-3 sacrament meeting rooms, and a full sized church gym, just without the basketball goals. we had a really good lunch, had some quick informal training, and then did some more training stuff.

i got my new trainer. his name is elder rivera. hes from costa rica, and apparently the only elder from there. he knows english really well, so hopefully i can get him to talk in spanish a lot, as he likes talking to me in english.

the outside view of our pensión (apartment) with my companion standing in the doorway

we took a taxi cab thing over to our apartment. wow. the driving down here is pretty wild. i never really saw any lanes except for on the freeway. people change lanes all over the place, weaving in and out of traffic. dont really stop when they take turns. motorcycles dont seem to obey any sort of laws, they drive on the side of the road all the time. it was really entertaining.

so once we got to the apartment, i unpacked a bit of stuff, took off my coat jacket, as we dont have to wear it down here (and i have been wearing it for the past 2 months straight, it felt so good to take it off) and then we went to the bishops house (yikes haha) because his wife wanted to meet me or something like that. she is a very nice person. my companion said that she used to cook dinner for them every night until he told her that they didn´t have time for it or something. so i tried to talk to her in spanish, stumbling along and such. i guess i said what i really wanted to, but i definitely did not understand everything that she was saying to me. she gave us chocolate milk, using the unrefigerated out-of-a-pouch stuff. i didn´t think it owuld be very good at all, after what brother hunsaker said to me, but it wasn´t that bad actually. not the best , but what can you expect. then my companion remembered that the mission president told us to email, so thats what we are doing right now. we are in a little store on the road, that has like 15 computers or so, and some telephones and things.

so the apartment, as im betting youre all wanting to know. its a little (emphasize little) apartment, on the side of the road. it has a gate that locks, and the door doesnt stay shut unless you lock it. it has the main room, where we eat lunch and it also has a little desk that we use to study.

then there is a very small room where we sleep, just 2 beds about 3 feet apart, and a small closet.

then the bathroom. the good thing is he said their water heater is very reliable. its a small shower, with a toilet that apparently breaks a lot. he said last week they had to use a bucket for part of the day, hah. anywho, it also has a baday (spelling?) which i can´t exactly say i am eager to try out. it should be interesting to say the least.

the apartment doesn´t have any air conditioning, which was to be expected, but we do have 2 fans to use on ourselves.

my area, moron 2 (lol funny name) is COMPLETELY in the city. as in, everything. and he showed me a map of it, it is also quite a large area. we were walking back from talking to the bishops wife and he randomly says hi to some lady walking with her son, and the next thing i know he is setting up an appointment with her. i almost thought he was going to get an appointment with the taxi/cab driver, as he just kept talking and talking to him about our beliefs and things. and the taxi driver would respond everyo nce in a while and things. was interesting. our area seemed to be quite a ways from the mission home, for still being in the city.

i may end up buying a backpack, we´ll have to see if the ones you can buy from the mission home are worth anything or not.

other than that... i made it safely. my spanish is not quite worthy of buenos aires. buenos aires is huge. we´ll see how i do contacting people with my spanish tomorrow...

-Collin