We reached our goal of 13 lessons taught with members

Wow, there's so much that has happened this last week and I don't know if I can remember everything that happened.

Let's see if I can remember all of your questions. haha Hmm, money wise, yeah so far I've been good and they give us around $750 pesos a month, which I think right now that's a little less than $200 American dollars. It's different down here because they use the same symbol that we do for dollar signs and so everything always looks like it's in American dollars, like all the ads for the new McD's say that their big mac is only $14 haha, which is actually cheaper than most places. We just ate at Wendy's earlier today. We went bowling with our district and that was really fun and they actually had a size 47 for me haha or a 13 in the US. :) Oh and it's also really weird but really the only music they listen to down here is American music and it's amazing the influence that America has down here--all the shops on the side of the streets and there are two really big malls just in our tiny area. There is one in the area known as Abasto, or something like that, and it's really nice but it's right next to where all of the poorer people live, the houses are all so small down here but they still find room to fit a satellite tv and a computer and dvd player, it's because it's just what they see all around them and it's easily accessible. That stuff is nice but I would first spend it all on stuff that I need like a decent mattress and an actual stove. The standard of living is just really different down here and that's something that I need to get accustomed to.

Then after we got done bowling, I think it might be the only one in the area, haha then we took the subway which is actually really expensive right now. It used to be 1.10 pesos for one ride but in one night it switched to 2.50 a ride, so the government is different down here and the police aren't the best. So we had Wendy's, which is a special treat for everyone, because our district hasn't had Wendy's for a long time, haha. The line was super long and the combo for the double baconator, which is the only bacon in Argentina haha, was $42 pesos. (we figured that was about $11) but it was totally worth it and it tasted really good, but the frosty didn't taste like a frosty, most things down here don't taste the same but I'm adjusting just fine :). Carrying money isn't a problem where I'm at. It's not encouraged but I could without having any problems and same with my camera, but everywhere else outside of our district, which is basically all of the capital area, you would need to watch what you carried. Actually, in the villas around here we couldn't either, but I've only ever been on the outskirts like 4 or 5 times. But I'm excited because we are going in on Wednesday and trying to find some contacts that we received. Yeah, our apartment is pretty safe but we still keep them in a hidden place, but I should be fine.

Alright, so language wise I'm definitely improving but it's on a weekly basis and Elder Secreten said that it took him a couple months, but I'm hoping that since we had a better foundation at the MTC because of the new program that started a couple of months before I got there, that I can adjust quicker. But yeah, they still are speaking really fast and the accent is sometimes hard to pick out, but Elder Secreten said that he just woke up one day and he could understand. haha So I'm anxiously awaiting that day.

Um I actually have only cooked eggs once so far and have just eaten whatever I have bought just around the corner at the supermercado. I've had frosted flakes and fruit loops and cocoa puffs so far and they definitely don't have the same quality as the American kind but I'm loving it. I've taken a bunch of pictures and only a couple of the streets because I haven't had that much of an opportunity outside the pension, but I plan on burning a disc soon and sending that soon. I don't have any way to send some pictures so you'll just have to wait for a couple of more weeks. Food and weather wise... hmm well all that I can say is that it's hot and humid everyday down here and I'm getting used to it but I still have to sleep with the fan on all night and I'm sweating a ton. I'm drinking a lot of Tang and water whenever I can. I bring a little bottle of water while we are walking around and fill it up at the church. I have a big 1.5L bottle that I use for my Tang packets and those save me every night because I love the flavor. Then sometimes the members offer us something to drink and I've drunk everything from pink grapefruit juice, homemade peach juice and water from an old vodka container haha. The members down here are super nice and they love giving food and drink to us and we readily accept because we are walking all day in the sun and heat. My feet are just starting to get used to all of the walking and I'm really glad that I have the cushioned socks because I don't even recognize the heat after 20 min of walking. Umm... I don't actually use the sunscreen, I haven't been burnt yet and I don't think that we are ever in the sun long enough for it to affect us. (all of the tall buildings and trees everywhere, you saw that, basically all of the pictures that I have from the street you've probably already seen from the Google pictures haha.) I don't carry snacks around because they would just melt and I'm using the little side bag that they gave us, just big enough to hold my Book of Mormon, a spare Book of Mormon and a couple of pamphlets and my little water bottle. And after we have a lunch we don't have any dinners with members here because they don't even eat dinner here until after 9:30 pm, so we usually just snack at night as much as we can. The food has been good and the weirdest thing that I've eaten is some sort of spinach pie and we ate that in the villa the other day and we had some Sprite mixed with some wierd herbal tea goo, I guess it was alright haha, but I ate it all.

Ok, so some spiritual things from last week. We reached our goal of 13 lessons taught with members present and we taught an additional 8, so a good total of 21. We were happy since lessons are hard to come by down here, especially when we only had a couple with someone that wasn't a member instead of a recent convert or menos activos. Though we are confident that the Lord is helping build our faith and patience. We taught an older lady that is catholic last week. Her name is Mirta and the lesson was going great until we reached the part about the correct authority that wasn't passed down through Peter. She didn't agree with that but luckily she accepted to read the LdM (Libro de Mormon) and pray about it. We weren't able to meet with Jessica this past week, but we were told that she was reading a little so that was good. Then we actually had an investigator attend church with us this last week, though we had to go get her an hour after church started, it was still good. Alright, so a little bit more about my church, it starts at 9:30 in the morning and starts with the 3rd hour first ending with sacrament meeting. We have priesthood in a smaller room downstairs, oh yeah it's two stories and I guess that it was redone a couple of years ago and it's really nice. It has a soccer court in the back surrounded by a lot of tall walls and it's surrounded by a bunch of taller buildings. It reminds me of NYC except not on the corner of a street. Then we have Sunday school downstairs as well and then we go upstairs to have sacrament meeting. Funny thing, each of the two wards have their own microphone so they bring it to the meeting and hook it up to the stand. We had Hermana Gladys come to church and she's a part of a family that is part-member, her son around 25 yrs old, joined the church last year and so we are going to go over and teach the rest of the family because they have shown some interest and Hermana Gladys already has 2 asitencias to the capilla. So we just need 3 attendances for her to be baptized. Yesterday we visited 2 recent converts that didn't come to church again today. Richard and Alex, we taught them the importance of church attendance, especially for the sacrament meeting. 9 in the morning is hard for a lot of Argentines because their culture is one that stays up late every night and gets up later. So if you're not motivated then you easily sleep in.

We had a couple of times this last week where we went one place for one reason but ended up helping someone else out and finding some older investigators that we couldn't find in their houses. We just happened to meet them on the street and that's usually when we were just walking around with no sure plans at that time. I've been really safe here and I always look when crossing streets. So hopefully I've answered everything and I just love you all so much!!!

I've got to run and I can't wait for the cards and letters. Oh, and thanks for the package again Mom, it has really helped. Happy birthday Alex and have a great week.!!!

Love,Elder Pittard