Haha sorry to scare you, but I'm actually really good right now :) We just had a rough day yesterday with our investigators. Like I said last week that we set 3 fechas (dates) and so we were all excited. But as the week went along we had charlas (less formal kind of an appointment) that's what they call them down here. Anyways we had a couple of charlas fall through with Gladys and Leandra, it's hard because we need a male member to go with us to every lesson and their schedule is difficult for us to schedule with all of them there. For example, we had just called Gladys the night before and she said thatwe could come over. We went and picked up our member and then went to her house and rang the timbre (Since most of our members live in high rise apartment buildings, every building has a board with lots of buttons and you press the button that corresponds with the room or apartment that they are in.) When you press the button, there is this phone in all the kitchens (probably so if they are cooking) that rings and they pick it up and talk with whoever is on the street through a walkie-talkie that's in the board of all of the timbres (teem bray) And the only way for people to get into buildings is to have a key orhave someone come down and unlock the door for you and let you in. So we called up once and no answer so we wait a min and do it again. Leandra's son Fecundo (no sé) answered and said that neither of them were there. So that was frustrating first of all because we had confirmed over the phone only the night before.
The culture is definitely different down here and people sometimes don't respect the time of others, cause this happens a lot to us. So we were able to meet with her last night. She had come to church with us, which was a good sign that she still wants to come for herself. Then she got up in testimony meeting and just talked about how the Book of Mormon changed her son's life and how she was grateful for that. So that was an awesome experience having an investigator get up on her own free will. I was sitting next to her and when she a asked me if she could get up I was like, yes, please. ;) haha Then we met with her last night and gave her the first lesson, or about the restoration and the need for thischurch in these last days. She said that she wanted to get baptized and that she has been reading a little from the Book of Mormon. But she wants to wait to be baptized with her husband, who still hasn't been to church or had a lesson. He doesn't get home from work until late after 9 or 9:30 every day. So it was 9:15 already and we needed to be home at 9:30 so we couldn't stay and help persuade her that she doesn't need to wait and that this is just a doubt that Satan has put into her mind. It's a noble reason but none the less it's from Satan. I just want to say that Satan is everywhere and he is always throwing little things our way and trying as hard as he can to stop the work. I know that the work won't stop but we just have to work through those challenges. So since Leandra didn't come yesterday to church and since Gladys wants to wait, we just lost two of the 3 fechas for this transfer, so I guess that it's not too big of a catastrophe as I'm making it out to be, but Elder Secretan was pretty disappointed cause he's thinking that since he's already been here for 4 transfers that he's probably leaving after the 19th. And then Gian and Briggit didn't come again to church today and when we swung by later yesterday they weren't there. So anyways, just the challenges of the mission.
So more about the last week. On Tuesday we had district meeting and the Elders from Juncal (Rose and Stocking) brought donuts for the whole district, they don't have donuts down here except in one small shop in Juncal. Then on Wednesday, we had weekly planning which took a long time because we have a lot to plan for. Then we had lunch and weekly correlation at Hermano Hanke's house (where we talk aboutinvestigators and recent converts and 555's with the ward mission leader.) (555 is where the high priests, elders quorum, and the relief society each pray over 5 families that are struggling and or are part member) We then go to the 555 families and teach them and strengthen them and get referrals from them. Then actually on Thurs, not Wed like I said last week, we had Capitación de Líderes and so we went on the train again and made the trip again to San Fernando, and I just learned out that we have it again. Elder Secretan says that we usually dont have it this much. So it's cool because the ZL's from the southconnect in through Skype and I think that Elder Johnson is a ZL in the south, so they are still connected but though through Skype. We were there from 9:30 until 4:30 and we talked a lot about how we can use the Book of Mormon introduction to help people commit to read it, we then did practices and stuff like that, they fed us 3 empanadas and a banana and a alfajor (alpha-whore). It's a chocolate cookie with Dulce de Leche (like Nutella) covered in Chocolate or Vanilla sauce. It's really good and is a treat down here. Oh and I eat a lot of empanadas and I really love them and I'm glad that you were able to have some.
Oh yeah I received your letter and Grandpa's letter. So to answer your question, I got it on the 2nd but it probably arrived here at the beginning of the week. So it looks like 2 weeks is a safe bet and I'm learning more and more that as long as you don't send money or something really expensive that it will get to me haha. Oh and a Christmas wish is peanut butter. It's hard to find here and really expensive haha. --just planning ahead ;)
Then on Friday was an experience…we had a vianda with one of the richer members and they live in this really high rise apartment building. And it's down the street from our church so we decided to meet up with Juncal, who share the same building as us, and have a combined lunch. So we got some sort of spaghetti and they brought and cooked churripan which is some sort of sausage and we don’t know what's in it to be exact, haha and so we cooked them in the oven there at the church. So if you were ever thinking about doing another Argentine dinner night, I wouldn't recommend churripan haha, or maybe you should just cook it all the way through. I don't know, but I didn't like it and didn't have the best feeling in my stomach afterwards. But again don't worry about me, I'm learning everyday and thanks for the triple probiotic multi-vitamins. I've been taking those everyday and I haven't been sick yet and my body is holding up just fine.
Then Saturday we had another different experience. There was a "open house" set up at the church in Villa Crespo and so we were asked to help out with that. So our job that day was to go street contacting just right next to the church and try and get people to go through this really nice set up about Jesus and it would only take 20 min. The people here are really different than any other place in South America. Sometimes they joke that Capital Federal is the European Mission out of all of the South American Missions haha. There are a ton of people here that are always on the move and never have time for us to talk with them. Especially where we were at this chapel in Villa Crespo, it was right next to lots of busy stores and we had a lot of opportunities to talk with people but we were turned down so many times, people made up excuses and didn't even want to shake our hand or acknowledge us. So then after 3 and a half hours we were almost done but we found a Vietnamese lady that is here for an internship. She was just walking all by herself and we invited her in and she accepted, maybe just to be nice, I don't know, but we were just happy. She then really loved our message about families and she said she missed hers (I miss mine too ;)) and she then accepted to read from the Book of Mormon. Oh, and she spoke better English then Spanish. Then we had to take a taxi home and we hadn't brought enough money but the taxi driver (a gift from God) said that we only had to pay what we had and so we were able to make it home on time. Then last night we had to run five or six blocks to make it in by 9:30. It was funny seeing two white guys in white shirts and ties running down the busy streets of Buenos Aires. So all in all I have grown closer to my Savior this week and I'm down to 100 pages in Jesus the Christ; I've been reading every morning. So just know that this week will be better and that I love you all so dearly. Everything will be fine and just keep on doing what you're doing. And don't worry about me, I've got the Lord as my guide :)
Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard
Oh and the pictures are when it rained Wednesday and Thursday nights and we had to walk in the rain,
So love you again!!!
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