Monday, October 12th, 2009

Family!!!Holy smokes I am in Argentina!!! And boy has it been quite the experience. Just want to start off by saying I have been freezing my butt off here in Bariloche! Ok just wanted to make sure you knew that :) We get 45 minutes to type here, so 15 more minutes than the MTC but im going to try and send some pictures so we will see how that goes.
To start off. I left the Salt Lake Airport at 12. While I was waiting I was writing a letter when a guy from peru came up to me and started talking to me in spanish. It was pretty cool because I could understand him. He told me how missionaries found him when he was 18 and he served a mission a year later some where in Peru I think. He has since been a mission president here in the states somewhere. He says the people in the states are way to hard hearted. But he gave me a lot of encouragement that was really awesome about how im representing Jesus Christ and have the power to do so. He was a pretty sweet guy.
On the airplane ride (there were quite a few mormons) I talked to some kinda weird guy but also a man flew New York that knew Aunt Ann and Uncle Bill. I wrote down his name, hopefully I will remember to send it next time.
At the Dallas airport I had four hours to spare so I sat with an Argentinen family. Pretty sweet I know. It was a lady and her two kids (¡Que lindo!-so cute) and her parents that were visiting her from Argentina, so they couldn´t speak hardly any English. So I was trying to speak as much spanish as I could with them. They were really nice and told me all about Argentina. While talking with the parents is when I found out for the first time that ¨castellano¨ is much harder to understand than mexican spanish to me at least or maybe it was I was just so used to MTC spanish... Which is not good But that was my first taste of my new language :) Oh! and I also met up with my old MTC companion who had been serving in Tennesse while waiting for his visa. That was way cool because I thought I would have to make the whole trip alone.
The plane was huge! It was one of those with 3 on each side and 5 in the middle. Each seat having its own tv with many video selections or music or tv shows of flight information. I was quite impressed. Not that I used anything but the flight information, we flew right by Nicuragua though :) It was also my first flight getting meals on a plane. That was pretty cool. We got dinner and breakfast and not to bad. I sat next to a jewish lady who spoke both castellano and english but both very hard to understand haha. She was quite interesting too. She told me more about Argentina too, but couldn´t tell me much about jews, she said I had to talk to a Rabi. But the plane ride was nice for the first 4 hours or so... but after 10 hours I was pretty bummed. I might have got 1 hour of sleep, sleeping on planes just isn´t for tall people i guess, or maybe everyone has the same problem. We got to Buenos Aires around 7:30 tuesday Morning.
Anyways, we got there and we had to wait in line for customs a couple hours. Then we had to figure out how to tell the people to sign our visas to be good for two years. It was hard because we didn´t know that that is what we were suppose to be doing. Then Alberto picked us up at the Buenos Aires airport. He kinda spoke english so that wasn´t too bad. He took us to the Temple because our flight to Neuquén didn´t leave till 5:30 that night. That was cool with me because I love the temple! And it was fun trying to figure out where things were inside and get clothes. But there we did sealings. I like how everyone has a hard time saying my name. I didn´t think It would really be that much of a problem, but its funny. I always let them try saying it first :)
Then we had luch at the hostel across the street. I don´t know what it was we ate but there was a lot and I didn´t want to be rude. So I felt a little sick afterwards. A bunch of people, mostly kids kept trying to talk to us, but I would say they didn´t succeed, lo siento... But after that me and my companion walked around at the temple till 3 trying to talk to people.
We were then picked up by another guy, I never could learn his name, and he took us to a different airport to go the Neuquén. That was when I got a good view of Buenos Aires. Let me tell you, its not a good sight. It is a lot like guatemala with people all over the roads trying to sell stuff, driving as fast as you can, where ever you can. The difference is there were a lot more big building but still just as old and run down as guatemala.
The airport was pretty cool because we got to just walk outside and get on our plane from the back! I have always sat in the back of the plane but never got to enter from the back before, its much better that way! It was a normal sized plane that wasn´t very full (which made it very nice). we left around 5:30 and got there about 7:10 Tuesday night.
There we were picked up by President and Sister Peterson and the 2 Assistent Presidents Elder Camacho and Elder Cañete who are from Chile and Paraguay but there English is really good. Sister Peterson is still learning spanish but President Peterson served in Argentina like 30 years ago. They took us to the mission home where we had our interviews, filled out a little paper work and had our first empanadas for dinner! Those are good and I hear very famous down here, but I haven´t had them since. We then walked down the street to Casa Rosario (pink house) where the Assistent Presidents and the Office missionaries stay and thats where we stayed the night.
In the morning we did a bunch of running around trying to fill out some paper work I need called DNI, don´t know what that stands for. But we got everything then went to the place to finalize it and it was closed because of riots. Those are very common down here. They are illegal but the police don´t do anything because then they would be taking about their rights. What they do is they take old tires and set them on fire in the street down town, so there was a lot of smoke in the air that day. So needless to say I didn´t get my DNI but said don´t worry about it, ill just get it another time.
We then had a little orientation meeting down but the APs and the Office elders. Then we had a meeting with the president and his wife and the APs and our new companions. They told us more guidlines and health stuff and finally told us who our new companions are and where we would go. Elder Berghout, my trainer, is a pretty sweet guy. He has bveen out a year and is from Ogden Utah. He is the oldest of 4 or 5 boys, can´t remember. But he has taught me alot here!
Our bus to Bariloche didn´t leave till 11 that night so we went out and visited some of his previous families he taught when he was in that area (we have to walk everywhere, only APs, the senior couple in the office, and President and Sister Peterson get to drive cars, which is fine with me because its a race for your life every time.) I really couldn´t understand hardly anything they said and they like to make fun of me for it haha. One man got me to say "im gay" in chilean, so i didn´t know what I was saying. And yes my companion let me. Then we did some copiando (knocking). This is when I learned that people here are just like people in the States when it comes to religion. They avoid you in everyway possible and very rarely let you in. Oh and something that is cool is we don´t knock on doors but clap really loud. All the houses are old and run down like guatemala here too.
Our bus ride was 6.5 hours to bariloche so we got there at 5:30 and finally got to sleep at 6. Finally here at last (Thursday)! We got an hour of sleep then started our day. Thursday is weekly planning so after studying we planned for the next week.
I am out of time but still have a lot more to tell you! Im actually not allowed to even read or write to anyone on e-mail except my intermediate family. I can´t print emails either, or haven´t figured out how to yet. I do have my rings mom but Im not allowed to wear them here so I might send them home if I ever send a package. I love you all! Im going to try and send some pictures sometime. Oh and By the way, on Saturday in snowed off and on all day! but nothing stayed. Oh and so far the wind blews all the time! Im loving it! haha :)
Elder Tryon