Monday, June 15, 2009

NEW PICTURES HAVE BEEN POSTED TODAY.
CLICK ON THE MISSION PICTURES TO THE RIGHT TO SEE THE ALBUM.

Acea that is hilarious and I can see Mr. Moore play a practical joke like the one he did to Justin hahaha I got a kick out of that. A funny thing just happened. One of the elders in my zone just walked over and said what is that word? I know it, but I don’t know what it means. (He’s been out here a long time) and the word was Acea. So I started talking about this word that I was making up on the spot so that was funny hahaha. I eventually told him it was my brother’s name. Thanks for the story I got a kick out of that.

Now to answer some of your questions. I haven’t had and reactions to the food or water. Those way too expensive gloves I brought; they work, but they don’t help as much as I would like as my hands are always cold but it’s not too bad. My feet are fine as long as I’m walking and stuff but man I love the thermals. I found a thermal top in the apartment that was from the last missionary here and he hadn’t used it once, so yeah, I love thermals!

As for the rock I previously sent a picture of, there are actually two really cool rocks. The one that I sent to you is the other cool one in Tandil. We went to the Piedra Movediza rock today and I included a picture of it. It is actually fake. The real one fell in 1912, but two years ago they put up a plastic fake one that is the same. The first one is a lot bigger but it isn’t really about ready to fall off but it is too on a cliff.

Another question I’ve been asked is do we observe siesta and the answer is a resounding yes. So I don’t really know why, probably because during the summer in the northern parts of Argentina it gets really hot, so they all go indoors for the hot part of the day. Here even though I see no practical reason for it, but they do it to. It starts anywhere from 11:00 am and usually ends at around 4:00 pm. It is frustrating, especially right now as it is the warmest part of the day. But the people here come home, eat, and then sleep. So our daily schedule is as follows; we have less study time in the morning, and we get out of the apartment at around 9:30 am. We work until 12:30 pm, if I can convince my companion to work that long, which doesn’t always work too well. We then have lunch with the members, which in Rauch, we get every day except for Sundays. We then go back to the apartment and I study Spanish and my companion sleeps. In the bigger cities of Bahia Blanca and Mar del, and in two other areas, we can work during siesta doing street contacts, but during that time, if you knock on peoples doors they don’t like you very much, that’s for sure.

I heard from Sister Jones (thanks for the letters by the way) that it is really nice up there. Here, it is early winter and I can’t believe school is already out down here. They started about the time I went into the MTC which was in March. Also our “stufe”, I think that is how it is spelled, but it is kind of like a really small furnace is broken so our apartment is really cold all of the time.

My first week, my bed broke when I was rolling over and the side beam just spilt almost all of the way down. So I’m sleeping on a mattress on the floor. Ah the life of a missionary. I love it though and the people here are so nice! They’re just amazing. I want to help as many of them as I can.

Well we also had interviews with the mission president this week and it is his last and my first so that was interesting, and he also speaks about as much English as I do Spanish, so it was very short hahaha. We also had a district conference for the district down here and it was a broadcast to all of Argentina and it was needless to say all in Spanish, but there was one talk in particular that was really interesting to me. It was Russell T. Osguthorpe the new president of the general Sunday. He talked about how when he was younger he had to go too all of his meetings really early. Get ready to laugh, a half an hour, sound familiar, hahaha. (For those not familiar with the Sands family, a half an hour early is almost late) So he was talking about my family in away too. He talked about how there would be no one there and so they would fix hymn books and set up chairs and such wow! But I’m really thankful for those opportunities to sit and listen to the spirit. I love having the spirit guide my life as a missionary, it is amazing.

We’ll do stuff that doesn’t sometimes make any sense or we’ll get lost and our town is really small and we’ll run across someone that will need our help, so yeah it’s amazing! I know this church is true. I’ve seen too much, I’ve felt the spirit too much, to deny it! Thank you all for you love and support!

Elder Sands