Jan. 27th

Hola Familia!

Another week in 25 de Mayo has passed, and this week: a little bit of success. For the first time in the mission, it shows in the numbers that we´re being successful. I´ve been praying to see the Lord´s Hand, and I´ve seen it this week.

We found two new investigators this week and we had 4 investigators in Church! It was great.

Sunscreen. Mom, I have sunscreen, and I´ll use it today. (Also, the Walmart is REALLY far away now.)

You asked about how we get mail. Mail, packages, Copies of the Book of Mormon, or any other papers or things that the mission office has to send to us comes all together in a big green bag called The Bolsa. The bag travels by bus until it reaches the bus terminal in the city and we pick it up there.

Here in 25 de Mayo, we have really beautiful sunsets. Please enjoy this one.

Mucho Amor,

Elder Bradley Turek

P.S. Grandma Turek, I know how you feel with the Ear Infection! My ear was plugged kind of like that the other week, I couldn´t hear out of that ear and it drove me nuts! Hope you get it fixed soon!

Jan. 19th

Hello! I know what your thinking! ¨What happened, Elder Turek!? Why didn´t you email us yesterday?!¨ I´m sorry, it´s not my fault. That´s what happens when there´s only one computer in 25 de Mayo, you have to wait. We went twice to the Ciber to use the computer, but both times we went, someone was using it, and so neither of us had the opportunity to email our friends and family. So, with that in mind I ask for your apologies.

Well, I´ll be. I had my 6 month aniversary the other day, January 17. 6 months! I can´t believe it.

In commemerance of my 6 months I thought I would give you all a tasty, very, very argentine recipe to try.

Dulce de Leche. Dulce de Leche is most like the carmel sauce that you put on apples, but more Argentine. Everybody has it here in Argentina. It´s as common as peanut butter is in the States.

Dulce de Leche

SUPER Easy (american) Way:

1 or 2 cans of sweetened condensed milk

Put in pot filled with water over the cans

Boil slowly on low heat for 3 hours.

Let cool for a few hours.

Open: instant dulce de leche.

Anybody can do it! Try it! It´s really rich. Try it on fruits, crackers, fingers, whatever.

There you go, happy 6 months everybody.

In other news, my companion recieved a package from his girlfriend the other day. She must love him a lot, becuase there was SO much crud in there, it was covered in pictures, and decorated, and filled with chocolates of all sorts, candies, a whole stack of letters and --get this-- a box of 730 reasons why she loves him, all individually hand written on little papers, rolled up, and rubber banded. Enough for each day of his mission. I would rag on him for having such things, but he shares his candy, and chocolates with me frequently, and she seems like a nice girl, so I try not too say much about it.

Mom, you asked if they have sunscreen here, because we all looked a little burnt. The answer is basically no. They might have it, but it´s kind of expensive and nobody wants to buy it. I have some, but I just don´t use it. 

Well, I hope all is well with you where ever you are. I hope you know that I love you. Keep on keeping on.

Love,

Elder Bradley Turek

Jan. 12

Dear Family,

Thank you for all of your prayers, thoughts, and emails. Things sound like they´re going just swimmingly at home.

This week I finally recieved the Christmas Card that you sent! That, may I say, is a great Christmas card. It´s wonderful. I also finally got the Wedding Invitation from Ali Hancey! One other mail related item is, I got confirmation that my Christmas package is here in Argentina! Not that I have it, but It´s here! With the new customs processing, I´ve been told that mine, along with a hundreds of other packages have been delayed in customs. So, hopefully, I will recieve it... eventually.

Life is a balancing act, on or off the mission. I hope all of you are trying to keep it (especially the most important things) all in balance and succeeding. It´s so important.

Attached is a picture of my new District here in 25 de Mayo.

Here in 25 de Mayo, I´ve noticed a few things that differ from Plottier. It´s nicer, they have more paved roads, less smells, and nicer looking houses within city limits, but the people in spots seem to be less accepting of the missionaries.

My companion is good. He´s still learning Spanish, as Portuguese is his native language, and consequently uses a lot of portuguese/spanish words that I don´t really understand. But he´s learning quick. Spanish is very similar to Portuguese in lots of ways.

Many of the habits that I had in Plottier got thrown off when I moved here to 25 de Mayo, and so I´m having to work to reestablish those. On that same note, our daily schedule as a mission changed this week. We now get up at 7:00 and everything is moved 30 minutes forward. It doesn´t get dark until later here, now, and so we also don´t go home until 9:30 and sleep at 11:00. We have lunch and then right after that, during the siesta, where everyone naps, doesn´t answer their door or does so less than excitedly,also the hottest part of the day, we are going to have a few hours to study.

I think these changes are going to be good, and are going to help us work more effectively with the people.

I´m out of time, but I love you all, and wish you best this week

Elder Bradley Turek

(P.S. Sorry for not being more interesting. I´ll see what I can do about that,)

Jan. 6th

Hey family! How are you!

Things are a changing here in the life of Elder Bradley Turek.

This week was transfers and ...(drum roll please) I´m going to (the most tranquilo, ¨chill¨, city called) 25 de Mayo!!

Actually, I´m already here. I hopped on a bus and rode for a few hours to the most north area of the mission a few days ago and here I am. (See map)

My companion is a Brazilian named Elder Lopes. He´s cool.

Things are good here. We´re just a little branch here, but this sunday we had 70 people there. We don´t even have a chapel, just a little building, but I still felt really peaceful sitting there in church. I liked it.

I´m out of time, but the Church is true and I love each every one of you!

Thanks, 

Elder Bradley Turek

Dec. 30

Hello friends and family!!

I ever-so-hope that you all enjoyed Christmas!

We enjoyed Christmas here. We spent the evening before Christmas with a
family in our ward. We walked up to their house, and outside there was a
table all set up with table cloths and nice square plates, which make food
look really good and arty. They had little Christmas lights in the window,
and there was even Christmas music playing! It was like a little peace of
home. It was very nice to have a little bit of that Christmas Cheer for an
hour or two.

Here, Christmas is less like Christmas, and more like another holiday to
party. Some people eat with their families, or go to the canal, but it´s
not really special. Just another time to party. Something that was
different was when they open their gifts. Everybody waits until 12:00 that
night and then, the minute Christmas arrives, they open their gifts. They
also have fireworks  at that hour, as well. Not that they are legal
fireworks, but the people do them anyway.

Although my package has still yet to arrive, I did get one gift for
Christmas. That family, who we spent Christmas with, gave Elder Farnsworth
and I each a "Mate"(mah-tay). If I haven't explained mate, it's basically
chopped up Mate herb that they put in a special cup, add hot water and
sugar, drink with a special filtered straw, and pass the cup around with
everyone who's there. And everybody does it. Everywhere. People drink mate
anywhere you can think of. On the bus, in the street, even in the summer.
It's part of being an Argentine.

As missionaries, we're not allowed to drink mate, which would've made my
mate cup in vane, but I had an idea. So when I got home, we made
"Missionary Mate", as I deemed it. I took a few little tea bags, of herbal
tea, which we ARE allowed to have, cut them open and poured them in my mate
cup. Genius. Haha, it was really strong, and hot and first, but it was fun
to do one time. (See photo)

I'm excited for the New Year. We get to pass a few hours with the members,
again, as a gift from the mission president. I'm sure they'll have some of
the same things as Christmas: Fireworks, mate, the usual.

This week is Transfers, so I think that I'll finally be leaving Plottier.
I've been here for about 4 months, and it's going to be sad to leave, and
hard to readjust to a new area where I don't know my way around or all the
people, but I'm excited for a new chapter in this little book we call the
mission.

Thanks for all of your emails and prayers,


Love,

Elder Bradley Turek