July 22nd

How are things! I feel like I start every single email with that...

Okay so this week, 

Firstly, our little dogs keep following us, ever-so faithfully.

Secondly, we have a new investigator who we´re working with named Pol. (The spanish copy of Paul). He´s a kid of 9 years and he´s pretty good. His dad is less active and his mom is Catholic. We´ve been teaching him a few days this week and as we were teaching the plan of salvation and having him draw what we were explaining to help him understand it, we got to the Kingdoms of Glory and we explained which people are going to be in which Kingdoms.

We said that only those who accept and live the gospel of Jesus Christ will be there and he looked at the list of Faith, Repentance, Baptism, and the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and it donned on him, ´´Sólo falta bautizarme!´´ ´´I just need to get baptized, then!´´ 

Haha, he was kind of excited and we were like, ´´exactly!´´ you need to get baptized! So now he´s more excited about getting baptized.

Changing topic slightly, I got kissed by a crazy lady the other day. We were in the Anonima (like Argentine Walmart) when all of sudden I hear someone say hola in a sing-song voice and start to walk towards me. It was a mom and a girl, and at first I didn´t recognize who it was, but that happens sometimes because we move around a lot and some people just know that if we´re dressed the way we are that we are none other than the missionaries. 

So at first I thought she was a member from somewhere, but then I remembered. It was a lady who I had helped with her computer at the internet cafe. She had remembered who I was and was apparently very excited to see me. As is custom here she came up to me leaned in for a kiss on the cheek and once she had already leaned in it gets really awkward to put outstreched stiff arm hand in their face so I gave her and her daughter a kiss on the cheek and it was really no big deal. (It happens often enough.)

But the weird thing was that she was laughing. I talked, she laughed. Haha, it was very friendly of her to remember me and to greet us, but she laughed at basically anything I said. She also speaks a little english and so she´d throw a few words in there and laughed almost nervously some more.

I at first just left it at that, and let her go, but then I realized I should invite her to do something, so I went back over to her and got her number and address and invited her to our English Classes. We´ll see how it goes.

Okay, OTHER NEWS:

• We´re going to have a sweet activity called Trip to Hawaii.
• My companion is probably going to be transferred this week.
• I HAVE A YEAR IN THE MISSION, I´m old and my socks are holy. (Not the biblical variety)
• We don´t have a washing machine (let alone the myth you people call dryers) and so these last two weeks I had the experience of washing clothes by hand. I will never look at a washer with the degree of unappreciation that I have shown them in the past. 

Thats all folks,

Elder Bradley Turek

8 de Julio

Hello family,

It´s wonderful to see all the pictures of the celebrations of the 4th of July. I was laying in my bed and thinking about how right about now there having fireworks all over the... united states. I hope it all went well and there were minimal injuries

Okay, so I don´t have very much time to type this so I¨ll have to make it quick.

This week, our ward had their annual temple trip! Yay! So on Monday they all got together in the church with their bags in hand, and at first (I had forgotten about the temple trip) I thought that they were all getting together for some slumber party in the chapel that I had not been invited too, but when the big 2 story bus showed up I remembered that they were all  headed to the temple. You know what I wasn´t grateful enough for when I had them. Temples. I had like a bajillion within a few hours of my house in Utah, and now.... I have a bajilllion miles between me and the closest temple. It´s a privilege to go to the temple. These people only get to do it once every year. ONCE. It´s been a year since I have been in the temple and I too miss it.

So everyone was in the temple this week, and that made it hard to have lessons with members, hat being a precious commodity here anyways.

We had a stake conference this Sunday and so we all (the missionaries) got on a intercity colectivo (bus) and went to Neuquén across the bridge to go to the conference. We got there and it was still dark... inside th building. As it often happens here, there ``was no power``. And so we started the conference with no light, excepet from the windows and no microphone and we really couldn´t hear. After about 15 minutes, I don`´t know how he did it, but some technician came, went into the microphone room and then the light in the room turned on and the microphone worked but the the rest of the building still didn´t have power. It was another blessing to not have to litsten to the entire conference like in the days of old.

Also, this week we didn´t have any lunches with the members, not one. So I made like a vegetable stew, rice thing called guiso, and it wasn´t exactly the same as the members, there was too much rice, but it was good anyways. Every other day of the week, you`´ll never guess what we ate. I´ll give you a hint it starts with noo and ends with dles and we eat it every day of our lives...

There´s two families who we´re working with who are great.

One is the Macino family. There still investigating the  church, but they´re really nice. There an old couple of about 78 years. The husband´s name is aldo and he thinks a lot and really likes what we teach and would like to progress, but his wife, although kind manneredly, said that she likes how the mormons are,  but doesn´t want to change her religion (even though she doesn´t practice her religion) . Fine then, don´t change your religion just listen to what we say and do it! It´s okay, she´ll come around. Those darn traditions of their fathers.

Okay, I gotta go, but I love you all and I pray that you don`´t cut the funds off. :)

Love,

Elder Bradley Turek

June 30th Drunk Ladies are heavy

``Intercambios

Today I did exchanges with Elder Catillo from Miami. Lot´s of interesting things happened. I`ll tell you.

In the morning we found a fat, short, lady in the street. She was sitting there with watery eyes, and when we passed by she asked us a favor. She invited us to sit down and she began the story of how she had broken her ankle and that she needed money to pay for a taxi to get home, really far away in the ´´fields´´. As we spoke I smelled something and it appeared to be coming from her.

She told us that she liked to hear ``the word of god`` and so we shared a scripture with her in Helaman, Helaman 5:12. She understood it and even finished my sentence when I told her that the rock is Jesus Christ. After the scripture I explained that we wanted to help but when I went for my Missionary Handbook, the which I´ve been using as a wallet, I didn´t have it; I had left in the apartment. I looked all over in my pockets and I came up with 4 pesos, which if you want to convert it, (dollar has gone up to like 8:1) is like less than 50 cents. Three pesos is how much it costs to get in the taxi, let alone go somewhere.)

So I gave it to her. Haha, she looked at me and then looked at me with a face that told me that it wasn´t what she was expecting me to give her.

I explained that it was everything that I had, but with a questioning look at my companion I said that we could see if we could find more.

With that she asked us the favor of helping her stand up and she started to waddle towards the corner of the street saying that she would be here in the yard on the corner where ´´the people take care of me``. And as we left she said, you`re going to come back right? And I assured her, despite the skeptical attitude of my companion that we would.

We went back to the pension and as we walked my temporary companion Elder Castillo told me how he just doesn´t trust people any more and asked me if I was really going to give her money. I thought about it and said that I already said that I would, and I couldn´t really go back on my word. He said that he wouldn´t have done it.

We walked 10 minutes back the way we came and came back with 50 pesos, everything that I had. We went back to the corner where we left her and went into the yard and asked for Rosita like she had told us to do and they led us into a little house and we found Rosita eyes still watering, sitting by a smoky, almost out, fire place. 

Our fears were confirmed as we entered the house and yard and found 3 or 4 other men that had the same smell as Rosita. She and the rest of them had been drinking. We came to find out later from one of her drunk companions that most of her story was true, but that she hadn`t come from the hospital, like she had led us to believe, but that she had been there all night with them and that she frequently was with her.

I sat down on the bed and told her that we were going to help her, but that she had not been totally honest with us, (I was guessing at this point because no one had confirmed me yet) She had been mostly honest, but we talked a little and that´s when I figured out how the situation really was.

She and the other men who were looming around were clearly all alcoholics. So we talked to her for a little bit and told her that we wanted to help her get home and that we wanted to pass by her house later to help her come closer to God. She agreed and said that that would be fine. I gave her the 50 peso bill and told her that it was for the Taxi. I also gave her a book of mormon and I marked some scriptures in 2 Nephi 4. She thanked us as she kissed the book and said that she wanted to show us where she lived. We had to go, but we told her that we would come back in like an hour and that we could all go together to her house (her house is actually a blue bus).

So we left and went to our appointment. One hour later we came back and found Rosita again. We told her that we were ready to go and finally we got outside with her walking very slowly assisted by my hand and her cane, when I asked her for the money that I gave her. She handed me 22 pesos. I looked at her and I knew what had happened, and why there were two half-empty boxes of golden wine in the little house where we were. I told her ``that was for the taxi`` and she said ´´´but they asked me for it!´´ I didn´t get mad at her, but I gave a her a face of dissapointment. RIght then the taxi got there and we started to get on when Rosita told us to go to store down the road that she needed one more box of wine. I not very ammused with what had just happened with my 50 pesos told her no that she didn´t need it. She pleaded with us and the taxi driver as we went, but to no avail.

This was rediculous. We kept going and going and the it turned into a dirt road. The taxi driver kept up a good speed and so it wasn´t too smooth, and as he did so Rosita complained and asked if this was how he always drove and that she was going to throw up. I was seriously afriad of being puked on by a fat drunk lady.

Finally, (I`m out of time) we get to her house, er bus. and after the taxi gets as close at it possibly can to the bus we help her get out of the taxi and slowly, really slowly and wobbily make our way to the bus me and my companion with one arm each. She was not doing her part of the walking very well, and after a few minutes we finally made it to the door. I let go of her arm to open the door and a few seconds later she fell face first in a sort of slow motion, screaming, towards the ground and the front step of the bus. Luckily we kind of stopped her fall, so that she didn`t bang her head. 

It took us another few minutes and me lifting this woman´s full body weight with all my might to get her on her feet, up the steps and into the dang 

We left her with the book of mormon and got back in the taxi towards home. And as we talked I realized I had 22 pesos in  my pocket and that the taxi was already more than 60 and we still had to get back in to the city.

We get back into the city to realize that the power is out and so the atms don´t work, and this taxi driver didn´t really want to be not paid. So he drove us to a part of the city where luckily there was power and we finally paid him 112 pesos for the whole thing.

After all, I don´t regret it, even though it was rediculous,and sometimes I feel like I should. We helped this lady get home, and I know that I won´t go to hell for helping the poor drunk, fat, complaining, alcoholic lady, even if it cost me 112 pesos and a lot of effort.

Elder Turek

June 22nd

Dear Family,

How are all of you? So like I said this last email, I got transferred to Cipolletti, a much bigger city than my last area, right next to Neuquén. In 25 de Mayo there were 8,000 people and everybody knew each other. Here it`s a lot different. I caught myself talking out loud about how tall the buildings are or how nice the houses look. There are a few quite tall apartment buildings, the like of which I have never yet in my  mission had, and also a few really tall hotels. Lots of things to do, and a whole lot more cars.

Like I said there is a lot bigger, nicer houses, like whole neighborhoods of such houses, but just across the highway from this neighborhood is a very, very poor neighborhood called the ``tomas`` (the takes) or rather it`s city land that the people are more or less illegially living on. They make their houses out of pallettes and black plastic film to stop the majority of the  wind and water, but they`re very humble homes. We have an investigator in these tomas named Camila. She and her boyfriend live together and they`re really young, like 20ish. She had talked to missionaries before, and she is pretty interested, but still hasn`t come to church.

This week I`ve been trying to memorize a few hymns in spanish. Like this one called Divina Luz (lead-kindly-light). Translated...Directly... (it`s a whole lot prettier in spanish)

Directly Translated:

Divine light with splendor kind

shine in me

dark are the night and the way

my guide be

so far from your pavillion, I am

and to the house of the heights, I go

There were moments

in the which your help

I didn`t suplicate

trusting in my own experience

I didn`t have faith

Now, today I hate that blindness

Give me, God, your free clarity

Guiding, thou, the night is brilliant

and I will cross

the valleys, mountains, rocky places and torrents

with a firm foot

I will see afterwards

the day wake up

Thou will guide back home

Spanish:

Divina Luz, con esplendor benigno, alúmbrame.

Oscuras son la noche y la senda; mi Guía sé.

Muy lejos de Tu pabellón estoy,

y al hogar de las alturas voy.

Momentos hubo en que Tu ayuda no supliqué,

confiando en mi propia experiencia; no tuve fe.

Mas hoy deploro esa ceguedad;

préstame, Dios, Tu grata claridad.

Guiando Tú, la noche resplandece, y cruzaré

los valles, montes, riscos y torrentes con firme pie.

Veré después el día despertar,

y me guia rás de vuelta a mi hogar.

Okay, that`s all the time I have now

(Mom to answer your questions, no those photos are not closer to the south, actually, the northest part of the mission, and sadly I have yet to see any turtles or penguins, BUT we did see a little fox, some vultures, and a hare.)

Love,

Elder Bradley Turek

June 16th

Dear Fathers! Happy fathers day! You`re the best! The world doesn`t appreciate it´s fathers enough.

I´m so happy that Ashleys farewell went so well! I´m so proud of that girl!!

No, I do not know Brandom Burningham, but that`s great that he`s recieveing his call! Send him a good luck for me!

Wow, you`re all selling the green truck! That`s crazy, but it`s okay; in with the good and out with the old and bad... somehting like that.

Sorry, today was transfers and i don`t have very much time, but I did want to let you konw that I did get transfgered! I got transferred to an area called Cipolletti, much closer to Neuquén. It looks a great area and I`m excited to get working. I need to get better. It`s a new start and I`m going to take advantage of it.

My new companion is great. Voy a decirle la verdad. Había escuchado algunas cosas sobre mi compañero antes de conocerlo y por eso estaba un poco desalentado, pero al ser desalentado y pensar me di cuenta que podía tener un buen actitud o un malo. Que realmente va a ser como yo quiero la situación. Si pienso que va a ser difícil y pesado mi actitud va a tener un afecto en la situación. Al final escogí a cambiar mi actitud y hacer lo mejor de la situación. A mi sorpresa llegué y hasta ahora todos las cosas que escuché no son verdaderos. (Please translate that before you send it off at translate.google.com)

Um, fun fact. The world cup is huge here. As I write I`m kind of distracted because the TV behind us has the US game on and the narrator keeps saying my name in a spanish accent! (``Bradley! Lo tiene! Bradley! GOOOOLLL!) I`m not sure... but I have a suspision that there is player named Bradley... Haha

Well that`s all for this week. I have to go. I beg your forgiveness for such a short email (please don`t cut the funds off!)

Please enjoy these pictures of a sunday stroll to a lookout point over 4 of the provinces that a member invited us to as a sort of goodbye for me.

Love,

Elder Turek