Monday, November 4, 2013

Nov 4th ¡Doble Gringo Poder! (Double Gringo Power!)



Family and Friends!

Thanks so much for your letters and emails.

How was Halloween? Here it passed by almost unnoticed, but I did see one person with a knife through their head headband-costume-thing the day after. 

It's cool to hear about the snow and such that are gracing your lands up there in the north, when it's getting hotter and hotter here each day. It's like I'm on the other side of the world or something. 

Changes, changes, changes.

Well, how do I say this. I had two companions last week, one gringo, and one Peruvian. Now, because of something one of his past companions did, my Peruvian companion, who I've been with my entire mission here in Argentina, had to leave. 

That left Elder Farnsworth from SLC (who just got here 4 weeks ago) and I to fend for ourselves. President Lovell appointed me the Senior Companion, but gave Elder Farnsworth the responsibility of continuing the "First 12 weeks" program with me.

Before this event, I'd only had one day without my companion, a day where we did exchanges with another companionship. 

Haha, it's been fun. Luckily, the Lord has prepared me for this. I feel pretty confident in my ability to speak and understand spanish--still have a long way to go--but without a native speaker to lead the way, we're doing the best we can, and I've been surprised with how well it's gone. 

It's been a baptism by fire, but we're learning quick. Yesterday we had an excellent sacrament meeting where lots of youth bore their testimonies. After Sacrament, we found a member who could go with us and went off to work. Normally this lady and her non-member husband are never there (like I've been to this lady's house almost every week my entire mission and never seen her husband or gone in her house), but lo and behold when we arrived, her house wasn't there. They had taken their house apart and were rebuilding it bigger. , and thanks to our member friend we were abWe found them rebuilding their house to sit down in some lawnchairs and finally have a short lesson with these people.

I often get too excited/nervous and sometimes I just can't say things as clearly or correctly as I need to, but the lesson went pretty well and we have an appointment for the next sunday.

This was a blessing because we haven't been able to find a member and have a lesson with investigators for a long time, and really we haven't been able to get much accomplished in the last few weeks, so yesterday was great.

In other news, when we have to make our own food I've been trying to cook with all the food groups, have lots of vegetables, and excellent, wholesome foods . I love me them wholesome foods. Attached is a picture of an example of breakfast: Bread, defrosted by the microwave, an apple, and an egg also courtesy of the microwave. We have drinkable yogurt in 1kg bags here, too. And we can't forget about the avena (Oatmeal). Almost every morning I have myself a bowl of oatmeal, and my former companion and other people here think I'm crazy (in that I habitually just eat oatmeal) and that somehow I'm going to get sick because I'm not feeding myself very well. I don't think they understand very well, haha. 

Also attached is a picture of an example of a homemade lunch. A plate of arroz integral (brown rice) and a shredded carrot salad dressed with lemon juice. Yum. The rest of the time at members houses we almost always have some sort of pasta with meat and bread and gaseosa (or soda).

Also, the other week we were helping one of the members build their house and one of the things they needed was a septic tank? At least some sort of deep hole. 3 meters deep(10ft). We dug with a pick axe and flat shovel for as long as we could and then when you couldn't throw the dirt out well enough, we started lowering two buckets down on pieces of hose to take the dirt out. We only got to about two and a third meters. It was good, hard, hot, work and I was sore for a few days and won a few good looking blisters on my hands.

I love you all! Thanks for your support and prayers,

Elder Turek

P.S.I heard about the incident with the car... haha, aren't mistakes fun to learn from? Brett, Tyler, I love you, but it would be nice if that car was there when I got home. ;) There this thing called a brush (I know there is one because I bought it) it's good for removing snow from windshields. Use it. There are these other things called eyes. You know, those moist holes in your head. Turn your head and use those too. ;) Just be safe; your safety is priority, but very near to that is that of the car. :) 

I'm super proud to hear that Brett got As and Bs in Math (Thank you, Skylar). Also, fun to hear about Mom and how you're totally digging your yoga class. Are you just super-flexible now? What's your favorite pose? Dove? Crane? Warrior III? Camel? Let me know how your classes are going. 

Kyla and Cody, I hope your doing well in school and learning tons. Remember that knowledge is the only thing that we can take out of this life, so learn lots; it will pay off. I love you! 






No comments:

Post a Comment