May 12th

Dear Family,

It was wonderful to be able to talk to all of you on Skype. My cheeks were killing me for a significatn time afterwards. Okay the things that happened this past week....

First of all this P-day. This p-day was the day when we clean the house really well. After that we had decided that we would go and try out the Yoga classes that they have here in 25 de Mayuol. WE ound out that they had classes because one day we were in the terminal waiting for a buis like we often do and there was a schedule of activities in the window and we came to findout that these activites are free activities that the city puts on for everyone in the city; they hire a professor and pay them and e3veryone or anyone can come free to the classes. Threre`s bachata, a dance, chocolate classes, sewing, crochet, a bunch of other stuff, but as I`m sure you guessed the activity that fell exactly on Monday our P-day was YOGA. SO I convinced my companion and we went! We were excited and we told the sister missionaries that t they wre sureloy missing out. So we went and it just so ahappened that the teacher had a birthday party to go to and so there wqas no classes that day.... It was kind of sad, but it`s okay, we`ll have another day, and I`ll let you know how it goes.

Okay, also, there was an excellent chain of events that happened the day before I called all of you, that Saturday. I had thought that Saturday was Mother`s Day, and so I had gotten everything ready to call you all and was there right at four o clock, but then I realiezed that it was tomorrow and not today.. I was sad, but I got over it. Okay, next the Sisters came and they were going to call their families, because they really had planned to talk to them the day before mother`s day, unlike me, and it just so happened that while I was hooking them up the computer, because we had to use a little laptop that had a webcam, instead of the old PC that the Church has, that I bumped the monitor and it fell on the floor.... I later came to find out when the sisters were cleaning up and putting everything back to gether that the monitor wastn`t working.... NO!!! Fetch, I had broken the good for nothing monitor. It turns on for a few seconds and you can see the desktop, but then it turns off. We`ll see how it turns out. Then later that night, we couldn`t find any investigators in their houses, and we didn`t have any money, and then we called lunch and they coulnd`t give us lunch so we were a bit discouraged, but later the sisters called us and helped us cheer up a bit, because they knew we were having a rough day. Well, the next tday everything went better because I got to talk to you all!! So it was worth it.

Okay, before I forget, I wanted to ask a few questions.

Lasagna. I`ve heard a few people talk about a Lasagna here and they like it, but I`ve yet to find someone who knows how to make it. Mother dearest, that`s when I thought of you... :) I always tell them that my mom makes the best lasagna that there is... So they all want to know how to make it. Would you happen to have a recipe for lasagna that I can share with them and my companion (it`s his favorite).

Second, collect calls in argentina. On the back of our debit cards if we want to call from outside of the united states to the automated customer service that we need to call collect (to inquire how much we have on our mission card because the ATM`s in this city don`t tell you). But the problem is I don`t know how to do it, especially in Argentina. Can you help me out with that? How does one make a collect call in Argentina?

Okay, so going back a month, when I was with Raul, I had my 9 month birthday in the mission. 9 months... and so I took pregnant pictures for obvious reasons...  Don`t ask, it was funnier at the time....

OKay, I have a recent convert here name is Jorgelina, and she`s 70. Until this point, I have been calling someone to go and get her and bring her to church, for that reason the fact that she really likes church, and the fact that she doesn`t have much else to do, she`s always there on Sunday, but this week our Branch Presidnet wisley counesled us that we help her start walking to chruch and so that`s what we did. We walked with her to church. Me and my companion had to consistently slow our usual very quick missionary pace to her Jorgelina Pace, because if we forgot and started thinking about other things we started to walk faster than her unconciously... But it was a nice walk, and even though she said she was tired afterwards, I think she enjoyed it.

Also, I bought something nice with the birthday money that you sent me! THanks so much for that! I was in the terminal in Neuquèn, waiting for  a bus and there was a store with a bunch of cool hand made stuff, so I went in and took a look a round and I saw this very cool sweater, I had been lacking on a sweater because I gave one of the two that I found to my companion who got whisked off to the south part of the mission becasue he had no sweater. Okay, so I saw this sweater and I thought hey! I could use one of those. When I found out that it was super-soft alpaca fur, the perfect v-neck kind that shows your tie, and just my size I bought it. I also bought myself somehting else that I^ve been missing, that is a tie clip. I`m doing just grand now.

Another day when we were in Cinco Saltos for the Zone Conference, that our Zone Leader randomly asked me to lead, we were waiting for a bus, and my companion who loves Avocados, suggested that we find and eat ourselves some avocados. So we found a fruit and vegetable joint, the which are much more common here, bought some avocados and bread and sat down to have ourselves some avocado and bread, my companions favorite food, but we realized that we had nothing to cut them with.... We thought about it look, looked for sharp objects, opened one with a clean stick, but finally it donned on me.

I took out my debit card and I cut them open, pulled out the pit, cubed them and squeezed it into the bread. It was a stroke of genious and it worked great.

Okay, now I`m out of time, but I love you all!

Elder Bradley Turek

P.S. Your question, ´´ Do families in Argentina have their elderly grandparents and relatives live with them as they grow old and age?´´

Sometimes... Especially here in 25 de Mayo, there is a lot of famililes that live close together, if not on the same property in different little houses. Everyone is family here, or if they aren`t family, they know each other.