These are the greetings I hear everyday en la calle here in Cañada de Gomez, about an hour and a half west of Rosario. Sometimes 3 phrases all strung together! I love it here. Oh my goodness, it is hard to describe how comfortable I feel in such an unfamiliar place. It doesn´t feel surreal, finally I feel more like me, well the missionary me, and less of the shock that comes when first becoming a missionary.
My companion is Hermana Garrett! She is the sweetest, from Burely Idaho studying at Utah State. This is her second time training and we are having a blast. It is such a wonderful thing to work alongside someone who is always smiling and sharing something positive and uplifting! We´ve had some good laughs already!
Let me tell you what this amazing place is like. I feel like it´s a tropical East LA with a touch of Italy. The outskirts of the pueblo have these vast campos/countrysides. There is so much green here! We already had one thunderstorm on Saturday, and I loved it. Unfortunately we didn´t get the chance to walk in the rain because our ward missionary leader insisted on calling a ramis (taxi) for us to take us from his home to our pension (apt).
This is what our schedule is like, a bit different from the Provo mission as we have to work around the siesta.
6:30 wake. Go RUNNING OUTSIDE! Ahhhh! I am in love with the mornings here! There are jacaranda trees everywhere, and all along the plaza!
7:00 breakfast, shower, prepare for the day.
8:00 2 hours of companionship study. We discuss what we should teach the people we are going to see today and review gospel principles and scriptures.
10:30 Contacting (knocking on doors) and teaching.
12¨30 lunch at a member´s home. I have had fideos (noodles), hamburguesa de Soja (soy) with veggies, milanesa con arroz. The lunch is the perfect size that we don´t need dinner.
2-4 Siesta, but not for us! All the shops are closed, all the people go home to rest while we go home and do an hour of personal study and an hour of studying castellano (spanish. no, they don´t call it español here!)
The rest of the evening is spent knocking doors (oh, I mean CLAPPING in front of doors!! SO COOL. Yup. ) and we don´t stop for dinner. We might have a snack at home when we return at
9pm. Return to the pench for planning and in bed by
1030.
Repeat. Insert lots of prayers, small yet powerful miracles, funny chats with old people, dogs following us for hours, friendly youth who will take and read our pamphlets, not so friendly elderly who won´t let us finish our sentences, half eaten birds on the ground, beautiful palms and oaks, horses tied up to old warehouses, train tracks, tin roofs, holes in walls, muddy roads, swollen feet, smiling faces belonging to two sister missionaries roughin´it in South America.
You guys, this is so awesome.
Chau!
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