December 7, 2009 Email

Hello hello. It´s been a week of searching and searching. We´ve walked a ton a ton and have had mild success. We have two families we´re working with, and a friend of Carmen (my first convert) who is really interested in the church. We´re hoping to bring all of them closer to Christ and this next week is going to be very important to us. We´re living in the new pench that Chesley and I found. Me, my comp Gutierrez, Rogel (from el salvador), and manqui (from chile). None of them are speaking any english anytime soon. It´s still been really tough for me. I´m frustrated alot but i know its a trial i need. My spanish has probably doubled in these last 3 weeks. Id say im still far from fluent but there really isn´t a choice but to speak spanish all the time haha. If i want to say something i really have to work sometimes to say it, use my study books in some cases to get what i want to say to them accross. For the most part i can speak to them. Rogel speaks so fast its ridiculous, the other two i can understand most of the time. Gutierrez has patience with me which i´m truely grateful for! We have zone conference tomorrow, which i always look forward to. A chance to sit down with president one on one is something i love! Today we took a 3 hour bus through the Andes Mtn´s to a place called Punta de Inca. It´s an old ruin of a prison but what is unique is the river in the canyon. Its got some special mineral that petrofies anything you put in it over 2 months. There were a lot of venders selling petrofied shoes and other things. Totally cool. The rocks and stuff are all covered in the mineral setiment. Up the road 2 kilometers we got to see the coveted Aconcagua. it´s amazing, huge, these mountains in the route from mendoza to chile are UNREAL!!!! Gorgeous, towering mountains. Anyone that doesn´t believe god exsists needs to take that drive we took today. Truely can see his hand. It´s summer and the mountains were snow capped (your going to be very frustrated that i forgot my camera on the hike to see aconcagua. Maybe when i finish we can go see it. Some funny notes. We bought lunch today at our favorite place downtown. I got a hamburgesa and a pancho for 7 pesos (basically 2 bucks) for a huge meal. The exchange rate really works to our advantage here with argentine products. Imports from the states however..... fah so expensive. All in all it´s been a good week, today was a lot of fun going up and seeing those mountains. They´re world famous for a reason, wow. Now it´s back to work for another week.