Week 6 // Argentina, Enseñada

how have you all been? It´s been a long time since my last email... haha lot´s of changes and happenings... 

First off, Argentina is NOTHING like the US... Nothing... It´s actually kind of chaos... No street rules, riots, zombie dogs, crazy people, just the regular.

There are like no rules for driving... Whoever gets to the intersection first, wins. normally the bigger one wins... haha it´s pretty crazy. 

We travel on Colectivos allllll of the time. They are these buses that travel everywhere. They are insane as well. They slam on brakes, almost take people out, especially bikers..

I don´t even know where to start... haha Sooooo many things and so little time. So we got here at 9 Argentina time (3 hours ahead) and we met presidente and the assistants in the airport. They loaded our stuff and we went to pick up other new missionaries at a different airport. We then went to presidents house for lunch. Lunch here is HUGE... the biggest meal of the day. But we had like these beef chops. Really good actually... Then we traveled further to the church to meet our trainers. By now it´s like 6 at night. So I had a quick briefing and interview with president and then we left at like 8!! haha sooo crazy. I loooove Presidente Nuñez... He said at the end of our interview he looks at me and says ¨Be the missionary your mother thinks you are¨. Hit me right in the feels. haha 

It´s reeeeeally hard here. Reeeeeally poor and run down. But I always try to be positive and put a smile on. But there is garbage everywhere, crazy drugys, sketchy dudes on Motorcycles, and Zombie dogs, some that look like they are satans pets.... like no joke we would be walking on some of the streets and the dogs are doing just weird things, and then they´ll stop and growl and bark at you haha. I feel like we are so protected here though. God protects his missionaries. About 80% of our mission is sketchy, especially at night. Our dorm is really safe though. You have to go through a locked door at first, and then our door lock down and up the stairs a bit. 

The first night I couldn´t speak. I was so shocked at everything. Culture shock hit hard. My comp kept asking what was up and what not and i just said I was fine, I was just in shock... haha 

So we are in Ensenada, don´t look up pictures if you haven´t already. haha just so you don´t worry. I´m completely fine and safe. But my comp said that this is presidents FAVORITE area for some reason... haha he said that the people are really humble and love their portion of life. It´s a huge area with almost no members. We´ve had one member lesson this whole week and that was because the member was the mother of the investigator.. So we are having to go tract a lot and find and try to teach. People here can be really prideful, but that is the exact same as the US... haha They just dont see the need of our religon. Elder Bean said that he hates taking investigators to church because there is only like 10 constantly active members... and when he walks in with an investigator, they are kind of taken by the low amount of people... but we are still working hard at it!!

My Comp! he´s great, he´s been out about a year and speaks actually really good spanish or casillano... haha he´s about 5´5 and he´s from Price UT!! Went to Carbon High. I told him that my school has played his in mulitple sports.. haha he hates wasatch hahaha he said we always beat them! But he´s a way cool guy. He´s 20 so we went to a bit of school first. I am soo young to everybody out here! Everyone went to school for a bit first. 

My zone has 20 missionaries in it. and about half of them are sisters! We don´t have any sisters in our area because it´s a bit dangerous. But ya! And Elder Moore is in my district and zone as well!! Way cool! I already am good friends with multiple elders including my Zone leaders! They´re great! Elder Clark and Elder Tolman, both from UT... haha 

So I´ve talked about some of the sketchy stuff, but the good stuff is there too! I have felt the spirit constantly! We´ll be walking down the street and it´s like we know exactly where to go! super cool! My first time using this direction was on that next day, wednesday. We were walking down this path and this lady was coming the other way, and I was just like ¨Elder Bean, aqui...¨ He does all of the talking because I know nothing about Castillano.. and she accepted all of these pamphlets and what not!! He was like I would have never thought to talk to her. He´s said that he thought he had taught her daughter but that this lady rejected everything before. Waayyy cool. The rest of the day was patterned after this. So cool

Food is great, Actually really great, I´ve liked everything that we´ve had. And some of it has been kind of weird and sketchy. My inerds seem to be holding up fine as well... hahaha My favorite thing so far is something called ñoquis or something spelled like that. I can´t really describe it but you should look them up! super good. oh and Alfahorz are A-MAZING. i´M bringing like 3 boxes back to the US with me... haha they are soooo good. They are like these little cake things in wrapping that you buy anywhere and everywhere.... Dulce de leche is amazing. It´s carmel and we put it on everything and anything. hahahaha sooo good

The language is coming but is really hard. it´s spanish gone wrong. People talk in so much slang and don´t finish sentences and everything. Really hard. But I´m starting to catch on and speak little by little. Everyone around me has told me not to worry about it and that it will come in time. So that´s nice. But I just want to speak so badly!! I´m going bonkers!! haha Some people sound like they´re speaking chinese it´s so bad...haha 

All in all, I think I love it here... I can´t say I do yet to be honest, because part of me is sketched out and part of me is so excited and ready. But President said after 3 weeks it will all be normal. So I´m looking forward to that! I really want to love it here and I already love some of the familias here!!! 

Anyways that´s about all I have for you right now, I´ll write next week with more!! Sure do love you guys! I´ve been having some homesickness but I know that will pass... haha Time is already starting to pick up. And I really want to enjoy this and have a great time! Thank you for the prayers and the letters! Sure appreciate and love you guys!! Oh, real quick. There´s a way to get packages!! Get on facebook someone and find Argentina Buenos Aires East mission. Apparently you can talk to people that travel back and forth regularly and they take packages and stuff in their bags for missionaries. So apparently you make a small package or bag or something and you send it to them and they stick it in their luggage and give it to the missionaries!! So just if you wanted to send candy... That would be reallllly nice... American candy is way good....haha so maybe you could ask around or talk to someone! Love you guys!!! I´ll write next week!!!

-Elder Hansen