First off, missionary. work. is. incredible. It´s an adventure filled with profound experiences, especially for me during this past week.
-It´s giving up the cares of the world and serving the Lord
-It´s giving the bittersweet goodbyes to your teachers at the mtc who served you for 9 weeks
-It´s knowing that you won´t see them/anyone else in America for 2 years and still feeling happy
-It´s keeping a positive attitude, regardless of the situation
-It´s singing hymns everyday and getting them stuck in your head
-It´s having days feel like minutes and minutes like days
-It´s reading your mail and thinking about the ones you love
-It´s studying the gospel for hours and hours with your investigators´ needs in mind
-It´s growing attached to the mtc, loving it, and then having to leave
-It´s feeling so exciting to leave that you might go crazy and so nervous that you might poop your pants
-It´s going out of your comfort zone
-It´s being strengthened by the testimonies of others and sharing yours when the time is right
-It´s learning how to get along with everyone, even the weird ones
-It´s having new homes, foods, and friends
-It´s putting on your suit coat and name tag everyday and knowing that you’re a true missionary for the Lord
-It´s serving him with all of your heart might mind and strength each day you wear that tag
-It´s speaking spanish every day, whether you understand yourself or not
-It´s bearing your farewell testimony in your mtc ward and thinking of the farewell talk you gave back home
-It´s eating two huge bowls of ice cream at the last mtc meal and knowing that it wont be available in argentina
-It´s packing your bags and saying goodbye to your zone and knowing that you’ll be in argentina the next day
-It´s waking up the next morning and realizing that It´s your last day the mtc and in america!
-It´s getting your passport, visa, travel information, and then boarding the bus bound for the airport
-It´s watching the mtc fade away through the bus window and remembering all your incredible experiences there
-It´s seeing how the gospel really is rolling forth to all nations in over 50 languages
-It´s arriving at the slc airport with 460 other missionaries, all going to different parts of the world
-It´s feeling famous there because everyone knows who you are and asks where you’re going to serve
-It´s falling asleep at random times in random places because you’re so exhausted
-It´s waiting to board a huge international plane thats the size of 5 whales
-It´s taking off into the air and not looking back
-It´s wondering about the future and knowing that you’ll have some good stories to tell when you come back home
-It´s praying for and loving your future companion before you meet him
-It´s showing your faith every day, every minute, every second
-It´s studying the scriptures and Preach My Gospel for hours each day/preparing to teach & dominate
-It´s thinking about your friends serving in different parts of the world and hoping for their success
-It´s hoping and praying for your success too
-It´s enjoying the journey no matter what the circumstances, b/c you know that you’re doing the right thing
-It´s finally landing in argentina and then waiting in the visa line
-It´s contacting someone in the airport, feeling excited/nervous, and successfully giving him a pass-along card, knowing that he didn´t understand everything you said but got the gist of the message.
-It´s walking outside the airport for the first time and trying to take it all in
-It´s hearing catillano (which is more unique than i thought) EVERYWHERE
-It´s having people try to say you name and hearing "juh-owens" or hearing people just say it in spanish like "hone-es"
-It´s realizing that most of these people don’t understand a word of english
-It´s driving to the mission home in a van that´s similar yet different to vehicles in america
-It´s seeing tons--and i mean TONS--of soccer fields in every possible spot.
-It´s watching kids, teenagers, and some adults completely dominating at soccer. no joke. I´ve heard that everyone, sometimes even 5 year olds, can out play the missionaries here! crazy stuff. they are SO GOOD!
-It´s going through an orientation just like in the mtc and feeling pretty DISoriented again b/c there is so much new information
-It´s meeting your mission president and already looking up to his sabiduría (wisdom).
-It´s finally meeting your trainer, Elder Birky, and learning everything from him every second.
-It´s relying on him b/c he understands spanish so much better and learning how to speak from him every day.
-It´s improving your spanish so much so rapidly that it blows your mind, but still realizing that you have a LONG WAY to go :)
-It´s having a HUGE culture shock and loving that shock, even though it's more overwhelming than the mtc b/c it's so much more awesome
-It´s seeing over a hundred dogs the first day. This isn´t a joke. promise.
-It´s getting followed by and sometimes even chased by these dogs and quickly learning how to scare them off with certain words, actions, etc
-It´s seeing mopeds en cada calle (in every street) and realizing that they are more common than cars here
-It´s seeing 2, 3, or even more people than that riding one moped. My trainer says that in some small areas of town, when a family just needs to go a short distance, they will all just pile onto one moped instead of using the car. The most he has seen on one moped is 6! It´s really funny haha. I think the record for the mission is 8, but the most i´ve seen so far is three :)
-It´s eating empanadas and milanesas every day. There both amazing and that´s like all we eat here. Read about them on the internet if you want more info :)
-It´s eating more chicken and steak in your first 5 days here than you have eaten in the last month. Seriously, i´ve had some type of chicken, steak, or bread filled with chicken and steak for every lunch and dinner here. It´s great but a lot of missionaries gain tons of weight haha
-It´s seeing street salesman with horse drawn carriages and buying fruit (which is better here than in america) and other commodities from him
-It´s having lunch appts with members about 4 to 6 days of each week, which is totally awesome b/c i never have to cook
-It´s seeing really severe poverty in some areas and realizing how good we have it in america.
-It´s getting let into a home and teaching a family the first lesson about the restauración and feeling the spirit so strongly
-It´s understanding about 85% when your trainer is teaching about the gospel and anywhere from 0% to 75% when they are talking about soccer or other random things
-It´s getting to teach really small amounts of these lessons, feeling super nervous, and then feeling great when you find out that they understood your simple explanation of a scripture or your short testimony of the principle
-It´s living in a completely different world that I absolute love. Everyone is so cool.
-It´s learning about the siestas and watching the entire city shutdown from 1 to 4 each afternoon.
-It´s trying to contact and teach during the siestas and not having much success. Everyone, and i mean EVERYONE, sleeps during this time. Well, everyone except missionaries :) haha
-It´s wanting to live in argentina after your mission so that you can sleep during this siesta. You guys know how much I love naps
-It´s living with two natives in your pench (apartment), one from chile and the other from columbia, and just experiencing their different lifestyle
-It´s not understanding what these natives are saying at all sometimes, and other times feeling exciting b/c you know exactly what they are saying!
-It´s being able to roll your Rs almost perfectly sometimes and not at all during other times and not knowing why.
-It´s having an 8 year old make fun of you at church b/c you mispronounce a word while taking to him and have him teach you new vocab words
-It´s realizing how nice the people are here--much nicer in general than the people in america. Tons of people give us food and let us in, even if they are not really interested in the gospel.
-It´s feeling like a true missionary for the first time while walking down a dirt road in a different part of the world with your companion, holding copies of the BOM and pamphlets to hand out to people
-It´s having to do laundry by hand and remembering the good times you didn´t appreciate when you had a washing machine
-It´s seeing soccer jerseys everywhere of all the different argentine teams. A lot of missionaries collet them. They are a bit expensive, but i will most definitely buy one soon!
-It´s hearing "GOOOAAAAALLLLL" shout from every tv everywhere cuz all everyone ever watches is soccer, soccer, or soccer
-It´s getting so much help from members and the bishop of our ward
-It´s trying to cover a huge amount of area in a small amount of time
-It´s living in san martin, the best area of the mission for me so far haha
-It´s tasting different types of soda, candy, and juice here. Like everything is homemade here, so it´s all amazingly good
-It´s getting used to the new currency and figuring out how to gauge prices at the supermarket
-It´s going to bed at 1030 after one of the most crazy days of your life and sleeping like a brick for the 8 hours you get
-It´s getting up the next morning, studying for 2 hours with your companion, going out to tract, and realizing that people are STILL sleeping. What´s up with that? So let me summarize for you. All the people here sleep in two hours later than us and sleep for 2 to 4 hours during the siesta. They also go to bed SUPER late. I think that it´s pretty funny :)
-It´s just loving every minute and trying your hardest to learn spanish
-It´s telling funny stores with your roommates and having a great time
-It´s not understanding the story very well when one of the natives is talking and just laughing to yourself
-It´s watching general conference and hearing the entire congregation laugh at a pun or joke that one of the speakers said and not getting it b/c you don’t know spanish well enough. This was really funny. When the whole congregation laughed at one of President Monson´s jokes, i just looked back at one of the other new missionaries from the mtc. We laughed at each other b/c neither of us got it :)
-It´s talking about soccer with kids and then trying to share a quick gospel message with them
-It´s attending the meetinghouse in your area that a tad more rundown than the one in your hometown, but still really similar
-It´s realizing that the meetinghouse is by far the nicest building around other than offices in downtown area.
-It´s feeling grateful for everything you have and still realizing that the people here love their lives, even though they don´t have as much stuff as americans
-It´s having people ask you where you’re from b/c they can tell you are not argentine just by looking at you
-It´s talking to other new missionaries and sharing funny/exciting experiences that we have had
-It´s watching a native trainer study with his new companion and laughing b/c they don’t understand each other haha.
-It´s just having the best time ever
-It´s finding out that the mail takes about 4 weeks to go one way, sometimes longer b/c it has to get to the mission home first. Right now, I live about 2 and a half hours away from the mission home, which is average. So I think I get the pouch mail like every two weeks or something like that. With standard Argentine mail, it can take over a month to get form america to my apartment haha. I´ll just have to figure out how the mail works as I go
Hasta Luego!
Elder Jones
P.S. I am trying to write people back and will send a few letters in a couple days. If you really want to tell me something, email me! I can read your emails, but I am not allowed to respond to emails through gmail. I will have to handwrite back! Thanks for everything guys! Argentina, argentina, argentina. The best mission of them all! haha
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