The Big Move

Wow, some pretty crazy experiences this past week have taken me on a
roller coaster ride, leaving me feeling exhausted and rejuvenated all
the same :). Given the current circumstances of the mission and the
plans of our somewhat new president, another move into a new apartment
seemed practically inevitable. And that's exactly what happened :).
Even though it will take some time to explain, I want you guys to pay
attention, or else.... Haha. Just kidding. But seriously, more than
half of this last week has been dedicated to our move. Alright, so
here's the info!

About 25% of the currently serving missionaries in my mission have the
responsibility of moving as soon as possible. Much of the mission
setup with the past president (our current president started serving
in July) centered around four-man apartments. However, our current
president, Hugo Giuliani, has chosen to space out the mission with
smaller apartments, each with a capacity for only two people. This
does have many benefits:

1) the apartments can lie in the middle of a companionship's area,
which means much less walking. We walk A lOT, by the way :).
2) less distractions
3) one gets to know his/her companion better

Obviously, there are benefits to four-man apartments too. I personally
like them better but support the decisions of the president. It's all
good :). In one of my earlier emails, I described the zone leaders'
apartment, which served as my home for the last month or so. That time
came and went, and unfortunately, the official documents and contract
came through, giving us the green light to pack up and leave the
magnificent and spacious zone leader palace. Man, I loved that place.
Haha :) Basically, from the start of this transfer, I had known that
one day we would have to go through the adventurous moving process.
But since the contract still needed processing, which can take weeks
here sometimes, I never mentioned anything in my last emails. Plus I
wanted to enjoy the incredibly nice apartment without thinking about
the future :). Knowing that I had already gone through
this process and learned much of the vocabulary and spanish necessary,
the president put me here on purpose to get the job of transferring
apartments done as quickly as possible :). I didn't exactly want to do
this, especially given the difficulties of the last experience. But
don't worry, like always, I'm glad to serve where needed. So of course,
we accepted the challenge. Just to give you a better idea of the
process, here is a quick list of our main activities from last week:

- visit the landlord's office a handful of times to pay the initial
rent, get the keys, and to review the contract.
- go over the copies of the contract and set up small trips to centro,
where we will set up the electricity and gas connections to our new
home.
- price hunt at at least three places to acquire different appliance
options. We specifically looked for a fridge, oven, closet, kitchen
table, book stand, and fan. Those are the big expenses. The new
apartment had basically nothing, and we transformed it into a home,
bit by bit :).
- analyze our allotted budget and figure out the best deals of appliances
- send a detailed email to the mission offices, describing everything
so it can get approved by the president and then later in Buenos Aires
- going to the new apartment to sweep, mop, and clean everything
before moving in
- actually going to buy all the appliances and setting up a delivery.
Walmart ended up having almost everything at a reasonable price this
time. In my last area, we had to use other stores since Walmart and
other big appliance stores were more scarce. They will deliver
everything this Tuesday!
- pack everything and take down our bunk bed and other stuff from the
zone leader's apartment.
- get a flete, which is basically a Spanish moving truck, to move
everything from our apartment to another.
- set up fan and bookshelves after moving. This assembly took like six
hours total. So much for easy setup haha. Dad, it reminds me of how
long it took to set up my desk in my room :).

Man, that's a pretty good list. We still haven't finished but have
accomplished a bunch :). "Hectic week" is a pretty good way to
describe it. Overall, though a bit stressful at times, I have had many
experiences that should help me out later in life. For example,
whenever I move into my first home, it will be my third
time hahaha. But, on a more serious note, my testimony
has been strengthened on this topic: as missionaries we dedicate two
years of our lives to church service in general. We help out members,
proselyte, schedule church activities, serve in Bishoprics, offer
landscape and home maintenance to those in need, give talks, move,
study, learn a new language etc. Some missionaries even work in
visiting centers for two years. Every mission is different--that's for
sure. I thought my mission would involve more proselyting, but I've
had the opportunity to perform other acts of service. Simply put, even
though more than half of my last week didn't include proselyting, I'm
glad I could help out the mission and the church in a different way.
:).

Like always, I really appreciate all of your support and prayers. I
haven´t gotten mail in about a month but look forward to reading all
about what you guys are doing up there!!. Thanks again.

Elder Jones :)