A full week of fun

This week was pretty great, super fast, and awesome to say the least.

Still, our investigators are really slow. But we weren´t doing a lot last week to help that. Elder Leytton told me during our Weekly planning that in his last area he didn´t really work that much and baptized a lot. So he thought that would work here, but he´s starting to realize its not the same haha. So this week we have a lot of goals to find people and do our best this week. But yeah we talk to members a lot too, and we have a plan for ward council because the members here do nothing to help so it´s a little hard. But yeah, we´ll have some investigators hopefully progressing by the end of the week.

On Tuesday we were teaching some english to people and the sample sentence was The man eats fish, but he does not like it. which says El hombre come pescado, pero no le gusta. Then we asked if there were any questions and this member named Beto (he´s a deacon) raised his hand and said ¿Si él no le gusta, porque está comiendolo??? which means, if he doesn´t like it, why is he even eating it haha I just thought it wa pretty funny.

The other day we were at la familia echequarai eating and politics came up. Hermana eche. asked me if I like Obama and I didn´t really care, but I told her a lot of people don´t really like him. And she goes ¿porque es negro? haha cause he´s black? she was joking but it´s crazy how racist the people are here. But oh well, I thought it was funny too. and this family has the best lunches, it´s an asado every time.

Tuesday I broke through with a great accomplishment, I can now solve a Rubik´s cube. That´s right, Nick. We were visiting Elder Lafleur and Elder Later (the other missionaries in our ward and district) and Elder Leytton stole their rubiks cube and taught me all the tricks and stuff that night. It was really hard for me at first, but after practicing a little in the nights I´ve become okay at it. My record time is 3 minutes and 14 seconds. nick you better watch out hahaha.

I also got my first Argentine haircut. It´s basically shaved really short on the sides and longer on time, like soccer players haha but that´s fine. hopefully I´ll be able to send pictures but this computer is a piece of crap so I don´t know if I will be able to today.

I have finished the Book of Mormon already and I´m in section 26 of the Doctrine and Covenants. It´s awesome studying the scriptures, and I actually look forward to studying now. I´ve found some pretty awesome scriptures along the way for investigators and myself. So yeah. read the scriptures and your day will go a lot better!! That´s the truth!!

Today´s P Day festivities included cooking our own asado. It was awesome. Elder Leytton has some experience so he taught me. It´s basically finding the fattest meat at walmart, starting a fire until it´s coals, (we cooked it in the backyard of elder lafleur y later´s pench, it´s huge) and then putting the meat on a oniony grill and basically making sure it doesn´t burn. We also hit up Guaymallen (by Mendoza) and went bowling. I got a 108 but Elder Leytton finished with 156 haha but I beat Elder Lafleur and Later so yeah.

This week is going to be a little different for me, because I will be traveling to San Luis to do some visa work. San Luis is about 6 hours away by collectivo (bus). On Thursday night I have to report to the offices in Godoy Cruz Mendoza, and then at 2 in the morning ill leave to San Luis. I´ll stay there until saturday doing paperwork, idk, but yeah. There´s a lot of missionaries going with so it´ll be cool.

Moroni 8 verse 3

That´s it I believe. And how bout them Utes, of course when I´m gone lol but that´s soooo sick what happened. Have a great week, make sure you watch conference too, it´s gonna be awesome!!!

Love, Elder Anderson

Monday Funday Though

What´s up family. A lot happened this week and I´m excited to write this letter. Where to start where to start.

Yes, there was a big earthquake in Santiago, and we definitely felt it. We were in the pench playing cards and what not because all our lessons fell through and everything started to shake. I wasn´t really that scared and Elder Leytton is pretty used to them. He says it was about 5.5 or 6 on the scale, but I though it was a lot lower. But everyone is fine in Mendoza. There were a few aftershocks afterwards but it wasn´t bad. We got a text from our zone leader saying that President Goates wanted everyone with emergency backpacks that night, just in case a larger earthquake came. During the night I heard banging noises above me but it was just the freakin gatos (cats) running on the roof like they always do. So now I don´t like cats even more, I thought it was a bigger earthquake haha.

The other day was Indepencence Day of Chile. So after a zone meeting me and Elder Leytton went to the plaza chile in Guaymallen and partied. Lol we just listened to the band and ate some empenadas from chile which was really good. So that was pretty fun. 

It´s been pretty warm here in Mendoza but today it was FREEZING. Me, Elder Leytton, and some other missionaries from our zone went to Cerro Arco in the Andes. It was like a 2 hour hike and at times it was pretty tough. But when we got to the top we made some sandwiches out of the bread and ham and cheese we bought which was really good. But it was really cold at the top of the mountain. I´ll send some pictures in a little of it. 

Dang, my Spanish has come a long, long way. Every day feels like a huge stride. I study A LOT, and I do my best to apply the things I learn. We teach an English class on Tuesdays with some other American missionaries and the other day we visited one of the families that comes. The mom of the family is trying to learn English, so she asked me if I could say the prayer, IN ENGLISH. (they are members). But do you know how long it´s been since I´ve said a prayer in English out loud. It was soooo weird. I was like praying for the things I normally do in Spanish, so the prayer was really simple, yet powerful. Like that´s another benefit of the gift of tongues. I thought about this for a while the other day. Simple language at times is really the best and most powerful, also very sincere. It made me think about how we should sincerely say our prayers.

But I can usually talk to natives now without a problem, native missionaries that is, in Spanish. There is a dialect here that´s somewhat European, so they´ll slur stuff or cut stuff off, so that´ll take some work.

The other day I was just reading the Book of Mormon and what not and I had this crazy idea of parallelism between the Restauración del Evangelio (restoration of the gospel) and how it´s kinda similar to Lord of the Rings. Let me explain. We have music we listen to and the score of the lotr was on it so it was on my brain. Like  Jospeh smith is a lot like Frodo. He needed to carry out a specific task, and because Joseph was innocent and humble he had the ability to do it. no one else could´ve done it. Just a random thought to share, sorry.

Yesterday we were walking along and the song Knights of Cydonia was playing somewhere. Becca yes, it was at that one part that´s really hard on Guitar Hero. I started jammin out and Elder Leytton didn´t know what to do hahahah lol. It´s freakin hilarious how much American music is here. It´s all the mainstream music, like I know every song here that´s not the latino fiesta pop whatever music in spanish. they play a lot of english music, and no one knows what anyone is saying and I´m like wow haha. 

I tried some of the Maté this morning and it was disgusting.

Our investigators are pretty much the same, little progress. We let go of one of ours, actually. We had taught him everything and he wouldn´t commit to anything so we taught again and he still wouldn´t. it was like he just enjoyed our company hahaha. His name is José Cuello. But he´s got some boss quotes he says during our lessons. for example:

Patience is bitter, but it brings sweet fruits. and:

Soy un hombre pobre, pero no un pobre hombre. Which means I´m a poor man but not a man that´s poor. 

Haha he´s funny, little Josesito. he´s got a boss coin collection too haha.

We will find some more investigators this week. Even thought it´s kinda tough here, We still work hard and it´s a blast. I´ve been making a lot of new friends in my district and zone. My nickname here, dubbed by Elder LaFleur is Ders. Exactly how it looks. But I don´t really mind being called Ders haha it´s a little hard for the latinos to say Anderson well, so Ders is just fine.

Still, none of the 5 curses have happened to me, but I´ve got a lot of time. Haha it´s all good here in Mendoza.

I think that´s it. I´m getting excited for General Conference. guys, it´s the prophets speaking. you know who speaks to them? God himself!! Like this is the first time I´ve been actually excited for it. But yeah, have a great week, the weather´s warm here, wombo combo, do something cool this week, I´m praying for you, go boca, solve a rubics cube, and eat your verduras.

Love, Elder Anderson

Another Week Gone By

Hola Familia, it´s been another great week. this week was full of great stuff as every week has.

After I wrote my email last week, we went to McDonalds and I ate a 20 mcnugget combo and it was soooo good. Then we went bowling but i did really bad... I bowled an 80 and Elder Leytton bowled a 104 so yeah it was bad.

Last week I had my first Asada. it´s basically a really big BBQ. We had it at this member´s house one night. The meat there was freaking amazing. There was this one sausage the members and the other elders (there were 4 of us) made me try. It was pretty good, until they told me what it was. It was a sausage made up of onions, beans, and the main substance was congealed blood of a cow. It´s called a Sangre Salchicha or blood sausage. It was really weird thinking about that in my stomach. but I´m still feeling great which is good.

I bought a grapefruit yesterday at a kiosco. It was freakin amazing. The fruits here are waaay good. So the food situation here is pretty bomb. Also, the coke here is really great too.

It´s been a little cold here the past week. It gets a little chilly outside which I´m used to but another thing happens.. the dogs get super on-edge. We´ve been approached by gangs of dogs a couple of times but if you reach down and grab a rock or just pretend like you´re grabbing one, they normally run away. But yeah we were pretty close to getting attacked lol. los perros saben la verdad. 

We have 3 investigators right now. The first is named José. He´s really old, and knows a lot about the church. We keep inviting him to baptism, but he doesn´t want to commit to anything right now. Our second investigator is Pedro, who is basically athiest but he´s pretty open to things. Tomorrow we´re gonna teach him, we´ll see how it goes. Then we have a Catholic woman named Carmen who smokes a lot but is a little interested in our message. We knocked on her door just to set up an appointment and she was smoking and the second she saw us she tried to hide the cigarette. It was pretty funny but yeah.

Anyway yesterday was basically a holiday for Argentina, it was river v boca futbol. Basically like the super bowl. These are the two best and biggest teams, and they are huge rivals. People always ask what team you´re on haha. My team is boca, because Elder Leytton is my dad and he likes boca so haha i don´t really care. But we had to stay in the pension all day after church yesterday. We called a member at 9 last night and she said boca won 1 to 0. you could definitely tell someone scored, because we were studying and all of the sudden you could hear cheering yelling and crying haha. and after the game was over I could hear a bunch of gunshots but yeah it´s just the culture and futbol haha. We´re gonna go play some futbol after we´re done writing, I´m pretty hyped.

Other than that I´m feeling really great! I know that with patience I´ll be able to get through the first stages of this mission. I´m learning a lot everyday, including Spanish. I can´t wait for the day it becomes an automatic thing yanno? then I´ll be able to talk to anyone and it´ll be pretty great.

It´s a goal of mine to read every scripture throughout my mission. I am almost done with the book of mormon which is pretty cool. Hopefully I can do it. I am also reading the missionary library, but we have plenty of time to study every day so I think I can do it!!

Anyway remember I´m praying for you all and it this place and people are awesome!!!

Love, Elder Anderson

​the top of my heladera

2nd day of P

Salutations my children, are you ready for your weekly dose of the life of Matt!!

This week was full of everything. I hope you enjoyed my last letter, it was quite a work of art. We write our emails in this technolibrary thing in downtown Mendoza, so that´s pretty cool. 

Elder Leytton is such a boss (as in a really cool guy). He is throwing me in the fire a little which is good. I have to lead the way when we street contact and knock doors. We don´t do it that much, but when we do it´s up to me. So yeah I´m learning pretty fast at spanish and stuff. We normally teach a couple of times a day. We have 2 catholic women who we are teaching who seem somewhat interested, but they smoke like no other so we´ll see how it goes. Then we teach this really old dude who knows a ton about the church, he actually went to church with us yesterday. But I invited him to get baptized and he doesn´t want to because it´s too much of a committment (not to mention he drinks quite a bit.) And we also teach this guy who is atheist but interested in religion so that´s cool. I´ve been able to talk a lot more during lessons as my spanish is getting better. Also, I practice lessons every day with elder Leytton so it´s coming pretty well. He says youll have them down when you start dreaming about teaching lessons haha. 

I went shopping today at Walmart and dropped 177 pesos so haha thats 17 dollars. I bought some chocolate cereal, some soap, some tissues, some juice, and best of all, some NUTELLA. they have it here but it´s super expensive. I spent 85 pesos on this medium sized thing of Nutella. but yeah. The milk here is awful. But I need my calcium so I still drink it. We make ramen a lot which I´m content with. But all around the barrio (neighborhood) they have these little things called Kiosks, which are shops with really great food, and really inexpensive. We buy coke every day. The coke here is amazing, elder Leytton says its better than the states because it has real sugar in it. I also bought some eggs to cook for breakfast. And the bread and cheese are amazing from the kiosks. So that´s the food situation.

Our pench remains very clean because our landlord, Joaquin, is loco haha. Every lunes (monday) he checks how clean it is. the other day he came in to check the water in the bathroom, and when he was finished he wiped his hands on Elder Leyttons towel. But he didn´t know that´s Elder Leyttons towel to dry off  after he uses the bathroom hahhahah we were laughing so hard once he left.

I´m gonna try to send some pictures today if i can figure out how to use this computer.

I will pray for Grandpa, dang I know he can do it.

I had my first zone conference the other day which was really great, we talked about missionary work haha what else. But President Goates is really cool so every missionary likes being around him. 

Here is what a typical day looks like

6 30 arise and exercise( jumping jacks, pushups, stuff like that.)

7 shower and breakfast and what not

8 study by my self

8 30 comp study

9 30 leave and do our lessons or find people.

12 or 1 or 2 lunch normally with a member (elder leytton is really good at finding people to feed us lunch)

after is study time or mess around haha jk we study

5 30 leave again and do more work

9 we gotta be back and we plan what we´re gonna do the next day

9 30 snack time lol

bed time varies depending on how tired we are. like some days we sleep at  9 45 and others its closer to 10 30.

Yeah, same old, same old, but every day is an adventure. Elder Leytton and I like to joke around and stuff but we work when its appropriate. He will be my companion for 3 months while I train, and it´s his last 3 months. 

Really my obstacles right now are learning spanish quicker and being comfortable to teach lessons clearly and confidently. But if I´m gonna learn patience, I better do it now, cause it´s a long way to the top. (if you wanna rock and roll lol.)

The other day Elder Leytton wasn´t feeling good so he slept in instead of studying. I read the first 18 chapters of Alma. It was sooo good. I mean, I´ve never read the scriptures like I did that day. A lot of times we read our scriptures just because we´re supposed to, but developing the habit of reading intently and with purpose is so much better.

Anyway here come the pictures hopefully. Enjoy your week, I´m praying for you all individually, and be safe (lol its South Jordan haha jk.)

Love, Elder Anderson

Airport in Buenos Aires

Me and Elder Leytton

(pics of the pench)

My district 2 from Brazil, 2 from Utah, 1 from Idaho, 1 from Chile