November 5, 2013 Oh boy! I am not in America any more!

Pictures from Illinois

Ward mission leader, elders, me, my comps

With investigator Kyle

Pictures from Argentina

A peek of the huge city I am in

Me, hermanas from my MTC district, and the president´s wife in front of the temple

 pink house

The Rio de Plata.  You can see the city across the water

Familia,

Welp.  I don´t speak Spanish. Nope, and I thought Mexicans were hard to understand. They clearly learned from the Argentines. They speak wicked fast and they speak Castillano (no it is not Spanish, they are almost offended if you call it Spanish) and they have a lisp, almost like Spain but not as bad. Soooooo yeah, I feel a little underwater.

With my 3 comps and two recent converts, Thommy and Junior

For the past week I have been with Hermanas White, Lobo, and Escalante. When we got our visas, they just put us in a temporary area until transfers, which are today. So there were four of us in an apartment the size of our kitchen and half the dinning room back home. It was cozy! I didn't mind though, it´s not like we spend much time there. Two are native speakers, one to Mexico and one to Argentina, but they both speak really good English. It was a crutch I liked way too much! Haha! It was nice to be able to at least communicate a little. However, I am now in my new area. My companion is Hermana Sanchez, and no she does not speak English. None. She is from Columbia, so at least she pronounces the whole word, which makes things easier... but I am gunna get real good at charades. Also, we are opening an area. We are in the city, and she has only been out in provencia (the country). So we both are super confused. It´s going to be great!

This BOM was part of our open house

On Saturday we went to another church with a bunch of missionaries and made our own sort of visitor center. It was really cool. pretty much it was like temple square, start at the Christus, and then learn briefly what we teach. It definitely helped my Spanish! At the beginning we were out on the streets inviting people to come in. I got really good at saying ´´we are inviting people to a center for visitors to learn about our church´´ I would then give them a card, and pretty much no one said more than no thanks. Until one man.... he starts talking to me and I had NO IDEA what he was saying! Me and my companion were standing a little bit apart so that we could be more effective, and when she saw that someone was actually talking to me she comes over. After we told him I had no idea what he was saying, the man repeated to her what he had said to me. Apparently he said ´´I have been asking God for a doll like you, but he never sent one to me´´. All the missionaries there thought it was hilarious!

Sunday, we were walking out of our apartment to go to church and I fell on the last step and rolled my ankle. In Illinois or Missouri that would have been unfortunate, but okay. Here it is a problem. We walk everywhere. So I pretty much had to stand up, wrap it quickly, and walk to church. I thought I was going to die at church. I got a priesthood blessing that I didn't really understand except that I would have strong feet throughout my mission. I felt comfort and knew that Heavenly father will help me. I think Sunday I ended up walking close to two miles or so. As much as I knew I shouldn't be on it, I didn't really have a choice. However, my companion would not let me go out on Monday. It was the worst day of my mission. I thought I was going to go stir crazy! There is only so much studying I can do.... I did not like not working! I iced it a ton and hopefully it will get better real quick because I know there will be lots of walking in the upcoming week. I am wearing my boots because they help give support.  It looks really weird because it is spring here and getting warmer!

Pretty much the food here is amazing. Everyone cooks very well. and the ice cream is to die for. Someone needs to bring it back to America.... It is custom to eat a small breakfast and then a huge lunch. I have no idea if the normal population eats dinner.. but as missionaries we are so busy that we don't. When we get home at night we eat something small , but the members have been feeding us so well that we have not been hungry. I sorta like the whole small dinner big lunch thing.

I do all of my studies in Spanish, which means it takes forever to do because I read really slow in Spanish, but I know it helps me. Also it is super exciting when I read a verse and I can understand the whole thing and don´t have to look up anything in the dictionary.  Yesterday while I was imprisoned in my apartment, I studied the plan de salvation. It was really cool to read all of the Preach My Gospel scriptures in that section all together. I was amazed at how central the atonement is to the whole thing. Every scripture either directly talked about the atonement, or had a scripture that did really close. It was cool to notice that pattern. I love seeing how central Christ is to the gospel and our lives.

Well, I love you all so much!
Love, Hermana Sirrine

 P.S. Mom, don´t worry... I am taking care of my foot.