PALERMO, WEEK 8: 
I DREAMED OF A WHITE CHRISTMAS

I dreamed of a white Christmas. And that is exactly what I got! 

Not only did I get the chance to talk to my wonderful family. I also got the chance to partake in changing someone's life. 

His name is P*. He is anemic and is really fragile but everyday he is a little bit better. He was in the hospital about 4 weeks ago for 12 days. During this time, the Sisters visited him and started to teach. He then got discharged and didn´t have the opportunity to tell the Sisters that he was leaving and to wear. So starting about 2 weeks ago he prayed for the "The people teaching the same religion" to find him again. The next day we were visiting a building that had a lot of old investigators and we were having no success. We always asked for references though and three times three different people said, "the man on the first floor in the third habitation, has been praying for you I think." So we went there and he wasn´t there. We returned three more times and finally met him. 2 weeks later he was baptized. And confirmed. It is really amazing. He also found out that when skyping his family in Peru, they also were members of the same church just recently baptized! What a blessing it was! 

It was a great opportunity and a wonder insight to see the hand of the Lord preparing him and his family and also do be the Lord´s servant to bring him to the waters of baptism. 

CHRISTMAS CALL WITH KYLE

The best Christmas present this year was getting to see and hear Kyle over Skype. We had quite the setup! He called on a computer at a member's home to my dad's computer, which was hooked up to the flat screen tv. My sister then set up her laptop in reverse and opened up a Google Hangout with me in Washington and Taylor in California. So all of us were able to participate! I mostly listened because nobody could hear me well, but everyone else asked great questions about Kyle's area, about the food, about his daily life, his language abilities and much, much more. Elder Moore seemed happy and cheerful, although emotional when it was time to say goodbye when we hit our hour time limit. We are so proud of him and all his hard work!

PALERMO, WEEK 7: I am dreaming of a white and cold Christmas while Skyping my family

Yes its true! I am dreaming of a white and cold Christmas. Just like the ones I used to know. Where its pouring down rain and the wind chills you to the bone. Sounds like heaven. 

Good week so far. Today we have one hour to write and one hour to do compras. (shopping) because tomorrow [Christmas Eve Day] is our pday with the whole mission. I hope I get your letters and stuff tomorrow. I have been patiently waiting! 

Its hot. Hot hot hot. I shower at night so I can sleep a little bit better. The city definitely retains heat at night. I heard that its supposed to be a scorcher here in the next few days. Today is the officail first day of SUMMER! Silly me. I thought that all the sweating I have been doing the past two months WAS summer. Pssh. Nah. Its just beginning! Ah, speaking of two months, Christmas day is my 2 month mark in Argentina and 3 month mark of my mission. December went by really fast! I will see you all on Christmas!  

Love, 

Elder Moore

PALERMO, WEEK 6: TRANSFERS!

Salutations! 

Yes, the title is true, we had transfers yesterday. This is why I am replying on a Tuesday instead of Monday. Today is our prep day. Every 6 weeks no matter what we have a Pday on Tuesday. (I just completed my first transfer in Argentina).

Yesterday was a normal day except that we waited for a call in the night to see if we, or one of us, was leaving. Annnnnnnd. Nada! Elder G*and I are still together in Abasto/Palermo. I am relieved and sad at the same time. Let me explain why. 

This past week was incredibly stressful and frustrating. Elder G*, my trainer, let me take the bull by the horns. I did all the planning, the calling, the contacting, the navigating, and talking. When our appointments fell through, and we had time, I would look to him and say "what do you think we should do now?" and he would just shrug his shoulders. It was incredibly frustrating and INCREDIBLY stressful, especially to talk to people on the phone and try to understand what they were saying. Somehow, I made it through. No doubt with the Lords help. The reason Elder G* did this was because he didn´t know if we were going to be together for another transfer or not. So he wanted me to be ready to be the Junior Companion That Leads. Meaning, I would've gotten an older, more experienced Elder to continue training me but who didn't know anything about the area. Again, the most stressed and frustrated I have been in a loooong time. But looking back on it I can see the benefits already. And now, I am pretty sure things are going to be more 50-50% on the weight load, because now I am no longer new and I can contribute. Definitely the way I have been learning my whole life, just go out and do it, hands on, and learn. So that is why the Lord put Elder G* and I together I am pretty sure. He knew that Elder G* would push me to be better, faster. So I am sincerely grateful for that and I told Elder G* that. It was kind of funny because he said that he knew exactly what I was feeling because his trainer did the exact same thing to him and he hated it too, but it helped him and he wanted me to have the same experience. And because of that, when I am blessed with the responsibility to train another Elder I am going to do the EXACT same thing. :) Can't wait. 

Before that whole fiasco and experience,  I went on splits AGAIN! With Elder G* (MTC companion). We have gone on splits every two weeks together; twice in my area, once in his. He is in the Villa. (Veesha) which is very poor. The people live there for free and stack houses on top of each other using concrete and terracotta pipe bricks. It's really cool – dangerous at night, but still cool. It's kind of like legos. The people are really nice.

Kyle couldn't bring his camera to the Villa. Picture obtained here.

Spending time with Elder G* is very relieving. We can talk in English when we are in the apartment (his apartment has air conditioning too) and our Spanish always improves about 10 fold when its only us. I asked some members in the Villa to guess how many months I had on the mission and they guessed 5 or 6 months. But in reality it was 5 weeks at that time. The Gift of Tongues is real! 

I will be getting all mail the 24th because there is a mission wide lunch that the President is hosting. That's about 280 missionaries. Yikes! I am excited to see my friends from the MTC. 

Also, our schedule changed here. We leave our apartments at 11 in the morning and have to be in our apartments  at 8pm. We now do language study from 8 to 9 then planning from 9 to 9:30. Not sure how that's gonna go in the heat but we shall see! All is well! 

That's all I have for now. 

Love you all!

Love, 

Elder Moore

PALERMO, WEEK 5: IS IT TIME FOR...CHRISTMAS?

Hello once again from an Internet Cafe in Argentina! (Specifically Abasto/ONCE)!

I don´t have much time. I apologize for that, but that's because we are outside our area in a place called ONCE like the number. It's a place with street vendors and stuff really cheap. It's outside our area but when we called the president for permission he said "Of course! Knock yourself out, I wish I could go there right now." It's pretty cool. I want to take a picture but my companion recommended not because someone my try to steal it and it gives the impression that we are carrying valuable things so we will see. 

Thank you for your letters, I am trying to reply to them all. 

This week was hot! But still good. The work is really slow in Palermo now. We have one investigator and hardly anybody else to teach. We have had our first 0,0,0,0,0 day with nothing to do but walk and talk with people. I start the initial contact and explanation and when the people reply and say something that I don´t understand I tag team my companion and he jumps in the ring. Haha. We are doing great. He has an injury on his foot that sometimes he can't walk on because it hurts so bad. We don´t know what it is, we keep calling the doctor in the church building here but he never is in. The injury looks like three holes in his heel this size of the 0 on the keyboard. It's really weird like a puncture mark or something. 

I don´t know if I told you all this but I walked into a Libreria and said "tengo un boli" meaning I have a pen. And the guy was like "uhhh sí" and I could not understand for the life of me why he didn´t understand then my companion stepped in and siad stuff and we left. Haha I meant to say I need to buy a pen etc. But I started out with the wrong verb but didn´t realize it. Haha. I will never return to the Libreria again. 

The President put out a letter saying that tomorrow we have a mandatory time from 10-12 pm cleaning time, instead of studying, for our apartments. I can´t wait! I have been organizing and cleaning so our apartment is pretty clean but this is going to be some deep cleaning! Woohoo. He put tons of scriptures in it about cleanliness and organization and clarified doctrine and where the line is for cleanliness and messiness and also how we can better have the Spirit during our studies. It was well written.  I am excited. I like the feeling of a clean area. 

I had divisions with Elder Gallup again! It was awesome. Gift of tongues is real. 

Other than that all is well! I forgot my list with the things and stories I was going to tell you all so next week will be a little bit longer. 

Thank you all! 

I have pictures of some food and stuff for next week!

Love, 

Elder Moore

PALERMO WEEK 4: SOPA DE OJOS

Another week! The days are sure long but the weeks are speeding by!

I hope everyone´s Thanksgiving was mighty fine. Truth be told, didn´t even cross my mind on Thursday until someone say Today is the dia de agradecido. Which I am not sure is the correct way to say it but eh. 

Alright, last time I neglected to explain why the title of the email had the Torta in it. Almost every day when we walk by a school, colegio, universidad, o secondaría there is someone who gets eggs thrown at and then flour dumped on. It is a TOTAL mess and the person is soaked. Apparently it's tradition for a birthday and/or a graduation. It was so weird because neither me or my companion knew what was happening but then we asked a member and their family. So there you go. The other part of the title is The Fall. Not really sure why I put that but I am sure it was a great story. 

Alright. The title of THIS email is sopa de ojos. Which means Soup of Eyes! Yum! It was so so so so so good! I am totally going to make it when I return for anybody who wants it. Now don´t get me wrong. I was not looking forward to it. But I was going to try it. So I did. The texture is kind of like the shell of an M&M. But cold. And once you break through that shell is really like... Jello.. .or something. It's cold. I don´t understand why. Oh and when you bite down to break the shell you HAVE to have your mouth closed because it's like popping a water balloon. It's so weird. But so delicious. I ate the whole thing. I was quite surprised. I got the recipe and I am going to make it for you guys. 

NAH I am totally kidding. It was actually a joke that my companion and the member family played on me. Throughout the last two weeks they have been saying ¨"are you ready for the sopa de ojos?" and stuff like that. I was mentally steeling my mind and stomach every day. No matter what I was going to at least try it. But when I got there they were making hamburgers and then they told me that it was a joke. Pssh. A little part of me died inside. I was so prepared! 

We made brownies the other day for a Noche de Hogar (family home evening) that we hosted at a member's house with investigators. They came out PERFECTLY from the stone brick oven in the chapel we used. PERFECTLY. Then my companion put them in the fridge for about 5 hours... No idea why. It changed the texture and entire BEING of the cake. He said it would be better this way, buuuuut it wasn´t. It was like play dough. However, the family said they like it. So I don´t really care. Haha, it was just funny. 

Speaking of food. How come the United States doesn´t have even a lick of Dulce de Leche?! Is it hiding from me or what? It is SOOO good. Especially with bread. OH and bread. Where the heck have baguettes been my whole life!? Three feet of bread. Come on. Who doesn´t want that for only an equivalent of one American dollar? I am going to buy a lot of bread today. It's always fresh here and cheap. 

The fruit here is really good too! All is normal, nothing different really. But it still is very good. We have TONS of Oranges. Like, 13 or 14 oranges that we don´t know what to do with. The members give them to us. So if you have any recipis and cool things to do with oranges, send them my way! Por favor, because my companion doesn´t like oranges plain and neither do I but I still try to eat them. Enough about food. 

Friday we had interviews with the President and his assistants. It was really great. There were 3 interviews about our area binder, agenda, and weekly reports. Then I had one with Sister Ayre (President's wife) about this new booklet the church came out with about adjusting to missionary stress  and stuff like that. It links every kind of stress to something doctrinal and profound and there are self-evaluations you do over time and relaxation ideas, and health ideas, sleep ideas, stretching ideas. It's like a total emotional, spiritual, language, mental, and physical health book but church oriented. It talks about the importance of leaning on the Lord and stuff like that. It's really cool. Especially the language part. Definitely an inspired book. It will be useful in times to come I am sure. 

LANGUAGE update: Bit by bit. I can form sentences a little better and faster now. But I still have a small vocabulary. I got tons of ideas from older missionaries that speak really fluent and well, and have started to implement them in my studies. So thank goodness for that. On and on it goes. 

This week we talked about our need for finding new investigators and especially references. They call it congregating Israel. We started doing that like crazy (or afül in spanish) and we got three new investigators that look promising. We continue to pray and ask for more. The members are definitely willing to help here. It's awesome. Members are literally the gateway. Without them there is literally nothing we could do. 

THINGS I AM LEARNING IN ARGENTINA: Things I think to myself and think are pretty funny and cool but different

¨There's a second toilet in the bathroom, I know what it is and I am not going to use it.¨

¨If you want hot water turn the knob a tiny bit, if you want cool water turn the knob like crazy and fast before it scalds you.¨

¨The sidewalk is for dogs to go to the bathroom¨

¨Yes there are crosswalk lines, traffic lights, bike lanes, car lanes and signs, they are sure beautiful decorations for a street.¨(they don´t mean a thing here)

¨If you want to get somewhere in Argentina buy a motorcycle, anything goes when you have that¨

¨No, that's PESOS not American Dollars, it's not that expensive¨

¨Alfajores are the powerbar of missionaries.¨

¨Hot outside? We will have hot soup for lunch!¨

¨Water doesn't exist here, it's only CocaCola, Fanta, Juice, and Sprite¨(which is really good)

 ¨On hot days about 2 a week, CocaCola hands out free glass cocacola bottles. It's a blessing.¨

"Ïf I ever have a limousine, I am going to hire a Argentinian bus driver because they can fit that giant bus anywhere, I literally feel like the Bus for Runaway Wizards in Harry Potter. Somehow by some type of magic the bus just gets skinny and fits between two other buses.¨

Anyways. I love you all! Have a great week.

Love, 

Elder Moore

P.S. Two other funny things: I hear Elvis Presley ALL the time. Right now I am in the Locutorio and it's playing above. Haha. 

Also. MULLETS. MULLETS EVERYWHERE. They are SO popular! I have no idea why.