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.