Hello! Greetings from Argentina!!!
Big news this week: Another Baptism!!!! WOOOOOO!!!!
Her name is Yamila (Jamilla, pronounced the same too) and she’s 14 years-old. Her mother is an inactive member who just wanted us to teach her the discussions as a support for this difficult teenage time of life. But it really worked out for everybody in the end. Yamila loves the church and comes to all the meetings and activities on her own. Well, I don’t know about mutual, but she comes to our “Chapel Night”. And she is excited to go on a mission of her own. So, that’s really cool. The not so cool part is that her mother has never come to Church or anything with Yamila, not even her baptismal interview. Sigh. Oh well.
We didn’t do anything for Thanksgiving, but that’s fine. I’m very excited for Christmas, though. Can’t wait. I love Christmas. But it’s gonna be really weird. Especially in the likely event that I get transfered next transfer because transfers are on Christmas Eve. Oh well, it’d give me time to get settled into my new pench.
As for missionary friends, I haven’t written a single one. The reason: I don’t have any addresses. If I had addresses I probably would. A letter to India or Mongolia would no doubt be cheaper than a letter to the EEUU (Estados Unidos). Seriously, a letter home costs at least 5 pesos. And I know that it’s cheaper to send letters to Canada.
Twilight seems to be a rediculously huge phenomenon among the pre-teen+ female set in the US. Especially among mormons. No doubt due to the author being LDS herself. I really don’t know what the appeal is. Granted, I’ve never read it.
The general opinions of Argentines on United Statesians (Everybody in the Western Hemisphere is technically an “American”) is there’s really only one horrible one, and that is George W Bush. So, pretty much they don’t know anything of anything outside Argentina. But we did run into one man. The dialogue went something like this:
Missionaries: Hi, we’re missionaries...
Guy: No. Not to me you’re not.
M: Oh? What are we to you?
G: North American spies.
M: We’re not spies.
G: Yes you are. You’re just here so that you can see how horrible our living conditions are and go back and laugh about it.
M: Um... Living conditions are about the same in many parts of the Unites States.
G: You people are horrible! You make needless war so that you can just make money off of killing people!
So, that conversation was very useless, but I guess there really are some people who think that we’re spies.
Well, that’s all I’ve got for this week. More to come! Baptismal pictures too!
Love,
Elder Will Budge
November 24, 2008
November 17, 2008
Another Email From Villa Mercedes
Hey all!
I love hearing from you, so keep writing!
News! Actually this should’ve been in last week’s entry, but I forgot...
We have new hours for the summer!!! Ahem...
07:30AM: Arise
08:00AM: Shower/Breakfast
09:00AM: Personal Study
10:00AM: Companionship Study
10:30AM: Leave and Work
13:00PM: Lunch
14:00PM: Study at the chapel, in a park, with members, work
15:30PM: Work
22:30PM: Plan for the next day
23:30PM: Sleep
So, there it is. I must say, waking up at 7:30 agrees much more with me than getting up at 6:30. Not sure why because it’s the same amount of sleep, but it does. And it means that we can talk with more people because everybody says “Come by after 8:30.”
I’m sure you’re all eager to hear about transfers, so here it goes:
Elder Neibaur se fue. But now I’m three for three with comps. Every single one of them is from Idaho. First Shelley, then Paul, now Rigby. By new companion is Elder Opheikens (Oh-pie-kins). He’s from Rigby, Idaho and is a real cowboy’s cowboy. Even as a missionary he looks like a cowboy, well as much as a missionary can. He’s cool, and works hard, but doesn’t stress out about anything.
We have a new baptismal date for a girl named Yamila. She’s the adopted daughter of a less-active member. She’s very excited about the Church, and even kinda wants to go on a mission. Only time will tell.
Well, that’s about all the news from Villa Mercedes right now.
Ciao,
Elder Budge
I love hearing from you, so keep writing!
News! Actually this should’ve been in last week’s entry, but I forgot...
We have new hours for the summer!!! Ahem...
07:30AM: Arise
08:00AM: Shower/Breakfast
09:00AM: Personal Study
10:00AM: Companionship Study
10:30AM: Leave and Work
13:00PM: Lunch
14:00PM: Study at the chapel, in a park, with members, work
15:30PM: Work
22:30PM: Plan for the next day
23:30PM: Sleep
So, there it is. I must say, waking up at 7:30 agrees much more with me than getting up at 6:30. Not sure why because it’s the same amount of sleep, but it does. And it means that we can talk with more people because everybody says “Come by after 8:30.”
I’m sure you’re all eager to hear about transfers, so here it goes:
Elder Neibaur se fue. But now I’m three for three with comps. Every single one of them is from Idaho. First Shelley, then Paul, now Rigby. By new companion is Elder Opheikens (Oh-pie-kins). He’s from Rigby, Idaho and is a real cowboy’s cowboy. Even as a missionary he looks like a cowboy, well as much as a missionary can. He’s cool, and works hard, but doesn’t stress out about anything.
We have a new baptismal date for a girl named Yamila. She’s the adopted daughter of a less-active member. She’s very excited about the Church, and even kinda wants to go on a mission. Only time will tell.
Well, that’s about all the news from Villa Mercedes right now.
Ciao,
Elder Budge
November 10, 2008
Last Email From Villa Mercedes???
Hello all!
Well, here it is, the middle of November. Well, the beginning of the double-digits of November. Either way, it’s starting to get really hot. Seems like the middle to me because I was filling out dates through the 24th of December this morning. I’m sorry if I confused anyone, transfers are this week, so we find out tomorrow at District Meeting and whoever goes goes on Wednesday. The transfer ends just before Christmas, so that’s rough for whoever moves next time.
A funny story that I’ve been forgetting for the last few weeks:
We were meeting with a family and the eight-year-old daughter was looking through one of those DK visual encyclopedias, “The Human Body” to be exact. On the page with babies she looked at the picture of a human embryo and said, “Look! Before babies are babies they’re empanadas!” So, apparently human embryos, and pretty much any other embryo, are empanadas. I bet they don’t taste like empanadas, though.
I heard the news of the election this week. Everybody has been talking about it here, which I think is weird. We don’t usually talk about everybody’s new president. But Argentines are all very excited about Obama and glad that Bush is out. I’m pretty sure they have no idea how our system works. Theirs is very corrupt. I heard that Obama won by over 100 electors. If that’s true, wow. I can’t remember an election like that. Of course all the elections that I’ve paid any attention to are those with Bush.
One TV station even said (I think this is common belief among all Argentines) that Bush was possibly the worst president in the history of the United States. Clearly they don’t know very much about US history.
Argentine moment of the day: the stop lights turn yellow before they turn green. A practice that I think should be adopted in the US.
News: President Lindahl has authorized emails from friends and extended family. But only as short messages attached at the end of my parent’s email. [the.budges@verizon.net] So, if you have something important to tell me like “I got into such-and-such a school!”, or “I’m getting married!” (hard for me to believe that I’m at that point where friends may start getting married), or “Such-and-such a friend is getting baptized!!!” send it to my parents and I’ll get it through the free Parental Censorship Board. Any of the last one are especially welcome. I would love to hear about any friends, or even friends of friends who are getting baptized.
That’s all for this week. More to come!
Elder Budge
Well, here it is, the middle of November. Well, the beginning of the double-digits of November. Either way, it’s starting to get really hot. Seems like the middle to me because I was filling out dates through the 24th of December this morning. I’m sorry if I confused anyone, transfers are this week, so we find out tomorrow at District Meeting and whoever goes goes on Wednesday. The transfer ends just before Christmas, so that’s rough for whoever moves next time.
A funny story that I’ve been forgetting for the last few weeks:
We were meeting with a family and the eight-year-old daughter was looking through one of those DK visual encyclopedias, “The Human Body” to be exact. On the page with babies she looked at the picture of a human embryo and said, “Look! Before babies are babies they’re empanadas!” So, apparently human embryos, and pretty much any other embryo, are empanadas. I bet they don’t taste like empanadas, though.
I heard the news of the election this week. Everybody has been talking about it here, which I think is weird. We don’t usually talk about everybody’s new president. But Argentines are all very excited about Obama and glad that Bush is out. I’m pretty sure they have no idea how our system works. Theirs is very corrupt. I heard that Obama won by over 100 electors. If that’s true, wow. I can’t remember an election like that. Of course all the elections that I’ve paid any attention to are those with Bush.
One TV station even said (I think this is common belief among all Argentines) that Bush was possibly the worst president in the history of the United States. Clearly they don’t know very much about US history.
Argentine moment of the day: the stop lights turn yellow before they turn green. A practice that I think should be adopted in the US.
News: President Lindahl has authorized emails from friends and extended family. But only as short messages attached at the end of my parent’s email. [the.budges@verizon.net] So, if you have something important to tell me like “I got into such-and-such a school!”, or “I’m getting married!” (hard for me to believe that I’m at that point where friends may start getting married), or “Such-and-such a friend is getting baptized!!!” send it to my parents and I’ll get it through the free Parental Censorship Board. Any of the last one are especially welcome. I would love to hear about any friends, or even friends of friends who are getting baptized.
That’s all for this week. More to come!
Elder Budge
November 3, 2008
Of Shoes and Ships and Sealing Wax, of Cabbages and Kings! ... Okay, Just of Shoes.
Hello again and happy November!
Well, I got some new shoes last Monday. Hurray! Now I have comfy, keep my feet try, Argentine shoes. I hope they hold up.
I also finally got all my letters sent off, so some of you should be getting letters from Argentina in the next week. Fun story, it was the first time that I was paid to send mail. I was mailing (with the more expensive shipping for my absentee ballot) 58 pesos-worth of mail. Somewhere in the exchange of money and letters the teller got confused. He ended up giving me my 100 peso bill back with four extra pesos. Elder Neibaur and I argued with him for about ten minutes and the people in line started to get irate. Finally we just left. We were walking along and decided to write a note, put the note and the money in an envelope, and leave it in a suggestion box. About six blocks later we heard somebody yelling, we turn and the teller was running after us. He caught up and said that we were right. I gave him the money, but he only had a pocket full of 100s, so we went back to the post office. So, that’s my fun story of the week.
We have started having a Family Home Evening with the ward on Thursday nights. Last week we acted out some of the miracles of Jesus. Sadly, Elder Neibaur and I were unable to attend due to an emergency trip to Mendoza. But we’ll be there this week for a great activity about scripture study and baking cookies.
Well, that’s really about all I have for this week. I’ll have more to talk about later.
Elder Budge
Well, I got some new shoes last Monday. Hurray! Now I have comfy, keep my feet try, Argentine shoes. I hope they hold up.
I also finally got all my letters sent off, so some of you should be getting letters from Argentina in the next week. Fun story, it was the first time that I was paid to send mail. I was mailing (with the more expensive shipping for my absentee ballot) 58 pesos-worth of mail. Somewhere in the exchange of money and letters the teller got confused. He ended up giving me my 100 peso bill back with four extra pesos. Elder Neibaur and I argued with him for about ten minutes and the people in line started to get irate. Finally we just left. We were walking along and decided to write a note, put the note and the money in an envelope, and leave it in a suggestion box. About six blocks later we heard somebody yelling, we turn and the teller was running after us. He caught up and said that we were right. I gave him the money, but he only had a pocket full of 100s, so we went back to the post office. So, that’s my fun story of the week.
We have started having a Family Home Evening with the ward on Thursday nights. Last week we acted out some of the miracles of Jesus. Sadly, Elder Neibaur and I were unable to attend due to an emergency trip to Mendoza. But we’ll be there this week for a great activity about scripture study and baking cookies.
Well, that’s really about all I have for this week. I’ll have more to talk about later.
Elder Budge
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