September 5, 2011

Elder Oporto continues to be a great, hilarious companion. The other day we were at a railroad crossing as a train passed. When the train is passing, it is so loud that you can't hear anything at all. While it was passing, I looked over at Elder Oporto and he was just shouting at the top of his lungs. He kept on shouting until the train had finished passing and then walked away normally like nothing had happened. I couldn't stop laughing for a long time.

This week Elder Oporto and I organized a Ward Family Home Evening. The theme of the activity was "Families can be Eternal." Prior to the activity, we handed out little fliers at every house we entered. We were super surprised to see that almost every person we gave a flier to came to the activity and filled up the little cultural hall. We started out the lesson by stringing a string around the whole chapel. We told the people that the string represented our existence as spirits and then asked the people how much of the string would be taken up by our life here on earth. People started shouting out things like " a fourth!" or "a meter". I then took our a marker and made a little dot on the string and told them that the dot represented the duration of our life here on the earth. We have this much time to do all the things we need to in order to be happy and together with those we love for the rest of our existence. With this perspective we can lead healthier, more peace filled lives. Everyone seemed like they understood so Elder Oporto and I were pretty satisfied. We then went on to do a few other fun activities for the rest of the time. But as soon as the meeting ended, person after person came up to Elder Oporto and I to ask for further explanation of what the string meant. It seems like lots of people thought that the string represented how fragile our lives are. hahaha. Oh well, we did our best.

Elder Oporto and I are being really blessed and investigators are falling out of the sky all over the place. It looks like we might be running from lesson to lesson once again, and not because we are being chased by armed men. I have realized that your happiness as a missionary depends a lot on how busy you are. If the days are filled with lessons, the day seems about an hour long.

I have been thinking a lot about family lately. In Argentina, the family is almost nonexistant. Most girls have their first babies between the ages of 15 and 20. The lack of a family upbringing is really obvious through lots of the behavior and attitudes here. I have been thinking a lot about how lucky I am to have the family and parents that I do. My life is so much easier than the majority. I am thankful for my friends, family, and especially parents for giving me the life I have. All is well. Life is good.

August 29, 2011

A super good week once again in Longchamps! Longchamps is a lot more humble than my other area was, so we are having a lot more success than I am used to. Almost every house we clap lets us into their house. It's a shame that the receptiveness of an area is dependent on money. But I'm not complaining because we are having lots of success.=)

This Tuesday I had my birthday! I actually didn't remember it was my birthday until about 1 in the afternoon, so the day was pretty much normal. We worked. Our last appointment of the day was with a less active familia named the Familia Meneses. We have been visiting them a lot lately a they are close to returning to church. They have a son who is 20 years old and Elder Oporto and I made it a goal to help him get out on a mission. When people get to know each other here, they always ask when your birthday is. When I first met the Meneses family the first day I was here in Longchamps, I told them my birthday and didn't think anything of it. On my birthday when we got to the Meneses Familys house, it didnt look like anyone was home so we were about to go back to the apartment for the night. Right when we were about to leave, someone from the house shouted, "Come in!". We thought it was kind of weird, but went in anyways. Right when I walked through the door, all the lights turned on and the whole family shouted "Feliz Cumpleanos!" and then started to sing. They had made me a little cake and prepared a tiny party for me. I couldn't believe that they had remembered by birthday, let alone baked me a cake. The dad of the family works in a cracker factory to support the family of 8, so they live pretty humbly. I felt so special and at home because of all the love for an hour or two. They are a family who loves so much and I'm so thankful for them. And they all came to church for the first time in 7 months this last Sunday. =)

I feel like the most important thing I have learned on my mission so far is the strong correlation between love and the gospel. The gospel is really centered around love. When the gospel and love are given to people on the same plate, they tend to love in return. I feel so lucky to play this part as a missionary. As a missionary, I have the oppurtunity to offer love to every person that I can, and as it so happens, I feel loved so much of the time. I don't know if I am explaining my feelings clearly, but the point is that I am so happy being a missionary and being in the position to give, recieve and feel so much love for every person. It's good. It's oh so good.

August 22, 2011 - Happy Birthday Elder Lewis!!

I don't really have any birthday plans and I am not really planning on telling anyone it's my birthday either. haha! There is a tradition in Argentina to throw eggs and flower at someone when its their birthday, so I will be doing my best to keep it a secret. I hope the age of 20 brings lots of wisdom, a fuller beard, and lots more chest hair. Can"t wait.

Crazzzy week this week. First of all, Elder Oporto is awesome. I must have done something right because I am getting such great companions thus far in the mission. He is pretty quiet and conserved, but is known to break out a sweet dance move every once in a while and loves to play tricks on me. (The other day I got into my sleeping bag and it was full of Chastity pamphlets from the church.)  He helps me with Spanish all the time, and I love him tons.

Our apartment is a big step up from the box we lived in in City Bell, but still on the smaller side, especially for four Elders. We live above this super nice, but crazy, old lady who is menos activo. She gave me a kiss on both of my cheeks when she met me and then told me I looked like I would be in the movies and took a picture of me. I don't know if any of you have seen the movie Madagascar, but she reminds me of the old German lady from Madagascar. (Except Argentine.) The apartment looks like a big cabin and is super nice except for the shower and the cold. But it has a electric keyboard. The apartment is so cold you can see your breath at any time of the day. It is designed to keep the cold in in the summer, but the problem is that it does the same thing in the winter. Usually it is colder in the apartment than outside of it. In result, we all wear coats, gloves and hats whenever we are in the pinch. I have named the shower "The Catholic Baptism" ever since I got here. It has very minimal water pressure and no hot water. Whenever I shower here, I feel like Will Ferell in the movie Elf when he tries to take a shower in the shower that is way too little for him. The shower kind of just dribbles on your chest. Because of the combination of the cold in the apartment, the cold of the water, and the lack of the water, the shower is super unpleasant and quick. I thought that there was going to be a time issue with four people using one shower, but its not really a problem because each shower averages about 65 seconds. All the other Elders in the apartment are all pretty quiet and to themselves, so I don't think there is any danger of things getting too wild.

The area of Longchamps is great. I know already that this is gonna be a really great area. Neither Elder Oporto or I know the area, members, or investigators, so we spent a lot of this week just walking around and figuring things out. As we were walking around, it became a lot more evident that Longchamps is a lot more humble area than City Bell was. About the worst houses in City Bell are the very best in Longchamps. The culture is very different, and we have to be a lot more careful. The area is divided up into different neighborhoods or barrios. Each barrio has a different feel and culture. One of the barrios is called Villa Paris and was formerly closed to the missionaries because it was thought to be a little to dangerous, but was recently opened again by the president. On our second day in Longchamps, and our first day in Villa Paris, Elder Oporto and I were walking down a random street when we passed a guy standing on a corner. Right when we passed him, he turned and started to follow us really close. We both noticed, stopped talking and started walking faster. The guy started walking faster too, so we started to kind of trot. As soon as we started to trot he started saying, "Hey guys! Hold up for a second! Come here, come here, come here!". We both looked back and he was taking something out of his pocket and Elder Oporto just shouted "Run!". We started to run and the guy started to run after us with gun in hand. He chased us for about six blocks and then stopped. There was about a blocks space in between us. At this point I was just shocked and angry that this was actually happening. We looked back at him and he was shouting something we couldn't hear; and for some reason, I don't know why, probably because I was angry, I blew him a really big kiss and made sure he saw it. Right when I did this, he started chasing us again for about two blocks more, but luckily we caught a bus out of Villa Paris and lost him. We called the President the next day and told him the story. He told us that there were angels protecting us. He also told us that we are not allowed to go to Villa Paris anymore. We were pretty okay with that. The rest of our area is super calm, so I don't expect to have any more troubles for the rest of my time here.

Other than that, LongchampsOporto and I have talked and expect to see many miracles in the next little while.

The other day we were visiting the Bishop of our ward, Bishop Godoy, and getting to know him. He asked me "Do you play any instruments?" And I told him that I play the piano, but badly. He gave me a little grin and I didn't think anything more of it. Yesterday in our first sacrament meeting in Longchamps, the bishop stood up at the pulpit at the very beginning of the meeting and announced "Elder Lewis has been called as the ward  pianist and will start today for our opening hymn number....." I couldn't believe it. He had not asked me or anything beforehand, but I accepted anyways. I then stumbled through the hymns for the rest of sacrament meeting, but everybody seemed happy enough. I guess they had been singing A Capella since the last Elder in Longchamps who could play piano. I guess I have to start practicing with the electric keyboard in the apartment. I never thought this would happen, but thanks mom for making me take piano lessons.

All is well. Life is good.

August 15, 2011

Lot of changes this week. Having just finished my third transfer in City Bell, I got a call on Saturday night letting me know that I am to be transferred. I was kind of sad to be leaving City Bell and all of my new friends there, but mostly excited to move along with the mission. Elder Vergara and I just two days earlier moved into the apartment that I sent pictures of last week. I was secretly excited not to have to live there any longer too. On Sunday we spent the day saying goodbye to the people who I had gotten to know and love the most. That was a little rough. I didn't cry though (for once). I was also sad to see Elder Vergara go. He taught me so much and he loved everyone around him all the time. I'm going to miss his laugh and patting his chubby chubby belly. I'm going to miss City Bell, but I know I worked my hardest while I was there. In Preach My Gospel it says that a missionary's goal should be to simply leave an area better than you found it. I feel like I did that, and I feel like I gave my best effort while I was in City Bell.

My new area is called Longchamps B. I am going to be part of a whitewash (when both of the Elders are taken out of an area and two new Elders are put in). My new companions name is Elder Oporto de Areqapui, from Peru. He is famous in the mission for being a really really good cook. He was in a Nirvana cover band in Peru and loves music. On the train ride back from the transfer meeting, we got to know each other a little bit better, and I'm really excited for my time with him. He is super laid back and seems like he is gonna be easy to live with. The President told me that he is a really hard worker. I feel lucky yet again to have a great companion who is fun, obedient, Latin, and loves to laugh. We have a lot of work in front of us because neither of us know the area or the investigators. Longchamps used to be one area but the Elders there had too many investigators, so they decided to split the area into Longchamps A and Longchamps B. We live with two other Elders named Elder Smoot from Utah and Elder Chavez from Chile. Living with three other missionaries should be interesting and a little bit crazy. The apartment is bigger than the one in City Bell, but only has one shower and is almost too small for four people. We all had a meeting with the President and he told us that the apartment "is not a Fraternity House" and that we need to remember our sacred calling as missionaries. Obviously there were problems with big groups of missionaries living together before... nevertheless it should be fun. :)

All is well. Life is good.

August 8, 2011

 The outside of Jordan's new apartment

Checking out the new bathroom

This week I am celebrating my 6 month mark! Woot. 18 more. Can't wait.

The office Elders told us that we have until the end of August to find a new apartment, so we spent about half of our time looking for a new apartment instead of proselyting. I was not to happy about that, but it has to be done. We only found one option, so it looks like we will be moving there at the end of this month. I sent a few pictures of the apartment. Its really not much to see, but I'm kind of excited to live in it. It only has one big room which constitutes where we will sleep, cook food, study, and everything else, and a chiquitito bathroom. It doesn't have hot water or gas or heating..or a shower, so we will see how it works out. To shower it looks like we will have to heat up a five gallon bucket, stand over a drain in the ground, and pour the bucket over ourselves. It doesn't sound like the best, but it was the only thing we could find for 1000 pesos(about$250) a month.

This week we had interviews with the President. He pretty much just encouraged me to work hard and said that I should write my homecoming talk right now, and then try to live up to it for the rest of my mission. The advice has really helped me. In the mission, there a lot of opportunities to not work and just do whatever. It's the easiest thing in the world to be a lazy missionary. Whenever I feel tempted to act in such a way, I do my best to think about how I want to feel looking back on my mission once it is over. When I look back on my mission, I want to look back on what I did with pride and to know that I did my best with everything that the Lord has trusted me with. If there is anytime I was lazy or did not give my best effort, this memory is going to bother me for the rest of my life. I know that the President is inspired in all that he does and says because his advice helps me to work hard everyday and not rest even for a little.

All is well. Life is good.

August 1, 2011

 Bernardo and me. You KNOW his name is Bernardo because it says so right above his bellybutton

 Baptism with Cristina and Lilly Marcella

 The horse and buggy Bernardo and Cristina use to collect trash in, and now to got to church in =)

The other day right after we got caught in a monsoon on our bikes

This morning we had a really strange service experience. There is a sweet old guy who we baptized earlier on in our Rama named Marcelo. This past Sunday we saw him in Church and he told us he had a favor to ask of us, but we couldn't talk about it at church, so he asked us to come to his house sometime that week. I was kind of wierded out, but Marcelo is a good guy, so I was not too worried. Later that week, when we passed by his house to talk to him he told us that the cemetery where his wife is buried just increased the rent and he can't afford the new prices. So he asked us if we could help him dig up his wife's coffin and move it to a tomb that is cheaper. My initial reaction to his favor was, "Can I wear gloves?" and my second was "Is this legal?" It ends up that moving your deceased wife is legal, so early this morning Elder Vergara and a few other Elders from our district met Marcelo at the cemetery and helped him dig up his wife and move her to a new spot. Cemeteries in Argentina are really different than the cemeteries that I am used to. All the graves are about 6 inches away from each other and super shallow. As a result, digging up the coffin was easier than I thought it would be. The whole ordeal was just really weird.

On Saturday we had Cristina and Lilly`s baptisms! Before the baptism, I was really nervous because I was going baptize Cristina and Cristina is not a small lady in any sense. She is an awesome awesome woman and probably my favorite investigator up to this point, but she literally weighs about 300lbs. I was afraid that I physically would not be able to baptize her. I said a few silent prayers while I was walking into the font that all would go well. Luckily the water was pretty high, and I was able to successfully baptize Cristina on only the second try. The service ended up being really special and full of the Spirit.

July 25, 2011

We did NOT find a new place to live this week. hahaha! We looked for a solid two and a half days and found a total of zero possibilities. A really old lady in our branch offered us a shack in back of her house. We checked it out and found a family of about 14 cats and an even bigger family of rats inside. We politely declined. I don't know what we are going to do, but it looks like we might move in with the Elders of a neighboring area for a while until we can find something. The apartments here for Missionaries are usually about the size of a pool table, thus already crowded, so it might be interesting. I'm not too excited at the idea, but if that's what we have to do, I'm game. It better than under a bridge.

This week we are going to baptize a couple named Bernardo and Cristina. They are two of my favorite people I have met yet in Argentina. They also have the most humble house I have seen yet in Argentina. Bernardo is a trash collector by profession and built his house completely out of things he found on the street. It's actually pretty cool. Both Bernardo y Cristina just got out of jail six months ago. That's where they met too! (Over the phone) They are both full of crazy stories about jail and I love to just sit and listen to them talk. Bernie has a huge spot on his head where somebody in jail stabbed him with a sharpened toothbrush. B&C are both COVERED in tattoos that they got in prison. At one point Bernie told me that he wanted to get "Elder Lewis" tattooed into a free space on his calf. I wanted so badly to tell him yes, but restrained myself. All in all, I love them so much. It's always a treat to go to their house. They always try to give us lots and lots of food, but we always decline both because we don't want to take from what the little they have, and because all they eat is pokeria chorizo. Pokeria chorizo is all the little scraps of skin and fat and tendons and spare meat the butcher doesn't use and then squishes it into a sausage shape. Last night they told us that if we did not accept their food, they would be offended. So I grudgingly took a porkeria chorizo and ate every bite. It was actually not that bad, but wrecked havoc on my bowels/body. I bet you can guess where I spent most of my morning this morning. The best part about Bernardo and Cristina is their willingness and desire to change. In the Argentine justice system, if you kill someone, you go to jail for like 5-7 years. Bernardo and Cristina were in jail for a combined 28 years. I still don't know what they did to get in jail, but obviously they were not in good places. But today they have changed 100%. They both love so much. They both have so much desire to do right. And this Saturday they are going to be baptized and just get better. It's all too good. Can't wait.
 
I love being here. I am having so many experiences that I could not have had in any other way. I really do love being a missionary. Nerdiness and pocket protectors and cockroaches and all. All is well. Life is good.