It´s the most wonderful time of the year! There will be fireworks lighting and BBQ cooking when loved ones are near!
Christmas here is way different. It doesn´t even really feel like Christmas. I think most of that was because it´s been mid 80s to mid 90s all week. There´s just something weird about a Christmas where it´s not cold or rainy haha. The big traditions here are to light fireworks, cook an asado (the BBQ here) and be with friends and family drinking all night. I´ve seen a couple Christmas trees in businesses (fake of course) and a couple small ones in houses and I think I remember one house that had lights. So that´s been a lot different too. No hot chocolate, no candy canes, no gingerbread houses, no sugar cookies, no eggnog, no warm fire or ugly Christmas sweaters; it´s just a complete different atmosphere. In one way it´s nice because obviously all of those things are not what Christmas is really about, but in another way it seems like tomorrow is going to feel just like any other day.
Even though caroling is pretty unheard of here, a group of us are going to go caroling tonight. We´re going to stop by a couple investigators and give them some gifts and then sing. I´m super excited. It´s gonna help with that whole trying to get it feeling like Christmas thing. We were invited to eat at President´s house tonight, so that´s going to be pretty incredible. Elder Resek (the member of the 70 who lives here in Mendoza) and his wife are going to be there, along with the mission presidency and their families, so things are going to be quite packed. But, it´s a pretty cool privilege that we get for working in the offices.
This week we had transfers so it´s been pretty busy. There´s always stuff to do when people come or go and on top of that we´re getting close to the end of the month so I´ve been plenty busy entering in baptismal registros. Since I´m starting my fourth transfer in the offices we thought I was going to start training a replacement but....I didn´t. I love the people I´m with and the progress I´ve seen as a missionary here but I´m also going to be ready when all I have to focus on is the missionary work. The strange thing is that Elder Oster did get a trainee. So we´re going to be in a three some for a transfer. I have mixed feelings about that, because sometimes those can feel awkward, but we´ll see how it goes. I´m guessing I´ll finally get my replacement next transfer but that´ll put us in another three some situation so it´s going to be weird to see what happens.
Like I said, I love the people I´m with. This week Elder Ostler and I have ran 32 kilometers. It´s been great. I´ve also starting trying to eat healthier, lately for breakfast I´ve been eating a fruit salad I made the day before. Elder Christensen has got us all committed to living healthier haha. I don´t know how he got me but now I´m kinda glad he did. It´s awesome because there´s a running path about half a block away from our apartment so it makes things sooo easy. I´m currently snacking on peanuts and raisons. It´s delightful.
Besides that this week has been pretty normal. Hopefully you´ll have lots of questions for me tomorrow when we SKYPE. I´m super stoked.
With all the love of a firework,
Elder Lounsbury
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