loca

Hola family,

To start out I guess I´ll just answer some of your questions before I forget. The area I´m in now is about a little more than an hour south of Mendoza. You would think that would mean it´s colder because it´s more southern but it actually has almost been like spring here so far. Like in the morning we only wear a sweater and at night we usually have to wear our coats but it hasn´t been that cold at all. Today was the coldest it´s been, it was overcast and drizzling a tiny bit so I felt right at home haha. Elder Guillen is way awesome, he´s like one of the nicest people ever. He always shares his food and candy with me and I think that´s the best quality you can have in a friend haha. He´s also helping me a lot with Spanish slang because whenever we talk with kids or this one family we have lunch with on Sunday it´s harder for me to understand them because they use so many slang words. None of them show up in the dictionary so it´s hard to figure out exactly what they mean but I´m getting better haha. We´ve got one more lunch now, with the bishop every other week, so we´re cooking a tiny bit less but we still have to cook more than I´ve had to in my other areas. The first couple meals were pretty lame I´m not gonna lie, but we´re getting better. When I get back I´m going to be an expert in Argentine cuisine.

Our apartment right now is pretty interesting, it´s a 4 man pench with two bathrooms and two kitchens. Now I know that sounds like it would be amazing but one of the bathrooms and kitchens didn´t have running water until a couple days ago and well sometimes quantity doesn´t beat quality. Actually, one of my stories for the week has to do with the bathroom. It has character for a couple different reasons. First of all, the shower has no head so the water just kinda falls straight down so your like crammed all up against the wall trying not to touch it because it´s really cold but at the same time trying to get the water to rinse you off haha. Also, the very first time I used it the hot water handle came off and water started gushing out of where it was supposed to be. It was just like a movie or something haha. I panic for a second and was like oh no, what the heck have I done. But I guess you can just screw it back it... Oooo, but, the good new is that the members we´re renting from right now need the apartment or something so we have to find a new one. The Zone Leaders (who we live with) have looked at a couple the are closer to the boundries of our area and more central but they haven´t settled on anything yet. So in a couple weeks here I´ll probably be packing up my bags all over again and moving. At least it´ll be an interesting experience haha.

This week we had some people in the church, which was the first time for me in over a month and a half so it felt way good. One of them is a boyfriend and the other is just a friend of some of the bishops daughters. Seriously, flirt to convert works. When I was in the MTC one of the speakers asked people who were converts in the past two years to tell their story and about 80 percent of them started out with "Well I was dating this girl who was mormon..." or "My girlfriend was mormon..." haha. I´m serious though. That stuff works. So I´ll let you know any updates with them. Speaking of the bishops daughters, he has like 7 or 8 of them and all of them but one are really loud. It was hilarious eating with them on Saturday, it reminds me of when Emma or Madeline have like a billion friends over and they´re all screaming except dinner was probably a bit louder. Elder Guillen doesn´t even have sisters so it was an entirely new experience for him but it made me laugh.

Speaking of crazy girls, we talked to this one girl in the street who was pretty crazy. All we did was say hello and she was like, "Did you go by that house" (pointing to a house down the street) and when we told her no she was like "oh good, because there´s demons there" and then went off telling us all these things about demons and witches and wizards and all these documentaries she´s seen at her church and all the things her preacher has told her and how she knew someone who was possessed and how you have to pay like 20 pesos to touch this thing and then you´ll be healed. Then she told us what her preacher had told her about "Jonathan Smith" (I smiled inside when she said Jonathan) and oh man. It´s just sad seeing people so scared like that and how people are making money off of it. We tried explaining to her what we believed but she didn´t want to listen really, just wanted to talk about people who are possessed. It was quite the interesting conversation.

Welp family, I think that´s all I have for this week.

With all the love of an orchestra,

Elder Lounsbury

Death and Dying

Hello family. I know that´s a pretty gloomy title but it´s what I´ve been thinking about a lot this week. Some weeks I don´t have very much to write about and other I have too much. This week has been one of those weeks that had a little bit of everything in it.

On Friday in the morning we went up to Mendoza for a little meeting with the Mission President, President Avila. He was there with his wife and three of his kids, the youngest of which is only like 10 or 12 or something. He also has a daughter who is married and a son who is on his mission in Washington. The family introduced themselves and then he shared a spiritual thought/lesson with us and that was about it. He seems really nice and it´ll be interesting to see if he makes any changes in the mission, so far there hasn´t been any.

Anyways, the weird part of this story is on the way back we drove by a motorcycle accident and saw a dead man on the street. They didn´t do anything to cover him up or anything. It was a really strange feeling. But the story gets weirder. When we were at a members house later that night they told us someone in the barrio (ward) had died and after talking about it for a bit we realized it was the same guy we had seen earlier that day. And what´s even weirder is that when we were at the Bishops house on Thursday night we had talked about this particular family because they were inactive and we were making plans to pass by his house. We went to his viewing or something on Saturday with the Bishop and it was definitely a situation in which I had no idea what to do. We met the wife and their oldest kid who is only 13. They have more kids, the youngest of which is 4.

Even though we didn´t know him we were still weirdly intertwined with the situation and it made us think a lot about death and life and how it´s so unexpected and just a million other things. We talked about a lot of different things that day because it was a situation and experience that made us feel a lot of emotions that we don´t really know how to handle. In the church it helps that we have The Plan of Salvation, and that we know that we´re going to see those people again someday. But that knowledge only kinda dulls the pain. It´s ironic how the people who suffer the most are the ones that stay behind. I can´t really think of many other situations that have that same effect. Maybe it´s just the fact that it´s so unexpected sometimes that we fear it. But a lot of times in the scriptures they talk about it as a rest from their labors and their going to be with God, and I guess that´s just the part we need to focus on the most. I don´t really know, it was just a really strange weekend for that reason.

On a different note, I guess I should tell you all that I am now in San Martin, which is a city about an hour and half away from Mendoza where I was before. I am now companions with Elder Guillen, who is from El Salvador, so I´m taking the opportunity to improve my spanish as much as possible. He´s really nice and easy to get along with but struggles a bit on obedience sometimes so it´s going to be an interesting transfer or two. But we´ve already had more success in half a week here than I had in a week or even two weeks in my old area. There´s quite a few more neighborhoods here so the people are usually more receptive and will listen. A couple interesting things about the area are that we live like 30 minutes away from where we actually work haha. So we have to take a bus in the morning to work, and then take a bus back if we don´t have lunch with a member (which we haven´t yet...) to cook in the pension and then another round trip bus ride to go to our area and work in the afternoon. So we spend a ton of money of busses.

Welp, much love

Elder Lounsbury

I love America

Happy Fourth of July everyone!!!!!!!!! I hope you are all partying it up with lots of BBQs and fireworks and patriotic celebrations. Over here in our neck of the woods we´re trying our best to celebrate. We´re celebrating the American way by spending more money than our budget allows! Haha. Nah I´m just joking. We started out the day by singing/belting/screaming America the Beautiful, My Country Tis of Thee and the Star Spangled Banner. It was a beautiful moment. Then we went to Walmart where we attempted to buy Snickers but they were all out, probably due to the fact that we´ve bought over 30 there this transfer. So we settled for Twix. They also had some things which look similar to donuts, so we bought some of those and finished off our breakfast with a Coke in a 12 oz can. Man, those things are way expensive here, but if we were at a BBQ in the states, that´s definitely what we would be drinking. The Donuts were nothing like your Krispy Kreme, but they were good enough for us. We´ve actually seen a LOT of red white and blue here in Mendoza today. Pretty cool right? Except all of it is because the Copa de America has started and there´s lots of Chileans here (who´s flag has the same colors) haha. But we pretend they´re just celebrating the good ol´ USA. To finish our Independence Day celebrations we´re going to eat at McDonalds. Walmart and McDonalds, can you get more American than that? You probably can, but in Argentina it´s as good as it gets.

This week not a whole lot happened. Tuesday and Wednesday we spent most of the day going by investigators to try and get someone to church and try to have some that are progressing but EVERYONE was gone or didn´t have time or I don´t even know. We had like all our plans for people to go by, and 5 or 6 back up plans and we literally did not get into one house. We even made plans with people in the morning to come by in the afternoon and when we went back they weren´t there. We also had a guy majorly cuss us out, which was a first so I guess that was pretty...interesting? All we did is knock his door and he came out ready to fight. But I guess that stuff just kinda happens. We didn´t get anyone to church, which means we went a whole tranfer without a single person in church, so we were a little depressed sunday night. But if it was all sugar coated and easy it wouldn´t be as meaningful.

A few more quick updates, we have a new mission President! President Lindahl left friday, and now we have President Avila. We haven´t seen any changes or even met him yet but I´ll keep you all updated on how that goes. Also, we find out transfers later today, and we´re prettyyy sure that I´m leaving. One of Elder Hunter´s friends from Arizona is coming and President said that there´s a good chance that he would train, and he asked questions about how good the area was for someone new etc, so we´re pretty sure he´s training and staying here. But I´ll let you all know next week. If I do go, I´m really hoping I´ll get sent to San Juan which is a lot more North and a lot less cold haha. But we´ll see.

Welp, I don´t really have a whole lot else besides that. Oh, one last story. We live with an Elder from Buenos Aires, and this week he asked me to translate an insult into english so he could say it to Elder Hunter. Instead of saying the real translation I told him it was, "I´m a fat pig face" haha. So he went into the other room and said it to Elder Hunter and I was just dying laughing. He asked Elder Hunter if he said it right and when Elder Hunter told him what it really meant he came chasing after me. He´s a pretty funny guy. I still laughed during random parts of the week when I think of that.

Alright, now for reals I´m out of ideas.

Have fun watching fireworks and drinking soda out of cans.

Love, Elder Lounsbury

Latin American Pioneers

Hey ya´ll. This week had a bit of everything in it, but before I get into too much detail I want to tell a story. First, if you´ve gotten the July Liahona already, there´s a cool article in there about Latin American Pioneers. Anddd you all should read it, because it has to do with my story, kind of.

In 1923, a man and his family moved from Germany to Argentina. After arriving in Buenos Aires, they realized the church had not yet been organized in Argentina, or in any other South American country. They wrote the First Presidency for two years asking them to send someone down and start the Church in South America. Finally, in 1925, the church sent someone down and the church was organized. This man, who came from Germany, built the first church buildings, and taught and baptized the first 6 members in South America. He had a son, who, unfortunately, fell inactive after he married a catholic women who didn´t agree with the church. They had a son, and even though the mom didn´t like the Church, the dad (who was the son of the guy who started the church in South America) knew it was true and secretely taught his son (the grandson of the guy who started the church in South America) the basics of the gospel, hoping that someday he could baptized. But, then the dad suddenly died, and the boy obviously was never baptized or active in the church because of his mom. Alright, now fast forward to today. The grandson, who´s name is Walter, has a dream in which his grandma, who he only knew through photos, tells him to remember what his dad taught him, that he needs to do what his dad told him. So, after he wakes up, he goes to the closest Mormon church he can find (which was the institute building in downtown Mendoza) and walks in and tells the institute president his dream and that he wants to be baptized. haha. So he calls up the missionaries (he´s in the assistants area) and they´ve started teaching him, his wife, and his kid, and they all have a baptismal fecha for the 9th of July. How cool is that? They´re baptizing the grandson of the guy who basically is the reason the church is in South America.

The only reason I know that story, is because we went on division with the assitants one of the days this week. We had some really awesome lessons with both the zone leaders and the assitants, with the brother and sister of a recent convert and a bunch of their friends who are all around 16. I was pretty stoked because the friends were all interested and had some really good questions and I was sure everyone was feeling the spirit. We had the brother and sister commited to baptism and even had their interviews but, they didn´t come to church. And when we called to see if they were up this man answered who we have never met before and when we asked to talk to one of our investigators he said, "Yeah sure, here she is" and then just hung up. When we called back he was just really rude and wouldn´t let us talk to them and then asked if we were mormons and obviously has some negative feelings towards the church. We don´t know where he came from, especially since the mom is way supportive of her kids getting baptized, so it was really discouraging.

But, on a more positive note, I´ve learned a lot this week. I´ve been thinking a lot about faith and fear. For some reason I´m usually afraid to, or at least would rather not, talk to younger kids. Maybe it´s because I know I still have an accent and don´t talk perfectly or because a lot of them make comments at us as we walk by and stuff like that, but with the really cool lessons we´ve had this week (with kids the same age) I´ve realized that not all are like that. I guess I´ve been thinking about two different ideas that I´ve learned from these situations. First, I like the scripture in Ether 27:12 (I know probably everyone knows it, but I still like it haha) about how weak things can become strong unto us. I also have been thinking about how fear cannot exist with faith. I remember one time we were opening the mouth with this lady and at first I was just feeling the spirit a lot and felt like I could easily testify about whatever and then she started kinda arguing with us and for a split second I doubted myself and felt that feeling I had before leave. It reminds me of when Peter was walking on water, he had enough faith to start, but for a split second he doubted himself and that´s when he started sinking. I also really like the quote by Emerson, "Do the thing you fear, and the death of fear is certain." Sorry those thoughts are really jumbled but I just thought I´d share some of those.

Welp, next week is the 4th of July, so I´m sure I´ll have a bunch of good stories about how we celebrated here. We´re going to go crazy. I´m so stoked.

Love, Elder Lounsbury

Do the Cucaracha!

¡Hola famila y amigos! So good to hear from all of you, I´m glad things over there in your neck of the woods are going great. Over here, we´ve had some problems..err..adventures with Cucurachas (cockroaches). I just went blood crazy this week and murdered like 17 of them (for reals, I´m not just saying that because it´s the best number in the world). Luckily are pench has this special Raid that kills cockroaches so it´s pretty much been my best friend. Although, I´m about to give up and just accept them as household pets because one of the Elders we live with used to work a lot in Pest Control and assures me there´s no way I can get rid of them with the Raid. I opened up a cupboard that Elder Hunter had never opened up before and there were like 10 in there. I was screaming like a girl and spraying Raid like it was the end of the world. haha. We have some pretty epic battles. I´m still a little uneasy from all the horror stories I´ve heard (like some kinda bug that crawled in a missionary´s ear once and laid eggs) and random facts (apparently cockroaches can fit into spaces as small as cracks in a laptop) but for now I´m not motivated to take everything out of the cupboards and start a World War III.

This week was incredibly unproductive. Elder Hunter was pretty sick from Wednesday until Saturday night; on Tuesday we did a white storm (where everyone in the zone works in one area to try to help them out) and we had interviews Wednesday in the morning so we weren´t able to get much work done. I went on Divisions a lot with the other Elders that we live with and tried to pass by our most important investigators and find some nuevos so our numbers weren´t all zeros for the week, but it definitely wasn´t the same. I did however, have a lot of time to study. And I have officially completed the first two chapters of Jesus el Cristo which I know isn´t a ton but I´m getting there. On multiple occasions I´ve looked up a Spanish word and not even known the definition in English..haha. But it´s coming along. I also, gave my first talk in Argentina this week. Kinda crazy it would come after I´ve had 7 months in the mission huh? I thought it went alright, I was glad my Spanish is to the point where I don´t just read everything like I did in the MTC. I gave it on the talk entitled something like "What manner of men and women ought ye to be" by Elder Lynn Robbins from the most recent General Conference and then tied in how we can use goals and diligence to improve our progress to become more like Christ. Aristotle said, "We are what we do repeatedly, excellence, then, is not a act but a habit." That guy knows what he´s talking about huh? I talked about how we can focus our goals on more what we want to be than what we want to do. Elder Robbins mentions it in his talk. So you should go back and read it. Way good.

Welp, besides all of that this week wasn´t too eventful. We had our last interviews with President Lindahl which was cool, even though it was only the second one I´ve had with him besides the short one I had when I first got here. We talked about faith and miracles which was really cool. I also asked him about stuff when I get back and advice about what I should do and he said to look him up and he´ll help me out, which is wayyy legit. Also, for lunch yesterday we had fideos caseros with some spaghetti like sauce and meat and it was incredible. Fideos caseros are when they make their own noodles. So legit right? They make the dough and then use this machine to help roll and flatten everything out. It ends up being this super long peice of dough that´s about 7 inches wide. they cut width-wide it into like foot long pieces and put it through the machine on a different setting so it cuts them into noodles. Hopefully you get what I´m talking about. I want to get one when I go home and be legit and make my own noodles.

Welp, I think that´s all I have for this week. Don´t let your dad´s eat pie!

Love, Elder Lounsbury

Perry the Platypus

This week I think we celebrated July 4th early by doing/eating a bunch of American stuff. We went to Walmart where I bought a Perry the Platypus shirt (in the little kids section, haha), peanut butter, and Snickers. I also just ate at McDonalds. It was sooo packed and there were two stories and everyone there was dressed nice because it´s actually really expensize and man, it brought back a lot of memories haha. All of those things made me week wonderful. I think I had a peanut butter and honey sandwich every night this week, oh, and all 6 of the Snickers I bought were gone in like 4 days haha. But, my favorite buy was for sure the Perry the Platypus t-shirt. I think he is the epitome of something I´ve been studying and thinking about this week, which is determination. I think in Preach My Gospel it would fall under the "diligence" category but to me it´s practically the same thing. I´ve realized a lot of times in life I gage my progress by who´s around me, but what I really need to do is gage myself on what I think I can be. For example, with Spanish, I can communicate and understand pretty much everything, and am at about the same level as the people around me (who all have more time) so for a while I layed off studying so hard. But Preach My Gospel mentions in the language section about how you shouldn´t stop learning when you get to the point where people can understand you. I think sometimes we do the same thing in life because once we fit in or are average or feel comfortable we´re okay just putting ourselves in neutral and coasting because it´s easier. It happens to us spiritually all the time, we go through the motions and go to church or do whatever but we don´t work hard to apply ourselves and always have our eyes on higher ground. Or maybe it´s just me that does that haha. There´s a way cool quote in Preach My Gospel that says something along the lines of, "if we don´t learn how to set goals and master the steps to achieve them, I´m sure we´ll reach a ripe old age and look back on life to realize we´ve only become a portion of our potential." Haha, holy cow right? I love that quote. But I´ve also learned that just putting goals isn´t enough (I´m really good at that part) but we need to constantly measure our progress and adjust our techniques with the kind of determination Perry the Platypus demonstrates to actually accomplish what we want in life. Anyways, those are my somewhat spiritual thoughts for the week.

This week has been a little hard because Elder Hunter and I are struggling to find people to progress. We thought we had two solid commitments for church on Sunday (which was Stake Conference) and arranged for members to pick them up and drive them and everything and in the end both of our commitments fell through. It´s really easy finding people to listen to a first discussion, but when we return they´re busy or sick or have to work etc. But we´re working hard and I guess that´s the most important part. Stake Conference was pretty cool by the way, there was at least one member of the 70 there (Elder Arnold) and then I think another from the Area 70 in charge of all the missionaries along with our mission President so we made sure our shoes were shined etc haha. They changed the Stake Presidency which is why everyone was the there, and then we listened to a broadcast from salt lake. It was cool because I understood like everything, and last time I listen to a broadcast (for General Conference) when I tried listening to it in Spanish I understood about nothing haha.

Also, I think I´ve failed to mention the fact that we have a Mandarin tree in our backyard. How cool is that? I mean how much time am I gonna have a Mandarin tree to live under during my life? So this week I´ve taken advantage of that and have tried to start out every day by going outside and picking one off the tree and eating it in my mouth. It has been fantastic. Sometimes we gotta enjoy the simple things in life, you know? Just like them snails.

Welp, I hope everyone has a fantastic week!

Love, Elder Lounsbury

P.S. mom, I really hope you got my video but if not, ¡Feliz cumpleaños! ¡Que le cumpla feliz!

Chivo

These days I´ve been enjoying the refreshingly cold autumn breeze, buying way too much chocolate (they have nutella here!) and eating at fancy restaurants on P day. Elder Hunter has a giant sweet tooth (maybe even more than me, if that´s possible) so we´re not very good influences on each other when it comes to that. We´ve been consuming more chocolate than a fat kid on Easter. We´ve also tried our taste in the fancier restaurants of central Mendoza. Today we ate goat (chivo) that was like their version of a BBQ (called asado) and it was way good. They had some chill french music playing and super abstract art on the wall that I was trying to interpret and I just felt way fancy haha.

This week we´ve been a little sick so it hasn´t been very fun, but we´re working through it. I need to do a better job of keeping hand sanitizer with me and trying not to touch my face because we shake hands with so many people we´re almost bound to get sick again. We´ve been teaching the sister and brother of a girl who got baptized before I came and they both said they want to get baptized so they´re looking pretty promising. They have a hard time waking up and getting to church though so we´re going to work a little more with the members to make sure they feel comfortable when they go. This coming weekend is Stake Conference so it´ll be a little different trying to get people to church but hopefully we can still do it. We´ve also been trying to pass by inactive members a lot. It´s incredible, apparently (from what I´m told at least) we have about 500 members on our records, and about 40 are active. We even have lunch with two inactive members, although one of them went this week so hopefully they´ll stay active now.

I had my first peanut butter and jelly sandwich in 6 1/5 months this week. It felt really weird just making one after that long, let alone eating it. But it was a happy reunion. Many taste buds rejoiced.

Hey, can you look up any information on Huricán for me? I´ve heard so many different things. Can you just tell me like what league they´re in? Also, did that video work that I sent you last week? This week we had a little more of them celebrating. It´s just so crazy walking down the main road in our area and seeing people waving flags out of cars or on motorcylces and honking at chanting at everyone. We even saw a bus drive by and I swear there was a flag or a hand or a head or leg or something hanging out of every window in the public bus. Haha, it was like every Huricán fan was on that bus, it was way funny to watch. Crazy people and their futból...Except I love it.

This week we ate lunch on Thursday in another area because it was one of the Elder´s birthdays and they were cooking asado and we got invited. Anyways, the hermana asked us to acompany her to school to drop off her little girl in Kindergarten and Elder Hunter and I reluctantly agreed. We got to the gate of this school and he was like, "there´s no way we´re going in there" and the hermana was just oblivious and just sees us as friends and before we knew it we were inside the gate being stared at by probably everyone there. The kids were staring just because we were different and the parents were staring because they wanted to know what these missionaries were doing in a school yard. I felt so awkward. I was just trying to laugh it off at the same time but it was still terrible. Just imagine these two white, light-eyed, tall (handsome) americans dressed in ties and suit pants surrounded by all these little kids asking questions about where we were from and how long we´ve been here and how to say "I like you" in English and whatever else. I was 1 or 2 feet taller than everyone there since it was just a grade school so there was no where to hide. Haha. I kept thinking about those "Wanna get away?" commercials. The hermana even wanted us to follow her in the school and we didn´t want to offend her but didn´t really know what else to do so we followed her in and I felt like i was in one of those movies where the main character is just getting stared at by everyone else. I always thought that was pretty unrealistic but it definitely happened to me. After a teacher somewhat rudely asked "Chicos?" hinting like "What do you think you´re doing here?" I couldn´t take anymore and just told the hermana we´d be outside. I hope you all can imagine that scene. It was terrifying. But funny at the same time?

Welp, I hope that´s all for this week. Thanks for all your updates as usual.

With all the love of a house cat,

Elder Lounsbury