Christmas wishes (spagetti sauce!?), being a tool, no hot water, and more!

Dear Family,

Ok, I received a much (is the spanish affecting him that much already?) of email this week and I don´t think you want me spending this precious hour just reading email, so I´m going to print it out and read it later and respond next week. I hope that is alright with you. Throughout the week, I write in my planner the things that I want to write, so I´ll do the same with my response next week.

First off, I´ll answer the questions of the email from Dad last week. Sorry I forgot to write about your questions last week. My shirts are alright. I can´t iron them because everytime I do, they burn (but I have been able to get the burn stains out, luckily). They would look a little better if I could Iron them, but since they are made to keep wrinkles out, they aren´t terrible. I´m still presentable. With music, we´re only allowed to listen to hymns, mormon tabernacle choir, and a specific mission CD. So, I´m glad that I have at least 5 CDs of Mormon Tabernacle Choir on my iPod and that there is a wide variety of sounds in those 5 CDs.

Ok, I really don´t need much for Christmas, but if you have to ask my preference of possible things here is my small list of food I miss from the US. It would be nice to have some tortellini with a nice bottle of Prego sauce.(HELP! Anyone know a good way to send a glass container of sauce that has to be refrigorated when opened?) They have something similar here, but I don´t really like it. They only have pure de tomate (a kind of tomato sauce) that doesn´t have the flavor of Prego. Also, I like grapenuts cereal. Grapenuts sustain me in the morning a lot better than the cereals here (copos de maíz, which is corn flakes). As well, granola bars would be cool to snack on while we walk around. You don´t need to send those items, but just a few things that could be nice. Oh, and as well, a new tie always makes a good Christmas present for a missionary.

A small note about DearElders. I found out that they only come every 2-3 weeks. They receive them all and have a date every 2-3 weeks that they print it out and send them. So, if you submit it right before the deadline, it could be here in 1 week, if right after, it might be 4. I don´t know if anyone has tried to send one yet because I haven´t received any.

I received a package from the Sweat family yesterday! I want to thank them. All the children wrote really (I wrote wrilly at first for some strange reason. I have not idea why) cute cards wishing me a happy mission. The elders in the apartment (la pensión) also enjoyed some of the cookies. We´ll enjoy the snacks over the next few weeks. So, thank you! I´ll write a letter to reply specifically to the cards and the letter later on today.

In the letter from them was a story from Sis. Hinckley about why missions are necessary for the boys of the church. About how much it causes the boys to grow into men. That is one thing that I have learned out here, that these experiences teach me more about how to live life than I have learned the past 19 years of my life. Over the past 19 years, I´ve been molded into a tool, but out here, I am being sharpened for use. I have a ton more respect for all returned missionaries because truly, they are ready to be men.

We had a zone conference this past week. It was kind of fun listening to Sis. Benton give her talk. She really doesn´t know Castellano (Spanish) that well at all. She wrote out her talk and probably had a lot of help translating it and then read it with a really terrible American accent. It was really good and helped us appreciate more our abilities in Castellano even though we still have difficulties communicating. I still have a lot of difficulties understanding the people, but I am a lot better than when I arrived. I pick up a bit more every day. Here in Buenos Aires, there are a lot of immagrants from other regions of South America and they all have slightly different accents. One thing I´ve learned is that the Argentine accent is the hardest to understand because they mumble and slur their words a lot more than everywhere else. They also speak a bit faster. So, very often I can only catch the first word and the last word. The rest I can´t pick up, not only because I don´t have a full vocabulary, but I can´t distiguish where one word ends and the next begins. A full sentence sounds like one word. With time, I´ll be able to distiguish what I need to. There is one family in particular that I have difficulties understanding. Every sunday, we go to familia Valle for lunch. They have a lot of family come and they cook about 15 pizzas and have a ton of ice cream. (By the way, the ice cream here tastes just a bit better than in the states). My companion explained to me why I can´t understand them. They have this supernatural ability to have 3-4 conversations at once that are all interconnected. There will be one person talking who will then respond to another conversation that was going on while they were talking. It is crazy. Not to mention the speed of the conversations. So, if I can master that family, I´m good to go.

Also at the zone conference, I went with one of my zone leaders for just a bit to open a gate. He asked how things were with my companion and actually right now, they´re alright. We are getting along better now than before. One thing he said to me, that really brightened my day, was that Elder Nieres seems to be doing better. That he seems happier now that he´s with me. That made me feel so good that my efforts to love him and be patient have helped bring him more happiness here on the mission.

Sunday, I went on splits with some ward members. So, I was out without Elder Nieres for a time to guide me and to teach. I went with Hermano (Brother) Salvador, the Elders Quorum President to go out and contact less active members and to teach other lessons for a few hours. He´s a convert of 3-4 years, I think. I can´t remember at the moment, who is about 50-60 (I can´t judge age) with really cool sweeping white hair. He has a desire to learn English from me, so I give him little small phrases like “Hello, How are you doing?” every week at church to memorize. When we started one charla corta (a short contact lesson about the restoration) he was really eager to declare that in 1820 Joseph Smith was called to be a prophet by Jesus Christ and God. This brought a lot of questions from the man we were teaching and I had to go back and teach the beginning of the first lesson to help him understand why we need a prophet, about the creation of the church of Jesus Christ during His times, and about the authority that was necessary to restore. But, it was great nonetheless that he was so eager to declare that important message. And I was able to teach and answer gospel questions on my own! Without the need for help from my companion. He told me that he knew I could do it, and actually, I didn´t really doubt it myself, but it was nice to have the experience to prove it to me. Hermano Salvador really helped me with learning the area a bit more, showing me the houses of members and he knew so many others out in the street. Going on splits with him was a great way to gain a few references. Also, he could show so much love for the less active members, especially those of his quorum. Members are such a great asset. The ward misison leader, Hermano Carabajal, is setting up for us to go on splits with ward leaders every week to visit and strengthen the members, menos activos (less actives), y conversos recentes (recent converts). It is a great opportunity in many ways.

I´m starting to run out of time, but quick comments. I had a few cold showers this week. The hot water knob broke, but my companion, who can fix anything (for service, he rewires houses and fixes water pumps because he was a motorcycle mechanic and wants to be an airplane mechanic), rigged a way for us to turn on and off the hot water. Then we ran out of gas Sunday. I´m so grateful that usually I have hot water.

Also Dad, what are the names you put on the cups for the activity to demonstrate the fall of the chuch? I know the bottom thirteen are the twelve apostles, ancient and living, with Jesus Christ. But what are the names that you put on the cups you stack? That is such a great activity to do with a family, especially to help with family home evenings of recent converts. So, could you write the list of what goes on the cups?

Some quick scriptural thoughts. This morning, 1 Ne. 15:27 hit me, which states that Lehi didn´t see the filthiness of the water because he was swallowed up in other things. I didn´t realize how applicable that scripture is to us until this morning when I was reading some of the Book of Mormon for a part of my language study. That when our minds are swallowed up in other things, on good things of the Lord, we don´t recognize the filthiness around us. We are filled with pure water even and don´t even see that we are sorrounded by filthy water.

Well, I have to go now. I want to wish you my love. And bear you my testimony that I know these things are true. As Alma, I have fasted and prayed many days that I might know for myself, and now I now for myself that these things are true because the Lord God has manefested them unto me by His Holy Spirit (I don´t have it memorized in english, so that is a small translation of mine).

With love,

Elder Drake Ranquist