He can't spell anymore! The Spanish is really taking over, hehe

10 Mar 2009

Querido familia,

¡Buenas tardes de Rafael Castillo! Esta semana ha sido otra buena semana. Espero que todo esté bien con ustedes.

We didn´t have a baptism this week, but we have some more great investigators that are working their ways towards that ordinance. But, first I´ll answer Dad´s question that came through Mom. What am I eating now? Or what is my standard diet. Well, every morning I start off with a bowl of cereal and milk (I drink the milk in the bowl). It is always either copos de maíz (plain corn flakes) or aritos de miel (honey rings). I also like to eat a banana in the morning when I can. The problem is that bananas go bad really quickly. They don´t last the week from P-day to P-day. Lunch of corse, coarse, course (I can´t remember how to spell that, I think it is my last try), is the main meal of the day. I have expanded my stomach and can eat more in one sitting than I could before the mission in order to get all the energy I need for the day. Argentines tend to eat a lot of fried food and pasta. On a regular basis we eat what is called Milenesa, which is really quite good. It is a kind of thin chicken pattie coated in a flavored flour, usually fried. This is either eaten plain or in a sandwich. Often accompanying this is potatoes with mayonaisse, tomatoes flavored with salt and oil, or a salad (lettuce with oil). My companion and I are glad when we get served healthy food. It doesn´t happen all too often. We also get served hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza, and empenadas regularly. My favorite and probably the easiest and healthiest is pasta. I also make sure to eat my three fruits a day. Usually a banana, an orange, and an apple. And I substitute with something else every once in a while, this week was peaches. I absolutely love fruits of any kind.

For the rest of the day, we just kind of snack. We receive cookies and other bits every once in a while from investigators and members. And in the night, there is never enough time to cook anything, so we just eat fruits and other snacks that we have. Yeah, my diet is all thrown out.

Continuing with the food, yes I have had an asado, or “BBQ.” One family in our ward seems to eat this nearly every weekend. But usually it is reserved for the holidays. It is good and nice to get out of the rhythm of what we eat, but it isn´t everything that people said it would be. But I don´t think we´ve ever been served some of the choice cuts, like are served in resteraunts. This meat is boughten from a regular carnicería (butcher shop I think), that can be found in nearly every other block.

Ok, now that I´ve spent a lot of time talking about food, time to talk about the investigators. Right now we have several investigators living close to the chruch, all within a block of each other. I think I´ve told you about Ana María. Well, this week we were able to talk with her two older children, Gabriela (18) and Federico (16, who really reminds me of J.D. Noelck). They remember when their mom investigated the church 10 years ago. And they want to participate too. Ana María really likes the church, but has a bit of a hard time progressing spiritually because of all the rancor she holds against her mom, on whoms property they have no choice but to live on. She doesn´t think that it is possible that she could have possibly chosen in the pre-existance to come to Earth and face all the trials we go through. I hope she´ll find the peace and rest she so needs. And I know it will come through the Gospel.

I absolutely love it when I see investigators take ahold of the opportunities of the Gospel and run with it. When for us as missionaries, we just guide in the process instead of nudge in every step. This has happened with two of our investigators, Veronica and Vania Dumos. They are sisters of Romina, a member who is reactivating, who asked us when we were going to pass by a few weeks ago. We have helped her and found that her sisters really have interest, especially since they are good friends with Roxanna and they have seen the change in her and her daughters. They came to church for the first time Sunday and absolutely loved it. They said they were a bit apprehensive when so many people welcomed them so freely. They´ve never really seen people acting so good so naturally. What we really loved hearing was that they are trying to apply what they learned in church. In relief society, they talked about speaking good with other people and controlling language. So, now they are helping one another cut bad words out of their language and speak good of one another. Also, Vania was so happy to tell us that she figured out why the Liahona is called what it is. We gave a Book of Mormon with dibujitos, um... pictures?, to their younger autistic sister and she was reading through it and found the part about the Liahona. They are reading, pondering, and praying and progressing. It is so joyful to see.

Gah, I´m almost out of time again. Well, I want to update you on my language abilities. I starting to feel I´m getting the hang of Spanish! I can understand my companion nearly always and other people most of the time. I can also speak with more fluidity. I still have a long ways to go, but I think I´m finally overcoming a major hurdle. I don´t really have to translate all of the words. The words fit with the meaning and feeling in my head. I don´t have to spend the time and effort to translate. I´m finding that when I do try to speak in english, I have a really hard time because I try to push myself to speak in spanish as often as possible. My voice sounds weird when I speak in English too. Yeah, I´m going to be one of those returned missionaries who needs a translator when he gets home.

Time to get heading onwards.

Con cariño y amor,
Elder Drake Ranquist