10-13-15 (week 7, first one in mission field)

Dear Family,

So arrived in Buenos Aires went to baggage claim to pick up bags and everything was there except for my carry on that I had to get checked because there was not enough room on the plane so I get it checked. Entonces I go and find someone to talk to and they say oh Frampton yes here and gave me a slip wrote down some info about me and said where my final destination is and I said Bahia Blanca and they say okay tomorrow we will send it to Bahia Blanca airport and you come pick it up at 6 55 at night it will be at airport. So went through Customs no problem then found a guy waiting for us; he threw us in a van and drove off we didn’t know where or what we were doing (all kids going to Bahia Blanca). We arrive at an airport like 30 minutes from the big Buenos Aires airport we were just at. This one is a small like passenger airport. We wait then check our bags and take a bus across the airfield to a plane we get on the plane old fashion way not like a terminal or thing we walk through but like they lower down the stairs of the plane and we physically climb up the stairs into the plane. Get on and it was only a 1 hour flight to Bahia Blanca. They gave us some juice and a cookie on the plane; I was happy for food for such a short plane ride.

Got to Bahia Blanca and the mission president and the assistants are waiting for us. We say hi, greet each other, then get in a van and go to the mission president’s home. They talk to us there and then feed us empanadas for dinner. Then they take us to the assistants like house and we spend the night there. Wake up, walk like 10 blocks to the church and we sit there and wait. The mission president and his wife and missionaries make us breakfast eggs and bacon and chocolate milk. Then we play charades then they take us into the chapel give us the low down on what is going on and introduce us to the missionaries that work in the office, the finance guy, the housing guy, the social guy, and give us speeches and PowerPoint presentations including telling us half the missionaries are Americans and half are Spanish people. Then they pull up our pictures on the screen and pull up trainers pictures and they tell us a little about what’s going to happen.

And I got assigned or matched to Elder Searcy. He has been here for a year and a half and is from Lehi, Utah. He is really great and we went to the office and took those pictures then we had lunch which was vegetable soup and grill cheese sandwiches. Then we gathered my stuff headed over to the bus station and we waited and then took a bus 3 and half hours to Santa Rosa and stayed there for the night at the zone leaders house just so we had somewhere to sleep. Then woke up went to the bus station and took another 2 hour bus ride to my assigned area which we are at now called General Pico. Look it up on the map so you know where I am.

So we got here Thursday and then did some proselyting and then had lunch at a members home, then had dinner at the ward mission leaders home, and we have lots of meat and lots of bread or pan and had some stew kind of soup but not really then went back to house and called it a day.

Friday was like my first real day as a missionary. Went running in the park and around the plaza then showered got dressed, studied then left had lunch somewhere. I think someone made us lunch and we brought it back to the house. That night was family night so we all met at the church and played soccer at the field next to the church. I was the goalkeeper or goalie and for the first like hour that we played. I didn’t let one goal go in and Elder Searcy was offensive and we had like 3 other boys on our team that were all like 14 years old. It was the five of us and the first hour the score was like 7 to 0. Then finally they scored (the other team) which are like all these 16, 18, 20 year old boys here are investigators or friends and like a couple of them are members of the ward. But they were big tough guys and they scored once.

Then we returned to the apartment and went to sleep. Saturday we had some appointments I invited one lady Veronica to be baptized and she said yes and we are having that in 2 weeks and then I invited one guy Jonathan to come to church on Sunday. We just walk around and go to appointments. If we ever have free time we have to clap our hands outside people’s homes because there are no things such as knocking doors or tracking or anything. We stand outside their gates and clap and they come outside to the gate and then talk to us. We have handed out at least 5 pamphlets of the Restoration that way.

There are tons and tons of dogs here like thousands on the streets I really like it; none of them are mean or bite or anything. But I get excited when I see a cat because they are far more uncommon. And with so many dogs I set a goal to see a certain type or breed each day and one day I set a real hard goal to find a dalmatian and lo and behold I saw one I’m pretty sure the only one in all of Pico - here I saw a dalmatian that day.

Sunday went to church. I had to bear my testimony we are part of the rama or the branch and meet at 9:30 as the ward meets at 9 and starts with classes first. But we are part of the branch. And yes Jonathan the investigator we invited came to sacrament meeting actually.

We had lunch at the branch president’s house and we had ravioli tortellini things, pasta manicotti things, and it was good. I liked it and cheese and crackers and bread of course. Then had jello for dessert it was like jello with fruit like floating inside of it. Then we left had some appointments elsewhere.

Yesterday was a holiday of some sort I didn’t find out it was Columbus day until like half way through the day so everything was like closed and because of the holiday they moved our P day to today which is Tuesday but normally it is Mondays so watch for Monday next week.

Then today we went shopping and we are emailing and stuff.

Now for some of the other little details:

1.    we live with a pair of other elders from Peru and from Chile; the four of us in our kinda house pension thing.

2.    Kitchen is nice. Elder Searcy and I make cookie banana bread, empanadas, tons of stuff in the oven.

3.    We have a mini laundry room where we wash our clothes and then we have to let them air dry in the house.

4.    We don’t drink the water. We mostly drink milk a lot and we have to buy clean water in huge jugs and then we make juice so we have tons of tang and lemonade and stuff. So we drink juice and milk mostly.

5.    Breakfast we have a 10 pound bag of cereal and that is what we eat every day for like the month. It is not even close to being like even a 1/8 of the way gone. It is a huge bag and we eat it for breakfast.

6.    We go running every day.

7.    When I got here with all my American dollars the bank exchanges them for I think 8 pesos per dollar. The government and money and stuff is bad but instead one elder traded me at a rate of 14 pesos per dollar so I gave him 200 dollars and I have 2800 pesos so I am pretty rich.

8.    I’m doing good though the weather is not cold. It may be cold right in Bahia Blanca but General Pico is so far away it is hot here. I sweat sometimes.

9.    My Spanish is good and coming along the first couple days I understood no body. it was super hard but now I understand like almost everyone. but I still am not that good at talking I need to work on talking more and sounding more Argentine with ll and y and che so people can understand me better. 

I think that was about everything for the week. Wait I forget I got a real nice cool short haircut this morning for 30 pesos so about 3 dollars and I feel so nice and I showered and shaved after I got home from the haircut and I felt real fresh and muy guapo. I think I look good. That is it for my first week here. I guess I will talk to you next Monday.

Love,

Elder Frampton