Christmas

Well last week was pretty crazy! Monday we had our Xmas devotional zone meeting which I mentioned last email. Tuesday we had our District meeting when was our time for a zone conference with the President so I got to have an interview with him. He is super funny and amazing! Wednesday there was a meeting for all the new missionaries in the field so we had to take a train to the mission offices again. All three of these days we had to take the train while wearing suits. Because of the approaching Christmas holiday, they were completely jammed full. I literally had to push and shove and fight just to get on. Sometimes I was half way in the door with my bag hanging outside as we zipped by the towns. It was like that on the busses the night before the 24th of December. Everyone getting their Xmas shopping over with. Tomorrow my companion is picking up a pair of shoes he had repaired and I´m getting some more arpargatas. They´re these super cheap shoes that are awesome and comfortable from Argentina. The only hard part is figuring out my foot size in the metric system here. Thursday was maybe our only somewhat normal day of the week. Friday was Xmas eve and all the people were in their houses. When we walked through the streets of the city to get to the suburbs they were all completely abandonded Xmas day. It was quite eerie. Xmas eve we visited a ton of families and Xmas day we had an awesome lunch with a family Martinez. We sang hymns and shared a special Christmas message with everyone called ¨The Christmas Orange¨.
Just yesterday I had my first baptism! His name was Beto and from what I heard he has a girlfriend and a son and they are members of the church. He was an alcoholic so she left him and now he wants to make things right and show her he can change himself. He has made so much progress that it´s so wonderful to see him follow this path and his covenants! Saturday night I got to call home for a bit and hearing all my Aunt´s and Uncles and Grandpa saying ¨Hi¨made me feel a little ¨trunkie¨. But that quickly dissolved because I love this work and every moment I get to spend here is one fantastic experience after another! After the baptism we had to mop up the church because we forgot to turn off the baptismal font water (oops!). But it was still such an amazing day.
Today I just got back from a mall nearby where we met up with other missionaries for lunch. It´s big here but it´s pretty average compared to malls in the States. My spanish is getting so much better! Althought it was kind of annoying when I tried ordering a bagquette with ham and cheese and the lady didn´t understand me so another elder repeats the EXACT same thing I said to her and she gets it loud and clear. Ha, I´m such a gringo. In South America they call people from the United States ¨Yankees¨. Which I thought was pretty funny. But I didn´t figure that out until yesterday because with the accent here in Argentina it always sounds like they call us ¨Junkies¨. Anyway I´m having a blast and seeing the fruits of my labors along the way and absolutely love it! I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday season and look forwarding to seeing you all when I get back!
-Elder Trevor Jones

December 20, 2010

So I was in the home having lunch with a family and the news was on. The families always have the news on during lunch it seems. They knew I came from a place in the U.S. called Oregon. Then something came up about Oregon on the TV and they prompted me to look. I had no idea what it was saying but they tried to tell me something like a Tornado popped up in Oregon!? Is this true? As far as I know, there´s never been one. So what´s the scoop? Christmas is coming up and it´s starting to affect the peopel here. Every house we visit has a smaller tree decorated. There´s firecrackers going off all the time, loud ones at that. Here they celebrate Christmas like we celebrate 4th of July, with Fireworks! I heard Xmas Eve is going to be crazy with fireworks all night long. For P Day today we had a Xmas devotional at the mission offices with the whole mission gathered. It was a blast and I got to see my old companions from the MTC! It was awesome catching up and enjoying the lunch. We had a little gift exchange where everyone had to buy a gift (max costing 10 pesos, or basically $3.00) and everyone randomly got someone elses. Then one of the Assistants to the Prez read a story, while we all sat in a giant circle, and told us to pass our gift to the left or the right. It ended up where I got a little fuzzy green journal book. There was an Elder close to me who didn´t get anything (because some fools would hoard the good gifts) so I gave it to him. It´s just kind of a silly activity for the holidays in the mission. Each zone sang a song and we saw some mormon message videos and then the translated versions of the Xmas devotional from President Monson. To get to the mission offices we have to ride a train. This morning was insanely ridiculous. The trains were extremely jam packed this morning at the work rush hour. The train was headed towards the capital. I definitely had to fight and shove just to get on. The whole time I was spent on my tiptoes, basically chest to chest with other people while my bag hung outside the doors as the train went to our destination. It was way ridiculous but a funny experience at that. I´m sure the next times I will hate it.
Christmas is a great time for us to work because people are much mroe receptive to hear about our message about helping families with the gospel during the holidays. It´s been really hot lately too, and its only the beginning of summer. My spanish is improving but I still can´t understand any native. The people here are super laid back compared to Americans. It´s like they´re always on vacation. I still have yet to step foot in a carpeted house. Everything is tile here.A very popular sweet here is called Dulce de Leche, which is basically a better version of our Carmel. They eat it with anything. There was a ward End of the Year dinner last friday night at the church which was great but we had to leave before the food because it got too late. It was a bummer but we got to see everyone and they gave us some food to-go. There´s a lady in the ward who served her mission here some years back and now she lives here so I know someone that speaks english who I can ask for help. Some things in spanish can only be explained by someone who knows both languages. Also they call it Castillano here. Its basically a mix of Spanish and Italian. For us, it basically just turns their yuh´s into zhuh´s. There´s also a few words that are different. My area seems to be safe compared to my other MTC companions´areas, and richer, but it´s still pretty low standard compared to the U.S. I hear there´s some areas where the people live better than any U.S. citizen, like in mansions and villas and sorts. I have yet to have a chocolate chip cookie here, althought I hear they sometimes make them. But they´re mostly big on pastries. Sometime soon I´ll head to the capital to do some paper work. If you go on Google Maps to Buenos Aires and look for a super huge road in the downtown with a giant roundabout, that´s basically the central hub of this city of 11 million people. I live like 20 mintues west in a place called Moron (haha yup). There´s some cool shoes called Arrpargatas that are like Tom´s but super cheap and less material and are awesome for relaxing and looking cool. I´m going to snag some pairs sometime.
Anyway that´s about it for now. The week has been no stop walking, teaching, contacting, testifying, and eating like normal. Thank you all so much for your support and reading my posts.  It´s hard to imagine I´m 6000 miles away, and in a different place on the map than everyone else. It just makes the experience all the more special. I hope everyone is doing well and staying happy! I look forward to hearing from everyone during the mission or after how life is treating you! Until then.
-Elder Trevor Jones

Argentina

In my previous posts I didn´t really have much to post about because everyday at the MTC was so similar. But here it just exploded with opportunities and excitement! I haven´t even been here a week yet and I already love the people and the place I live in. The part of Beunos Aires I´m currently in is called Moron. Google map it! The standards are a bit lower than the US so we would probably think of it as kind of ghetto. I live in an aprtment in the urban area and we take a bus almost every day accross the highway to the poorer neighborhoods where people will listen to us and are nicer. My trainer is from Columbia and speaks little to no english. It´s pretty tough trying to understand eachother, almost all the time. But we work it out and we have patience with one another and I´m relishing in the language because of it. He really is amazing with staying obedient and being hard working. As soon as I step foot outside I love it! In the apartment in the morning when we study for a few hours I always have no energy. But then we I see the sun and feel the air I´m ready for anything. Right now it´s spring and absolutely gorgeous! A few times it rained while we were proselyting and got soaked and wet but I didn´t stop smiling or being excited! Standing outside a gate for a house waiting for a reply with the sky falling on us just seems so cliche and horrible that one can´t do anytihng but laugh at the situation. For those of you who would worry (like you Mom) about me getting sick or whatever, I´m fine and its part of the mission. I love it all! I met the members of the church yesterday. They´re all wonderful. I had to teach a short lesson about Jose Smith for Gospel Principles in spanish. It was hard for them to understand me I know but I also know that I was definitely able to invite the Spirit. I had no idea at the time but apparently after my lesson and my companion started to take over the class, he asked someone who was an investigator in the clase the big question. He agreed and just like that we got a date for a baptism! And I had no idea it happeneed until later haha! I usually find things out that happen infront of my face later on. Which is pretty funny. Just like how after church I had no idea there were NINE investigators there. My companion is a capo (stud). Today was the first time I was able to speak in english with someone because we met up with some other Elders in the zone for lunch. Not being able to understand my companion is good for improving my spanish but talking to an english speaker is definitely a good thing at times because theres some things in spanish that can only be explained by someone who can speak both well. Right now I´m sitting in a little store/cafe. Even the keyboard is a little different. I just had to search it to find the slash mark for the previous sentence. I love the mish and everything that comes with it! Heres some few things I can think of that are a lot different than the US:
 - People don´t have right of way, buses and cars don´t stop for you unless they will definately hit you haha
- Basically every house I visit we drink only soda or tang
- I love riding the bus because it´s super crazy, honestly it´s a miracle how few auto accidents there are with how they drive. Like they´ll drive anywhere in the street just to get by
- All the toilets are Badettes!! I´m still not used to it and I don´t really like it haha. Several times I got water all over the wall and on my arm because I wanted to check it out first before I used it. It´s pretty funny.
- I just made the connection that no one calls the language here Ëspanol¨but ¨Castillano¨, which is the dialect here. They say it´s from Spain too. I thought it was just the accent but theres also words that are different, like the word for gift in spanish is Don but here they say Regarlo.
- Theres no jugs for their milk, it comes in bags or boxes if you want to pay for expensive things
- Everyone here eats everything with Mayonaisse
- There are Dogs EVERYWHERE. In all of the houses and in the poor areas all over the streets
- Most houses have gates and bars on the windows. For houses with gates, we need to clap instead of knock on the door the get them to answer
- Part of the culture is the give a light kiss on the cheek when you greet someone (of course we´re not allowed to give or recieve them)
That´s about all I can think of from the top of my head. Obviously theres rarely brand things from the US here, besides shoes. Besides the language and the setting in a city of over ten million people, it´s not too different.
Thank you all so much for reading about my mission! I´m so grateful for all of your support and letting me experience such an amazing thing! I won´t let you down!
¡Que tenga un buen día!
Elder Jones

Argentina

The flight  was long but I still enjoyed it because I love flying. I met my trainer and got sent to my first area. Our mission president is making us email our families now to so they know we´re safe. Right now I´m in a convinient store on a computer. My area is pretty crazy. Lots of people and graffiti and more peopel and buses and people and smoking and people. But I love every minute of it! I get to meet the bishop tonight and be on my way to helping all these people around me! My apartment is somewhat sketchy in terms of how clean it´s kept but it´s a lot better than I was expecting. SO I had to use a badette for the first time and it was WEIRD!! MY companion is from Columbia and speaks little English, but he´s way tight. That´s about all I have to report for now. I´m sure next week I´ll have some crazy stories for you all! Thanks so much for your support!

I'm In Argentina!

The flight  was long but I still enjoyed it because I love flying. I met my trainer and got sent to my first area. Our mission president is making us email our families now to so they know we´re safe. Right now I´m in a convinient store on a computer. My area is pretty crazy. Lots of people and graffiti and more people and buses and people and smoking and people. But I love every minute of it! I get to meet the bishop tonight and be on my way to helping all these people around me! My apartment is somewhat sketchy in terms of how clean it´s kept but it´s a lot better than I was expecting. SO I had to use a badette for the first time and it was WEIRD!! MY companion is from Colombia and speaks little English, but he´s way tight. That´s about all I have to report for now. I´m sure next week I´ll have some crazy stories for you all! Thanks so much for your support!

Final Week in the MTC

Well honestly there isn't too much to talk about. For Thanksgiving we did a service project where the whole MTC made backpacks for under priviledged children around the world! In one day we made 33,400 backpacks! It was way exciting. And in the morning, we got to hear a talk from Elder Holland! Holy cow, that's FIVE Apostles here at the MTC during my time here! Insane! I leave monday so this will be my last message from the MTC! No idea what it will be like in the field. Steven arrived here a few hours ago but I haven't seen him yet. I was at the temple around his arrival time. Also last night Julie Beck came to talk to us. It was really cool. That's about it. Now we're just packing and wrapping everything up.

Next time will be 6000 miles away!

Til then

-Elder Trevor Jones