semana 13

¡Hola Todos!
Some quick clarifiers: that washer and dryer are both electric ;) The washer is just a little slower but works and the dryer just rotates ridiculously fast so the water is squished out the sides of the barrel; yes, drunk people talk slower, but they also talk quieter and they slur their words, so it's counter-helpful at the same time; with the 3 packages you sent, only 1 said "for x-mas eve", does this mean I get to open the other 2?! :)

Alright, on to this past week! I had another funny contact. We were walking along and a man started walking beside us, so we started talking with him. He pretty quickly sat at a little empanada station and offered us some. I hesitated, but sat down, pulled out a pamphlet, and started teaching him while we ate the empanadas! He "had to leave" halfway through and "lived on the street" (so we couldn't really "come back"), but I got free empanadas off of it!

All 8 of the elders in our district actually did celebrate Thanksgiving! We bought some cooked chickens, bread, gaseosas (soda), and made mashed potatoes and jello and ate it all for lunch, which is actually the biggest meal of the day--breakfast doesn't really exist and dinner is nothing too big either...so we have lunch appointments instead of dinner appointments. Anyways, we went around the table and said what we were thankful for (in Spanish of course) and it was pretty great!I saw my first aloe vera plant the other day. Totally looked weird with the lime-green juice coming out of the leaf!

My first day of regular church was interesting but good. We spent the first hour (priesthood/relief society) greeting everyone and waiting for investigators, the second hour (sunday school) going on splits to find investigator's we had invited that weren't at church (all of them), and then I walked into sacrament meeting with 1 investigator during the opening song...no piano player and everyone was sorta half mumbling-singing Onward Christian Soldiers. The bishop quickly motioned for me to play the remaining songs of the meeting. They actually have an electric roland piano that feels and plays somewhat close to ours at home, but less sophisticated (no screen). No other pianos in the entire building! I'll get some pictures sometime.

Today was a fun p-day! We went out of the slightly poorer areas that we've been working in and headed to El Centro to do some shopping around. I got my first authentic Argentina jersey! We then headed to a big all-in-one shopping store called Libertad where we bowled, ate lunch, and did some last-minute grocery shopping. It was about as Americanized as I can get around here, except for this place called Chango Más, which apparently is like an Argentine Walmart.No baptisms yet, but we have a few that we're going to set baptismal dates for soon, so in a few weeks probably! I'm always excited to talk to these people!Well, that's about it for this week.
Love you all tons!!!
-Elder Powell-