Semana 21-Salta

¡Hola todos!
Well, I’ve got a few responses to dad’s letter first. First off, if anything big happens in the world, you have to tell me because there’s only a 10% chance that me or another missionary will hear it from another person or see it on a tv somewhere. I just learned yesterday that something bad happened in Haiti and I just learned from the missionary next to me right now that there was an earthquake there. I loved Matt’s emails though—I’d like to keep reading them if you’re willing to keep sending them. It sounds like he’s finding and doing similar things I’m finding and doing here: kindof going around randomly, finding random people and their strange situations, lots of lines everywhere, dog issues all over, lessened sense of hygiene, drug problems every couple blocks, random service every once in awhile (although I guess there’s a difference between carrying a lady’s grocery bags and jumping out of the car to stitch up a forehead and reduce a dislocated shoulder!), and above all, spiritually-guided improvisation! Hope all turns out ok over there. Speaking of seeing things on the tv though, I did see a quick news flash that Osama bin Laden is still making threats towards the US. Is that becoming news up there?Good luck to Drew with all his auditions—crunch time baby! For the record, he hasn’t been emailing me ;) No se preocupen.Not sure why p-day changed, but it was by suggestion of the missionary department of the church, so…yeah. He actually had a lot of suggestions from them recently relating to the organization of the mission too. As for doing the Book of Mormon project in our native language, it’s so that we can easily discern the references to Christ and the doctrine as well. I’m totally fine with doing it in English if you ask me!Y el discurso que di durante la reunión sacramental : yo puedo dar discursos en castellano sin mucho problema. No es una sorpresa que tuve que dar un discurso. Tengo la habilidad para explicar basicamente mis sentimientos y pensamientos. Solo es que no puedo hablar con frases muy complicadas. Pero, bueno, un testimonio no necesita ser muy complicado para ser fuerte, ¿verdad?To answer Nick’s question: yes, I can speak Spanish fast now…as long as I know what I want to say ;) We made Mexican tacos using soft shells at this one lady’s house. Elder Young absolutely loves Mexican food and the spiciness that comes with it. However we discovered the reason why I was called to this part of Argentina: most of the people here really find it difficult to eat spicy food! It was good though. One of the 8-year-old members was baptized on Saturday. The service was really nice. I was asked about 15 minutes before it started to give a quick talk on the Holy Ghost though! I got my thoughts prepared and everything, and then the bishop got up to announce the program and said I was speaking on baptism! Talk about on-the-spot!!! It turned out fine though. The dad of the kid organized the speakers, but as he told the bishop, there was a miscommunication and the two speakers got switched. Both turned out fine though. Today is the first day of my 3rd transfer. Elder Young has left to tackle Santiago del Estero. My new companion will come in later today. His name is Elder Contreras and he’s from Chile. I’ll have more details on him next week. I’m still here in La Loma though. Looking forward to 2 baptisms here pretty quick though. I’ll let you know as soon as more details come in.
I love you all!
-Elder Powell