Ellis' First Week in the Mission, 9/20/10

I´ll try to describe how things are going in general, then tell the most interesting happenings from each day.

In general: Being a missionary is undoubtedly the hardest thing I have ever done. It´s stressful to be in a new culture and a new place where nearly everything is unfamiliar. The hardest thing is to constantly push myself to be outgoing in a language I don´t speak or understand completely. I want to be diligent in contacting people (approaching people on the street and talking to them about church) and trying to participate in the lessons, but it frustrates/scares me that I can´t always understand people or say what I want to, so sometimes it is hard to find "las ganas" (the motivation). I´m working on it though, and everyday I learn to do something better.
Despite the difficulties, what I do all day is fun and incredibly rewarding. I´m learning quickly to understand and calculate our daily goals for appointments set, lessons taught, etc. Contacting was scary at first, but I picked up quickly on things I can say when I approach people (I parrot my companion A LOT) and it´s getting easier. It helps that a lot of Argentines (at least the ones who aren´t "busy" or afraid of us) are very friendly and like to talk A LOT (though this has its drawbacks as well.) Last week we contacted 140 people! I think about 40 or 50 of those were mine. That´s pretty good considering that most resfuerzos (new missionaries) don´t start contacting regularly until their third or fourth week. On Saturday I contacted 15 people, 5 more than the daily goal per missionary!
We teach A LOT, thanks to Hermana Lopez´s awesome skills/the general receptiveness of most Argentines to religion. Some people we teach talk almost fast enough to break the sound barrier (I know that makes no sense, but I couldn´t think of a better hyberbole at the moment) or have really thick accents, so sometimes I only understand about 50%, but other people talk more slowly and clearly so that I understand almost everything. I always understand enough that I can pipe up at least once (and usually more than that) in a lesson. When they hear that I just arrived in Argentina, most people are impressed with my language skills. :) When I can understand and think of things to say, I really like teaching. It´s really rewarding to explain to people what I believe and see them begin to understand.
I´m running out of time, but here are the haps of each day:
Tuesday:
-My first teaching appointment! We were with the Banegas, an awesome family of recent converts. Their son Brian hasn´t been baptized yet, and Hna. Lopez wanted to commit him to a date. She turned to me and whispered in English that I needed to ask him to be baptized when she finished her part of the lesson. I was terrified! But when it was my turn I asked him a couple questions, testified, and then asked him if he would be baptized on October 10. At first he was like, what?!, but Hna. Lopez talked to him some more and he said yes!
Wednesday:
-We took the bus to Open Door, a small town outside Lujan that is part of our area. It is very campo (country). We saw lots of horses and chickens. I contacted a woman who invited us to come teach her without hearing hardly any of our message. Her name is Susana. She didn´t have time right then, but we set an appointment to come back next Wednesday (our one day a week to work in Open Door). Hna. Lopez says Susan is muy bueno and that she is going to get baptized with her three kids. I hope her prediction is right!
After that we visited a recent convert, Emmanuel, so we could watch Together Forever (church film about eternal families) with his little brother Julian (10). Julian ran off with his buddies before we got the dvd to work, but we met Augustin, the other brother (21 years old) and watched it with him. I explained to him the plan of salvation using the Plan of Salvation folleto (pamphlet). It was really neat. When we left he was reading the pamphlet and looking pensive-- a good sign!
Eek, I´m almost out of time so I will skip to the best part-- we had a baptism on Saturday! Franco, the oldest son of the Banega family, got baptized (Hna. Lopez and her old companion committed him before I got the the mission). His dad, Claudio, has only been a convert for a month but is already an intense member and recently received the priesthood, so he got to baptize Franco. I stood at the top of the stairs into the font and watched him baptize his son. It was the coolest thing ever! I felt like I was in the temple-- the same calm, happy feeling. Talk about an awesome first week in the mission!
Other randomness:
-Food: Every morning I pour ultrapasteurized whole milk from a bag (weird, but that is how they sell it) over my frosted flakes-- it is like dessert for breakfast. I love it! The members feed us lunch and they have all been good cooks so far. There isn´t as much meat as I expected (good), but I suspect that here in Lujan I will never see a vegetable other than the occaisional potato. I might have to buy vitamins so I don´t get scurvy. :) (though there is plenty of fruit when I want it, so I may be ok in the scurvy department)
-Within two days I was told both that I look chilean and german. Then on Saturday one of our investigators asked if I spoke English. Maybe he didn´t notice my broken spanish and gringo accent. Or maybe he thought I was German. :)
-a wrinkled old Argentine man that I contacted told me he wanted to marry me. Uhh. . . I ignored him and let my companion politely say good night. I may have to start pretending I have a boyfriend waiting for me, haha.