Mal Arrived in Buenos Aires

October 24, 2013 Mal arrived in Buenos Aires.  The mission received a 54 new missionaries this week.  There was her MTC group, the Argentine MTc group and a bunch of missionaries who had been waiting for their Visas.  So almost every companionship got changed this month in her mission.   I snatched all these photos off the mission blog.  The mission president and his wife are so great and organized and her blog is amazing.  They actually have a video every month to show transfers and a video every month with the pictures of all the baptisms for the month.  Mal is in good hands.  We got to talk to Mal for about an hour while she was in the Atlanta Airport.  It was great!

I'm just going to add her quick letter to this post, since she didn't send any new photos.

October 28, 2013

Wow, ok so I have to type fast because we have less time to write here than we did at the MTC, but I have soooooo much more to say!

Its only been four days but it feels like I´ve lived here my whole life. I´ve already eaten empanadas, milenesa, strange tasting pizza, dulce de leche and what not. I´ve ridden on the crazy fast buses that feel like they should be a ride at Disneyland. Dogs chase us in the street and EVERYONE is catholic.  We clap at gates instead of knocking on doors and I´ve stopped caring about doing anything with my hair other than a french braid or leaving it down.  Its the mission life! But, I´m sure what you really want to hear about is how my first week has been!

Well, as President put it, this was one of the craziest transfers in the history of the mission. We arrived at the airport and began our adventure by picking up seven native speaking missionaries at the Argentina MTC and taking pictures at the temple. Our group totaled twenty people and eighteen more new missionaries arrived the next day. Sister Carter (the wife of the mission president) told us that our first sights of Argentina would be very different then our actual mission, but I didn´t realize how true that was for a while. We went to a BEAUTIFUL park with a lake in the middle. It felt a little bit like how I would imagine central park in spanish form to be. There were paddle boats and bike paths and park rangers on horses. President took us to a spot under a big tree and told us that this was the EXACT spot where Melvin J Ballard, one of the apostles, dedicated all of South America to the preaching of the gospel. He told us that we were a fulfillment of his prophesy that the church would grow slowly, but with strength like an oak tree instead of a sunflower that grows quickly, but dies soon after. He asked us to make our missions a sacred experience. We then went to his house where we had a home cooked lunch on their back patio by the pool (once again, NOT how the real mission is.) We finished some training and then took a bus to our real mission an hour away.

We were told that because of the Presidents training this whole past week and because of the craziness of getting so many new missionaries, the transfer meeting wouldn´t be until Monday (today) and so we would be sent out with other companionships in the surrounding area for the weekend. One by one, companionships would arrive at the mission office and the AP´s would send a new missionary off on their adventure for the week. Hermana Foutz and I were the last missionaries there and it was weird to say goodbye to the Elders from our district one at a time. Finally, we were told that Hermana Foutz and I would be joining two companionships that lived together and so we would be sharing the same apartment. It was SUCH a blessing to have her there every night when things got hard.

Our companions were all about four foot eleven and spoke no English. One is from Chile (your mission Kyrst! Her name is Hermana Leiva), one is from Brazil, and two are from Peru. The Brazilian is like the mom of the group, the Chilean is sooooo sweet, and the Peruvians are crazy! They only knew about three English phrases that they used all the time. 1. Freaking 2. I see dead people and 3. Shake and Bake. Don´t ask me how they learned them, but it made for some great laughs. We became such great friends with all four of these sisters in the three short days that we had with them despite the language barrier and the culture differences. Its amazing how the church will do that.

We were put straight to work, and let me tell you, missionary work is SOOOO hard in Argentina. Everyone is catholic and its a little difficult to get people to talk to us. (At least in the richer area that I was in)  They aren´t afraid to interupt or tell you straight up that they want you to leave. I am slowly learning the best ways to start a conversation. One thing I have really loved about the people is that they are sooooo family oriented and religious! Its just sad to see a family that you know could be so wonderful with the gospel reject our message because of their uptightness about the bible or something. The first day was rough and Hermana Foutz and I had a nice crying sesh in the apartment that night, but  now things are soo much better.

One big blessing is that I can understand what people say! I didn´t expect to be able to communicate, but I can understand just about everything that people say and I can speak enough to communicate my point. It takes some time for me to form a sentence or explain something to my companion, but I get through it. It really has been a miracle that the language hasn´t been harder.

Anyway, today was the transfer meeting! I was so excited to finally have my own area and my own companion instead of being tacked onto a trio. We watched the video with all the areas and missionary pictures that I am sure is on sister Carter´s blog, but it was in power point form so they could take time to announce each change and cheer and hug and all that great stuff. And.........my companion is the Brazilian sister that I spent the weekend with!!!! I was sooo excited because we are already close friends and she is fabulous. Her name is Hermana Cuelho and she doesn´t speak English, but she is very patient and just what I need to push me to do my best. We are in an area called Caseros and I am living in the same apartment that I lived in this weekend also, but I´m in the area that Sister Foutz was in. Also my sweet Chilean companion from the weekend is still my roomate and her companion is also a brand new missionary from the states that I can speak English to when I just need to vent.

Anyway, I have to go, but I will send pictures next week and more info!

Love Hermana Millett!!

P.S. There is another Hermana Millet here! She is from Artemis JR. Funny