"adjusting to missionary life"

This week we got an added bonus from a parent that was visiting Tucuman:

Hello there!  I was recently in Tucuman with my son who returned from the Salta Mission last year.  We happened to visit the Arganaraz family during your son's very first day in Tucuman and probably during his first discussion.  I promised him that I would sent you a photo.  He looked happy (a little lost during the discussion but his Castellano will improve :) )  That is my son in the middle of the full time missionaries.  He helped teach that discussion :)

The members in that branch are wonderful people and love the missionaries.  He will be well taken care of there.

We have a small pension for just the two of us. and we usually cook for breakfast and dinner. 90% of the time we have lunch (an absolutely huge delicious lunch) with the members. The food is incredible. We eat pancakes every other morning, and empanadas every other lunch. Dinner we make raviolis or noquess. Its awesome. I´m much more worried about gaining weight than losing it. i can feel it already.

 Skip wrote Nicholas in Spanish and he replied in Spanish- TRANSLATION TO FOLLOW: yo estoy en una barrio. pues, tecnicamente yo estoy en una mitad de una barrio. Tenemos casi 15 lecciones en una semana. Y también tenemos CR/MA´s. Converso recientes o Menos Activos. Enseñamos casi 10 de ellos también. 

 En una día. Despertarnos a las siete de la mañana y hacer ejercicios y comer desayuno. Después ( a menos que tenemos una lección en la mañana) Estudiamos por 4 horas (cuz i´m a newbie). Tenemos una hora personal, dos horas de compañerismo, y una hora de idioma. Después de eso, vamos a nuestros investigadores y CRMA´s. En una semana tenemos 7 o 8 investigadores progresando mayormente. Eat with a member and go to bed after we have cooked dinner and verified (my comp is the district leader so we call the otros elderes cada noche in order to see how lifes going) We usually get to bed around 11 or 1130.

I'm in a ward, or technically I'm in half of a ward. We have about 15 lessons a week. And we also have CR / MA's. Less Actives or new member discussions. We teach about 10 of them also.   

In a day. Waking up at seven in the morning and do exercises and eat breakfast. Then unless you have a lesson in the morning studied for 4 hours (cuz i'ma newbie). We have a personal hour, two hours of companionship, and one hour of language. After that, we go to our investigators and CRMA's. In a week we have 7 or 8 investigators mostly progressing. Eat lunch with a member and go to bed after cooking dinner and doing verifications (my comp is the district leader so we call the other Elders every night in order to see how lifes going) We usually get to bed around 11 or 1130.

Pick a day and tell us about it – meetings?  Knocking doors?  Visiting members?  We rarely knock doors (maybe 5 since i´ve been here) due to the fact that we have appointments most of the day and if they are not home, which happens more than i like to think, we have many CRMA´s who live nearby that we visit.

Do did you know that Mercedes Sosa is from Tucuman?  She’s famous for Solo le Pido a Dios, a song that I love (and that you may remember a cover of from my ipod).  Listen for it. I actually heard the song whilst walking through the streets. Solo le pido a Dios. The exact cover that i grew up on. That was a weird moment.

 We have a small booklet to study called "adjusting to missionary life" and we never use it. I count it as a blessing that i have barely noticed i´m here. Por medio de my senior year, my mucho life experience taught by my parents, and traveling the world in my youth. NOTHING phases me here. I have been able to slip right in to this life, culture (most of the time, i´m not a huge fan of mate yet) (mate is the drink the entire country drinks. We only drink mate cocida. Its okay...i guess).

 The weather is kinda like the autumn of Utah all the time. Some days i wear my short sleeve shirt, and otheres my long sleeve with a sweater, (thanks mom for the sweaters, i have to say that i was doubtful at first but now i love them) but its winter here so everyone bundles up like californians, namely they have a winter coat on and its 70 degrees outside :P

 The language is a breeze...and that was a lie. but it has come much easier than i ever imagined. I tried to think what i learned in middle school spanish and realized that my three years of spanish i passed in the first three days of the MTC. Its insane.  

 I don´t miss much of home since i´m soo distracted in the work. And thats serious. Not that i don´t miss all of you. But i have soo many new friends here. I love hearing from ya´ll. 

 Talk more next week! 

Love to you all

Elder Siebers