Letter home Sept 22 2011

Hi Mom and Dad,

I proselyte each Saturday I´m in the ccm (MTC) and it went really well. The 9 week elders came in the night before and gave us a crash course in Argentine street gestures so we didn't get in trouble. We met some really nice people and no one was particularly rude although we had this queer ability of being able to clear streets. It's like we reek of god or something.

Juan is our most promising investigator. He was extremely nice and we talked for about a half hour. He was very slow and made sure he pronounced everything so that we could understand and follow what he was saying which was absurdly curteous. Elder Tyree and I greatly appreciated the effort he made to communicate with us. He's Lutheran and we're going to meet with him again this Saturday. We left him a copy of el LDM (Book of Mormon) and we're going to follow up on the commitment we left to read it and see how he handled it. Our area will switch the next Saturday and so we really hope this one takes off. He has so much fe  en jesucristo (faith in Jesus Christ) it's ridiculous.  Sorry for the pidgeon español but i have difficulties thinking in ingles a veces. (in English at times)

Master the Tempest is Raging is a new favorite hymn of mine. All the norte americanos (North Americans) get together the night after proselitismo (proselyting) and belt it at the top of our lungs. On September 11 we also got together and sang the Star Spangled Banner and America The Beautiful. I got just a tad emotional. I miss you, but i wouldn't rather be doing anything else. The Spanish is coming. Some days it's really easy, some days it really isn't.

I'm really tired a lot. a lot a lot a lot. Members of the CCM (MTC) Presidency and Bishopbric teach the classes on Sundays and they're really great if i can stay awake through them. We're all constantly falling asleep and prodding each other to wake each other up. I usually end up standing half way through classes so that I can stay awake and hear everything that I need to.

Transfers are this Tuesday which means we lose a third of the north american elders and they're replaced by a new set and we get an entirely new batch of natives. My favorite thing that happened this week was Sunday. Sunday rocked. We had a fireside and instead of that we did a scripture trivia game with the president and all the norte americanos (North Americans) and my district totally wiped the board. Elder Tyree Elder Larson and I were all MVP's which was a blast.

 Yesterday we had a really great PI (prospective investigator) session. The role playing is helping a lot and it´s getting so that Elder Tyree and I can communicate on the fly and not panic when they ask un pregunta (a question) that we didn't plan for. We eat a lot of meat. Like a lot. Usually twice a day. And they always have slender loafs of Italian pan (bread) in a bin and so i snag some all the time as i walk past.  I have an affinity for alfajores* and Argentine food. Ese es muy bien.  (Its very good)

We currently have sun about once or twice a week so we're thankful when it gets above 50 :)  I've become the go to guy for sprains, twists, and tweaks in my district which is funny because i only know what i picked up from climbing and running.

Yo se que jesucristo es nuestro salvador y El expiar con nosotros pecados. Dios ama su. El evangelio de jesucristo es verdad.  (I know that Jesus Christ is our savior and He atoned for our sins.  God loves you,  The  gospel of Jesus Christ is True).

¡Chau!
Elder Simpson (Andy )

*alfajores = It’s principally a sweet sandwich of 2 round cookies with dulce de leche (manjar blanco or arequipe) (dulce de leche or manjar is caramelized sweetened condensed milk) in the middle and sprinkled with powdered sugar or they’re rolled in coconut as well. The cookies can be hard or soft-type depending of the recipe.   Read more: http://www.sweetsfoods.com/2009/08/alfajores-with-dulce-de-leche-maicena.html

Letter to Mom from Thursday September 15th 2011

¿Como le va?

Things down here are just plain nuts. While the hours are pretty regular, 6:30 am to 10:30 pm, we fill em to bursting. we've crunched some numbers and we do about 10 to 11 hours of in class time each day so it's a full day.  Sorry about the english and grammer and all that but my language skills are already slipping and I only have a haf hour to read emails and pound out a reply. We learn so much every single day and they all blur into each other. I feel like I've been down here for a couple months already and I'm really familiar with a lot of my district. 

There are 8 of us in it. Elder De hoyos is the district leader and then there is Elder Mcdaniel, Elder Crawford, Elder Wray, Elder Tyree my comp, Elder Larson and Elder Pyatt.  That is all of us and we all get along really well. We spend a lot of class time together and so we all share in the ups and downs of the entire process. Elder Tyree and i get along really well. he's from West Valley and loves being down here. He's very focused on learning the languge and inspires me to be the same way. 

We're currently working with a progressive investigator each day. Fortunately it's one of our instructers but we have to treat him as an absoulte stranger and he doesn't speak any ingles (English) for that entire time. It's the best though because Elder Tyree and I have been doing really well at that, which could be good or bad. 

It could be good because of the confidence boost and knowledge increase but it could be bad because we're going street contacting this sabado (Saturday) for 7 hours. proselitismo. (Proselyting) I don't know how to feel about it so i just have faith that whatever happens will be what is supposed to happen. 

Domingo (Sunday) has a couple of prep periods we have two full length sunday schools two other classes and sacrament meeting. Fortunately sunday dominga esté en ingles  porque no hablo muchismo español. (Sunday's are in English because we can't talk much spanish).  

We don't go to the temple because it's either being remodeled or built i can't tell. Either way we live in the middle of a construction zone because they are overhauling the entire complex. There 27 North Americans and there are somewhere around 40 Latinos. We speak a lot of spanish and today  they asked to start speaking entirely en español todos lo tiempo. (in spanish all the time).    It gets better and better each day and they strongly encourage us to hablamos en spanglish. (speak in spanglish). 

 Yo (pronounced sho) se el evangelio is verdad y jesucristo es el salvador de todos los gentes.  (I know that gospel is true and that Jesus Christ is the savior of all people.) Yo amo jesucristo y yo se dios loves me. (I love Jesus and I know that God loves me).  I'm so happy to be down here and I can't wait to get to work. vivá argentina. 

Ciao,

 Elder Simpson

Letter to Dad from Thursday September 15th 2011

¿como le va?

My spanish is coming seeing as it's the only way i can talk to three quarters of the people in the ccm  (MTC) and anybody outside it.  I don't know about sending any pictures from here. they're pretty strict about cameras and we can only bring them out on the third Sunday, transfer day. We turn over a group of Latinos every three weeks and a group of Americans every 9 so there are currently three transfers worth of North Americans here and one of Latinos. 

The food  is muy bueno so I need to work out more. I do core in the mornings before breakfast and then we have an hour of actividades fisica (Physical Activities) and yo corro por 20 minutos mas o menos (I run for 20 minutes more or less) and then i just do core work outs for the next half hour or so.  I can hold myself verticly out from a pole for about 15 or 20 segundos acá  (20 Seconds now).

I think of you all when i have time to take my brain off the wall from whenst it was thrown.  I wish you could see all this and feel of the power of el evangelio (the Gospel). el evangelio de restaurado es verdad. (The restored gospel is true.) jesucristo es nosotros salvador. (Jesus Christ is our Savior).  This is all true. el libro de mormon testifica de la vida de jesucristo. (The Book of Mormon testifies of the life of Jesus Christ).  

Ciao

Elder Simpson

Arriving at the MTC in Buenos Aires

Thursday September 8th 2011

Good morning good morning good morning.

It's 10:35 here right now so you may just be getting up. I apologize for anything that doesn't seem to be written correctly because the spell check only does spanish. The flights were long to say the least but really rather uneventful. I slept on and off from atlanta to buenos aires and called it quits on sleeping at about 5 am.

There were 8 other elders traveling with me and the mtc is currently nearly empty. We're waiting on all the other sisters and elders from the latin countries still. I really don't know what to say other than I'm very excited to start learning. Our day here doesn't start til 5 (just for today) so we're not doing a whole lot. I'm supposed to tell you that our p-day is thursdays and you'll get my address from this message.

I'm in great hands and the mtc is on temple grounds. I'll keep you all posted.

Elder Simpson