Saturday, November 27, 2010

Week 1

¡Hola from Buenos Aires Argentina!

It´s been quite the week! I guess i´ll start by answering questions!

The weather here is really kinda awesome/horrible. When you just wanna eat dinner, or relax, or read scriptures outside, its wonderful, anytime of day. But when we play basketball or futbol or football or something, its disgusting! I can feel it getting hotter and hotter each day. We have an hour and 40 minutes each day for "actividad fisicales" basically sports at around 2pmish. We usually all play some basketball (all the gringos and a couple latinos) for an hour and then throw a football around for 20 or so minutes. But it is ridiculously humid! This one night I woke up probably 10 times, and had to go to the bathroom twice in the middle of night, I don´t know why, but I did. And when I would lay back down on my bed, it felt like I was laying on a boiling water bed. I think we forgot to turn on the fan that night. =/

The food. Well. At first it was a little different, never bad or gross. Just different. Every meal has meat. Its awesome. The chef is so cool, he is this latino Brother that doesn't know a word in English and is always humming "Hark, All Ye Nations" while handing out the dishes of food. The food has definately gotten delicious though. I love it now. Its soooo dang good. They have these french fries that are like the size of Big marbles, and they are WAY better than any american french fries I have ever had. Oh, and their normal stick shaped french fries are way better too. They are even better than America´s french fries when they are cold. Every morning we just have 3 cereals to choose from. One is a nasty really hard version of fruit loops and the other is a really hard nasty version of coco puffs. The other is this granola/kix/raisin cereal that tastes like heaven. They never have cold milk though, which is kinda wierd. Its always warm. They also have mango-orange juice for every meal. Its way good. Its not like the Provo MTC as far as all you can eat, but I have never not gotten enough food.

The mattress is fine. Just gets really hot at night. But im getting used to it.

Language. My spanish is better than ever and I have only been here for a week. I have learned so much, and will continue to learn more. Yesterday, I had a conversation with a Latino Elder from Nicaragua. We talked for about 15 mintues at Lunch without a single problem. I felt like I could say whatever I wanted to say, understand all he said. I loved it. A can testify of the reality of the Gift of Tongues. It is a real thing. I can feel the strength of my calling as I learn the language. I wish we had more spritual type classes. We have so much on Missionary Teaching Skills and Language, but I wish we could have a little more personal testimony building-focused meetings.

My head has been doing very well. I did have to bust out the Tylenol the first day of playing sports. I haven't had a headache since!

When we got to Argentina, we had to wait in lines for hours and hours. A line for Visa, a line for Luggage, a Line for customs. It took about 3 hours to get from the seat on the airplane to the seat on the bus. Its all good. I couldn't fall asleep at all.

Shoe insoles are great, but I havent walked really that much. We do everything in this one building. I think theres a picture of it online. Even the Hermanas and the Elders sleep in the same building, on different sides of course. But EVERYTHING is all in this building. its 3 floors. theres even a sacrament room in it. Its pretty sweet. It holds about 96 Elders total. I guess the only gringos that come here are the ones that go to the Uruguay mission. Because theres no room.

For thanksgiving, the Argentenian cooks attempted a American Thanksgiving meal. It was yummy, but not the same. The meat was great of course, but there was no mashed potatoes.

I am definately feeling blessed in so many ways. I haven't felt homesick at all. I still love you all. dont worry. haha

Elder Hales from the airport is my companion. Hes really quiet as far as our social relationship but hes awesome. We get along great and work hard. We teach great together and study well together.

We are super super busy busy.

My day is wake up at 6:30
Breakfast at 7:25
Personal Study at 8
Companion Study at 9
Districto or District or Class at 10
Lunch at 12:15
Class till 2:15
Sports till 3:30
Shower
Companion or Personal Language study at 4
Class at 5
Dinner at 6:45
Class till 9
Plan
Teach latinos spanish lessons
Bed at 10:30

It gets pretty crazy! I wish I could say more. I gotta get off the computer but ill say more if I can in a written letter.

I have 3 more hours of P-Day

You can send padded envelopes. Small ones-like the same size as envelopes. No packages though.

I was called as District Leader last Friday.

Love you all!!!!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

His First Email!!!

Hey guys!!

So Im here in the MTC. Im using a spanish keyboard for the fist time so bear with me haha

Today is P-day! but we have a lot of registration type stuff to do, so next thursday I will have 40 minutes to write all about the flight and stuff. But everything is going great and there are about 15 elders and sisters all going to the same mission as me, all reported the same day as me! crazy ¿ey? the work must be rockin in montevideo!

the people in argentina are way cool, and the MTC is way sweet. its RIGHT next to the temple so there is a lot of construction goin on out there. The food has been good so far, and my companion is going to be Elder Hales from the airport in PHX.

So now I have an interview with the presidente of the MTC. Then with his wife. Then more unpacking type stuff...

hope you guys are having fun with grandma and I love you so much!

PS Which email would you like me to send these letters home to?

They suggest that you ask a bunch of questions in an email before wednesday, that way I can answer them all when I send my email next thursday.}

Sorry for the rushed email!

con <3

Elder Daniel Kellis