28 Page Letter (June 8th - June 18th, 2006)
OK .... I finally finished typing in the last letter we got from Mark. We received it on June 30th, 2006. It is 28 pages long and covers what has happened in Mark's life from June 8th through June 18th. I'm sorry it took so long it get this posted up but life has been kind of busy the last three weeks. So for the "die-hard faithful Mark follower" read on. Everyone else can go check out the latest movie.
I'll work on getting some pictures up next.
8 June 2006
Thursday
Dear Family,
How art thou? I am feeling much, much better than I was yesterday. After I got done with my Email to ya’ll, we went and bought groceries and came back to the apartment. It was already about 6:50 and I was just feeling like crap. So, because of my situation Elder Wendorf decided that we weren’t going to go back out. We only had 2 appointments and they weren’t probably even going to be home, so we didn’t feel too bad on skipping out on them. Plus we’ll just make sure to make them our first stop for the next day.
However, I hadn’t opened up the package yet so I did it now. I first pulled out the breath mints from Kroger and couldn’t figure out why you sent them but then I realized that everything in the box was green. It was a greenie package. How cute. I read through all the letters and comics. They were so funny. The discussions in ebonics was so funny. I had to stop laughing so hard because it was making my head hurt more.
After I was done going through it I took some Extra Strength headache medicine. I then took a shower. It was so nice to have the shower working good enough to resemble a shower. It’s not all the way fixed but the plumber did a good job with what he had to work with. That was my first real shower in Argentina. It only took 2 months almost. Once I got out I went to bed early. Around 3:00 in the morning I woke up coughing really bad again and tried to stop but I couldn’t and my throat was killing me. So I got a glass of water then tried to go back to sleep but on my back and it helped out a bunch. However, when I woke up this morning my head was still hurting but not as bad. By the time we went out to work my head felt much better.
It wasn’t our lucky day because it started pouring down rain. The tiny umbrella that I have barely even covers me from shoulder to shoulder but it got the job done. We had lunch all the way on the other side of our area. It was about a one hour walk there. Elder Wendorf didn’t have an umbrella and got drenched. We finally got back to our apartment with our food since we had to get it to go since only the wife was home. We dried off then got back out to work. It didn’t take to long before the rain came at full force. Elder Wendorf kept getting lucky because we were in houses teaching whenever the rain came. He doesn’t have an umbrella. Around night time there was a really cool lightning storm. It was just lightning with no rain or thunder. It was kind of like a firework display. Any ways after a long days work we made it back to the apartment where I took a shower and hit the bed early since we have to wake up early, 5:30, to go into Buenos Aires for our meeting with Elder L. Tom Perry. It should be very exciting. One, because I finally get to hear from an apostle and second because I finally get to go to Buenos Aires.
9 June 2006 (Friday)
Today came and went way too fast but that is because it was so exciting. We woke up at 5:20 and got ready then took off. However, we didn’t need to leave as early as we did, because we waited for a whole hour outside in the freezing cold waiting for the rest of our zone to pick us up, in a van, bus type thingy.
It was about an hour and a half ride on the Expressway into downtown Buenos Aires. The bus ride was so funny. It was definitely a time when I would have wanted a video camera. However, I did take pictures. We didn’t go all the way into downtown so I didn’t see any of the sky scrapers or Av 9 de Julio (The world’s largest boulevard).
When we went into the church they said that there was 4 missions that would be there. Buenos Aires North, South, West, and the MTC. I saw a bunch of guys from my branch in the MTC that all went to the Buenos Aires South Mission. We talked forever. Then I sat beside Elder Johnson and me and him caught back up again on what’s been going on. I also saw Elder Grange. All three of us are all pretty much on the same level of Spanish. Hermana Gutzman, who I talked to after the meeting is still ahead of us, but she has always been so whatever.
About 15 minutes before the meeting was suppose to start at 9:45, Elder L. Tom Perry came in and said he wanted to shake the hand of every missionary in the meeting. Well there was more than 400 missionaries there. He and his wife and Elder Clayton who is the Area President over South America and his wife and then a latin couple were lined up, up front and row by row they called every missionary up there to shake hands. When I got up there Elder Perry said to me, “Well, here’s another tall one.” Then he asked me where I was from. It was cool. Elder L. Tom Perry is only about an inch shorter then me, but that’s alright because there was about 10 missionaries that were taller than me.
Elder Clayton talked first, well his wife talked first. He spoke about ways that we could better ourselves as missionaries. He spoke in all Spanish so it was kind of hard to get a lot out of his talk but the main thing he kept saying was “Don’t be tape measure Mormons.” What he was saying by that is don’t measure how far you can go without breaking the rules but instead to always stay in the center of the path.
Then Sister Perry spoke about how wonderful it is to see a family embrace the gospel, referring to our investagators. Then Elder Perry talked. First, I have to say that this guy is hilarious. He centered his whole talk around a experience that he had with the articles of faith and the importance of learning them and learning the knowledge behind them. The coolest thing about the talk is for once the Spanish people had to take the back seat, because he only knows English, so there was a translator beside him and I know that not everything that was said was translated. Especially when he made fun of Argentino drivers. He was talking about the Article that talks about obeying the law of the land and he said that Argentino drivers need to read that one again. Because, they put white lines down on expressways for a reason but no one here seems to follow the law of staying in between the lines. Everyone that knows English laughed so hard and long that the translator didn’t even translate it, so none of the natives got to hear the joke. It was just all so much fun.
Then after the meeting, I got pictures with a couple of guys and was just talking with everyone. The meeting was supposed to go from 10:00 to 11:30. It went from 10:30 to about 12:30. We didn’t get back in our bus until about 1:30. It was 4:00 when we got back into our apartment. We went and picked up our lunch from the bishop’s family that we were way late for but they saved food for us to take home. When we finally got out to work, we only had about an hour, then we had to go to the church for meetings. It started to really get cold on the way back to our apartment. It always gets cold, the day after a big rainstorm. We planned like normal then I wrote in my journal then I was off to bed.
10 June 2006 (Saturday)
One cool thing that happened yesterday that I thought was pretty funny was on the bus ride back Elder Collie had got a package at the meeting since they had brought all our mail from the offices. The package was from BYU and it said basicly “Congratulations on a good mission, but it’s time to get back in shape.” However his mission is not anywhere over. He still has until January of 2007. In the package was a brand new pair of the BYU cleats that he wears and then this big bag full of performance enhancing pills and protein and dietary supplement stuff. All it was missing was steroids. The cleats were really nice. He said that they were only the practice version and that the cleats that he wears in games are way nicer.
Anyways, on to Today. It was freezing cold when I woke up and we only have this small heater in our study room, so I wore my blanket for clothes all morning. Then in the afternoon we came back to the apartment to do our weekly planning session, since we didn’t get to yesterday.
Either way, we would have had to come back home because Argentina was playing Ivory Coast in the Word Cup tournament. So there wasn’t a single person on the streets and all the stores were closed. We could tell what the score was, because every once in a while you would just start hearing fireworks and horns blaring outside. Then just the opposite when Ivory Coast scored. Argentina ended up winning 2 to 1, which is good because we get to go back out and work. If Argentina would have lost then we would have had to stay in our apartment and study because everyone gets drunk whenever Argentina loses and they want to fight anyone that are foreigners. They get drunk when they win too, but they are more happy and don’t want to fight.
11 June 2006 (Sunday)
I think I’ve been doing the whole “fake it ‘till you make it” thing too good because today at church I was asked to give a 15 minute talk for next week on missionary work. So that will be fun. You can guarantee I will have that whole talk written out word for word. We had lunch today way out in the part of our area that we never go in. The one where all the houses are on stilts. We had pasta, which is what we normally get except from the family Paz. They were inactive members like everyone else in our area. They all say the same thing, that they went inactive because of the ward. However, the dad works at a golf course and has brought the missionaries golfing before, so if my next companion likes golf at all we will play. The dad also said that the golfer Jack Nicolas is suppose to be building the best golf course in South America here in Argentina, which is pretty cool to hear about.
13 June 2006 (Tuesday)
It’s rainy again. My companion said that during the winter here, it rains almost every single day. I didn’t write anything for yesterday because it was just another regular day. At our zone and district meeting in Escobar I was talking with Elder Collie about all the people that come to the Golf Course and the famous people that I’ve carried for and seen there. He just loved it. Him and I are going to be going on divisions again but this time he is coming here to Benavidez and it’s going to be 24 hour divisions.
This whole place is soccer crazy right now because of the world cup. They can’t believe it whenever I tell them I’ve never heard of it. It only comes every 4 years. This time it’s in Germany. Apparently, the world cup was in Atlanta back in 1994, but I don’t remember anything about it. I’m including a bracket of the teams playing. The United States is abriviated EEUU. Nevermind, that abriviation is on another bracket. The one I’m sending just says Estados Unidos. You don’t have to fill it out or anything it’s just a souvenir.
This morning when I was working on writing out my talk for this Sunday, I was thinking “Man, I wish I could record this like dad did our sacrament services!” Then I thought and remembered I have a tape recorder and I can just bring it up there with me and set it on the podium. So now I will be able to go back and listen to it when I’m about to come home and remember what it was like to barely be able to speak the language. Plus, if I ever become a trainer and my kid is having problems with the language, I’ll just be like “Hey, listen to me when I first started, believe me you have no problems.” Hopefully, that will cheer him up and give him some hope. Plus, when I get home I’ll let ya’ll here it and then compare it to how I talk then at that time.
14 June 2006 (Wednesday) Preperation Day!
I have exactly 20 months left in my mission today. I can’t believe that I have been gone for over 4 months now. I know the next 20 months are really going to change me and if they go by fast then I am going to wish that I could relive them. That is why I want a video camera, because then I will always be able to remember my companions and area better then what pictures can describe. Which is why this morning after our studies we went by the only place in Benavidez that has video cameras and they only had one. It wasn’t that bad but it was still big and I just wish I would of bought one in the United States and just brought it with me. Because all the cameras here are imported from the United States and cost more because of it. The only camera that comes close to what I want is the JVC GR-SXM289, but I wouldn’t buy it, it’s just the best thing I’ve seen yet. So compare that to the cameras that ya’ll have found up there so far. Because if it is cheaper for ya’ll to buy what I want there and send it in the express safety package than for me to buy it here and get ripped off. Either way I want a video camera soon one way or the other. On the other hand I am still taking pictures. Elder Wendorf bought one roll of 400 film and it was 14.70 in pesos, and it only had 36 exposures. So it is definitely cheaper if you just drop a box of film in the packages you send than for me to buy them here.
We checked our cards today and we got our adjustments for our area which was about 140 pesos more, which really helps out since we had that big meal at Kansa’s last Wednesday, but that was a special occasion and not something I will be doing often.
We just got back from the emailing place and I have you last 2 emails in front of me and I’m going to try to answer some of your questions. The first email that you sent on June 7th basically had a couple of questions.
As if you don’t know by now I got my greenie package and I’m doing great especially since I’m not in Atlanta frying. I’m here where it has now become coat weather everyday. Everything interesting that has happened is included in the rest of the week.
I did know Dozier. Who did he get married to? Ask Andy if there was anyone there at the party from my graduating class.
So Brett Richards reported to the MTC today. That’s cool. Next thing I know Travis Johnson will be reporting. By the way, has Travis’ sister got her call yet on where she is going?
Please continue writing your emails how you are, I like it a bunch and it reminds me more of what it was like to be there. That’s everything for that letter.
Now on to this weeks letter (June 14th). I have had a very rainy week which means it has been extremely muddy. I still haven’t found any shoes that are my size. Which means I still haven’t used that money I pulled off my debit card yet.
The missionary work here is going slowly but it is moving. My companion keeps reminding me that this is just a really hard area. It is a little disappointing but last week we taught 12 lessons which was double of what we taught the week before.
We also got a baptismal date set with one of our investigators. It was kind of cool how it happened too. We met with him in the morning and I felt like we should set a date with him but we didn’t. Then later on in the afternoon we ran into him and he had us come over and we taught another lesson. Again I felt like we needed to set a baptismal date but we didn’t. We left and we were about a mile away walking to our next appointment and I told Elder Wendorf how I kept having this feeling that we needed to of set a baptismal date with Julian. We kind of talked about it as we kept walking. Then finally we stopped and we prayed about it right there in the street at the end of the prayer we both felt like we needed to set this date. So we walked all the way back down the muddy road to Julian’s house for a third time that day. He invited us in and said a prayer with him and then my companion looked at me which means he wanted me to do it. I had no idea that I was going to ask and propose the date but it was on me now. I just started talking and words kept coming. He understood everything and said yes. So if everything goes right we will have a baptism the 22nd of July.
We have had baptismal dates with others but they have all fallen through. The stereotype that South America is a baptizing mission is partially true. In Brazil and Chilie yes, but Argentina is a rebuilding mission right now and especially out area here in Benavidez. However, the work is pressing on and can only get better. That is all I have to say for now about Missionary work.
The language, well it is pretty much the same. I just keep working at it and it can only get better.
The plumber will hopefully come back and finish but we have to get the part and plus the shower works fine now so we will probably just leave it how it is.
Alright, the Mission Offices and the Mission Home are in San Isidro. All mail and packages you send go to the Mission Offices. When we go to our Zone and District meetings on Monday they are at the Stake Center in Escobar. No mail goes to Escobar unless someone picks it up form the offices and brings it to the meeting in Escobar on Mondays. Hopefully that explains it all a little better.
Elder Wendorf says thanks for the belated Happy Birthday. Anytime I take money off my card I will tell you so you can look to make sure nothing else happens.
The experience with Elder Perry was great but I already talked about that.
The address and everything was in the letter and email that I already sent. If the aerial view is cool then send me one to and I’ll try to draw out boundaries and locate stuff for you.
Yes, I’m still taking pictures, but videos would be cooler. Alright that was all the questions in your last email.
Thanks for the detailed letter about all that is going on with David and Katie. Sounds like the next 6 months are going to be crazy with the whole wedding and stuff. I hope ya’ll bought me a pink tie, too. I’ll wear it on November 18th and take a picture so it looks like I had something to do with the wedding. So David did everything backwards, that sounds like him. What does the ring and all the dresses look like? Take a video, a good one, because when I get home I will want to see all this stuff.
Wow! It really sounds like they are screwing you over at work. Why don’t you just HR, NLS2, CNE, SE, & NLS1 them. I have no idea what all that stuff means.
So, who won in dodgeball?
If we could equal out my temperature and ya’ll temperature I bet it would be a pretty comfortable day. I am still getting use to this whole backwards thing. I am getting pretty tired of being in winter though. I wish I could just have one of ya’ll hot days mixed in with all my cold days. The morning and nights are the coldest and all this rain we have been getting doesn’t help to much either.
Again, I can not tell you how much I enjoyed the greenie package. Especially, all the candy. I am really making him (Elder Wendorf) jealous, but he can’t complain because he can have all he wants in 22 days. As I write, he is already packing his bags. He is only a little trunky.
Saturday, 17th of June 2006
I wasn’t able to write the last couple of days because they have been so busy. Wednesday night around 7:30 pm, we got on a bus to go to Savio which is where the zone leaders are. We got to their apartment at 7:55 expecting them to be there at 8:00, but they didn’t get back until around 9:15. Which means we waited for over 1 whole hour for them to get there and it was freezing cold plus there was about 10 dogs in a group in the street that just would not stop barking. Anyways, when they finally got there, Elder Collie packed his bags with everything he needed since these were going to be 24 hour divisions. We ended up having to take a Remis back which is basically the same thing as a taxi, because the bus was taking way too long. It’s a good thing because when we finally walked in our front door it was 10:20. We quickly got ready for bed and then he looked at all the sheets of paper with photos printed out on them of all of ya’ll.
Then we went and got in bed, but we didn’t go to sleep. We just talked for about an hour and a half. First, we talked about my mission experience so far and things that me and my companion have done that I like and things that I think we can improve on. Then somehow the topic turned over to sports and then neither one of us could shut up. It was funny because he kept trying to get me to want to go to BYU when I get home, but that’s not happening. He is not a really big baseball guy so I gave him a quick tutorial on how the whole playoffs work and then I told him everything that happened the last season since he came on his mission in January of 2005 right after all the bowl games.
Then we got on to football and I asked one question that we talked about forever, “Do you know Calvin Johnson?” He talked about how in his class of upcoming freshmen for All-American or something he was number 12 and there was only one other wide receiver in front of him, Dwight Edwards or Jared. I don’t remember. So he was going to come into his freshmen year as the number 2 best wide receiver in his class, but he said he was watching ESPN for the results and he was bumped back to third and Calvin Johnson took first. He said he had never even heard about Calvin Johnson, but he learned quickly. Then we talked about that catch that Calvin Johnson had that was freakin’ amazing. He had never seen it so I described the whole play and catch to him frame by frame since I have seen the catch so many times thanks to Scott and TiVo.
Then he talked about how cool it was to play his first game at BYU where he made his first touchdown and then to come home and flip on SportsCenter and see them playing his highlights and discussing all about the talent and future that this kid has. We probably would of talked all night long but he had a headache and got up and took a shower around 12:00 while meantime I fell asleep.
In the morning we woke up and went running. Elder Collie said he was way out of shape, which means I could stay with him. We did the first 5 laps at a full speed jog and then the last lap we sprinted and with Elder Wendorf we only sprint the last side of the last lap, but with Elder Collie we sprinted the whole last lap. He didn’t leave me once. I stayed up with him the whole time. If ya’ll tried to look him up on the computer remember his first name is Austin but don’t get him confused with his brother that is playing for BYU right now.
Anyways, we came home and started studying. However, for about 30 minutes or 45 minutes of our personal study I taught him about how to pick up the seams on a baseball when you are batting and putting together a mixture of baseball players for the perfect baseball swing.
When it was time for companion study, I first had to plan out the day. Normally, Elder Wendorf plans out the day and I try to help where I can but he said it is my turn to try it all by myself. We only had 3 appointments that were already set. One with Julian, a investigator who we just set a baptismal date with, then a lunch with the Bishops family, and at night we had a meeting with our ward missionary leader. Which means that I had about 7 hours of freetime to plan for. My main goal for all this time was to work in one area. That I achieved.
We stayed in one part of our area the whole day, unlike normal with Elder Wendorf when we cover almost our whole area, but we are working on changing that. We ended up even having more time to fill because our first appointment with Julian fell through because his dad died and he was at the hospital and then our lunch with the Bishops family ended up being a to-go lunch since the Bishop wasn’t there and only the Mom and the daughters were home which means we can’t go in.
However, the day went great. I did a lot of what we hardly do here and that’s going door to door clapping. We probably clapped (knocked) 40 doors. Which is more than what Elder Collie had said he had done his whole mission. Knocking doors is more of what they do in the United States Missions.
We are always supposed to contact 20 people a day in the streets and Elder Wendorf and I normally get right on 20, but today we got 34 contacts in the streets.
Also, while walking to a reference, there were a bunch of kids playing fütbol like always and Elder Collie said let’s play them. Which surprised me because that is something Elder Wendorf would never have done. We walked up to the fence and asked the kids if we could play and they thought we were joking but when we walked through the gate of the fence all their mouths dropped, and they all got excited. Fortunately this field actually had a little bit of grass and the dirty part about it was the kids. So we played 2 games in shirts and ties and won both of them.
While we were playing a crowd of people started gathering around the fence to watch. It was great. I thought Elder Collie just wanted to play to have some fun, but he said he does this once or twice in all his areas just because of the fact that a crowd always gathers and it lets people see that we are people too, not robots or FBI agents like they always think we are. Plus we get to be friends with the kids and the kids push their parents to come talk to us.
Once we left a guy shouted from his yard for us to come over. He had saw us playing and wanted to know what it was that we were doing down here. So we set up another day for us to come by and teach since we were out of time and needed to go to the church for our meeting, but the point is, it worked. Playing fütbol worked. Because this guy seemed interested and it was all because he saw us playing fütbol, but we’ll find out next Tuesday how interested he is, since that’s when our appointment is with him.
We had our meeting and then got on a bus for Savio. Once again Elder Wendorf and I didn’t get back to our apartment till right at 10:30. The next day, Friday went by without to much happening.
However, Saturday was awesome. We taught 7 lessons which is awesome since we only had 3 lessons taught so far since Monday. It was great because for once almost all our appointments were home. We set lots of appointments, but when we go by for the appointment they’re not home, but today they were.
Once again I say this is a hard area, Elder Wendorf has been here for 6 months in July and he said this is the hardest area and worst ward of his mission, but days like today give me hope.
Now I am caught back up to today, June 18, 2006 (Sunday). We have to leave for church now but wish me luck on my talk. I’ll tell you how it went when I get home.
Well, I am home and the talk went great. Happy Father’s Day to dad and all you fathers and future fathers. I did record the talk so you will be able to hear it one day or the other.
That’s all I can fit in this letter without going over weight. I’ll write what I did on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in my email home on the 21st of June.
Bye-Bye for now.
Love, Elder Putnam
I'll work on getting some pictures up next.
8 June 2006
Thursday
Dear Family,
How art thou? I am feeling much, much better than I was yesterday. After I got done with my Email to ya’ll, we went and bought groceries and came back to the apartment. It was already about 6:50 and I was just feeling like crap. So, because of my situation Elder Wendorf decided that we weren’t going to go back out. We only had 2 appointments and they weren’t probably even going to be home, so we didn’t feel too bad on skipping out on them. Plus we’ll just make sure to make them our first stop for the next day.
However, I hadn’t opened up the package yet so I did it now. I first pulled out the breath mints from Kroger and couldn’t figure out why you sent them but then I realized that everything in the box was green. It was a greenie package. How cute. I read through all the letters and comics. They were so funny. The discussions in ebonics was so funny. I had to stop laughing so hard because it was making my head hurt more.
After I was done going through it I took some Extra Strength headache medicine. I then took a shower. It was so nice to have the shower working good enough to resemble a shower. It’s not all the way fixed but the plumber did a good job with what he had to work with. That was my first real shower in Argentina. It only took 2 months almost. Once I got out I went to bed early. Around 3:00 in the morning I woke up coughing really bad again and tried to stop but I couldn’t and my throat was killing me. So I got a glass of water then tried to go back to sleep but on my back and it helped out a bunch. However, when I woke up this morning my head was still hurting but not as bad. By the time we went out to work my head felt much better.
It wasn’t our lucky day because it started pouring down rain. The tiny umbrella that I have barely even covers me from shoulder to shoulder but it got the job done. We had lunch all the way on the other side of our area. It was about a one hour walk there. Elder Wendorf didn’t have an umbrella and got drenched. We finally got back to our apartment with our food since we had to get it to go since only the wife was home. We dried off then got back out to work. It didn’t take to long before the rain came at full force. Elder Wendorf kept getting lucky because we were in houses teaching whenever the rain came. He doesn’t have an umbrella. Around night time there was a really cool lightning storm. It was just lightning with no rain or thunder. It was kind of like a firework display. Any ways after a long days work we made it back to the apartment where I took a shower and hit the bed early since we have to wake up early, 5:30, to go into Buenos Aires for our meeting with Elder L. Tom Perry. It should be very exciting. One, because I finally get to hear from an apostle and second because I finally get to go to Buenos Aires.
9 June 2006 (Friday)
Today came and went way too fast but that is because it was so exciting. We woke up at 5:20 and got ready then took off. However, we didn’t need to leave as early as we did, because we waited for a whole hour outside in the freezing cold waiting for the rest of our zone to pick us up, in a van, bus type thingy.
It was about an hour and a half ride on the Expressway into downtown Buenos Aires. The bus ride was so funny. It was definitely a time when I would have wanted a video camera. However, I did take pictures. We didn’t go all the way into downtown so I didn’t see any of the sky scrapers or Av 9 de Julio (The world’s largest boulevard).
When we went into the church they said that there was 4 missions that would be there. Buenos Aires North, South, West, and the MTC. I saw a bunch of guys from my branch in the MTC that all went to the Buenos Aires South Mission. We talked forever. Then I sat beside Elder Johnson and me and him caught back up again on what’s been going on. I also saw Elder Grange. All three of us are all pretty much on the same level of Spanish. Hermana Gutzman, who I talked to after the meeting is still ahead of us, but she has always been so whatever.
About 15 minutes before the meeting was suppose to start at 9:45, Elder L. Tom Perry came in and said he wanted to shake the hand of every missionary in the meeting. Well there was more than 400 missionaries there. He and his wife and Elder Clayton who is the Area President over South America and his wife and then a latin couple were lined up, up front and row by row they called every missionary up there to shake hands. When I got up there Elder Perry said to me, “Well, here’s another tall one.” Then he asked me where I was from. It was cool. Elder L. Tom Perry is only about an inch shorter then me, but that’s alright because there was about 10 missionaries that were taller than me.
Elder Clayton talked first, well his wife talked first. He spoke about ways that we could better ourselves as missionaries. He spoke in all Spanish so it was kind of hard to get a lot out of his talk but the main thing he kept saying was “Don’t be tape measure Mormons.” What he was saying by that is don’t measure how far you can go without breaking the rules but instead to always stay in the center of the path.
Then Sister Perry spoke about how wonderful it is to see a family embrace the gospel, referring to our investagators. Then Elder Perry talked. First, I have to say that this guy is hilarious. He centered his whole talk around a experience that he had with the articles of faith and the importance of learning them and learning the knowledge behind them. The coolest thing about the talk is for once the Spanish people had to take the back seat, because he only knows English, so there was a translator beside him and I know that not everything that was said was translated. Especially when he made fun of Argentino drivers. He was talking about the Article that talks about obeying the law of the land and he said that Argentino drivers need to read that one again. Because, they put white lines down on expressways for a reason but no one here seems to follow the law of staying in between the lines. Everyone that knows English laughed so hard and long that the translator didn’t even translate it, so none of the natives got to hear the joke. It was just all so much fun.
Then after the meeting, I got pictures with a couple of guys and was just talking with everyone. The meeting was supposed to go from 10:00 to 11:30. It went from 10:30 to about 12:30. We didn’t get back in our bus until about 1:30. It was 4:00 when we got back into our apartment. We went and picked up our lunch from the bishop’s family that we were way late for but they saved food for us to take home. When we finally got out to work, we only had about an hour, then we had to go to the church for meetings. It started to really get cold on the way back to our apartment. It always gets cold, the day after a big rainstorm. We planned like normal then I wrote in my journal then I was off to bed.
10 June 2006 (Saturday)
One cool thing that happened yesterday that I thought was pretty funny was on the bus ride back Elder Collie had got a package at the meeting since they had brought all our mail from the offices. The package was from BYU and it said basicly “Congratulations on a good mission, but it’s time to get back in shape.” However his mission is not anywhere over. He still has until January of 2007. In the package was a brand new pair of the BYU cleats that he wears and then this big bag full of performance enhancing pills and protein and dietary supplement stuff. All it was missing was steroids. The cleats were really nice. He said that they were only the practice version and that the cleats that he wears in games are way nicer.
Anyways, on to Today. It was freezing cold when I woke up and we only have this small heater in our study room, so I wore my blanket for clothes all morning. Then in the afternoon we came back to the apartment to do our weekly planning session, since we didn’t get to yesterday.
Either way, we would have had to come back home because Argentina was playing Ivory Coast in the Word Cup tournament. So there wasn’t a single person on the streets and all the stores were closed. We could tell what the score was, because every once in a while you would just start hearing fireworks and horns blaring outside. Then just the opposite when Ivory Coast scored. Argentina ended up winning 2 to 1, which is good because we get to go back out and work. If Argentina would have lost then we would have had to stay in our apartment and study because everyone gets drunk whenever Argentina loses and they want to fight anyone that are foreigners. They get drunk when they win too, but they are more happy and don’t want to fight.
11 June 2006 (Sunday)
I think I’ve been doing the whole “fake it ‘till you make it” thing too good because today at church I was asked to give a 15 minute talk for next week on missionary work. So that will be fun. You can guarantee I will have that whole talk written out word for word. We had lunch today way out in the part of our area that we never go in. The one where all the houses are on stilts. We had pasta, which is what we normally get except from the family Paz. They were inactive members like everyone else in our area. They all say the same thing, that they went inactive because of the ward. However, the dad works at a golf course and has brought the missionaries golfing before, so if my next companion likes golf at all we will play. The dad also said that the golfer Jack Nicolas is suppose to be building the best golf course in South America here in Argentina, which is pretty cool to hear about.
13 June 2006 (Tuesday)
It’s rainy again. My companion said that during the winter here, it rains almost every single day. I didn’t write anything for yesterday because it was just another regular day. At our zone and district meeting in Escobar I was talking with Elder Collie about all the people that come to the Golf Course and the famous people that I’ve carried for and seen there. He just loved it. Him and I are going to be going on divisions again but this time he is coming here to Benavidez and it’s going to be 24 hour divisions.
This whole place is soccer crazy right now because of the world cup. They can’t believe it whenever I tell them I’ve never heard of it. It only comes every 4 years. This time it’s in Germany. Apparently, the world cup was in Atlanta back in 1994, but I don’t remember anything about it. I’m including a bracket of the teams playing. The United States is abriviated EEUU. Nevermind, that abriviation is on another bracket. The one I’m sending just says Estados Unidos. You don’t have to fill it out or anything it’s just a souvenir.
This morning when I was working on writing out my talk for this Sunday, I was thinking “Man, I wish I could record this like dad did our sacrament services!” Then I thought and remembered I have a tape recorder and I can just bring it up there with me and set it on the podium. So now I will be able to go back and listen to it when I’m about to come home and remember what it was like to barely be able to speak the language. Plus, if I ever become a trainer and my kid is having problems with the language, I’ll just be like “Hey, listen to me when I first started, believe me you have no problems.” Hopefully, that will cheer him up and give him some hope. Plus, when I get home I’ll let ya’ll here it and then compare it to how I talk then at that time.
14 June 2006 (Wednesday) Preperation Day!
I have exactly 20 months left in my mission today. I can’t believe that I have been gone for over 4 months now. I know the next 20 months are really going to change me and if they go by fast then I am going to wish that I could relive them. That is why I want a video camera, because then I will always be able to remember my companions and area better then what pictures can describe. Which is why this morning after our studies we went by the only place in Benavidez that has video cameras and they only had one. It wasn’t that bad but it was still big and I just wish I would of bought one in the United States and just brought it with me. Because all the cameras here are imported from the United States and cost more because of it. The only camera that comes close to what I want is the JVC GR-SXM289, but I wouldn’t buy it, it’s just the best thing I’ve seen yet. So compare that to the cameras that ya’ll have found up there so far. Because if it is cheaper for ya’ll to buy what I want there and send it in the express safety package than for me to buy it here and get ripped off. Either way I want a video camera soon one way or the other. On the other hand I am still taking pictures. Elder Wendorf bought one roll of 400 film and it was 14.70 in pesos, and it only had 36 exposures. So it is definitely cheaper if you just drop a box of film in the packages you send than for me to buy them here.
We checked our cards today and we got our adjustments for our area which was about 140 pesos more, which really helps out since we had that big meal at Kansa’s last Wednesday, but that was a special occasion and not something I will be doing often.
We just got back from the emailing place and I have you last 2 emails in front of me and I’m going to try to answer some of your questions. The first email that you sent on June 7th basically had a couple of questions.
As if you don’t know by now I got my greenie package and I’m doing great especially since I’m not in Atlanta frying. I’m here where it has now become coat weather everyday. Everything interesting that has happened is included in the rest of the week.
I did know Dozier. Who did he get married to? Ask Andy if there was anyone there at the party from my graduating class.
So Brett Richards reported to the MTC today. That’s cool. Next thing I know Travis Johnson will be reporting. By the way, has Travis’ sister got her call yet on where she is going?
Please continue writing your emails how you are, I like it a bunch and it reminds me more of what it was like to be there. That’s everything for that letter.
Now on to this weeks letter (June 14th). I have had a very rainy week which means it has been extremely muddy. I still haven’t found any shoes that are my size. Which means I still haven’t used that money I pulled off my debit card yet.
The missionary work here is going slowly but it is moving. My companion keeps reminding me that this is just a really hard area. It is a little disappointing but last week we taught 12 lessons which was double of what we taught the week before.
We also got a baptismal date set with one of our investigators. It was kind of cool how it happened too. We met with him in the morning and I felt like we should set a date with him but we didn’t. Then later on in the afternoon we ran into him and he had us come over and we taught another lesson. Again I felt like we needed to set a baptismal date but we didn’t. We left and we were about a mile away walking to our next appointment and I told Elder Wendorf how I kept having this feeling that we needed to of set a baptismal date with Julian. We kind of talked about it as we kept walking. Then finally we stopped and we prayed about it right there in the street at the end of the prayer we both felt like we needed to set this date. So we walked all the way back down the muddy road to Julian’s house for a third time that day. He invited us in and said a prayer with him and then my companion looked at me which means he wanted me to do it. I had no idea that I was going to ask and propose the date but it was on me now. I just started talking and words kept coming. He understood everything and said yes. So if everything goes right we will have a baptism the 22nd of July.
We have had baptismal dates with others but they have all fallen through. The stereotype that South America is a baptizing mission is partially true. In Brazil and Chilie yes, but Argentina is a rebuilding mission right now and especially out area here in Benavidez. However, the work is pressing on and can only get better. That is all I have to say for now about Missionary work.
The language, well it is pretty much the same. I just keep working at it and it can only get better.
The plumber will hopefully come back and finish but we have to get the part and plus the shower works fine now so we will probably just leave it how it is.
Alright, the Mission Offices and the Mission Home are in San Isidro. All mail and packages you send go to the Mission Offices. When we go to our Zone and District meetings on Monday they are at the Stake Center in Escobar. No mail goes to Escobar unless someone picks it up form the offices and brings it to the meeting in Escobar on Mondays. Hopefully that explains it all a little better.
Elder Wendorf says thanks for the belated Happy Birthday. Anytime I take money off my card I will tell you so you can look to make sure nothing else happens.
The experience with Elder Perry was great but I already talked about that.
The address and everything was in the letter and email that I already sent. If the aerial view is cool then send me one to and I’ll try to draw out boundaries and locate stuff for you.
Yes, I’m still taking pictures, but videos would be cooler. Alright that was all the questions in your last email.
Thanks for the detailed letter about all that is going on with David and Katie. Sounds like the next 6 months are going to be crazy with the whole wedding and stuff. I hope ya’ll bought me a pink tie, too. I’ll wear it on November 18th and take a picture so it looks like I had something to do with the wedding. So David did everything backwards, that sounds like him. What does the ring and all the dresses look like? Take a video, a good one, because when I get home I will want to see all this stuff.
Wow! It really sounds like they are screwing you over at work. Why don’t you just HR, NLS2, CNE, SE, & NLS1 them. I have no idea what all that stuff means.
So, who won in dodgeball?
If we could equal out my temperature and ya’ll temperature I bet it would be a pretty comfortable day. I am still getting use to this whole backwards thing. I am getting pretty tired of being in winter though. I wish I could just have one of ya’ll hot days mixed in with all my cold days. The morning and nights are the coldest and all this rain we have been getting doesn’t help to much either.
Again, I can not tell you how much I enjoyed the greenie package. Especially, all the candy. I am really making him (Elder Wendorf) jealous, but he can’t complain because he can have all he wants in 22 days. As I write, he is already packing his bags. He is only a little trunky.
Saturday, 17th of June 2006
I wasn’t able to write the last couple of days because they have been so busy. Wednesday night around 7:30 pm, we got on a bus to go to Savio which is where the zone leaders are. We got to their apartment at 7:55 expecting them to be there at 8:00, but they didn’t get back until around 9:15. Which means we waited for over 1 whole hour for them to get there and it was freezing cold plus there was about 10 dogs in a group in the street that just would not stop barking. Anyways, when they finally got there, Elder Collie packed his bags with everything he needed since these were going to be 24 hour divisions. We ended up having to take a Remis back which is basically the same thing as a taxi, because the bus was taking way too long. It’s a good thing because when we finally walked in our front door it was 10:20. We quickly got ready for bed and then he looked at all the sheets of paper with photos printed out on them of all of ya’ll.
Then we went and got in bed, but we didn’t go to sleep. We just talked for about an hour and a half. First, we talked about my mission experience so far and things that me and my companion have done that I like and things that I think we can improve on. Then somehow the topic turned over to sports and then neither one of us could shut up. It was funny because he kept trying to get me to want to go to BYU when I get home, but that’s not happening. He is not a really big baseball guy so I gave him a quick tutorial on how the whole playoffs work and then I told him everything that happened the last season since he came on his mission in January of 2005 right after all the bowl games.
Then we got on to football and I asked one question that we talked about forever, “Do you know Calvin Johnson?” He talked about how in his class of upcoming freshmen for All-American or something he was number 12 and there was only one other wide receiver in front of him, Dwight Edwards or Jared. I don’t remember. So he was going to come into his freshmen year as the number 2 best wide receiver in his class, but he said he was watching ESPN for the results and he was bumped back to third and Calvin Johnson took first. He said he had never even heard about Calvin Johnson, but he learned quickly. Then we talked about that catch that Calvin Johnson had that was freakin’ amazing. He had never seen it so I described the whole play and catch to him frame by frame since I have seen the catch so many times thanks to Scott and TiVo.
Then he talked about how cool it was to play his first game at BYU where he made his first touchdown and then to come home and flip on SportsCenter and see them playing his highlights and discussing all about the talent and future that this kid has. We probably would of talked all night long but he had a headache and got up and took a shower around 12:00 while meantime I fell asleep.
In the morning we woke up and went running. Elder Collie said he was way out of shape, which means I could stay with him. We did the first 5 laps at a full speed jog and then the last lap we sprinted and with Elder Wendorf we only sprint the last side of the last lap, but with Elder Collie we sprinted the whole last lap. He didn’t leave me once. I stayed up with him the whole time. If ya’ll tried to look him up on the computer remember his first name is Austin but don’t get him confused with his brother that is playing for BYU right now.
Anyways, we came home and started studying. However, for about 30 minutes or 45 minutes of our personal study I taught him about how to pick up the seams on a baseball when you are batting and putting together a mixture of baseball players for the perfect baseball swing.
When it was time for companion study, I first had to plan out the day. Normally, Elder Wendorf plans out the day and I try to help where I can but he said it is my turn to try it all by myself. We only had 3 appointments that were already set. One with Julian, a investigator who we just set a baptismal date with, then a lunch with the Bishops family, and at night we had a meeting with our ward missionary leader. Which means that I had about 7 hours of freetime to plan for. My main goal for all this time was to work in one area. That I achieved.
We stayed in one part of our area the whole day, unlike normal with Elder Wendorf when we cover almost our whole area, but we are working on changing that. We ended up even having more time to fill because our first appointment with Julian fell through because his dad died and he was at the hospital and then our lunch with the Bishops family ended up being a to-go lunch since the Bishop wasn’t there and only the Mom and the daughters were home which means we can’t go in.
However, the day went great. I did a lot of what we hardly do here and that’s going door to door clapping. We probably clapped (knocked) 40 doors. Which is more than what Elder Collie had said he had done his whole mission. Knocking doors is more of what they do in the United States Missions.
We are always supposed to contact 20 people a day in the streets and Elder Wendorf and I normally get right on 20, but today we got 34 contacts in the streets.
Also, while walking to a reference, there were a bunch of kids playing fütbol like always and Elder Collie said let’s play them. Which surprised me because that is something Elder Wendorf would never have done. We walked up to the fence and asked the kids if we could play and they thought we were joking but when we walked through the gate of the fence all their mouths dropped, and they all got excited. Fortunately this field actually had a little bit of grass and the dirty part about it was the kids. So we played 2 games in shirts and ties and won both of them.
While we were playing a crowd of people started gathering around the fence to watch. It was great. I thought Elder Collie just wanted to play to have some fun, but he said he does this once or twice in all his areas just because of the fact that a crowd always gathers and it lets people see that we are people too, not robots or FBI agents like they always think we are. Plus we get to be friends with the kids and the kids push their parents to come talk to us.
Once we left a guy shouted from his yard for us to come over. He had saw us playing and wanted to know what it was that we were doing down here. So we set up another day for us to come by and teach since we were out of time and needed to go to the church for our meeting, but the point is, it worked. Playing fütbol worked. Because this guy seemed interested and it was all because he saw us playing fütbol, but we’ll find out next Tuesday how interested he is, since that’s when our appointment is with him.
We had our meeting and then got on a bus for Savio. Once again Elder Wendorf and I didn’t get back to our apartment till right at 10:30. The next day, Friday went by without to much happening.
However, Saturday was awesome. We taught 7 lessons which is awesome since we only had 3 lessons taught so far since Monday. It was great because for once almost all our appointments were home. We set lots of appointments, but when we go by for the appointment they’re not home, but today they were.
Once again I say this is a hard area, Elder Wendorf has been here for 6 months in July and he said this is the hardest area and worst ward of his mission, but days like today give me hope.
Now I am caught back up to today, June 18, 2006 (Sunday). We have to leave for church now but wish me luck on my talk. I’ll tell you how it went when I get home.
Well, I am home and the talk went great. Happy Father’s Day to dad and all you fathers and future fathers. I did record the talk so you will be able to hear it one day or the other.
That’s all I can fit in this letter without going over weight. I’ll write what I did on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in my email home on the 21st of June.
Bye-Bye for now.
Love, Elder Putnam
posted by Debi Putnam at
5:01 PM
