That Was Hard to Send - November 28th

Hola familia,
Well it looks like I am back to writing you guys without knowing what it is you have said to me. The Internet here is sooooooo slow! What can I do though. So I am sure you are all wondering how I am doing in my new area and with my new companion. Well I am doing good. Elder Gustafson is really awesome and we are getting along really well. He only has 3 months in argentina but he can speak really well already due to the Fac. that he took 7 years of spanish before. So we are both talking a lot and doing our part. I feel so good now. He had some problems with his trainer like me with my past couple companions and we are both determined to be obedient so that we can work according to the spirit. It seems to be paying off too. Last week we had a lot of success even though we have had to spend mornings looking for a place to live. The zone leaders called to congratulate us on our efforts. We have a really great family of 5 here, the family Benitez, that has been investigating for awhile and we got them to church for the first time this last week. They are a golden family, every single member wants to be baptized, Roberto (age 16), Nancy (14 or so), Fer (9ish) and the two parents. We are helping the parents get married which should happen within a couple of weeks and then we are good. A really great family that can really help out this little rama here. I was a little worried about Roberto in the beginning because he is at that age, but the last time we visited them he was in a goofy mood and reminded me of myself a bit, he can be serious but with family and friends quite good natured and goofy. He will be a good priest and maybe we wont need to bless the sacrament every week.
So a little more about the area. Jardín America is a really beautiful place, but kind of in the middle of nowhere. A lot of plant life and a pretty small place but the people are really great. It is more peacful and slow paced here which I think I like a bit better. The people seem more open minded. I do almost know my area already, or at least the basic layout of where everything and everyone is. The layout is a bit strange, but it should be easy to get around.
Now, I am sure mom is wondering about my comment on looking for a place to live so I will try and enlighten you. Since I got here my companion told me that we had to find a new place to live. They tried to take care of it before I got here and thought they had another pench but the owner sold it out to someone else when we went to go check up on it. Our owner where we live wants to raise the price up to 600 pesos and the misión only wants to pay 350 maximum. So we have been looking and looking but there isnt much here in Jardin America. We found a few for 400, but they were unmoving in lowering the price. It probably doesn´t help that we are from the U.S. dressed up as we are. Anyway, we have finally found a place for 350 and it appears we are going to move in about the 6th or so of december (we have to wait for the other person to move out). It will be a nice new appartment with plenty of space and on the second level (top). I am excited for it because our pension right now doesn´t let a good breeze into the pension. We will see how it goes. We are going to get a good look at the pension this afternoon.
Well…still waiting to read your emails. How annoying. I am trying to save mom´s new email address in my address book as we speak. Esperando…esperando….still waiting. I sure hope all is going well at home though.
Okay, finally reading something. Well as you have guessed, Jardín American is pretty far away. We are doing divisions at the end of p day with our district leader and we have to travel a couple hours each way. More of a pain than it is worth I think. We really are in the middle of nowhere right here. Strange.
Dad, I certainly hope that you are home for christmas. I having really thought about it all that much about you not being home and all. It would be a bit sad as you didn´t really get the chance to talk the last time much either. Maybe I should ask to call on a day when you are going to be there (a day other than Christmas). You need to give me the information for the phone card again though to make sure I have it. Oh…or dad can just have surgery so he can listen and talk. I will be fasting for you as well dad. By the way, how is grandma doing with quiting smoking?
I am glad you are getting to use your spanish dad. I don´t know why Josh would rather speak English. Sure it is easier but I want to learn as much as possible. Me and my companion are speaking almost completely in Castellano. We are learning a lot of vocab that we don´t know.
As for my shoes, the new ones are bad, I still have dad´s to use and I am a 10 and a half. We are going to look for shoes today, not much else to do. It is a lot like Saenz Pena only smaller and more colorful with plants and all that. And we are the only two elders for a couple hours.
As for pictures, I would love to send a Picture every week but it seems to be imposible here. I don´t have the plug in the computer to do it and it would take an hour too. Sorry, but I will try and send a CD of fotos again. I have a lot (sort of).
The good news is that I do have a piano here in the church (well really the church is an old building where they use to have dances). I will be teaching music because the people love it here. We just need to find a transformer for the little keyboard piano that we have.
Well, hope you all have a great week. Time to get going again.
Love,
Elder Aaron McDonald
P.S. I read a couple of emails from Tara and it sounds like she is having way too much fun, but good for her. The mission there seems a lot different than how it is down here.
P.P.S. Man it was painful to wait for this slow Internet today. I hope you just love this email to death.