He Made It!

We received this wonderful letter from Lawrence this morning. What a trip he had!

Dear Everybody,

I’m in Argentina!!! I made it safe and sound and now my only problem is learning how to use this Spanish Keyboard. Oh, and I have to learn Spanish but it’s coming along. I’m very safe and sound and I’ll send some pictures if I can figure out how on this computer. Hmm, this computer won’t let me so you might have to wait a week or more if I have to send pictures in the mail. Well, here’s what happened: at 10:00AM on April 14th, my travel group reported to the Travel office to get our tickets and everything for the trip. After we loaded our bags in the truck, we got on the bus and headed off for Salt Lake City. I took some pictures along the way to show how close I was to Wyview and to show a little of the route. At Salt Lake we hurried through security and everything and figured out how to use the self-check-in. Once past security, I called Mom first but she couldn’t hear me because the phone was broken without me knowing. I called Dad too but it didn’t work either. Finally I figured out to go to the next phone over but then Mom called back on the broken phone and still couldn’t hear me. Finally I got a hold of her but I only had a few minutes before my plane left. I ran off to get on the plane and off we went to Texas for about a 2ish hour flight, I can’t remember. In the Texas airport I called everybody and you probably heard that story. A few Elders went to get food but I thought, the heck with food, I’m calling home. They fed us on the plane anyways so it was alright. The flight from Texas was a little over 8 hours. They had TV screens all over the place which was a little distracting. All the Elders were packed together so there wasn’t much of a chance to talk to people on the plane. Eventually we landed at night in Argentina, Buenos Aires and met up with a couple of the other travel groups which were going to other missions. I saw Elder Frost and Elder Widdison which was weird. After leaving the security area we met up with some church representatives who helped us get to the Buenos Aires Temple! We even got to do a session in Buenos Aires which was awesome. We then met up with three missionaries from the Argentina MTC and after a little lunch from the cafeteria there we got on a bus and off we were to the airport again. From Buenos Aires we had a few hour flight to Mendoza where they gave us Argentine goodies like Alfajores. I missed Alfajores very much. When we landed in Mendoza and made it past security at night, we were picked up by the Mission President, President Avila, and his two Assistants. They took us to the Office Elders´ apartment where we dropped off our stuff. We had dinner with the mission president and his family that night and learned a little about the mission. We spent the night at the office elder’s apartment and in the morning they brought us ¨doughnuts¨ from Wal-mart. We then went to Civil Registry office to get Argentine IDs and stuff really early in the morning, it was a little cold but alright. After a couple hours at the Argentine DMV (they might actually be worse than the normal DMV) we went to the mission office and had a little bit of training and interviews to learn about the mission. Then we met all the trainers and one by one we found out who our trainers were going to be. Mine’s name is Elder Parry. He’s been here 9 weeks and a number of the people we’ve talked to think he looks like Leonardo Di Caprio. That might have to do for a picture until I can figure out how to e-mail pictures. Oh, and by the way, Microsoft Word is telling me that pretty much every word here is misspelled. Well after we met and had lunch, we grabbed all of our stuff and went by van to the bus station in Mendoza. At the bus station we got a ride to our apartment and finally got to drop off all my huge suitcases and stuff. After a little bit of unpacking we got ready, cleaned up a little, and went out to meet people. They don’t speak English too much here in Argentina as I was reminded very quickly. I’m getting better at understanding everybody but it’s not the same Spanish they taught us in the MTC. That and the fact that no one taught me the vos form, which was also a bit of a surprise. It’s ok though, I’m learning, but obviously not learning the vos form. So we’ve been talking to investigators, less active members, active members, and just about everybody we run into. I’m actually able to communicate a little with people but the moment they ask a question my mind blanks out. Anywho, I’m in San Martin a little east of the main city of Mendoza. I’ve got pictures of my apartment that I’ll send. The chapel we went to yesterday is actually fairly new and it looks really nice. I’d like to send a picture but we can only bring our camera on P-days and certain meetings since we’re not supposed to look like tourists. Maybe Mom would know someone here, but she hasn’t told me of anyone to look out for yet. Yesterday I participated in the confirmation of a family who was recently baptized and then I came in to replace the old elder, Elder Flake. He was Elder Parry’s Senior companion right before he left so Elder Parry was surprised to go from Junior Companion to Trainer. He’s doing really well though and he speaks Spanish well (it’s weird how everyone calls it Castellano as if it was a different language). We’re meeting all kinds of people and preaching the gospel. The mission president told us we need to have one baptism a week! We’ll be working overtime and preaching the gospel and eating the amazing Argentine food that I love so very, very much (Alfajores are amazing). I need to run but I hope to hear from you soon! I love you all, bye!

Love,

Elder Williams

For those of you who didn't know, we have a grandmother from Uruguay, which is a country that borders Argentina. All of us got to go there with her at some point in our childhoods, so we are very familiar with the food and the culture, which is very similar to Argentina. This is how he knows about things like Alfajores (which we are all demanding that Lawrence bring back cases of when he comes home).