New Life in Argentina - New Email

Hi All,
Please pass this on to everyone that I have a new email address: lamascastillo86@my ldsmail.net. I gave the wrong one. Sorry about the typing it is really different. The keys are missing and everything on the computer is in spanish. I need to learn spanish computer lingo! LOL OK, so I get to write on Tuesdays around 5.30 my time so if you want to talk to me then you can when you get on the same time. Next, I think I only get dear elder two times a week maybe only once but I still love it so ya keep them coming! Alright, the good stuff. I am serving in Tucuman. We are on the out skirts of the city and it is super poor, but I love it. It 110´ right now with a high humidity so I sweat more than when I ever played soccer. It is sooo green I love it soo much and my area is mosly dirt roads with random rocks. It rains somedays so then it is really muddy and stinky from all the trash that people leave in the river because they can´t aford to pay for trash pick up. LOL So the language is coming, I understand about half of it sometimes more if the person is drunk then they talk slower. LOL And I speak a ton with the kids because their spanish is simple and with the adults, well I speak about half as much as I understand. LOL So the area is really really poor. Most adults don´t have teeth, meaning they only have a few left in random spots. People dont have places to wash clothes so they wash in the sink when they can afford soap, therefore, people tend to be a little more dirty, but the thing is I really don´t care. They are soooooo sooo nice and so willing to talk and to just invite you in, and take care of you and give you anything they have. It's funny everyone thinks I am from Argentina, but from the more wealthy parts because I am tall, I have nice clothes, and I have white teeth. My comp is from peru. and she is 4.3ft LOL She is super skinny and dark as all get out. LOL We look so funny together but people love it. LOL Oh by the way being here a week outside all day and all night I am way tan already by next week I will look like a black child. It's crazy!

So let me tell you a few funny things. It seems like I always do something rediculous...lol..so we are eating lunch with some member...(which we do every day and they are huge meals...huge....but we eat at 7:30am. a small meal and then lunch with memebers at 2:00 and dinner at 10pm..our hours are from 7:00am to 11:pm because of ciestas and late partying) anyway we are eating and its me my comp the husband and wife and their kid..well i am feeding the kid while everyione else is jabbing away..all of a sudden the kid is blowing his lips back and forth and shooting food in my eyes....i clean them and he does it again this time im blinded and im freaking out, he got a ton of food in both of my eyes and its not clean food nor is his mouth and now i can´t see. the first thing that runs through my mind is , ¨ great im going to be blind forever¨ so i need help i can´t see to clean my eyes out and nobody at the table even noticed that im blind, the kid is laughing uncontroable...hahaha...well im ok.lolnext we are at a other members house and is cooking hot outside and they ask me the regular questions and then they ask me if i ould like some water, i say yes and then they ask if i am hot, my reply was (mind you the whole family is there 4 kids and the parents all kids my age and older) si, estoy caliente...well that was the wrong thing to say.....in spanish that means ¨yes i am sexy, not yes i am hot¨ i should have said si, tengo calor....lol..well the whole family just looked at me everyone stopped what they were doing and there was that awkward pause for a few seconds and then a roar of laughter....lol...ya i didn´t know what was going on until they started explaining it to me...lol....so ya....oh ya my comp just reminded me about xmas....you can send stuff though the pouch but it is better to send me cash... well i have to go but remember about xmas calling on the 23 some time so keep your phone by you .... oh ya i have my first baptism this week from someone we met this week my first night contacting and within this week we taugth him all the lessons and he accepted to be baptised.....ya.....!!!!! this sat!!!! i am sooo excited..... oh ya what do you do with the dogs there are a hundred and one out here and they are mean....my comp and i were walking and went around a corner into a dirt ally was were we were going to teach an investigator and it was packed full of dogs....about 15. they are everywhere and most of them are mean. anyway as we were walking they started to growl and then it was all really fast two dogs left the pack and ran for us we would have run butr i think we were too scared, i kicked the one that ran for me and nailed it in its head it flew back and wimpered off, but my comp was not so lucky. she is so small and these dogs prob weigh as much as her. it bit her arm and she fell on her back with the dog still on her by the time i realized what had happend and kicked the other dog off her is was a little to late. she now has 16 stiches in her arm and it is infected. we had a horrible experience with them but i don´t know what to do with them, they are everywhere. i only wear my big solid black shoes now incase i need to kick some more things.(don´t worry it protects my toes...lol...) so anyway i have to go!

Love you tons!
I will call you soon!
Love amanda