Argentine Independence Day

July 14, 2008

Yay! I got to talk to Cooper LIVE via email again this week! It makes him feel so close and I get questions answered! Below he explains this crazy picture of the fire in his house! (I thought it was another one of his camera tricks, but it's not!) Here are a few of his comments, as well as a general letter to everyone:

Querido familia,

¿Como anda? (How's it going?) So how was the last week? Ridiculously busy (for mom and dad) and ridiculously filled with screens (Cal, Brad, and Bo)? Haha

It´s p-day and I´m typing away at the computer again. I got a few emails from you from last week so I´ll answer those questions and then send this email in case you´re at your computer.

1. That picture of me with the fire in my pinch wasn´t a joke haha. It was super cold so we would burn alcohol in a pan in our room to heat it up fast. I thought it was funny so I took a few pictures of it. It actually works super well though

2. No I don´t need a sleeping bag. Elder Squires is on the other side of Argentina up by the mountains where it´s really cold. For some reason it´s actually really warm here now, even though it´s the middle of winter. Kinda weird. We´re all wearing short sleeves today actually.

Well, the last week here was good. And guess what? Some news that I´m really excited about, is that the Zone leaders went to a conference thing in the mission home a few days ago, and they picked up our mail. So they gave it to me about an hour ago and right now I have a big pile of "Dear Elders" from Mom and Lauren sitting in front of me, and even one actual letter! Thanks! I´ll open them later though since we don´t have too much time here to write.

So a little about my week. July 9th was Argentine Independence Day. So our ward had an activity (that they had us, the only 2 Americans, plan). We had a locro, which the Argentines are very proud of because it´s only in Argentina. It was a big pot of stew that has some vegetables, meat, and lots of pig skin. P.S. the pig skin still has hairs on it. (no offense to the Argentines but I think there´s a reason why the locro never left Argentina). It actually wasn´t too bad. It tasted good but I just didn´t eat the pig skin part. I did try it though. So we ate that and then played some soccer. Ta Da! Argentine dia de independencia! How was the 4th of July at home?

We found some really good people to teach this last week and I´m really excited to go back and teach them all again. We were able to give out a lot more Libros de Mormon. The work is speeding up for us in our area. :) Oh also another funny thing that happened yesterday. I realized I´m starting to get accustomed to Argentina. We were walking home and a lady was outside her house sweeping the grass in front of her house, and I didn´t think anything of it at all. Then my companion mentioned it and I thought, "Oh yeah! That´s really weird isn´t it!" haha If you´re lucky enough you might even catch someone sweeping their tree. They sweep everything here.

Oh and I wanted to ask a favor. I don´t know when the next time is that you´re planning on sending a package to me, or actually even just a letter. But when you do, could you send me some pictures of the family. I only have that one little one in the alarm clock you gave me. And it would be fun to have a couple small ones to carry around so I can show members and people we teach. Oh and I´m not going to mail anything home until I have the new address. I wanted to send home that DVD I made full of pictures last week but I wasn´t able to. So I´m gonna wait until I have the new address so I can be sure it gets to you.

Oh where are you looking at houses in Las Vegas? cuz theres an elder here in our pinch from Henderson which is really close I guess.

No we´re not allowed to drink mate. I think just for disease related reasons because they pass they mate cup around and everyone uses the same straw. You see mate everywhere here. (Editor's note: I asked him if he had tasted the famous national drink of Argentina called Mate. It's kind of like an herbal tea. I had friends who served their missions in Argentina and they had me taste it because they loved it....yuk!)

Alright well that´s all for this week. And tell Max I got his letter and I´m working on writing him but it´s way hard to write real letters cuz we only get about an hour or two one day a week!I´ll write again next week.

Love you all!
Elder Boice