New pad in Parana

Dear family,

I´m emailing Mom while I´m writing this as well, but this will be my big summary of the last week. Well the first week of this new transfer is over now. It´s been a good hard week and today is super crazy. We´re moving today, what do you know just like you guys just did! haha, yeah so we are switching to a different pension that´s bigger and super nice! It has 2 bathrooms (with bides), I have no idea how you spell that but that´s probably how it´s spelled in spanish. sounds like buhday in english... (editor's note: the correct spelling is "bidet")

Anyways, yeah it will be really nice cuz it´s a lot bigger. We even have a hot water heater so we´ll be taking real showers!! How awesome is that! I´m guessing moving for us is a little easier than it was for you guys though. We packed up our whole pension and all our stuff this morning in about an hour and a half. And we called a flete (a big truck) to come but it didn´t show up so we called another guy and he said he´ll be here at 3 so about in an hour. Then we´ll throw everything in there, drive to the new pension, and throw it back out into our new home! Oh yeah except we don´t have the key to the new pension yet so that could be a problem since we´re moving in about an hour. Here's another lovely photo of my area:

In other news, my new companion´s name is Elder Tolman. He´s from somewhere in Utah, I can´t remember the name of the city or town though. Which is super funny cuz he is like the classic Utah kid. Before the mission he had a lengthy mullet and was mighty proud of it. His favorite thing is motocross, he has a family of 8, and the other day I asked him what his first name was...and he told me it started with a C. What do you know? So I guessed, Colt, Colby, Cody, Colton...it was Cody. haha I thought that was funny. Ok I´m done teasing him though haha. He´s a great worker and we´ve been working really hard. And he knows how to work with the members too which I think we have been lacking here.

Oh yeah that reminds me. Something I wanted to tell Lauren cuz I know this will be passed on to her, hehe. I still haven´t been able to send the letter I wrote last P-day, sorry! So you´re gonna have to wait another week and get 2 at the same time. Just so that you don´t wait all week wondering why you haven´t gotten a letter, there is one it´s just delayed! Ok ttyl I love you!Ok, end of message to Lauren. I´m probably not really supposed to do that, I´m not sure. I guess it´s fine as long as it´s being relayed through you Mom.

That also reminds me, it´s been 3 weeks since I´ve gone to the grocery store because we never have time. I have just gotten cereal and milk and bread a couple time at the kiosko by our house. Hopefully we can go today but honestly right now it´s not really looking like it.

Well, I don´t really know what more to say about the week. We accidently locked the other Elders we live with out of our pension and that turned into a crazy night and I ended up riding with my comp in the back of an old pick up truck and then running to the church to get to a cita on time. (cita=appointment). We set up a few really good citas this week but they all foj´d us. (nos fallaron=they failed us). It´s especially dissapointing when you get the members involved and the members go out of their way to do something and then the investigator doesn´t show up.

Ok well I´m out of time so I´ve got to go now! Have a great week everyone! Hopefully next week won´t be as stressful (for me and for all of you). I love you all, good luck with starting school. Start it right and make good friends!
Love,

Élder Boice

Doggone Dogs! 8/19/08

Well so today is the last day of my second transfer. Which means tomorrow I´m technically not a Nuevito (Newbie) anymore!! Your first 2 transfers generally you are with your trainer. I think I should find out the new transfers in a few minutes from the Zone leader. But I´m predicting that I stay here in this area and my trainer goes somewhere else. Also I´m hoping I get a latin comp (companion) cuz that would be really cool and be really helpful with my spanish. I mean my "Casteshano"...haha that still cracks me up. I need to get rid of my Shankee accent still.

But all in all it was a great couple transfers. Even though technically I was only in the country for half of the first transfer. We worked really hard and were dissapointed that we didn´t have any baptisms during the transfer. So I guess we´ll just have to change that this next transfer. Transfers are every 6 weeks. And the zone leaders just get an email and we´re all here gathered in the cyber cafe, waiting to hear.

So a little about my last week. We had zone conference this last Wednesday!! Yeah I love zone conference! And at the end of Zone Conference they give us mail which makes it even better! So I got 2 packages from Lauren and I think 3 letters besides that. That was pretty much awesome!!! Then the next day was my companion´s birthday. So that night we made him a cheesecake that the other companionship we live with bought. (I don´t know where they found it but it was awesome). So that was fun.

Then the next day one of our Zone Leaders went home, so we said goodbye to him. Also my dreams are usually in spanish now. And yesterday I got bit by a dog and it ripped my pants! Dag nabit! That´s the second time I got bit by a dog here! The first time was by a crazy tiny little dog that had a muzzle on but still managed to get me somehow. And last night a big dog came out of nowhere and bit me in the calf and put a hole in my pants. But don´t worry it didn´t break the skin, and the first tiny dog only did a tiny bit. You know why it didn´t? Cuz being a missionary comes with lots of blessings! Yep so my pants are looking kind of bad now, I´ll probably do a really ghetto sew-job and they´ll be good as new.

Well it´s South America so there´s always random dogs roaming the streets. It´s really hard to tell which dogs have owners and which don´t. The funniest thing is how they keep their dogs on the roofs. That´s always funny to see except it doesn´t really seem weird anymore. I guess if they dont have a yard it´s a way to keep them in one place if they decide they don´t want it roaming the streets for a while. Actually sometimes I´m not sure how they get their dogs up there. Sometimes they have stairs that get up to their roof from the inside of their house I think. Thats if they have a nice house. There are some nice houses in Paraná.

HAHA (Editor's note: I told Cooper that our dog Blaze...who is sometimes lovingly referred to as "Pooter" is shedding a lot because he's not used to living in Las Vegas heat, so Tom wants to shave him). Yes! You should shave POOTER!! But be sure to leave him a sweet mullet. I mean a ferocious mane.

In more good news though, yesterday I finished reading the Book of Mormon out loud in spanish. I wanted to do it in one transfer, and guess what, I did it in 5 weeks! Our mission president during zone conference said he wants us to read the Book of Mormon as a mission in 90 days. So I just started over again this morning. I´m sure I´ll get more out of it this time. This time I´ll be marking it up more since I have more time.

Wow, that is really weird you´re living in Las Vegas now. Um for a care package I could probably use some deodorant and liner socks. They don´t have the normal kind of deoderant I used back in the states, so that would be nice to have. I don´t know if you know what kind I used, Calvin might remember...And yeah we have to pay a little bit when we receive a package just because the Argentine government found an excuse to get more money.

And yes I got Lauren´s care packages! She sent 2 and they were super awesome. There was a ton of cool stuff in them. Besides the letters which is always the best part, I think my favorite part was the cereal. The other Elders loved the cereal and the skittles too, probably because that was the only part I could share. haha. I can´t remember everything that was in it, but lets see there was also a cook book, flashlight, socks, foot powder, a cool tie (that I´m wearing right now), some stickers, a bunch of cool stuff.

So you didn´t see Lauren again before you left? That´s ok, you´ll see her again even if it´s about a year and a half from now... haha. Wow so Will and Adam are back?! That´s so crazy, I bet they will be so different by the time I see them again. So I guess Will must be excited for the next batman movie to come out. I think it´s funny now that I´ve been out for long enough all the movies that come out I´ve never even heard of before. Like one Elder said that another Mummy movie came out.

Wait so before I forget, my new comp is Elder Tolman, and I have no idea who he is, I just found out. So he should be coming down here tomorrow and I´ll let you know how he is next week when I email. My new comp is American, oh well. That reminds me though. Just a dumb missionary thing. Every day someone has to pick a hymn to sing in our pinch (apartment) someone will say "How about number 210, Busca con fe?" (Search with faith)...cuz in the spanish hymn book there are only 209 hyms.

Wow so Calvin is going to BYU next week? That´s crazy! and awesome! Well that´s about all for now. I love you all!

Love,

Elder Boice

August 11, 2008

Cooper said he wanted to send a picture of the beautiful scenery in Parana.....
nice.

Here's this week's letter from the best missionary in the world:



I can´t believe how fast the transfer is going by, do we really only have 9 days left of this transfer? Well so it´s been kind of a hard week. Actually my comp and I have been having kind of a tough time with investigators the last few weeks. I don´t know why we´re having such a hard time getting people to church. We focused all this last week on trying to get our investigators into church but just couldn´t. I´ll let you know when we figure out what our problem is. There´s plenty things we can improve of course, but we really have been trying hard.


In less depressing news, I´ll tell you all about some of the funny little things you notice in Argentina. For example, the other day we were talking and I realized that they don´t have parking lots in Argentina. Except for the Wal-Mart here in the city, that is the only one I´ve seen.


Oh and another thing here that is super funny...! I can´t remember if I´ve talked about this before, I don´t think I have... Every medical problem here is related to blood pressure. If an Argentine is ever feeling sick he blames it on his pressure. "¡Ay, me bajó la presión!" (Oh! My blood pressure dropped!) The other day we were at a part-member-family´s house, and the mom was talking about how her sister recently died. And of course the initial cause was that her pressure rose too much.


Oh there is one other thing that happens all the time. You always hear people talking about having an "ataca de igado", attack of the liver. Apparently if that ever really happened you would die (according to an Elder who´s dad is a doctor in the states). So we just think it´s funny that they use it as an excuse for anything.


Ok well I can´t really think of anything else to talk about, it wasn´t that eventful of a week. I guess our water wasn´t working for a while, it´s kind of a gamble sometimes if the water is going to work. But we were fine. Yep so everything´s going well here, we´re just trying to pick up the ball so we can start having some more success here again. We´re going to a restaurant at noon to celebrate for an Elder that goes home next week, so that should be fun.


Ok, I´m gonna teach you how to speak in Vos. But you have to be careful it´s a little tricky. What you do is for conjugating present tense you drop the R and add an S and put an accent on the last syllable. Ejemplo: "Tenés que doblar a la derecha."For command you drop the R and add an accent. Ejemplo: "¡Vení vos!" or "¡Andáte!" or "Mirá, soy Catolico. No te puedo atender."

Yep it´s always very classy when it´s used. It´s just a lazy way of conjugating, just kind of a "whatever" way to talk I guess. People use it to talk to kids, dogs, strangers, their wives. It´s on all the advertisements you see too. "Querés coca-cola" Apparently Argentina and I think Paraguay are the only countries that really use it like that. Kinda wierd.

I love you all!
Elder Boice

Chef Cooper 8/4/08

Hey Mom. Man I´m really bummed I missed you last week. I guess we did get to the cyber cafe earlier than usual. And sorry, looks like we did it again. It´s 11:00 here so I guess it´s only about 7:00 there.

Wow that´s so cool Lauren got her "mission call" to teach in China. That's gonna be such a cool experience. I don´t know if Lauren is gonna try to go to your house again this morning, but you´re gonna have to tell her when you see her that she is gonna have to take me on a trip to Asia when I get back! I bet Matt is excited for her too. That sounds like his stomping grounds. That would be really cool if Calvin did that too, is he actually considering it?

Ok, I´m gonna answer that list of questions that you sent me:

1. (Do you get a lot of mail?) I´ve only gotten 1 batch of letters so far, but there were 18 of them. 17 Dear Elders and 1 actual letter. Yeah that was more than average. Even though I have no idea what average is. All I know is I got a lot and it was awesome.

2. (Do you read all of your letters at once or do you use your incredible military self-control to space them out so they last longer?) Haha yeah I opened all of the letters the night I got them. Usually the dear elders continue on to the next piece of paper so I just HAD to open them all.

3. (Do you have someone who cooks and cleans for you? A lot of the missionaries who went to Argentina when I was on my mission in Spain said they did.) Someone who cooks for us? and does our laundry? What in the world? Haha no actually someone does do our laundry now. We used to wash our garments by hand and take the rest to a lavanderia (laundrymat), but a couple weeks ago an hermana (sister) in our ward told us she would wash our laundry for free for us. We just have to buy the soap. So that´s really nice. She does it all by hand too. We don´t have someone cook for us though lol. If anyone in our mission has that then I haven´t heard of it. My companion and I get fed once a week though, sometimes twice by the members.

Speaking of which, cooking can be pretty fun actually. We make some pretty darn good meals here. Yesterday we made steaks with mashed potatoes. We marinated big steaks all night and they were awesome. The best part is a big steak here is only like 6 pesos (2 american dollars). Also I learned how to make empanadas. And my companion said he thought they were the best empanadas he´s had in Argentina. Also for lunch today me and another Elder are gonna make French toast. And I made some home-made whipped cream/cool whip last night. It´s basically like vanilla frosting so it´s gonna be way good. Probably gonna be super unhealthy though. Haha sorry Elders probably get a little too excited about food here. On to the next question.

4. (Do Argentines pee in the street like Spaniards do?) I haven´t seen any Argentine´s pee in the street. I´ve heard stories though...but I´ll spare you from that.

5. (What's the worst food and best food you've eaten so far?) The best food I´ve had was probably a chicken milanesa sandwich that we ordered after Interviews with the president. It was from Rey de Milanesa (Milanesa King) haha. And I can´t think of anything for the worst food. We almost always cook and we haven´t made anything too bad yet.

6. (What American restaurants do you have there?) McDonalds is the only American restaurant they have here in the city. Actually there is a Wal-mart here in the city too. But they do have a chinese/argentine buffet here that we went to one time. The owners are chinese and it´s really funny to hear spanish with a chinese accent.

7. (When is your next transfer?) Next transfer date? The 20th of August I think? Oh and next P-day will be normal like today, on monday, but the week after it will be on Tuesday.

8. (Do you need anything?) Hmmm, the only thing I can really think of is liner socks. I know we have some so if you could send some that would be awesome. My feet are getting a little beat up. Thanks for making me bring mole-skin!

9. (What food do you miss the most?) Nothing comes to mind. I take that back. The one food I miss most is real cereal. All they have here is copos de maiz (corn flakes). They do have a few American cereals but only the really sugarry kinds and it´s super expensive.

10. (How are your shoes holding up?) My shoes are doing great. In fact I just poilished them 2 days ago. Oh could you send me a shoe shine kit? I´ve been borrowing my comps and I can´t find one here.

11. (Have you been wearing that money belt I bought you where you can hide the money inside in case you get robbed?) No I haven´t been wearing the money belt. We know how to hide our money. But hey maybe I will if I go to a more dangerous area.

12. (Since it's winter there, do you get snow?) No we don´t get snow. It hasn´t really been cold at all this winter. It´ll probably be a little hot today. Some days we have gone out in short-sleeve shirts.

13. (Lauren's sister, Brookie, wants to know how to start up a missionary conversation with her friends...what do you suggest since you're now the expert?) Way to go Brookie! Haha I don´t know I think that could be harder than starting up a conversation with a total stranger like we do. I guess an easy way to start talking about it could be just to mention or start talking about something you did for a young women activity or at church and then let that lead into a conversation about the church. And you could share a little testimony about how you came to know that the church is true or how it´s blessed or helped you. And don´t foget to leave a commitment like a true missionary! haha. Invite her to come to church or to come to your house and listen to the missionaries. And don´t be shy or embarrassed about it. I really regret not being forward enough with my friends. I regret not sharing enough with them. That´s gonna be one of the first things I do when I get home. But Brookie that´s awesome that you´re making the effort! Way to be a studdette.

14. (Have you made your famous spaghetti yet?) They don´t have spaghetti sauce here but we make plenty of noodles with different sauces.

15. (What kind of cereal should I send you?) What kind of cereal? hmmm, I really don´t know if I can remember the names of any. How about oat bran, grape nuts, honey nut cheerios? OH, I found an amazing cereal when I was in the MTC and Baltimore though. It is called blueberry muffin tops. so good! But seriously if mail costs by the weight I don´t want you to have to spend a ton of money to send a box of grapenuts or something. It´s really not a big deal and I don´t want you to waste money. And we usually hide our money in our little white rule book that´s in our front pocket behind our plaque. It would be really weird to have that stolen unless someone stole your shirt.

Wow I really liked reading about your adventure to Rexburg! I think that´s funny that you ended up taking the exact same shuttle that I took when I went there. Well at least I think it is. I was there in the late fall so I´m sure everything is much prettier there now. Sounds like you taught some great classes, and I´m sure everyone loved them. That´s funny I can imagine all the missionary moms wanting to brag about their sons on missions. I hope you didn´t make up too much stuff about me. lol.

(Editor's note: I told him about a missionary who was really worried about learning Chinese when he got called to serve in Taiwan and so he woke up extra early while in the Missionary Training Center and when he arrived in Taiwan the Mission President said he was more prepared and spoke better than any other missionary!) Wow waking up every morning at 5 in the MTC is really impressive. I bet my spanish would have been way better if I had done that. Speaking of the language though I´ve been reading the Book of Mormon out loud and I´m trying to read the whole thing in one transfer (6 weeks).

At first my throat would hurt when I would read because I wasn´t used to speaking like that for an extended time. Now it´s fine though. The other day a Bishop of another ward told me I have the "don de la garganta", gift of the throat. And yesterday I went on divisions with another missionary that had been out about 8-9 months, and the people we talked to wanted me to talk cuz they said I had a better hold of the language and they couldn´t understand the other elder so well. But don´t tell any missionary moms that, cuz it might be their son. But yeah I´m being really blessed with the language. Other Elders always ask me what I did to speak so well for the time I have in the mission. Maybe some of your spanish rubbed off on me after all Mom!

Well Mom I need to go now because I´ve been on the computer way too long!!! But tell Calvin that that´s awesome he is an Elder now. And if Lauren comes, give her another hug from me and tell her I love her. And thanks for all the pictures. And you´re pretty much amazing Mom. I don´t know how you do all this stuff. Thanks for being such an awesome mom! You´re all always in my prayers.

Love your missionary,

Elder Boice

P.S. (I´ll try to send some pictures next week)