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)
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