Second Week Was AMAZING!!!

Editors Note:  To understand the letter that Dallin sent home you have to read the letter his mother sent to him.  Both are posted with the mother's questions in red and Dallin's responses are in black.

Sweet Argentine Sunrise

Dear Elder Dallin:

How was your second week at the MTC or CCM? 

Second week was amazing!!!!

Buenos Aries Temple

Are you able to communicate with the Spanish people better?  Do you have a devotional every week? Or do they replay the one in Provo? 

Devotionals are weird here but still good.  The first week was one from Elder Holland back around Christmas time of 2010. It was good. This week the CCM President talked to us at the devotional.

Do you ever get to leave the temple grounds or the MTC area or do you stay on the MTC grounds?  

We only get to leave the temple grounds on Saturdays to go proselyting which will be super fun and I am looking forward to that so much in two days. 

Do you have to do your own laundry?

On Tuesdays and on Fridays we do our own laundry. 

Have you had a hair cut yet? 

Yes. I got my hair cut the Friday that I got here. The guy who did it finished in under one minute and that is not an exaggeration. Scariest thing of my life!

What are you studying -- The Book of Mormon, New Testament, Preach My Gospel? Are you able to get the pocket size Preach My Gospel or did they give you one that is the 8x11? What is your day like?  What time do you get up in the morning?  

I am studying the Preach My Gospel most of the time and reading the chapters and the verses that they have in there to read. They give out the big ones but oh well I don't end up carrying it around anywhere anyways. Arise and shine is at 6:30.

How many missionaries are there in your room? 

At the moment there are 3 missionaries in my room but by the end of today there will be 8, so it will be a full room.  

Buenos Aries Temple

How many new missionaries came in this week?  Are the sisters that traveled down to Argentina in your MTC district? 

45 missionaries are expected to arrive today making a total of 57 here but a lot of (North Americans) NAs are coming so there won't be as many Spanish speaking people which will be sad, however, there is one from Paraguay that is coming. I am so excited to talk with him about Paraguay!!.

We go to the temple this afternoon so I am excited as always for that.

My CCM Distric

We have gotten into quite a daily routine now and by the end of the day my brain hurts from Spanish. one elder from Peru that came last night had a hernia surgery two weeks ago, so we gave him a blessing in Spanglish he does not know a lick of English though it was good nevertheless.

This is how we know who is in Dallin's District

They finally served Empanadas, which were really good!

All of the North Americans that traveled down with me are in the same District. 

I will send a pic that has all of their names where they are from and where they are going.

Sister Austin, Paraguay Asuncion Mission, Kaysville, UT

Sister Coleman, Uruguay Montevideo Mission, Mesa, AZ

Sister Thorne, Uruguay Montevideo Mission, Syracuse, UT

Elder  Parmenter, Uruguay Montevideo Mission, St. George, UT

Elder Call, Paraguay Asuncion Mission, Grover, WY

Elder Hartvigsen, Uruguay Montevideo West, Surprise, AZ

Elder Bentley, Uruguay Montevideo West, South Jordan, UT

Elder  Henderson, Uruguay Montevideo Mission, Tucson, AZ

Elder McDermott, Paraguay Asuncion Mission, Draper, UT

Elder Rogers, Uruguay Montevideo Mission

Elder Udy, Uruguay Montevideo Mission, Iona, ID

I love you all

Love Elder Call

The bidet

First Week Done. It Was Sweeeet!!!

Hey Familia :

 

First week done. It was sweet!!!!!! At the SLC airport I met up with 4 elders headed for London and two to Argentina, Elder Bentley from South Jordan, UT and Elder McDermott from Draper, UT (Paraguay Asuncion Mission (PA)) and two Hermanas, Hermana Thorne, who says hello to you all and is from Syracuse, UT and Hermana Austin from Springville, UT (also going to PA). The flight over to Atlanta was very full, but I got an aisle seat so it wasn’t too awful.

 

In Atlanta, we met up with four more elders and one more sister; Elders Parmentor from St. George, UT who is my companion; Elder Hartvigsen from Surprise, AZ. Elder Henderson from Mesa. AZ; Elder Wilson from Atlanta, GA (also going to PA); Elder Udy is from Idaho Falls, Idaho; and Sister Coleman, from Mesa, AZ. The flight to Argentina was also very full and really wasn’t fun. Elder Rodgers didn’t look when his flight was so he got here a day late.

 

The Temple here is my favorite temple so far it is sooo sweet we get to go through every p day so I just got done going through it yes totally in Spanish, haha it was great. 

 

The CCM (MTC) Spanish style is sweet there are only 59 missionaries here with 6 districts.  My district has 12 in it, all from the USA. We room with Latinos which are the coolest kids ever I love them, they have so much patience and laugh at/with me all the time.

 

We taught our first IP (investigator person) totally in Spanish on Saturday which I had absolutely no idea as to what the person said at all, but thankfully my companion had taken lots of Spanish classes and knew what they were saying. It has really made me mad that I am the only one in the district that could not understand anything that had been said.  Oh well, I doubt I will ever have the same feelings again as on Sunday and Monday the IP lesson was much better and I could understand more and formulate my own sentences thanks to the power and mercy of the Lord. It is truly amazing how much you can learn in a week. 

 

My companion is Elder Parmentor-- he has a twin brother and he is like 6 foot 5, so I don’t pick on him. Haha

 

The food here is amazing minus breakfast which is cold cereal every day but the strawberry yogurt on the frosted flakes is quite good. The fruit juices are stinking good, especially the apple juice, but still not quite as good as the fresh pressed from Grandpa Call, but still good.

 

My teachers are Melerio and Pedersen who served missions in St. George. 

 

The bathrooms here have bidets which was an interesting experience.  There are 2 rooms of showers on Friday morning I went into the back room and none of the faucets ever got hot so I took a freeeeezing cold shower which was cold but come to find out the other room of showers would get hot.

 

So you know how we planned on me buying a bunch of stuff like that sweet marking pencil and what not here at the "convenient" store?  Well they don’t have one :( they only have a distribution center with garments and literature but that was all, no bueno, oh well, I have made it a week so far and I am still alive. 

 

Please pray for me that I might be blessed with the gift of tongues. I am glad work is still super busy and get out fishing for me!

 

I love you all and all is well here at the CCM.

 

Love, Elder Call