Elder Castro is the shorter one. I am the taller one.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Bye Colonia, Hello Jujuy
So guess what? I am writing you from Jujuy. Now what on earth am I doing in Jujuy? Yup, that’s right, the transfer bug bit me and I was teleported here. More about all this later. For now we will talk about my last days in Colonia Santa Rosa.
The transfer was welcomed with open arms. Like I imagine all transfers to be, it was very bitter sweet. Colonia is very small. Very small. We literally almost knocked every door. Plus traveling an hour and a half every Pday to buy groceries was getting a tad old. But it is kind of a bummer because this transfer is Christmas and my Birthday all wrapped up in one. It would be nice to spend it in a town I know with people that know me. That said, this new transfer is awesome because it is a new start. Not like I need one, but the ward in Colonia knows me as the gringo that can´t talk. Which is fine and true, but I have improved and it will be nice to be known as the gringo that can kind of talk.
What really is interesting as far as this last week goes was Sunday. On Sunday we visited lots of members. It was great because that caused us to visit every part of Colonia. Seeing as I can´t talk I have taken a liking to observation. Believe me when I say I have observed Colonia to its limits. I truly know that town like the back of my hand and love that fact. That's what I liked about it the most. I just liked its little tranquil self. The canal, the rundown buildings, the HUGE mango trees. It was nice walking around everywhere, saying good bye to the people and the landmarks. The members were all super nice. Almost all of them told me not to forget them. Which is fair. It would be easy to forget a place like that. But I won´t. It is the home of my nativity. And I told that to them. One also super fun thing about just visiting is you run into lots more interesting happenings. For example, we went to a member's house and there was a fiesta going on. Sweet! The member asked to borrow my camera to take photos and I was totally cool with that. Now my camera is full of people I don´t know, and that is awesome. At one point a person announced it was time for the pinata. What? Was my going away party not stereotypical as thought with our pinata? Turns out pinata here means a big ol balloon filled with lots of confetti and candy. I missed how they popped it, which I am way bummed about. But it couldn't have been that crazy. I noticed all the kids huddled underneath tightly packed. Then there was a pop and everyone was covered in confetti. YAY!
Ok. So where am I now? My new area is Aeroparque. Yes, Air field. It is not a town, rather it is half of the city of Barrio Alto Comedero. I am not sure if Alto Comedero is a city or a neighborhood of San Salvador de Jujuy. Regardless, I am very close to San Salvador de Jujuy, which is the capital of Jujuy. This transfer is a big change. Going from Colonia to this, wow. It is super pretty here. The city is nestled in a valley. The mountains are covered in lush green forests. My zone has 20 missionaries in it. WOW! It is the largest in the mission. Basically I have jumped from the smallest zone to the biggest zone. I have tried real hard to come up with a metaphor for this change. Something involving Luke Skywalker and him joining the rebel alliance and how that must have been a shocker. But it is far too noisy in this cyber to think up anything like that.
On Monday I traveled here. It was a short 3, maybe 4 hour bus drive. Another Elder from my zone, Elder De La Fuente, got transferred here (to the same zone) too. Which is cool. He is a great elder from Mexico City. My new companion is Elder Vidal. He is from Chile. It´s crazy getting to know so many people from all around the world. He seems like a groovy dude. Only time will tell if groove is truly in his heart, though. We live with 2 other elders in a fairly nice pension. It is a house. It was a disaster when I arrived, but we have cleaned it. Thank heavens.
Fun fact! My area is called Aeroparque because there is a huge Air Field that splits the town more or less in half. It is abandoned and we have to walk through it to get to our area. It is over grown with long grass which undoubtedly is the home of several raptors. You can clearly tell where the runway once was. It looks like the hanger is now a grocery store. And that's another reason why this area is cool. The grocery store is 2 blocks away!
Sweet!
Bye!
The transfer was welcomed with open arms. Like I imagine all transfers to be, it was very bitter sweet. Colonia is very small. Very small. We literally almost knocked every door. Plus traveling an hour and a half every Pday to buy groceries was getting a tad old. But it is kind of a bummer because this transfer is Christmas and my Birthday all wrapped up in one. It would be nice to spend it in a town I know with people that know me. That said, this new transfer is awesome because it is a new start. Not like I need one, but the ward in Colonia knows me as the gringo that can´t talk. Which is fine and true, but I have improved and it will be nice to be known as the gringo that can kind of talk.
What really is interesting as far as this last week goes was Sunday. On Sunday we visited lots of members. It was great because that caused us to visit every part of Colonia. Seeing as I can´t talk I have taken a liking to observation. Believe me when I say I have observed Colonia to its limits. I truly know that town like the back of my hand and love that fact. That's what I liked about it the most. I just liked its little tranquil self. The canal, the rundown buildings, the HUGE mango trees. It was nice walking around everywhere, saying good bye to the people and the landmarks. The members were all super nice. Almost all of them told me not to forget them. Which is fair. It would be easy to forget a place like that. But I won´t. It is the home of my nativity. And I told that to them. One also super fun thing about just visiting is you run into lots more interesting happenings. For example, we went to a member's house and there was a fiesta going on. Sweet! The member asked to borrow my camera to take photos and I was totally cool with that. Now my camera is full of people I don´t know, and that is awesome. At one point a person announced it was time for the pinata. What? Was my going away party not stereotypical as thought with our pinata? Turns out pinata here means a big ol balloon filled with lots of confetti and candy. I missed how they popped it, which I am way bummed about. But it couldn't have been that crazy. I noticed all the kids huddled underneath tightly packed. Then there was a pop and everyone was covered in confetti. YAY!
Ok. So where am I now? My new area is Aeroparque. Yes, Air field. It is not a town, rather it is half of the city of Barrio Alto Comedero. I am not sure if Alto Comedero is a city or a neighborhood of San Salvador de Jujuy. Regardless, I am very close to San Salvador de Jujuy, which is the capital of Jujuy. This transfer is a big change. Going from Colonia to this, wow. It is super pretty here. The city is nestled in a valley. The mountains are covered in lush green forests. My zone has 20 missionaries in it. WOW! It is the largest in the mission. Basically I have jumped from the smallest zone to the biggest zone. I have tried real hard to come up with a metaphor for this change. Something involving Luke Skywalker and him joining the rebel alliance and how that must have been a shocker. But it is far too noisy in this cyber to think up anything like that.
On Monday I traveled here. It was a short 3, maybe 4 hour bus drive. Another Elder from my zone, Elder De La Fuente, got transferred here (to the same zone) too. Which is cool. He is a great elder from Mexico City. My new companion is Elder Vidal. He is from Chile. It´s crazy getting to know so many people from all around the world. He seems like a groovy dude. Only time will tell if groove is truly in his heart, though. We live with 2 other elders in a fairly nice pension. It is a house. It was a disaster when I arrived, but we have cleaned it. Thank heavens.
Fun fact! My area is called Aeroparque because there is a huge Air Field that splits the town more or less in half. It is abandoned and we have to walk through it to get to our area. It is over grown with long grass which undoubtedly is the home of several raptors. You can clearly tell where the runway once was. It looks like the hanger is now a grocery store. And that's another reason why this area is cool. The grocery store is 2 blocks away!
Sweet!
Bye!
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Please Write Greg
It's Christmastime and Greg would love to hear from you. Here is how you can send holiday greetings:
1. Send an email to: saltagreg at myldsmail dot net
2. Send a letter/Christmas card to the mission office. US postage is $.98 for the first ounce, $1.76 for two:
Elder Gregory W. Barnes
Argentina Salta Mission
Los Eucaliptos 75
4400 Salta
Salta
ARGENTINA
3. Send a letter via the pouch service. This is the most reliable way to send hard copied letters. This will cost you one 44 cent stamp. There are specific instructions, so here you go: Take one piece of paper (like a sheet of computer paper). Write your letter all over just one side of the paper. Fold the paper in thirds with your letter writing facing the inside. Tape the letter shut across the top edge and only the top, and leave the ends open (so you could spy down the center if you needed to.) No envelopes allowed. Write Greg's address and your return address on the outside just as if it were an envelope. Add your stamp and mail it to:
Elder Gregory W. Barnes
Argentina Salta Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City, Ut 84130-0150
USA
You can send post cards via Pouch service, too.
4. You can also send electronic letters via pouch through DearElder.com and it won't cost a cent. Go to DearElder.com and click on "Write a Letter" on the top of the page. In the drop down menu select "Argentina Salta" and click on "Write a Missionary". Fill out the heading with your return address and under "select title" select "Elder" and write in "Gregory" "Barnes" in the blanks. Then compose your letter and click send. Letters to DearElder need to be there by Thursday to go out in the next pouch delivery.
The pouch service is used in areas where the local postal delivery is not reliable--like Argentina. You send your letter to Salt Lake and then it is sorted and put into the mission's "pouch." A courier service delivers the letters in the pouch to the mission office. From there the mission sees that the mail is delivered to the missionary. It takes a couple of weeks for Greg to receive mail via pouch.
Thanks for keeping in touch with our Elder Greg.
Feliz Navidad y Have a Happy New Year, too.
--Greg's Mom
1. Send an email to: saltagreg at myldsmail dot net
2. Send a letter/Christmas card to the mission office. US postage is $.98 for the first ounce, $1.76 for two:
Elder Gregory W. Barnes
Argentina Salta Mission
Los Eucaliptos 75
4400 Salta
Salta
ARGENTINA
3. Send a letter via the pouch service. This is the most reliable way to send hard copied letters. This will cost you one 44 cent stamp. There are specific instructions, so here you go: Take one piece of paper (like a sheet of computer paper). Write your letter all over just one side of the paper. Fold the paper in thirds with your letter writing facing the inside. Tape the letter shut across the top edge and only the top, and leave the ends open (so you could spy down the center if you needed to.) No envelopes allowed. Write Greg's address and your return address on the outside just as if it were an envelope. Add your stamp and mail it to:
Elder Gregory W. Barnes
Argentina Salta Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City, Ut 84130-0150
USA
You can send post cards via Pouch service, too.
4. You can also send electronic letters via pouch through DearElder.com and it won't cost a cent. Go to DearElder.com and click on "Write a Letter" on the top of the page. In the drop down menu select "Argentina Salta" and click on "Write a Missionary". Fill out the heading with your return address and under "select title" select "Elder" and write in "Gregory" "Barnes" in the blanks. Then compose your letter and click send. Letters to DearElder need to be there by Thursday to go out in the next pouch delivery.
The pouch service is used in areas where the local postal delivery is not reliable--like Argentina. You send your letter to Salt Lake and then it is sorted and put into the mission's "pouch." A courier service delivers the letters in the pouch to the mission office. From there the mission sees that the mail is delivered to the missionary. It takes a couple of weeks for Greg to receive mail via pouch.
Thanks for keeping in touch with our Elder Greg.
Feliz Navidad y Have a Happy New Year, too.
--Greg's Mom
This Last Week
Hello Family!
How is the world fairing you? Colonia has been fairing me well with lots of showers and mud. I strongly prefer this cool weather to what it has been. I have passed the two months in Argentina mark, a small milestone.
We went to print pictures off my camera because the family of Mariah Cata has been mad wanting us to. And that’s the problem with having a camera here; if you take a picture people want you to print them. Which is fine--what is not fine is when the people at the printing store delete all of your photos from your camera. And that’s what happened to me. The worst part is that morning I felt like I should have backed them up but at the last second I decided not to. Anyway, the kid had trouble with my camera for whatever reason and wounded up killing my photos. AArgh. The good news is that I sent most of the worthwhile photos to you via email, but the baptismal photos are now gone. Oh well.
This past Sunday was rather humorous. That morning at 3 it stormed. Nothing wild, but it was a strong storm. In the morning there was mud everywhere and clouds filled the sky, but it wasn´t terrible. I have seen worse, and I am positive Colonia has seen worse, too. Anyway, as a result the congregation was small. It took like 5 minutes to do sacrament. Our branch president bore his testimony and told us how he has been studying the life of Joseph Smith this last week, which I found curious because we let him borrow the restoration video the day before (was he studying the life or watching it?). Anyway what ended up happening is church ended an hour early because of the rain. I was all like “What? It rained like 7 hours ago.” There were clouds, but it didn´t rain again until well into the afternoon. I guess people have to walk “far,” and when there are so few members around it is easy to get relaxed. I suppose my view of everything is rather unsympathetic, but after knocking doors in the rain for two hours you become hardened.
Someone’s parents donated Three Grand to the mission. OOF. That’s a good ol´ hunk of money, especially when you convert it to pesos. Some people don´t make that much in a year here, and when I say some I am sure lots. Anyway, with that money every companionship gets 50 pesos to spend on investigators. Not as like buy gifts, but do service money, like fix something in their house or whatever.
(Note: $100 US Dollars = 380 pesos)
Transfers are in a week, less now. Who knows who will go and who will stay. Everyone in the zone has presented their predictions, and I am predicted to go in everyone. I don´t really care. I try not to get caught up in the spirit of the transfer.
The work progresses. We have a hopeful baptism this Saturday. I am learning lots and having wonderful and very spiritual experiences. I have witnessed miracles, and that’s a blessing.
Hope everyone has a super cool time preparing for the holidays.
Good Bye Family,
ELDERGREGORYWILLISBARNES
How is the world fairing you? Colonia has been fairing me well with lots of showers and mud. I strongly prefer this cool weather to what it has been. I have passed the two months in Argentina mark, a small milestone.
We went to print pictures off my camera because the family of Mariah Cata has been mad wanting us to. And that’s the problem with having a camera here; if you take a picture people want you to print them. Which is fine--what is not fine is when the people at the printing store delete all of your photos from your camera. And that’s what happened to me. The worst part is that morning I felt like I should have backed them up but at the last second I decided not to. Anyway, the kid had trouble with my camera for whatever reason and wounded up killing my photos. AArgh. The good news is that I sent most of the worthwhile photos to you via email, but the baptismal photos are now gone. Oh well.
This past Sunday was rather humorous. That morning at 3 it stormed. Nothing wild, but it was a strong storm. In the morning there was mud everywhere and clouds filled the sky, but it wasn´t terrible. I have seen worse, and I am positive Colonia has seen worse, too. Anyway, as a result the congregation was small. It took like 5 minutes to do sacrament. Our branch president bore his testimony and told us how he has been studying the life of Joseph Smith this last week, which I found curious because we let him borrow the restoration video the day before (was he studying the life or watching it?). Anyway what ended up happening is church ended an hour early because of the rain. I was all like “What? It rained like 7 hours ago.” There were clouds, but it didn´t rain again until well into the afternoon. I guess people have to walk “far,” and when there are so few members around it is easy to get relaxed. I suppose my view of everything is rather unsympathetic, but after knocking doors in the rain for two hours you become hardened.
Someone’s parents donated Three Grand to the mission. OOF. That’s a good ol´ hunk of money, especially when you convert it to pesos. Some people don´t make that much in a year here, and when I say some I am sure lots. Anyway, with that money every companionship gets 50 pesos to spend on investigators. Not as like buy gifts, but do service money, like fix something in their house or whatever.
(Note: $100 US Dollars = 380 pesos)
Transfers are in a week, less now. Who knows who will go and who will stay. Everyone in the zone has presented their predictions, and I am predicted to go in everyone. I don´t really care. I try not to get caught up in the spirit of the transfer.
The work progresses. We have a hopeful baptism this Saturday. I am learning lots and having wonderful and very spiritual experiences. I have witnessed miracles, and that’s a blessing.
Hope everyone has a super cool time preparing for the holidays.
Good Bye Family,
ELDERGREGORYWILLISBARNES
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Encino Man
There were three major events this week and those events are to be discussed in the most detail.
Event One—Zone Conference
After a lot of time spent preparing for the conference, it finally happened on Wednesday. I say “a lot of time spent preparing for the conference” because Elder Castro is the Zone Leader, so he had to organize everything and seeing as I am his comp he had to drag me everywhere. The conference was made up of the Oran Zone (8 Missionaries) and the Tartagal Zone (8 Missionaries). The best part of the conference hands down was that it was Christmas themed, after all this is the last zone conference before Christmas. We reenacted the nativity story which was lots of fun. We were also given a bag of candy from Hermana Northcutt which included three home-made cookies. That was THE BEST.
Event Two—Thanksgiving
The first thing to celebrate Thanksgiving was to totally forget about it until 11 o’clock. We were fed by a member who can cook some of the best food. I say "can" because sometimes it’s ok, but there are some meals that are yummy. Another reason why I love to be fed by her is that she just gives us the food in a tupperware and we just take it back to the pension and eat it there. That saves us time and also gives us comfort. I'd much rather eat a meal on my bed with a fan blowing on me than eat in a hot house any day. You might think it is cheap to not eat at her house, but the reason we don´t is that Thursdays is when we have district meeting, which is an hour away. We get back in time to do our studies, but not eat at a member's, so her just giving us food solves the problem. We headed over to her house and on the way there I expressed my want for her hamburger patties and mashed potatoes. And guess what, we weren´t given that. Instead it was what I call “Argentinean meatloaf” with mashed potatoes. It was way yummy and the mashed potatoes are legit and real—that’s rare. During our meal I explained the importance of Thanksgiving to my Argentinean companion. That was too much fun. I told him about the dying pilgrims and the merciful Indians, and how when it was all said and done the pilgrims ended up killing all the Indians anyway.
Event Three—Gospel Doctrine Lesson
I gave the gospel doctrine lesson this week. I prepared a ton and prayed even more. When I thought about it I would get way overwhelmed, but when I prepared for it I would get pumped. It´s one of those things, like, I know how to teach a class like that, the issue is the Spanish. So that’s what I focused on. The class was on Tithing (I also prepared for a lesson on fasting too but we didn’t have time for that.) The class went well. I almost taught how I would have if I was speaking in English. The best part was that we had the OLD movie about the drought in St. George and Lorenzo Snow telling everyone to pay their tithing and then nothing happens and just when you think the movie will end with everyone starving to death, it rains. YAY!
OTHER
We found a super sweet ´n´ small family named family Encina. Which is the best cause their apellido is just like “Encino,” like “Encino Man” which is the quintessential film from the 90´s next to "Bio-dome." Other than that I love teaching them because the wife loves to talk and so does Elder Castro, so when conversation breaks out they compete to try to say things and what happens is she just talks to me and Elder Castro just talks to the Dad. I enjoy the practice.
A young man in his 20´s died this last week from a disease caused by rats. I don´t know what the disease is called, so I am going to assume he caught the black plague. That’s not good. That plague kills. We bought rat poison and started playing ring-around-the-rosy, so we should be good.
Event One—Zone Conference
After a lot of time spent preparing for the conference, it finally happened on Wednesday. I say “a lot of time spent preparing for the conference” because Elder Castro is the Zone Leader, so he had to organize everything and seeing as I am his comp he had to drag me everywhere. The conference was made up of the Oran Zone (8 Missionaries) and the Tartagal Zone (8 Missionaries). The best part of the conference hands down was that it was Christmas themed, after all this is the last zone conference before Christmas. We reenacted the nativity story which was lots of fun. We were also given a bag of candy from Hermana Northcutt which included three home-made cookies. That was THE BEST.
Event Two—Thanksgiving
The first thing to celebrate Thanksgiving was to totally forget about it until 11 o’clock. We were fed by a member who can cook some of the best food. I say "can" because sometimes it’s ok, but there are some meals that are yummy. Another reason why I love to be fed by her is that she just gives us the food in a tupperware and we just take it back to the pension and eat it there. That saves us time and also gives us comfort. I'd much rather eat a meal on my bed with a fan blowing on me than eat in a hot house any day. You might think it is cheap to not eat at her house, but the reason we don´t is that Thursdays is when we have district meeting, which is an hour away. We get back in time to do our studies, but not eat at a member's, so her just giving us food solves the problem. We headed over to her house and on the way there I expressed my want for her hamburger patties and mashed potatoes. And guess what, we weren´t given that. Instead it was what I call “Argentinean meatloaf” with mashed potatoes. It was way yummy and the mashed potatoes are legit and real—that’s rare. During our meal I explained the importance of Thanksgiving to my Argentinean companion. That was too much fun. I told him about the dying pilgrims and the merciful Indians, and how when it was all said and done the pilgrims ended up killing all the Indians anyway.
Event Three—Gospel Doctrine Lesson
I gave the gospel doctrine lesson this week. I prepared a ton and prayed even more. When I thought about it I would get way overwhelmed, but when I prepared for it I would get pumped. It´s one of those things, like, I know how to teach a class like that, the issue is the Spanish. So that’s what I focused on. The class was on Tithing (I also prepared for a lesson on fasting too but we didn’t have time for that.) The class went well. I almost taught how I would have if I was speaking in English. The best part was that we had the OLD movie about the drought in St. George and Lorenzo Snow telling everyone to pay their tithing and then nothing happens and just when you think the movie will end with everyone starving to death, it rains. YAY!
OTHER
We found a super sweet ´n´ small family named family Encina. Which is the best cause their apellido is just like “Encino,” like “Encino Man” which is the quintessential film from the 90´s next to "Bio-dome." Other than that I love teaching them because the wife loves to talk and so does Elder Castro, so when conversation breaks out they compete to try to say things and what happens is she just talks to me and Elder Castro just talks to the Dad. I enjoy the practice.
A young man in his 20´s died this last week from a disease caused by rats. I don´t know what the disease is called, so I am going to assume he caught the black plague. That’s not good. That plague kills. We bought rat poison and started playing ring-around-the-rosy, so we should be good.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
This Week's Letter
Dear Reader: The following post contains a graphic description of Greg's stomach trouble. Reader discretion advised.
When I last left you I was lamenting about my sickness. Want to know what happened next? Well, we had a cita at 6:30 not too far away from our pension, so we decided we would go to that appointment and see if I could handle it. If I could handle it we would work like any other night. Turns out I couldn't handle it. About 2/3´s into the cita I felt like I needed to puke. I was uncertain though, but as the seconds passed my thoughts turned from uncertainty to surety. I stood up, walked over to the moat that was in front of their home and puked. Not a little bit but a lot of bit. About 4 waves of a lot. I lacked the Spanish to give anyone any warning or ask where I should puke. I just used my logic. Turns out the verb "To Vomit" is as simple as I thought. It´s "Vomitar."
Yuppers. After I puked we finished things up and we bought more drugs for my body and I went to sleep. The next day I was more or less fine and the day after that I was chipper. That's the nice thing with diarrhea and vomiting: it usually only lasts a day if you treat it properly.
Other than that this week was pretty normal. Saturday we baptized Mariah. It was awesome. It took her awhile to decide, but it´s a life changing decision to make. Shouldn´t those take time to think about? I´d say so.
Other than the baptism not much happened. I hate to bring up weather again. It is commonly known in the art of conversation that one only brings up the weather if there is nothing else to say or if one is a poor conversationalist. I suppose it applies to writing letters, too. But yesterday was a special day. It broke into the 50´s for the first time this summer. 50 degrees of wonderful Celsius. It was a thrill, no doubt. One would liken it unto me breaking 1 minute the first time in the 100 free.
That´s pretty much it.
Love,
Elder Barnes
When I last left you I was lamenting about my sickness. Want to know what happened next? Well, we had a cita at 6:30 not too far away from our pension, so we decided we would go to that appointment and see if I could handle it. If I could handle it we would work like any other night. Turns out I couldn't handle it. About 2/3´s into the cita I felt like I needed to puke. I was uncertain though, but as the seconds passed my thoughts turned from uncertainty to surety. I stood up, walked over to the moat that was in front of their home and puked. Not a little bit but a lot of bit. About 4 waves of a lot. I lacked the Spanish to give anyone any warning or ask where I should puke. I just used my logic. Turns out the verb "To Vomit" is as simple as I thought. It´s "Vomitar."
Yuppers. After I puked we finished things up and we bought more drugs for my body and I went to sleep. The next day I was more or less fine and the day after that I was chipper. That's the nice thing with diarrhea and vomiting: it usually only lasts a day if you treat it properly.
Other than that this week was pretty normal. Saturday we baptized Mariah. It was awesome. It took her awhile to decide, but it´s a life changing decision to make. Shouldn´t those take time to think about? I´d say so.
Other than the baptism not much happened. I hate to bring up weather again. It is commonly known in the art of conversation that one only brings up the weather if there is nothing else to say or if one is a poor conversationalist. I suppose it applies to writing letters, too. But yesterday was a special day. It broke into the 50´s for the first time this summer. 50 degrees of wonderful Celsius. It was a thrill, no doubt. One would liken it unto me breaking 1 minute the first time in the 100 free.
That´s pretty much it.
Love,
Elder Barnes
Number One Reason I don't like my pension
That's not the first, rather it's the third spider of that size I have encountered during my stay in Colonia.
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