Baptizing Buenos Aires: MTC, Argentina, and Escobar‏

Hello everyone! I feel like it´s been forever since I wrote!

So my last week at the MTC:

It was the best. I hated leaving because I honestly loved it there. I wish I could have spent my whole mission there. Because the food was normal, it was in America, and everyone spoke English. Saying gofdbye to everyone was the hardest thing. My district was my family and leaving them was so hard.

Two elders from my district also went to Argentina, but different missions. So we got to fly together. The plane ride was so long. It was awesome to be able to talk to my family, and weird to be out in the real world with my tag and everything. It was funny to see people look at me, my tag, and then avoid eye contact. But yeah the plane ride was about 11 hours, from 10 at night until 9 in the morning or something like that. When we got off the plane I was exhausted. everything was in spanish and no one knew what was happening. There were about 20 elders and 1 sister with me who were all going to different missions here and none of us had any idea what to do. So we got through customs, and our mission president was waiting for us. It was the weirdest thing to see him in real life. But I can honestly say from the minute I saw him I loved him. Seeing him was so comforting and him speaking english was so nice. We toured the capital for a bit, went to the mission home, and president did interviews while the rest of the new missionaries had a little trainig.

Then we met our trainers and were shipped off to our areas. My comp is from Colombia and barely speaks any english. The people here have the weirdest accents, and they can´t even understand me. The culture shock is so real. The food is good but I know is going to make me gain a million pounds. Because of my blue eyes, people are hitting on me like a thousand times a day. I´ve had old men tell me they will come to church just to see me and when we tell them that this message could change their lives, they tell me that they know that I could change their life. Ew.

It has been the hardest week of my life. I feel totally and completely alone. People who served tell you how much they loved their missions but never tell you how hard it is. Let me just tell you it is HARD. It´s been less than a week that I´ve been here and It has been the hardest thing I´ve ever done.

Here in the mission when we meet people on the streets we´re supposed to share them the message of the restoration and then invite them to baptism right then and there, And then the goal is to get them to church 3 weeks in a row and have them baptized in 3 weeks. We have a family getting baptized on saturday, and a couple of girls who should be getting baptized on the 8th of november. The family has 4 girls, who are all getting baptized. The dad is inactive and the mom isn´t a member. So the problem here is that they aren´t married. They have to sparate and get married before the mom can be baptized. But they are so strong. They feed us all the time and the testimonies they share are so strong and their desire to follow Christ is so obvios and strong.

All in all Argetnina is weird. I don´t love it yet, but I´m hoping that will come. 17 more months seems like an eternity, homesickness is worse than ever, and I feel so alone and don´t think I can do this.

But I´m going to try. I know that I was called here by God, and I´m here just on faith in Him. In reality I don´t really want to be here and I´m not sure why I was called to a place that God new I would struggle so much in. Why he put me with a comp that I would stuggle with, and why he gave me anxiety that I can´t handle. I don´t know the reasons. But I know that if I give everything to God it will work out. I want it to work out right now. I want to love this mission and the people and the culture and the language, but the point where that will happen seems so far away.

I miss all of you and can´t wait to soon be able to tell you that I love it here.

I hope everyone has a fantastic week!

Love you!

Love,

Hna. Prestwich