From Cutral Co

Hola mis padres!!! Buen Dia, que tal, como anda, (this is what we say to almost everyone)

WOWOWOWOW! I love being a missionary! Heavenly Father is so merciful and continues to pour blessings on me! It is wonderful here, I´m having a spiritual blast. REally fast, this is a Spanish key board so you should probably expect some random marks or wrong typing or something. Esta Bien. So much to say..... I have the best companion ever. Hermana Quisbert from Buenos Aries, orginally from Bolivia. She is amazing. Sweet, fun, an amazing teacher, helps non-stop with the language, and I get to help her with her English. She is very good at speaking English which is a nice break occasionally, and there are a few people in our ward that speak English too. I will still be learning my Castillano because those that know English are very few in number. I am learning a lot about the language and being a missionary. What joy I feel everyday!!! Oh where to start?! I love Cultral-Co, la tierra (the land) reminds me of Vernal a lot too. Everyone is beautiful. We greet everyone with a handshake (men) and a kiss (women). We do this when we first meet them, then when we´re saying goodbye, even just with contacts in the street, which last around 2-5 minutes, I love it. I feel at home here, honest. We clap at the gates, the people open them for us and when we leave the homes they walk us out, open the doors and let us out, it´s a very nice culture. You have to watch your step constantly or else you will twist your ankle on the uneven sidewalk/rocks/sand, or watch out for dog poo. DOGS ARE EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!! No exaggeration. I love every part of my area and my mission.
Mission goals mean a lot of work a head of us, its great. We have 3 people with dates. Lady, Raul and Gladis, a highschool age, older man and a mother, her daughter got bap. a few weeks ago and hopefully the other daughter will too. I don´t talk much, but I don´t feel to bothered about it, I can tell what the we´re talking about and most of what those we’re teaching are talking about, like I get the idea of it, not the words exactly though. I do bear my testimony about the BOM, The spirit, Joseph Smith, Families, etc. Choppy but it works out, and my beautiful comp helps when I need. My weakness is funny to the people which is totally fine, I´m not bothered. WOW, Heavenly Father has just blessed me with an agreeable attitude, I´m so thankful I can be flexible and accepting, WOW, I´m grateful. And truly, I am more then ever thankful for growing up in Bethel, because of how life is there... which I don´t really know how to describe... helps me be accepting/understanding/comfortable here in Argentina. I am thankful that Dad has áffordable´ housing. I hope he doesn’t feel offended at all by me saying this, because I grew up seeing people who are in a low-income lifestyle I feel very little shock here when I see peoples homes. Does this make sense? I don´t feel scared or uncomfortable, lucky me! I have a great pension(house) kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, similar to some of dad’s housing, I have hot water and a comfortable bunk bed, which sometimes is extremely hot on the top bunk, but it´s all good, a nice desk, a fridge, running water, that I don´t drink but use for everything else, except brushing my teeth hehehe. I forgot to take pictures, I´ll try sending some pictures today or next week.
We have Zone Conference tomorrow, that´ll be great! Oh!!!!! HAHAHA! Okay so my Sunday, well I gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting! Perfect huh?! It was about the Holy Ghost. It wasn´t that hard, though I may have been saying some things wrong, but people were smiling and said it was a good message. The Holy Ghost is SO IMPORTANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A lot of our investigators, new converts and future bap were there, it was wonderful. Again, I don´t say much but just smile and try to understand, it´s all gravy baby. The weather is great, chilly in the morning and night but we´ve had some really warm days. Windy but not blow-down-the-house type, I guess it doesn’t really rain or snow here, it´s lovely. My schedule.... Get up at 6:30 to exercise for half hour, then shower and breakfast and by 8:00 personal study for an hour, then comp study, then language study, which it´s hard to know what to study.... because there’s so much... I´ll do better though. Then we´re out of the house by 10:30 to contact and go to appointments. WE WALK EVERYWHERE, or run! HAHAHA, awesome huh? We have to run to appt. sometimes, because we took long at another appt. awesome. I know my mission wouldn’t be this great so far if I didn´t have Hermana Quisbert so I am eternally grateful for her, and she says Hello and sends her love by the way. Sometimes we do service things, we fit in contacts anytime we´re walking and then follow-up on those contacts or go to less actives, or new members or investigators, it´s thrilling.

I do know that you totally love me and I TOTALLY LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!! More then ever and ever and ever!!! Thank you for your love and support and encouragment and PRAYERS! I heard from Janetta, Paris and Ster but I don´t think I have much time to respond back, please forward my love to all of them and everyone, I love hearing about what they’re doing in their lives, please encourage my siblings and friends to write me, I really enjoy it, almost as much as the wonderful work I´m doing!!! DEAR ELDER is the way to go apparently, keep that up, or tell others to, I love letters as well of course but Dear elder is easy and they encourage it. With packages, I pay half of how much it´s worth I guess, so if your not sending me any electronics it´s not a big deal, You need to claim everything in it, or else they get upset. With the package from the branch... let´s see. and maybe Ritz crackers or trail mix, you know the kind with the nuts and m&m´s or the fruit kind, yum. Maybe a REeses CRUNCH bar. If Kyle said that about tootsie pops then go ahead and send some my way too, anything to get in doors. hmmm.... a shower sponge, you know the kind I use. Oh and packages take about 3 weeks to get to me. Hmmmm, I know I had thought of other things but didn´t write them down so now I don´t recall... OH! Crest pro-health enamel shield toothpaste! yeah baby!!! The food here is great and there is a lot of snacky stuff so I don´t feel that much of an urge to ask for things.... Tell them thank you please!

I better go. But I have so much love for my family, my friends and dear ones. I pray for you all as well. I hope everyone is feeling well and happy and healthy. How are the summer plans coming, can Jess take a picture of her prego self please. TONS OF LOVE FROM DOWN SOUTH. AMOR AMOR AMOR!!!!!!!!!!

mUCHO Amor, Hermana Graham