Hermana Tess Crawford: ¡Finally in Argentina! (Tess's first letter from the field)

¿Como anda?

The whole Rustin wisdom tooth video situation is hilarious! I wish I could see it! Chloe's pictures are incredible too, Olivia looks so pretty in the one of her!

Well, I finally made it to Argie-Land. The flights were so long and exhausting, but eventually I made it to Mendoza! We met President and his wife and they're the perfect combo of having good senses of humor, but being strict with missionaries at the same time. I love them already. After dinner the four of us new hermanas slept in the mission office and then the next morning we had some orientation stuff and then met our companions! My comp, Hermana Keller, is a native from Buenos Aires. She's super cute & sweet, and she speaks English almost perfectly which has been really helpful. It's kind of funny because I'm technically "older" than she is (mission-wise) even though she's my mother/trainer. She's been in Mendoza for about 3 months. She´s really an amazing missionary though and we get along really well already. H. Hales and I have finally been separated, and she's opening an area with a Chilean who doesn't speak any English.. She'll be alright though!

My comp and I are serving in an area called Maipu (yes, it´s pronounced like "my poo"....I know..). But we have the largest area in the mission! It's full of fields and vineyards, the houses are pretty spread-out, stray dogs roam the streets, and the people aren't super well-off. I like it a lot though even though we have to walk a ton and it can be a little dangerous at night so the President told us we have to go back to the house a little bit early at night. It's been surprisingly difficult to adjust to being in a different country, mostly just because I was used to how it was in Utah and the accent/vocabulary here is so different and hard for me to understand. I should be fine in a little while though, and my companion helps me a ton with my Castellano.

The food is delicious, as expected. I haven't had a ton of chances to eat it though because my comp can't eat at members' houses because she has ulcers from the stress that her last companion caused her. Her old comp was a little difficult, apparently. Anyways we have to make our own food usually but we´ve had a couple chances to eat with some members- we had fried pasteles (empanadas) and homemade yogurt at the house of our ward mission leader, and then last night we had Malta (a drink), Raviolis, and torta at another member's house who live at a vineyard. We've also gotten some mini alfajores from a kiosco which were really good. We're not allowed to drink Mate or go to restaurants though :/ My comp says that it's been extremely hard for her to not drink it because she used to drink like 6 liters a day!

But yeah we´ve just been getting to know the area and figuring out how the heck we're going to cover such a huge area. I think we decided that we'll have to take the bus in the mornings 4 days a week to work in the far places before it's night time and is too dangerous, and then the other 3 days when we have less time to work (aka P-Day, Sunday, etc.) we'll just work "close" (I added quotes because it´s still way far) by our house. We haven't had a ton of lessons yet but we'll get there. Apparently we have some investigators who are a little loco. One of them is this lady who claims that God has given her the gift to find & exorcise evil spirits.. Her husband is apparently on a "mission" right now going around and casting out spirits. Yeah. I don't know, I haven't met her yet because H. Gimenez (our neighbor) took my comp on splits to go meet her so I was visiting less actives with H. Ruiz. It should be an adventure here to say the least!

We met our ward yesterday and they seem nice enough. It was a little different because I guess there's this guy in the ward who is a little of his rocker and tried to punch one of the sister missionaries who was serving in the ward, and she tried to punch him back.. So we're not allowed to talk to him or be in the same classroom as him. The bishop is also a little difficult to work with apparently but I guess we'll find out. Like I said- adventure. The other sisters that live by us are hilarious though and I've had a lot of fun even though it's been hard. Last night I did get the chance to watch that leadership meeting thing- it was so good (even though it got a little too cheesy for me at times)! I love how they focused on the importance of members helping missionaries because it really does make all the difference when members are willing to help and find people for us to teach. You guys better be helping the missionaries in our ward!

Anyways sorry I couldn´t write more, I was trying to figure out this dumb computer and the pictures take forever to send. I think we're going to this really beautiful and old wine museum after this and then we'll go buy some groceries! Should be fun. I hope you guys have an awesome week and aren't worried about me or anything because I'm doing just fine! Love you!

Ciao (I have no idea how to spell that, but you get the idea),

Hermana Crawford

PS- I may or may not have lost my camera.. these pics were from H. Keller´s camera. I know I had it at president's house and then I put it in my bag, but I can't remember seeing it after that and it's not in my bag anymore.. I really hope it shows up soon :/

This one is of my beautiful new "pension".

Inside of our house. It was even sketchier looking and dirtier when we first got there.. But it's liveable! We don't have central heating so we have to use little gas ones and then turn on the oven burners to keep warm. It works pretty well for the kitchen but our bedroom is still usually pretty cold. I feel like a true missionary now!

Another pic of our place- the other sisters' pension is on the right, right next to ours.

My new mom & my next door neighbors in front of our casa. My comp is the little one in the white jacket and the hermana to my left is H. Ruiz from Mexico. The one on the far right is H. Gimenez from Paraguay.