Tucumán!

Hola familia y amigos! I arrived here in Argentina on Tuesday! The flight was so long and exhausting but I got through it! It was so awesome to see all the missionaries on our flight preaching the gospel in the terminal and on the plane. God really is hastening the work! So I arrived in Salta and had the orientation, ate, and slept at the hostal nearby. I was with an Elder from Nicaragua and another three from Paraguay who actually didn´t speak Spanish but some crazy native language so that was cool. In the morning we worked out visa stuff and then the mission president called out the new companionships and areas. As I was called up, I hoped that I would get a companion that spoke only spanish. I got what I asked for because I was assigned to Tucumán, Parque Guillermina with Elder Salvioli from Buenos Aires. As I went to give him a hug, he grabbed me and gave me a huge kiss on the cheek! Haha really surprised me. But now we´re in my first area and it´s been a little tough. They speak a really different spanish with ¨vos¨ and ¨sh¨ and even their double r´s are sh´s which is way different. So I was a little intimidated at first because I understood about 30 percent of the conversation but slowly I´m catching up and I definitely see the Gift of Tongues working in my life. The people are way nice here so that also helps a lot. The pension is pretty big and more nice than I expected some parts to be. It´s still pretty different but with creativity and some work, we can actually do quite a bit with the little that we have. It´s times such as these when prayer has been a major part of my life. Every time I feel discouraged or feel that I need help, I turn to the Lord with all my heart and ask him to help me to feel His love and feel His help every day. And I feel it. God truly does answer prayers as long as we have faith and show willingness to give it our all in life. The investigators that we have right now aren´t very serious but I know that we will have success with hard work and faith.

Funny thing about Argentina before I take off. The ´serpientes´ here are really just that, snakes. And by snakes, I mean the girls who try to chase after the missionaries. That always kiss and whistle at us because we are both fair skinned and have on nice clothes. It´s funny to think that when I tried to look for girls to date they were´nt inclined, and then I get on my mission and they chase. Haha but I´m keeping them at bay for now. Pray for me, and for my ability to learn to language. I love all of you. God hears our prayers and answers them. I know it, I live it, I love it!

Ciao,

Elder Philpot

P.s. My camera is out of battery so I can´t sent pics but next week I´ll have plenty!