Week Four!

Hello everyone! It is a crisp Thursday morning here in Argentina. It is currently 6 35 am here so please forgive any grammar or other errors in this email. Also, speaking of me being tired, I have been having a ton of troubles sleeping this week, due somewhat to roommates not going to sleep on time but also my body has just not been falling asleep. I have new roommates now and would really appreciate prayers! Days are much harder when you only get four hours of sleep at night.

First of all Happy Father's Day dad! I am at lease 90 percent sure it is this week. We asked our teacher to be sure but we are so cut off from the real world that it could have already passed and if it did I am terribly sorry. I'm sorry that I can't call but just know I'll be thinking of you!

This week's proselyting went so much better. We were in a much, much poorer neighborhood, which made the people a lot more receptive. In the first hour we were there, we met a super nice man and were talking to him and I apologized about my Spanish and told him I had only been in Argentina for 3 weeks so he was just like "oh well I speak English too; I grew up in Canada." So we taught an awesome lesson in English and he seemed really interested. We also taught 3 drunk men who were more interested in telling us how pretty we were and how brave it was to come to Argentina alone. We left that area pretty fast haha but don't worry there were always other people around. We also saw some little boys and talked to them for a bit, and then saw them later and they flipped us off...they were only 7. Anyways we gave them a pass along card of the temple and one of their faces just lit up. Long story short this week went much better.

All of the Latinos moved out this week, so the CCM has had less than 30 people. Which is amazing. This week my roommate projectile vomited all over the floor. There was also some sketchy business with one of them leaving in the middle of the night alone. So we are glad to have new ones. 

My favorite part about Argentina is the Dulce de Leche. On bananas, chocolate cake with Dulce layers, filled donuts, coated on every breakfast pastry, pudding, brownie frosting, everywhere. It is so amazing and I plan on making billions by changing the American lifestyle to include it in their diet after the mission. It will be everywhere. 

The food this week has been especially good because there have been so few people here. It is a lot easier to cook for 30 than 90. So I had 4 brownies yesterday, boneless meat which was a miracle itself, and mashed potatoes. I have been a happy camper food wise. 

Funny quotes of the week:

"Learning Spanish is like Jack the Ripper. You learn part by part."

Not sure if I included this one last week or not so I am sorry if it's a repeat:

"Su padre murió"(your father died)..."wait his name is Murio?"

Every night we have a bedtime story in our district. It is a fun tradition. Yesterday our funny night teacher gave it and he told a story about Spongebob Squarepants. The best line of it was "Spongebob was called to serve in Bikini Bottom South Mission."

One thing I have been thinking about this week is how people say they give up 18 months of their lives to the Lord to serve a mission. I'm not giving up anything. Honestly I can already feel myself growing and learning and be blessed at least one hundred times more than I am sacrificing. Right now, I know that I am where God wants me to be, and because of that, this is not be "giving up" anything. This is me gaining everything. Some people have been struggling this week but I am so blessed to know that this is exactly what I am supposed to be doing. I have received that confirmation from Heavenly Father so many times. I just feel so blessed every single day. 

Pictures attached the one with the four flags in front of the temple is the view from my bedroom window. It doesn't get much better than that.

Week Three!

Hey everyone!

     I hope everything has been good back in the States. This week instead of trying to send this email and reply to everyone's individual emails as well, I read all the emails before hand and noted all the questions and am going to try to answer them all in this email. Everyone asks similar questions and this way everyone will hear from me more. Lucky ducks. Also while here at the CCM I can print emails, so I print what you all say to me each week and read them over and over. So thank you so much for telling me about your lives and the words of encouragement; they mean so much to me.

     This week I got new roommates. Let's just say I am not as close to them as I was the old ones. No major problems, they just are not interested in trying to talk to my companion and I, and did not realize that I could understand everything they say in Spanish, so I heard them talking about us a few times. We are trying really hard to be friends with them but they break the rules and it's just been a struggle. They are leaving this Tuesdaythough because they only stay 2 weeks because they already know Spanish. So we will start fresh next Thursday.

     This week was the funeral for Elder L. Tom Perry and we got to watch it broadcast live from Salt Lake city. I love Elder Perry so much. His last few talks in General Conference have been about eternal families and how grateful he is for the promise that he will be with his family even after this life. I am also so grateful for this promise.

     On Saturday we went proselyting in Buenos Aires, which pretty much means that they dropped me and my companion off in a random neighborhood about an hour away from the CCM with a map and said "be back in 5 hours" and we were supposed to just go out and teach about Jesus Christ. It was so hard. If anyone has any tips on that it would be much appreciated. I cannot tell you how many doors I got slammed in my face. My companion and I worked so hard the whole time but people recognized our nametags and would not even look at us as we walked by and asked how they were. One man did actually talk to us (okay a total of 3 people in 5 hours) for about 5 minutes and he kept saying he already had his religion so we said that is awesome what do you believe? to which he responded some hurtful things about us... anyway I basically just said "I am here in Argentina to teach you about Christ. This is the message that I love with my whole heart. I am only 19 years old and I realize that I still have a lot to learn about the world. There is much I do not know. However, I know that Jesus Christ and His Gospel can bless your life, because it has blessed mine. I know more than anything else that the Book of Mormon and the Bible together will guide your life and bless you." I then handed him a Book of Mormon (which he tried to refuse) and said this is a gift for you. Please read it. And thanked him for a time, wished him well, and walked away. It was powerful.

    On a less serious note, some of the rejections were rather comical. We knoced on a door that had the window open so we saw a lady watching the Simpsons. She answered and as soon as she saw us just said "no time I'm working" hahaha okay can I have your job to watch tv? Also almost everyone here has large fences around their house so you cannot get to their doors, so you have to ring a doorbell and they shout out the window to you. At first it was frustrating, but then I realized it was a blessing because I got a lot fewer doors slammed in my face. Moral of the story if anyone sees any missionaries try to talk to them, even if you're not interested in their message at all. It will make their day.

     At the CCM we teach ïnvestigators" who are actually just our teachers pretending to be people learning about the church. After three weeks we switched, and both of my first two were baptized! And we have had amazing lessons with the new ones this week. It has just been going so good. In one of my lessons we were teaching about prayer. I asked "if God was in the room right now with us, what would you ask Him?" I then explained that we all have the ability to ask Him anything we want or need, and we do it through prayer. I encourage you all to ask yourself the same question and then ask our Heavenly Father in prayer. He wants to hear from you, I promise.

    This week I finished all of my meal about 7 times, which is incredible. When I first got here I had a hard time even finishing half, but now I can finish all of it. It is a miracle. The cooks even stopped automatically giving me smaller portions! I am going to gain so much weight but it is so worth it because the food has just gotten better and better.

    The weather here is indecisive. It has been getting pretty cold because winter is starting in a few weeks, but two days this week it was blazing hot. The humidity here is something I do not have words to explain. I wake up in the morning and my pillow is wet from it, and I go to sleep at night and it never dried. My hair, which is normally naturally very straight, is curly every single day. It is crazy.

    A few funny stories: the CCM President was teaching a lesson on Sunday and he said "I'm going to play you a...a....what's it called? It used to be a film strip?" It was a video. He forgot the word for video and we all thought it was hilarous.

    This next story is a little gross so Mom you might not find it super amusing. In Latin America is is very common to throw your toilet paper into the trash can instead of the toilet. Here we throw it in the toilet but most girls do not realize that because it it different than from where they are from. Our roommates would just throw it in the trashcan, so I explained to them it is done differently here. They did not change. The next night I explained again. Same problem. Finally I gathered them all in the bathroom and pretended to use toilet paper, threw it in the toilet, and then flushed, and explained again. Problem solved. And that is how you explain to Latins to throw their toilet paper in the toilet.

    That's all for this week. It is great to hear from all of you. Thanks for your encouragement again, and I hope you all have an amazing week!

Love,

Hermana Kaylee Marsh

Week Two!

Hey everyone!
This week has been awesome! On Sunday I taught in Relief Society, which was in English thank goodness. My Spanish is coming along well but sometimes I just cannot remember the word I am trying to say so a whole lesson would be pretty hard. My lessons in Spanish always turn out fine though,  because I rely on God and the Spirit and not what I know.
   The food is still so good. I am not withering away into nothingness. There is always some sort of pastry at breakfast and twice it has been pie. So if nothing else I will gain a lot of weight while here. And every single bite is worth it.
   My roommates left for their missions this week. They all already knew Spanish so were only here for two weeks. It was so hard to say bye to them. The new ones moved in today, so we had a quite two days with only around 30 people here at the CCM. It felt sooo empty. On their last night we all gathered in the hallway and sang Hymns together. It was amazing experience and the Spirit was so strong.
  Here at the CCM many languages are Spoken. The main three are English, Spanish, and Portugese. The girls from Brazil looove everyone from America. They love teaching us words in Portugese as well so I am actually learning two languages instead of one.
    My favorite peope here at the CCM are the cooks. They now know me and whenever I come up in line they say "ohhhh muy poquito" because I ask for smaller portions. They all like me though because I'm one of the only people who talk to them as they're serving us. They are all so nice.
   So now for some funny stories: the Spanish word for sins is pecados, and my companion was trying to tell someone that our sins can be forgiven. She accidently said pescados instead...which translates into our fish can be forgiven. It was so funny and we still both laugh about it.
    Another language mishap. Our teacher asked who gives the closing prayer and someone in class said "la papa" the teacher then said "That means potato. Hello Mr. Potato, could you say the closing prayer please?" That is how Americans learn that accents are very important in Spanish'.
    Another thing is someone was asking our teacher how to say "body of water" in Spanish, as in lake or ocean. Apparently it doesn't translate well and his response was just "That is weird. Please don't ever say that."
    I am so sorry this letter is so scrambled, a lot has happened and I am trying to remember it all at once! I promise next week to gather my thoughts before I write. I think that's all for this week! It's amazing to hear from you all. I love you and thank you to everyone for supporting me in my time here!
Love,
Hermana Marsh