There is Sunshine in My Soul Today : Crazy gigantic bugs in Argentina...‏

Hola familia y amigos,

Hey, sorry this letter is a tad late. We came by the Ciber a bunch yesterday, but there was a huge group of young adults playing some online game together, so there wasn´t a free computer to be found all afternoon! It was crazy! So we got permission to email today durning the siesta :) Hope nobody panicked too bad.

Anyways, it´s been a great week! Last week we got to go to Laguna Larga a bunch, and one day while we were contacting and trying to find an address from the splash, we ran into a family out on their porch. We started talking to them and getting to know them, and we ended up teaching them the whole Restoration lesson and giving them a Book of Mormon! It was way cool because usually that doesn´t happen a whole lot. Laguna Larga is so much fun because there are so many people there who have never even heard about the church, let alone the Restored Gospel! It´s still so cool for me to think about, I definitely feel like we´re on the frontlines of the mission field (even though everywhere is the frontlines, honestly). Anyways, we´re going to go see them again today, and we´ll see if they read in the Book of Mormon :)

We also had members come with us to Laguna Larga on Saturday. We went to go see the families we wanted them to help us teach, and neither of them could talk to us, they had something going on. It turned out to be a blessing because we looked at the storm outside and Marcelo our member started driving super fast towards Oncativo! It was crazy, but he was really afraid of hail or even just the really bad rain. We made it back to our pension just in time (when it was really really difficult to see more than 15 feet in front of the car because there was so much water). Hermana Tuttle and I jumped out and ran around the corner of our building to get up the stairs and WHOMP...we ran right into a huge wall of water. It felt like someone had dumped a whole swimming pool in our faces with some wind. We were soaking wet and we had only walked like 10 feet to the bottom of our stairs. It was CRAZY! But then the storm only lasted an hour and then it got really hot again. Summer storms here are something else.

Monica, one of our investigators here in Laguna Larga came to church this week!! I went on a split with one of our youth named Wendy and Hermana Tuttle was with another girl named Jessica teaching our Gospel Principles class to Jesus Angel, but anyway, I went to pick her up. We found out that the reason she hasn´t been coming to church is really because she just likes to sleep in on Sundays. We woke her up, she got ready, and we made it to church just in time for the final verse of the opening hymn. Talk about exciting! She loved church-all of the youth were talking about their experiences at the EFY, and she totally loved it. Then Presidente Abate Daga had to give a talk because someone that was supposed to give one didn´t come to church...and then when he was almost done, Monica asked if she could say something. THE WHOLE BRANCH JUMPED A WHOLE FOOT OFF THEIR CHAIRS. It was so silent in the church, and everyone looked at her, so she said what she wanted to say. Basically, it was just that she was so glad that we (the missionaries) found her on Christmas Eve and that she´s so thankful that we have shared our church with her. It was pretty cute, but poor Presidente couldn´t remember what he was saying in his talk after. It was awesome. When we walked her home, she was pretty much on top of the world :) She´s so funny and cute. We´ve been helping her make a sign for her shop and I´ll have to send pictures of her (I have to take some first...whoops).

Ok, so for the crazy bugs...There must be something in the water here. We found the most GIGANTIC grasshopper in Laguna Larga and it looked like a toy. Hermana Tuttle took a video of me catching it, I thought it was going to be hard, but I basically just bent over and grabbed it. My mind is still a little bit blown at how huge it is! Then we also found this GIANT snail! it´s probably at least 6 inches long. Then the next day, Hermana Tuttle found me a snailshell from one and I´m going to have to keep it for the rest of my life. The live snail was just creeping across the sidewalk like it owned it. Also, there are butterflies here that are as big across as a small bird, but I can never get a picture of them. Yep, it must be the water.

Oh, and I also tried some interesting food this week from Hermana Perez. She made us Mondongo (Cow intestines) which just tastes a lot like really chewy ewww. Yeah, it was hard to swallow. Hermana Tuttle has a video, but we´ll wait ´til after my mission to see that :). She also made us a cow liver milinasa. It was actually pretty good. The milinasa means that she soaked it in egg and a little bit of seasoning and then dipped it in bread crumbs before she fried it in a pan. I wouldn´t complain if I ate it again, but the mondongo is just not a good consitancy.

I almost forgot: we also met a deaf person this week. She can read lips (even us Gringas´) and speak pretty well. She also speaks Argentine sign language. It´s way different! We´re going to go back and talk to her again and also her sister. They´re both grandchildren of one of our investigators :)

Well, that´s about a wrap for this week. I just want you all to know that this is the BEST mission in the world (Almost tied with Ventura, California, but just a little bit ahead :). The church is true and the Lord loves us. He always puts us where we need to be and He knows our true potential. It´s when we let go of what we want to be and let Him make us what He knows we can be that we really get somewhere. Hope you all have a wonderful week and a good laugh ;)

Love to all!

Sincerely,

Hermana Swan

Photos:

THE SNAIL!