Que capo!

So check it! So you know that missionary picture in the hallway. The framed picture with the title Ellsworth Missionaries. In case you don´t know, There´s me and my four siblings and we´re all pulling these incredibly cheesy missionary poses. Well, i´m the first one (because i´m obviously the favorite.) and I´m doing this weird gangsta face or something but my hand is pointing to the Book of Mormon. I´m just kinda´ pointing to say, “You know you want this book!” Anyways, you want to hear something pretty much amazing. That hand sign has a meaning here in Argentina. It´s not like a gang sign or anything (not to say that wouldn´t be cool …) but Argentinos love to talk with their hands and the sign i´m doing means “¡Qué capo!” Translation being “How cool!” or “Amazing” How capo is that!! I didn´t even know but i was doing argentina things before i even got here! Anyways, I would like to share with you some “Qué capo cosos” in the misión.

Capo 1 - So you know that beautiful thing called home delivery where they bring pizza or food to your house. Well, here you can call for ice cream delivery! It´s probably the smartest thing I´ve ever heard in my life. So when we get back to the pension, we can have grido waiting for us (grido is pretty much the most amazing ice cream ever.) Anyways, i´m pretty much in love with it. And the cool thing is that it is helping me in my goal of gaining weight. No one has called me gorda yet but almost. One of the members told me that the Jody dress I was wearing made me look like I had a belly but she blamed it on my ugly dress. (yep, that´s exactly what she said.) I just love Latino honesty! But i digress…

Capo 2 - They have a beautiful yet frustrating thing here called the ciesta. Every day between they hours of 1 and 6, the entire city shuts down. They close all the stores and go home to take a nap because it´s so hot outside. It´s crazy! They have the idea, “Fiesta tonight, ciesta tomorrow.” Before the misión, i would be a huge fan of this. but during the misión, it´s a little frustrating because it´s hard to find people because they´re always sleeping and they won´t answer their door. But it´s all good, we can always find people, it´s just a little harder. Anyway, coming from a person that loves naps, I definitely think the United States should adopt this ciesta idea!

Capo 3 - So the hardest thing in the misión for me is the language so far, but I had a really capo experience with it this last week! So usually my companion starts and chats for a while and I sit there quietly and say one word commentary. (Small talk is incredibly hard for me!) Anyways, then I will say the opening prayer. After the prayer, without fail, they will ask where I´m from and how long i´ve been here. It´s like the nice way to say that I talk like a gringa. Well, I had one charla that didn´t go so well because i didn´t have the vocabulary to describe a story in the Book of Mormon. The lady went off on me that I need to practice more and yadda yadda. I felt pretty crummy but I said a little prayer and asked for help. And then the very next appointment was lunch with the members. These are the hardest for me because I can usually do pretty well with talking about the gospel but i don´t know every day life vocabulary. Usually the members will give me “pointers” on learning the language. But I went into the house and tried to say things here and there and I gave the spiritual thought afterwards. It was so capo because i was part of the conversation and understood everything that was going on. For the first time, the members complimented me on my castellano. They said they thought i was doing really good for only a month, better than other missionaries. I´m not letting it go to my head but I was grateful that the Lord answered my prayer and gave me that tender mercy! I love these capo experiences and I love being on my mission!

Les amo,
Hna. Ellsworth