Conference, Hospitals, and English

So I had another fantastic week! I had the great blessing to meet our new mission president and he is pretty much Amazing! I am so excited! Things are going to change but it´s going to be great! I left the conference very excited and energetic to work. Our mission president is Pres. Salas and Hna. Salas who are from Buenos Aires, Argentina and he has about four kids, (one that is going to live with them in the misión.) Pres. Salas is very funny and very energetic and very spiritual. I like that he knows when to make Jokes and have fun, and then can bring the Spirit and get down to business. In the Zone Conference, he started with a video of his family. They sang a song in English and Spanish because they are all bilingual. And then afterwards, we saw a video of all of the the returned missionaries in his family bear their testimonies. It was very powerful! And then we heard from Pres. and Hna. Salas. They taught us how to be better teachers and how to get excited for the work here in Cordoba, Argentina. And then they presented the changes. There´s not a lot of changes, mostly just the scheduling. We´re only going to do Zone Conferences and Interviews once every three months. And there´s going to be a lot more Leadership Training Meetings. It doesn´t really affect me a lot. We also focused a lot on what our purpose really is as missionaries. I feel very blessed to have two different misión president and learn from their different perspectivas. Pres. Olsen´s motto is ´If other missions are doing it, we can do it too!¨ And Pres. Salas focused on the importance of excitement in the work. I have an interview with Pres. Salas tomorrow, so I´m very excited!

This week was very interesting. I had my first experience in an Argentinian hospital. Now, don´t freak out Mom! Everything is fine. My companion has had a lot of pain in her stomach and so we went and found out that she has a hernia in her belly button and she needs to have a surgery. But she goes home in three weeks, so she´s going to wait until she gets home. And I learned that Argentinian hospitals take your temperature from your armpit (not in your mouth) and that all injections are administered through the bum. I hope and pray that I never have to go to the hospital in the misión ever again! But now she has another diet because she always has Gastroitis (i´m not really sure what that is in English.) And so with the two different diets, pretty much all she can eat is pasta and vegetables and sometimes fruit. So I´m getting really healthy here in the misión. And I´m sad to report that I lost all the kilos that I gained in Villa Independencia. But I feel better and I have more energy. Wierd! Who would´ve thought that I would have more energy ealing fruits and vegetables instead of cakes and ice cream? Yep, so i´m just strengthening my testimony of the Word of Wisdom.

And do you want to hear the coolest thing ever?!! We found a family that only speaks English!!! They are from the United States but they´ve lived here for two years but the husband still doesn´t know any Spanish. So we get to teach them everything in English. YEAH!! I have missed English so much!! My companion and I are both gringas but we always speak Spanish because I need the practice. I went about three months without any English. It felt good to have a conversation in English again. And the other good news is that he is a chef! And he wants to make us American Pizza!!!! I have to write American Pizza because Argentinian Pizza is very, very, very diferent. It´s not bad, but it´s not American. So I´m pretty much excited! And they are reading the Book of Mormon and he always has a testimony of the Book of Mormon. Woohoo! They´re really busy with opening a Pizza Resturaunt right now so they haven´t gone to church yet but we are definitely working on that. He´s not too interested to go because he won´t understand anything. We´re happy to translate but he needs a little bit more convincing. But ya, keep the Family Villy in your prayers that they will go to church.

Well, I´m very excited for this week with the activity Friday and the interview with Pres. Salas tomorrow. I hope you are enjoying summer and vacations! Love ya and remember who you are and that you are children of God!

Les kiero,

Hna. Ellsworth