La Primera Semana

We received Sam's first official email from Argentina the day after we video chatted with him for Mother's day. He seemed to be in good spirits and excited to do real missionary work. Here are some excerpts from his email:

"Hey everybody!

Where Sam will be hand-washing his laundry every week.

"I am in Grand Bourg, my area is Islas Malvinas and it is so awesome! I am starting to get used to walking these streets and not being too scared even though you do always have to be careful of robbers. I didn't take any pictures this week of stray dogs on roofs or horses walking down the street. I'm sorry. Anyways yeah this past week was crazy. It was a lot of brain work trying to figure out what people are saying, and trying to act like I know what they are saying. It is actually getting easier everyday to understand what people are saying, but it is still pretty bad. Today the old lady that lives in front of us came and yelled at us again for not paying the rent on time. haha I actually understood what she was saying today it was really cool. I know it will get better but is like torture trying to learn a language. It is harder than calculus haha but it is going to be awesome once I get it down in a few months. Yeah hopefully by the time I talk to you all at Christmas I will be a little better at castellano. I am starting to learn a lot more here than I did in the MTC. It is awesome.

The chapel for his branch.

"It is a lot harder to convert people to this gospel than I thought it was going to be. I thought it would be just teach a few lessons, and they want to get baptized, but everybody always changes there minds. I just hope we have some success here in Grand Bourg. I will probably be here for 3 months so hopefully I have some success while I am here.

"I guess this area is supposed to be dangerous. They don't let sister missionaries serve here but I have yet to feel really unsafe, it is a little weird sometimes, but I feel safe as a missionary. I feel protected, because if I was not a missionary I would not want to walk these streets and start talking to random people. But with my plaque I feel safe. It is cool to walk around with the name Jesucristo on my chest."

He just moved in and his room is already a mess. Shocking.