Elder Josh Skousen

This week has been a bit crazy.  how was everyone´s thanksgiving? good i hope.  ours was hot.  family, believe me when i tell you i have never been this hot.  the bad part is is that it only gets hotter.  oh well, ill live... maybe. 

anyways so this week i drank some bad water... that didnt end well.  i got real sick for like 12 hours but i think its out of my system.  i did feel pretty crappy though.  also my allergies are pretty bad down here.  i cant breath.  i dont trust allergy meds down here so could you please send me lots for christmas? (preferably claritan)  :) keyboards down here are weird too... mom what oils do you use for allergies?  also could you send me some breath? and no i dont have lemon, that would be good to have too :)  oh yeah also which oils repel mosquitos? they are really starting to annoy.

anyways so this week was kind of a bummer because we didnt reach like any of our goals.  you know how everyone always says that south america just baptizes like crazy?  is argentina supposed to be included in that?  I dont think it is... anyways we were going to have a baptism saturday and we were really excited and stuff, we got to the church early and opened the font and whoever used it last, left the water in it... it had been a long time because it was straight up green... ugh it sucked so bad, so anyways we took of our suit coats and ties, rolled up our pants and got to work, we started getting the water out via bucket, it was gross but we finally got it all out. but then Marta, the lady that was going to be baptized called and said that she had gotten really nervous and smoked... she hadnt smoked for a few weeks in preperation for baptism.  but now she couldnt be baptized... :( really just a heartbreaker.  really depressing. so yeah but on friday we had to go downtown Buenos Aires to get my DNI... something that says im a permanent resident in argentina or something like that.  that was pretty cool, we got to see my old comp from the mtc and see some of the sights.  and we even went to a mcdonalds :) that was pretty great except mcdonalds was super expensive! so sad.   we took the train to capital and that was seriously a joke.  they literally pack soooo many people into these things.  you cant move, no joke its like a really packed concert.  nicole remember how SoCo was?  thats how the train was for an hour.... just standing there.... sucked pretty bad.  also our cell phone got stolen and that also really really stinks.  but buenos aires was prety cool.

on sunday i got to bless the sacrament, that was good.  i also had to play the piano in sacrament.  unfortunately the piano is just awful.  i fixed the broken keys though :)  but its still sooo out of tune... its literally over a half step off.  its about 3/4 step off.  so really hard to play cuz it just doesnt sound right.  i played sweet hour of prayer nonetheless. and was going to play the closing hymn but the speaker took forever so we didnt have one.  phew.... i wish i had learned more himns at home.  that would make my life a lot easier.

so let me tell you something else that happened this week, other than getting shut down everywhere we go... haha... there is this 9 year old kid named rodrigo.  he is such a stud.  he lives with his mom who is a member and he wants to get baptized.  his mom doesnt want him to get baptized yet.  it just kills me.  so we had a charla franka, with her.  in english that roughly translates to dad saying "lets have a chat"... so we meant business and we had a good lesson and she still kept pulling lame excuses out... so i told her that we were representatives of jesus christ and i promised her in his name that baptism was the right thing for rodrigo.  it was intense and spiritual but i still dont think shes going to let him get baptized.  i die inside everytime i think  about it.  anyways,  this week wasnt so great to be honest but this next week, im pumped cuz its gonna be awesome.  we've got some new plans and they will work.

anyways thats kinda all ive got this week.  i hope you all had a good thanksgiving.  dad sorry to hear you feeling sick.  mom thank you for your testimony in your letter.  Jared tambien thanks for you letter.  ill try to respond but i dont hink i have time.  so i hope you guys have put up the christmas tree.  we started listening to christmas music down here but it just isnt the same.  doesnt really feel like christmas at all.  its just getting hotter and hotter haha.  we made empanadas today.  that was fun.  sorry my letter stinks this week.  but i love reading all of yours!

love you all

Elder Skousen