Week #10 - Double Digits - Que tal eh.............(And LOTS of pictures today!!!)

September 11, 2017

Week #10 - Double Digits - Que tal eh.............(And LOTS of pictures today!!!)

Preemptive warning that the keyboard that I am using today is EXTRA terrible, I have no clue how to make apostrophes on this thing.

To start off, here are some of the most popular words that are used in Argentina, some I think are specific to Mendoza-

1. Che - similar to the word bro in English

2. Manso - directly translates to the word Meek, but means cool or a lot.

3. Chabon - dude or guy

4. fu - I have no idea if i spelled it right but it means Wow!

There are probably more that I can't think of right now. Cool. My emails will probably be a bit shorter, but a little bit more interesting to read from this time forward. I have very little to complain about here. I do miss having a phone, having the ability to play counter strike at any hour of the day, having a car Etc., but serving a mission for the Savior provides 2 things that I would never be able to receive elsewhere, sacrifice and real happiness.

Before my mission, I tried to get the same reward as successful people without sacrificing the same amount of time and effort as those successful people. That's probably why I barely passed calculus. You learn so much about sacrifice and the rewards of your sacrifices on a mission. That is probably one of the most valuable lessons that one can learn in this life, and that is why I recommend everyone who is thinking about going on a mission to do so. You don't get it for free just by going on a mission though, you have to work for it.

"You cant just pass through the mission, you have to let the mission pass through you"

- A quote from some guy in the MTC

The other thing you get is real happiness. I assume that anyone that has had a child, gotten married, etc. has experienced this before. True happiness comes when you realize what is important and what isn't in life.

Now that I am finished talking about random abstract concepts of happiness, I will tell some stories of the week.

1. Last PDAY we visited a Christ statue. It was cool. Hopefully my mom will show pictures.

2. We were in someone's home and they asked me if I had a dog. I told them that my family never bought one because we thought it would be too much work. They were all so surprised when I told them that you actually had to buy dogs in the United states and that you cant just go outside, grab one and bring it into your house.

3. I randomly have people come up to me and say Hello. Not Hola. Hello. It seems a little weird because you might get beaten up if you go up to a South 'American dude in the US and say Hola. Different cultures.

4. Right now I am in a place called Maipu. Yes it is pronounced My Poo. It's really not that funny but the names of places here are so whack. Lote Bigelote and Maipu.

5. We visited a neighborhood called "El 6 de Setiembre," which means the 6th of September on the 5th of September. If we went there just 1 day later we probably would have seen an extremely manso block party.

That's all.

Weekly food update -

I am finally getting used to the food. Its still not as good but i am used to it now and there are things that I like. The Alfajors are amazing. I am still losing weight though.

Thanks for reading

-Elder Murphy

Flashbacks from Collin leaving SLC and headed to Argentina back in August: (Collin had good connection at his Cyber Cafe today, so we got lots of pictures today.)