Rafael Castillo- Week #12

I have been here a month!

It has gone by way fast, and I have come to ask one question from all my experience so far...umm...when do I become fluent? Haha seriously, I understand a whole lot more then when I first got here, but still have so much to learn. However, I marked a major milestone this week. I was sitting in a member's home talking with a little boy, and the mom asked me something, and I responded without looking at her or anything. Like, I recognized she was talking to me and understood and answered her while playing with the little boy the whole time. I CAN MULTI-TASK IN SPANISH!!!!!!!

Anyways, Dad thanks a bunch for the sports updates and politics, I love it. It is my little guilty pleasure during the week. I also love hearing how Brett, Kyle, and Joseph are doing. ¡Sigan así Élderes! Joseph is sending me his emails though so you don't have to. Also, Joseph, I sent you a letter that you will probably get in a couple weeks, but I sent it before I read some of your E-mails and so there are a few things that i now understand, such as you getting letters from other people and things of that nature...

Question Time... Ok, first off, I have not seen any part of Buenos Aires since my first day. Our Stake Center is in Gonzales Catán and that is where we have Zone Conferences and District Meetings. Elder Torres is my District Leader. We go to the temple once every other transfer, and it just so happens that it landed on this transfer, so we are going next week on P-day. Today was zone activity which we do once a transfer and we played kickball, which was fun, but it took up pretty much all of our P-day, thats why this email is so late. I decided I am not going to worry about puncuation anymore so you can fix it for me...usually on p-days we just do internet, buy food, and sleep or go play some pool or something. We aren't allowed to play soccer for some reason, but I guess it is a church wide rule that new mission presidents are not allowed to change rules until after two transfers after they arrive, and this is the end of President Benton's second transfer so rumors are flying about all these changes that will be made...I just hope he lets us email whoever we want like he said he would.

So It really couldnt explain to you about all the people we teach, because we teach a mountain load of people, its just that barely any are actually interested or progress. President Benton's big opening focus has been para buscar la fruta baja, or to seek out the low hanging fruit in our areas. He showed us a stat about our mission. We baptize around 100 people a transfer, and on average 60-70 of those are always references from members, or people in part member families. So we are focusing a lot on that.

There is a family in our ward, la familia Otero, who are all members but the dad, and the dad comes to church and reads his scriptures and stuff but cant get baptized because he isn't married to the mom, which is the case for almost everyone I have met here, but we just visited them last night and he said that they already went to get the papers to fill out to start the marriage process, which was encouraging. He reminds me a lot of Grandpa before he was baptized, just the nicest guy and he even helps his five year old pray when we are there, like whispers into his ear and stuff, so i think he might be a possibility for baptism next transfer. So yeah things like that are encouraging.

Sorry I don't write a lot, but by the time I read both of your emails and then collect my thoughts I dont have much time, but I like your emails so dont stop writing, also I am bad at handwriting letters because I never know what to write, because I have to write them as if I was talking 2 weeks from now...but anyways, this country is great, I am loving it, and the work is great. I am feeling more and more effective as a missionary.

Love ya everyone.

Love Sean

PS Alex I promise I am sending coins for your brother soon.