Argentina October 28th 2013

hey mom, i dont have tons of time this week cause its loaded here at ciber. so i will try to fill you in quick and answer your questions. 

This week has been slow. We almost died on tuesday. We were just walking down the street and a guy started yelling at us and we ignored and kept walking. Then he was yelling in spanish right next to us and i didnt understand what he was saying. all i heard was  TELEFONO but i said i didnt have one and kept walking then he grabbed my bag. Apparently before he grabbed my bag he said he would shoot us if we didnt give him anything. i didnt see his gun either. so i ripped the bag out of his hands and we started booking it around the corner. I thought for about 5 seconds i was gonna get shot and dropped. But i dint thank goodness. SO now we have been a little struck with fear and are never carrying anything but a Book of mormon. So im a little mentally whack right now with the change and the people here are nuts. Im honestly fine all together but its just super hard at this time.

I feel like im the only one whos not learning spanish. Its there in my head it just doesnt process. I cant understand people either very well. But im doing my best and thats all i can do. 

Other than that im doing fantastic. My companion elder jewkes is a pro chef. he has made bread, pancakes, fried rice, eggs, omlette, and all sorts of pasta. So its nice having him around but he goes home in 3 weeks. But i do my OWN laundry. it takes about 5 hours in the machine thingy and then we hang it up on the roof to dry. Can you say CRUSTY SOCKS! ahhhh. super funny how crappy our pension is too. I love it. 

Ummm. As far as the landscape...its flat and all the building are bricks and cement sloppy done up. ANd theres a slight rise in neuqen in the city i can see it from the window. Its exactly like the pictures on google. Its all dirt roads with just desert feeling to it. I dont it isnt too hot yet but its kind of nice. we are building a house out of cement and bricks. im basically a brick mason its fun. were doing more tonight as well. It is nothing like the states. everything is just crappier and makes no sense. Every day from 12 to 6 everyone just sleeps and has a ciesta. so we just walk around and tract. We clap to knock on the door basically. we clap outside the fence and they come out and yell at us haha. Its super fun. Theres dogs all over and they are scary thank goodness for rocks. We usually eat lunches with members and its usually milonesa or breaded steak basically. its really good. With rice and warm nasty mayo salad. they eat mayo with everything. P days, we just email and hang out and play ping pong at the church. They have ping pong tables at the church and all churches instead of basketball. Thats like the staple here. I dont know if im losing weight i feel like i am. NO idea. I hope not. But ya i hope i answered your questions.

Im super jealous your in paradise right now. I feel like im in the enferno. But its great at the same time. I dont have a whole lot of time left.

Sunday, we broke a record for attendance with 55 peoplle there including our baptismal date. She is getting baptized in 2 weeks. Augustina. She is 9 years old. She is awesome. We taught here the 10 commandments on thursday. We used hand motions for each commandment in a fun way so that was great. 

Love you all hope all is well and i will hopefully have more time next week! 

Love, elder westensee

Argentina Week 2

Hello everyone thanks for your sweet emails. I love reading all of them. So good. My nieces and nephew are getting big and will be talking perfect when i get back. That. Will be fun. Glad to hear things are going. Sounds like Hawaii is gonna be a blast mom and dad. Tyler! throw a house party! just kidding dont do that. ANyways things are good here having crazy fun time and having fun experiences!

I dont even know where to begin or what to say. BUt this week was slow but great also. We are almost finished building Nico´s house. We have 4 walls up and are preparing to roof it this week. Its been like a humanitarian mission so far more than teaching right now. But we are enjoying the service opporutunity. 

Down here we eat lunch with members cause thats the big meal. Some lunches have been....interesting. Nothing here is sanitary. They will just grab your cup and take a swig and then give it back to you.... kind of odd. Same thing with food. They eat salad out of a community bowl. Its been a little gross but im used to it now. I love the people here. So humble and happy going. Well. The members at least. 

ON wednesday we visited and taught a family about a story in the book of mormon. In ether about The brother of jarerd. The 9 year old girl is wanting to be baptized so we have that coming up. Although i hardly understand whats going on i still feel the spirit so strong its cool. 

My spanish is coming along slowly. Castellano is not spanish. Its its own language. completely different vocab and stuff. And slang im learning. I lvoe the language tho it flows nicely. 

Funny stories this week. We were walking home one night and a car hit a big bump in the dirt road. They lost their exhaust tip! like a 3 foot piece just fell off. Then they didnt notice and drove off. A guy comes running in the street, examines the exhaust pipe and walks off with it lol. Super funny. 

Another funny story is we were walking home another night at about 9 20 and we were just walking and heard a gun shot behind us and started booking it. For some reason we felt totally protected and we got back safely and started laughing cause its just so rediculously ghetto.

I milked my first alfajore. You freeze it. Then get a bowl of milk. Bite one und of the cookie, then the other. You proceed to suck the milk through the frzen cookies until milk is gone. Then you eat the milked alfajor. Incredible.

Final story. Sunday night, we all felt sick and just feverish and hot and we passed out after dinner in our apartment. We woke up at about 7 and took Nico some bread. and visited a few families then that night. I pooped my pants for the first time. It is uncontrollable when your stomach has to get rid of something. All night i was up just going to the bathroom and sweating and almost throwing up at the same time. Its normal to get it here though and im fine today. Just the adjustment. but that was interesting and a trial for sure. 

All jokes aside, I am loving this incredible country and area. The people inspire me and help me to be humble and appreciate what i have. We have so many spiritual experiences. Nico, our less active we are helping get to the temple (he got the aaronic priesthood sunday) and also helping build his house. But he has a cool story. He saw the missionaries walking 6 months ago and felt he needed them to talk to him and his family. He told them to come over and teach his family. They did. He was ready to be baptized the next week. Its amazing how the lord prepares people for us as missionaries. I look forward to finding some more people this week.

LOve you all. We have the most incredible family and i am so grateful to be a part of it. Keep working hard. I love 2 nefi 2. I just read it this morning all in spanish. i think it said something along the lines of ¨´we  have opposition so we can fell happiness¨´ sorry i dont quite understand spanish entirely. but it said something like that and its sos true. Its hard for me right now but im trucking over the hard times because its not only helping me grow but its helping me realize how good we truly have it. 

LOve you all. Hasta proximo semana! Chao! 

P.S everyone calls me westenhouse pronounced (Wet-in-house) Super funny. Love the people. also theres women breastfeeding everywhere its gross.

Love, Elder Westenhouse

First Update from ARGENTINA.

Monday- October 14th Elder Westensee wrote:

hey i am here in Gran Neuquen. After 6 days in my suit, 2 nights on a couch, 1 night on an airplane, and 2 nights on the floor, im here. I got to go dang it. I will be on tomorrow. Lets just say this is the hardest thing ive ever done. Talk tomorrow. Chow.

Tuesday- October 15th Elder Westensee wrote:

Well well well. Im in Good old Argentina at last.Its been crazy. I dont even know where to begin... Sounds like home is the same and things are good and BYU is still just ok at football. Im glad im not missing much. I am emailing from like a hollywood video type store on a random computer. Its 6 pesos an hour. We took a bus here. 

Well...As you know i arrived here in the mission after many plane rides and a bus ride. Im glad i got to fly to neuquen. But before neuquen, we took a bus around buenos aires (all 60 new missionaries) and took pictures and saw the temple and what not. Then, we flew down to Neuquen and got in around 8 p.m. We then met president and went to the mission home. Slep there that night. Then the next day, got our companions. I am with Elder Jewkes and Elder Quinonez. Jewkes goes home after this transfer, hes from west jordan and Quinonez is 8 months. But we are a trio because we are serving in Gran Neuqen. Gran neuquen is a scary dirty crime ridden place. Ugliest part of the mission. My first day on saturday, we built a house. It was awesome but tasking. I am falling asleep very fast. But my companion has told me stories about the area and what has happened and....ya its gonna be interesting. Theres bars on all windows and the houses are all gated and tight right next to each other. There is a dog like every 10 feet. Havent been bit yet but i will at some point. Pit bulls, dogos (illegal in the states because they are mean and huge), and rotweilers. All. Over. Scary. Not mention the labs and german sheppherds. Not a single paved road in our area. Its  interesting.

Our apartment is tiny. About the size of our weight room. NO washer. no dryer. Bucket of water and soap. The shower is frigid. Theres no carpet. And jewkes is sleeping in the floor. Its hard to get food here. But i finally have Pesos so i can get food and eat!!!!!! Its been a rough few days. But its getting better. I have had 8 alfajores since ive been here. They are like a really good moon pie with dulce de leche. or caramel. I like them. I had lunch with a lade today we had massive piece of flat meat. like a big square of meet like a base, in baseball. and rice. I almost threw up it was so much. But so good. The food here is like. Hotdogs or Chorizo sausage, and just carne meat. Its ok but fatty. They have like what called interlagos which is like a 2 liter of sprite. So i got one of those. So good. We have water jugs like in medford. Good water. Its hard to find water here. Elder jewkes made and i quote ¨´Jew-fa-jores´´ and Jew bread. Both were really good. Its just his own recipes haha.

ummmm. not sure what else i can say. Theres dogs all over, its getting hot, there is not a single stop sign. The people cut off the mufflers on the cars so they are loud. Crazy drivers. Theres no lines. Its basically just a free for all down here. I see why following rules are so important. Tomorrow is zone conference. should be a good day. But ya im doing well so far. Loving it here although its a challenge.  I cant wait to learn the language. Its much different than mexican spanish. If you have any questions just ask me! 

Sounds like home is good and everyone is just swell. I should be able to email monday cause that is my p day. Ciber pronounced (SEE-BURR) was closed yesterday so thats why we couldnt email. But love you all stay safe and keep doing good in life!

Love, 

Elder Westensee 

.pictures of elder westensee's arrival.

The Missionaries have landed!!

 Can you spot Evan in the next few photos?

 Where's Evan?

We are SO excited to hear from Elder Westensee this week. We are SO proud of him!

The One, and Only....Elder Westensee!!!

.arrived in argentina.10.10.13.

.we are happy to announce after 12+ hours of flying on an airplane, evan has made it to argentina.

.he may still have a 12 hour bus ride ahead of him (or he has already done it). 

.LOTS of traveling for him.

.he arrived with 38 other missionaries!

.can you spot him in the picture?  (you may have to make it larger)

Last Week In Poky.

Well, my visa came. I have known for 5 days now. Im heading to the mission home today to fly out tomorrow orwednesday. But, we got a call at 6 pm at a members house. We didnt anser. Then we went out onto the people deck and called the AP's back. They said "Elder Westensee, you excited to go to argentina?" I says, i says, "Yes" They say: "YOUR VISA IS HERE" I proceed to scream and jump for joy and high five Finau. my adrennaline was pumping. That was awesome. So yep. im heading out of the country!

This week was slow especially after the call on tuesday. We basically said bye to everyone and they were pretty sad. Finau is transferred up to Rigby as well, so carlos and the Maria family will miss us dearly. We helped them out a lot. Carlos brother, JOHNNY, has a baptismal date that i hope the other elders can help him get to baptism. We worked hard for that. Also, we set another date wioth a woman named MAYA. Shes about 23 and has a newborn. She wants her baby blessed too by one of the missionaries in church sunday. But.....im out. Right when we get a bunch of rewards for our work we have to leave. Pretty par for the course i would say. It does not matter though We are all on the same team as it said in conference. We work together. 

I was going to post tons of pictures, but i dont have time. When we told carlos we were being transferred, he just about got teary eyed. And johnny said in a sad face looking at the ground "what about soccer" in broken english. Cause we have an activity every saturday where we invite members, less actives and investigators to play and we make it wayyyy fun for them. i wear my messi jersey and im getting good at soccer. 

Conference was nothing short of spectacular. I took notes on color coded note cards. Green=Q12

Orange=70 Pink=Women Other=Bishoprics, what not. So i took tons of notes. about 30 cards worth. It was tiring but worth it as i have ammunition for the next 6 months. Satan is stupid. The guy is just a piece of work. but we can beat him if we put on the armor of god and trust in the lord. 

Well. not sure what else to say. Im getting more facial hair. Like lamb chops now. MOre of a thick stache. You know. Just the usual. I think im fatter? Not sure. I eat a lot. But ya not much new. Im excited to do work in ARGENTINA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love you all and appreciate all you do for me. Mom, thanks for the satchell. I now have #SatchellSwag 

I will try to send pics in the future, but for now i gotta head out. Love you all and i am very appreciative of what you do for me. Stay true to the faith!

Also, add "Sione Finau" write Maui Hawaii, and he shoukd come up. He posted pictures on facebook and you can see my comp. 

-Elder Westensee

Poky Week 9

Well, sounds like San Antonio SUCKS! just kidding, but its too hot for me as you know. (I almost died of heat exhaustion if you remember!) At the Alamo and stuff. But that's cool! I miss my neices and nephew. They are funny. Enjoy family time! cause there is no better time in the world! 

Well. My days have been good here. I'm tired of writing long emails. And by doing the daily report thing. Its basically the same everyday. Not too much new has happened. But we have just been absolutely working hard and making work and new investigators. We should be having around 8 baptisms by the end of the year hopefully. Which is unheard of. Your lucky if you get more than 3 in a year for spanish work. So i dont want to leave in that sense. But i know its not going to last and this isn't my mission so its frustrating in that sense. But i love the people and love being here. Its hard but worth it. I learn so much everyday. 

So this week was pretty normal. Visited lots of people and taught some good lessons. Also, this week a spanish guy, the Cuevas, father, was trying to hook me up with his daughter......He asked me what kind of girls i like? And i said. It depends, but im on my mission sir......lol. He was trying so hard but i just kept laughing and telling him....no. But they are less active now. When i got into the area, they were helping us and stuff and then they stopped. Also their neighbors, the family of 5 who dropped us , the suarsz. Apparently 2 months ago there was a fight at the church between members yelling and slapping, and the suarsz family witnessed it and so now we have to try to fix that. Mexican ladies are loco. So we dug up some information there. Thats why a lot of people aren't coming now. 

The members can either help us a ton or hurt us a ton. Theres no medium. They can invite people and be friendly and welcome people are do the opposite. So we constantly give talks about this and the impact of members. But its all goooood.

This week, we had Menudo again ;p gross! Its the lining of a cows stomach. It smells like flippin Maneur! But i downed it and acted like it was the cats pajamas. Also this week, we had cheek Tacos of a cow, and cow tounge twice. Talk about making me want to hurl. They act like its normal to eat this junk. NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Its gross. But I eat it and think abuot how much i miss Vindaloo, Hawaiian Hay-Stax, and Sweet n Sour Chicken and Cafe Rio and oh I miss your cooking mom. 

We had a good experience last night with the sandoval family. We went in and the dad was on the phone, so we watched TV with the wife while he finished. Then i took the lead in All spanish (yay me) and asked if we could share a message. So we shared a scripture, my companion did, from Alma 34:33. "This is the time for men to prepare and perform their labors, or something". Then we talked about baptisms and we asked deep questions and got them thinking. They love us and felt the spirit strong and want to be baptized but we didn't feel ready to invite them. So next time maybe. That is something i have learned out here. You cant do what YOU want when teaching someone. The spirit does it all. We just are like a clarinet. An instrument. The spirit is the air that runs through it and makes it happen. So We would have loved to have a date, but the spirit knew they werent quite ready. But then we closed after 20 minutes of talking and Sis. Sandoval said the closing prayer. Their son, miguel is in jail and is getting deported and she was balling so that was sad. But she loves the feeling she gets when we come over. (a.k.a the spirit!) OH! on a side note, they have a littel PUG! I got hair all over my MR. Mac jacket liner. Took a while to roll it all out. But that was cool. I got hair all over me to make me realize tank was just too hairy. So now i dont miss tank AS much but still i miss the boo. 

Well, I hope yall keep doing well. I am doing well and can feel your prayers so thank you. Thanks MA for sending the bag your the best. I need to send my bag back. Well, I love you all and miss you dearly! Dont get heat exhaustion and keep studying the scriptures!!!!

Love, Elder Westensee

p.s. Tell Lindsey to write me. Text her or something i love getting emails from her! Plus My companion wants to write her haha