Hello fam!
How is it going? So I'll start off with a fun lunch we had last Thursday. It was with a family we dont usually eat with because they are in the area of the Zone Leaders but they were gone on a trip. So we got to their house at like 12 to eat. They served us mashed potatoes and meat. But as I started eating it I noticed it tasted slightly different. The meat tasted really good but had a different consistency. After my first plate the wife asked us, "Have you ever ate hígado before?" And I didnt recognized that she said hígado so I asked what it was. She told us that it was just part of the cow. So I just assumed that it was just a weird name of a certain cut of meat. But then like 5 minutes later I realized what she said. And so that you understand, I have been studying the names of all the body parts inside and out lately so thats why it took me a couple of minutes to recognize the word."hígado" means Liver. So I ate cow liver last Thursday and I can honestly say it did not taste like Chicken. But I did enjoy it. I would eat it again. Just a different consistency but it had the same flavor as meat.
As far as our missionary work, we received bad news ... Our golden investigator went to Buenos Aires. Rodrigo was progressing very well but we passed by after P-Day last Tuesday and he warned us that he was going to Buenos Aires for 6 weeks. So we noted his address there and passed it on in Referral Manager for the Elders in Buenos Aires. The rest of our investigators are great and there is still stuff to do. one of them is Isabel. She is 65 +/- years old and has been chatting with the missionaries for 9 months. She has a date for March 25th. Right now we have Isabel as like our main investigator and like a hand full of others that are kindo of keeping commitments. That is the hardest part I would say is getting people to read and go to church. But we do see progress and success. I am really enjoying Ibarreta so far. I like the small town and the people are more interesting and the church building here is actually nice. I have really am getting accustomed to enjoying the little luxuries in life. Hot showers, the beauty of electricity and air conditioning, sidewalks, padded chairs, pre-cut ice. I think that I am just so accustomed to how life is here that I don’t really understand or better said, comprehend the luxuries of a fully developed society and economy. It is crazy how many people here live off of the government.And even that is scary because the government doesn't give people much.
We have a recent convert named Pamela. I think I have mentioned her before. She is probably my favorite member here in Argentina. She has 3 girls and just 4 days ago gave birth to her 1st boy. She named him, James. But seriously the coolest, most genuine family I have ever met. And it is so humbling to see just how happy they are despite their living standards. The dad is José and his job is to go out and chop wood literally all day and receives practically nothing to support his family. But they press on and it is amazing to me. Their 4 day old James is super cute.
Recently we have been having a English class every Thursday night. We usually do it with the youth but it is a great opportunity to meet their friends. They are just going back to school from their summer break so we should be getting some more people. We also had to prepare for a baptism of a girl from the colony right by Ibarreta. Her name is Blanca and is 9 years old. Her brother is Miguel and he is preparing to serve a mission. He is 19 years old. This is the colony that speaks Pilaga which is practically a dead language. But we got to the church Saturday to fill the font and we opened the font and it was like 1/4 full of dirty mud water. So we had to spend like an hour cleaning it. But we ended up getting it cleaned and then filled but then didnt end up having the baptism that night because there was miscommunication between the branch here and the members in the colony and the members in the colony didnt have a mode of transportation to make it to the church. So it got suspended for next Saturday.
But that was basically all for this week. I love you all.
Elder Corbin Keicher
