July 18, 2011

hello hello hello

From July 11, 2011


Haha so once upon a time I always say that I will read and write down questions y´all write me and answer them the next week....but I forgot. I READ everything you send PROMISE but if I don´t write stuff down, mi cabezita de pollo se olvida todo :) now I´m mixing up weeks when you tell me stuff but just know that I have a binder full of your lovely words :)
But no, Hna Gonzalez is not here. She has a mini missionary in Ushuaia and everything is getting worked out double time to get my argentine DNI :) hooray!
But I don´t know if you are following this beautiful volcano but....it has erupted again. Basically that means everything is grounded again for an indeterminable amount of time. Fooey. So Hna Campos, who completes her mission the 4th of September, is looking at a 50ish hour bus ride to capital to go home. ....and me? Who knows if I’ll EVER leave Gallegos? hahaha All the members who see me at church, from our branch and the other, shake my hand in surprise, ´you´re still here??´ haha silly billies.
Ok, have I told you enough about the food here? It´s phenomenal. Empandas, milanesa, facturas, tarta, tortas, canelones, fideos and I could go on and on. UNFORTUNATELY, this means that the members LOVE to ´treat´ us with the best they´ve got. This 9 of July was the argentine independence and all national holidays call for making a traditional dish called locro....which means DEATH. haha no, not really. I have no idea what it means but the ingredients would pretty much kill dad, hospitalize mom and create serious health problems for the kids....it´s got every kind of meat you can think of (minus chicken because it´s too weak sauce for this dish) but lamb, beef, pork from the most edible parts of the cow and pig to the parts I never thought would enter my mouth. It has a TON of vegetable and a ton of beans that I’ve never seen before but are delicious. This stew/soup cooks so long (like 7-8 hours) that the vegetable part turns to a light soup leaving all the meat tender and vitamin filled. I ate happily and innocently and then after letting it digest a while asked what it was I had eaten. The soft, really flavorful stuff was cow stomach....chorizo is easy to recognize and then other recognizable meat that was scrum-diddly-umptious. But it´s a heart attack waiting to happen. It´s such a heavy meal that we didn´t get hungry alllllll day. I always feel like snacking on something when we get home at night but not Saturday. :)
And I would like to see the scientific data on why we gain weight in the winter (more cold equals more intake of calories??) or if we just rationalize that we eat and eat and are happy and eating and growing from side to side every day. Anyone? Hna Campos and I were trying to diet but it´s incredibly hard when like 80% of our diet is out of our hands and argentines just happened to pride themselves on killer food that is hard to resist. Like yesterday, after a terrifically cold morning, we ate lunch with a member couple. 2 of them, 2 of us and 40 emapandas betwixt us.....ahaha oops. It´s nearly impossible to count how many you´ve eaten while having lovely conversation and also to say, no, I don´t want any more of that deliciousness, thank you. But all the food, cold and 3 months later.....I won´t even tell you how much I weigh. We weighed ourselves last week to have a starting point to diet again and ended up slightly depressed....but ojito I was weighed with boots on, layers of clothes and slightly wet thanks to the rain...stillll....:(
haa but ‘tis the season to be jolly. The snow inspires Christmas carols as we walk to and from appointments :)
Gallegos is ripe and ready for the harvest. I love you all and know that we are put together as a family for a reason. We are eternally tied thanks to a wonderful loving Father in Heaven, a faithful and dedicated Prophet and the restoration of God´s truth and the blessing of temples and the priesthood. We are given the opportunity to repent and be clean, to be whole and healed emotionally, spiritually and physically. I love each and every one of you. Mormon taught his son how to have perfect love in Moroni 8:26. Family and personal prayer to have PERFECT love and the gift of charity. Without charity we cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and we are nothing.
I love you and pray for you
Moroni 8:3
Love forever, The Church is true
Love Hna Gonzalez

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