8 December 2008

Dear Mom

I am only allowed to Email Family so I am writing one big letter and you can share it with Whomever.
I am going to share experiences out of my journal, that way I don't forget anything.

Dec 2, 2008
So Yesterday, I left from the MTC at 8 am headed for Neuquen, Argentina. We flew from Salt Lake at 12:10 pm to Dallas, Texas where we arrived at 3:45 (Dallas time). We had approximately 3 1/2 hours lay over. During the lay over I called family, Grandma, and Carlie. It was so nice to be able to hear everyones voices. We left Dallas at 7:35 pm and flew all night to Buenos Aires where we arrived at 9:55 am the next morning. I did not sleep on the plane very well. We were then picked up and taken to the MTC in Buenos Aires for a couple of hours. We ate lunch and also walked over to the temple. At 3:30 they came and picked us up and took us to another airport where we flew to Neuquen. The president was there waiting. We then went to his house, ate dinner, talked for a bit, then went to bed. We all find out tomorrow who our companions are and what area we will be in.

Dec 5, 2008
Today was my second day in the area. My companion is Elder Frazier. It's his last transfer and then he'll be headed home. Most missionaries start to die in their last area but Elder Frazier is still working hard. He's awesome. Oh yeah, funny thing, He has the same birthday as me, just 2 years older. But anyway now about my area.
Argentina is nothing like I expected. When I got to Neuquen the other day, everything seemed to be really old and out of date, the buildings, cars, houses, and everything. But everything is bareable. Then we got to my area, Roca II, all the roads are dirt and the houses look like shacks. Where we stay, we have a bedroom, bathroom, and a kitchen all fitting in an area smaller than half our garage there at home. The shower is just an open part of the bathroom next to the toilet and sink, and the drain doesn't work very well so as we take showers we stand in buckets and then dump the water into the toilet. (this makes me so thankful for all that I have and home in the United States) but after being here almost a week, I am getting pretty used to it.

Dec 7, 2008
In our area there are not a lot of people that like to talk to us, so we usually end up knocking doors all day. To knock a door we stand outside the fence and clap our hands. We get turned down a lot or talk to people that are really stuck in their ways, a lot of them believe some pretty weird stuff, it's almost sad. The People that we do get to teach are so awesome, and the members are a lot of fun. I went to church today and pretty much didn't understand anything. There are only 40 members approximately in the Ward. The members feed us tons, it's not half bad but not a lot of flavor and you eat till you can't eat more.
It is super hot here too so we drink tons of water and juice everyday.

Today,
Hey everyone, love you all and miss everyone, but I am loving it out here too.

Love Elder Berghout