Also, I am now a counselor in the branch presidency! Yay! Haha it's a little weird. Oh, how could I forget? My new companion is Elder Kevin Zivic from Buenos Aires. He speaks porteño so hardcore haha. He's pretty quirky and funny. He also studied English for a pretty long time so he can speak pretty well. But I still try to always speak in Spanish.
Sooooo a couple weird things. Monday night, I saw my first live tarantula here. I forgot that they just roll around out here, so that was scary. Then since I've arrived here in Fontana, I've seen a bunch more. I'm currently in what they call "campo," just fields and stuff. There are also a lot of rats, frogs, and dang crabs! Street crabs! They just roll around the streets, man. Wild. Also, the mosquitos here are absolutely awful. There are some that are about the size of a quarter. They are especially bad out in the colony.
This week has been pretty good. I'm getting to know all of the members and investigators here. The colony is about ten minutes from our area by car. We go there Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On Sundays, we have our regular church meeting and then we go to look for investigators in the colony and have sacrament there around 5. It's so so sweet. The people there are awesome.
But this week really has been pretty humbling. I thought that Clorinda didn't have a whole lot but I was sorely mistaken. There is nothing here haha. NOTHING. La zona de Ibarreta is the other hottest part in the mission. It's cooling off a little bit, but the mosquitos are starting to come out with incredible numbers. It's a battle.
One of the days that we went to the colony, we visited this investigator Julio. He is currently building another house next to the one he has. It's a small brick house, just like his other one, but just a little bigger. He was telling us how this new house is his dream. He said, "I've always dreamed of having a house like this. This has always been my dream. My biggest dream is to have A/C." Straight up humbles. This guy's ultimate dream is to have A/C. I wanted to cry when I started to think about all of the things that I have totally taken for granted my entire life. The people in the colony have next to nothing. Most of their houses are made out of sticks and other pieces of junk. But, I love being here and having the opportunity to teach them.
Anyway, kind of a cool experience. I had to present myself and give a talk in church in Fontana on Sunday. It was the first talk I've had to prepare so far on my mission haha. I've gotten up and borne my testimony before, but I hadn't had to give a talk until now. But that wasn't the cool experience. The cool experience was church in the colony. We went before church started to pass by investigators and remind them about church. We walked soooooo hard and I was so sweaty. The mosquitos were biting like crazy and I had blood on my shirt haha. When we got back, we were getting ready to start when this nice new Toyota Camry rolled up. It ended up being the first president of our mission, his wife, and a man from Buenos Aires who served here in 1990 when this president was serving. President Wilfredo Lopez from Chile. Anyway, they had been visiting the area and they had been trying to find Bartolomé. They were lost and finally found it...just in time for sacrament meeting. There are two leaders (or something) of the tribe here (who are members) and when President Lopez, his wife, and the ex-elder saw them, their mouths dropped. They all hugged and whatever else and had an emotional moment. Really really really cool. They came in for sacrament and each of them gave a little talk. President Lopez gave a pretty long talk haha...which is why I didn't have to speak! He talked about Jesus visiting the aboriginals here in America and stuff. Super spiritual. Started to get pretty dang teary. Anyway, that was awesome. That was the first time that they had been back after 23 years.
I'll include some pictures of my new area. But seriously, I love it so much. Just this little tiny town. SO quiet, too. I thought Clorinda was quit and tranquilo but this town is the definition of tranquilo. There is never anything going on haha. Walking around is so awesome, especially at night. There are these big fields with those classic huge trees that you see in the movies. You can see the milkyway really well and it's just darn peaceful. The people are so awesome and humble. Our branch president is President Sire. He is a really really really cool guy. He served in the Rosario mission forever ago and his mission included all of this area. He is from la provincia de Chaco, but after his mission, he stayed here in Formosa and married one of his converts. His family is pretty much the whole branch. His son, Christian, just turned 20 and is waiting to receive his mission call. SUPER awesome family.
Anyway, that's pretty much all for now. Don't have a lot of time...but yeah...really hope that I'll be able to write consistently. I love you all so so so much! Peace and sweet, sweet blessings.
-Elder Sipple
Tarantula
I don't have time so I'll have to send more pictures of my new area next week. Sorry!
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