What is Argentina famous for???? MEAT

We had heard about the asados that they have hear, so we decided to go out to dinner at a parrilla (grill) and try some of the Argentine meat. We asked what was good and the said everything, so we ordered the plate that has everything, which was called the full parrilla. It came out on a little grill and all the meat was still sizzling! We were really excited and SHOCKED at how much meat they brought out!
We didn't know what to think, so we just started to chow down!! One problem.... they eat a lot of things that we don't usually eat. We didn't know what anything was. We first tried some meat on a rib and it was really good! Then a little chicken that was dry, but edible. Then came some funky shaped things and we tried them all, all being really really really disgusting. We asked afterward what everything was and they were intestines, kidneys, brains, you know. Just all of the parts that I would never eat. A few seconds later I found that my dinner was making it's way back up and luckily made it to the bathroom in time. I felt so sick!

Needless to say we are never eating a full parrilla again.

The Great Storm

The other night Jason and I went to be at about 2 am but we couldn't sleep, so we watched Avatar, the greatest cartoon in the world, on our computer in our bed. Jason decided to move our bed into the middle of the floor because our air conditioning stopped working the day before and doesn't blow the air out as strong or as cold, so he moved our bed so that we are could feel the air a little bit more. We finally fell asleep around 4 am, but around 4:30 we woke up to the most horrifying thunder I have ever heard. I am almost 25 years old and I was still really scared. We learned that there were no weather strips on our windows and water from the heavy rain was gushing into our apartment. We got everything off the floors and there was already an inch of water covering the tile. Our bed usually sits closer to the window, and if Jason hadn't moved our bed I would have woken up soaked! There was only a few seconds between lightening bolts and the thunder was almost constant. Jason was frustrated and trying to soak up the water as fast as he could, but then he opened the window and shut it again really fast. He looked at me with the most amazed look and said, 'Sar! You have GOT to come and see this!" He told me to brace myself and to look quick. He opened the window and rain was hitting me fast and hard, but I saw the most incredible thing! It is an image I will never forget. It was just like out of a movie. The lightening and the wind and rain... I just can't explain it! It was so cool that Jason was no longer frustrated and we stopped our efforts to clean up the water that night. We woke up to our whole apartment in a few inches of water. We took turns on our hands and knees wringing the water into a bucket with our only rag. It took a couple hours and was not all that fun, but every bit of it was worth the few seconds of seeing that storm.

I Lied...

I lied and said that we didn't have to teach last week. We were told just before 6pm that there was some miscommunication and that we were supposed to teach the workshop starting at 6!! We jumped in a cab and headed for the chapel where we were teaching at. This was by far the smallest workshop we've taught yet. There were five people in total, and two of them have callings in the employment resources, so really there were just three.
It was AWESOME!! I felt so much more comfortable teaching in a small group and we all got really close. Yesterday we were on a bus for four or so hours on our way to our next adventure here in Formosa, Argentina. We arrived at 3:45 and were taken straight to the chapel to teach our workshop that started at 4pm. We hadn't eaten or drunken anything all day and I kid you not when I was teaching in front of 25 people my mind went completely BLANK and I couldn't think of anything to say. I just stood there! It was really funny, and by funny I mean not funny at all, just embarrassing. But someday it'll be funny, I am sure. Our hotel is great here; much better than our last one in Saenz Pena. Last night I only got like four mosquito bites, which is amazing compared to the 5,000 that I got in Saenz Pena. I still haven't figured out how to to cool things for the blog, like separate my pictures or make words big. I am sad looking at everyone's cool blogs. Can you all make your blogs not as cool so I feel better? Thank you. Now here are some random pictures for you!

More to come!! Love to all!

An "American" Breakfast

We were invited by our bishop and his family to join with them in their family tradition, which is to have a big American breakfast the Sunday morning of conference. We really enjoyed the experience... but I wouldn't say that it was American. There were American things, just not like we are used to. We had french toast, but instead of putting butter, syrup and powdered sugar on them we had a weird soft cheese and raw bacon. There was deli ham, a really good liquado, which is just milk and fruit mixed up in the blender, cereal with drinkable yogurt, a super sugary lemon pie, and scrambled eggs. It was a lot of fun. They usually just drink mate for breakfast, which is their typical hot drink that everyone drinks here, so this big breakfast is a big treat for them. Last week we traveled about 2 1/2 hours on bus to a city called Saenz Pena to teach the workshop. We stayed in a more expensive hotel, which was actually really disgusting. Our room was full of mosquitos and Jason and I were almost eaten to death. He still has battle scars on his legs. They were inside our sheet so there was nothing we could do, but we know that it could have been a lot worse. What if we had opted to go with the cheaper hotel!? Teaching in Saenz Pena was a really cool experience. The people were so humble and so appreciative of us. We spent our days doing our homework and the nights teaching the workshop. We ate the best meat there. I am so glad I am not a vegetarian. I love meat! And Argentina has really good meat!! This week we were supposed to teach the workshop in the south stake of Resistencia but some people fell through on their assignments and nothing was organized for us, so we are not teaching this week. I say great! Time off to go and travel nearby countries!! But we need a visa to get into every country so I don't think that's going to happen. Maybe we'll just get really ahead in our studies so we have time to play at the end. Life is great here. We love walking around at night through the plazas and seeing all of the crazy hairstyles of the teenagers. I've gotta get some good pictures. Maybe that can be my next post. We'll see.

¡Empanadas!

I am officially Argentine. I learned how to make empenadas and I must just go ahead and brag that they were AMAZING!! We spent Saturday morning at this Hermana´s house and she taught me step by step. They take a long time but it was well worth it. They are SO yummy. We took some home and ate them for dinner, too. This past week we taught our first workshop. I was nervous and made some pretty funny mistakes while teaching 20 people. Like once I was teaching them about the helmets that knights used to wear and but said horses instead of knights. The words are very similar in Spanish. I wasn´t corrected until after. There are a few little things like that that I keep doing, but they end up being funny. We will be traveling this week to Saenz Peña to teach our next workshop, so I´ll keep you posted.

Our New Home.... RESISTENCIA!!!!!

We made it through our 12 hour overnight bus ride to our new land! We loved our time in Cordoba but we LOVE Resistencia! A member from the church picked us up and took us to our apartment. I thought that we were coming down here to dirty South America and would have to live in a hut and bathe in a wooden tub in the middle of Town Square with the chickens. But it turns out that is NOT the case. They are treating us so well here. We walked into our apartment and I was shocked! It is just the opposite of what I expected. We are the only ones living in the whole building right now because the place is brand new. We have to go through like 50 locked doors before we get in, so don’t worry about us being safe. This town, much like a lot of Argentina, is very European. We arrived Friday morning and have spent a lot of time exploring the town and walking through the little plazas. There are some funny things that I have noticed about it here, for instance there aren’t any stop signs. I am not sure how it works but somehow it does. It is fascinating to watch. They also still use horses to pull their carts full of stuff. There are lots of fruit and vegetable stands that I LOVE. The fruit here is really cheep. Like for two-dozen tangerines it is $1.70 or so. The meat here is really cheap too, and Jason is really excited about that. We don’t have a stove yet to cook on, but once we do I am sure we will cook a lot of meat. We have tasted some of the famous Argentine food like lomitos and empanadas and we agree that it is great. We went to church today and everyone was so happy to have us there. They are SO nice and I am starting to understand a little bit more every day. Let’s just hope that I keep going at this pace! Jason helps me out a lot. It is fun to be here together. We’ll never have time like this again, so we are living it up the best that we can. We will start teaching the workshop starting tomorrow. I’ll keep you posted on how that is going. We love you all!!!

First days in Cordoba

I keep thinking that I don't want to write until I have pictures to put on here. I think that is my excuse because I am tired. I don't even know if people will read this.

We left straight from church on Sunday to get to the LAX airport on time. Luckily everything went smoothly and we got right on to the longest flight of my life!! Not really; I believe getting to Europe took longer, but this felt like forever!! It was an 11 hour red eye flight and I can't sleep on planes. That's probably why it felt like seventeen days. We had a layover in Chile, which we planned to take advantage of and go see the city for a couple of hours, but it turns out that they are retaliating and charging us what we charge them to get into their country. So for us to leave the airport would have been $130 each. We opted to attempt sleeping on the weird bench in the airport instead. We landed in Cordoba where we were greeted by Guido, the manager over the program for Argentina. He took us straight to his home where his wife had made some lunch. When we got there we were greeted by two Elders also.... one of which was my little brother, Elder Hill!! It was SO incredible to see him and see where he is serving. His Spanish is great and he literally glows. I cried when I saw him, which is a sign that I was way over tired. But really was incredible to spend a few hours with him. It was his P day, so we got quite awhile with him. Guido took us to our hotel after that, which is SUPER nice, especially for this part of the world. This city has a strong European influence. It's kind of like Italy and Mexico mixed together. The people pretty much look American. Everyone just assumes that we are from here. We'll see what it is like once we get to Resistencia. We are only here for a few days, then on Thursday night we have a 12 hour red eye bus ride to our apartment.

Today we went to the workshop that we'll be teaching and participated like we were one of the students. UUUUUHHHH....... I can't understand a word these people are saying! I am in for it!! They speak so differently here that I don't know how I'll ever learn! I am glad I have Jason who can translate for me. I swear they are speaking gibberish. After the training Guido took us on a tour to this beautiful old city in the mountains, which I would tell you the name of but I couldn't understand him. He told us many interesting stories and all of the great history of the place, which I would love to tell you also, but again I couldn't understand anything he said. Eventually I started to make it up in my head and let me tell ya, that place has an incredible account!! Yeah! Lots of great battles were fought there, etc. It sounded good to me. I fought to keep myself awake on the way back but it was impossible! I am SO tired and better take advantage of these few hours that I have. So there you have my first couple days here. Pictures soon!

Argentina, Here We Come!!!

I understand that I haven't been the bloggiest of all bloggers. People can repent and do better, which I am. So here is my first official post with my exciting news. After much convincing, pleading, whining, threatening (just kidding) Jason has finally agreed to come with me to ARGENTINA!!! My last day of work is in two weeks from yesterday. We will be training in Salt Lake for a week and then are off to South America for the semester. We will be teaching workshops down there on how to interview well and apply for jobs or start business'. I am SOOO excited to go. I have always wanted to, and let's be honest it is totally in my personality to up and move to another country like this, I am just so lucky that I married a man that will do it with me!! So that is that. My first post. I am committing myself right now to be a good blogger and keep this updated with pictures and stories from Argentina! That's all for now.

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