September 12, 2011

Reggie showing off his skills :)

Top of the muffin to you, todo personas leyendo este!

Today is the 12th yesterday was the 9/11 dang i cannot believe its been 10 years since then.That was a terrible day. I remember thinking what's a terrorist? What's terrorism? I was so confused on what was goin on. Just being here in Argentina for the last 47 days I have really gained a better patriotismness and gratefulness of USA. I'm not saying I don't like Arg I love it here, i just have felt so blessed lately from being here to think of all the great things we have in US. Everyone who doesn't like usa from usa should go to a different country and they'll realize how blessed they are to live in Usa. I bet there was a lot of memorial stuff. Some people mentioned it to us the last few days since we're from usa.

Everything is well here. Yesterday Melanie showed up to church and so that means this Saturday (Vs Bday wassup, I'll send your card next Monday). She also brought her less active mom and her 6 yr old bro. So we were pumped about that and we also had 4 other less actives show up to church. So yes it was a good day! Felt really blessed. We have a new investigator. His name is Adrian Gonzalez. We went to his house and his mom was like come in. She is a less active and her son his like 27. We taught him. He liked it. Then a day later on Saturday as a district/stake at our church, we (missionaries) and the youth put on a lil play thing about a B of M story. Each Ward had a different story and Adrian Gonzalez showed up. Izekiel (semi pro soccer player, former inv) and Melanie's mom and bro and 2 other less actives also showed up. We were pumped about that as well!! We did service at a former inv house Norma. We picked up her thorn rose branches. Reminded me of home picking up those. I liked it. Alicia hasn't been to church. I guess she takes sleeping pills and she like physically can't get up until after church starts. idk so we´ll work with her on that.

The other day at Maxi y Yamilas, recent converts, young couple. I was praying, "Please bless Maxi, Yamila, Valentino (their kid).¨ their gma was there to and I couldn't think of her name and at the same time I was trying to think of a way to say, "Bless Yamilas gma" hahahaha. My head was like ummmmmmm uhhhh and I sat there for like 5 to 10 secoonds and Maxi shouts out ¨Ester¨ during the prayer so i said "ëster."  I think it was Ester. I mumbled something that sounded like Ester hahahah. Then ended the prayer. It was the funniest prayer. hahaha

Oh, my comp, Elder Stewart was comp with Elder Kitchen in MTC. Craig and Jill's neghbor. So he was one of the people on that plane that went in the circle etc.! Small world hahaha
Got mail from the reunion from Smarts. Thanks, that was awesome! I like what Paul put about my mission being the 2nd bessd hahaha i laughed. And Nathan, i could understand some words that you wrote me in espñ. haha Got Alyssa dear elder from 25th about Bednar.
Do I use a sharpy for my initials on my shirts etc? A permanent one or what should I use? They're starting to fade.

Reggie's bedroom

My espñ is doing alright. Still taking time, but that's cool. I'm patient. Sometimes I'll be listening and I can get every word for like a sentence. I feel soo good after. It's like seeing how long you can balance on a chair on 2 legs, ¨oh oh oh 7 seconds alright ¨ I get that same feeling,  wahoo a sentence of words I understood. I can understand each individual word in a sentence, but I don't know what the word means. haha People say, after I read, that I have a great accent. So I'd like to thank everyone in the NBA that has had a weird Euro or Esapñ name. haha Saying their names is good practice. Sometime in the street to practice rolling my R´s I say Reginald Roberts, Ricky Rubio. hahaha Rubio is the baller from Spain.

I trimmed my hair today. It was getting a little long by my ears, but its still short. I did good. haha
Tomorrow, while my comp is in Bahia for some meeting, I'm going to be paired up with Elder Warren from logan and he's only been out a month more than me. We are teaching Alicia tomorrow and Melanie. hahahaha That will be a funny lesson to listen in on if you know spanish. Both rookies trying to speak. But thankfully we'll have members with us so they can help us out on what we re trying to say. They have some horse meat in the store down our street and you can get it cut up like ham and I totally want to try some horse! Played some bbal in wal mart. I got a ball and dribbled a little bit and did some air shots. My form looks good. haha Also, with my work outs I can feel that I'm getting more buff. It's sweeet you can see it in my body too. I need to come back looking like dad for sure haha.

Yesterday we went into familia Galli´s house, our neighbors, and they were watching Arg v Brasil in FIBA. I saw Delfino hit a 3.
Dang Utes lost, but that's good they're getting respect. I really love the quote dad said about work hard 24 hrs a day. That is going on my wall for sure! That is legendary!

It's hard but it's fair.
I'm going to try and send some pics.
Love u all
Elder Reginald Grant Roberts

September 5th - New Companion

Elder Thomas "Old Companion" & Elder Roberts at Pablo & Julia's house

Good afternoon from Argy. Skies are blue and weather is getting better, wahoo!

I have a new compañero. Elder Thomas was transferred to Paujo. I don't think he was too happy bout the transfer haha. He liked this area and he was telling me how we're still in the same zone. It's like 3 hrs away and right next to the area where he began lol.
So I dropped off my comp at 1 am Monday morning, today and then like at the same time my new comp was getting off the bus. So for a moment there you could say i had 2 comps lol. Went to sleep bout 2, but I'm feeling good today. Not too tired. My new comp is Elder Stewart from Simi Valley, California. He's a positive dude like me, I love it!  He always says how he loves the mish and he likes to work to. We both have the same attitude on workin as hard as we can, be as perfectly obedient as we can, etc. So its awesome!
He's been out for 9 or 9 and a half months already. Not that much time considering having to learn the language, but he speaks good and says he wants to improve in it. It was funny Elder Thomas had quite a few Latin comps and so he was so happy to speak english lol. With Elder Stewart we both want to speak more spanish thru out the day and I told him that i want to be more involved in the lessons, so he will help me with that.
Yeah, last night we were at Pablo and Julias house to say goodbye for my comp. She took some pics and had some from my very 1st Saturday here with the big group (im pretty sure she sent that to you). Pablo served his mish in Wash DC, so he knows english but he speaks to me in Espñ (Espn :p) he has a book ¨the missionary´s little quote book¨ and it has great quotes from lds leaders and famous people. I love it. I may borrow it one day. Good people. Pablo said I have a good Espñ accent so thats pretty good.

Elder Thomas & Elder Roberts with Julia & Pablo

Oh it was sweet yesterday, Melanie 18yr old, showd up to church and so that was great! (If an investigator doesn't show up to church then they aren't considered progressing so its big that we get our inv to church.) She came to sacrament. We arrived like 20 min before church and I was playing the piano before anyone was really there and i was playing, ¨Come Thou Font.¨ Don't ask me how I did it hahaha. It was crazy, I just put the sound of the song to the keys and played the little part, ¨come thou fount...many blessings¨ to there so like 10 sec of it. It was crazy!! Sometimes after sacrament, our first meeting, or before, people go and play songs on the piano and most time they aren't church songs lol. I guess its normal here though.

We could possibly baptize Melanie this Sat or next. As missionaries they want us to try to have our investigators be baptized from someone in the ward/branch, whatever, so they can develop friendships in the ward and stuff. So investigators don't get linked to the missionaries without making friends in the ward. I may get the privilege to baptize her cuz my comp is new and she may just pick me cuz I've been here longer. idk. And it doesn't really matter who baptizes her to me, I just want her to be baptized! She wants to. It was just getting her to church. Sabina y Nelson didn't show up to church and weren't at home when we were going to teach them yesterday. Both of them are only able to meet with us cuz he works and is tired during the week. We have a new investigator named Alicia. She told us she wanted to get baptized in the 1st lesson, but she didn't show up to church and we really thought she would show up. She's about low 50s, skinny lady.

I've seen some FIBA Bball on a tv in wal mart and i didn't stop :) Even though I saw Grieves Vasquez and Al Horford. My comp, Elder Thomas, stopped - but I kept walking. I'm proud of myself hahaha. And we saw it in some old ladies house when she opened the door. That old lady is named Santo, which mean Holy lol. We taught her from outside her houses for like 45 min. Then at the end of the lesson we asked her if she needed any help, service, etc. She was like can you buy me some batteries and she handed my comp a $100 dollar Peso bill, whatever they call it, hahaha. We were like, "what?" We couldn't believe this lady trusted us with her money just to buy batteries after meeting with her for like 40 min. We bought her batteries and gave her the exact change haha. She didn't have much interest in the church. A few days later we told her to read the Book of Mormon on her trip to Chile to see her kid.

I was in top of a roof the other day talking to a, sort of, investigator, who is actually way catholic. He said he got back from a trip to Spain to do some every 3 year thing with catholic youth and the pope haha. But on his house it reminded me of those Bourne Ultimatum movies where he jumps like house to house. That would be way fun to run on top of houses!

Now that I have a month in here and I have a feel of the culture, everything isn't weird anymore. And I can kinda understand people. I'm going to turn up my Español studies like crazy. I'm going into Derrick Rose, Michael Jordan, Kobe offseason mode, but with espñ. I'm kinda getting sick of not being able to speak. It's like hanging out with some friends and not being able to talk. So I'm going to turn into a nerd from now on. It's been hard to get in language studies some days cuz we normally study at 11 to 12 and sometimes you have to leave like at 11:30 for lunches and you have district meeting at 10:30 on Tues til 12, so sometimes its hard to squeeze in lang time. But I'm going into crazy mode. I want to learn it soo bad! I just need to open my mouth more and go nerd style.

I love it when people talk to me, so if you ever have a foreigner missionary over for dinner or something, even if they don't know eng, just talk to them. They'll like it cuz sometimes members ask thru my comp's questions to me haha. And you want people to talk to you not thru someone else. I love the people who talk to me. I love the people here, they're pretty funny and happy. There's this young couple who just got baptized by Elder Thomas and his comp before me, and there names are Max 24 y Yamila 19. They have a kid Valentino who is 1. Yamila is probably my favorite person to talk to. She talks so fast and is animated, like uses her hands and stuff and rolls her R´s sweet.


Thanks Traci for that email about the language steps.
Gooo UTES! I have decided I'm a River fan, because they're Red, white and black. Repping the U til i die. It doesn't feel like college football time here. I was like, oh yeah CFB starts wow awesome. Listen to some Kyle F. Gunther hahah.
Ron Artest is a Capo (which means like the man in Espñ here) haha.
We don't have a dryer here, we just hang our clothes up.

Thanks Grandparents for the emails each week. I love them, they're great!

Thanks for the Love and Prayers. Keep prayin 4 me and espñ. It'll come.
Love Elder Reginald G. Roberts

August 29, 2011

Hey from here!!

Things are great! Still workin hard trying to be as perfect as i can.

Wow can you belive i just had my 3 month bday being on a mish? Time has flown by. Has it gone slow for you? It's cool, one of the streets here is called 25 de Mayo, some independents day or something important and we live on that street. So I will always remember when i was "born" as a missionary lol.

I received the mail you sent me on the 22nd I believe and I got 2 more dear elders from Alyssa y Scott. The last one I got today.
I love what Nancy and Kevin had to say in that paper. The 10 steps thing - i looove it!! i like how it said to be positve like, "ï think its cool how people let their dogs walk around freely. " I try to be positve like that cuz the more happier you are, the more better you feel. Even when you don't feel like anything. I try to trick my mind and make it happy when I get a negative thought. It works and it makes it much more enjoyable. And its good to enjoy the little things, like they put ther dogs on the roof and i think thats awesome haha. I try not to get down.

My español is doing pretty good. I'm actually able to listen to a conversation and most times i can pick out and notice each word. When it ends i can understand what is being talked about. So i feel like I've been blessed with a really good ear to understand and it just clicks to me - the listening part. i understood basically what my comp was talking about in a lesson yesterday. i have troubles with speaking lol. Thats what I struggle with the most in español cuz there are a lot of rules and stuff that makes it confusing, but when they're talking i realize a word and can figure it out, but speaking, i just can't think how to conjugate it and stuff.
I don't say much in lessons at all cuz i dont know what to say, but i can listen pretty good. Its amazing my progress in just this month here. I remember my first meal in Arg and I had no idea what people were saying at lunch and i remember the only thing i could understand was when some guy said NBA hahaha. My listening has improved so much and I cant wait to see how good I am in a month from now. I'm goin to really try to work on my speaking cuz i was just trying to pick out words when i started.

We had splits on Monday to Tuesday afternoon. So I had a different comp for a day.

Our investigators are doing alright. The Melanie girl hasn't shown up to church yet. My comp wants to drop her if this week goes bad. But i really don't think we should cuz shes so close to being baptized. I think she just needs to show up to church cuz she has in the past, but not since ive been here...im not giving up on her!! i won't let my comp do that. It's like being down 6 with 15 sec to go, just drill it, hit a 3, another etc. can't give up til the game is over. We're in the 4th, down a few. She will get baptized!!
That Matius kid - haven't seen him since our 1st lesson. He's been gone. I think he read, is what i think his sister said. So we'll keep stopping by. We have another couple, Sabina y Nelson, they have 3 kids together. they're probably in their low 30s. Not really old. I talked about them last week. They didnt make it to church, but we taught them yesterday and it went well. She is so interested in it. She read what we left her with. She and Nelson are not married. She like took notes and wrote her fave scripts and wrote some stuff while we taught her. Nelson is pretty interested. He doesn't want to read. She gets so interested. When we teach her i think i could poke her in the face with a stick and she wouldn't flinch hahaha. She must have been a straight A student lol. Hopefully they do their part and pray and have faith. We gave them a baptism date for Oct 4th cuz they need to get married first. They've talked about getting married so thats good.

Transfers are at the end of this week so my comp, who has been here since May, could be leaving. He's been out for a year and a half. His spanish is good! It's cool, i can pick out from american accents and native accents. I can listen to my comp the best in espanol. The other day i could understand like his whole prayer he said it was sweet!

Guess what i saw yesterday or the day before? Some Argy man wearing a Pacers hat wahooo lol. I didn't say anything to him though. When i can speak spanish i want to really talk to the kids and teens in the street. My comp doesn't really like kids i think lol. Cuz they ask a lot bout america etc. But i feel like i can really connect with the kids/teens in the streets. Obviously if the situation doesnt seem right i promise i wont talk to them haha. i listen to the spirit, but i really feel like i need to reach out to them for some reason. I try to relate to them like, "Hey you like bball or soccer sumthin or american music."  Cuz my comp just kinda brushes younger people off and it just hurts me when he kinda thinks eh there just kids/teens...  In the mtc they said that Heavenly Father really wants everyone in our area to be baptized. If you think about it I really dont want to think less of anyone even if theyre on there death bed. i wanna teach them cuz God put them in my path. When we walk sometimes, and pass houses, that is hard for me cuz i think how that could be a family in need. It's the "impossible is nothing" in me which i love. You never know whos behind that door!

It's warmer, not bad for winter. I just need to wear a jacket instead of sweatrs etc.
I'm going to send a letter home for V's bday. Did you get my letter yet? I sent it on the 10th. i thought about it and it really isn't that much to send a letter. It may be like 7 pesos but it's only like 2 dollars amercian.
So Javaris Crittenton is being charged with murder, the guy who brought guns in with Gil 0. That is crazy!! Come on javaris, dont throw your life away. I live in Mariano Moren idk if ive explained that part. oops lol. How should i wash my sweaters? Is it alright if i just throw it in soapy water? Chad Ochocinco is so funny. World Peace i love it. Recipes are good. Thank you. I think next week when i have more time I'll write them down. Maybe one a week or something. Thank you. idk if i can print. I'll find out. Congrats to tyler mitchell and happy bday gma smart!
Hey, stay in there Sub with Vball. Just do your best and try to lead by example and do the best you can. I know its hard when people don't take it seriously. just get into it and show you care. But also try and be their friend, cuz when you're their friend they'll say, "Hey Sub's cool and she wants to win that makes me want to try harder." Be friends with everyone on your team and they'll respect you and work harder for you. And go all out in practice and show you care. Get bloody swollen eye jump into the stands. Seeing that stuff is contagious and always say you can win, even if your down. Cuz honestly you can. The game doesn't end until its over, not half way.
V get better and stop being sick lol.
I'm pretty sure i can get photos. I got weston's. i don't think i need anything. Keep being awesome dad in school. Thanks or all you do. You can do it! Mom you're awesome, thanks for braggin bout me hahaha. i don't think anyone has a fam that loves me as much as you guys. Thanks for the love and prayers and thinkin bout me. Wassup north alyssa and scott? Has it snowed yet? bahahaa
I know this church is true and I can't wait to be a part if people change their lives. There is no way the church isn't true. Stay in it and endure. It's all worth it, for with God nothing shall be impossible!

im totally going to forget how to speak english hahha totally

I Love u all keep smiling and every days a good day why not hahaha
Love Elder Reginald Grant Roberts

August 22, 2011 - Fourth Argentine Email

In the name of Marvin Gaye, "Whats goin on!?" Lol Kyle Gunther lol

Everything is good  here!
The weather here has been a lil bit Tom Jonesy haha it rained 3 days this week, but my rain coat and stuff are great. So while my comp says he's freezing i smile lol. Todays weather is good sunny. It's also some holiday remembering some 1s death or something. I think its just a day they made up so they dont have to work haha.

Elder Roberts by the Statue of Liberty

Last week i ran out of time on telling you about Beso´s. They are those S. American kisses. They actually don't kiss, just touch cheeks and make a kiss sound. Just like at Gma Merlyns and Chalos. At Wal mart a couple weeks ago a guy that we have talked to, just at his door, was there and he came over to me to greet me and i thought he was going to put his arm around my back but then i was like, ¨Awe man i have to kiss this dude.¨ And plus its normal for guys to do it here, so then i pretty much gave him a kiss (just touched cheeks). I felt like a total Tom Jones to the max hahahaha it was awkward. With fam i can understand, but some dude hahaha I've had 3 besos total.

Their purple kitchen

Anyways..i would like some recipes. mom some easy one that would be sweet. The most cooking I've done is spreading pbj on bread so im getting pretty good at it. But every once in a while my comp will go George Foreman style and cook something haha.  

This week with Investigators went really well. Early in the week we taught a 17 year old named Mateus Paez and at first he didnt want to let us in. Then my comp kept asking Quetsions like not giving up. Then he asked him again if we could come in and he was like sure. He's a bright kid, wants a good job, not just be like everyone else here, he wants a good fam etc. We gave him a book of mormon and he said he'd probably read the whole thing by Tuesday (tmrw) cuz he loves to read. Then yesterday we went to Sabina (almost Sabrina) and Nelson's house, a mid 20s couple and they have a few kids and they seemed interested. She prayed! Milanie didn't come to church. Oh well. We'll keep trying. She'll come.

The bridge

 We had the 4 other elders on Monday and they are hilarious!  One could sing incredibly good. He was singing Jason Mraz, Britney Spears, and Michael Jackson. He was way good. He's Elder Cortes from Chile. Then there was Elder Campos, he's good at English and his sooo funny he loves Michael Jackson. Our neighbors have a cat and he was making the cat do the moon walk hahaha. He's from Chile. Then Rodrigues from Mexico and Esparza from Chile.

Typical homes in Olavarria

Reggie and the Homer picture (see previous email)

Hey hey hey school's bout to start. Wahoo tear it up! Take spanish, have fun, be good, etc haha. I was looking at our planners and i saw 22nd and i thought wow they might be starting today but i hear its tomorrow. Good luck and good luck Dad, you'll b awesome for sure. Everyone already loves Reggie's dad and mom. People tell me that and I say, "I know they're awesome huh.¨  So they'll like you no question about it.

Met a drunk today and 2 days ago. They're pretty funny. One was riding a motorcycle. Pretty crazy!

The everything in a bag is weird, like milk, but I'm used to it. Im going to try and send more pics today. My shoes work well. Sometimes i get little rocks. I don't know how they get there but whatever.

I'm still pretty lost around here. Everything kinda looks the same. When we're walking by houses it kinda reminds me of when we walk to UTES football games with those houses by the road with like 5 steps of yard and the sidewalk is all bumpy.

Typical street in Olavarria

I've been able to find eveything good in my bags etc. And there isn't anything i didn't wish i didn't bring.
i haven't had to get a haircut yet. I got one about a month ago and my hair grows slow so i'll be good for another month probably. Speaking of months, I haven't played ball in that long, but thats okay lol.

Thanks for your love and support. I'm going to try and send pic and email weston.
LOVE Elder Reginald Grant Roberts
I know this church is true! Choose The Right

Graffiti of Evita

Third Argentine Email

Hooola Everyone from ARG

So the elections are over here i think Manu Ginobili won as president! Thats allegedly, my facts might not be correct lol Chiste!

Great news here for Mothers Day and Christmas in our mission we can Skype home instead of just calling!! So I'll be able to see your faces!!

Things are terrific here yesterday one hour of church felt a little weird (cuz of elections) i felt kinda guilty for going only to one hour of church. hahaha

This week there was a day where i did pretty well in español, mainly on understanding. I could understand a kid all of his words in a probably 7 word sentences and we were talkin to an hermana in the ward and i could understand more words than usually. It was cool the lang has slowed down a little bit, but i still obviously have a lot of work to do, just trying to work hard and get better every day.

Today and a little bit til tomorrow we have 4 other elders, all native, staying with us. Because we have a zone conf on tues for basically til 4pm so most of the day and so it will be 90 percent spanish in our house. haha It'll be fun. I'm going to try and talk a lot and learn alot i dont care if im way off on the words. I say I'm just going to talk a lot (in Esp) so I can pick it up, plus it'll be entertaining to them to hear me speak Esp. hahaha

This week most of all our appointments fell through and so we spent even more time walking. I just try to find people. But hey you know days will be like that. We just have to keep going. Keep workin and we'll receive more investigators. We just need to do everything. We can and work as hard as we can thats all they ask of us. So i didnt think of this week as a fail or a bad week. Like at the end of some days where we have no luck with anything my comp will say how rough of a day the day was and etc. But i think every day is great here. Seriously we get to serve the lord 24/7 so it is not a fail to me or a bad day. i dont have bad days. There will be hard days but no bads ones. if i hear some negative about a day, words just bounce off me and i try to turn it positive. Geez I make it sound like my comp is a baby lol he's not haha hes a great guy teaches me alot.

We have a wal mart here about a mile or so a way. Not to far. We go shoppin every mon after 10 usually 11ish. It's great. It has all our necessities so i feel blessed with that here. And have i told you everything is in bag like milk ketchup etc you just cut a corner off of it. And some bags have twisty lids in like the corner.

Some peoples eyes here are crazy sweet. Some guy we talked to had brown eyes then carolina blue around his eye. No joke two colors in one. It's also cammon to see greenish, gray or lite brown eyes.

They have a caramel stuff here called Dulce de Lech its pretty good. My comp loves it. They're normally in between alfajores. It's funny here how i was saying that there is a lot of motorcyles here and those mo ped scoot things they also have those small bikes from dumb and dumber i always get a kick out of them each time i see one. hahah

How is Lucy doing? Still being the best dog in the world! Speaking of dogs there is quite a few, not a crazy ton, but they're around alot. They bark at you and it reminds me of opposing fans yelling at me in bball i love it hehehe gets my engines going.

Met a pretty funny guy the other day. At his door my comp xplains who we are, he's about mid 70s and he just starts saying ¨ïm alone alone alone alone´¨ my comp was then like ¨´Aand´¨? the man ¨´iM  also not good up here¨´ (pointing to his head)´¨ i"m going to a psychiatrist´¨ haha we were laughin about that. hahaa

We went to thw¡e Norte Parque a park on Saturday and we went around talking to people bout the gospel. It is a huge park of grass and some or one playground. A lot of people  run, jog, walk around it on a sidewalk thing. About that river, thats in our area and we cross a bridge that at first was pretty scary to walk across bcuz the boards on it are loose and it is one of those wobbily bridges and its pretty high. But now its not as scary anymore we have an investigator on the other side. She's been sickk all last week, so we couldn't teach her and she didnt go to church. What else is here, we have a zoo. I'll have to attend it sometime. i guess there are lions there. or one a pic on a building of Homer Simpsone eating a donut. So I'll have to get a pic by that and send it to you (did you get my pics good last wk) they have a mini statue of liberty saw it yesterday and its actually outside of our boundaries so we can only see it from across the street.

Walked most of everywhere in my area. There is 2 others comp in olavarria i belive so it is pretty big. It's just me and my comp who live together and we live next to members who own a bakery like across the street. The bathrooms are tiny, can barely fit the 2 of us in it. A shower, toilet, sink but they have no public bathrooms except in gas satations.

We have like 7 investigators. The girl thats been sick, Etsevan who we might drop cuz we havent talked to him in 2 wks and a fam of like 5. A couple, gma and a cousin the husband (ill just calll him that even tho they're probably not married) seems most interested. Has some questions bout the book of Mormon.
Thanks for sports update and Manu update and Argy players. Congrats sub on making team work hard and don't get frustrated. good luck V and Dad in school.
Weather isnt that bad here, just wear my jacket that connects to my big coat.

Love Elder Reginald Grant Roberts
ps emails are probably the best way to communicate with me regularly cuz i get mail whenever the zls give it to us and they send mail from BB. I've just received a dear elder from alyssa & scott and De la Melenas thats all the mail I've received.
love u!!!

Aug. 8, 2011 - Second Email from Argentina

Reggie and other missionaries at an airport

Hola hey hey hey

They're playing some good american music in this internet place. I may get up and dance jk but they should turn it off cuz i can't listen to music. haha

All is well here in Olavarria.

 Just had computer problems and they moved me to another one.

Didn't bare my testimonty yesterday. Sorry haha but next week for church we can only have an hour meeting. We'll have sacrament cuz there are elections on Sunday. So i guess there is a rule where you can't have meetings more than an hour on the election day. That makes me feel blessed to live in US where we can go to church any Sunday all Sunday.

Photo of the landscape in Olavarria

I'll try to describe it here more better. There are no mountains. Skies are normally blue or cloudy. Yesterday it was 61 degrees which is pretty warm after being cold the 1st week. Not a bad day in the middle of winter lol. But I'd say its 40 50 degrees here in the mornings, its cold. I use my sleeping bag on my bed and I'm so totally warm at night. No problems. I've been sleeping great here better than the mtc for some reason. I've seen 3 dead animals lol. There are palm trees. Everything is concrete here pretty much cuz i guess olavarria produces a lot of concrete. So every building is concrete. Concrete roads, some dirt roads, pretty poor place here. Houses are small. we eat a lot of noodles and pasta. Still haven't had a steak or anything. I've had a lil meat like with pastas. We do a ton of walking. A ton, so that will be good for my legs :) People here can rock the scarf look. I have had to clap to ¨knock" on some doors. A lot of motorcycles and a ton of people ride pedal bikes and there a lot of little european cars. VW Fiat peugeot etc ...Blake Griffin could jump over any car here hahaha. dang i love ball sorry. Anyways I guess the gym is a private club so I'll have to find a ball and shoot on our hoop outside our garage.

We have some investigators. One girl, 18, Milanie. Her gma is kinda inactive here. Mom is to and her dad isn't member, but she seems to like the gospel we think she could get baptized but she didn't show up to church so whoo knows. Yesterday we taught a guy, 21, Estevan. We knocked his door Saturday and he said to come back like most everyone, so we went back and when we asked to come in he thought about it then like 2 sec later he was like yeah sure come in and he was watching a soccer game and listening to us teach but as the lesson went on he started to pay attention to us more so that it good. We are meeting with him Wed. Tonight we are teaching a 19 to 22ish age kid who is actually like a semi pro soccer player (hey hey holdstocks) he's been to institute etc so we'll try to push him little more into the gospel. i guess like right when i got here they just  baptized a lot of people. So they're kinda starting from the bottom to the top again. They really want a stake here. They don't have one. And more stakes = a temple in Bahia Blanca which pres really wants here. I can't wait for that day to come:) Pres is awesome. He's hilarious lol and he is a dreamer like me. About a year ago baptisms were 40 month and now its like 100 so Pres is doin work. He's a greta guy, funny guy.

There is a drink called malta here and it tastes soooo awful. It looks like rootbeer. It's warm, smells like coffee and I'm sure taste like it. They say it's not bad and if a convert has problms with coffee they just drink malta blah don't ever drink it!

Alfajores are a fist sized deesseert thing here. They're pretty good. Had a great one today. But really the food isn't like tremendously good. Nothin bad, just much rather have a meal from mom for sure. :) For dinner we most likely have pb and j. We always get lunches from members but the rest is mostly up to us. So I'll have a lot of cereal and pbj and fruit and bread haha.

My comp, Elder Thomas is from Ogden. I think North ogden or south who knows maybe east or west lol jk i know he's from s. or n. He's a good guy he's district leader. We get along good. Sometimes when he laughs he reminds me of jim carrey off dumb and dumber. So that makes me laugh more than his jokes sometimes hahaha. But I feel lucky to have him. I'm glad I have an american comp to kinda show me the way to do stuff even tho i wanted a native. I feel blessed to have him as a comp. Cool dude.

Mission President and his wife, Elder Roberts, and Elder Thomas

People ask me to say stuff in English so I'm thinking of doing a dumb and dumber quote or some nacho libre ¨so you're telling me there a chance¨ hahaha its cool cuz they have no idea what I'm saying lol.

ill send a letter home tomrw...its pretty expensive to send letters home like 7 bucks for a letter and if u want a stamp its like 9 bucks.

Spanish is going alright. I can pick out words and sometimes I'll kinda get an idea of what people are saying just from the few words. i love it when people roll their Rs hahaha. I'm just like  hahahah do that again. I'm thankful for the advice from uncle nathan on  how it will take time and not to get frusrated bout it. Just to work hard and be patient. I'm so glad he told me that so when i came here I had the right mindset..but yeah for the most part I have no idea what people are saying its pretty funny. jhfuireuhcuilweuifhuirwuhfqaiuhef that's what it sounds like hahaha.
Did laundry in this round thing bout 3 ft tall 2 ft wide. Fill it up with water and soap, throw clothes in and wait hahah. Then you ring it out and hang them up outside.
People don't say there S´s at the end of their words here so it is kinda confusing. so they call me rowbeart.

Hey can you check and see where the parts nba players are from in Arg. They'll be like 6. I want to know if there is any in my areas.

Went shopping. Bought bread, cereal, milk, stuff like that and we got some crackers so I have somthing to snack on.  There's a zoo here.

When I teach I usually say bout 30 sec worth about prophets or something.

Siestas from 12 to 4. Nobody does anything haha. All the stores close etc. and I'm not sure kids go to school. You'll see a few walk home from it, but there will be a kid at a lunch appointment and I think shouldn't you be in school. I think they have to go only 4hrs and its also free.

We can drink water here. Just not a ton at once. But we have the huge gallon and a half jugs we use thru the week.

Dang need to go :(
See ya later. I'm going to send some pics now.
chau (what they say for goodbye)
love elder Reginald Grant Roberts
keep asking Questions
and I got those dear elders from  gma and alyssa. we get mail whenever the zone leaders give them to us. They go to BB then us.
bye love u

1st email from ARGENTINA!

Aug. 1, 2011
Hola from ARGENTINA!!!!

Where to begin?
I'll start with the plane rid from NY to Buenos Airs (which ill call BA)

Once i got on the plane for the 10hr 1min flight immediately as u walked in u could see that everyone looked argentine to my left i sat by a man who didn’t know english so we talked a lil bit i had no idea what he was saying lol to my right there was a man mid 20s from ARG and he had that Euro look to him and next to him was a guy who i swear is Jay Leno’s Argentine step bro hahahaha he had the big chin dark skin and a mullet and he even did the ¨Eh eh eh eh¨ thing that leno does hahahaha he talked bout politics for like 10 to 20 min and i pretended i cared by smiling and nodding my head he can talk a lot hahaha. i didn’t sleep much on the plane or on any of the travels i did the math and i think from mon 3am to 1am thurs i got bout 7 to 9 hrs of sleep total i think i got 2 hrs on the plane from ny hahaha

 Arrived in BA airport around 10:21am Argentine time which is 3 hrs ahead of utah and in the summer here when u do that day light savings thing we will be 4 hrs apart. so we get off and we get in line for passport stuff and they were playing black eyed peas on some tv. then we walked into the airport area and i passed a whole wall of like wine and liquor...yep they like it here lol and also passed these huge cigarettes packages. saw a Manu Ginobili little sign in the airport.

we then got all our luggage and we 4 others from our District and bout 10 others took a bus from airport to this bus station. the traffic here is hilarious hahaha its pretty much a ton of cars trying to squeeze past everyone some dude was turning on the sidewalk they are pretty bad drivers . there are a lot of motorcycles here and palm trees!

at the bus station to go to Bahia Blanca (BB) we missed our original time so we waited for 5 hrs in the station haha went into the bathroom and some dude all in white was just sitting there with towels and i looked at this metal looking cup with a straw with like grass-hay stuff in it it looked gross and to find out its mate the famous Arg drink lol
in the station some lady was talkin to one of the elders and u could tell she looked mad she just had that fire in her eyes and we had no idea what she was talkin about we just let her ramble on in espanol, then she mentioned osama bin laden and im thinkin what in the world is this crazy women talkin bout lol then some arg lds bishop came and talked to her she was saying something about opening secret jails that we have..idk lol

left the station about 7:21 pm arg time and took a 9 hr bus ride to BB we would’ve had a plane ride but the ashes in the air from chile made it so we couldn’t i guess had my 1st dinner on it some meat thing roll some potato salad bread thing nuthn exciting. i think i got my most sleep on that couple hrs. passed some big stadium which had red on it River possibly idk?

arrived in BB about 4 am and we waited and around 5:30 i think we saw some other elders and they said pres thought we were going to show up around 7 so the missionaries called pres and him and his wife picked us up a lil later. stayed at some stake center church with pres and all the missionaries had a meeting with pres, he doesn’t know any english hahaha so that was cool i had a translator. then we met in the chapel after lunch after doing some other passport stuff and they showed the area you’ll be in and your trainer. they did it as showing a pic of sum area then the trainer then they showed the rookie assigned to the trainer i felt like a top draft pick waiting to see which team i’ll go to!! i am located in Olavarria with an accent over the I it is kinda more North

Presidente y Hermana Detlefsen, Elder Roberts, and his trainer Elder Thomas

in BB there is pretty much a whole lot of nuthing hahaha there is just cement building-houses which are all connected and trash some trees poor place, it smells in BB and Olavarria like cigarettes car exhaust camp fire or dog poo so it is kinda hard to get a good breath haha i wanted to go to BB obviously but oh well

took a bus from bout 7 pm to 1 am to Olavarria there is nuthin on the side of the road just that yellow grass stuff some street lights and a 2 way road. it is cold here but not that bad it feels kinda like november especially in the mornings is cold and that is when we work out so that kinda warms u up and the shower is warm tho i had a freezing one yesterday brrr, but yeah there is palm trees people ride bikes and motorcycles there a lot of euro cars small 80 looking cars they don’t have stop signs here hahah and they don’t really have side walks so we kinda just jay walk and walk in the streets its not dangerous cars go up to 45 50 at most do its not bad, bunch of cement buildings all connected about 10 to 15 ft high live by some members.

i haven’t had any meat like steak or anything fancy i had fish my 1st 2 days for lunch  i guess u normally have pasta. and the meat price is going up so i may not get much of it :(

its a poor place here it makes home and the mtc seem luxurious houses-stores are about 13 steps wide. houses are packed with stuff cuz there is just not enuff room , there is normally like a heater thing about 3 ft tall and 2 ft wide that is supposed to heat your house it doesn’t work that well unless your by it haha. our kitchen is about 2 spread arms of my size tall and 3 wide we have a lil bathroom and a pretty nice bedroom with two bunks there is no carpet here so i’ll miss that for sure, i just double sock it i wear my big coat gloves beanie long johns and a scarf, when u walk a lot u can get pretty hot like our 1st day for a few hrs i was just in my white shirt, but that was the only time today i notice outside our door to the street we have a basketball hoop above our door!!!! it is painted white just like the wall so it was camouflaged into it and its bout 10ft to!! there is a gym here that we didn’t visit today;( oh well next week, u cant play games with people just like shoot around and stuff :(

i have no idea what people are saying haha which is pretty cool, it makes u have to learn to read body language and i look at my comp and if he smiles i do lol nathan explained it perfectly the talk like they have a cotton ball in their mouth. i’m glad nathan and andrew gave me advice about the lang and being patient and not stressing out with it that has helped m a lot cuz some people in th mtc expected to be fluent leaving the mtc hahahahaha im glad nathan and andrew told me b4 the mish it’d take bout 6 months to get the lang down. so im not to worried bout it thanks to them muuuuch thanks to them!!

they started a new program with new missionaries a 12 wk program where each day 1 hour personal study then 2 hrs comp then 1 hr language, this starts at 8 am after waking up at 630 and workin out shower etc, then we go to lunch at a members house which we have every day  then we go to wrk. im soooo exhausted in the morning its hard to wrk out and in personal study it hard to stay awake

dang i need to write pres and at 5 to 6ish arg time each monday which is our p day i write home
tell nathan thank u thank u thank u for the email!! and im sorry i didn’t have nuff time to write him i feel bad

well see ya later email me any qs i may have forgotten to answer
chau
love
Elder REGINALD G ROBERTS