It's getting REALLY HOTT!!!

¡Hola familia! ¿Cómo les va? Wow so if you couldn´t tell from the subject line it´s getting pretty dang toasty out here. Dec and Jan are supposed to be the hottest months of the year so this transfer could get pretty interesting with the heat and everything. From what I´ve been told Santa Rosa is one of the hottest areas of the mission too.
Aside from that this week has been pretty good. I´m getting better with everything and every day I know a little more of what´s going on so that is pretty comforting. Elder Hopper got made District Leader at the beginning of the transfer so that was pretty cool (the beginning of the transfer was like the beginning of this week). We have a special conference next tues/wed which should be pretty cool. I´ll get to see some Elders from my MTC District so I´m pretty excited for that to see how they are doing.
We have a baptism this sat! Alejandro is getting baptized which is way cool. He´s been investigating for a while now. His wife, Nadia, was less active and they even got married a few weeks ago so he could get baptized which is way awesome. It´s cool the change the gospel can bring in people´s lives. Patricia has been having some problems and we actually haven´t been able to teach her for a little while now. Whenever we go to stop by she´s not home so we´re gonna have to wait and see how that goes. Hopefully her work schedule evens out cause her sister told us that work has been kinda crazy lately. We found a few new investigators this week and just started with them so we´ll have to see how that goes. They´re way cool and I think they could progress really well.
About calling on Christmas, I don´t really know how that all is gonna go yet. When I find out details about when we´re gonna call I´ll be sure to let you now. We´ll probably be calling at night, but with the time change and everything it should be about mid afternoon for you all. So yeah when I get more info about that I´ll be sure to let you know asap.
How´s everything going with you all? From what mike has told me sounds like he´s keeping busy and doing well, apart from his knee anyway. How´s John? Mike told me that John has sent me some emails but I haven´t got them. I don´t know what the deal is with that, sometimes myldsmail is a little sketchy and it doesn´t always work that well. I hope he´s doing well and everything is going well with you guys. I love you all and hope you are doing well. How are Alex and Tara doing? I haven´t gotten any emails from them either. Tell Bishop Bullick and Kim thanks for their emails, it was awesome to hear from them. I´ll try to write them back this week but it could take a while for the letters to get there. Ok I gotta get going but I love you all. Talk to you soon
-Elder Gaughan

Learning a lot about a new country...

Hola familia, ok so I just spent like 20 minutes writing a super long email to you guys and then it didn´t send. Pretty frustrating to say the least. But I´m doing pretty well. This last week has been kinda tough, not really sure why but i´ve just been in kind of a funk for some reason. I just need to lose myself in the work more. We have 2 baptismal dates for the 19th with Alejandro and Patricia. They´re doing well and hopefully they´ll be ready on the 19th. We´re looking to set another date with Angel too and hopefully we´ll get to do that soon. Besides that we´ve been trying to get to know the members more. That´s really the best way to work cause contacting isn´t very effective. But we´ve still been doing a lot of contacting which is tough cause of the ciesta here. Basically everyone sleeps from after lunch, so about 130, till like 5. So we just go back to the house and study more cause there is literally nothing to do. Like stores shut down and everything, the city seriously just dies. The only people you see outisde are heading back to their houses for the ciesta. Pretty crazy and it still kinda throws me off a little but it´s all good. The language keeps coming and coming. i just need to talk more cause you always understand more when you talk more. So i´ve been trying to do that and have set a goal to talk more so I can learn this language quicker. I don´t really like not knowing what´s going on.
As far as packages go, the Argentine government charges when packages are shipped into the country for whatever reason. So the office ends up having to pay for it and we have to pay the office to get the package. It´s kinda screwy but that´s the government here for ya. And a lot of the times they charge you based off what the package is valued at, like what you put as the value or insurance or whatever you call it when you send it. So if you put the value higher than it actually is, the government charges more, and we have to pay more to get the package.   Sorry this email is kinda short but I gotta get going. We gotta go pass by some less active members. I love you all and hope everything is going well. Dad, thanks for your conversion story, that was awesome. Just waiting on yours now Mom :). K love you guys, talk to you soon
Elder Gaughan

¡Hola!

¡Hola familia! ¿Cómo está? well this week has been pretty interesting. we´re still getting to know the area and the members and all that. Our bishop is way awesome and has helped us a ton with everything. Him and the Relief Society president are super nice but besides that we don´t know a whole lot of people real well. We had all 3 of our investigators in church today so that was way cool. We´re trying to set a baptismal date with alejandro but he still hasn´t prayed about it so once he does that then we can really move forward. Our other two investigators are Patricia and Angel. Patricia is a single mom who we knocked into and she actually let us in. We´ve taught her a few times and introduced her to the bishop´s wife. We need to go by her again and teach her more and hopefully we´ll be setting a baptismal date with her soon too. She´s way awesome about keeping committments and has gotten answers to her prayers which is so cool. Angel is a pretty interesting guy. He´s had a really rough past, but is trying to turn his life around. He´s been working with some of the Hermanos in the church with a few things and they introduced us to him. His mom was baptized a long time ago but has been less active for a long time so we´re trying to get her to come back too. He´s a good guy though and is moving along well though. Besides that not a whole lot has been going on. We´re still doing a lot of contacts which has led to a little success. There are a few people who want us to come back so we should be passing by them soon too. We´ve also been going by some less active members because we have a ton in the ward. Some of them are tough to get to but we´re doing what we can to help them. We have zone conference tomorrow and interviews with the President so we probably won´t be doing a whole lot tomorrow in terms of working but it happens.
That´s way cool about being able to go up to San Jose for the Wickstrum´s sealing. That had to be such an awesome experience, I would´ve loved to be there. Tell them congrats for me and I hope everything is going well with them. Thanksgiving sounds like it was pretty good too. It was kinda weird being down here and nothing really happened. Funny thing about Argentina, they have like a million holidays down here. Seriously there are like 1 or 2 a month, and no one ever knows what holiday it is. Kinda crazy, but hey what can you do?
Ok Mom to answer your questions.
1. Email-From what I´ve heard we´re only allowed to email family. Anyone can send me an email, but I´m supposed to write them a letter back. So just let everyone know that if it takes me a while to respond it´s cause I have to send letters and they can take like 2 weeks to get to the states.
2. Music-They´re aren´t really any specific rules about music. They just say whatever invites the spirit, so that could be a variety of different things.
3. Christmas-I can´t think of anything I really need for Christmas, if I think of anything within the next week I´ll be sure to write it down and let you know. Oh one random thing. You can´t send me reeces or anything like that, they don´t let peanut butter into the country. I can´t remember why.
4. The Shack- Our "house" is this little tiny ranchito which basically means it´s 2 little bedrooms and a tiny little kitchen. Basically like 3 of michael´s bedrooms put together, oh and a little bathroom with a little washing machine too. I´ll send pics I just need to find a thumb drive type thing to make it so i can send them.
5. The food is really good. I haven´t had anything yet that I haven´t liked so that´s pretty cool. Just a lot of meat, a lot of potatoes/rice and bread. It´s all way good though.
I think that´s all I´ve really got for this week. I love you guys and hope all is well.
-Elder Gaughan