Week 4

Hey, everybody.

One more week down, only 100 something more to go.  Ha ha

Anyway, it has been a pretty good week.  Nothing too crazy or unusual happened here.  It is pretty much the same boring schedule.

I also got robbed, not by a native person out on the street, but by some stupid cleaning lady.  She took and threw away my calendar (Anthony took a calendar that had family photos on it with him). I was not happy.  Ha ha.  But it happens.

Last Saturday, we were proselyting again, and we learned the importance of work.  We hate knocking on doors, so we almost never do it.  But, we were having no luck finding or talking to anybody.  So for the last hour, we decided to knock on doors.   And it was, by far, our best time. We found all our contacts during that last hour.  We gave out two lessons and two pamphlets.   When we would knock, they seemed much more responsive and nice to us than the people we tried to talk to in our earlier area.  I know the Lord had a hand in that. It was a good time.

 

We also found a Walmart-type of store, and they have crazy overpriced items and crazy security.  They have bags that they make you put your backpacks in, then lock and then will not get them unlocked until you check out. It was weird.

The food is still way good and the soccer is always fun.

We’ve been alone the last two days as the other North Americans and Latinos transferred out.  So, we played basketball for the first time.  They just finished putting rims up after a month.  The construction guys worked really, really, really slow.  Anyways, I promptly jammed my thumb - bad.   It just goes to show that short, fat-ish, white people should never ever step onto a basketball court.   Although, I was probably the second best player in our district.

And yes, I am getting fat-ish.  The good, heavy food mixed with little to no movement is not good.   I have also noticed that muscle disappears fast when there is no way to work out whatsoever.   So I’ve developed a habit of doing pushups, abs and dips every morning to try and stem the tide. We will see if it works.

Also, in other exciting news, I was able to use some of my pre-med school knowledge the other day.  Hermano De Oliveira, one of our teachers, hurt his knee.   I diagnosed that he had a torn meniscus.  He didn’t trust me, so he got a second opinion.  And, oh ya, who has two thumbs and can successfully diagnose a torn meniscus… Elder Anthony Frost MD.   Nice to meet you.   Ha ha. Anyways, that was cool.

 

We get new Latinos and North Americans today, so that will be exciting as well.

We have our last proselyting day this Saturday.  We are in single digits for actual days in class.  It is getting to be exciting and rather nerve-wracking that we will finally get to leave this prison; I mean the MTC.  We do think that the Shawshank Redemption and prison life are quite similar to life at the MTC. Anyways, I’m out of time for this week.  I leave the 12th of March for Paraguay.  So, if you haven’t written me yet, shame on you.  But, now you can write me in Paraguay, which will be cool.  The address will be posted on this blog and on Facebook if you need it.

Love all you guys.

Elder Anthony Frost

Week 3

I am sorry it’s taken a little longer update this post.   But, they changed p-day on me to Thursday. So, I didn’t really have a choice.

Anyway, the week has been interesting to say the least, full of ups and downs.

So, last Tuesday we went to the temple with a bunch of missionaries who were going home.  It definitely put things into perspective and made me realize (1) that two years is a really, really long when I haven’t even been here a month.   And (2) it is possible to make it two years. So I guess it was a good thing.

The language is definitely coming along.  I’m nowhere near fluent.  But, in our practice investigators and in classes I’m starting to make grammatically correct sentences and using the proper tense and conjugation for the word.  Also Spanish is the dumbest language. But, oh well.

 

We got new Latinos last Tuesday and they pretty much suck. Our first group was way laid back and helpful with the language.  They interacted with us and we had fun.  This group doesn’t speak English doesn’t want to want to help us.  They mostly insult us in Spanish.  Not fun.  There are some good ones though, and so we just do stuff with the good ones.  The bright side is that these Latinos are a lot, and I mean a lot, better at soccer so activity time is fun and we have competitive games.  Although "Los Gringos" still dominate thanks mostly to me, Elder Diotaiuti and two Latinos Elder JIatz Coj and Elder Gonzalez.

Our last proselytizing day was a very cool experience.  But, the day absolutely sucked in the beginning.  The only highlight was buying coke at the gas station. Sshhhh.  I also bought some ice cream. I got Oreo con dulce (Con dulce literally means “with sweet”.  In Latin America, Dulce de Leche is a caramel sauce).  It was waaaaay good. 

 

 

We also taught the employee there a lesson. But, then he turned around and told us why our church was wrong and gave us a lesson about his church. It’s a weird church.  He also said angels came and visit him in his dreams. Weird.

 

But right before the end of the day, we ran into Carlos. He yelled at us in English, so we were confused at first.  But come to find out, he had lived in the OC (Orange County, California) for 10 years and had learned English there.  He loved using his English, so he loved talking to missionaries. He also had a Book of Mormon and had read half of it in a week.  He had a feeling that it was a good book and that it could be true.  He also wanted regular missionaries to come visit him more often as his previous MTC missionaries had left. So, we gave him a lesson in English and it was amazing! 

 

The feeling we got from talking to him was definitely the highlight of the week. It also showed us what we can and will be able to do when we know the language better.  And, that the mission is worth it. As up to that point, we were so depressed from the days of proselyting we thought maybe going home would be better.  We still think that sometimes, but my companionship made a pact to all make it into the field.  So…3 more weeks.

But anyways, I gotta wrap this up, as a teacher keeps telling us we are out of time.   

 

 

So the usual…please write me.  We figured that it takes 10 days for a letter to get here with just a normal stamp (ie the pouch).  So you’ve still got time to write. Also, I love my Dad, but only getting letters from him is starting to get depressing.  Ha ha.

 

Also, I got stamps I am willing to send you, if that was what was holding you up.

 

Anyway I can’t wait to hear from some of you. Well…all of you. Ha ha. So, ya write.

 

Love,

 

Elder Anthony Frost

 

P-Day Change

They have changed Anthony's P-Day.  It is now Thursady (instead of Tuesday).  As a result, this blog will be updated on Thursday night.

Anthony still appreciates your letters!

Missionaries from 1st group

 (L to R) Elder Contreras, me, Elder Huertas.  They are both from Chile - going to the Uruguay Montevideo West Mission.  Two of the funny elders here.  They always pulled pranks and played jokes and did things with words as they pretended to speak English. They did learn a lot of English here.

 Elder Fonseca.  He is from Costa Rica.  He is going to the same mission as me - Paraguay Asuncion North. So we decided our mission is best.

 Elder Castillo was from Chile and going to the Argentina Cordoba mission.  He spoke, by far, the best English out of any of the Latinos, and so we spoke only English with him. He was very funny as well.

Elder Buentello was one of my favorite Latinos here.  He is from Mexico and spoke very good English.  He was always interpreting for us and was incredibly funny. He is going to the Argentina Buenos Aires South mission.  He wants to go to BYU after his mission if he can.

If Elder Buentello wasn't my favorite, then it was definitely Elder Albornoz. He is from Argentina and spoke very little English.  But, what things he did know were always way funny.  He was probably the best Latino soccer player here, and we bonded over that.  He started calling me "champion" one game after my defense. He was a lot of fun. He is going to the Argentina Cordoba mission.



First Pictures

 

Anthony at the Centro de Capacitacion Misional (MTC)

 

(L to R) Elder Sorensen, Elder Diotaiuti, Elder Frost

 

Elder Frost at the Buenos Aires, Argentina Temple

So… week 2 has been good.

My Spanish is coming along nicely, and I am no longer the worst Spanish speaker in the whole MTC. Go me!

The MTC is the same as usual: class, language, study, meals, sleep, repeat.  So, I won’t bore you guys with any details about specific days, except for a couple.

It is too hot here.  I don’t think I’ve stopped sweating since I’ve been here.  Church is brutal in a suit and coat all day long.

The food is amazing! I have yet to find something I haven’t liked, and I’ve eaten it all every meal.  One of my favorite things is what the Latinos call “pastel de cholco” although the spelling might be wrong (pastel de cholco is a corn and meat casserole – native to Argentina).  Also the meat is always sooooooo good.   The fruit is very good as well.  I’ve only had the apples and bananas, but they are delicious.  I eat some fruit with every meal.  The fruit juices are even better,  probably the best part of every meal.  We also usually get flan in like a yogurt cup for dessert.   It’s been good!

Let it be known that the North Americans beat the Latinos in futsal and soccer last week. (Futsal is an indoor version of soccer, but played with fewer people). It is probably a first for the MTC. It does help when 4 of us played in high school. But still, we won! 

 

Also, Friday was a unique day because for the first time at the MTC, we got to leave the walls of this prison -- funny story about that later. But anyway, we got to go out and walk around the temple and go into the hostel for members going to the temple.  Our job was to communicate with them and share a short spiritual message. But, of course, it’s in Spanish, and we’ve been here a week. Luckily for us they were all members and so they were kind and dealt with our poor grammar sentences and our complete lack of knowledge on most verbs and things they said. But it was very good to get out there and see how real proselyting would be.  Our best moment came when we were talking with a guy and kinda of running out of things to say and not really understanding him when another man came and asked to join. We, of course, said yes, and he proceeded to share with us a scripture and bore his testimony to us. It was amazing. If only Saturday had gone as well.

So on Saturdays down here, they actually have you go out and tract. So we got loaded up on a bus and dropped off in north Buenos Aires. We had an area to ourselves and 6 hours to find as many people as possible and to teach them about the gospel. We were all very excited even though we knew our Spanish was bad. We prepared and were ready to go, and then we got there. We found most people would not even stop and respond to a simple, “Hello, how are you.” Even less would actually listen to our message. And the 3 guys that did listen, we could not understand much of what they said except they wanted no part of the church. One was homeless. One was drunk. And the other was trying to sell us a plant. Oh, by the way, that guy kissed us. I know it’s part of their culture, but it is still weird.  Anyway, we basically walked around for 5 hours trying to find people who would listen. We got 15 or 16 contacts but nothing more than saying, “Hi. How are you? Can we share a message?” The other elders in our district didn’t do any better. But of course the sisters got the cush shopping area where people were outside, and they didn’t have to knock doors interrupting siesta time so of course they taught 2 lessons and gave out two copies of the Book of Mormon. Such crap.

Anyway, I’m almost out of time, but it was still an amazing experience we wouldn’t trade. Also, their gas stations down here have prompted a great business idea for when I get back. ;)

Finally, we said goodbye to our first Latino group today, and that was depressing, but hopefully the next group  will be good as well. We also exchanged contact info so hopefully in 2 years we can be Facebook friends or something.

And, as always, if you haven’t written me yet, do it. We love mail. 

 

Love Elder Anthony Frost

Here is a picture of the family at the airport just before leaving for Argentina.

First Letter Home

So I've discovered that even good shoes hurt after 30 plus hours.

 

As you know, I left Great Falls at 6:00 a.m.  The lady seated next to me on the plane wanted to talk to me about church, medical school and stuff, which was kinda weird. All I wanted to do was sleep.  But the flight wasn't horrible.

 

The Minnesota airport was awesome! Each terminal has free iPads to use for downtime. So, I played chess and checkers to kill the time.

 

The flight to Atlanta was great because I just slept the whole way. I love the Atlanta airport! It has lots of stuff on Atlanta's history and Martin Luther King. It was cool! I ate my last meal while flirting with one of Colorado State's female athletic teams and drank a Mountain Dew.  I figured it would be last time for 2 years, you know.  Anyways, the flight from Atlanta was long but good. The food sucked,  but the in-flight movie was Pitch Perfect, which I highly recommend. It was way good. I then tried to sleep and got maybe 3 solid hours or so.

 

Then after about an hour and a half in customs, I got through and spent 30 minutes looking for my pickup.   They weren't there. So at that point, I took it as a sign and was gonna buy the first plane ride back to the States.  Then I ran into some senior missionaries looking for someone else. They called the MTC, who then came and got me.

 

I unpacked,  met my 2 companions (Elder Sorensen and Elder Diotaiuti - both from Utah), since I'm in a 3-some and then started my first day. I was exhausted.

 

Not much has changed since then.  I am just struggling to learn Spanish. But, it's beginning to pick up. I feel like I'll know it pretty well before I leave. The food is much better than Provo, so that's a plus.

 

I also love playing soccer with the Latinos during exercise time. They are way funny and help us with our Spanish, which is nice. 

 

I am here 6 weeks instead of a month, but, oh well, it will probably help to be here that long.

 

The set up is way nicer than Provo as well. I cannot get packages here, so don't send me one, but you can send it to my mission address.  My dad will post the address of the Argentina MTC on this blog.  (see below). 

 

Please write me.

 

I am the only Elder in my district without a lady friend. So girls, if you are reading this, write me a normal letter and then make up a girlfriend one.  Be sure to include pictures. ha ha. I want to make fun of the elders and their over-exaggeration of dying without their "TRUE LOVES."

 

Anyways, I gotta go. I will write a letter every Tuesday while here in the MTC, so look for it. My dad will post it on this blog.

 

Elder Frost

I am at the MTC in Argentina.  I will be here for about a month.

If you would like to send me a letter, you can send it here:

Elder Anthony Frost
Argentina MTC
Autopista Ricchieri y Puente 13
1778 Cuidad Evita
Buenos Aires
Argentina

However...to send mail here requires international stamps - $1.10 per ounce.

OR

Elder Anthony Frost
 Argentina MTC
P.O. Box 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150

This method only requires domestic stamps ($.45).  BUT, you can only send a single 8.5 x 11 piece of paper.  Then tri-fold it, address the outside and stamp it.  Do not use an envelope.

I would like to hear from you.

Left Great Falls, yesterday at 6:00am.  From Montana he had layovers in Minneapolis and Atlanta.  Left Atlanta at 8:00 pm.  Finally arrived in Buenos Aires at 8:00 am (Argentina time).