Alive and Well!

Today we received an email titled:

YOUR MISSIONARY HAS ARRIVED!

Barry is now in Uruguay. He's happy. He's loving life and he looks great.

It's so good to have a picture and see that he is well!
Here is his email for the week:

Hey Dad thanks for the email early, Tuesdays are my p-day now so we got lucky. What bowl are the ducks going to?

Alright, I don't have that much time, I'm in the bus station, I got my new companion, Elder B, he seems pretty legit. Thanks for sending me that stuff, I'm glad that the elders had something to donate I'll put it to good use.

I can call you, on Christmas, just be ready, we have an hour to talk.

I love you guys a lot thanks for all your letters and love. Cheer real hard for the beavs to kill the cougars. (for those of you scoring at home... The Oregon State Beavers are playing the Brigham Young University Cougars in the Las Vegas Bowl. As alumni of both, we are very excited for the game to be played on Dec. 22 and will be cheering for the Beavers.~Jenny)

I'm so excited to be an actual missionary it's unreal, this is so crazy awesome.

I've gotta go, but I really love you.

love Elder Barry

Episode 3: Proseletismo

Being in the Buenos Aires, Argentina Missionary Training Center is quite the trip. there are only about 50 or 60 missionaries here at one time, and half of them are from South America. Everyone is going to a Spanish speaking mission. this really forces you to learn Spanish quick. With half of our floor being Latinos, we have to speak Spanish like all the time. Plus, we "get" to experience the food before going out into the field, and its usually pretty good.

By far my favorite part about being in Argentina right now is Proseletismo. yeah I know, how dare I use a Spanish word while talking to an all gringo audience, well suck it up. Proseletismo is just about the coolest thing ever. Every Saturday we get to go out into the streets of Argentina and actually proselyte to the people. no senior companion, no adult guide, nothing. we get on a bus, they drive us to somewhere out in the middle of nowhere, and we try to preach the Gospel. I love it. Proseletismo is just about the scariest thing I have ever done, but it is great. it is a huge humbler and also a big faith builder. We go out and talk to strangers in a foreign language we only basically have the grasp of, and we are supposed to convince them of the truthfulness of the Gospel. These people live a completely different life than we do. Their houses are so different than ours our, a nice lady took us into her house last week, and our jaws dropped. the house was like 20 feet by 20 feet, made of cement, and really leaky. It was so tiny, dark, and empty, it just hit me really hard, that that is how these people live, this is real life, I had no idea how different life could be.

Its rather daunting to think about teaching the Gospel to random strangers in a different language, but that is the faith building part of the experience. People actually listen, sometimes. Our goal is to talk to everyone, and that's what we do, three gringos in white shirts and ties, talking to everyone they walk past. We've been invited into a few houses, it's really neat to be able to sit and talk with these great people, I can feel their love and as a few of them have started to accept our message, I know that's why I am here, and I float on air all the way back home.

Quotes:

"I´m in freaking Argentina! I haven´t used my sexiness for a little bit."
Elder T.

"The mission is the MTC for life."
Hermano W. (afternoon teacher)

Be excellent to each other.