Here is what we believe is the address to write hand-written letters. They can go direct or thru SLC:
Mission Home Address:
la Mision Argentina Resistencia
Entre Rios 435
Resistencia, Chaco 3.500
Argentina
Mailing Address:
la Mision Argentina Resistencia
POUCH: PO Box 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150
United States
Broheim,
i´m sorry to hear that you hurt yourself! i bet that everything will be ok though. you´re tough enough that i´m not worried. but if you need extra prayers just let me know. Being a missionary isn´t easy. it isn´t all fun and games like you think before you leave. until you´re here, you won´t fully understand. but i am confident that you´ll prepare yourself to be a great missionary. i´ll just warn you that it will be a shock at first, so just dive in headfirst and get lost in the work! I love you bro. you´re awesome and a great example to me. keep working hard and get ready to be a senior and rule the school! enjoy your last week of summer!
your broseph
My companion is Elder de Oliveira. Our pensión serves one of the biggest hamburgers you´ve ever seen! (Yes broheim, be jealous.) The hamburguesa costs 14 pesos and has double meat, double eggs, double cheese, double everything haha. It is seriously huge! Definitely worth the money.
letter 8/1:
yes i am finally here haha. it took forever but we finally made it haha. so we were delayed in LA for an hour because of maintenance so we ended up missing our connecting flight to argentina by 10 minutes! we ended up getting put in a hotel every night for the next 4 nights by a series of events outside of our control haha. so we spent like 12 hours a day in the airport either waiting on standby or waiting for our actual flight and they ended up getting canceled because of the ash or we didn´t make the standby. 4 days in the miami airport. let me tell you, people in miami aren´t very nice. some are straight up rude. it was a wakeup call for me that not everyone has kind feelings for the missionaries. but it´s all good. no worries. i know that the lord held us in miami for a purpose and once we completed that purpose we were allowed to leave. there is so much to tell and i don´t have enough time, so i can explain more during our talk time at christmas. but just know for now that after many hours of travel, lost luggage, a lot of work, and a positive attitude i made it to argentina haha. so yes, i have a great story about my first week TRYING to get to argentina haha. but, and i know this is hard to believe, i didn´t even complain!!!! Me, one of the most impatient and short tempered members of our family (perhaps the most impatient haha) i did not complain at all. it was a testament to me that i have developed into a more mature person over the last 2 months. my companion elder clayton was dying by the 4 day. the airline had two seats for standby instead of 4, so i offered to stay behind with elder dallimore (Bishop estes knows him) while my companion and his companion took a flight the day before us. he needed to get out of miami so i just said go haha. so for the last day it was just elder dallimore and myself. we had a great time. we learned a lot about ourselves during this past week.
i was so excited to be in argentina though when i landed! it was a great feeling when we finally arrived to resistencia after a 14 hour bus ride up the country. but all is well, i am here, i have a native companion who rocks, and my mission president is lo mejor! i have such a positive feeling for these next 3 months with my trainer. i have 12 weeks with him, so hopefully by the end of october i will be able to at least understand what people are saying, even if i can´t speak perfectly yet. my companion, elder de oliveira is so awesome. we work well together. i couldn´t ask for a better trainer to begin my experience here. i love it!
the people here are really poor, which was a shock to me even though i expected it. i am so grateful for everything i have back at home. my room is as big as some peoples entire house. it is weird... and sad. but the people here need the gospel so bad!! they aren´t very happy and i know that we can bring happiness into their lives if they can just accept our message. they have their free agency in the end, which i can´t ever forget as a missionary. satan's plan was to take away our agency, so whenever i feel like shaking the investigator and throwing them in the font, i will remember that is what satan wanted. so no bueno haha. i already have so many stories and i´ve only been here 2 days! i´ll tell you some of them in the next email. i love you all and hope you are doing so well! remember always that the lord loves you !
tu hijo,
Elder Biggs letter 8/8:
hola familia mía,
¿cómo estan? i am doing really well here. the work is going well and i´m definitely enjoying every minute of it. mom and dad, i´m glad that you enjoyed san fran and got to take a few days for yourselves. the people here in argentina are really nice for the most part. the only people that have been mean to me are the teenage boys. they try to say words in english like ¨hello rambo¨ and what not. it is more funny than anything. and the teenage girls call me ¨rubio¨ all the time and call me ¨mi amor¨ and try to yell at me from across the street. other than that, the people are really kind and loving and help me a lot. they are very understanding and are happy that i´m trying to learn their language.
The work with investigators is hard, but very worth it. seeing the investigator understand and lighten up with our message is unbelievable. i am sad when the people reject us, but they just aren´t ready for the message yet. we aren´t here to argue with people. our time is too limited. we´re here to find those who are ready to accept the gospel and progress toward making big steps in their lives. sometimes when we clap at doors (because here everyone has gates and bars around their house so we can´t knock on doors) the people are very accepting, and other times are straight up rude and angrily tell us to leave. i am just grateful that i have an eternal perspective, otherwise I would be very sad a lot of the time here.
Of course, everyone wants to hear about the food that I have eaten. For the most part, it has been pretty good. the only weird things that I have eaten in my 8 days here are kidney and intestines. the kidney wasn´t bad, but the intestine was so rubbery. but, i ate it. i chose to try it and it was only a small piece. we were eating with an inactive family and they cooked a barbeque for us. mmmm, delicious carne asado. definitely delicious. and i also had some weird piece of meat that was basically straight up fat. so gross. i don´t even know what they call it. i had to at least try it though. a week in and i´ve already tried some pretty strange stuff. and this week we have a lunch appointment with a member who is going to cook us crocodile meat. so stay tuned haha.
we eat lunch with members every day, so we cook our own breakfast in the morning and then at about 9 30 at night after working we can eat a snack if there is time. since my companion likes to eat just as much as me, we make time hahaha. the food here is honestly pretty normal. it isn´t third world at all, except when we eat with members who live in the poorest section of our area, and then we just put down whatever they feed us because we don´t really eat there often.
I am doing really well and enjoying life! Mom, tell my friends to do whatever they want, write or email. i just have to be very brief with my emails to anyone who isn´t family. so anyway, that is that.
I love you all so much. You are an inspiration for me to continue working hard and enjoying my time here. it is going by so fast. there isn´t a second to give up! Que vayan con Dios!
Tu hijo,
Elder Biggs
