IDK

It was hot this week. I’ll start with that. Yesterday it was like 95 with what felt like 100 percent humidity. I was swimming in my own sweat. It’s kind of funny cause all the people here just take all of their clothes of when it gets hot. buuuut that’s not an option for missionaries. This week we traveled to a little town called Laguna Blanca for a district meeting. The church there is tiny. Like 20x20 feet and the baptismal font is out back in a little pool looking thing you get from Walmart but smaller. We passed a huge banana plantation on our bus ride there so we decided to buy some bananas. I hate to say it but the bananas in America are fake. The bananas here are a thousand times better. But enough about bananas. Oh and my one month mark in Argentina was two days ago....!!! wooh I celebrated by working all day. Really  the happiest  I am on my mission, is when I lay down at night knowing that I sweated and worked my heart out. 

We had a cool experience this week we started talking to this old lady out in front of her house. And she had told us that her husband twenty years ago had talked to the missionaries. But had since then passed away. But last night she was cleaning some old boxes and found his Book of Mormon. She thought it was "ironic" that the missionaries had shown up the next day. HAhaha. Ya the Lord is definitely preparing the people, they just need to accept it. 

We also did some service this week. We cut down a ton of what is like poison ivy around an outhouse. And I’ve never been so itchy in my life after. 

We also found this other family, the Simbroms, and they are way cool. The dad hates the church but other than that, they are way cool. They invite us over for lunch once a week and we eat and play volleyball, which is really big here.   It had rained super hard the day we had went and so we were soaked and muddy but it was sooooooooo fun. The mission really is the greatest. I really do know that this church is true. And that God does really here our prayers. I think we don’t really think about how big of a blessing that can be. Anyways pray because it’s good.

The picture of me and the thing tied to the telephone wire... Ya that’s a frog someone tied to a string and got stuck up there hahahaha so of course I took a pic.

The other is the sunrise from the Zone leaders apartment. When I went on splits with a native speaker Elder Santana from Ecuador. I didn’t speak English for like 27 hours.

Until next week.

Elder Simmons

Q&A

Q. Where do you go for general conference? Do you get to see it next week or will it be delayed for you?

A. we go to the church. They are going to broadcast it in Spanish and English. So I’ll probably get to watch it in English and it will just be live but three hours difference.

Q. What's your favorite part about the people in Argentina?

A. The people of Argentina are generous especially given how poor they are. They will feed a missionary till his pant pop off even if it’s half their weekly income, but don’t worry I realize this and so I limit what i eat. And plus I don’t want to be fat. But ya they will give you everything.

Q. Have you seen a small improvement in Spanish?

A. I haven’t experienced and big clicks like people say, but I have been noticing little ones. Right now I’m a thousand times better than the MTC but I still have a lot to go. By end of next transfer ( 7 weeks from now) I think I should really be getting a hold of it.

Q. Have you eaten any cool fruit?  I just ask this because President Franco posted a picture of a ginormous mango tree on IG the other day.

A. As for crazy fruit I’ve seen some. I haven’t tried it because it’s expensive.  I did eat this root thing that taste like potato. Once I figure out the name you can google it.  

Q. Where do you do your laundry?

A. as for the laundry hahahahahaha i do it in the shower on p-days while I’m showering than I hang it up to dry outside on the neighbors clothes line.... hahaha it’s a little rough but hey its life.

Please if you have more questions ask. I want to include as much info about things that happen here it’s just hard to fit a whole week into an hour on the computer.

Vamos

Well another week. This week was filled with a lot of work. And for those of you that are confused I do still have my toes. Well I think. Anyway this week we invited 9 people to church and none of them showed up. That was a bit hard but hey it’s their eternal salvation not mine. JK but really. We also gave out some blessing this week. That was really interesting. There was this  one lady that had been sick for 22 days. She had mold growing in her mouth from all the throw up. After the blessing the next day she had the strength to get up and go to the hospital. Power of the priesthood is real if you didn’t know. We also had an Asado this week. AKA a barbaque. This family bought 1500 pesos of meat. That’s about 2 weeks of their income for the kids’ birthday. They invited us cause well we’re the missionaries. They honestly treated us like it was our birthday. I felt bad but I ate like there was no tomorrow. I also tried Morsillo (aka blood sausage, literally just fried blood) It was interesting. Can’t say I like it. 

One thing about Argentina is people really only eat one meal. And just snack throughout the day. They eat a huge lunch and that’s it. I actually kind of like it, gives us more time to teach. A funny thing about here in Argentina is everyone wears shirts with English words. It’s like the style, but nobody knows English. So the shirts will literally just have random words. hahahaha like ´hat happened while chicken nuggets´....... People always ask me to translate it and I’ll just make something up. And on the weekend people have nothing to do so they will just get absolutely wasted on beer, every drunk wants to talk to us. They either want to tell us how spiritual they are and show us their bible, or they want are money. It is actually kind of sad to see people like that. We are blessed to have the word of wisdom. We also had a mullti zone meeting this week. We had to wake up at 3 in the morning and take a bus to a different town. Elder Gonzalez of the 70 talked to us about the importance of the Book of Mormon.  Today I walked down the border road of Argentina and Paraguay. You can actually see Asuncion.  We played soccer today.  I’m not as good as I was in high school but I still embarrassed a few elders. I’m not gonna lie. Liars are thrust down to hell. It’s says it in 2 Nephi somewhere if you are wondering. This week Elder  Harris and I have been working with a lot of nonmembers, and we have been teaching a lot about the sacrament. The sacrament is a sacred ordinance. And next time you take it listen carefully to the sacrament prayer. Anyway mission life is treating me well. Haven’t gotten bitten by a dog, I love my companion; I have food to eat and a bed to rest, and people to teach. Life is pretty good. I’m just trying to soak this whole thing in and not just let it pass me by.

That was either cheesy or really deep. You can decide. Till next week.

Elder Simmons

Some more pictures

Here's some more pictures compliments of Tanner's companion's blog.

Here's the FHE playing the "flour" game that the Simmons love to play in Payson too

Clorinda church building that 2 branches attend

Service project of clearing a path

We got more detail from Tanner's companion on his toe surgery. 

 So... my new baby, with his tender feet, got 2 in-grown toenails. 2 pretty bad ones on his big toes. We went to the Doctor here on Tuesday right after our Zone Meeting, and we ended up waiting there for about 2 hours since they have something like "Obamacare" as their medical system here. (It's terrible and I hate going to the doctor´s here...)  Anyways, that's another subject. So, we went to the doctor, and they said that he would need to take an antibiotic, so we went to buy it, and we asked the doctor of the mission if it was okay and all that jazz... so he took his meds and he had an appointment scheduled for Thursday.  But after talking to a few people here... well, we decided the public hospital wasn´t gonna be the best route. A few people told us that "ohh el hospital es muy bruto con las personas"... Bruto... or brute... or... rough. :) So we decided to go to a special clinic on Thursday to get it treated and the doctor sent us around the corner to buy the needles, syringe and anesthesia for the toes. Yup. We went and bought our own needles.  He told us it would be cheaper if we went and bought our own... But after applying the meds, he cut about 1/4 of the toenail and we went on our way.

Another Day Another Dollar

So it was a good week. They messed up on my toenail surgery and they just took off the whole toe. I got nubs now. It's all good it doesn't hurt as bad now. Anyways the doc said to take 2 weeks break. Which if you know anything about missionary work that's impossible. Just a random fact,  the hospitals here are completely free (because of the government) and we walked in there was blood all over the floor people yelling and running. It was quite an experience.  Instead we took a taxi everywhere...... It costs a lot but at least we can still work. I had been praying lots that I could have a quick recovery. And usually if you have faith it works out, which it did. I was back to normal after 2 days. The baptism went through!!!!!  Woooot woot. That was cool. It really is cool to see the joy that this gospel brings to others and families. Carolina, the girl that was baptized, was the last person in her family to be baptized. Now the family has a goal to be sealed in the temple. Other than that the week has been a little slow, because of my toes, or lack thereof. I would like to give a shout out to my dad. Because I know how to cook popcorn because of him and every single night when we get back we cook up some popcorn, kick back and watch a movie. And by movie I mean the District. (a video about missionaries) Living the high life. As for what the food is like here it's interesting. Every meal you can possible make here consists of about 7 or so foods. Rice, chicken, beef, bread, tomato sauce, mayonnaise, and  eggs. It's usually always pretty tasty. As for the best thing I've eaten here was some Barbeque chicken, and last night we had Guiso. Which is pretty much just rice and meat. Elder Harris made it and it was the best thing I've eaten in two months. The sketchy thing about the food here is definitely that meat, because they don't really refrigerate it, and if they do its very little. I am literally protected by the Lord so it's all good--plus I have some vitamin c chewable pills. Clorinda is as crazy as always. Today we just walked down the main street. There are hundreds of street vendors and thousands of people all trying to get somewhere. I love it. That's been pretty much my week, oh and we saw a horse fight this morning.

Elder Harris and I have really been trying to teach with the Spirit this week. I would like to say it's the only way to go. We met a man, Jose. He is pretty far off the straight and narrow but he loves his family. Anyways we had an amazing lesson about the plan of salvation. You could see him change. It really is amazing. I guess missions are just pretty cool. I'm starting to get a little settled in. As for the Spanish.. HAHAHAAHH I'm still working on that.  People make fun of my Spanish, but they are usually pretty chill to us. Although they all stare haha. We have a few members that feed us every week but sometimes we have to eat just rice. And we teach anywhere from 7-20 lessons a week. Just depends

 Well much peace and love from the middle of nowhere in Argentina..

Elder Simmons

PS I still have my toes.

SUP SUP

Hi family I would just like to say I love you guys all sooooo much. I miss you guys like crazy.  I know see the importance of families now that I’ve been gone for this long. We are so blessed the have the family we do. Paige, Logan now that you are teenagers, I know it’s fun to hang with friends. But spend more time with you family. Because once you are gone from home you won’t really miss you friends you miss your family. Trust me I know. And so do mom and dad they tried telling me but I didn’t listen that well. But know that I love each and every one of you. Send me some pics of what’s happing in your lives pleeeeaaassseee :) We had a family home evening here and we played the game where you cut the flour. Everyone loved it, so thanks!

 Paraguay in the background, on the other side of the river

 "repping Thacker's flag"

 typical Argentina road

Well this week has been interesting to say the least. Our baptism didn’t go through. Because well how do I put this. She’s a girl. And she had a rough "week". But we should be good to go for this Saturday. It’s been raining like crazy here. The other night while we were out teaching it started pouring beyond belief. The roads all turned to lakes and we had to pretty much swim in mud all the way home. But luckily when it’s raining people feel bad for us so they let us in. And they give us food. Oh I saw a drunk guy pass out and smash his face on the side walk. And I saw a fight in the street that involved a fence post. We found a lot of good people this week in our area. One thing about Argentinians, they are Ultra lazy. So we find all these good people but then we go by to teach them and they are either asleep or out at "campo" which pretty much means they go out in the middle of nowhere and do illegal things. I’m not going to lie it was a rough week.  I love it out here. Every night I go to bed pumped to be doing the stuff I’m doing and every morning I wake up and feel like I got hit by a train. But it’s all good things will pick up. Oh funny story so we were teaching this lady in here shack one day about the first vision.  My companion had explained the first few points then it’s my turn and as soon as I start talking the lady just dies and starts laughing her head off. She tells my companion that she can’t understand me and she just tells my companion just to talk hahahahaha. My confidence is overflowing right now when it comes to Spanish. But it’s all good because I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be. I just need to work harder and things will start to work out. All the girls here whistle when  Elder Harris and I  walk down the street because well we are white. But really the other day we were talking and we said that we might be some of the very first white people these people have ever seen. It’s crazy.

 If I’ve learned anything so far on my mission is just that the gospel gives so much guidance in our lives. Sometimes it’s hard to see that in the Utah bubble. But seriously there are people that are wandering strange paths, looking for something. We have exactly what they need. We are honestly blessed to have the knowledge we do of our Savior and Gods plan for us here on earth. It gives a perspective that keeps us striving to get to the end of that straight and narrow path.

Elder Simmons

IDK

9-1-2014

What’s up?  I’m in Argentina. Right at this exact moment I’m sitting in a store where you rent computers and it’s like 90 degrees inside the building in the shade. The computer is telling I’m spelling everything wrong because it’s in English :) Please excuse my spelling. I’ll start from last Monday. We woke up at 5:30 and took our suitcases to a semi-truck along with all the other 200 missionaries going to Argentina. Then we actually took the UTA bus up to the Airport. I passed out a few pass along card and started doing work. So then we fly to Atlanta. We flew right over Payson and I actually saw my house..... that was weird. Then at the Atlanta airport it was crazy! There were thousands of peeps everywhere. There is actually a train inside the Atlanta airport. Its funny everyone looks at your name tag then hurries and looks away, or if they are members they come right up and talk to you. After that a 10 hour flight to Buenos Aires that was over night. On that plane I talked to a pasture from another church. And it was then I realized just how bad my Spanish actually is. We were then dropped off at the Buenos Aires temple and  fed us some Empanadas. Nothing like the Taco Bell Ones. Taco bell is so much better. Anyways we couldn’t go in the temple but we took some pictures on the outside. It’s decently big. Oh ya when I got to Buenos Aires it was like 40 degrees outside....... But since then it’s slowly heated up now it’s like 100 with humidity. Then we took the coolest bus ride of my life. Buenos Aires is crazy. 90 percent of it is apartment building and your typical third world country house. And everyone and I mean everyone sells vegetables and meat out of there house. It’s the same way here. People don’t have rules when they drive here and pedestrians don’t have the right of way. Next we got to the next Airport in Buenos Aires and had a 7 hour layover and then took a plane to Resistencia. We got to Resistencia at about 11 PM where we meet the president for ten minutes then was bused to a hotel right next to the Mission home. We woke up the next morning and had some orientation about money and not getting bit by dogs. Then we met our trainers,  my trainer is honestly perfect for me.  My prayers were answered. His name is Elder Harris he’s from Highland and he actually worked with Quinn Frehner (friend from high school)  before the mish. He’s been out a year and a half. He plays baseball....... But has since repented..... JK. Then we got on another bus for 6 hours and took a bus ride to Clorinda.   Clorida is a little town right next to the border of Paraguay. You can actually see the Temple in Paraguay but we aren’t allowed to go :( Anyways after the 6 hour bus ride we got off the bus and I received great news that they lost one of my bags......... But don’t worry they found it and are charging me 70 pesos because THEY lost my bag.

We were white washed into our area (which means we are both new to the area)  we literally don’t know anyone so we have been meeting members and contacting. The way you knock on doors here is you clap outside the house. The thing here is people literally don’t do anything. The sit around all day and drink Mate which is an herbal tea. Oh and people don’t brush their teeth either. They just let them fall out and rot. We get allot of excuses why they don’t want to listen but we have had about 8 or so good lessons this first half week. Although my Spanish is bad so I only participate for about 10 percent of the lesson. But I’ve learned so much Spanish in the four days. We actually have a baptism this Saturday. We have 2 or 3 good investigators. Our apartment is  gross.   Mold on every wall. Bugs everywhere. Poop all over the toilet.  Ya idk what the missionaries did to make it so dirty??  Elder Harris and I have been cleaning like crazy and it’s actually bearable. We have AC and a water heater so maybe I shouldn’t complain. Church is so different but exactly the same. There are two deacons and 2 priests.  I’m in Clorinda branch 2 and there are about 55 or so people that are active.  The food is alright but super greasy.  For a spiritual experience we prayed which less active member to go talk to and we felt like we needed to talk to a man named Hermano Gonzalez. Turns out he is really struggling and is going blind and his mom died. He was praying to God asking him why this was all happening. Then we showed up and my trainer really did a good job and taught the plan of salvation. That was really cool and I’m so glad to be out here. I’m not going to lie its super hard, but at the end of the day you’re just really happy and realized you’re exactly where you should be. 

Love you guys

Dad hello!!!! The roads here are all dirt and the sewer is a river along every road and trash is everywhere with about 10 stray dogs every block. That’s what the streets are like. And I've realized how much I miss you guys and soccer. And you’re right this week has been hard but I’ll get the hang of it. Tell president Utchdorf hello for me and tell him I’m doing just great. I pray for you guys every night and every morning. Your really are the best dad I could ask for. I really mean it.

Love you

Elder Simmons