In Venado Tuerto, Argentina!

Hola mi familia!!

Wow so much has happened since I´ve last talked to you!! I have an hour to email family :) so I´d like to spend some time emailing everyone individually, you need to email me first so I can respond!

So after I got off the phone for the last time to say goodbye (flippping hard!) Elder Peery and I went to the terminal and it was empty. We kind of flipped out a lot and ran to the plane and everyone was on the plane already for like 20 minutes haha oops! That was fun :)

I took an Advil PM, didn't sleep, took another and slept the whole time! We arrived in Buenos Aires after that and met some people who took us to a bus. We drove to the MTC and picked up like 6 or 7 more Elders and 2 Hermanas! After that I fell asleep for the whole bus ride to Rosario haha. We went right to the mission home, which was pretty neat! We stayed there for two nights, and while we were there we did demonstrations on how to teach, stuff like that. The missionaries here are awesome!! Especially the AP´s! One is Elder Buhl, and he´s just the best. He is so funny and just so energetic. He was Hermano Hardy´s last companion in the field!! (Hmo Hardy is the teacher at the MTC who loved his mission that we talked about :)

I love the weather here!! It´s perfect for me! So many things remind me of California!! Like the weather, the immodesty, the Spanish, etc hahaha it makes me laugh. The weather would be especially perfect if I didn't have to walk all over the place carrying my things in a white shirt and tie, looking my best. But I still enjoy it :) I sweat so much! I'm covered in it by the time I leave.

While at the mission home we had some awesome food! Lots of chicken, some interesting pizza and sandwiches, and the last dinner was like beef steak. I ate so much! It was so good :) My mission president is great! President Giuliani. He lived in Rosario, served his mission in Argentina, then moved to LA, and after that to Provo to retire when he was called as mission president haha. But he´s great :)

So the last day in the mission home we got up and had study time, and then had a meeting about the most important rules to follow. Kind of freaked me out a little bit haha! But after we went to the nearest church to meet our trainers!! So we got there and there were a ton of Elders who were from the United States, with blonde hair and blue eyes haha. Then I got called up, and I met my companion! HE´s from PERU!!! :D It was so cool! I love him so much! He´s from Lima! He asked me to find out where Katherine´s family is, their address, that live in Lima. Isn´t that pretty neat though? :) He doesn't speak much English but really wants to, and looks for opportunities to speak what he knows haha. It´s pretty tough communicating fully, but already my Spanish has improved a ton. All of the members we´ve talked to, when they ask where I'm from and how long I've been here, are surprised and say my Spanish is so good for my first week! haha except for the kids, they still say my Spanish sucks :) which it does! I'm just happy I'm improving and can recognize that.

My companion loves soccer! And guess what? He played for Peru´s National team! HE SHOOK LIONEL MESSI´s HAND! Which completely blew my mind!!! So you guys need to Google his name :) He´s been all over the world playing other countries. He´s only 20 now and has 10 months of his mission left! I'm excited to play soccer today :) for the first time in a long time! He said the toughest thing for him was to leave soccer for his mission. He also has a lady friend who´s waiting for him. Kind of like me! Both are Peruvian! hahaha I thought that was funny. I know that he is the best for me because I've been praying for my trainer like Andrew Stacey said I should, and I feel so blessed to have him. He´s a great teacher, has a great spirit, and personality. I feel like this is a tender mercy of the Lord, for me to have Elder Felix Junior Bravo as my trainer. And I love PERU!

We drove to my first area, Venado Tuerto. Which translates to One-eyed Deer in English hahaha. I wonder if Joel´s dad has been here? My area is the centro uno part of Venado Tuelto. It´s a little south west from Rosario. I'm not going to lie, this is super hard. Going out and walking in the heat trying to find people to teach. We did what is called a white wash, where two missionaries leave and two new missionaries come in (us) and that´s been pretty tough. We have a few lessons and even taught a few! One, I taught in English! The Sisters in our district have an English class every once in a while on Saturdays and there was someone there trying to learn English! So my companion decided to teach him right on the spot haha. He met with missionaries before but stopped, just didn't go to church I suppose. Anyway, my companion taught in Spanish while I did in English a bit. It was super weird! I still can't understand most people, and most people can't understand me haha. It´s annoying at times, but I'm working my hardest.

Our room is little and dirty! When I first walked into the bathroom, I saw like 6 cockroaches on the floor haha and the shower in a bucket that fills up with water haha. to get hot water, I need to plug it into a outlet!  I laughed when I first saw that haha. I remember thinking something like, this is going to be a great story! I've gotten semi used to things now, things aren't so bad. I'm still uncomfortable here. Different people, different language, different everything, and missionary work isn't easy. I´m so happy I got to talk to everyone!! It made me so happy to hear your voices :)

We taught an elderly lady by her house yesterday, whose son had died. We taught about The Plan of Salvacion, and when she prayed with us, she started to cry hard the whole time. That was a cool experience :) We´re coming back this week to teach her.

My first Sunday was yesterday and it was Fast Sunday. My companion and I got asked to share our testimonies in the beginning, and I feel like I did  pretty good job. A few nights we´ve gone to sleep really late. From traveling to Venado Tuelto and also from some activity the ward had, and we had permission from the President to be there. So it´s been rough trying to do everything throughout the days haha

Well I'm out of time. I love you all! I'm so grateful for this opportunity to email you :) I hope and pray you are all doing great :)

-Elder Alek Clubb

PS they say not to put 'Elder' on letters if anyone will send those. Don't know why.