The last few days haven't been too busy so far. We had the boys all over for ping-pong again on Wednesday night, which was alot of fun. Then we played soccer and had another asado with steak and sausage last night. It was good to sit around and talk (or try to) with all the guys. The best part is that Guri, one of the boys I've been asking prayer for, has been asking alot of questions to one of the missionaries. Rich explained to him why we're here and that we're not there to force the Bible on anyone or anything. Guri asked Rich to do a Bible study with him now though and Dario and Enrique might come as well! Keep praying cause it's awesome and God is working. Also Marcelo, one of the father's we have alot of contact with, invited us over to his house for an asado this weekend! This is a huge honor because it means he values our friendship enough to have us over with his local friends. Tonight I'm supposed to be helping teach the kids english and the ABC's song.

Also please pray for my understanding, I am starting spanish lessons with a local Argentine named Ozzie who lived in Miami for 20 years. He's quite the character as his last job was a professional tango dancer. Thankfully he's very easygoing and has me talk to his wife and nephew often. Things are great!

So let's see.... where to start. Ok I think I got it, uhm about a week ago or so I began to get pretty sick. Like Migraines worse than I've had in a long, long time... they came and went, and then I also developed a stomach bug of sorts. This lasted for about 5 days into a missions retreat. Thank goodness I'm better now so thank all of you for your prayers! Once again the pics are out of order so from reverse time period, starting at the bottom up we've got: the place where we stayed for the retreat, a late night risk tournament, dancing in Boca, famous bridge in BA and a whole lot of meat at a fantastic place we ate.

So yeah this last week was a Missions retreat to a real nice quiet place on the other side of Buenos Aires. It was large and I saw more grass in that one yard than I've seen in the 3 weeks I've been here. It was the 3 missionary families in the La Plata team I'm working with (Elledges, Dunlevy's and Gorniks) and then two older missions couples who have live and worked in Argentina for a very long time. We were able to have alot of down time, which included watching the Argentina world cup game (awesome game it was) and play some games. The adults had a session or two each day where they asked the two older and more experienced couples questions and just fellowshipped. During that time I was responsible for entertaining the children. This included playing tag, acting like gorillas, throwing frisbees, traveling to outer space, coloring and crafting, dancing and being taken to jail multiple times by superheroes. Thankfully I had some assistance from the sister of Jil Elledge, who is here on vacation for several weeks.

On friday most the families were tired and went home but I went with the Elledges to Boca. Boca is a section of BA that is known for being colorful and artsy and also a focal point to some good Argentine dancing. Afterwards we met with the Baileys at their house in BA for some downtime and then went out for supper. We got to see a sweet bridge in BA, walk around alittle of downtown and, you guessed it, eat steak. By this time I was pretty wiped out from taking care of little kids all week and pretty ravenously hungry since it was 11:30 at night and I had last eaten lunch at 12:30 taht afternoon. Thankfully the place did not dissapoint with yet again some delicious meat in unlimited quantities. I also tried intenstines for the first time. It wasn't too bad actually. I then collapsed when we went home and all that.

So all in all there were some great times, great food, I'm healthy again and I got to hang out with the boys again today and even met some new ones. Please pray for Dario, Enrique, Guri and Jonathan as today we talked to their parents about attending camp with us in a few weeks. It would be a huge step for the boys and a great opportunity for them. Especially pray for Guri as his mother is isn't a fan of us, the Mormon's down here have a large presence and are against us. They have been talking to Guri's mother alot lately. Thanks again for all your prayers! If you have any prayer requests just message me!

Buenos Aires and the Elledges

Above are some pictures of: The argentine minsitry of defense building, some of the main streets in the center of Buenos Aires, Me and Rich out to eat (best steak ever!) and the 'Pink House' of the Argentine President. Apparently they loaded in reverse order, so the pictures are the Defense Ministry building last and the 'Pink House' first.

So the last few days I've got to spend alot of time with the kids from tha Villa again. It's been awesome. Last night especially was kool because we went to play soccer, and although we ended up not being able to play because our time got moved to thurday night, I was able to talk to the kids and Marcelo for quite a while with a little bit more Spanish vocabulary. Last night we also had 'escuele apoyar' which is like an after school help get together. Which more or less is us just talking and playing ping-pong.

The 3rd missionary family got back from their little vacation from northern Argentina on late Tuesday night. Their names are Rich and Jil Elledge and so far they have been incredibly encouraging and helpful. They had me over for dinner the last two nights and I got to spend the day with Rich. We took a bus this morning to Buenos Aires to get some money from the missions fund for their bills and one or two other errands. The city is just huge. That's the only way I can describe it. I saw a few things, including their 'white house' for their president. Which is actually completely pink. Then we went to a resturant that translates as 'the palace of the french fries.' Sounds cheesy right? It's not, a very very fancy place with the best steak I've ever had. It was only about $15 each for the steak, fries, bread, salad and juice. Pretty crazy but yeah I think I'm definitely going to go back there. We came home after that.

I'm psyched for this weekend because we're playing soccer the next two nights, hanging out with the kids in the mornings, and then Saturday we get to go to one of the kids houses to watch the first Argentina World Cup game. We're also going to have an asada, like a backyard steak grilling. Please pray for Enrique, Guri and Dario. They are 3 of the boys we work with alot and have asked them to come to a Missionary Bible camp for kids sort of deal in a few weeks. This could be a great opportunity for them to really accept Christ.

So I found out today that Mondays are my days off... so I went to downtown La Plata, saw a giant famous cathedral and some big government building, it's real purpose I'm not sure. It took me about 50min. to bike there and I explored for the afternoon and then got back around 4 or so. Thankfully there was some local college students who helped me get back to the cathedral where I had left my bike. I got some random local food, which was like eggs, beef and something else I'm not quite sure of. Anyways it was very relaxing for today.

4 days into it...

Well hello world... so its been only four days. I looked at my calander and couldnt believe that. It feels like I've been here so much longer! So anyhoo for an update... lets see. Well I've have been doing an awful lot of babysitting and child entertainment. Let me tell you, it's a blast. Ha the missionaries kids all want to play all the time and literally they never ever run out of energy. Today I even went to see the oldest 2 boys (Malachi and Elijah) play basketball for their local team in La Plata. There was around 45 kids though and they were all there to play, apparently basketball is the second biggest sport here next to Futbol.

Ok now let me rewind a little bit, Wednesday I pretty much got some 'orientation' from the missionaries I was with. Then the took me on some errands around town, I also got to go to my local friendly wal-mart. Although it is still wal-mart, its not much the same I suppose. More like a giant market with not much rhyme or reason as to why things are plaecd where. Also Argentines apparently love oranges. They have a million different kinds to buy (more like 9)and aside from Pepsi, Coca-cola and 7up, they have 4 other flavors of pop, all including orange again. It's crazy.

Then that night I went to play soccer with some guys from our area in an indoor arena, it started at 11, we finish around 12:30 and then sat around, drank Mate (a spanish sort of tea is the best way i can describe it) then finally went home around 1 in the morning. That's right, this is all at night. They liked me though so they invited me to play the next day without the missionaries which ended up being a rather heated affair. Some guys on the other team fouled our guys and then our guys fouled them back, all I know is they started screaming and almost had a fight. They broke it up and were fine afterwards and one of the locals, Marcelo, invited me to come eat at his house sometime. So that was good. The Language down here is one of the hardest parts though, Marcelo makes hand signals and then tells me the words often so that is very helpful. The Spanish I learned is not the same here at all, the conjugations are all different (vos instead of nos stuff for those of you who know what I'm talking about) and whatever else.

Ok One more thing to wrap this up and not bore you all too much for the day is that today after I went and saw the two kids played Basketball we went out into the villas (slum) for hora-feliz or in english 'happy-hour.' Don't worry it's not like in America though. It's a time where we just play games with the kids, have a little party and some of the younger ones learn some English. It was amazing and although the poverty is evident the kids there are happy. They taught me this game with marbles and laughed at me alot and we just were goofy. I couldnt have asked for more.

On Location!

So I'm here at my new home for the summer! The flight in was good, met some kool people including a lady who was going to adopt a little girl here in Argentina! GOt in this morning, there were two international gates and so I went down to the second one and found Nate Dunlevy wearing his colts jersey! It's not as cold as I thought, 55 degrees or so now and it feels much warmer in the sun. We had some lunch which we're like small meat calzones or something. Talked to 2 of the families for now and their kids. The drivers down here are crazy, there are next to no signs of any sort.... just drive. All in all it's pretty awesome so far though! Here are some pics of mi casa (my home!)