October 24, 2017--Tuesday

Nate arrived in Argentina last Monday, October 16.  We received the following photos from the Rosario Mission office:

Just arriving at the mission home in Rosario, Argentina

Nate is standing on the front row of elders, far right

President & Sister Allred

Nate with his trainer/companion, Elder Weber

Nate has been in Argentina for one week now. His P-day was yesterday (Monday, October 23), and he wrote a couple of short emails to Peter and me.  He's dealing with some culture shock.

The language they speak in Argentina is Catalonian Spanish, not the Latin American Spanish he studied in high school and at the MTC.  Many of the letters make different sounds.  He told us that when people talk, he doesn't understand them very well yet, but he is able to say pretty much whatever he wants to say, and the people understand him. 

He told us that he's living in a small town, and it's pretty dirty and smelly, with garbage all around. He's in an apartment with his companion and two other elders.  Their toilet doesn't work well, and they have to pour a bucket of water in it to use it.  And he's having to hand wash all of his clothes because there is no washing machine.  He's "not in Kansas anymore!" ;)

So, Nate is in the process of adjusting to lots of new and different things!  So far, he hasn't written anything along the lines of a general email to family and friends; mostly he just responds individually to the emails we send him, and answers our questions.  I'm sure he would love to hear from people back home, so if you'd like to write to him, his email address is:  nbchristensen@myldsmail.com  

Thanks for your interest in, and love for, Nate!

Hello Family & Friends,

I haven’t posted anything on Nate’s blog for the past several weeks because his emails to us have been very short, and consisting mostly of lists of items he needed us to send to him at the MTC. 

Nate hasn’t sent us any photos so far, but we did get two pictures of him while he was at the MTC. The picture below with Sam was taken on Saturday, September 23, Nate’s third p-day.  Sam had gone to the MTC that morning to act as a Cambodian “investigator” for the Cambodia-bound missionaries to practice teaching, and he and Nate met up for about 30 seconds.  Sam delivered a McDonald’s egg McMuffin to him, for which he was very grateful.  

The picture below with Emily was taken on Tuesday, October 10, at the MTC, right after an evening devotional the missionaries had with Elder Christofferson.  Emily is a member of BYU’s EMS (Emergency Medical Service) team, and she volunteered for the shift covering this devotional in hopes of seeing Nate.  And they found each other. J

Nate left the MTC yesterday (Sunday, October 15) and flew to Atlanta, Georgia, and then onto Buenos Aires.  From there he had a 3-hour bus ride to Rosario.  Peter received the following email from Nate today (Monday, October 16), shortly after noon our time (3:00 pm, Argentina time):

"hi dad, they just want you to know that i am here at the Mission home."