Dat Boi in Argentina: Weekend Update with Colin Ross

Alright fam, here's how this week went. But first I need to ask a favor. Can you send me a picture of me playing soccer? Like a cool one from when I played for Colorado or something. I don't have any pictures of me playing soccer to show to people here...

This week we went to the hospital and I weighed myself. I've only gained like 10-15 pounds since I left so it's not as bad as a I thought. tbh I thought I was gaining a pound a day. I think I might gain a few more pounds throughout the mission and then level out at 170 or something. I mean, I'm more adjusted to the eating here now too.

This week I had a dream about Youth and Government and I miss it. I want to go back, it was super cool and fun. Also for some reason I was thinking this week that I haven't been away from school this long in my entire life. Like how crazy is that. Like, what am I even doing? Oh ya I'm doing cooler more important stuff, that's what! And learning and growing a ton.

Ok so about my life now. Elder Gonzalez is hard to explain. He's the other youngest missionary I've met here. Besides me. He is also 18. Normally the native speakers are like 22 or 23. So he's super joven (young). In no way am I speaking Spanish well but I can DEFINITELY see improvements. Like no doubt. It's super cool to see. I mean I hope by the end of the two years I can maybe understand 90%. That's my goal. Gonzalez is the type of kid that plays DS outside of the band room in high school. If you can picture that. He's chill but in terms of our personalities, I'd say I normally wouldn't hang out with someone like him. Which is good because now I get that opportunity. We wake up to the Pokémon and Dragon Ball Z theme songs. It's rough. He was the kinda kid that always takes that one joke just too far and kills it. And I feel like he's just... ya. That kinda kid. Just picture it. But he's cool. Elder Lopez is legit though. Super cool. I don't want to say that Elders Kidd and Teixeira have been replaced but let's just say I have a new family now. It's different but it's still good. I was trying to think who Gonzalez reminds me of and I figured it out. It's a mixture between Turk from Tarzan and a south american version of Drake. Only in some lighting though.

Elder Crawford and I went on divisions like we used to. It's the best. Crawford and I always have the best lessons and we always do so well together. It's crazy. Like honestly, Crawford and I should just be companions. Anyways, we had two way cool conversations with some guys. One was with a guy doing construction on the church. He's from Cordoba so I asked him about that and what he thinks of Gallegos and honestly the way he described it makes it seem like Gallegos is trash and Cordoba is just some heaven of Argentina. Well actually what he said is that in Santa Cruz the people are just different from the rest of Argentina. He said the people are as cold as the weather here. Apparently Argentina has some good stuff. Just not here. He was probably the coolest guy I've talked to. And then that night Crawford and I took a taxi to the other side of town and we had a super cool discussion with the taxi driver. And guess what? He's from Cordoba. He literally told us what the guy earlier told us. I think theres something in the water here that makes the people not cool. He was the second coolest guy I've talked to here. Even after we had arrived, we still sat in the taxi to finish talking about it.

Elder Gonzalez is really trying to learn English but honestly I'm no help to him. The only thing I've taught him is "not gonna lie" because he said "to tell you the truth" and I told him that I say "to be honest" or "not gonna lie" more. Teaching English is hard because literally nothing in English makes sense. Every day I'm so grateful to have been born in America. Every day. English is just so messed up.

Ok so I think that's everything. This week in terms of teaching was trash, but in terms of how well I'm doing, it was de diez. I had fun, I'm improving my Spanish, I learned a lot, I got to play ping pong. Just doing swell here.

I want to give a shout out to the Merkleys. Thanks so much for the letters. Super dupèr appreciated. Like a ton. More than you know.

Mandy Huang! Thanks for the Tartan Shield! And the letter! Biggest surprise ever. Loved it. I was gonna do a review of it but I ran out of time today. Maybe next week. Thank you a million!!!!

And then BIG HUGE THANKS TO AUNT TRINA AND UNCLE MARK AND OPA AND SUE! And all the rest of the family. I love the letter! It's good to know that you are reading my letters. It makes me super happy and feel loved beyond belief. I'll try and write something personal next week but like I said, this week's hour and a half flew by. I promise I'll write something special for you guys.

Chau chau chau chau for now.

Lots of love xoxoxo Colin