Elder Russell Allphin: Arrrgh, Me Hearties!

Well a-hey, waz up now?!

Family! Hello! How are you guys? Girl’s camp sounds fun. I know it’s a barrel of fun to not shower, be sun burnt, sleep on the ground, having to run the Jerry Springer show with the snippy gals, and kick bears in the face. But all good things must come to an end soon, no? But f'reals I’m glad it was nice and moosetastic. I presume you’re all glad to be sleeping in your own beds (and without dogs biting your feet).

That’s so coooool to hear about Spencer and Liana! A baby! I stood up and danced to Footloose in the cyber once I read that. I’m so happy for them. Give them my best! I’m sorry to hear about Traci and Dan, though. That would be really tough. Give Traci and Dan a big virtual hug from me. They are in my prayers.

Well familys, I had a pretty tight week. It started off when Langston got not one but both of my packages with the contacts and candy in them. TTTTTHHHHHAAAAANNNNNKKKKKK YYYYYOOOOOUUUUUU SSSSSSSOOOOOO MUUUUUCCCCCHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! I was so stoked to get them. I wore the contacts for one day but it was kinda weird not having my glasses. That, and the members and missionaries were weirded out by me not wearing my glasses. But when I want to use them, they are here, so there. Thank you much!

We had a good week this week. We are progressing slowly but it’s happening and I’m happy about the improvement. For example: We have this investigator named Rodrigo. He is a punky kid with a gnarly Mohawk and he’s legit. We did divvies this Sunday and I picked him up. We walked to the church from his house (which you get to walk across a huge dry riverbed to get to and from his house) and I gave him a tour of the church. We went to the baptismal font and talked around it and the spirit came on strong in the room and it was more than obviously present. I was impressed to ask him, "so what do you think about baptism?" He responded, "It’s really something to think about....it’s interesting." He then proceeded to ask me a lot of positive questions about baptism. This kid’s legit (for that and the fact that he said he really wants to learn the bass....he's gold)! We're hoping for a lot of big things for that kid and this other girl named Melina who is suuuuUUUUuuuper pregnant. She’s 21 and going to have her baby any moment. Her family were investigators a long time ago and they dropped the missionaries but we talked to her and she seems very interested. She seems to have potential as well. I’m so happy. We’re starting to find a lot more people. It’s awesome!

I also had this talk on the mp3 by Jack Christiansen and I liked his talk. He’s a funny, goofy guy but I loved his talk. But I’ve never heard of him. Who is he? Anyway, I digress. We have this stuff here called Malta (Postum) and it has all the benefits of coffee (smell and taste) without actually being coffee and it is sooooo stinkin' good. I have it almost without fail every morning. I highly recommended you guys trying it. You’ll probably throw up but its good! Right?

We have a member in our ward named Debbie. She’s the dancer girl who gave me the yoga DVD and she’s super cool. She has a parrot that Adams and I got to play with today. Adams is a parrot expert so he showed me the parroty ropes and it was fun. Those birds are super cranky but I can see why pirates like to have them on their shoulders. They certainly add pizzazz. Other than that family, that’s about it. Other than being super unnaturally hot this week for no reason it was just another week: The grouchy lunch lady-type catholic women at the carniceria are still handing you your milanesa order with their bare hands (that just two seconds ago they were using to count the money). "I was made for loving you baby" by Kiss is still being blasted in the streets and I’m loving every little bit of it. Now onto the questions...

Anyone in particular you’d like to give a shout out to?”

Ethan, Austin, Kevin, all my dear, good friends and my boy Biggie Smalls, of course.

I know they told you there wouldn’t be a lot of fruits and vegetables in Argentina but have you had any?

I’m starting to think that that was a dirty lie; we have more than enough fruit here. It’s the best fruit I have ever had on earth. It’s like, super sugary and tasty (and cheap). Like, you can get 10 bananas for 7 pesos that’s like what $1.25 in dollars. It’s awesome!

Are you still taking lots of pictures?

Yes of course! As always. I sent some pics in this email so hopefully you’ll get them.

Tell us about some of the members in your branch.

We have a cool branch. We have the familia Millian. The dad is the branch president and his wife is the young women’s councilor. They are soooo cool and so nice. President Millian is the spitting replica (attitude wise and image wise) of brother Southard and the hermana Millian looks like Auntie Chris but she has the attitude of Traci Stone—they are sooo cool. I think they are throwing me a birthday party from what I heard. Next we have Gabby. He is a recent convert who’s about 16 years old and he is so cool. He speaks English and he loves electronic music and is just about my best buddy. Next we have Gustavito who is a tiny, 17 year-old kid who loooooves the soccer team River. He and Adams get along super good. They always give each other crap cause one likes Boca and the other likes River so it’s always funny to see them. We also have Debbie who is the dancer parrot girl and she is super nice. She was the young women's president for awhile but she got released yesterday for another calling. She was pretty bummed about that. This branch has a bunch of funny characters, I love it so much!!

Did you get a new penchmate? If so, who is he/she?

Yes we do! We have Elder Morales of El Salvador and he is awesome. He's quiet, doesn’t talk a lot but, then again, I was the very same. It was hard but he’s fitting in. He a good egg!

Well fambiliys it’s so dang good to hear from you. I’m so thankful for your letters and advice; they mean so much to me. I think about you guys a lot and I’m so thankful for your prayers and sacrifices. I’m also thankful for the prayers and sacrifices of everyone of my friends and buddies, it means so much. Well, I’m gonna go get my hair cut now. I’m thinking about a nice bowl cut this week for the Fourth of July! We are planning an asado for that day so everybody do something cool for the fourth as well. Hope it’s awesome and that grandma got an endless supply of m-80´s to light. I know she did. I love and miss you guys so much. Until next week. It´s all good.

Con Amor,

Russ

P.S. by the way, it’s 9 de Julio this next Monday (Argentina's independence day) so I don’t know what will be open (cyber wise) and what won’t be open next Monday so that’s just a warning. We should be good but just sayin’.