Hello from El Jagüel! I had my first dream in Spanish that I actually understood last night. I dreamed that I was playing soccer with the other missionaries and I had to use the bathroom so I went off by myself and I had to cross a crosswalk at a red light. As I crossed, the first car honked its horn and I looked as the window rolled down, it was Dad! He said hey buddy you need a ride? I was like yeah! I hopped in the car and the whole family was in there. It didn't seem to me like a big surprise or anything out of the ordinary. I thought to myself, I'm going to impress them with my Spanish speaking skills, -even though Dad had asked me if I needed a ride in Spanish. I started talking in Spanish and much to the the dismay of my dream-self, they could all speak Spanish too, so they weren't impressed. Pete made a comment about how there are a lot of pandas here in Argentina and that confused me. I thought maybe he meant pandillas-which means gangs-but he said no that he meant pandas. I was still confused but I just went with it. Then Dad dropped me off at the bathroom-the bathroom had to have been really far away!-and drove off like it was nothing. There was a member of the church close to where I got dropped off and he gave me a displeased look like-Elder you're not supposed to visit your family on your mission. I got defensive and said, 'That was not planned!' He let it go and I headed toward the bathroom and I woke up and I realized that I had just dreamed in Spanish. It was a pretty weird dream. I also do a lot of my thinking in Spanish. It feels weird. When I think of memories, they're mostly in Spanish even though they happened in English.
This week we went clear to the other side of our area to contact a reference somebody had given us. We passed a house and a man was standing outside so we stopped to talk to him. He acted like he didn't want to talk to us but he came over and shook our hands. He asked my companion's name first, then he asked mine. He said what sounded like Herman. I just assumed he was saying his name. He looked at me like he was waiting for a response. I said nice to meet you. He said it again. Herman. Again he looked at me waiting for a response. After an awkward moment, I said again, nice to meet you. Then he said it again. Herman. I looked at my companion to see if he was confused as I was. He looked like he knew what he was saying and he was waiting for a response as well. I gave a nervous laugh and said I don't understand. The man brushed it off and asked my comp where he's from. He said Perú. He turned me and asked where I'm from Germany? I said no I'm from the U.S. He looked kind of confused/amused and then said again Herman. I was so confused. He said 'Don't you speak English? Herman.' Then he just went off speaking in a language I have never heard in my life. If that was English then things have changed since I have been gone. He looked at me expectantly and I said I didn't understand again. He strung off again in his perfect English. I didn't know what to say. I looked at my companion again and he still looked at me expectantly. I just kind of chuckled and didn't say anything. The man looked kind of disappointed. He told me he learned English here in Argentina. Haha. He told us his name is Victor. We talked for a second about who we are and what we do. He said something about musical instruments and said something about a harmonica. He said he plays the harmonica. I said wow that's great! He headed toward his house and opened his gate. He was really excited. He said come in come in I'll show you! He ran in his house so we passed in to his front porch table. We didn't know what to do. He seemed like he might be kind of drunk. As we waited I looked at his tablecloth. It looked familiar. After a second I realized why. It was a Twister mat. It made me laugh to myself. My companion was confused. Victor came out with a small harmonica and a medium one. I could hear a faint electric guitar sound coming from inside. He said do you like this music? I could only tell it was elec. guitar that's it. Then he started singing loud while pretending to play guitar. He changed his voice to mimic the singer. He was singing in his Argentine-English jibberish accent not even formulating words but the way he sang I thought to myself that has got to be John Foggerty. He stopped for a second and I heard a familiar Creedence Clearwater Revival song playing from inside. Haha! Then he whips out his small harmonica and just starts sucking and blowing on it. He did it for about 15 seconds and finished with a pleased look on his face. We were like wow that's really good! Then he grabs the medium one and does the same. Suck blow suck blow. It reminded me of the harmonica that we played with at Mark and Lynn's house. The one that got me sick. I didn't even want to think what would happen to me if I played with his harmonica. He was very pleased with his harmonica skills. We praised him on his talents and we said a prayer with him and started heading out. He asked us how old we were and we told him to guess. He guessed 20 for me. Right on! My companion said alright what about me? He looked at him for a second and said uh less than that. Haha it was pretty funny. We invited him to an activity we had that night and he said he would come only if he could find a girlfriend there. We headed on our way. He didn't show up, but it was a pretty funny experience.
Well that's all the time I have for this week so I'll stay in contact. I love you guys!
Love, Matt
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