Hey all! Here goes nothing for my first blog entry from the dusty streets of Argentina!

I am here in Argentina and everything is exiting and different, but I love it so much!!!! My Spanish improves exponentially, and have done much work in the language. My trainer, Hermana Celia Schmutz is fantastic and says my spanish is wonderful! I am so happy because she smiles all the time, and it leaves no room for feeling sad or sorry for myself.

Our area is this tiny little town called Ituzaingó (eh-too-zayn-goh) on the Rio Uruguay in the North Eastern part of Corrientes province. If you can´t see it on your maps, its very close to Posadas -- about an hour and a half drive away.

Its very quiet and the people here are very relaxed and chill with everything. Its not a very affluent area, but the streets are relatively clean and the crime is next to nothing. Most people live in little shacks, that don´t look like much from the outside, but they keep the inside nice and well-kept.

Noone has carpets -- or shower curtains -- but everyone is very humble and relatively easy to teach.

My mission president, President Del Castillo gave us all a really big desafio (challenge) for the month of August. If we, as a mission will double the amount of baptisms we have had in the same month last year, he would take us all to Iguacú Falls as a treat. Its hard, because the goal for the month of August is 96 baptisms for the whole mission. That breaks down to two baptisms per companionship.

Our area already has one for this month, and we are hoping to gain one more by the end of August.

We are currently teaching a woman named Noemi, who is very interested in the gospel and wants to get baptized, but she needs to marry her marito (or boyfriend who lives with her), and it causes anxiety in her family, because he does not understand her desire to be baptized. So we continue to work with her, and encourage her to keep working toward her goal to baptism. Hopefully we can help her get things resolved and have a baptism date by the end of September.

We are giving another couple a desafio (challenge) for baptism today. We are hoping that Nora and Oscar, an older couple, will set a baptism date by the end of the Month!!!

We are also keeping tabs on a very recent convert named Monica. Monica was baptized less than a week before I got here, and seems to be striving in her new environment as a member. They even called her to be a counselor in the Young Womens presidency already!!!

Its so exiting to witness the blessings that new converts get from becoming members of Christ´s church! And I am glad I could be part of it.

On another note, we went to Posadas yesterday for Zone Conference, and was able to hear from Elder Claudio Zivic of the seventy! Even though I could barely understand him, the spirit was strong, and Hermana Schmutz was kind enough to interpret for me the gist of what was going on. I saw two elders there from my MTC district, and was able to meet many of the other elders and sisters in the surrounding area. I am so grateful for the chance to go, even though it was hard for me to understand much of it.

But now we are back in Ituzaingó and ready for action (after a well-deserved P-Day)

I love you very much and thank you so much for your letters.

-Hermana Tritsch

PS The food here is actually really good! It tastes like a mix between Brazilian Food and Italian Food. I love the food, but then again, I havent had to eat anything weird ... yet.

PSS I can receive your emails, but I have been informed that I can only write emails to my Mom and Dad, so I will write slow mail back, but I WILL WRITE!