Alberdi Cont.

This was my first birthday out on the mission. The big Two-Oh. Seen here is a plate of cookies with a few oreo alfajors.






Here is a long and lonesome road we had to walk to get to a members house who lived way out on the fringes of town. On either side of us are potato fields and some kind of vegetable I never identified.


(I've never seen sugar do that before.)
This is the sugar factory. They bring in all the sugar cane in that they grow... everywhere down there, and make sugar. The waste then gets burned. This stinks up the town and causes ash to fall all over... especially on out nice white shirts.


This is me showing off my culinary skill by making 100 delicious empanadas. We lived off those for quiet some time. See those papers on the edge of the picture... those are three pages of detailed instructions on how to make amazing empanadas. I lost them. :(


In loving memory of our chickens...... They tasted really bad. I think it was too soon.
By the way, that is E' Colton my trainer who trains.

More from my first area...J.B Alberdi!

Here is an inside tour of my first little house on the mission. This area was called Juan Bautista Alberdi.
Pictured here is my study desk. Nicely arranged for maximum studying. Note the fan under the table and next to where my face would be. Some days it got unbelievably hot. Pretty simple...that's how I roll.

If you were to walk into our house and turn directly to the right, you would see our cooking area of the kitchen. Just a little stove and a shelf with the bare necessities. If you take a gander behind the shelf, you will see a big blue thing. That is a giant replica of the Book of Mormon. We would set that up as a booth in the plaza during big events and spread the word.

This next view is panning to the left. As I have said before. a very simple place. The little metal thing infront of the table is a heater for the cold days that we also get here. How do you like our sink and faucet fixtures? High class right?

So, you think you have it bad doing all that laundry? Well, try to do it like us. We had these barrels you would fill up with water, and when turned on just kind of swished the soapy-water around. Then you needed to drain it and re-fill it with water to rinse it. After re-draining it, you have to put a few clothes into R2-D2 to dry.



Who, what, and where is R2-D2. Well, I am going to leave that up to you to find.

You would get it if you saw it run.

The Long Road Home

This is a dirt trail we frequented in mu first area of J.B. Alberdi. This was a nice rainy day.....in an area with 90% dirt roads ..... yeah, you just think about that.

This was my home sweet home. A nice 20' by 20' cinder block, thin metal roof house. With the bars, I often confused it with a prison cell....silly me...they have cable in prison.

Yeah, those are Chickens we bought. Aren't they cute......

Yeah, we killed, cleaned and ate them. Whats that do for ya? Feel like some chicken?....Yeah, me neither.

The Tale of Two Cities

Here we are with our tickets on our last day in Provo. Our bags were packed, and we were ready to go. We were standing there outside the door. I hate to wake up and say goodbye. But the dawn is breakin, Its early morn, The bus is waitin, Hes blowin his horn. Already I'm so lonesome I could fly.

So don't kiss me, but smile for me. Tell me that you'll wait for me. You can't hold me like you'll never let me go.... Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane. Dont know when Ill be back again....
Oh babe, It will be in two years.

Here we are on our first day in Buenos Aires. It was pretty impressive. There were kids there half our age. Every one of them speaking Spanish. I know what you're thinking...."Tom, they speak Spanish in Argentina." Well, that my point. And Spanish is a hard language.

The Full Group

I am the One!!!

Yeah, as a missionary, you got to have skills. Computer hacking skills, bow-staff skills, or nun-chuck skills. Here I am practicing the basic matrix wall walking skills required of all missionaries.
You never know when you are going to need to get out of a dead end lesson, or escape from an on slot or Jehovah witnesses.

Here I have mastered bullet-time. This tactic is useful the dreaded "man kiss" in Agentina, or the classic drunk guy tie grab.

President Bush

The Eagle has landed!

Try and tell me that he doesn't look like George W. This was my Branch President in the MTC. The weird thing was that his first and middle name was George W.!!! I was lead on his security detail.

My MTC Group

Alright, these are a little old....well really old, but I thought I would start with the oldest pictures I had.
Seen here is E' Cooper, E' Davis, E' Marsden, E' Adams, and E' Bradley. This is our first night in the MTC.