There’s a big change in Tartagal! Elder Gibbs left this morning to go work in a different area. My new companion, Elder Barney, gets here this evening. We’ll be here together until at least the end of March.
The heat continues. A couple of days this week, it was so hot that we had to stop walking every couple of blocks and drink water in the shade so our heart rates could go down.
There are a lot of problems with the water in the region I am in right now. The water supply gets cut to whole neighborhoods during most of the day because there just isn’t water to keep it running. The family we had lunch with yesterday was on their third day straight day of not having running water. The water normally only gets cut in the poorer areas, but there have been a few days where we haven’t had running water in our house, which means that there isn’t water anywhere else in Tartagal either.
On top of this, the Argentine economic situation isn’t great either. The inflation rate is incredibly high. Our food stipend has almost tripled since I got here 4 months ago, just to have about the same buying power as before. The cost of a 3-liter bottle of soda has more than doubled as well, which might not seem very important, but when there’s no potable water and it’s over 105° every day, it’s huge because it’s the only thing to drink.
Anyway, not to be all gloom-and-doom, I just wanted to comment a little on some of the things I’ve been experiencing. I’ve been seeing amazing changes in people’s lives through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and I know that the Lord is guiding us to do the things that he needs us to. Jesus loves you! Have a great week!
Elder Hansen
