Hastening the Work in the Argentina Mendoza Mission : Busting Crime

Hello everyone! How were your weeks? Mine was okay. I'll tell you about it in a sec. So... It's cool that you guys are headed off to Disneyland this week! You know how I like pics... So make sure to take some! Also I want to hear a little bit more about this show that Charlie is in! Sounds cool. I'd like to hear about that as well. :)

Can I just say I'm way glad that Thanksgiving isn't this week? Thanks for the pie recipes by the way, but if I had to make those pies this week I'd die. :P This next week is going to be crazy busy. Lemme explain. No. It's too much. Lemme sum up. So like a year ago when Elder Christofferson came to our mission? Well that's basically happening again this year, on Tuesday next week. We've got Elder Soares from the Presidency of the Seventy and Elder Teixeira from the Area Presidency coming to visit us. This sounds great! I'm way excited actually. We as the office are a little stressed cause we have to make sure everything runs smoothly and stuff, but there's just one other problem: Tuesday, the day they come, is also TRANSFER DAY. What does this mean? Normally on transfer day any missionary that's switching areas will just take a bus to their new area while their old companion stays with other missionaries. But this transfer will be completely different, because the entire mission is coming to Mendoza! All 200 of us. So... We have to make sure that every missionary gets to Mendoza, and that every missionary leaving to a different area leaves with their luggage. We also have to rent hotels for people coming from far away areas to Mendoza. Also, before the meeting, we have to make sure that all the people going home make it to the airport on time with all their luggage. And we have to go get all the new missionaries that get there that day. So this week is going to be crazy! That was only a brief summary of what I get to do next week. I'm pretty sure I'm leaving a lot out.

So... You might be wondering how I busted crime this week. It's a long story, but it's basically the only thing I did this week. And I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be sharing this exactly, so I'll keep this very vague. If you guys want to know more you can talk to me over Skype on Christmas. I'll probably talk to you guys about it anyway, so don't worry. So... A while back, maybe a month ago, I was just doing my job, like normal. People send me things they need me to pay for, I pay for it. Well, I was doing my job one day, and someone sent me this receipt of something they had paid for, and I needed to reimburse them. Well, here in Argentina, many times the receipts you get from people are just a slip of paper that says whatever you bought or paid for and the amount in really crappy handwriting. The word we use here is "trucho," or fake basically. But many times that's the only kind of receipt that you can get, so we use them. Well I was getting these receipts from someone, and something seemed a little fishy to me. I wasn't sure what, but I decided to show the receipts that I had gotten to President. After much investigation, we decided that there was some fraud involved. These receipts were quite in fact "trucho," but like literally trucho. Like not real. Like this person was trying to steal from us. Upon further investigation, getting the Area Authorities involved, and actually interviewing the person involved, we found out we were right. In total this person had stolen about $6600 pesos from us, something like $715 dollars. Not too much when you think about the kind of money the church has, but still. For now, everything is out of my hands. The church/law has it under control now. But, it was an interesting experience all the same. Moral of the story: Don't steal from God. That includes tithing. Because God will have justice. One does not simply steal from God and get away with it. So don't try it.

Anyway... If you have other questions you can ask me personally.

Changing topics. So I'm finishing my third transfer in the offices, and what does that mean? I only have one more left. And what does THAT mean? That means next week I'm going to have a little financiero hijito! Or child. Yep... I'm training someone to take my place next week. I'll find out tonight probably who it is. It's crazy how fast time flies by here. And then in 6 more weeks I'm out of here! Into the field again. It's weird.

So this is a really long letter. I'm out! Love you all!

Elder Bingham