This week was pretty great! A lot of our appointments fell through but we worked through it!

On Tuesday I went to a different area to do divisions with another missionary. He came down here with me so we are both still finishing our training. I was a little worried at first but it actually went very well! It felt awesome to have more responsibilites and a little more stress. Sometimes it is easy to just feel like a puppy during your first little while here but the division definitely showed me puppy time is over. 

The spanish is coming along as well. I have no problem teaching a lesson but understanding people is still a little hit and miss. It gets better and better everyday though. They talk in an informal grammar format called vos here and it is just been hard to adapt to it. It is not something they teach us because we aren´t suppose to use it as missionaries. But literally everyone here uses it but us. I hear it so much sometimes I actually use it when I talk to people and I feel really bad:(

My companion and I have been so tired lately. Some days I am really curious how many miles we bike and walk but I honestly don't want to know because it probably isn´t healthy. Our area is enormous and we are still working on getting more people to teach and scheduling it all out. So some days it is just absolutely brutal. Luckily our Mission president last week ordered all the missionaries to take a 30 minutes break in the evenings. Which is awesome because after our one hour lunch we our moving around working our butts off till 9:00 at night. The heat here is pretty brutal as well. Two summers have definetly been fun but I am so ready for winter.

My companion and I have also been talking to this friend of a member who works for the radio. He wants to do an interview thing about the church on public radio. We had to check with the mission president and stake president and stuff but it is looking like my companion and I are going to be able to do this interview!!! It is going to be crazy!!! I am so nervous but excited at the same time. We are going to be famous and everyone is going to want to be baptized!! He is also thinking about puting it on tv but we will see about that haha.

Have a great week!!

Elder Townsend

January 11, 2016

This week was awesome! We saw so many miracles everywhere it was so crazy! 

When I came into this area there wasn´t a lot to work with, but my companion and I have been working our butts off and we are getting a ton done! We are so tired it is ridiculous but it has definetly been worth it.

Our big focus this week was basically just getting more people to teach. And this week we did just that! We found 20 new investigators this week!!! Not just mas o menos investigators but people that are super prepared to hear the gospel! All we did was talk to more people on our way to appointments and they literally just fell into our laps. They are all so amazing. I know without a doubt we were truely lead to them. So many times this week we meet these new people and they told us how the just lost a child or something tragic had happened and how they had been praying for God to send them hope. It has been incredible. We are super excited this week to see how everything goes as we start to teach them more. 

And the biggest miracle of all this week: The miracle of the lost debit card

So last week we went to the bank to take out money. On Wednesday I had realized that I was missing my debit card. I then realized that I had forgetten to take it out of the machine when we got cash out on monday. We basically figured it was toast. I am not saying Argentines are theives our anything but we were almost positive that I wasn´t going to get it back. So we were going to cancel the card, but we went to the bank first to see if somehow it was still in the machine or if someone had found it and given it to them. They looked but they didnt have it so we left the bank and called the guy in the mission office to cancel the card. We tried several times but the call for some reason wouldn't connect. We then had lunch and we were going to try and call afterwards but my companion had a headache so we pushed it off again and decided we would just do it later that night (the card didn´t have like any money on it). After lunch we had this appointment to go to so we got on our bikes but we decide to take this different route. On our way there these two cops on the sidewalk (Marcos Paz has cops just stand on certain sidewalks during the day to watch stuff) looked at us weird and then called us over. This cop then pulls out my debit card and asks if it one of ours!!! My companion and I just like looked at each other with our mouths wide open in a daze. We couldnt believe it!!! Such a miracle!! Somehow those cops got a hold of it and somehow we happened to ride by the ones that had it and somehow they recognized us as the owners and asked us. So cool!!! What a blessing we didn't cancel it too!!!!

It was definetly an awesome week. And to top it off, we found this awesome family last night on our way home. We taught them the restoration and they all wanted to get baptized!! My companion literally pulled out his planner and a pen to write down their names and was like ¨alright, who is getting baptized?!¨. It was so awesome! And the best part is they have extended family that are members of our ward! We are super excited! 

I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Townsend

Sent January 4, 2016

McLane thought he sent this email last week, but none of us got it, so he asked that I send this to everyone:

Pretty crazy week! 

On Tuesday we had transfers so we had to go to the mission office. My new companion is named Elder Marble and he is awesome. We had to stay in the offices basically all day though because he had to be trained on how to train.

My new area is Marcos Paz and it is soooo awesome!!!! It is completely different than Merlo. It is so calm and melo. I love it so much!!!! There are so many trees and green stuff everywhere I feel right at home. The first night I got here we walked through this pretty plaza area with a cool park and stuff in the center of our area. It is so pretty! The first time I saw it I thought I was in a daze. There was no trash or graffiti!! I couldnt believe I was still in Argentina!! 

Our area is very large. We have the center part that has the stores and plaza and then the outskirt parts. We get bikes though so we have no problem covering everything. Riding bikes in Argentina is pretty fun. You never know what is going to happen haha. My favorite part of our area is the outskirts though. It is so stinking pretty!! It is like a nature hike 24/7!!! Just on crappy argentine bikes... The problem is the outskirts are apparently the most dangerous parts of our area. We have already heard some pretty interesting stories... Apparently a few months earlier the missionaries here got robbed and they took ALL their clothes. Who new thugs liked slacks and ties...

Wednesday was my first full day here. It was such a long day!!! We didn´t have bikes so because they were getting fixed in the shop so we had to walk everywhere. We literally walked from 1:00pm -9:00pm nonstop. We sat down once for 5 minutes. We didn´t teach a single lesson but on the brightside I got to see like the whole area. 

The ward here is so awesome! They are all super nice. Our bishop is incredible. He is the coolest guy ever! On New Years Eve we were going to eat dinner with him and his wife but we couldn´t because we were told half way through the day we had to be home early in case things got crazy. But our bishop and his wife came to our apartment and gave us a ton of food!! So my companion and I celebrated New Years stuffing our faces and listening to Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas music. It was enjoyable.

In regards to the missionary work, it is going well. My companion has only been in the area for a few weeks and there wasnt much happening when he came in to the area so we are building back up. We are meeting with a ton of people and staying really busy.

On Sunday we were walking in this hood area and there was like 10 kids sitting on this log smoking and drinking. We walked up to them and started to talk and we actually taught them the restoration. It was so stinking awesome but kinda scary! We totally gained their respect! They told us we are now accepted into their ¨barrio¨ and that next time we see them they want to buy us some sodas and hang out haha.

We also have sister missionaries in our ward. They are also new to the area because this last transfer is when they made their area. We go to all of our lunches together so we see them a lot. They are great but they took some of our investigators when they made their new area which kinda stinks.

I hope everyone had an awesome New Year! Till Next week!

Elder Townsend