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