This week we had the Baptism of Leandro!!!!!

He is so awesome and such a great guy, here is the story:

About ten years back a super strong member in our ward gave Leandro a book of Mormon. They are good friends and Leandro accepted the book mostly out of curiosity. Leandro is a very intelligent guy. He knows his stuff and really became interested in the church after he started to read the book. Over the passed ten years he has done a lot of reading and investigating. He has read the Book of Mormon several times, the Doctrine and Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price, Jesus the Christ, and all the teachings of the Prophets´ manuals. He is a stud. And he told us that most of this investigating wasn´t so much for a spiritual purpose but more analytical. He had never been taught by the missionaries and had only gone to church a few times. That is until about 8 weeks ago. It was my first Sunday in this area and Leandro came to church for some reason for the first time in a while. Once we found out who he was we did our missionary stuff. With the help of the ward we got him involved (he is the radio/TV guy that filmed our church tour a few weeks back). The first time we went to teach him we taught him the lesson of the restoration and after the lesson we extended the baptismal invitation and he said ¨note me down for the 20th¨ . So awesome (normally that doesn´t happen haha)!!!! This past weekend he was baptized and confirmed. Everything was so perfect! A few days ago we asked him why he decided to get baptized and he told us that his time just came. He always knew that someday he would become a member but it was just a question of when. I think he just really saw how happy the church made him and couldn´t wait any longer to not be apart of it. The church is so true!!!! And the best part is he has a wife and two daughters and with time they will all surely become members as well!!! Just one happy eternal family! THATS WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT!!!

Such a great weekend! So rewarding. Pounds of sweat and hours under the sun are so worth it.

I would send pictures but these computers we have been using don't have functional usb drives. Sorry. 

I hope everyone back home is doing well.

Enjoy the cool weather!!

Transfers!

This week I got a new companion. His name is Elder Tingy and he is from Arizona. He is a super great missionary and a lot of fun. We are really looking forward to this transfer!

This week we made a lot of progress in the area. We found some new people and have made contact with several people and families we have never made contact with before. It was awesome. We taught more lessons this week than we usually do but we still need to find more people and more lessons. Nothing makes me more happy than an agenda full of good plans. 

I don´t want to scare any future missionaries, but sometimes missionary work is exhausting. I thought I was in decent shape before the missionary but Argentina just destroys me sometimes. Our mission is very focused on finding people and working effectively. We are always meeting a ton of people and teaching a lot of lesson one (the restoration). We teach simply and to there needs. For example, if we meet someone for the first time we are in and out of their house in less than 40 minutes. We really don´t spend a lot of time teaching people who aren´t progressing very much or continue to not keep their commitments. The way we work is awesome because we filter through a lot of people and we end up baptizing people that stay in the church, but it can be very hard if you don´t initially have a lot of people to work off of. There have been several days where everything falls through and we have only taught one lesson. Those days are so miserable hahah... And with our mission it can be really hard because we don't have Ipad time or do a lot of service or have dinners and stuff like that. The only fixed time a day we have something is the hour we have for lunch. So that means we have two hours before lunch and then 8 hours straight after lunch to just find and teach. Lets just say some days, are reallllly long haha....And ten hours a day under the sun wandering the streets of lovely Argentina can just kill sometime. I have never been this consistently tired in my life.

On the bright-side, we have a baptism this Saturday!! His name is Leandro! He is so impressive. I will tell more about him next week. We are super excited!!

We also has several other baptismal dates for march so we will see how they all turn out!

I hope everyone is doing well! 

Oh and happy valentines day!!

2/8/2016

Another week!

Argentina is crazy. By being out in the streets all day and talking to so many people you see a lot of weird stuff. Words can´t describe these experiences. It definitely makes proselyting exciting though.

This week was really hot again. I am still very excited for colder weather. Yesterday in our suits was absolutely miserable. Riding bikes for two hours wrangling our investigators into church in the blazing heat with a suit coat really takes a lot of energy out of you. And then when we finally get to church the members always ask us why we are soaked in sweat and look so awful... If only they knew.... 

Last night we got the transfer call! I am staying in my area!!!!!!! I am so happy!!!!! I am getting a new companion too. His name is Elder Tingy and he started his mission in this area but is coming back and working with me. I am super excited. It is going to be awesome.

We are continuing to progress in the area. Our teaching pool is growing everyday and this next transfer is going to be great.

Yesterday it started to pour rain at about 6:00. It was so lovely. It was the first time I actually didn´t want to teach someone a lesson because it would mean we would have to go inside. 

I hope everyone has a great week!

2/1/16

Pretty crazy week! We were all over the place.

This week was the week I had to do all my paperwork for my visa. So on Wednesday we had to travel to the mission offices and do some traveling around Ramos Mejia to do some of it. It was pretty fun but mostly just a huge waste of time and a lot of confusion. Then on Friday we did the second half of the paperwork. For the second have we had to go to Capital. The center part of Buenos Aires. It was super cool. We were taken in a taxi and we got to see a large part of the city. The center part of the city is super nice and super pretty. The further you get away from the center though not so much. It was very interesting to drive through though. I had never seen anything like it. It is really hard to explain. The best way I can describe it is very congested and ummm...rustic... I am just super glad our mission doesn´t have any of those areas. They would be crazy to work in.

Then on Thursday we had to travel to a town near by to have our interviews with our mission president. It was super awesome. He is such an incredible guy.

And on Saturday Cristina got baptized!!!!!! It was so awesome!! I would send pictures but these computers won´t let me. It all turned out so great. All of her family came and they really enjoyed it. A recent convert in the ward named Diego did the baptism but because Cristina is older and doesn´t move very well so my companion and I both had to get in the font too. We were really worried we would break her so we chair-baptized her. Thats right, we put a chair in the font and we just had her sit down and we dipped her backwards. It was so awesome. Unforgetable. 

The work in our area is progressing so much it is incredible. We have been so blessed. 

I hope everyone has a great week.

1/25/16

This week was pretty great! 

On Wednesday we went to the Mission Offices for the missionary broadcast. We got up super early and took two trains to get there. The sisters in our area went with us. They second train we took was so packed!!!! I have been on the train when it has been really bad but this time was super bad! Everyone said it was the worst they had every seen it. It was literally so packed my feet came off the ground and I was supported up by the people around me. That train is going to be the death of me. Luckily we don´t take it often. 

The missionary work this week went great! We didn´t teach very many lessons but we really progressed in our area. We are working with a lot of great people that have a ton of potential. 

On Saturday evening we had a Capilla Abierta. Which is basically an open house for the chapel. It went awesome. The whole ward particiapted and we had a lot of people come. It was exhausting but super fun...

It has been so hot this week!! I have also been sick with a cold so it has been pretty miserable. It is great though because everyone feels bad for us. When we walk up to people just soaked in sweat they always have pity for us. It is just hard because we are outside literally all day long... I am so ready for colder weather. I have actually started to dream about playing in the snow. It also doesn´t help that our house is a furnace made out of bricks and with no windows. On the bright side it is suppose to be better this week! To handle the heat my companion and I both buy a kilo of ice cream every week. We have this place in town we like to go to called Grito. The workers there are becoming our best friends. Whenever we walk in they just laugh at us. It is kinda shameful but not really. It is a necessity of survival.

Oh and this next Saturday our investigator Cristina is getting baptized!! We are so excited!! She is such a sweety and she loves to talk. When I showed her the picture of my family she got all excited and said she is going to send all of her grandchildren to come marry my brothers and I. I started to laugh but then I realized she wasn´t kidding.... She really really wants ¨Rubio¨ great grandchildren.

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Townsend

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