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

Christmas

Pretty great week!

This week has been super crazy because of the holidays. Everyone here parties like crazy so it has kinda thrown off our normal work schedule.

On Wednesday we celebrated Christmas together as a mission. We all got together at the temple and then we headed over to the stake center at the mission office and had a Christmas party and devotional. It was super awesome. We even sang Christmas carols in English! It was so weird! It was so cool to see everyone in the entire mission. Mostly because that meant more English speakers!! Yayyyyy!!!

Christmas Eve is the day everyone here celebrates. The whole day they just cook a ton of food and then they eat really late later that night. We had dinner at Hermana Gomez´s house. She is seriously so fun!! It was just her and her son but it was super kind of them to have us over. Also Christmas Eve night is when everyone here does fireworks. I fell asleep before the fireworks started but later that night the nose woke me up. It was seriously so loud!!!! But right after that somehow I fell back asleep.

Christmas day was sooo weird! Everyone sleeps in super late because they are all wasted. So walking around felt super creepy. It was also super hot that day so it felt nothing like Christmas. It was so weird to see kids playing in the streets with squirt guns. 

On Sunday we spent two hours walking around our area before church trying to wake people up. We wear our suits on Sunday and it was so stinking hot!!! Sundays are always the longest days ever. The biggest let down though was our investigator, Alexis, didnt show up to church because he was sick. Which is terrible timing because we were going to announce his baptism for this Saturday but because he didn´t come we have to change it to the week after.

On the bright side I am getting transfered this week!!!! I am leaving Merlo and going to Marcos Paz!!! My new companion will be Elder Marple! He is going to be finishing me training. Apperently he is awesome so I am super excited!! He was actually trained by my trainer as well which is kinda weird. In the missionary world, the trainers are called dads and the missionaries being trained are called sons. So you can probably imagine how complicated this is going to make the family tree...

Anyways I hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Elder Townsend

Another week in Argentina. It was a pretty long week but we were able to get a lot done. On Wednesday we had companion exchanges. It was actually pretty fun! I went with Elder Winzenried. He is awesome. He is literally a super nerd. Like 36 on the ACT and full ride to BYU type of super nerd. I stayed in our area and my trainer left for their area. Which means I had to lead us around. It was so stinking hard! I don´t know our area at all! Haha but Elder Winzenried was super understanding. Luckily he remembered his training when he didn´t know like anything, and was literally just trying to make it day to day. So that day was actually pretty fun and exciting.

On Thursday, we had lunch at the Bishop´s house. His wife always feeds us so much food! She literally made me eat 10 empanadas! It hurt so bad. Then later that day another family wanted to feed us dinner. Usually we dont even eat dinner so that was super difficult in itself, but on top of that they made us eat so much too!! On the bright side, I slept super well that night. Haha

Half way through the week we ran out of gas for our house. So we have also been enjoying ice cold showers. I love Argentina.

On the bright side our ward Christmas party was this week! It started at 8:30 at night though. So we were only there for like 30 minutes and then we had to head home. It was super depressing because I was really looking forward to it. We talked to a member family the next day though and they said the party lasted like until 2:00 in the morning. They said that they brought out some ice cream and everyone just went crazy dancing and singing all night haha.

Well I hope everyone has a great Christmas!

Elder Townsend

This picture is 4 weeks old, but this is the Familia Torres

Another week. The weather down here in Argentina was absolutely awful! On Wednesday we were out working and then at like 6:00 in the evening it just started to rain so hard! We had absolutely no rain gear and we were only in short sleeve white shirts. No one would let us in and talk to us either! We basically spent 3 hours walking around in ghetto Merlo soaking wet. That is probably the closest I will ever get to swimming on the mission... I hope...

Then Thursday and Firday were even worse. It was so hot and humid it was ridiculous. Honestly probably the most uncomfortable I have ever been in my life. The humidity absolutely kills. At the end of the day when we got home, we were just dripping wet from sweat, hot sticky sweat. And even if we shower and change we cant do anything about it. Sleeping those nights was miserable.

On the bright side, the dog remote I brought down here (a remote that makes a high pitch sound that dogs don't like) is awesome. I use it every day!!! Everyone here has a dog and there are so many dogs everywhere. I just keep it in my pocket and walk down the streets and all the dogs run away like crazy. Sometimes the locals see me do it and the get pretty freaked out. They probably think I am Moses parting the Red Sea or something. 

On Saturday we had one of the traveling assistants work with us. His name is Elder Christensen and he is so stinking funny. He goes home at the end of this month and he is so excited to see this girl he has been emailing that he hasn't seen in like 5 years haha. He is some rodeo kid from Alaska and Idaho and his spanish has such a hard core southern accent. He definetly spiced up that day.

This week we also found a new family. They are so awesome. The were a refferal that some sister missionaries found on a train. They are so prepared. We have already taught them lesson one and we have an appointment with them tomorrow so we will see how it goes!

People here started to decorate for Christmas. It makes me so happy! I even got to hear a christmas song last week in the grocery store.... In english!!!!

Till next week

Elder Townsend

December 7, 2015

Well another week in Argentina. This place is kinda crazy. It was a long week but it definitely had more flavor than last week.

On Tuesday we went to the stake center a few cities away and had a district meeting. It was awesome because I finally got to meet more people that spoke english! Then afterwards we went out and just did some contacting in the streets for about two hours to help the Elders who have that area. I still haven´t seen a single white girl that speaks english so thats been kinda weird but also nice...

On Wednesday we we had to go to the mission office to do a special training on how to teach the first lesson because we couldnt do it last week when my companion was sick. It was pretty fun. We got to do some practices. One of the assistants to the president taught us. He had to teach every companionship in the mission and he said we were one of the best companionships out of everyone!!! YESSS!! So that felt pretty great....

To get to this mission office though we had to take the public train. Public trains in Argentina are messed up. It wasn´t busy on our way up there, but on our way back home it was ridiculous. Like I totally understand public transportation being crowded, but here it is ridiculous. The train was SOOOO full. Like everyone was standing but no one had to hold onto anything because we were so packed. I have never felt so violated in my life.

The Spanish is coming along slowly. Some days are a lot better than others. All the other missionaries and ward members act really impressed by my Spanish but I think they are just being nice. However, I am starting to understand regular conversations a little bit better. Which is a good and bad because I can understand what they are saying about me. This past week someone someone said I look like I´m fifteen, and another person called me a not very nice word. But on the flip side someone said I look like I am 26, and everyone we talk to compares us to actors. My companion always gets Jim Carrey. Hahaha.. I usually get Ryan Gosling or Zac Efron. Which I guess I could kinda take as a compliment, but considering that they probably dont know any other white actors with my color hair doesnt really build my self esteem or anything. 

In regards to our investigators, some are progessing more than others. We have like ten baptismal dates set for the month of Decemeber but we will have to see how that plays out. The Torres Family, the family we have been teaching since I have been here, are having some difficulties. They have a baptismal date for this Friday but they still have some concerns with tithing. And every time we went to this house this week something would come up. The Dad couldn´t meet with us yesterday because he had to give someone a tattoo. Hahah... He isn´t even a tattoo artist. He just does it as a hobby to bring in some extra cash sometime. Haha... So we will see how that plays out.....

Saturdays are probably my favorite days of the week. Everyone gets so drunk here and walking through the streets is so much fun. People come up to us all the time

and mess with us. Sometimes it gets a little freaky because the like shake your hand and they dont let go and then they get really close to you and tell you like everything they have ever done wrong or something like that. Hahah. 

The weather here is pretty nice but it doesnt feel like December at all and I hate it!! I guess I only have to experience it one more time after this so that's not too bad.

Enjoy the holiday season!!

Elder Townsend