August 28, 2017
Well it was another great week!

Monday- Like I said last week today we went to the temple and it was so great. I was so neat to see all the recent converts go for the first time. Super rewarding and unforgetable experience.

Tuesday- Today was a busy day. It was one of those days where we were racing and behind schedule the whole day. Man I just hate it when its like that! Luckily though in the end it all worked out and we were able to get a lot done.

Wednesday- Another super great day. We were able to get so much done and teach and meet so many great people. I realized today that I have old man´s strength. I probably couldnt even run half a mile straight if I tried to but I can hard core prosilite for hours on end haha. 

Thursday-Today we got caught in a huge storm and got SO wet. 

Friday- We had lunch with the sweetest old lady in our ward today. She is so great. Not only could she win Top Chef but she is such a great example of having hope through her testimony of the plan of salvation.

Saturday- Another really good day

Sunday- In the morning we had to travel to another city to watch a special video broadcast of Elder Rasband that was shown to Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. It was really good! 

I know the church is true. I know that Jesus is our savior. And I know that when we are instruments in God´s hands we can truely find happiness and bless the lives of others.

Have a great week!
McLane

August 22, 2017
So yesterday was a holiday and everything was closed so I am having to write today.

Monday- I was introduced to the new disney movie Moana!!!  My companion got sent the movie soundtrack and disney music is one of the few things we are allowed to listen to so the whole afternoon we enjoyed pure disney magic.

Tuesday- Well it was transfers today and I got a new companion. His name is Elder Salcedo from Guayaquil Ecuador! Its pretty neat because thats where my younger brother has been called to serve his mission... I have come to have a testimony that God has a pretty good sense of humor because my mission President doesnt know that my brother has been called to serve there at all haha.

Wednesday- Today we traveled to the offices and a member of the Seventy, Elder Bragg came and spoke to our mission. It was really good!

Thursday- My companion eats a TON of bananas...

Friday- Great day full of a lot of lessons and miracles. 

Saturday- It rained today so a lot of our plans fell through which was pretty rough but in the end we were able to get a lot done. 

Sunday- After church my companion and I had to run to the bus station to travel back to the offices so I could have an interview to get a new temple recommend because mine expired. When we finally got back to our area we had this great lesson with the absolute cutest old couple.

Monday- Today we got special permission to go to the temple with a bunch of recent converts here in our ward!!!!! It was so great! I got some awesome pictures but I dont have my memory card with me to send them. But anyways it was a great day and we also had a great afternoon of proseliting. 

oh haha this morning I called the mission nurse to talk to her about some problems I have had falling asleep this past week. My whole mission I have always come back at night completely exhausted and have slept just perfectly but for some reason the last few days I just cannot fall asleep. Last night I am pretty sure I only fell asleep for 1 hour:( I feel perfectly normal but the nurse thinks that deep down inside I am exploding with stress. So tonight, I am suppose to do relaxation excercises and mentally take myself to a ¨peaceful forest woodland¨. We will see how it goes.... Stay tune next week to hear the results.

Well I know the church is true and I know that living the gospel is the key to happiness! I have absolutely no doubt about it.

Have a great week!

Elder Townsend

August 12, 2017
Well so transfers came! I am staying in my area and getting a new companion. Actually, my area is splitting and I am going to one half and my current companion is going to the other. It is going to be good because now we will have a lot more time to work with more people.

Monday- Normal Pday. Ay night we went to go visit this family and had a great lesson with them. 

Tuesday- So I think I have mentioned before how much I love Peruvians, but I have an equal amount of love for Bolivians. Man those people are so great. We visited this HUGE bolivian family we have been working with and they made us Sopa de Mani! Which is basically a soup made out of peanuts! So good!

Wednesday- I dont remember what happend....

Thursday- It was a great day full of lessons. At night we passed by the house of a recent convert family because it was the moms birthday. I made choclate chip cookies! They turned out great! I literally hadnt eaten a chocolate chip cookie for over a year. The diet here is just so bland so when I tried one I it kinda made me sick to my stomach, but it was so worth it.

Friday- We found some great people and had a really productive day.

Saturday- We had a baptism today! But oh boy today was a day I seriously will never forget haha. It is so hard to explain everything that happened so I am just going to have to tell the story in person. In the end though, everything worked out like it always does and it was a great day.

Sunday- Today was an election day here so after church we had to go lock ourselves inside our apartment all day for safety reasons. It was super boring. And the huge slap in the face was that it was super nice and sunny outside haha 

Well I hope everyone has a great week

August 7, 2017
I don't have much time left so this might be pretty brief:

Monday- Fun pday. Our mission leader with his two little girls took us more into the city to go shop for some stuff. It was different. I haven't really gone shopping in two years haha

Tuesday- We did divisions today. We had a great day. We made pork steaks at night and they turned out so great!

Wednesday- Today I witnessed for the first time professional cock fighting in one of the houses we visited. Its actually pretty inhumane. Those birds just completely go at each other.

Thursday- We found such a great family today in the afternoon! The spirit was so strong in the lesson we taught. So great

Friday- A four year old tried to rob us today in the street... he literally picked up a stick and told us to give him money. Super sad. Being a parent is such an important responsibility.

Saturday- We had a great activity with youth in our ward today with some of our investigators!

Sunday- Church was good and in the afternoon we had several great, spiritual lessons.

I love the gospel and I know the church is true. I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Townsend

July 31, 2017
Well it was a bit of a crazy week!

Monday- We played soccer in the morning today and it was seriously sooooo cold! It was even pushing the point where it wasn't even worth it. The rest of the day was pretty normal though. Proselyting  in the night was great. I also realized today that I think if I got a dollar for every 16 -year old, single mom I have taught in my mission I could pay for all of my college schooling.

Tuesday- In the morning we had a district meeting and we did an activity where we picked a random person in our area book that has talked with missionaries before and call them to try to set an appointment up. And of course the guy I picked had recently converted to a satanic religion and was very proud and excited about it. I love the unpredictability  of being a missionary haha. Today I also had to do divisions and go to another area. We had a super great day.

Wednesday- Today was the day we organized in the evening to do baptismal interviews for some of our investigators. Everything turned out just fine in the end but today I was just reminded how much Satan tries to do everything he can to stop people from changing and living better lives. It was almost like everything was against us for getting these interviews done haha. To list a few; my companion and I had a handful of problems we couldn't control to get to where we were suppose to meet other elders that came to do the interview, the elders that came to our area to do the interview while traveling in our area got chased down and robbed by people with knifes, when all four of us finally got to our investigators house a ton of craziness broke out with some neighbors, but.... we were finally able to get the interviews done and they passed:) It was quite the headache but worth it.

Thursday- It was a pretty full day with a lot of people we met and visited. I would say the highlight of the day was this 20 year old kid we met named jony. We had met jony a few weeks back but just had time today to pass by his house and see if he could read a pamphlet we left him. So when we got to his house he came out and said he had read it so we asked if we could come in and share more. So he lets us in his house/garage area and then just says ¨Ill be right back¨ and wanders off. So we were just like chilling in his house all alone for a few seconds and then his family comes in wondering what two strangers are doing in their house. It was kinda an awkward situation to say the least haha But yeah it turns out Jony was just drugged up and who knows where he went haha. 

Friday- At night today an investigator Peruvian family made us dinner. I love Peruvian food so much and I was so excited the whole day to eat with them but I did not see coming what they were going to make. They ended up cooking this dish with Mondongo, which is basically cow stomach. In my mission I have eaten some pretty gross stuff with no problem but Mondongo is my weakness. It was painfull.

Saturday- We had some baptisms today! Its always pretty stressful and hectic but everything always works out in the end. It was a great day

Sunday- Pretty normal day but the streets were just so crazy at night. I couldn't believe it.

Well I hope everyone has a great week!

July 17, 2017
This email might be poorly typed because the computer place we are in is freezing and I cant think very clearly

Monday- Super great day! During the night we met a great new family to start working with and then after that we headed over to another house to celebrate the birthday of an investigator of ours named maxi. He just turned eight and is so excited to be baptized. He is so stinking cute. We made him a cake and that night and we celebrated with him and his family in their humble 1 room, falling apart, brick home. I am pretty sure if he smiled any harder his face was going to break haha. It was such a simple night but it just really hit me hard how much happiness comes from serving and loving others.

Tuesday- Today was quite the adventure. I did divisions today and headed to another area called castelar. It was definetly a memorable experience. It was quite a change because I went from the most dangerous and poorest areas in our mission to the biggest, most modern, and safest just for a day. I seriously had never even seen houses so big! But today was just a reminder that when people are so busy and have more money in their lives, sometimes their relationship with God is at the bottom of their priority list. We walked for 7 hours strait and didnt sit down once. No I am not kidding. No I am not exaggerating. It ended up being so worth it though because I found out last night that one of the families we contacted and found today went to church and wants to get baptized. And it is so great because that area hasnt had a baptism in who knows how long. Huge miracle.

Wednesday- Today we did a continuation of our service project de la semana pasdada where we were chipping away a hole in the cement floor. It is surprisingly super satisfying.

Thursday- Pretty normal day. We got a lot done and were able to meet a lot of great people. En la noche we were headed to the house of some investigators where someone stopped us in the street and let us know that our investigators were criminals wanted by the goverment with a pretty sketchy back story. Yeah so that was a close call and also a huge blessing. We wont be passing by again haha

Friday- We went out and did some visits with a recent convert in our ward in and it went so great! It is always stressful because when people acompany us I want to make sure things go smoothly and its a good experience and today went absolutely perfectly

Saturday- Baptisms today! Everything turned out great. Hicimos brownies but while the service was happening ants got all over them! The funny part is Argentines love them so much they eated it anyway haha

Sunday- It was so cold in the morning when we went out to look for investigators for church! I seriously couldnt believe it! I felt like I was in an argentine winter wonderland with just mud instead of snow. 

Well I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Townsend

July 10, 2017
Well it was super rainy this week but a lot fo good things happened!

Monday- At night we had a lesson with an investigator who is Fourteen that has been coming closer and closer to baptisms. For a handful of reasons it was kinda looking like he wasnt going to be getting baptized soon but tonight a miracle happened and he finally decided to get baptized! He will be getting baptized this Saturday.

Tuesday- Well we did divisons today! It was also the fourth of July! No one told me happy fourth of july but inside all day I felt radiating with red white and blue haha. At our english classes at night I wanted to have all the kids memorize the United States national Anthem but my companion thought that probably wasnt the most politically correct thing to do. He was probably right.

Wednesday- In the morning we did service with this great family and basically we just hand chipped away the cement floor to make a hole to get to some pipe. So that was a first haha 

Thursday- A great day full of rain but luckily a lot of lessons! We also probably rode the fullest public transport bus in the history of Argeninta. 

Friday- Definelty a memorable day. So at night we were suppose to have ward council. So my companion and I arrived at the chapel but only the bishop was there and he told us the meeting was cancled because someone in the ward had past away. So we ended up going with the bishop to the ¨velatorio¨, which is basically a place hear where they have the open coffin and all the family and loved ones come to see the body and be sad together. It was the first time I think I have every been that close face to face with someone who has passed away. It was neat though because it really made me reflect on my tesitmony of the Plan of Salvation as I saw the family come and be together.

Saturday- Day full of visits and rain

Sunday- Today was the fourth of July but for Argentina! It was raining, everyone was drunk or insided sleeping, but in the end, it was actually a pretty effective day haha.

Well I know the church is true and I know without a doubt that God has a divine plan for each of his children. This life isnt the end. It is just the beginning. And if we truely live the gospel of Jesus Christ we can one day be with our family forever.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Townsend

July 3, 2017
Pretty great week!

Monday- We made barbeque chicken saldad. My goodness. 

Tuesday- We did divisions today and I had to travel to a different area. Normally when we do divisions we always stay the night in the other area, and to do that we always have to pack extra stuff like clothes, towels, etc... Well due to a few things that happened during the day I ended up not having any of the the stuff I packed so I just slepted in my normal proseliting clothes... The sad part is I am so used to wearing slacks and a tie I didnt even notice....

Wednesday- Normal day. Super busy and super cold

Thursday- I dont know what it was but everyone today just really liked the jacket I was wearing. Several people we passed by in the streets asked for it

Friday- Super busy day

Saturday- We had a baptism today!! The only thing is the guy getting baptized showed up about an hour late with all of his family. KInda stressful but it all turned out fine haha

Sunday- Well, we did an hour walk again before church to look for this investigator named Agustin but this time he actually was home and came with us! In the afternoon today we traveled and had a meeting with our new mission President and his family. The are seriously so great!

I know the church is true and I know the gospel fixes

I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Townsend