New City - New Home - Great Mission

About the conference this past week: President Arnold was pretty awesome (as well as his wife and the mission president and his wife). They are changing things a little bit with Preach My Gospel so we talked about that and we also talked about things we need to be doing better (like kneeling and praying with every investigator). I did get to see some old friends at the conference, the best of them all, Elder Haacke, my companion who I served with in February and March. It was great to see everyone though.

The day after the conference we received transfer calls. Elder Flaherty and I are no longer living together after close to six months. And I am now living with a Panamanian named Elder Vasquez in the city of Villa Maria. Villa Dolores had become my home. As much as I wanted to leave (I felt like I had talked to everyone and knocked every door), it was really hard. The Ceballo family is one of my favorite families I have ever met and I didn't want to say bye…Same with the Tello family and Beatriz and her family and so many others. It wasn't fun, yet I am excited to be here in Villa Maria with Elder Vasquez. He comes from a family of seven girls and three boys, he doesn't have a camera so I told him I would take photos for him and we can print them out. He has several months here and says there is a lot of work here and is pretty stocked, so I am too! I'll probably be with him six weeks and then have another companion, we’ll see. We live alone so I will be speaking Spanish 24/7 again, so I apologize if my English starts going downhill over the next couple weeks. My new area is pretty big. I’m in a city not a town this time, it’ll be interesting. My branch has about 80 active members, so that’s a good change, and the city is of decent size, so there are lots of people to talk to. There are two branches here and six elders. We're going to work hard and have fun. Elder Vasquez is awesome.

I need to learn how to cook some new foods. Argentina meals stop at meat and noodles. Hopefully with my Central American comp we can find something new. Like a thai soup :)

It's kind of funny, about 40% of the missionaries in this mission serve in the city Córdoba. I was there for a little bit but this is my third area outside the city, but I like it, it's a different experience.

The photo from last week about “companion inventory”, there may have been a sharpie involved at an investigators house who raced motocross and BMX until he destroyed both his knees.

Sounds like everyone is doing well, maybe a little too busy, but healthy and happy. Love you all. Have a fantastic week, thanks for the pictures. Catch you on the flip side.

Love,
ELMX