Sept 12, 2011 Tartagal   Argentina

Hola!

So my new area is about as big as my last one and about 40 minutes from the border of Bolivia. There are missionaries closer to the border in Salvador Mazza (a town) who we played soccer with today up there. Not really much of a difference except it's hot here and the streets are mostly dirt. It’s a branch I am in [smaller than a ward] and there are 4 missionaries for the branch (including us).. There are no boundaries for us or the other missionaries so we sometimes pass each other during the day. We live with them right outside our area. I guess three years ago a flood came through and washed out the old missionaries’ apartment and the missionaries were house hopping away from the flood! Pretty crazy! It will be a perfectly clear day and just start pouring they said. I am pretty excited! The river nearby the missionaries’ old house is now alot bigger to hold the water so we shouldn't have any problems with it. We do live pretty close to it though. The part through town near where we live is all cement so that it doesn't wash away anything unless it goes over the walls. 

My new companion is from Arizona and is going home after this transfer so yes I will be ¨killing¨ someone else. ha ha. He has been here for 5 months and has loved it and says that I will love it here too. I really do love it so far! The people are great - just like my last area. But I think there are a few less people attending church here even though there are the same amount in the register.... meaning lots of reactivation work to do. This one family we visit with (who aren't all members) have about 13 kids and there are about 100 cousins! They aren't members and aren't the closest to their cousins but we’ll see what we can do! I am really excited to go visit with them all! We have some great investigators right now but not too many so we found some more this week who seemed really interested but they didn't make it to church. There are alot more people here who aren't married but are living together so we might have some more weddings!

  

I have to go now but I love you all and hope everything is going great!

Love, Alex