Not all that much new to tell seeing as the last time that I emailed was on Wednesday, but a little bit about my new area. First of all, our area is huge, but really we work mostly in just one part of it, or better yet in just one block of it all. In Argentina there are things called villas which are normally a little more dangerous neighborhoods where you have a bunch of houses crowded together in a block (or more) with little tiny walkways as almost a maze going through them all, with nobody having a yard. Most of the time the houses are of lower construction quality as well, because people that live there are normally a more humble. Well, we have one of those in our area, but it is only one block in size and it is actually a very easy-going one, without really that much danger. What is really cool as well is that the former Capo (or boss/head) of that villa about 3 years ago was converted and baptized a member, and changed a lot. He goes by the name of Genie. Before he was in some pretty hardcore stuff and if he was angry or upset everybody there went inside and shut their door. He's not like that anymore, but if people get in a fight with his kids still but then find out whose kid it was, they often go to his house to ask him forgiveness in person. Well anyway, he has a lot of family in that villa as well and a lot of them end up being the people that we teach and that progress towards baptism as well, so that is super cool. We have other people in other families that we teach as well but I would say that when we are out working, we probably spend about 90% of our time in the Villa de los Russos (what it is called).
Speaking of villas though, the other Elders that our in our ward (but that don't work in the offices) have in their area perhaps the most widely known villa in all of the mission, "Fuerte Apache". That villa is much more dangerous and instead of being just one block, it covers the expanse of about 10 blocks by 6 blocks, and actually has military stationed just outside of it to keep it more under control. Also, instead of being just a 1-4 stories high like ours is, many of the buildings get to be sky-scraper hights, and it also has 3 schools and a church inside of it. Well, one day one of the members wanted to give us lunch, but lived right on the outside edge of it and so we got to go there to have lunch. It was like a completely different world, in serious and we only touched the outside edge of it. If we are able to go deeper in one day on divisions or something, it would be a really interesting experience (but before anyone panics, they don't do any harm or anything to missionaries, so there is no need to worry there).
Other than that, starting to get a little more used to life in the offices. This last week, I made a list of all the phones that we have in the mission and the area that they are assigned to and it turns out that there are exactly 100 of them. All last week I had a fun time trying to get more phone chips in too so that we could have some extra phones in case somebody gets robbed or we need to open a new area or something of the sort and so we will see if they arrive this week. I definitely consider myself fluent in spanish at this point, but it's definitely a fun exercise with my language skills making phone calls and sending emails to take care of phone problems and deal with phone management type stuff all in spanish. Also it's pretty fun being able to spend the entire day basically with 5 other missionaries here in the office. It's pretty hard not to be in good spirits because there's always something to smile at, or something funny/random/unexpected going on.
Also, last week I made a mistake in telling you all about my new companions. Elder Moreno is in fact from Mendoza, Argentina but Elder Ehlert is actually not from the USA. He is from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Yeah! How's that for a fun mix-up? I've included a photo of them so you all can see them (with all of us in our big comfy office chairs). Elder Moreno is on the left, Elder Ehlert in the middle, and obviously I'm on the right.
Other than that, not all that much new to talk about, so hope that you all have a great week!
Love,
Elder McCollum
p.s. I caught the world's tiniest Gecko inside of our pench. He was super cute. I have also included a couple of pictures of him.
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