Merlo- Week #32

Goodbye Castillo, Hello Merlo

Hey Everyone!

Well, this past week was my last week in Castillo! Yesterday we had our transfer meeting and I have been moved from the Rafael Castillo 1 Ward of the Gonzalez Catan stake to the Altos de Merlo 2 Ward in the Merlo stake. My new companion is Elder Arriola from El Salvador! He is one of the few missionaries in the mission from Central America. So I guess I am going to be teaching a lot of English in my mission with all these Latin companions. Elder Fox got called up to the big leagues and is the new zone leader in Lujan. I arrived by taxi to my new pench this morning, and I noticed I'm not really that far from Castillo, it was about a 30 minute ride, and cost me 30 pesos. I live in another 4 man pench and it is big like my last one, and the other two elders are the ZONE LEADERS of Merlo. haha it is the only zone in the mission that the zone leaders live with other Elders. So Elder Steele and Elder Mackay are our zone leader roommates, and they are cool. I have done quite a bit of blessings in Spanish, at first it was awkward, but now they aren’t too bad, once you can express your thoughts it is easier, because I don’t know how it is supposed to be, but the Spirit still prompts me in English, so I have to translate for him haha.

So I'll start with leaving Castillo. I need to say one thing first, yesterday I saw who would be replacing me in Castillo 1, and his name is DRAKE RANQUIST! As in, Drake from my BYU ward hahaha it was crazy to see his picture up there in the slideshow, and this morning he got to Castillo before I left and we got to talk for a little bit, it was kind of fun. But yeah, basically I miss Castillo. I haven't really been talking about this in my past emails but we have a ton of baptism dates in Castillo...7! 6 for the 14th and 1 for the 21st, and I left 2 weeks before. Ciris' family is getting baptized on the 14th along with an older woman we found named Lola, and the twin daughters of Roxana. The catch is Ciris and his family want me to be there for their baptism, and even more President gave me permission to go back to Castillo to participate in the baptisms (because I have known that family for 4 months now, and they are finally getting baptized!) IF it doesn’t impede the work in my new area....well Elder Arriola told me what is going to impede it this morning...we are having 5 baptisms in this area on the 14th! I have mixed feelings...to say the least. YEAH 5 baptisms! That’s awesome! Also, I don’t even know who they are so it feels like I am stealing them from the Elder that worked for them, but then again, Elder Ranquist is stealing my 7 baptisms in Castillo, and more than that, I really wanted to be there with Ciris and his family...but we will see what happens. I felt really out of place here this morning in the new pench. Everyone is nice, but after six months in Castillo with a routine it will take some time to adjust. It feels like the first day I got to Argentina, and it isn’t a happy feeling hahaha, but it will get better once I can get to work, the work will always be the same and familiar.

Alright, let’s just say, Altos de Merlo 2 is the SMALLEST area in the whole mission. Literally, it is the smallest area of missionary work in our mission. I counted on our map, it is 5 blocks by 15 blocks...yeah...that is like working in a small caged box...I will tell you more next week when I have actually worked in the area, but I went from small Castillo to smaller altos de Merlo... I got the package and the videos and pictures were great! The videos don’t work on my camera so I saw them once on Elder Fox’s before we left Castillo. It was SWEET seeing the Ludwigs! Looks like you had a fun weekend. Also, thanks Kittye, Nat, Alex, and Emily for the video...also the mail is way slower than I thought it was, I just got our Christmas Poem and Card from our family this week, I think the Dear Elders get here faster than regular mail, Dear Elder takes like 2 weeks, and regular mail like 4 weeks or something. Well, that is all the time I have this week, love you everyone and have a great week!

Sean

P.S. I already like this Eric character...