Green trees. Chirping birds. Lengthy fields.

I`ve come home.

Ok, so the actual city center I work in isn`t as Naturesque as one would hope. But it`s at the very least more quiet. Welcome to Tolosa. Which features the northernmost suburbs of La Plata. If I leave the boundaries of my area and walk through the fields about a mile or so, I`m in Ensenada.

A little bit about La Plata.

La Plata is actually the capital of the Provencia of Buenos Aires. In other words the actually city Buenos Aires serves as the Capital of Argentina, but the capital of the Provence Buenos Aires is La Plata. Go to Google maps and you`ll surely be able to find it. Zoom in on the capital, then scroll southeast for a bit and you should be able to find it.

La Plata is has a distinct lay out as opposed to the layout of the other cities in Argentina. It`s basically a big square. It starts from the center, and has streets expanding outward, each with its own number. There are no street names, only numbers. In order to make transport a bit more efficient, there are four giant diagonals that inscribe the square layout. It`s very different from the other areas I`ve been in, in and of that every one of the streets has a corresponding number instead of street names. It`s a bit harder to understand people when they spit an address out at me and it comes out a series of jumbled numbers, diagonals, and apartments. Very distinct.

Tolosa is... well hermosa. It`s beautiful here. When designing the city, they made a conscious effort to plant trees everywhere so as to subdue the urbanization. So it is a bit easier on the eyes than other places.

I received a warm welcome to a wonderful ward. There are plenty of people here willing to leave with the missionaries, and the excellent missionaries of the past have been working well with the members here. We don`t have a church that actually corresponds with our area, we have to take a bus downtown to where we share with La Plata 1. It makes it a little trickier to commit people to sacrament meeting, but we still have a fairly good attendance.

This week passed by as a blur. With the transfer date in the middle of the week, I`ve just been trying to get my feet on the ground. Even though I`ve only been here 4 days, it feels like a week. I`m grateful for this P-day, and a good chance to settle in a bit. This morning we did a bit of cleaning, a bit of buying, and a bit of resting to prep for the rest of the week.

The investigators here are great. Sandra is a recent convert. She only knew the missionaries for three weeks before she got baptized. She`s about 25 years old and dropped smoking, and got separated from her boyfriend all in that small time to get baptized. She`s got an amazing testimony. Now we`re teaching her kids Ludmila and Matias. 10 and 8. Both very bright. If all goes well they should get baptized next Saturday.

Other investigators include a golden family of dry members. Dry member is the phrase we use here to describe people who are already members of the church that are only missing stepping in the font. Lino, his wife Cintia, and their two children. It`s the picture perfect family. They have been listening to the missionaries for about three months and go to church every week. Their kids are even participating in the upcoming primary program. The bad news is they have a complicated divorce case. We have to communicate with the area lawyer to see if we can work it out so they can be baptized in the coming months. But it is going to be difficult.

My companion Elder Gonzalez is one of the best teachers I`ve worked with on my mission. At first it was a bit hard for me to understand him as it`s been a while since I`ve had a comp from South America. He comes from Uruguay, which is good as his accent mimics that of the typical Buenos Aires citizen. But he talks a bit faster and a bit quieter. The good news is this has been fantastic for my Spanish. After so much time around English speakers in the offices, it`s nice to be out here, isolated with only Spanish speakers. I can feel my language improving daily.

Elder Gonzalez is a hard worker, very diligent. I finished my training in Ensenada with Elder Bushman, and then left. Elder Bushman in turn trained Elder Gonzalez. So I`m about two transfers older than him. You wouldn`t know it. The kid is a prodigy. I learn much more from him than he learns from me. It`s rare to see such a good balance of teaching excellence, humility, and attitude. He does little things to serve me, like shine my shoes, or buy the bread for the day. Little stuff. It`s been an example to me of how I can be a better companion, and in turn motivates me to look for ways to serve him. So much of mission happiness depends on having a good relationship with your companion, so I`m very happy to have this time to work with him.

Well that`s about it for my situation right now. I can only say that I`m happy. This transition to an area is coming a lot easier than the rest. I`ve been through the drill before, so I know that the switch hurts for the first week or so, but things get better. That perspective has helped me a lot when I`m tempted to look back and say "I wish I was still in Adroguè" or "In Adroguè we had this thing or that thing." I know that this is where the Lord wants me to be. And there`s nowhere else I would rather be in the mission right now. I know this church is true. And this work is guided by revelation. Thank you for your letters and support.