Hello everybody!

Once again we have had another great week in Los Hornos. For those of you who don't know what Los Hornos means, it means "the ovens". I feel like our area is appropriately named because it is so hot here. We are up in the mountains and the sun just beats on us all day. However, every now and then we get a random rainstorm. It isn't just a few drops either, the streets basically turn into rivers and no matter what we do, we always get soaked. It is fun though.

We went on exchanges with the zone leaders the other day and that was a great experience. I went with Elder Santos. Their area is pretty big so we had to take some busses to get around. I've mentioned a little bit how crazy the buses are here, but I have basically gotten used to it by now. A lot of times people will just hop on the bus and play their guitar or something for a few minutes and try to earn some money and then later hope off. Or they might try to sell candies or something. It is pretty common. However, on this particular day a clown got on the bus. If any of you know me well enough, you might now how much I don't like clowns. They are just weird to me. But this clown came on and started telling jokes and being weird and everything and I was just dreading because I knew he was going to say something to me. I stick out like an elephant in the room wherever I go and people love to harrass us "güeros"... Anyways, this clown started talking to me and saying some jokes about the USA and then started speaking some english to me and everyone was just laughing and watching to see what I would do. I Didn't respond and just looked at him and eventually said (in spanish) "sorry I don't understand english. I am from Russia" and everyone just stopped laughing and turned around as if I had ruined the whole thing. The clown just said sorry and went on his way harrassing the rest of the people. I guess sounding like a russian comes in handy sometimes.

We had some really good lessons this week. We are working with a man named Javier. He is in his 50's and has a wife and 3 kids. There is a drug here that is really popular called monia. It is basically just fingernail polish with some weird chemicals in it. Well, Javier has been addicted to monia for about 30 years and is now going on 8 days without his monia. We had him write down on a piece of paper the reasons he wants to stop drugging. He wrote down a lot about his family. He really wants his wife and kids to respect him. He told us a few days ago that he was at a party with his friends and they all started drinking and pulling out the monia and he told us he was about to join them but he remembered his goal and is still going strong. It is really hard for him but I have no doubts that he can do it. you guys should all keep Javier in your prayers.

We were also looking through the area book and thought we would go visit some old investigators. We visited a mom named Elivia and her son, Jesus, aged 15. The mom told us that she had just quite her job on sunday so she could start going to church again and bring her family. Jesus said that he wants to be baptized so that he can go on a mission. He really wants to go to Japan, and speaks a little japanese. They are both really awesome and very faithful. They also have a pet pirrhana that is HUGE and they told me one day I could feed it a live fish to watch how it eats. I am pretty excited for that day.

I love being a missionary here. Every day is full of new experiences that are changing who I am as a person. I am learned what it is like to serve and love people as the savior served them. We are currently teaching a lady named Xochitl. She works just about all day every day so the only time we can teach here is at 7:00 am every tuesday. she lives more towards the back of our area so we have to leave at about 6:25 am to get to her house on time. She is awesome too. I wish I had more time to tell you all about the amazing people I meet here every day. Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers, have a great week!


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Elder May