Mercedes!!!!! {Week 19}

Me and Elder Starr at the river before it flooded

 Ok so my new area is Mercedes!!! It seriously is the best area ever!! It’s super campo and city at the same time.  It’s SUPER European too!  There’s a super, strong Italian background.  Everyone is super nice here and I seriously feel like I’m in downtown Provo on some of the streets!  It’s the most that I’ve felt like I’ve been in the states my entire mission!  

The river after it flooded.  (The bank is supposed to be where the closest trees are)

My comp is Elder Starr!  He has 20 months on his mission.  He is from San Diego, CA and is super awesome!  He’s super funny like Elder Paskett and I know were going to have a great time together!

I seriously love Mercedes tho!  We have bikes and it’s super campo(fields).  I love how tranquilo it is.  We are also staying in a pench for 4 elders but it’s just the 2 of us so we have a lot of space!!  We have bikes too, which is awesome!  We are like 3 hours away from the offices tho, so if we ever need anything... we usually have to wait until transfers.

Weird horse dolphin we found

I saw SO MANY miracles this week!  Seriously!  I got here with the goal to fool people into thinking that I had more time on my mission than I really do with my Spanish.  Before Elder Paskett left, he gave me a blessing cuz I was kinda nervous and stressed about a new comp, new area, being done with my training, etc.  He gave me one of the best blessings that I have ever received!  He blessed me that I would be able to understand the people and communicate what I needed too, also that I would be comforted and know that everything was going to be alright.  I got here and seriously THE GIFT OF TONGUES IS SO REAL!!  I’ve been able to seriously understand basically EVERYTHING!  and I’ve been able to express myself!  I’ve fooled most of the members in our branch that I’ve been out on the mission for a year!  Priesthood blessings are real!

Mac & Cheese and Garlic bread

So Mercedes is just a SUPER, LITTLE BRANCH!  It was crazy to see how many people came!  We literally had 4 people in opening exercises of priesthood!  I also was asked to bear my testimony and give a little talk because the people that were supposed to be talking didn’t show or something.  It went really well!  I love it here and I can’t wait to get to know the members even better!  

Small little house (but they had to have their directv on the tree haha)

Well I’m super excited to be here and can’t wait to see what the Lord has in store for the people here of Mercedes!  Love you all a ton!  Sorry that this is pretty short today!  Next week I’ll explain more.

Love you!

Elder Cook