Goodbye Carlos Casares, Hello Carmen de Patagones

In today's email Elder Merrill tells us that much to his surprise he got another transfer. Transfers happen every 6 weeks and as he had only just arrived in Carlos Casares during the last transfer, he wasn't expecting to go anywhere this time. But he did and boy did he ever do some traveling!

Well, believe it or not I got transferred.  I can hardly believe it but there you have it. I was in Carlos Casares for just a short 6 weeks. Needless to say, all my baptisms are going to have to be done by someone else. That stinks. I had about 6 that were ready to be baptized.

      Thanks for always thinking of me! I´m thinking about you guys in my spare time, so no worries. I hope that you are having a good week. I have had a pretty crazy week myself. We had a festival in town that is country wide, so most of the people were out doing that. Then some of the elders got sick, and I came down with a little something too, but it’s just a cough really. Then I found out about transfers and I had to pack everything in a hurry and get everything all ready to go.

        So I left at about 9 at night to go to Pehuajo, and then I left to go to Bahía Blanca at about 1:30 am. I arrived at about 9:00 and they told me that I wasn´t going to leave for Viedma until 10:00.   10:00 p.m.   So, here am I in Bahia Blanca waiting for my bus to Viedma. Then I have one more bus that I take to get to my new area, Carmen de Patagones. Needless to say, I have a lot of traveling to do. I hope that we can make it there and still be able to do things like shopping for food and maybe e-mail again. Because we have to do all that on Monday and when I arrive it´ll be Tuesday. We´ll see.

Elder Merrill tells us briefly about his new companion:

         My new companion is Elder Gonzalez. He´s Latino. I hope that this´ll give me the opportunity to grow a lot in the language. I was with Elder James for only one transfer but I had a really fun time with him. We also were able to work really hard too. I really enjoyed my time with him.

Well, I am going to go and do all that I can to work here for a little while I wait for the bus. I hope that you all have a safe week! p.s. Next time, I´ll see about sending you a picture. I think I have a plan in which I can send you pictures and I don´t have to risk them getting erased. see ya around! -Elder Ethan Merrill

Here is a map to show the traveling Elder Merrill did - almost 700 kilometers or about 430 miles