Hastening the Work in the Argentina Mendoza Mission : The struggles of living 2 lives

Hi guys!

This week was fun. As I already told everyone... Elder Yugar went home this week. I'm now solo with Elder Yugsi. And it's been a blast. But it's also been a huge struggle. Let me tell you how we do things here now.

So... Basically we switch between areas every other day. We work one day in Sarmiento (my area) and one day in Estanzuela (Elder Yugsi's area). We sleep in whatever area we're working in that day, and then in the morning we travel back to the other one, because the morning's aren't as effective for working.

Perks of having 2 areas:

We have 2 cell phones.
We have 2 apartments.
We have double the lunches! We won't ever go hungry this transfer.
I'm exploring new places! I was getting a little tired of Sarmiento.
I've now worked in every single ward in the Godoy Cruz Stake. I've been in 5 of the wards, and gone on intercambios in the other 3. I haven't left the stake for 13 months.

Downfalls of having 2 areas:

We have to travel every day
It's a lot harder to visit people. Because they tell us "Come by on Wednesday!" But on Wednesday we have to be in the other area. It's a little difficult to find new investigators for that same reason. We're just trying to hold onto what we already have.
We have to do intercambios on Sundays with the office Elders so that we can each go to our own wards.
My food and clothes are scattered between 2 apartments.
My new area is kind of dangerous, and we got robbed yesterday.

Yeah... Not to freak you out or anything. We're both okay. They just pulled out a gun on us and took our cell phones. It was stupid. Oh well. Don't worry about us. We're fine. I was grateful for the Lord's protection. It could've been worse. We were probably about a kilometer from one of the more dangerous areas of the mission. We thought we were at a pretty safe distance, but I guess when you're there on Sundays at 5 in the afternoon when nobody is outside that complicates things a bit.

So all in all... We're getting the hang of things a bit. It's a new thing for me. We've got 2 more weeks of living like this. But, even though it's way hard to teach people. I'm really grateful to have a comp that I not only get along with, but that I enjoy being with. And I'm not babysitting anymore. It's a nice change. We've also seen the Lord's hand this week, even though we've hardly taught anything. We've talked to a bunch of people on the street, and we've got a lot of names to contact this week.

I love you all! One more thing: Pray for Ricardo! He's been super sick recently and hasn't come to church for 4 weeks. I've forgotten to write about that in my last letters. But he could use the blessings.

Elder Bingham