Week 41

Really interesting week...keep reading for more details.

Monday, October 18, 2010 1:44 PM

Hey family,

Well this has been a really interesting week. You`ll be pleased to know that I am now working in an area that is 100 kilometers away from where I was working when I sent the last email...and no, changes were not this past week. I was involved in a special change call that sent me back to my first zone of Maroñas, but in a different area. My new area of Prosperidad is located along the Route 8 in case you are wondering and the two missionaries that were here were unfailingly failing. They obviously did something which caused President Da Silva to initiate this special change call. The two missionaries are one step away from being sent home...or so I heard by way of the assistants. And now one of them is my comp. Oops. We had interviews with the President (in my old zone) on Friday, during which he told me that the Lord had told him that my comp and I were going to be involved in this special change (split up the screwball). My comp stayed in Minas and acquired one screwball. And I came here. The President told me that he knows that obedience is one of my strong points and that I was sent here to help my new comp-Elder Matamoros from Honduras-be more obedient. It was kind of sad to leave because I had absolutely no time to say goodbye to anybody in Minas. We got home at 9:30 Friday night from interviews and I left at 6:00 Saturday morning, after packing until midnight. Oh well. I`m trying to figure out what the Lord`s purpose is for me here. This area is pretty much destroyed, in the sense that missionary work is for the most part non-existent. We have 5 investigators I think. In Minas, we had 5 with a baptismal date. Also I was sad to leave because I won`t be around for the awesome baptisms we were set to have in Minas. Oh well. There is a purpose in everything.

Other sad news I have is that I managed to leave my backpack in Tres Cruces on Saturday when we did our little special change. So I lost a towel, my flipflops, my filter waterbottle from the mission, and my box full of letters and agendas. Yes, I lost all of the letters and old missionary agendas I had. I apologize to everybody it affected. I lost my birthday cards, pictures from Bernie, and whatever else was contained in those letters (the patches too that you had sent, but that`s not a huge deal). Oh well. It makes me sad but I`m grateful that I didn`t lose anything more important, like clothes or other things like that. As of right now, I`m showering in my rubber rain boots. :D Thus, I have a small request of a cheap pair of flipflops (size 14 if you can find them, but 13s will work in a pinch as my feet down have to fit in them per se). You can send them snail mail as I do have something to shower in for now. I`ll probably take out a little bit of money and buy a cheap towel here somewhere...at least I still have my other one. The only irreplaceable thing is all the memories from the agendas and the letters. Oh well.

Anyways, this Branch is really tiny. While you guys had 320 in church yesterday, I don`t know if we even had 30. But they`re all really nice and it seems like a good little Branch. Like I said, the area needs a lot of help, so I`m going to try and do what I can while not creating a bad relationship with my comp. So far we`ve been doing alright. I`ll keep you posted for sure.

Has Jake Barney sent his papers in yet?

Given that I lost all of my letters (and the paper of addresses), I no longer have any addresses. Could I possibly get those again?

Hey good story about an investigator in Minas before I left. Last Sunday we had fast and testimony meeting. When we went for our lesson on Tuesday, the guy started telling us that he didn`t like how people got up and related a story or something because he said that wasn`t a testimony...it was a story. I thought of mom and I thought it was funny that an investigator knew that, but a lot of members don`t.

I have included 4 pics of my new house...my first withy only 2 elders. It`s actually a pretty nice house and it probably has the only carpet in Uruguay in our bedroom. So yeah, I really like the house...I wonder how long I`ll be here. Um, other than what I`ve already told you, not much has happened ;) Life is good for now. My new area is huge...covers about 7 kilometers along the route. Obviously most of the houses are located along the route and not too far off it, but it`s still a lot of walking. Oh well. I`m used to it.

That`s all I`ve got for now. I`ll be writing again in a week (no surprise there) and hopefully I won`t have moved areas again. Fingers crossed. Take care for now. Thanks again for everything. :D

Love always,

DJ