April 25, 2011

Well, I´m still getting in the groove of things with my new responsibilities. I had to wait until wednesday to see who my new companion was because his flight from the U.S. got delayed. It´s kind of weird being with a brand new missionary who´s unfamiliar with the culture, the language, and the doctrine and sometimes it can be a little hard, but I really like him. He actually knows quite a bit of spanish for a new missionary and he is more than willing to learn and work hard. But, according to this new in-field missionary training program from the first presidency he is supposed to be ready to train another new missionary in just two transfers with me. The dificult part is trying to involve him as much as I possibly can without embarrassing him or taking forever to get something done. It´s been difficult to balance my reponsibilities to him, my district, the ward members, and my investigators, but I think it will get easier with time. At least, I hope it will. My new companion´s name is Elder Rainford. He´s from Las Vegas and he has been to the catholic church a lot with his dad, although he has been a member his whole life. So, he should be able to relate to our investigators better than I can, once he´s more fluent in the language. one thing I´ve learned though is that, regardless of the language barrier, the spirit can be felt and understood by anyone no matter what language they speak.

I still have no clue what to do as district leader, but I invited one of my recent converts, Ruben, to the next district meeting so that we can learn from an investigator´s perspective. It should be cool. He has such a perfect way of explaining things.

Today we finally got the whole ward to help out with the less active family I told you about a few weeks ago. Elder Nuncio and I had gone a couple of times to help dig for the foundations of the house, but today we got a lot more done with the help of the members. I had been pushing the service project for a few weeks, almost a month I think. I was so glad it was finally able to be realized. I attached some pictures. We didn´t finish, but they´re planning on going back this week.

I really don´t know what I´m going to do for the next three months in this area. Where in the world am I going to find more people to teach. And, being district leader, my area should always have th highest numbers every week. At least, I think it should.

Save some of the crazy, fun, and dangerous vacations for when I get back.



Love, Brett