There are a lot of great
things happening in my mission! We
finished the mission companion transfers Saturday night and sent out all of the changes
to the zone leaders. It went well and there weren’t too many calls asking for clarification which translates into my work was a success.
Missionaries
usually travel on Monday mornings, but Elder Rodriguez (the future mission secretary and my replacement)
arrived Sunday night so that he could see what a transfer day entails. He is
a great guy and is already learning everything. I only have three more weeks
here so there is no time to waste in his training.
Apart
from working with Elder Rodriguez I have been made a district leader. We had our first district meeting and it went really well. I definitely walked out of the chapel a little more willing to
give it my all! Something we struggle with here is setting baptismal dates, or setting
goals for dates with investigators. At our district meeting we decided that in
one week we will invite five people from each companionship and at least one
will accept the challenge! Si se puede!
Some
other exciting news is that we have a new area called Confluencia. The mission
is getting smaller so the elders who were there went to other areas and this
one was assigned to us. We still live near the mission home and obviously do
our work in the office, but we have to travel for about 15 minutes by bus to get
to Confluencia. We will also be attending the ward there each week. Confluencia has
seen a lot of progress in the past few months. A lot of baptisms and everyone
says the members in the area the best.
We
had an interesting day today because we went there to get to know the area. The
two elders there left for their new assignment after our visit so we only had
one day to get to know everything. We already have a few appointments
for tomorrow with some contacts we had in the street. We
are really excited for this change and I think its just what our companionship
needs, I know it's what I need to help me get back into full time teaching
mode.
The assistants have been giving me a
hard time saying they’ll need to me to stay in the office al little longer, but just today President
Lovell told me by email to get ready for the field again! I wish I could I
could fully express how good I felt today just contacting people in the street. It made me think
so much of when I first started my mission. The cold, the dirt roads and the dogs
all around. I love it!
Elder
Wessel did me a big favor today. He works the zone close to the bus terminal in
Neuquén and he went there to send off a few missionaries to new areas for me. We
drove by there when one of them missed their bus, and it was good to see Elder
Wessel. We don’t know when we will be companions, but believe it will happen!
It’s
cooling off here and today when we were contacting it made me think so much of
my first area in Bariloche. We met a guy named Julian who was waiting for a bus
right outside of the church in Confluencia. When I first noticed him all I saw
was a guy with long hair and headphones. After talking to him for five minutes
he was laughing and telling us about some of the problems he has trying to find
work. We gave him a Book of Mormon and are going to visit with him tomorrow!
I love everyone and love being out here! Les
quiero muchísimo! un
abrazo gigante!
Elder
Kauffman aka Jack