First Week In Nueve de Abril

Monday, September 28, 2015

Hola!!
So this week was one of the busiest and most tiring of my mission, but it’s been great. Tuesday we had the meeting with President Thurgood and the Stake Presidency. The High Counselor from the stake wasn’t there but he gave a talk yesterday in our ward so I met him and he said he’d call us, but the meeting went well. We talked a little bit about the ¨Puerto Blancas¨ they do here. In this stake, instead of having baptisms in the wards like normal, the Stake President thought it would be good if once a month there was a stake baptismal day where all the investigators got baptized. So every third Saturday of the month is the ¨Puertas Blancas¨ as they call it here. Sounded different when I heard about it and I see some pluses and minuses doing it that way, but it seems like it’s been a success in the stake. The last one in September had an attendance of 106 and there was 8 baptisms from the stake. So it`ll be interesting to see how the next one is in October.

After the meeting President Thurgood took us back to our pension and we almost had a problem. So in some parts here, especially where there’s dirt roads, there’s not gutters like in the United States but instead like a small ditch and President Thurgood was turning when he was getting close to the small ditch and Elder Almeida warned him. Not sure if he thought he had enough space but he kept turning and then boom! The right front wheel slipped into the ditch. At first we were all pretty nervous and worried but Elder Almeida got out and luckily it wasn’t that bad and the car had 4 wheel drive and we were able to get out and afterwards we were able to laugh about it ha-ha-ha. I just felt kind of bad for President Thurgood ha-ha-ha but I wrote that in my journal.

So the pension still lacks a lot of things. We have all the necessary things like beds and desks and stove and all that but we´re in the process of waiting for the rest of the stuff to arrive.

Yes there are three brand new Elders in the Zone. Elder Davis is with Elder Pacheco, Elder Pontelli is with Elder Lozada, and Elder Edwards is with Elder Portaro. Elder Edwards and Elder Portaro are in Nueve de Abril with us so we`ve seen them the majority of the days. Elder Edwards is from Utah, from Pleasant Grove, if I remember right but I might be wrong. He seems to be adjusting well and doing well in his first week. He’ll be a great missionary. Yesterday we didn’t have water so we had to walk to their pension to shower before church.

This week we also had correlation with the Ward Mission Leader, Hermano Luna. One of his daughters just got back 3 months ago from her mission and the other just left two months ago or so for her mission and in between that time his wife passed away unexpectedly, but he is just an amazing guy and hasn’t faltered at all in the gospel. He has so much faith. I’m really excited to have him as the Ward Mission Leader. Thursday we had correlation.  Hermano Luna is the oldest of all the Ward Mission Leaders I’ve had and has the most experience as a member and he just directed the meeting and it was great. Tonight we have a FHE (Family Home Evening) in his home with his family and some members and some investigators. There should be a good group of people there. Saturday the ward had a service project that we went to and helped out at.

So I’m running out of time but the work is strong here. We have 4 investigators that have a baptismal date and there’s lots of other investigators that we have to work with. I’ll have to tell you more about them next week! This week should be pretty busy again. Tomorrow is interviews with President Thurgood and Elder Almeida and I have to be there all day because we have an assignment to review the area book and agendas of the missionaries. Wednesday we have leadership meeting with all the Zone Leaders and the Sister Trainers.  It should be good. I’ll see Elder Pribyl there.

Anyways, I’m super pumped for General Conference this weekend. It’s going to be awesome! I’m glad to hear the trip to Utah went well and you guys got to do a lot of things and spend time together. I hope all is well I love and miss you guys!

Love
Elder McFarland